Day 19 | The Struggle
This week has been tough. Every morning, first thing, I hit the trifecta: Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics. Just to see how my websites are doing.
The verdict? Plateau city. Traffic isn't dying, but it's not growing either. Just... sitting there. Mocking me.
Like a little socialist on my shoulder hissing, "See, only they make money. Us small people, we get suppressed!" - Okay, I just creeped myself out with that metaphor.
My First Four Dollars!
Take this, little socialist: On Day 14, somebody clicked an affiliate link AND bought something.
Net profit: $4.04! My projects have officially made money!
Except I can't actually count it. The affiliate has a minimum payout that I'll probably never reach because the site gets about as many clicks as a Terms and Conditions link.
The problem with that site: Visitors come from all walks of life, which makes finding a fitting affiliate nearly impossible. Maybe I'll need to do display ads after all.
The Current Score
To give you an idea of how my various websites are doing, here's a brief breakdown:
- Language site: 6.2K visitors (10K page views)
- Location site: 3.2K visitors (4K page views)
- Film site: 230 visitors (330 page views)
- Tool site: 0 visitors (0 page views)
The tool site is getting 10 impressions a day from Google, zero from Bing, zero clicks. Not even indexed yet.
Patience have you must. Patience have I don't. Also, my grammar is off. Maybe I can lift things with my mind now.
The Challenge? Yeah, About That...
I failed the no-internet challenge a few times this week. I didn't flat-out doomscroll or binge-watch Netflix the whole day, but definitely lost a few hours to internet distractions.
The failures usually came after checking my mediocre stats and thinking, "What's the point?"
But that's exactly the point of the challenge: to launch new projects. To create more chances. To not give up.
New Rules
Fine, I'm bending them:
- Daytime: No internet, period
- After 10 PM: Some Youtube allowed
Let me define Some: Only narrative, cozy content. Nothing mindless. Definitely no business guru nonsense ("Make millions in your sleep!").
Right now I'm watching a Strange Antiquities playthrough. Pure relaxation after grinding all day. If that ain't allowed, then by golly, I don't want to be rich.
The Current Project
I've been building an Amazon affiliate site all week. It's a website that presents curated Amazon products to visitors, with a direct link to those products.
There's a key difference from all my previous projects: visitors who end up on that site are usually looking for products to buy.
As experts would say, they have buying intent. Sounds good to me.
I'll need another week to finish the site. Then it needs traffic. Always with the traffic. Can the traffic not just be there? Like on every road when you're late?
The Real Story
When - not if! - I hit that million, I urge readers not to just look at the end result. You can't ignore what it took to get there.
While this journal started a mere two weeks ago, I've been at it for years!
The bigger picture:
- Four current websites (three built before this journal)
- One massive 9-month web project failed
- A dormant Youtube channel (15K subscribers when I stopped)
I should have kept that channel going - will certainly return to it. But right now I need steady income.
It's Sunday morning as I write this. Weekends don't matter when your bank account keeps inching toward zero. Back to coding.
Money made so far: $0
-Hank