I spent the beginning of the New Year speeding around Epcot Center’s Test Track ride whilst fireworks went off in the background. Needless to say, it was pretty exhilarating, and great fun.
I am hoping that my introduction to the New Year will seem fitting when reflected upon come December 31st 2012. I have very high hopes for this year, and do not intend to let myself down.
In my last income report, I predicted that December would be “the calm before the storm”. In terms of moving forwards with new clients and progress on my niche sites, that has been the case, but it has been another record month in terms of earnings. Let’s take a look at how I got on!
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Freelance Writing
I’ll be honest – I haven’t looked for any new clients yet. I decided that I would would try to limit the work I do on my holiday (which lasts until 11th January). After all, it’s going to be nothing but hard work once I am back home! Separation of work and play is extremely important – what is the point in trying to establish a successful business if you cannot fully enjoy your downtime?
However, that does not mean I have been doing no work at all. In my first holiday I continued to work for both clients, and in my second holiday, I have continued to work for my second client.
So although I have earned a great deal more in December from my freelancing work, I haven’t actually attracted any more clients.
Authority Sites
I’m not going to say too much here, as I will be publishing full updates on both of my authority sites in the next couple of weeks. However, as predicted, December has been a month of gradual progress in terms of keyword rankings. Nothing spectacular, but progress nonetheless.
My backlinking has been very modest, so I am not surprised by the outcome. I have been building just one link a day using popular private blog network Linkvana. My initial thoughts are that it is not as user-friendly or intuitive as Build My Rank, but I will continue to experiment. In terms of the quality of the links, I am withholding judgment on that for the time being.
Income & Expenditure – December 2011
I still have no income from AdSense, which I predicted last month. I would like to think that January will bring about my first AdSense earnings since Modeling For Kids suffered its untimely demise.
Article Roundup
December was a month of few posts, relatively speaking, due to the fact that I was on holiday for most of it! However, two guest posters were kind enough to fill a couple of gaps with extremely useful and informative articles. If you have any interest in virtual assistants, you should read Michelle’s post, and if you know that you are going to be stuck in your job for some time yet, you should read Bon’s.
For authority and niche site builders, there were two articles for you in December: 10 Link Building Methods Revealed And Reviewed, and 3 Reasons Why Targeting Multiple Low Competition Keywords Is Good For Beginners.
Finally, this month’s article roundup would not be complete without mention of my 2012 goals post. If you haven’t set goals for the coming year, now is the opportunity.
Speaking of goals…
My To Do List For January
I mentioned in my 2012 goals post that I would be setting “micro-goals” for myself every month. Each micro-goal is set with my quarterly goals in mind. Here are this month’s:
Freelancing
- Continue work with existing clients and expand roles where possible
- Seek advice from friendly freelancers regarding sourcing clients
- Trawl online jobs boards (such as ProBlogger) and apply for all relevant roles
Authority sites
- Repurpose and schedule old child modeling posts for new child modeling site
- Write weekly posts for Deal With Anxiety, with each targeting a trafficked keyword
- Build an average of 3 links per day with Linkvana to both sites
Niche sites
- Subscribe to a niche site building course (I will reveal and review the course when I have gone through it myself)
- Launch 5-10 complete sites based upon advice in the course
Leaving Work Behind
- Write and submit 4 guest posts
- Create an editorial calendar (in order to focus my mind on producing laser-focused and well-researched articles)
- Place a Facebook fan box in the sidebar (already done)
- Be fully active on Facebook – comment on other pages every weekday and link back to my page when appropriate
- Twitter – continue to work on my current strategy (which I will reveal when I have fully tested it)
What’s In Store For January?
I feel really confident about achieving the vast majority (if not all) of my micro-goals for January. In terms of an increase in earnings, that remains to be seen. Although my earnings should be around the same for my existing clients, I have no idea how quickly I will be able to find new clients (and therefore increase my freelance income).
I don’t know how quickly my link-building efforts will lead to increased rankings in Google for my authority sites (and subsequently AdSense income). I doubt there will be much to write home about in January. I am expecting that February will be the month that income diversity begins to emerge.
Creative Commons image courtesy of Loren Javier