Lessons Learned From My First $1000 Month

January, 2010, was a breakthrough month for 1scholar.blogspot.com. It was my first time earning over one thousand dollars in a month. The month was a “perfect storm”—a culmination of a few factors:

• Over a year of consistently producing content.
• Sticking around long enough to get ranked and indexed in google.
• Discovering affiliate marketing.
• New Year’s Resolutions—people thinking about fitness and being willing to invest in their health.

There are probably other factors (let’s not forget dumb luck). But you get the idea.
I thought I’d share three lessons I’ve learned. What I’m about to tell you isn’t new. Instead, I’ll be reminding you of some things you’ve probably read here or elsewhere, but maybe is forgetting to apply.

1. Don’t blog for money

This may seem counterintuitive for an article about earning money. But it’s true. Yes, I’ve enjoyed financial success that month. But before it there was a whole year of tirelessly producing content with relatively little financial gain (especially during the first six months). And there’s no guarantee I’ll make a dime next month.
I’ll keep blogging about fitness, regardless of the financial benefits (or lack thereof). Why? I LOVE the topic! If I blogged for money I would have given up a long time ago.
I’d never recommend anyone blog for the sake of money. Just blog because there’s something you love to write about.

2. Integrity matters

The fitness niche is tough for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it is extremely crowded. Secondly, it is plagued by scams—even “legitimate” fitness sites sell products that have no scientific research behind them.
I’ve kept a simple rule for promoting products: if I would recommend this to a friend or family member, I’ll promote it on my blog. Otherwise I’ll honestly tell my readers why I wouldn’t waste my money on it.
I guess this decision has come with a price. I could probably make more money in the short-term promoting “anabolic acai ape juice” or the “two-minute a day ab machine miracle.” But I’m in this for the long haul, and I’m not willing to sacrifice my reputation or a clear conscience for a buck.
I’ve even received hate mail a few times, but my critics never produce any scientific facts to back up their arguments. Then occasionally I’ll get an email like this:

Just wanted to say thanks for your website. It is a breath of fresh air. I have been looking for decent info on “X” (a particular fitness product). The web is saturated with nothing but people selling it so their testimonials didn’t mean much to me. Until I found your site I was frustrated.

This reader didn’t buy anything (as far as I know). But she told me she’d be referring her clients to my website. You can’t buy that kind of advertising (literally)!
Blog with integrity and you’ll win in the long term.

3. Experiment

I remember two steps that significantly boosted my blog’s earnings.
I read an article several months ago about changing the size and positioning of adsense widgets. I tried it, and it worked—my earnings went up.
Then I decided to scrap AdSense all together and go strictly with affiliate marketing. This dramatically increased my earnings and gave me complete control over what would be promoted on my blog.
Blogging gurus always talk about the importance of experimentation. I’ve taken it to heart, and I’m glad I did. In each of the above examples I let go of something that was working and found something that worked better.
One word of caution here: if you make a change to your blog, give it time to work before deciding whether or not the experiment has failed. The time needed, of course, will depend on how much traffic you are getting.
Final Thoughts:
I still have a lot to learn. But blogging with passion and integrity, combined with trial and error, have made it an enjoyable (and profitable) process.