That has eased my conscience when it comes to my niche sites, but hasn’t really helped me to feel better about not updating this site. Why? Because I feel like I have let you all down. I have come to feel responsible to all of you for providing an honest and helpful review of the Keyword Academy’s methods. Even more, I feel like I have set myself up as an example for those who want to build an online business. Not working on that business at all in almost 2 months makes me a very poor example indeed.

I would like to not only extend a heartfelt apology to all of you, but also let you know that I plan to re-commit to my experiment and to building my online business. I hope you have not lost faith in me and will continue to read and enjoy this blog.

On a slightly less sombre note, even though I haven’t been working on my business, it has continued to work for me. here are my latest earning numbers:

Revenue:
Google: $43.19
Affiliate: $24.15
Subtotal: $67.34
Costs:
TKA Membership: -($66.00) ($33 x 2 months)
Subtotal: -($66.00)
—–
Total: $1.34
Time Spent: 0 hours

That’s right! Even though I haven’t touched my sites in 2 months, I made enough to pay for my TKA membership. I guess that’s the “residual” part of residual income. That idea gets me really excited. Just imagine what I would have made if I had actually been working on the sites! Lol.

Also, The Keyword Academy has been doing A LOT of revamping and adding of new content. They have been testing out some new methods that are really exciting. I have really been wanting to watch the last few webinars they did, but haven’t been able to find the time. Hopefully soon.

It’s definitely time for me to get back to work! I may not be able to spend hours at a time, but I am going to try to work on my sites at least a little bit every day.

The Keyword Academy Scam Experiment – Running Totals:
Revenue: $97.42
Costs: -($291.76)
Total: -(194.34)

Time spent : 58.75 hours

The Purpose – I did a major rewrite on this page. I wanted to focus more on the fact that I am creating an online business, and not just using a money making system. I also rewrote it be a little less derogatory. I felt that the wording I used before would put people into a negative frame of mind. After all, I am trying to help people create their own online business, not discourage them.

The Terms – Another major rewrite. In fact, the changes I made to this page are the biggest, in that they affect just about every aspect of the experiment. Once again, I rewrote this page to focus more on the creation of an online business, instead of just the use of a money making system. I also thought this page was pretty derogatory, so I corrected that. Aside from these changes, I also made some major procedural changes. The biggest one being, that I will no longer assign a monetary value to my time.

It’s been pointed out to me by several people that building a business online is much like building any other business. For example, doctors don’t get paid to go to medical school (in fact it’s the other way around). So why should I expect to get paid to learn how to make money online. Will the system pay for itself in the future? Yes (hopefully ). But for the time being, I need to put in my dues.

Please note however, that I still feel it’s very important for me to track the time I spend, and I will continue to do so. So, if you disagree with the whole “not getting paid to learn” thing, feel free to assign the hours whatever value you feel is fair.

Because of that fundamental change in my thinking, I also felt that I needed to revise the possible outcomes. You can read more about these four possible outcomes on The Terms page.

I also tried to consolidate and simplify this page a little bit. As it is still pretty long, I’m not sure if I succeeded or not.

The Results – The changes here were pretty minor. I pretty much just had to rewrite it to reflect the changes in the terms. I also added a milestones section.

About Me – The changes here were very minor. In fact, the only thing I did was remove the last paragraph because I thought it sounded stupid.

Posts – All I did here was revised the running totals format to reflect the changes in The Terms. I think it would take way too long to go back and change all my previous posts to the new format, so this will just be a “from now on” thing.

Links – I haven’t got around to it yet, but I think I’m going to go ahead and add my Keyword Academy affiliate link. I’ve been using the system less than two months, and I’ve already made over $30, so I’m starting to feel pretty comfortable recommending it to other people.

Well, I’m pretty sure that that’s about everything. I feel a lot better now that I finally got around to making these revisions. I think it has given The Keyword Academy Experiment a much more positive spin. As I mentioned before, I want to help and encourage my readers to create their own online businesses. I hope that these new changes reflect that desire.

As always, I welcome and encourage your comments. I want to know what you think about these new changes! Please, take a few seconds to add a comment letting me know your opinion.

Well, it’s about 1 AM here and I’m starting to get pretty tired, so I’m going to wrap this up. I’ll talk to you guys later.

Hey guys! I got back into town Monday. Camping was fun. It was nice to get away from work, the Internet, cell phones, etc. for a few days and just relax.

I started my new job Tuesday. So far it’s been good. I’m obviously just starting to learn the ropes, but I think I’ll enjoy it. It involves helping build websites. I think the things I am learning with The Keyword Academy will help me in my new job.

My boss from my old job has still been bugging me, which is starting to get on my nerves. I offered to work for him for another week while he finds someone to replace me, but he said “no” because things are slow. So I went ahead and started my new job. But now he is calling me every day, trying to get me to take jobs and call customers! You had your chance man, now leave me alone!

I know none of that is in any way related to The Keyword Academy or making money online, but I needed to vent.

So, amidst all this chaos, I have still managed to work on my niche websites a little. I finished writing all 5 of my article distribution articles for site #2. I tried to submit them all to the distribution site, but apparently I have to wait till 10 of my articles (total) get approved, before I can submit any others. Oh well, at least they are written and ready to go when the time comes. Now I need to focus on link exchanges for that site.

I have been thinking more about my site revisions and I think I am getting close to final decisions about what I want to change. Aside from the other things I have mentioned before (not tracking time as a cost, changing my tag line, etc.) I think I am going to stop trying to update this site every day, and aim for once or twice a week instead. It takes a lot of time to update this site every day, and that comes out of time I could be working on my niche sites (or sleeping ). I think now that I have detailed the building of my first couple sites, there is going to be a lot of “rinse and repeat”. Nothing that would need to be reported on every day.

Also, I am trying to think of a better way to represent the progress I’ve made on my sites. Referring to them by names like “the first one”, “the other one”, and “my wife’s site” is starting to confuse even me. But I don’t want to give away my niche keywords by telling you the names of the sites. What’s a make money online blogger to do?

I have been thinking about using a table of some kind. Like having an Excel sheet with a column for each of my sites. And rows for each task I need to complete for them, like writing content, or link exchanges, etc. Taking and uploading a screen shot of an Excel spreadsheet seems kind of cumbersome though. However I recently read about how you can make tables on webpages using HTML. Like so:

I’ll play with it and see what I can do. Anyway, time to go to bed.

Oh, and let me know what you think of these ideas, please. I haven’t received many comments on this site yet. I have Stat Counter installed, so I know somebody out there is reading this!

Money spent: $0.00
Time spent: 1.5 hours

The Keyword Academy Scam Experiment – RUNNING TOTALS:
Costs:
Monetary costs – $225.76
Time costs – 58.75 hours @ $8.40 = $493.50
Revenue:
Google  Adsense – $30.08

GRAND TOTAL:
-($689.18)

Hi everyone. Sorry that I haven’t updated my site the last few days. I was busy working, and planing a camping trip for this weekend. I also was interviewing for a new job, which I have now been offered and accepted (I start on Tuesday). On top of all that, the temperature here has been record breaking all week (over 100 degrees Fahrenheit almost every day) which really drained me.

However, I have still been working on my websites. I posted those 3 articles that I talked about in my last post and I also wrote my first article for distribution on that site. Plus I have had 2 people contact me out of the blue and ask for links to my other site.

I also got some more Adsense clicks. Yesterday, for some reason, there were a lot of clicks. Made $7.50 in that one day! I thought that was pretty cool.

So, as I mentioned, I am going camping this weekend so I won’t be updating the site for the next few days. We are probably going to be home late Monday night, but I start my new job Tuesday, so I’ll post as soon as I actually get a chance to.

Oh, I almost forgot: I had to pay my Host Gator bill today, which was $9.95

Money spent: $9.95
Time spent: 2 hours

The Keyword Academy Scam Experiment – RUNNING TOTALS:
Costs:
Monetary costs – $225.76
Time costs – 57.25 hours @ $8.40 = $480.90
Revenue:
Google  Adsense – $26.89

GRAND TOTAL:
-($679.77)

I wrote 3 more content articles for my second website today. That actually puts me at 6, instead of just the minimum 5. It started out as just one article, but the subject was a little more extensive than I expected, so I just kept writing. I had so much material by the end that I just decided to make it a 3 part article (3 separate posts, each at least 400 words). I just finished the articles, but I need to go to bed, so I’ll post them tomorrow. Then I can start link building for that site. The next few websites I am working on are about very closely related subjects to this one, so they should go much faster because I’ve already done most of the research. It would be great if I could finish another site by the end of next week! We’ll see how the week goes.

Also, got one more Adsense click today. I need to get out of the habit of checking Adsense every day. It’s exciting to see more clicks, but it’s also a waste of my very limited time. I’ll work on that…

Money spent: $0.00
Time spent: 2 hours

The Keyword Academy Scam Experiment – RUNNING TOTALS:
Costs:
Monetary costs – $225.76
Time costs – 55.25 hours @ $8.40 = $464.10
Revenue:
Google  Adsense – $18.66

GRAND TOTAL:
-($671.20)

Super busy today. Don’t have much time to post.

Just set up Adsense on some of my new sites. Got one more click. That’s about it.

Money spent: $0.00
Time spent: .5 hours

The Keyword Academy Scam Experiment – RUNNING TOTALS:
Costs:
Monetary costs – $225.76
Time costs – 53.25 hours @ $8.40 = $447.30
Revenue:
Google  Adsense – $18.50

GRAND TOTAL:
-($654.56)

I wrote the first page of content for another site today. I posted that and put the finishing touches on the WordPress settings.

My wife wrote her first article for distribution, so that will give her her first link when it gets published.

I still haven’t heard from the Keyword Academy Support team about reactivating my account. I decided to just go through the registration process again. I was worried that I would have to create a new account, but thankfully, they give you the option of reactivating an existing account. They also detected that I was using the same PayPal account, and charged appropriately (ie $33, since I re-joined the premium membership). So for any of you thinking about cheating and getting multiple months for a dollar each, you’re out of luck.

I also sent out some emails for link exchanges for this site today. Lis Sowerbutts site about online income was one of the ones I offered a link trade to. She was not only was nice enough to link to my site, but also wrote about it in a post.

The post was more criticism than commendation. But it was constructive criticism which I find very helpful. In fact, comments from her post and also from an email I got from Courtney Tuttle (one of the Keyword Academy guys) a couple weeks or so ago, are making me think that I should revise some of my experiment’s terms and methods.

They both made the point that learning the ropes of Internet marketing should be treated like school. You usually don’t get paid to learn (it’s usually the other way around), but it pays for itself down the road. I think I may be doing you readers a disservice by putting you in the wrong mindset, and making you think that you’ve failed if you haven’t been fully reimbursed for your time and money within the first six months of online money making. Making money online is like starting a business (in fact, that’s exactly what it is). Building a business takes time, even if you already know the trade. However, if you, like me, are completely new to a particular business, you’ll need to spend time learning it. That’s just the way it is. So is it really right for me to count the time I spend learning the system as an expense?

When I get the time, I’ll probably make some revisions to my experiment. If you have something to say about this, please post I comment. I would love to hear from you!

PS – Checked Adsense today and I had some more clicks. My total revenue is now up to $12.58! Woo Hoo!

Money spent: $33.00
Time spent: 2 hours

The Keyword Academy Scam Experiment – RUNNING TOTALS:
Costs:
Monetary costs – $225.76
Time costs – 52 hours @ $8.40 = $436.80
Revenue:
Google  Adsense – $12.58

GRAND TOTAL:
-($649.98)

I didn’t have much time to work on my sites today. (man, I’m tired of hearing myself say that!) But my wife finished the content for her first site and I was able to explain the link building process to her. She of course, picked it up quickly and started writing link exchange emails right away.

That was about it for today.

Money spent: $0.00
Time spent: 1 hours

The Keyword Academy Scam Experiment – RUNNING TOTALS:
Costs:
Monetary costs – $192.76
Time costs – 50 hours @ $8.40 = $420.00
Revenue:
Google  Adsense – $11.41

GRAND TOTAL:
-($601.35)

• Watched and downloaded all of the core videos
• Made a keyword “brainstorm” list
• Narrowed down that list to only keywords that have enough income potential and won’t be too competitive
• Selected 20 of the best keywords
• Registered 20 domains (one for each keyword)
• Setup hosting for all 20 sites
• Installed WordPress, WordPress themes, and an SEO plugin on all 20 sites
• Completed configuring and creating content for 2 sites (almost 2, my wife only has half an article to go on hers and she’ll finish today)
• Installed Adsense and Statcounter on both of those sites
• Completed the first month’s link building schedule on 1 site
• Created 1 page of content for 2 other sites
• Made almost $12 from Adsense revenue

Whew! It has been a really active month! It’s definitely been work, but it’s been a lot of fun too. It’s really neat to see sites that you created rising up the Google results pages and it’s even better to see people clicking your ads! Like I said at the beginning of the experiment, I am a total newbie to Internet marketing, so this is all new to me and VERY exciting. I find myself daydreaming quite often, of quitting my job and doing this instead. I really hope this all pans out, because I could totally do this full-time.

There have been a few missteps and frustration points, but overall I have been very pleased. I cannot even begin to imagine how much frustration, time, and effort it would have taken me to figure this stuff out on my own (if I ever even could). My advice to anyone thinking about joining The Keyword Academy is: do it! It’s only $1 (really, you get access to everything for that 1 dollar). Even if you just want to try it out, or even if you just want to watch the videos or peruse the forums. It’s only $1.

You might be thinking: “But what about domain registration and hosting costs?” I’m pretty sure I mentioned this before at some point, but if not: you don’t HAVE TO register and host your own sites. You can use The Keyword Academy’s methods on free blog sites if you want to. They encourage buying your sites because if you do, you can sell them later. But if you don’t have the money then just make a free blog! In fact, “hubpages” are all the rage right now in The Keyword Academy forums. They are free and apparently earn pretty decent revenue. I plan on setting some up later myself.

I know I said that I wouldn’t advocate this system to other people until I had proved to myself that it works, and that’s still true. However, what I do advocate and, in fact, highly recommend, is that you take the Keyword Academy up on their offer of $1 for the first month’s membership. It’s 1 dollar! What else are you going to spend it on? A chicken sandwich at McDonalds? I can assure you that while the chicken sandwich may be tasty, the Keyword Academy is much more valuable and much less fattening.

Here is the link: join The Keyword Academy for a buck

I do want to be up front with you about that link above. Yes, it is my affiliate link. I get paid a commission when people join using that link. My commission is 35% of what you pay, for every month that you’re an active member. So, if you join for the 1st month, then quit, I stand to make exactly 35 cents from you. I hope that helps to convince you that I am not recommending this for the money. I genuinely believe that your dollar spent joining The Keyword Academy is one of the best you’ll ever spend.

So, what are you waiting for?

In the Keyword Academy videos they said you are supposed to write between 5 and 10 articles per site for distribution in the first month, but that there are diminishing returns, especially above 10. If I only had the one site to work on, I might go ahead and write 10 articles instead of just the bare minimum 5. But since I have 19 other domains that need to be worked on, I think my time will be better spent working on those.

I still haven’t heard back from The Keyword Academy support team about my accidentally canceled subscription (if you missed the whole PayPal fiasco, you can read about it in day 26). But, I wrote the email late Thursday night, so they’ve really only had 2 business days to respond. When I first joined the Keyword Academy I sent an email to them through the support portal and got a same day response, but that was when my account was still active, so I’m sure that they give members priority over non-members. I’ll give them a couple more days to respond before I write again.

More good news on the Adsense front: I got a few more clicks that have brought my revenue up to $11.41! I love seeing those clicks!

One more thing: today is day 30th of The Keyword Academy Scam Experiment! (please, hold your applause) I feel that I have accomplished quite a bit this month. To commemorate this historic event I’ll be writing a “first month overview” post soon. I know you’ll all be waiting with bated breath to read it.

See you next post!

Money spent: $0.00
Time spent: 1.5 hours

The Keyword Academy Scam Experiment – RUNNING TOTALS:
Costs:
Monetary costs – $192.76
Time costs – 49 hours @ $8.40 = $411.60
Revenue:
Google  Adsense – $11.41

GRAND TOTAL:
-($592.95)