Blog Income Report – August 2008

In: Updates| Wealth By: Brian Armstrong

2 Sep 2008

Some people have been asking me how much money this blog makes.

If you’ve been reading it for a while then you know I like making monthly financial statements, so as you might have guessed I track the numbers.

Here they are for August 2008.

Income:

$215.00 – Book Sales
$87.70 – Google Adsense
$53.00 – Private Ad Sales
$50.14 – Text Link Ads
$10.22 – Kontera
$3.50 – Commission Junction
$1.36 – Chitika

TOTAL INCOME: $420.92

Expenses:

$10.00 – Hosting with 1and1 (this includes a number of sites, not just BreakingFree)
$45.00 – Book printing and shipping costs (paperback only)
$5.00 – E-Junkie for processing book payments

TOTAL EXPENSES: $60.00

NET INCOME: $360.92

As you can see I’ve been trying a variety of ad programs. Some of them are under performing, like Kontera, CJ, and Chitika. I’m always ready and willing to replace these with something that might work a lot better. In particular the 125×125 square ads on the right side of this blog make very little money at all. I was trying a company called PerformancingAds.com last month which brokers 125×125 square ads like that, but they didn’t make a single dollar :(. That space can probably be put to better use.

If anyone has other suggestion for what has made them money on their blog, please post below in the comments.

I don’t think blogging is a good way to get rich quick, but if you enjoy writing about a subject then by all means it doesn’t hurt to make some money on the side.

The real benefit of blogging (at least in my mind) is:

Writing your thoughts and interacting with others on a particular topic forces you to learn it better and faster.
From a purely egotistical point of view, it just feels good to help other people, get emails from them, and have people listen to what you say.
It’s like a personal journal to help you record and organize your thoughts.
It’s a good way to keep in touch with people who you wouldn’t ordinarily have time to communicate with on a regular basis. They can still know what’s going on in your life.
It builds distribution for your ideas (also known as a permission asset) so that the next time you launch a project there are people who know you and are willing to check it out.

If the non-monetary reasons make enough sense for you to blog, then I think you can wake up a few years later and have a nice fairly passive income. It certainly doesn’t happen quick though, and I’ve still got a ways to go. I’ll keep you posted as things progress and I find other ways to make money from blogging as a side income.

8 Responses

Chris Guthrie

September 2nd, 2008 at 12:11 pm

Hello Brian,

Based on your blog’s size I thought you would be earning more than that actually and I agree that you really need to get rid of those under performing programs.

I would highly recommend you replace them with private ad slots. I’m sure you could make a lot more by selling it privately as well. (Perhaps set up OIO Publisher? I found my private ad sales went up drastically when it was a simple automated program).

Also have you considered Adsense for Feeds? I am going to try that out this month to see how it performs.

Either way I love your blog and think you deserve more :)

Brian Armstrong

September 2nd, 2008 at 3:13 pm

Thanks for the tips Chris, I subscribed to your blog. I’ve got adsense for feeds set up, but never heard of OIO Publisher. It looks like a marketplace for people to buy/sell ad space on blogs? Has it helped you generate sales or just to manage it? I’ve made only a handful of private ad sales so far but it’s been fairly easy to manage just with paypal subscriptions. Keep in touch!

ericabiz

September 3rd, 2008 at 2:30 am

Hi Brian,

I, too, am surprised your income is that low. Since you already have a successful book, why not pair it with some videos and do a $97 package? You could promote it and make some money that way. $97 adds up a lot more quickly than $20.

By the way, I found your blog through Peggy. She and I were in the same Pilates class here in San Jose. She said she’s known you since you were very young,a nd figured we’d have a lot in common. Looking at your blog, I’d have to agree!

Good luck. I have ~800 blog subscribers and haven’t attempted to really monetize yet. I’m currently making between $40-80/month with my blog (erica.biz).

-Erica

Brian Armstrong

September 4th, 2008 at 2:57 am

Thanks for stopping by Erica, yep Peggy is like a second mother to me :) You have a good idea there with the videos…I have a number of them actually recorded from talks I did that I released free on here. I think videos have higher perceived value. Thanks!

Creer un site

September 7th, 2008 at 3:18 am

The issue with adsense on a blog is the same as with forum, readers are ads-blind

worse, I’m a rss reader, and the post is fully send with the rss. That prevents me from coming here for each post.

Brian Armstrong

September 12th, 2008 at 2:21 pm

That is true. Click through rate on ads is very low (about 1%). By the way, they have adsense for feeds now which I started using about a month ago.

Breaking Free

Blog Income Report – August 2008

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