June 2008 Site and Net Worth Review (-7.23%)

Net Worth Review

Wow, June was a terrible month for stock investors. Bad economy, Midwest flood, inflation, high oil price, among other factors added up to an -8.6% drop for the S&P500 — from 1400.38 to 1280.00! According to NetworthIQ, my net worth went down -3.04% — mostly due to my retirement and stock investments, and net investable assets went down -7.23%, or from 24.34% to 22.59% of $1 million goal — looks like I will have to re-evaluate that goal this year.

Highlights

• This month, my 401k, IRA, and stock investments took the blunt of the blow at -8.90%
• My alternative income from blogging improved by 64% this month — cool!
• There’s not much change for my peer-to-peer investments:
  • Prosper grew from $425.55 to $649.33. I am now up to 11 loans at average of 11.61% interest — so far, so good.
  • Lending Club went down slightly from $473.40 to $460.80 due to withdrawal because I cannot make a new loan and there’s no interest for idle fund.
• My house value, based on Zillow dropped by another -0.95%. I believe this downward trend will continue through the rest of the year.

Overall, this was a tough month for my net worth and investments. I am just happy that my alternative income streams are improving.

Blog Review

June was a strong month, but not quite as good as May. The biggest contributor this month was The Consumerist who featured my alternative income article in their post: Four Ways To Make The Most Of Unemployment.

As always, I owe the success of this blog to the support from my readers and fellow bloggers. Thank you!

Performance

I didn’t expect to meet my 10% improvement goal this month due to strong May, but I am happy with the outcome.

• Subscribers grew +10% from 1,534 to 1,681
• Search traffic dropped -2% from 9,577 to 9,422
• Visitors dropped -21% from 44,071 to 34,606
• Page views dropped -15% from 68,754 to 58,255

Top 5 Most Viewed Posts This Month

1. 40+ Alternative Income Ideas and Resources from 3/4/2008
2. Are You Financially Healthy? The 5 Stages from 6/25/2008
3. What’s Your Financial IQ? Here’s A Test from 5/28/2008
4. 50+ Frugal Tips, Ideas, and Resources from 1/31/2008
5. Carnival of Personal Finance #155 — Time With Family from 6/2/2008

Top 10 Referrers

I wish I could list everyone that sent visitors, but it would be an impossibly long list (922 entries). I do appreciate everyone’s help, regardless of how big or small. Here are the top 10 referrers this month:

1. The Consumerist (4,435)
2. MSN Smart Spending (1,852)*
3. I’ve Paid For This Twice Already… (518)
4. Gather Little By Little (488)*
5. Being Frugal (429)*
6. Cash Money Life (367)
7. Frugal Dad (322)
8. The Dough Roller (302)
9. Consumerism Commentary (263)*
10. My Two Dollars (209)*

* Indicates the winner of 125×125 banner ad spot.

Some Notes

• First, I’d like to congratulate Gibble and wish him a happy 1-year blog anniversary. You can read about it in his post: One year of gathering little by little.
• Second, I have been partnering with various companies to provide you with value-added content. If you haven’t noticed the free magazine and credit cards database features, please check them out.
• Lastly, I am currently running eFinPLAN financial planning software giveaway. The “secret code” was posted over the weekend. Please enter if you are interested in winning a 1-year subscription valued at $98.

Again, thank you to my readers and fellow bloggers for your support.