Somewhere in the recesses of your mind you have the goal of making a lot of money with your website.  But because you are a realistic person, for now,  your goal is to simply make one dollar a day.

A dollar a day is a modest and reasonable goal.

It also an exciting goal.  Imagine falling asleep on the couch with an empty ice-cream bowl on your gut and your site earns you dollar.  Passive income is a magical thing – even when it is just a dollar.  You live your life and your site makes you money.   It feels like free money.

Your goal is to create a website that works for you.  A site that works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  It works when you are having dinner, when you are walking the dog,  it works when you are doing nothing at all.

A measly dollar a day – how hard can that be?

How Long Does It Take To Make A Dollar A Day

Not to brag, but I just reached the goal of a dollar a day.  I set this goal two years ago.  At the time I believed it to be a silly and simple goal – a goal for the sake of having a goal.  Start at a dollar a day and then move up from there.  I can now say with no exaggeration that I have never worked so hard for a dollar.

Due to the nature of my site, I keep track of a lot of statistics.  Besides keeping track of how many visitors I receive and how many pages they view per visit, I also keep keep track of how many hours I have worked on my website.

To reach my goal of a dollar a day I slaved for 705 hours.  Slaved, because before I reached this goal I was working for less then a dollar a day.  705 actual work hours – hours spent in front of the computer pecking at the keyboard.  705 does not include the countless hours gazing out the window hoping a post idea surfaces in my head, or the number of hours I have spent staring at a blank page.  They are 705 hours of moving the mouse and clicking keys.

Two years ago when I set the goal it did not seems daunting, after all, it is just a dollar.  A dollar a day seems like a natural starting point.  In blogging forums you see it often, something like, “I just started blogging, I am still learning, I would be happy with just a dollar a day”

The fact is that it is not just a dollar a day.  It is a tough goal.  Most bloggers never reach it.

Fortunately The First Dollar Is The Toughest

Do not be discouraged if you are not earning a dollar a day.  A personal investment planner will warn you that the first million is the hardest.  In the blogging world the first dollar a day is the hardest.  If you are struggling to make that dollar find solace in the fact that you are not alone.

Regardless how long it takes and the hoops you need to jump, once you reach the first dollar you can be certain that the following dollars will be a lot easier.

Once you achieve the goal you will certainly have the following personal traits:

• Patience.  It might take two years to reach this goal.
• Persistence.  Lot of things will not work before you find the few that do.
• Solid understanding.  You have a blog full of quality content, you have made many online friends and contacts, you know the difference between search engine traffic and social traffic.
• Not blogging just for the money.  Spending all your free time and effort for a dollar a day is a clear indication that you are not motivated only by money – this is good because at the beginning the money will not motivate you.

How long does it take to make a dollar a day?  It could be six months, a year, or like me it could take two years.  The good news is that once your goal of a dollar a day is reached you are well on your way to earning two dollars a day.

About Revenue, Earnings, Money, Actual Stats From The Website Used, What YOU Expect vs Reality

Among the usual bunch of praise filled comments my previous post has a very interesting comment:

Come on dude.  Update your blog.  How do you expect your website to be a success with no updates?

Good point – how am I going to be successful without frequently updating this blog?  The song sung every week by  the choir is “Frequent posts lead to success”.  The preacher thumps his fist on the Good Book and sprays the first row as he shouts, “A website will die if  unattended – DIE!”.  Traffic will decrease, readers will unsubscribe, Google will stop sending you traffic.

Ignoring This Website And How it Effected The Success of This Website

For a couple of months my gaze has been elsewhere.  This website and blog have been on their own.  I have done nothing to prop or push it.  The last blog post was on Feburary 25, 2010.  Three months between blog posts – that can’t be good.

Normally things ignored deteriorate.  Empty houses spawn cobwebs, boards fall off fences, rust grows on pipes.    Without constant care lovers turn into ‘friends’; without constant care pet goldfish start doing the backstroke.

But surprisingly this website  did not  mind that I was gone.  There has been no deterioration, no rotting – the fish did not die.  3 months unattended was no worse for the website then 3 hours unattended.  Actually the fish are fatter and swimming faster.  Some of my stats have gone up in my absence.

Website’s Daily Visitors

Average daily visits has increased by 20%.  Nothing spectacular for 3 months, but pretty good for not doing anything at all.

But if the content is not changing then how can the traffic be increasing?  Without visitors coming back and reading new content you would expect traffic to go down as visitors realize the website is static.  How is it possible that the average daily visits has increased?

The answer is simple.  Even though the limited number of subscribers are not coming back, the almost unlimited number of non-subscribers are increasing.

Website’s Search Engine Traffic

Google seems pleased with my website – it keeps sending more and more .  Although not shown on the graph May 2010 is already at 290 Google visitors and will be at least 350 by the end of the month – making it the second best month ever.

There are millions of internet users for whom this website is fresh and new.  For them 3 month old website is fresh content.  They are looking for answers and this website provides them.  They do not care that it has not been updated in 3 months.  Google knows this and sends traffic my way.

Google does not care that my subscribers have not been provided with new content.  Google is concerned about the millions of internet users looking for answers to their’ how to make money with a website’ questions.  Which of course, this website provides.

Website’s Subscribers

But what about my poor subscribers?  Every morning they check their RSS readers with anticipation only to be disappointed – every morning for 3 months.  The agony and despair they must feel.  You can only court a crush for so long until repeated rejection forces you to look elsewhere.

The subscribers to this website did not miss me at all.  There was no despair due to my absence.  Hearts were not broken, dreams where not shattered.  There was not a mad rush to unsubscribe.   Nobody seem to care that I did not post – no one was angry  enough to unsubscribe.

The only reaction was from the commenter above who pleasantly requested that I write another post soon.  He did not unsubscribe, he simply and kindly asked for more.

This website had  around 80 subscribers 3 months ago and it has around 80 subscribers today.

What Will Happen If You Stop Updating Your Website For 3 Months?

Nothing.

Feel burnt out?  Is the sight of low traffic and no revenue really starting to get on your nerves?  Are you yelling at the dog for no reason?  Are you twirling around on your pivot chair trying to force new content out of your head?  Are you starting to think that the time spent on your website has been a complete waste of time?

If you answered yes to the above then you are like 99% of all webmasters.  You have 3 options:

1. Keep yelling at the dog.
2. Quit.
3. Take a 3 month break.  Don’t worry about your website, it will be there when you come back.

About Traffic, Visitors, Promotion, Actual Stats From The Website Used, What YOU Should Do