This is the second time I’ve had to write this post and the second time I had to post this … Wow! I screwed up, didn’t I?

Milestones

March’s Income Report was a little late being published on this blog but April’s is going to be a little earlier! Why? Well because I reached a landmark!

$10,059 (US$)

But before that you read about this news, try out one of these two great ways to keep up with what’s happening on InvestorBlogger Dot Com:

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Subscribe to the feed: For more interesting articles on running a business, making money, operating your blog, , and so on…, subscribe to the RSS feed or email newsletter. There’s a lot more in the Random Walk to Wealth on InvestorBlogger dot com.
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Subscribe to the top 20 money making feeds: Subscribe to the top 20 money making feeds download. Just download it and upload it to your favorite RSS reader (Google Reader, BlogLines, etc. all work!) I’ve just updated the feeds with several new blogs that are worth reading. At the very least, check it out! After all, it’s free!
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So how did we do in April? Well, we achieved a good deal this month reaching a little over 51% of my initial target of $1200. However, caution is required: taxes and Paypal fees were taken out of this total as well as other costs.

* Bank Interest: $28.00
* Dividend Income: $109.49
* Advertising: $245.00
* Advertising (3rd party): $181.10
* Reviews – $30.00
* Consulting = $19.50
* Total = $613.09

*there are a few other residual sources but they generally don’t generate much, like Voxant, NetAudioAds, etc. that generate only a few cents a month. In addition, some sources that generate a lot one month, but nothing the next are not included.

I haven’t worked out the proportion of active vs. passive income yet, but it accounts for a little over half of the total income. I’m a big fan of passive income, and I’m now working very hard to increase the total of passive income to something nearer 75% of the total.

In terms of running a blog, it requires quite a bit of time, as does providing consulting and hosting services (which I enjoy doing). While monthly income varies from month to month, and sometimes by quite a lot, we’ve been a keeping an eye on the actual growth and reporting on a twice yearly basis shows a dramatic increase from the first six months to the third six months. So, in UK reporting style, here are the results:

February 2007 (1st 6 months): $2,462
August 2007 (2nd 6 months): $2,563
February 2008 (3rd 6 months): $3,994
August 2008 (4th 6 months): $-,—

Anyone care to guess? I’ll give you a hint as we’re already off to strong start. It’s only when we get a perspective over a longer time that we see what’s happening. If you want to read more about my plan, you can visit the entry.

Expenses

The blog currently has a few expenses such as hosting through Dreamhost’s VPS system and it works well. Of course, Domains and I own about ten or so all need to be paid for annually and Paypal Fees. I currently don’t advertise, though I may do so soon again.

* hosting – $49.40 (est.)
* Fees – $9.53 (Paypal, Commissions, etc.)
* Content, Development, and Advertising – $27.50
* Total = $86.43*

*These figures are estimates as final figures haven’t been received for some, and other commissions are invisible having been deducted at source.

It’s been a wild ride since I started blogging in 2006 on this blog! If you’re interested in what went before, check out Obblogatory dot com.

Thanks for all your support!

Image via Wikipedia

To my readers, I have to apologize for a delay in this weekend’s posting. I spent yesterday evening and this afternoon fixing a blog that was hacked, for a friend. It was unfortunate, it does happen, and it isn’t the end of the world. Really.

Has anyone noticed…? Magazines are getting smaller and MORE expensive at the same time! I was in the local bookstore and they don’t stock many English language magazines. I happened to see a copy of Fortune which I used to enjoy many years ago. I picked it up. It was well over $7 a copy and had less than 80 pages. Yikes! I could buy a book for that price!

It seems to affect only US magazines, and yet I still enjoy the websites of Fortune, Forbes and other magazines. However, TIME is one magazine I will RARELY (if ever) buy. Newsweek is not much better. They’re both hideously expensive here, quite dull a lot of the time (as their focus is primarily the US) and are about as thin as toilet paper.

While I agree that magazine quality isn’t dependent on the AMOUNT of pages, I do have to question the direction these magazines are going in. Has anyone read the Economist lately? That’s hardly a doorstop, but at least it tops out at a reasonable size and makes you want to open it a second or third time!

Perhaps it’s being a Brit, but one of the things that I hate about many modern (and US-based) magazines (including PC magazines, news and biz magazines) is the prevalent use of titles that put me to sleep or shout “hyperbole”! You know the titles – “Ten Top PCs”, “Seven ways to Make More Money”… Most of these types of articles are brain-candy, to attract readers only.

My Reading List

So in this edition, I’ll list my favorite magazines and newspapers.

#1 The Financial Times – I always try to buy the local edition on Saturday to get the weekend news, including Arts, Property, etc. It’s always a good read. At NT$110 it is certainly BETTER value than the other magazines.

#2 The Economist – A great magazine with lots of varied news. While a lot of articles aren’t in depth, they’re usually pretty good summaries. It is certainly a decent read and can keep me busy for several subway journeys.

#3 BusinessWeek – Despite suffering Anorexia in recent months, this journal is still pretty good, if you skip the numerous “Best of…”, “Top ***”, and such like editions. I don’t need puerile Top of the Poop Charts, really. I’m a big boy.

#4 BBC News – I usually visit the BBC News website, primarily for info about Europe, the UK and Asia. Typically stories are well-researched but often lack a specificity for Asian stories.

#5 New York Times – While not offline, I do spend time looking for stories on this resource. The articles are well-written, well-informed and interesting. The tech articles are sometimes wanting, and some of the columnists seem to be writing a personal blog, rather than newspaper reporting, but otherwise a good

Sites  I seldom or never visit anymore: CNN dot com (too parochial, gossip-focused), NewsWeek (never bothered), Time Magazine (over-rated by everyone), … and quite a few others…

What are you reading these days? Do you prefer online or offline news reading?