Side Income Blogging

Don’t build a niche store, Google killed them

No, the title isn't an error, I did intend to say "Don't". Let me explain...The internet is a constantly changing place. One day you may find yourself getting more than 2000 visits to a site per day and earning money like there is no tomorrow, then the next day, both traffic and money are suddenly all gone. This is what happened to my top earning niche stores in August of 2011. I've been holding on since then, hoping that by making various site changes and by getting more links that Continue Reading

Side Income Report – November 2013

This Side Income Report, as many of you may note, is way overdue. Due to focusing on my full-time job, my family, some services work, and our Blue Ridge Mountain Life website, I just haven't spent much time here on Side Income Blogging. With the holiday season wrapping up though, I'm going to get back to publishing some really high quality content for you at least twice a month. November was a pretty bad month for earnings. This just proves that getting to the level where you can Continue Reading

How to start a blog and make money

For those of you that have signed up for my email updates, you might have noticed that as part of my welcome email, I ask two questions: What is your biggest blogging struggle or challenge right now? What is the primary goal for your blog? The most common response I receive for #1 is - "Not sure how to start a blog" and the most common answer I receive for #2 is "make money". While I couldn't find any recent numbers, in 2006 a new blog was created every half a second. That's over Continue Reading

Types of WordPress themes

Deciding on a WordPress theme can be one of the most important choices you can make for your blog. One of the great WordPress features is that you can make your WordPress based site look anyway you would like by installing a new WordPress theme. A WordPress theme leaves your content the same, but changes the way the website and content is rendered. Themes can literally make your website look like a completely different website with a simple click. In addition to controlling the look of Continue Reading

How to install a WordPress Theme

I love WordPress: it's free, easy to use and very easy to modify and enhance. One of the greatest features is the ability to very quickly change the way a WordPress site looks without having to change the content at all. In WordPress, content and presentation are completely separate. Until I experienced this first hand, I had difficultly appreciating what this really met. Not sure how to install a new theme? No problem, we'll walk you through exactly how to install a wordpress theme to your Continue Reading

Side Income Report October 2013

I'm really excited to share this October's Side Income Report with you. My side income earnings are composed of two revenue sources: 1) My services business where I provide website design, coding and consulting services and 2) Income from my various websites and niche sites. While not my overall best month, October was the best month for my website/niche site income I've had in a very long time! If my current revenue holds true, November will be even better. I often talk about how earning Continue Reading

Premium WordPress Themes

For the past few years, the Thesis theme for WordPress was hands down my personal favorite premium WordPress theme. Thesis provided all of the features and capabilities I required and it's fast. But with the release of Thesis 2.0, I began to question their direction, and ultimately made the switch to the Genesis framework from StudioPress. Here are just a few of the premium theme options that I considered as I looked to move away from the Thesis framework for my sites and for my Continue Reading

Review Sites – How I improved my conversion rates by 15%

In June of this year (2013), I decided to diversify my niche site inventory by creating two review sites. My existing niche sites were all information based, and intended to serve as authority sites for a niche topic. My friend, and niche site expert, Jason Hill was having some great success with review sites, and his success encouraged me to give them a try. I'm a firm believer in always testing new things: changing colors, changing layouts, fonts, image placement, etc. I wasn't happy Continue Reading

Side Income Report September 2013

October 1st, hard to believe. Here in Western NC, the leaves are just beginning to turn color, the air is crisp and cool, and the smells of fall are here. My favorite time of the year, can you tell? I also like this time a year from a traffic and earnings perspective too. As the weather gets colder, people stay inside more and use the internet. As we get closer to the holiday season, traffic and earnings tend to trend upward as well. I'm making one big change with this report: Continue Reading

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