2008 and 2009

Well, 2008 is nearly up, so it’s about time for a summary for the year. Despite my setbacks with RSI, I’ve achieved a lot this year. I had some very soft targets for this year, and I met all of them. However, my goals for 2009 will be more difficult to achieve. So here we go…

What I’ve achieved in 2008

  • I designed and created my Spy Gadgets mini site. This is doing very well, nearly £400 profit, no maintenance, and over 95% profit margin.
  • I created the mini-tool site Bux.to Payments calculator. This wasn’t doing particularly well because bux.to have simply not being paying anyone. I sold it on for someone else to continue, but the site made me £60+ profit in the end.
  • I purchased iPod Touch Tricks, massively boosted the RSS count from around 40 to around 300. I then sold the site on twice the value I paid for it just a few months later. I had to sell it due to the arm pain I was having. Net profit was around £270, so a good start.
  • I bought the domain GucciBags.org, turned it into a single-page mini-site. It was making a fair bit of money too. However, as a 1 page site I was concerned Google Adsense would drop my whole account. Therefore I sold it. Profit of over £250.
  • Purchased some valuable domains, namely MoneyAdvisor.co.uk and CoachingBlog.co.uk
  • I created Give My Time, a site that allows you to generate a certificate where you give your time as a gift. No advertising yet, I’m trying to get traffic up first. The only costs were the domain and the logo. This is an experiment with PDF generation and mini-tool websites.
  • I created a mini site about Indoor Fireworks due to a popular thread on my personal blog about indoor fireworks. I did the design and content myself, only costs were the domain. As a result, the site was profitable in just 2 days! The indoor fireworks niche is tiny, therefore it was pretty easy to do well.
  • I purchased Daily Eco Tips (domain and the site), as the site had been sat neglected for a few months. I’ve been running it since August and the site has just recently reached profit. I’ve also hit a peak of 73 RSS readers just this week. My aim was 50 RSS readers by 1st Jan 2009. Target met!
  • I’ve just launched a new Eco Directory, which I’ve only just finished. It has a very smart logo too.
  • And finally, my flagship website EnviroGadget.com created in June 2008. I started from scratch, and have put a lot of investment into it (link building mainly). It’s not yet in profit, but it’s not far off. I hit a record 117 RSS readers this week, my target was 100 by 1st Jan 2009. Another target met.

Plans for 2009

2009 will be the year where I get key growth from all of my websites, so I have some firm targets for the new year.

  • Reach 500 daily RSS readers (currently around 115) for EnviroGadget.com. This is a huge target, but I can increase advertising prices if I have a solid readership.
  • Have a new design for EnviroGadget created and implemented. A fresh new look will hopefully reduce the glare from adverts and encourage people to stick around.
  • Reach 1000 unique visitors per day on EnviroGadget (currently around 150).
  • Possibly sell off DailyEcoTips, as it takes up a lot of time for little return. If I can boost the return on this site, I’ll look to hire a writer for it.
  • Reach 150 daily RSS readers (currently around 70) for DailyEcoTips.com.
  • Develop all domains I currently have into actual websites. Particularly, create a new site based on MoneyAdvisor.co.uk.
  • Ensure all websites are in profit. This is a personal rule of mine, always ensure every website is profitable within 12 months. This means only increasing investment in a site once it is making money.
  • Reach pre-tax profits of £10,000 in 2009 (currently around £1100 per year). Clearly, paying tax will eat up my take-home pay. As part of my tax, I need to pay off my student loan. Therefore any additional earnings on top of my wage will help me pay off the loan much faster. This is a very high target, but a very worthwhile challenge.

In Summary

Basically it’s been a great year. It’s clear that my portfolio is just starting to take off, so I expect 2009 to be very exciting. I look forward to telling you all about my projects next year!