Well, That Was Easy!

Today officially marks the one month anniversary of the founding of this blog. I set out with two primary goals: frequent, lower quality posts, and a race against myself and Passionately Apathetic to see how quickly I could rack up $2.37 in ad revenue. So far, the results have been overwhelmingly positive on both fronts.

With this post, I've made it one full month writing one blog post per day. That's far better than I'd hoped--my goal was to write at least a few times each week, and I've blown that away. Don't expect it to continue, though...while the streak is still intact, I don't see how I can possibly keep up that torrid pace over the long run, particularly with a grueling, busy month of April approaching at work. But several posts per week still seems like a reasonable goal.

And, as promised, my daily posts are of lower quality than those featured on Passionately Apathetic; I've been told they're riddled with typos, but I guess that's to be expected with fast typing and minimal editing. (But feel free to point out the mistakes so I can fix them...)

On the ad revenue front, the first month was shocking--my race to $2.37 turned into a complete joke.  In the first three days of existence, Away from the Cubicle earned $6.77 in revenue. I have no idea how that happened, since even fewer people know about this blog than know about Passionately Apathetic, but I try not to question good news.  The only bad part, however, was that the ad revenue came in a few small bursts, with big fat zeroes on most days.  At this point, I'd feel better with a slow, steady stream than a few bursts of clicking.

As I continued analyzing at my AdSense results, I realized that I don't go down without a fight, especially in a battle against myself.  Since I'd last checked, Passionately Apathetic had had a great month of December, more than doubling its previous ad revenues to date.  Perhaps my holiday-themed, anti-gift giving post really resonated with my small group of followers.

AdSense doesn't release "official" ad earnings until the month is over, but March is looking like another solid month for Away from the Cubicle, with $5.55 in ad revenue as of the writing of this post.  The race to $2.37 turned out to be about as meaningful as my blogging competition with James, but at least I can continue to pit my two blogs against one another for leadership in all-time ad earnings.  Based on the lifetime totals, it's a pretty tight race...

I just might turn this race into a monthly check-in blog post, much like this one. I must say, logging into my AdSense account isn't nearly as depressing these days.  This doesn't include any of the March ad revenue, but the total is moving slowly away from the "embarrassing" zone and into that much sought after "less pathetic" range.

I guess I need to establish a new goal, and the logical one is to reach the $100 account balance level so I can cash out my earnings, lose my amateur status, and start calling myself a professional writer.  Women will want me; men will want to be me--writer sits near the top of the list of sexiest professions, right there with firefighter, drummer, doctor, guitar player, and financial analyst.  I think this warrants the use of a fundraising thermometer:

Unlike the Malibu repair thermometer, I'll be thrilled to see this one climb toward the top. The scale's a lot smaller, but watching a little money trickle into my pocket is far better than seeing huge chunks jump ship for the local repair shop.  With my current earnings, I'm wealthy enough to afford two of those delicious sandwiches I mentioned in my inaugural blog post, and it didn't even take several years like I'd predicted!