Blog Income Report – August 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.
Want to get 3 of the top 10 books ever written on building wealth for FREE? Think and Grow Rich, The Richest Man In Babylon, and The Way To Wealth are yours for free when you subscribe to get updates from StartBreakingFree.com!
Chris Guthrie said,
Wrote on September 2, 2008 @ 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 :)
Reply
Brian Armstrong Reply:
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!
Reply
ericabiz said,
Wrote on September 3, 2008 @ 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
Reply
Brian Armstrong Reply:
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!
Reply
Bloggers Income Report August 2008 | The Blog Novice said,
Wrote on September 3, 2008 @ 6:24 pm
[...] Start Breaking Free – $420.92 [...]
Creer un site said,
Wrote on September 7, 2008 @ 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.
Reply
Brian Armstrong Reply:
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.
Reply
Home Business Answered » How I (Almost) Accomplished My Passive Income Goal For 2008 said,
Wrote on January 8, 2009 @ 2:50 am
[...] this time I noticed that this blog had started to pull in some decent money. it wasn’t much yet but it had potential. This got me excited enough to try some other [...]