Keeping track of my writing isn’t just an accountability thing. It also helps me see my progress to help me stay motivated. And since July 11th marks my 1-year anniversary with the Income School Project 24 (where it takes 24 months to reach a full-time income blogging), I figured it was time to really analyze my efforts and results.
June Statistics
So here are the June-specific statistics – just in case you’re curious about what this ginger-haired writer has been up to.
- Articles and stories published: 20
- Total word count published: 31,457
- Videos produced: 18
- Total Page Views: 15,689
- Overall EPMP (earnings per mili/thousand pageviews): $7.94 (up from $5.68 last month)
Obviously, not every month will be an anniversary related to Project 24 – so this next bit may not be covered every month. But it’s worth looking at my accomplishments – to see if it’s worth renewing.
1-Year Analysis of Project 24
So let’s do a quick and dirty comparison of the expectations published by Project 24‘s Timeline and my actual accomplishments.
| Project 24 Expectations | My Actual Results |
|---|---|
| A website with an ongoing publishing routine, optimized ads, affiliate monetization, and a growing email list. | I have 4 websites (this one and 3 niche sites) that I’m working on. Each is set up with ads and affiliates. Each also has the beginnings of a growing email list. |
| 130 Pieces of Content Published on a site | 178 pieces of content across 3 websites and 2 YouTube channels. |
| Estimated Monthly Income: $264 | In the last 30 days, my ad network reports $153 in revenue. Affiliate revenue in the last 30 days adds an additional $5-10 to that total. |
| Total Income So Far: $687.94 | Just adding up my ad revenue in the last year, my total income is over $997. But if I add in affiliate revenue, that puts me well north of $1,500 in the previous year. All $1500 is fully and only attributable to implementing Project 24’s methodology. |
| Estimated Traffic: 12,000 page views monthly | Across all four of my websites, June’s traffic saw 15,689 pageviews. |
| Estimated Words of Content Published: about 260,000 | Actual word counts for articles only is 381,387. Including pages, counting each YouTube video as 2000 words (no matter the length), and including fiction written, that number rises to 503,677 words. |
Now, Project 24 recommends working on a single site. I work better if I have multiple projects. That way, when I’m feeling burned out on one, I can work on another project that moves the proverbial needle forward. That way, I’m still moving forward and am left feeling renewed rather than feeling guilty from not working on my goals.
It’s a trick I picked up from the most prolific of authors, including one of my favorite writers, Brandon Sanderson.
So while I didn’t stick to the expectation of a single site, let’s look at how I did – I wasn’t able to stick to the expectation of 130 pieces of content for every website. That would be 520 pieces of content. Could I do that, knowing what I know now? Quite possibly – if I were able to dedicate additional time during the day to my writing projects.
Can I write and publish 520 pieces of content in a year while only working 2 hours per day? I wouldn’t want to commit to that, no.
But if we consider all four of my websites as a single project, then I can see that I did manage to publish 178 pieces of content in the last year. That’s 48 more than the recommended 130. So all told, I’m quite pleased with what I accomplished – and I believe it’s a pace I can keep up.
After all – I have enough variety to keep myself motivated, excited, and going. The downside, of course, to bouncing between all of my projects (homesteading, genealogy, sleep training, and writing fiction) is that overall progress will be slower.
And doing that kind of comparison would be quite discouraging. So instead, I’m going to count my progress as a combined effort. Even combining my various projects together, though, you’ll notice there is one glaring category that has not met the expectation: monthly income. Even adding in the affiliate sales of the last month, I’m about $100 shy of the posted expectation.
However, given the trajectory of the ad revenue and current traffic (which is ahead of pace), I’m not too worried about the monthly income. I fully expect it to catch up (if not outpace the expectations) before too long.
Final Thoughts
Project 24 has more than delivered on its expectations. I will definitely be renewing. I still fully recommend that you check them out. And if you use my affiliate link to Project 24, that would be great. For more information on Project 24 and my other blogging recommendations, make sure you check out this article here.
