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Monday, August 10, 2009

Royal Enfield motorcycle blog thumps along

Blogging may be one of the best ways to make money on the Internet, I don't know; but it is certainly not a sure thing. My first post for www.royalenfields.com went up July 28, 2008. With blind faith I expected that blogging would pay off, somehow.

One year later, without accounting for expenses, I have made $147.65. The payoff came in the fun I've had.

The great thing about the Internet is that you can see how you are doing. People vote with their eyeballs on whether or not they like your content. As of the end of July, according to Google Analytics, I've had 59,364 visits from 137 countries and territories and 114,305 pageviews. www.royalenfields.com has had 29,666 unique visitors.

How does all this compare to other web sites? Pretty small potatoes, I am sure. Still, according to Google, my blog has a page rank of 2 on a scale of 1-to-10. Doesn't sound like much, I know, but it may be good enough.

Google page rank is a mysterious thing. The long established and information packed web site of Royal Enfield's official U.S. importer is only a 4. The impressive web site of Royal Enfield India itself is a 6.

The New York Times is a 9. But, when you Google "Royal Enfield motorcycles," my blog is, for the moment, on the first page of the results you get. The New York Times is nowhere. Heh-heh. I will take victory where I can get it.

So far, 54 people have signed up to become "followers" of this blog, meaning they can easily keep track of what I post. I treasure every one of those people. Some of them, and many others who haven't formally signed on, have given me tips and feeds and suggestions that have kept me motivated.

These visitors also help support the blog by taking note of the Google ads scattered around and clicking on those that interest them. I get paid by your click. But please don't click on them just to reward me. Whatever they are (I'm not allowed to click on the ads so I don't know), they are their own best reward.

Another way I earn money is when readers such as yourself use the Amazon search box on this page to find and buy things, including books. You can search for anything Amazon sells, but the search box here is prepopulated with Royal Enfield items on the chance you might be interested.

I do not earn any revenue from the motorcycles listed for sale on this blog. Look at them, click on them, enjoy seeing what's out there at what price. I do.

Aside from those listings, I have posted more than 365 feature items in my year of work. I know some of you have learned about Royal Enfield motorcycles and even bought one partly as a result of this blog. That is very satisfying. Hopefully anyone I have injured or insulted along the way will forgive me.

I've had a tremendous amount of fun doing this, and I have learned a lot. In particular, I couldn't have spent a year writing about Royal Enfields and not learned a little bit about India, a place that for me always seemed far away and so strange as to be unknowable. I am still very ignorant about India, but I think I begin to grasp its size and immense energy, along with the enthusiasm for these motorcycles.

I haven't even begun to write about all the people and things I want to feature on the blog. I'm thrilled to start work on Royal Enfield Motorcycles every morning. Please comment or make suggestions on the comments form below about how I can improve this blog in the coming year. Email me your story suggestions and photos at david@royalenfields.com

All best.

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous8/10/2009

    Luckily I have survived this blog without becoming injured! :) Keep it up.

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  2. Megablogs like yours are corrupting this country ;-) I have made $1.93 from my blog!
    Great job David, keep it up!

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  3. Bonnie8/10/2009

    Congratulations, David. Your blog is awesome & I remain your No. 1 fan.

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  4. Couple of notes:

    1) You can reduce your hosting expenses by switching to google apps. For most people using the standard edition, it's a zero expense affair with nice freebies like gmail thrown in.
    2) Pagerank isn't something you should be worried about. Just keep posting the great stuff like you do, and it will improve. It mainly has to do with how many people link to your site, and quote them in their articles/blogs. Like you said, for relevant searches your blog beats the NY times, and that's good enough!
    3) By followers, do you mean RSS readers? That's how I read your blog, since I subscribe to a lot of them.
    4) One of the Amazon affiliate widgets allow you to link product images on your site. I think most of the readers here might be interested in some of the Royal Enfield related merchandize amazon sells. If you position the widget higher up the page, you may get more eyeballs on them without the ad being obstructive or annoying.

    I'll most probably be the worst type of freeloader, since I use adblock and do not usually click on affiliate links. But I can make it up by treating you to a beer anytime you decide to visit India :)

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  5. Dear David (Bullet Wallah) Thanks so much for continuing with this site. I like a lot of folks am inamored with Royal Enfield and yet I drive a Asian bike (no names will be mentioned) I fear that I am a casualty of the British reputation for constant tinkering and a poor road worthy reputation. Please address these issues in future blog articles. Ed.

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  6. Thank you all for such encouraging comments! I will check out these suggestions.

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  7. When I get round to my RSS feeds after working this is the first one that I read.

    We all appreciate your hard work although I guess we should comment more!

    keep it up.

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  8. Keep up the good work Dave! I allways read here and love it.

    If this will encourage you, my website makes not a penny, and actually costs me £5 every month!

    But it's a labour of love, so I dont care.

    Malc.

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