March Sucks For IM...

[Brawnydt]

Or is it just me?

Making a third of what I usually make each month this month. This is my first March with my own IM business fully ramped up, is it normal for March/April to be terrible months?

[aaronk]

My flagship has a seasonal low from March to June or so...that being said I'm pleasantly surprised compared to what it did last year. Since it accounts for most of my IM income, its really the only thing I can comment on. Gotta get diversified this year....

[Tel]

Hard to say what's normal in this business.

My 2 current main sources of income now were not producing anything this time last year, so I can't gauge it. One is adsense, the other weight loss affiliate.

The adsense site which I'm building into a flagship type site has only been up for 3 months and has already made over $100 on its own this month.

The weight loss site started producing in May last year and has been growing ever since, although it dipped in Nov/Dec (no real surprise) but has amazed me the last 3 months by ramping up a load of sales when I didn't really expect it to. Jan was good because of all the New Year resolutions, but Feb and Mar ought to have been dead but they've been steady, which tells me I'm in for a very, very good Spring/Summer...

[Scooter]

If you guys don't mind me asking, how well, and where a bouts do your respective sites rank/place in the SERPS?
As such, do you believe that this affects your IM negatively? Positively?
Do your sites have PR, or do they just place well in the SERPS and attain traffic that way?

-- just working on some data...

~Scott

[Phillip]

[Tel]

Yep, Phil is right, PR is almost meaningless when it comes to SERP rankings. My two biggest earning sites are PR2 and PR0 respectively.

The PR2 is currently #7 for a high traffic weight loss KW beating off a bunch of PR5 and 6 sites, as well as ranking #5 and higher for several long tails. Over the last couple of weeks it has been getting around 400 uniques a day.

The PR0 is in a niche that is moderately competitive (no, I'm not saying which!) but is #1 for some high CPC long tail KWs. At the moment, it only scrapes around 40 uniques a day, but has a good CTR with clicks all over €1.

They both make money 100% from search traffic they attract for their rankings. I expect to improve on their respective rankings over the coming months as well as targeting more long tails. Its all down to link building, by the way.

[DeMerchant]

Terry I've seen you mention your weight loss blog and had to go have a peak at the derelict weight loss project. It looks like it's worked out pretty well for all of us... I'm on page one for my term but I really need to get into spot 1 since my kw gets about 1/18 of your terms traffic!

[Tel]

I just went over there and no one has posted since last year. Its a shame that only a few of us kept it going even that long, but i think maybe it could be resurrected if enough of us were still interested. We're all far more experienced now and have a better idea how to get more from it. I'll leave an update post there and see if anyone else drops in.

[Phillip]

March was better than January for me, though I have more sites ranking higher - I had a few days a week ago when income really tanked, but it has picked up now.

[Phillip]

[DeMerchant]

[bgmacaw]

Actually March has been pretty good for me in terms of Adsense and EPN. This is probably because I brought a lot of new EPN sites online while I was out of work in February.

[gmoney23]

It looks like I'm down slightly in March compared to the last 3 months. Probably because one of my main $ sites lost some rankings for it's top keywords. Time to get some more links!

[korprit]

i have been hitting a monetary high (proud member of the four figure club now!) for several months running now. however, this month looks to be 5-10% lower. not much to gauge on as this kind of money is still relatively new to me.

[Brawnydt]

Hmm, maybe it's just me. Looks like I'll end this month with 50% less commissions than usual from my flagship and other EPN sites. Maybe it's just this time of year, taxes, and all that. I've had same clicks but a much much lower EPC.

Oh, and congrats Kor! You deserve it!

[Rajaie]

My sites have been making a steady income with AdSense, not very much but around the same as last month.

[mattm]

My income doubled this month due to largest super site ramping up seasonally.

[Chili]

I had my best month yet. But I've been building about 10 sites a month since November, with steady linking. Good thing, cause I quit my job last month!

[James]

My income is almost the same it was in January and February. The only thing that increased my income are new sites I made in January. So, it's business as usual :)


@Chili
Good for you! Keep blasting those sites and links ;)

[korprit]

by the end of the month i saw a total of a 6% dip. however, i pulled adsense off a flagship to test an affiliate product which proved to earn less than half. my estimates had i not done so put me on mark for no loss. dunno what happened brawny