Bucking the trend, June provided for yet another record-breaking performance from the traffic, readership and rankings of The Net Fool dot com. Transitioning into the summer was definitely a tough step to take, but I managed to maintain the daily routine enough to sustain some great traffic… with more comments per post than ever before. Although things seemed to start out slow in the first week, it wasn’t long before the advertising dollars and RSS numbers kicked in to spark performance leaps across the board.

Catalysts this month included the June Birthday Bash that was held here in the middle weeks of action. With Market Leverage at the reigns, this blog managed to really boost RSS numbers more than ever before. After giving away a Flip Mino and $50 ML Rewards Card, I have now gone ahead and provided for a free eBook for all of you RSS subscribers out there. I’m hoping this title will provide some incentive to subscribe to my blog. Getting something for nothing is always smiled upon. You can download “Creating A Blog” here. Now let’s get on with the June results! :)

May Results

  • RSS Subscriber Count: 207 Readers
  • Average Unique Visitors: 200
  • Average Returning Visitors:38
  • Average Page Loads:337
  • Alexa.com Ranking: 147,125
  • Technorati Ranking: 27,027
  • 45n5 Top 100 Rank: 55
  • Google PageRank: 4

June Results

  • RSS Subscriber Count: 333 Readers (60.87%+)
  • Average Unique Visitors: 299 (49.50%+)
  • Average Returning Visitors:52 (36.84%+)
  • Average Page Loads:468 (38.87%+)
  • Alexa.com Ranking: 95,308 (35.22%+)
  • Technorati Ranking: 13,851 (48.75%+)
  • 45n5 Top 100 Rank: 35 (36.36%+)
  • Google PageRank: 4

Monthly Review and Growth Strategy
Results coming in this month beat estimates, coming in higher than expected driven by some well-trafficked articles, increased linking action from popular blogs and strong results from the June contest. Most notable was an RSS subscriber jump up over 60% for the month, tacking on another 100+ subscribers to theNetFool.com’s feed. This growth in the number of readers was clearly reflected in overall traffic numbers, as returning visitors came in over 50 as an average (up 36.84% from 38) and unique visitors ramping up by 100 viewers a day.

Almost more impressive than numbers alone were the ranking jumps in Technorati, Alexa and 45n5’s Top 100 Blog service. The Net Fool’s Technorati ranking was slashed nearly in half, dropping from 27,027 to 13,851. Also, Alexa rankings received a noteworthy bump past that ever-elusive 100,000 benchmark from about 150,000 to just 95,308. This dramatic increase in website strength gave theNetFool.com a stunning 35 ranking in the top 100 blogs… a feat that is nothing to scoff at, as just being in the top 100 is a blessing on it’s own. :)

July is going to be a busy one, so forecasts for growth need to be reflected downward as it will be a struggle just to maintain daily posting routines. However, as results from June proved… you just never know. As part of the Blogging Idol contest, I’ll be trying to bump up RSS subscriber numbers as much as possible. But with work coming into play, along with side projects online, it’s going to be interesting to see if growth can really come in as planned this upcoming month.

June 2008 Revenue Breakdown
Last month (May 2008), I recorded the best revenue yet at $787.20. This number was driven largely by success from the eBook “Work Smart, Get Rich” and a $200 sale of web design services. This month, a lot more organic money was brought in from the blog itself… so I was able to raise some decent cash without turning to alternative earning methods.

So with about $400 in revenue this month, I’m quite satisfied with my performance. Ad money is coming in steadily at $20 per sidebar banner, so maybe I will raise rates in the future. If you are interested in some valued real estate on the cheap, why not purchase an ad slot and lock in the discount? Again, this income was largely independent of my own freelance work. My expenditures were also higher than ever as I actively sought ad space on other blogs in my niche area. I spent $93.00 on private ads for other blogs, and have started up a few new projects, costing a few bucks for the domain names. ;)

As you know, I’m not much into spending money. I think this is starting to change as I make the shift into putting money into private ads, experimenting to see how much traffic I can expect if I am actively campaigning. The good news is that I have a solid backlog at this time. With a pending $50 review coming in from ReviewMe and some interested advertising purchasers, it shouldn’t be a problem matching this month’s numbers. One thing that is good about blogging revenue is that it has a snowballing effect, and generally produces results independent of other factors

July 2008 Outlook
In the month of July, I am expecting continued performance from advertising sales on theNetFool.com to kick in. I only managed one review last month, which could have easily been more if I was so inclined, so I will try to focus on perhaps doing more like 3-5 of them to juice up my earnings potential. I do not currently have a contest planned, but do have some prizes to give away, so I might entertain the possibility of some more “on the fly” competitions to gain some traffic when needed.

July is going to be a busy one, as I am actively working on a new stock market blog (in the pipeline, no preview for you! :razz: ) and am going to be working possibly two jobs in the real world. But even with this in mind, I’m going to be giving some good attention to making you month on the internet with some fun ideas… as I know you guys enjoy some tricks and pointers. So stick with The Net Fool, and stay bullish on the net!

-The Net Fool

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