August 2008 Site and Net Worth Review (+1.72%)

Net Worth Review

The daily fluctuations aside, August was relatively good month with the S&P500 up 1.2% from 1,267.38 to 1,282.83.  This gain covered the loss in July and then some. According to NetworthIQ, my net worth dropped another -1.43% — again due to the declining value of my house. But my net investable assets went up +1.72%, or from 22.94% to 23.34% of $1 million goal.

Highlights

• The biggest drop in value was my house, which declined another $15,000 according to Zillow.  However, this doesn’t affect me at the moment since I am planning to live in it for a long while.
• My retirement investment stayed flat despite the additional contributions made in August.  Looking closely at the portfolio, it was my international funds that dragged down the portfolio performance.  I am not an international investment or currency expert, but I suspect that the declines were due to the stronger U.S. Dollar.  According to FXHistory, USD improved against the Euro by 6.3% and 10% against gold in August, while my international funds dropped about 4% each.
• My peer-to-peer investments continue to grow.
  • Prosper grew from $693.14 to $751.99. This represents 3.72% gain since I started in the end of December 2007.
  • Lending Club went down slightly from $448.65 to $438.27 as I continue to withdraw money from my account.  I can’t wait for Lending Club to start up their program again.

Alternative Income

We had a strong cash flow this month due to higher than expected alternative income from my web businesses.  The amount was a 71% improvement over last month instead of the projected 10%. This brings my projected alternative income against my total income (salary + alternative income) from 17.12% to 21.61%.  However, I am not expecting to match August’s result any time soon, so the goal for the rest of the year will stay at 17%.

If you want to know how to make money with a blog, I recommend Dough Roller’s Make Money Blogging collection.

Blog Review

August was a fairly quiet month.  I missed a few scheduled articles and didn’t write as many home run quality articles as I should have.  Moreover, I believe my lack of participation in blog carnivals also contributed to the decline.

Performance

Here are the key statistics for this month:

• Subscribers dropped -3% from 2,031 to 1,968
• Search traffic dropped -1% from 12,160 to 12,085
• Visitors dropped -3% from 38,571 to 37,296
• Page views dropped -5% from 69,788 to 66,586

Top 5 Most Viewed Posts This Month

1. 40+ Alternative Income Ideas and Resources from 3/4/2008
2. Why Should You Become A Part-Time Entrepreneur from 8/22/2008
3. Building Multiple Income Streams As A Career from 7/21/2008
4. 7 Key Factors to Build Successful Income Streams from 3/17/2008
5. Dave Ramsey’s Baby Step 6: Pay Off Home Early from 3/5/2008

Top 10 Referrers

I wish I could list all 759 web sites and blogs that sent visitors my way. Despite listing only 10 11, I do appreciate everyone’s help, regardless of how big or small. Here are the top 10 referrers this month:

1. MSN Smart Spending
2. Cash Money Life *
   
3. Being Frugal *
   
4. Christian Personal Finance *
   
5. Broke Grad Student
6. I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…
7. Mrs. Micah *
   
8. Simple Mom *
   
9. My Two Dollars
10. Gather Little By Little
11. Frugal Dad — tied with Gather Little By Little
    

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

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