Squirrelinabox Network (http://www.squirrelinabox.com)

It’s time I slow down on creating new sites and take some time to go back and update/remodel/fine tune some existing sites. There’s a huge list of modifications and additions for just about every site and I’ve been neglecting that list too much lately.

First on the list is Wii Play. That’s the site with the most pending features as well as a site that I’ve come to realize needs a better design. I’ve already gotten a good amount of the design done and I’m starting to implement key new features. The site will still function as it does, it’ll just look nicer, work better, and provide more information. I also am going to get off my butt and actually start marketing it a bit so that some more people will sign up and start contributing.

After Wii Play, I’m likely to start working on a redesign of Watermark Tool. I’m constantly surprised by how much use the site gets as I’ve done no marketing at all for it. It’s also pretty ugly right now and really deserves a much cleaner design. I do have some pretty cool features planned for the site, but I’m not sure how involved I’m going to get with those on this next pass-through.

The last big update project will be… Ok, I have to keep some things as a surprise!

As promised, I’ve compiled the breakdown of my August earnings. Again, these are just the percentages of earnings I had with each program, not specific numbers and no breakdown of which sites. Overall, earnings were a tad lower than last month, mostly due to me slowing down a bit with new sites and updates to existing sites.

1. Google Adsense - 50% of my August earnings came from Google Adsense clicks. This number is up from 44% in July.
2. Text Link Ads - Text Link Ads accounted for 44% of my earnings which is a bit up from last month.
3. SIAB GEAR - SIAB GEAR was down to 5% in August. Since my sales are so low, one or two sales difference accounts for a fairly big jump in total earnings from the store.
4. Chitika - Chitika moved up from the last spot, earning a full 1% for me.
5. CJ and Amazon - Commission Junction and Amazon combined for less than 1 percent of my earnings in August. Again, these two programs perform fairly badly for me, but it’s also due to me not using them much.

The breakdown looks very similar to last month’s, with each program only changing a few percentage points. Chitika, CJ, and Amazon continue to fight over the scraps of last place as Google Adsense continues to fend off Text-Link-Ads. Once I find some time to start marketing my SIAB GEAR store more, hopefully I can bring those sales up so that the store can compete for first place someday.

Ok, so some people have asked me in the past about how I make money with my sites, and more specifically, which programs earn the most. Now, let me first say that I make very little with my online endeavors right now - definitely nowhere near enough to quit my day job. As such, this is really just an inside look at my personal earnings and not what you should expect on your sites.

1. Google Adsense - 44% of my July earnings came from Google Adsense clicks. It surprises me each month that the money I earn from Adsense is generally stable even though the payout could potentially vary wildly due to the seemingly randomness of user clicks and advertiser bids.
2. Text Link Ads - With 42% of my earnings coming straight from Text Links sold by Text Link Ads, Google Adsense may soon be bumped as my #1 earner. I’m a huge fan of Text Link Ads as it seems to be a much more stable revenue option for me.
3. SIAB GEAR - Last month was a fairly big month for SIAB GEAR (my online apparel store). Normally I make about 2-5% of my money from the store, but last month it jumped up to 11%. While I don’t expect it to remain that high, it’s always good motivation for me to get off my but and keep adding more designs.
4. CJ and Amazon - I’ve clumped together both Commission Junction and Amazon as both are CPA affiliate programs and together still only accounted for 2% of my earnings in July. My current sites really don’t lend themselves well to product-based revenue streams, but hopefully I’ll be able to take advantage of such potential with future websites.
5. Chitika - Last, and well… least, Chitika brought in a whopping .5% of my revenue. Granted, I’ve taken off most of my Chitika ads because they have really never performed well for me, so the number is both a combination of the type of ad not working well and me not using them as much as, say, Google Adsense. Again, I think it’s mostly due to my sites not lending themselves well to product-based ads (which is what Chitika ads primarily are).

So there you have it, a breakdown of my earnings for July. No, I’m not going to post any dollar amounts next to the percentages above. And no, I won’t be breaking down my earnings by website. I’d prefer not to give away any possible ideas to competitors - though again, my earnings are so meager I doubt I have anything to worry about.

I’ll probably do a report like this each month because I think it does provide some good insight into what revenue streams I’m using and why. Also, it’s a decent motivator for me to really try and bring up my numbers and try to figure out why certain areas aren’t performing as well as they should.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted an update. The reason is mostly that I’ve been hard at work finishing up some final touches with WiiPlay.net as well as starting a rewrite of Squirrelinabox Poker. The truth is, I’ve neglected the Squirrelinabox Poker site for over a year now and it’s about time I rewrite it mostly from the ground up. Luckily the database architecture was built pretty solid and scalable the first time around, so I’ll be mostly rewriting the code while hopefully adding a ton of new features. The site will also get a brand new name and domain, because, frankly, Squirrelinabox Poker just doesn’t have a nice ring to it. I’ve only just begun work on the site, but when there’s more to reveal, be sure I’ll be posting about it here.

Those of you paying attention probably noticed the “Unnamed Project” in the title of this post. Along with rebuilding SIAB Poker, I’m also working out a new idea for a blog. I’ve got most of the details worked out in my head, I just need to find a perfect domain name and “branding” to tie it all together. Once I find that great domain name and get the layout worked up, it’ll take no time at all to get the site up and running. It’s a different kind of site for me, but not too different from Almost True News (yes, I need to get working on that site as well). I’ll post all updates to this mystery project once the details are more fleshed out and certain.

Well… today I’ve purchased my first dedicated server. Ok, so I guess I’m technically renting it, but hey, it’s still a big step.

I’ll be moving my ASP.Net sites to the new server once it’s all setup. This includes WiiPlay, Squirrelinabox Poker, and Watermark Tool. This move is mostly for WiiPlay since I plan on making a big marketing push with it soon and my current ASP.Net host would likely not handle the load. I’m also planning quite a few new ASP.Net & MSSQL sites and my current host just wouldn’t scale to handle them.

So, what does this mean for all of you? Well, nothing much really. The sites will be down temporarily during the move, so I’ll make a post here to let everybody know when that will happen.