Two-Year Anniversary

StevePavlina.com is two years old today. Here’s a status update for those who like to follow the business side of blogging.

Year two was a relatively smooth continuation of what began in year one. The nice thing about running an online business in its second year is that you finally get to enjoy some of the payoff from the groundwork laid in the first year.

Traffic and income went up substantially in year two, but income increased at a faster rate, mainly because new income sources were added such as text link ads and donations. A year ago the only income generator was the Google Adsense ads; today Adsense is responsible for about 60% of income. Even so, I continued to tweak the ad layout, so the Adsense CPM today is considerably higher than it was a year ago. Optimization makes a big difference.

Here are some of the highlights that occurred in the second year:

  • The number of articles doubled from about 250 to over 500
  • Monthly web traffic tripled from 410K to 1.3 million visitors
  • Monthly bandwidth increased 6x from 90GB to 560GB
  • Monthly revenue increased 10x from $1140 (Sep 2005) to $12K (Sep 2006)

The only significant expense is the web hosting/bandwidth, which is $149/month.

I’m pleased with these results of course, but I still feel like it’s just the beginning. It took me a good five years to reach stable profitability with my first business, so this was much quicker. I remember a time when I had to consider the cost implications of renting a movie.

This rapid growth has been great, but it also gives me a headache when it comes to business planning. I can’t even predict where my income will be three months from now, let alone a year; I just know it will be higher.

It’s been said that money is a resource that makes you more of who you already are, and I think that’s very true. It’s strange to say this, but I feel that the more money that flows through my life, the more “me” I feel. I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can use this cash to support people’s desire to grow, and I appreciate all the suggestions people have given me. I’m a temporary custodian of this money, not its owner, so I’m always thinking about how to keep it flowing. I can’t take it with me when I die, so I might as well put it to good use while I’m here.

It’s a double blessing to earn a nice income doing work I’d gladly do for free. Even if my income went down, the work is so intrinsically rewarding it wouldn’t matter. I regard this money as “manifestation credits” from the universe for helping others get what they want from life.

Year three is going to be a lot of fun. I hope you come along for the ride. 🙂