Blog Income Report - June 2008
OK. I’m a little late with the blog income report. I completely under estimated the amount time the Top Affiliate Challenge would require. Anyway, I finally got around to adding up all the numbers and they look pretty good.
For those few who don’t know, way back in September of 2006, I started a case study to see if money can be made by blogging. John Chow dot Com made a bit over $350 during its first month as a monetized blog and just continued to grow from there. Last month, the blog set a new income record of $32,529.40. I’m happy to report that I broke that record for June.
Total Blog Income for June 2008: $40,125.99
The month of June goes down as the first time the blog broke the $40K per month mark. This is a significant milestone. It works out to an annual income of nearly half a million dollar. Here’s the income break down.
- Private Ad Sales: $15,140.00
- Pay It Forward Post: $10,000.00
- Affiliate Commissions: $8,779.52
- ReviewMe: $3,000.00
- Text Link Ads: $1,883.68
- Kontera: $1,000.00
- TTZ Media: $298.50
- Subscription: $20.00
- FeedBurner: $4.29
- Grand Total: $40,125.99
So far this year, the blog’s lowest income month was $29,569.05 (posted back in April). Since then income has gone up nicely. The biggest boost came from a pay it forward blog post that made me $10,000.
Blog expenses for the month was $242.90 for contextual advertising on Google AdWords and Bidvertiser. The cost of hosting the John Chow dot Com blog is sponsored by BlueFur Web Hosting. I highly recommend them. Use coupon code JohnChowRocks to get 15% off any BlueFur hosting packages.
How To Be a Six Figure Blogger
The key to making money online is to drive a lot of traffic and then maximize the income from that traffic. Most bloggers don’t do this. I can’t keep count on the number of blogs I’ve seen running Google AdSense and nothing else. If you’ve been reading John Chow dot Com for even a short time, then you know that Google is not the only game in town. Never put your eggs in one basket. It’s a message I’ve been saying for over two years. Check out my recommended money makers to see what ad networks I used to produce my blog income.
I also recommend you download my free eBook, Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com. The book explains the methods I used to create content, drive traffic and make money. You can get it by signing up for my free newsletter at the top center of the page.
This maybe my last income report for a while. The original goal of the case study was to make full time income with part time blogger. That goal was exceeded a long time ago. I also don’t think the blog income can go much higher without a redesign and addition of new income streams. I will be working on those items over the next few months.
- Posted in Make Money Online, The Net
- 228 comments what's your take?
So far, I’m just earning a few cents a month. Congratulation on your milestone.
Where do you put the ads of Textlink ads and Kontera?
Reply to this commentDon’t worry… it will grow as long as you keep building your site(s) with good content and backlinks.
The textlinks are on the side and Kontera is in every post (although i think John has a deal with the owner where he just gets $1000).
Reply to this commentI still can’t see where are those KOntera ads?
I’m expecting some pop up adds that are displayed on every post.
Reply to this commentor perhaps the ads don’t show up on your country? ah anyway, i thought i would break john’s earning, and he just broke his own income report. doh john
Reply to this commentCongrats again, John!
Reply to this commentWell my income report has been out since !st of july, click here to see it!
Reply to this commentWow, John. I was going to say ‘You’ve done it again’, but this is a first for you, so good work. I’m interested to know why you think you can’t make any more money with this layout, because you just crippled your past record. You’re lucky you’ve got the luxury of having a readership that seems to be totally fine with the number of ads you display.
Reply to this commentthat is easy…He would like to fit in additional ad spots without much clutter…
Reply to this commentIt’s those double underline keywords you see in posts.
Reply to this commentI’m not seeing any double underline post like I’m seeing on other websites or blogs.
Reply to this commentI see them in the comments below - ‘your blog’ phrase from the comment by Giyen is doubled underlined on my computer view.
Reply to this commentI noticed the kontera ad moved to my comment.
Reply to this commentHere’s another one - adsense .
I think that they are country targeted, because I don’t see them either
Reply to this commentYou can turn Kontera links off in any post you want. He might have turned his off for his income reports. I noticed they got in the way on my revenue reports. But they usually show up on other posts and are represented by double underlines.
Reply to this commentI can see the Kontera links in this post.
Reply to this commentIt could be the country thing that Jacky pointed out and they do take a while to load sometimes. If you see those double underline where there’s a box that pops up when you hover your mouse over the keywords, those are kontera ads.
Reply to this commentFinally! I was beginning to think you didn’t make any money last month.
Reply to this commentI also don’t see Kontera Ads on all of the pages. Anyways, it’s good that John is stopping to post the income when he believes that he has reached the maximum ( after the one time $10,000 check he received this month).
Reply to this commentThe income report was one of the favorite things that attracted people to this site in my opinion.
Some of us will make it eventually. The only thing that can be said for certain is that those who give up will never make it.
Reply to this commentI agree. You have to have serious drive.
Reply to this commentI guess they can always go back to a job…yuck!
Reply to this commentYeah, THat is also my suspicion that JOhn was contracted by Kontera for $1000 per. Good for John.
Reply to this commentOh just to give you an example… my blog never generated anything for about a year and a half and all of a sudden the money just started rolling in. Now I’m earning mid 4 figures per month and every month is a record earnings so it’s not just the super bloggers like John who are making the money.
Good luck.
Reply to this commentWhat changed after a year and a half? More visitors, more frequent visitors, more pageviews, or better monetization?
Reply to this commentWhat changed included:
Reply to this comment1. more search engine traffic (mainly for adsense)
2. more credible in my niche and thus more exposure to advertisers (once you are known then advertisers tend to come to you for advertising through your contact pages
3. more frequent visitors… these people comment and bring live to your blog (and you).
4. your writing also improve as you go along (you see this in every blog… just check out everyone’s first post versus their latest)
So basically, you improved on all the key dimensions due to aging.
I’d love to hear somebody explain how to speed up the process of gaining credibility over time.
Are there any examples of “flash in the pan” success blogging? Has anybody skyrocketed in a few weeks?
Reply to this commentProbably lots have but the secret formula is luck and/or throw money behind it (advertising)
Reply to this commentI think the secret formula to your success was “After a year and a half” - you outlived most blogs by 10 fold.
Reply to this commentWith adult site you can earn more than that
Reply to this commentPeace
I thought about that years ago and I’d probably be really rich by now if I started but I could never come up with what I would tell my family and friends of what I did for a living
Reply to this commentMaybe you could run that site on the side & keep it a secret. Shhh!
Reply to this commentI think you’re onto something…. I can hide behind my other blogs
Reply to this commentYup. All while cashing in!
Reply to this commentJohn displays Kontera in every post. See the contextual text ads in the post like some keywords become underlined. That is kontera.
Reply to this commentThey are intext ads - he gets $1000/month set rate.
Reply to this commentsame same with me..a few cents per month..but it’s a beginning of our long journey..take time
Reply to this commentCongratulations!
It’s amazing what you made and all your thousands of fans are extremely impressed.
Anyway I hope, that you won’t stop posting your income report for the next time, even if it shouldn’t increase.
Reply to this commentThis monthly post has become a status post for the blog so I’m sure John will post it every month
Reply to this commentDidn’t he mention it will be his last one for a while?
Reply to this commentHmm you are right.. I’m quite interested to see what happens to his traffic over the next few months after he doesn’t post this monthly post anymore
Reply to this commentWoohoo! I visit your blog for inspiration, keep it up John Chow! You rock!
Reply to this commentYet our team is still getting anihilated revenue wise on the Top Affiliate Challenge.
Reply to this commentYou’re not evil enough
Reply to this commentUnfortunately on the TAC you can’t just make money by talking about making money…
Reply to this commentVery nice stats john.
Reply to this commentYou mean GREAT stats John?
Reply to this commentit is about time john! the evil chow has a super evil plan a head whil in Nebraska
Reply to this commentDid you mean the $40,125 pay per click budget that he promised me for the Top Affiliate Challenge?
Reply to this commentWow. Here I was getting excited about $2.50 from adsense last week and then I see you’ve made more than that every minute for the last month. Congratulations!
Reply to this commentYou actually have a great carnival (judging by the name) that you can really build on! You should make a lot more in no time. Just think of how you can monetize the traffic and keep building.
Reply to this commentThanks. We’re really new and I consider $2.50 in adsense for the first week to be very good. It’s no $40k a month, but for a brand new website I’m thrilled.
The race is long. We’ll get there eventually.
Reply to this commentYeah, that’s not bad for a new site. Many others don’t make anything until a LONG time.
Reply to this commentThank you. We’ll see.
At the very least isn’t this a fantastic game? Far better than Risk.
Reply to this comment$2.50 is amazing for the first week actually. It just proves your domain name selection was that much better.
Reply to this commentAm yet to install adsense on my blog, does installing adsense boost blog traffic
Reply to this commentYou won’t get any additional traffic from adsense.
Reply to this commentHeh helps when you get $10,000 from someone
Good luck topping this month!
Reply to this commentIt’s going to be a bit hard making up for that $10,000 bonus in June…
Reply to this commentNot unless the new methods he comes up with work fast.
Reply to this commentHe has a month to bring his income up by 33%, that’s gong to be pretty difficult at the level he’s at.
Reply to this commentNice work John! Thats a pretty awesome milestone to hit and will be interested to see if you can beat it.
Reply to this commentDont you donate any money to charity/org ? Coz 40k+ is a lot of money and donating some to poor people will get you a lot of blessings…
Reply to this commenthe does once in a while… check the archives… he had a post on it.
Reply to this commentYea he gives to the Union Gospel Mission during holiday seasons when they are in need the most. He also matches donations of bloggers etc.
Reply to this commentexcellent! congrats john
Reply to this commentAmazing. However, that 10k from the Pay It Forward guy really put you over the mark. More inspiration for us folks that didn’t break the $10k mark yet.
Reply to this commentCongrats John for getting bigger and bigger.
Reply to this commentSo next month, are you going for above 40k? or are you subtracting that in your head, to make the income 30k, which is 2k lower then last month?
Reply to this commentStill impressive..
Great, congrats to you.
Reply to this commentYou actually made 30k, that is lower than the last month.
Those 10k were not made from this blog.
Reply to this commentI thought the same thing.
Without the 10k ‘donation’ your blog earning were actually down on last months.
Reply to this commentToo chicken to post your name?
Reply to this commentWhat’s in a a name. Capulete, montague, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet A statement on the interenet is that rose, is it not?
Reply to this commentWell, it seems like almost every time someone posts a negative comment, they never leave their name. That just screams chicken to me. Leaving your name after making a negative comment takes moxie & leaving your site link also [if you have one] is a plus.
Reply to this commentFair point (I had been drinking when I defended him/her)
Reply to this comment40K?! Wow..How I wish, even in at a young age, to be you right now…
Reply to this commentI hope I can crack at 12k-30k this month. I don’t use website, and blog to make this 12k-30k.
Its about trusting your self and have confidence.
Thanks john. I have read your blog for the last 8 months.
Reply to this commentIts amazing, you are earning 40K every month. And I know this figure will only increase.
Reply to this commentI just re-read this post. Do you really not use adsense at all? Have you ever?
Reply to this commentHe used to have Adsense on here, but took it off ages ago.
Reply to this commentNo adsense at Johnchow.com but for most people its the lazyman’s advertising
Reply to this commentThen Myspace must be lazy as hell, because they have Adsense! I can only imagine the kind of money they pull in from it…
Reply to this commentAdsense can be a good starter.
Reply to this commentAdsense is a great way to get started.It may be lazy, but it pays great!
Reply to this commentI hope we’ll move beyond adsense, but beyond adsense and maybe project wonderful it takes some pretty large scale to justify additional revenue streams. IMHO
Reply to this commentwow! That’s a great number I could imagine to earn! My mission impossible to get that sum of money from my bloggerspeed blog!
Reply to this commentWell done John, you set a benchmark for us to surpass. Thanks for the inspiration.
Reply to this commentCongrats and well done John. Are u interested to come to our part of the world and share your success. Of cause knowledge is not free…
Reply to this commentWell done John! Envy you.
Do you know any way I could drive traffic to my blog written in simplified chinese?
Reply to this commentCould you not translate some of John’s more useful articles into chinese?
Reply to this commentI remember reading somewhere that kids, trying to write essays on Topic X, are googling and finding Topic X essays in another language, then using a translator program, converting them to English, change a couple things around and presto - an essay on Topic X. Now is that plagiarism?
If all things fail, then write about ‘toilets’.
hello Clickusername!
I was not talking about blog content, I was talking about how to drive traffic to blog written in chinese. What is point to copying someone content even it is in another language?
Reply to this commentWhy is always the Kontera revenue 1000$ ? I keep on asking this question. Otherwise a great income , anyone would like to be earning $40,125.99 monthly.
One more question , if you don`t want to keep this private ! How were you able to make $350 during the first month? It`s pretty impossible. 
Reply to this comment$1k for Kontera is a deal he has with them regardless of traffic I believe.
$350 for the first month wasnt the first month of the blog. The blog was maybe a year or more old running without ads. The $350 represents the first month it was monetized.
Reply to this commentI still don’t know how you are able to make so much of money from private ads. Can you tell me how you are able to make such a big amount from Private ads?
Reply to this commentIt’s not hard when you have a very popular site/blog that many people know about.
Reply to this commentWhen you’re big, advertisers will contact you.
Reply to this commentOMG… I just slipped on my prediction, was expecting it to be at 43K!
You underperformer John
(I would start with my income reports soon… To make things easier, I am planning to make the report in number of cents and not dollars… that way I can still project myself to be a six figure blogger! )
Cheers,
Reply to this commentAjith
I’m so freaking jealous already.
Reply to this commentNice going, John. I’m interested in seeing what other methods you come up with.
Reply to this commentexcellent john
Reply to this commentCongratulations JC, thats a fantastic amount.
Reply to this commentwow,a lots of money you got.you are my make money online idol.
Reply to this commentI thinks it’s cool that you share your monthly income with us. Most of the bloggers say that they make a lot of money but don’t say exactly how much. This way we can have a better overview of this business. I’m wondering how much visitors do you have each month?
Reply to this commentA Great Month John, Well done!
Reply to this commentSo without that 10k$ check you are on 30k$ of normal income for blog or that guy payed you 10k$ to be on your blog ???
Reply to this commentThat’s it, amazing, great; but, a feeling of missing to not expect these reports hereafterwards monthly.
Reply to this commentJohn do you use/publish trackbacks on your site? I just wanted to make sure that you know that I mentioned this article in my daily money links category:
http://www.thegreatestinternetsalesman.com/2008-07-money-links-for-july-07-2008.html
Just wanted to make sure that is fine with you.
Great job btw! I hope that you’ll break your record soon again.