Follow My Journey of Earning Money Online for 1 Year

I have always loved writing but was told that I could never make money doing it. I am grateful to Hub Pages for putting a wonderful and friendly community together. I joined back in May 2012. I have learned so much and I am looking forward to learning more. Several authors have inspired me. Aloscin's articles taught me how to navigate hub pages and helped me understand the confusing jargon of affiliate marketing. He was also the first person to respond and follow me. Written Up wrote a fantastic hub where she did an annual progress report, and she gave me the idea to make my own version, which is this hub.

After my second article I was all sorts of excited and applied for Google Adsense immediately. Of course I was denied, on the lack of not having enough quality content. I learned that Google wants you to not only be a unique publisher, but also a high quality, voluminous one as well. So I let Hub Pages sit on the back burner and focused on taking paid surveys. I got serious about adding more articles when I uploaded a video of myself receiving a new pet snake. Youtube invited me to monetize my video. I said yes and that was when I was able to get a Google Adsense account. That made it possible to enroll my Hub Pages account into Adsense as well. I then signed up to become an affiliate partner with Amazon, Ebay, and the Hub Pages Ad Program.

A strange thing that I noticed on the Adsense website was that it listed my estimated earnings for the month of August as two different amounts. It was on the same page, on the Overview tab, but it was in different places on the page with two widely different amounts. However, the finalized earnings matched closer to the higher estimated amount. These earnings were combined from Hub Pages and Youtube. I don't know why there would be varying amounts on the same page from the same website. If anyone can enlighten me on this I would greatly appreciate it!

I will be updating this hub every month for a year with my earnings. Hopefully I will see an upswing. I also hope to inspire and motivate other Hubbers in their quest to make money. I added all the income and traffic from various sources together, as I was afraid I would get flagged for being too specific by Adsense if I had broken everything down by each affiliate. Let's just say I'm not doing so well with Amazon or Ebay right now but I am showing promise with the other programs.

I worked really hard for those $0.96, as each article I write is done to the best of my abilities. So how did you guys do when you first started out?

Will I be able to earn $100.00 every month through Hub Pages and Youtube? Who knows! I know $100.00 is a particularly ambitious goal, especially considering that I am pretty new but I will try my hardest. Follow me and find out. Please let me know if you have questions. I will be happy to comment back and share what I have learned.

Another goal is to enter into the 30 Hubs in 30 Days Challenge and to enroll in the Apprenticeship Program. My biggest and most long term goal, and honestly one of my life's dreams, is to try my hand at writing and publish a novel. That is a must do on my bucket list. We will see how much my skills have been honed after a year of practicing on Hub Pages!

Wish me luck guys!

Well, August was a great month for me, in strange way. Between hurricanes and being sick, I had a lot of time on my hands and took advantage of it by writing non-stop. September was a whole other beast. I was healed up and school was back in full swing. I got busy and stressed out and barely put out any content. The amazing part was that I doubled my earnings while basically doing nothing to promote views or my content during the month of September. Okay, I've learned my lesson: Hub Pages works. Now I just need to keep up with making more content!

Here are links to the two videos I created:

This covers a recent herping trip (photos and video of reptiles) that I did with my husband.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIDjHRvk00k

This is me walking my cat and rambling, lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0a2wYMzpGE

This hub came from, you guessed it, me getting bit by a rat.

http://lauraverderber.hubpages.com/_FB117/hub/How-to-Treat-a-Bite-From-a-Wild-or-Domestic-Rat

I also made a video of my indoor composter that uses red wrigglers, because worms are awesome and give me free organic fertilizer. (I like to garden.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjJcDc09A08

The Good News: I actually beat September's HubPages earnings which I'm proud of. I made less in Google Adsense so the total still came out to be slightly less. That makes sense as I waited until the end of the month to upload anything and I got less views this month. Consistent uploading is the key I believe for better traffic.

November has been one heck of a up and down month, with some lousy failures and many wonderful events. It always seems like I get more creative during the tough times. I've given myself permission to be happy, which for me means being more involved with animals and writing more. I'm done listening to the negative people in my life who say that I am wasting my time and can never make money doing what I love. Increased happiness and less stress is worth more than a pot of gold!

HUBS:

Make this recipe. Your taste buds will thank you for it!

Blueberry-Peach Cobbler: Simply Mouthwatering!

I actually finished this hub in one day, which I've never managed to do before. It makes me think I might be up to starting the 30 Hubs in 30 Days Challenge!

What to do if Your Vermicomposting Worms are Trying to Escape

YOUTUBE:

I was very active with video uploading this month. The one I like the most is where I get three new beautiful axanthic ball pythons. I can't wait to see their offspring. Snake collection videos and unboxing videos seem to be popular with increased views, subscribers, and adsense earnings to show for it. The educational reptile videos didn't do well but I will keep putting them up because I believe it is important to learn in this hobby, and not just do show and tell!

Power Ball Pythons' Snake Collection - Part I

Power Ball Pythons' Snake Collection - Part II Making Pastel Axanthics

Reptile Night at the University of South Alabma - Part 3

My most recent show was on November 6th. It was a free public event about the native snake species of Alabama. We even had all seven of the venomous snakes there on display! My favorite was the beautiful and elusive coral snake, which I will be showing when I upload the video on Youtube later in the month.

WEBSITE:

Last but not least, I took the plunge and decided to open my own website. I went with paid hosting because I truly believe in the potential of Lolsnake.com. No website specializes in humor featuring reptiles, amphibians, birds, insects and arthropods. I hope to be able to present these oft misunderstood animals in a positive light and provide delight to the keepers of these animals. The website does not look like much right now but I will be improving upon it every month. I already have a lot of views but no ads, alas. Thank you Shadesbreath for the much needed encouragement!

December was a hectic month. Honestly, I spent most of it socializing with family and stuffing my face with rich and heavy food instead of concentrating on earning income. I was able to save money on Christmas presents by using Amazon gift cards and coupons. I did accomplish two significant things: The first was that I had Google Adsense approved on my website. The second was that I started to learn how to combine sales while using coupons to save a huge amount on food, to the tune of a $150.00 lower monthly budget on groceries. So I didn't produce any content this month, but I saved quite a nice amount and taught myself a valuable skill. I'm of the opinion that a penny saved is indeed, a penny earned.