John Chow dot Com started off as a personal blog to talk about whatever was on my mind. The blog was never intended to make any money and for the first eight months of its life it had total income of zero. Because one of the topics I talked about was how to make money from blogging I got many emails and comments asking me to prove that it can be done. That’s when I decided to do a case study on making money by blogging.
The goal of the case study was to make full time income ($3,000 per month) with part time blogging (2 hours per day). In its first month as a monetized blog, John Chow dot Com made $352.94. Four months later, it would hit its full time income goal. Today, the blog makes a bit more than full time income. How much more?
Total Blog Income for October 2008 – $34,350.93
While $34,350.93 is a nice income, it’s down by nearly $4,000 from last month. This is because I didn’t attend any shows last month so my appearance fee earnings went from $4,000 to zero. Here’s the income breakdown.
- Affiliate Commissions: $12,652.52
- Private Ad Sales: $10,290.00
- Shoemoney Tools: $4000.00
- ReviewMe: $4,000.00
- Text Link Ads: $2,112.91
- Kontera: $1,000.00
- RSS Ads: $295.50
- Total Income: $34,350.93
Affiliate commissions continues to be the blog’s number one money maker. Shoemoney Tools is part of affiliate commissions but I’ve separated it in order to show the residue income power of affiliate marketing. Shoe offers 20% for life on any sales you referred. Shoemoney Tools are sold by monthly subscription so you can make that 20% month after month. My income from Shoemoney Tools has double in one month because of new sign ups and renewals from old sign ups.
This is the beauty of affiliate marketing. I’m still being paid for sales I’ve made years ago and that income will continue to come in even if this blog is no longer around. If I were to shut the blog down today, it would still make five figures every month because of the residue affiliate income.
Blog traffic for October was 321,983 page views from 218,396 visitors, according to Google Analytic. Blog expense for the month was $335.58 for contextual advertising. Hosting for John Chow dot Com is sponsored by BlueFur Webhosting. They provided the quad-core server that powers this blog. Use coupon code JohnChowRocks for 15% off any BlueFur hosting package.
How To Be a Big Money Blogger
The key to making big money by blogging is to drive a lot traffic and then maximize the hell out of that traffic. It doesn’t matter how great your content is if nobody reads it. However, if you have a ton of traffic but only run Google AdSense, then you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. Do not put all you eggs in one basket. You need to run as many revenue options as possible while still preserving the user experience. Check out my recommended money makers to see what systems 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 online. You can get it for free by signing up for my free newsletter at the top of the page.
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{ 192 comments }
For a blog that was not intended for profit – you are doing an amazing job! Keep it up!! Hopefully we all will reach similar figures.
Are you kidding me? 99% of bloggers out there will sell their first born to be making 10% of what you are making per month..
I think John’s overall monthly income except from this blog should by double or triple this one! By the way, I am running an entrecard contest on my blog. Anyone interested can check my blog to participate.
Congrats once again, John!
I have only one thing to say, it is amazing!
Dude, entrecard is irrelevant. Run a real contest with real prizes.
By the way, I didn’t ask for suggestions, just informed IF anyone was interested!
Dude it is not triple.. but far far more… may be you should look at his primary sources of income
why kidding ? thats 100% true.
infact he must be hiding some of his income.
Man, thats awesome…
which is the best affiliate marketing income for you ?
Hiding from the tax men…
Swiss banks John?
wow, that is very impressive and some helpful info. Recently, I could not find any way to make money from my blog except for paid blog reviews. Affiliate programs are nice, but when you are a newbie, you don’t want to put too many eggs in your basket. You want to keep track of affiliate earnings on a blog, which can be very hard, especially if you have more than payperclick affiliate.
Damn.. u are on this picture ?:-o ??? Beautiful woman :X
http://you-v.com/2008/11/02/with-girlfriend-to-walk/
I think 1%
Amazing… Congratulations!
Ditto on Amazing! Always inspiring to see!
I think why most people have started blogging is because of these type of articles, they seem pretty promising about returns from blogging!
It just goes to show what you can do when you put your mind to it.
http://you-v.com/2008/11/02/with-girlfriend-to-walk/
Please stop spamming your link.
Yeah, quite inspirational!
I wonder how he does that..
Dang John, you keep racking up those profits each month. Good job!
I only make 2% of what he is making per month from my online businesses. I do want to know however how he invests his profits. I hope he doesn’t spend it all on gadgets and the mogul lifestyle he is living..
Who cares…
From what I see John doing, I say he know the “Money” better than most of us!
Why make money and no spending at all? I make money so that I can spend, just need a balance.
Actually..the more money you make..the more you spend!
Congrats on even make 2% of what John makes. That’s more than 99% of the other bloggers.
Congrats, once again!
It might be time to start talking to Kontera about increasing their monthly payouts to you, or moving over to something like trggit?
Who would’ve ever thought that one could make $34,000 a month, blogging about blogging. You’re awesome John, keep up the good work.
…not me
I’m sure had I picked a topic other than politics I could take steps to begin monetizing my traffic. Hmm looks like RSS does bring in some decent money, it just looks overshadowed because of how good your other monetization options are!
Alberto,
I would say that you won’t be successful at a topic that you don’t care about. I am sure that if you could offer a unique view on the subject of politics, readers and soon after ad dollars will be chasing you all the way to the bank..
Not sure about this, I still think if you are passionate about the money, you should be able to make money with any blog.
But the most important factor is the market willing to spend money? And are they big enough for you to make a lot of money?
The political niche is/was actually smoking hot Alberto. Don’t know anymore, since the election is over, but otherwise there was big potential in the niche.
Hi John,
I read your incoming- report for 10/2008. Its very amazing!! Congratulations!
I can proxy for your at shows
Once again, that’s awesome John!
Nice to see such a good income with low costs – hosting sponsored and other cost jsut 335 $. Not bad Mr. Chow.
I wonder how he manages to keep that so low, if I earned as much as him my expenses would be soaring because of the extra things that ‘pop in’!
I’m surprised he has $335 in advertising at all. John doesn’t need to advertise…
That is just amazing. I am jealous lol
No you’re not. You are envious!!
I’m envious of his success. One word: Inspirational…
Wow, those are some great stats.
Hmmm… free ebook eh?
Wow nice income for a blog which is not getting traffic from google
Proves that Google isn’t everything. Google hasn’t been around forever, and people were making money long before it existed.
I agree – google is good in the beginning – but content is really the key – evidenced by this site.
Actually the key is diversifying your income streams. If John was still running only on adsense he would only be making $3000/month..
Yeah, I’d agree on that one! but although it was private ad sales before this but now it is affiliate commissions which are ruling the game. A LOT of traffic is not needed for this, just a bunch of RIGHT people who are hard to pick out from the crowd!
yeah i agree but Google is responsible for most of the traffic that many bloggers are getting. Search engine means Google in these days. So in all this situation if a blog is missing google traffic that means it is not getting quite a lot of traffic that it could get by ranking good with a few keywords. No doubt john is making loads of money with returning visitors
Everyone should keep Google on their side, whether it’s in the beginning or in the midst of their blogging career. Besides getting traffic, it does help you to make money. Of course, having 30k visitors and you can diversify your income sources, but for an average internet marketeer Google is the place to be.
I agree. Some people act like Google is the Holy Grail. It’s not.
That’s really good income. Congrats.
Congrats john
That’s awesome and very inspiring.I made 5 g’s this month from affiliate sales
and my blog was made in March.I also had that dark cloud experience for months
it’s hard to tell when your going to break through but for my kids sake I’m glad I did
before Christmas thanks for all the information and inspiration
Peace
Good for you John!
As a new blogger this type of information is very inspirational and helpful. It helps me decide on how I should structure my blog and maximize my visitors. Thanks for sharing and whatever you do, don’t shut down this blog!
nice job again
Congratulations, John.
I wonder what software package you used to track your traffic — for example, are your 321,983 page views and 218,396 unique visitors measured by Google Analytics? Webalizer? etc.?
My web hosting company provides Webalizer as the default log analysis tools. I also installed Google Analytics on my Wordpress blog (www.GeekMBA360.com). But, the traffic numbers I’m getting from the two tools are drastically different.
I’m wondering which tool you use to measure your traffic.
thanks,
GeekMBA360
Google Analytics
yeah, Google Analytics is pretty good. But just to counter check it, I am suing three:
1) Google Analytics(Primary)
2) AW Stats (Secondary)
3) MyBlogLog )I know this sounds funny but it’s just because I’m a member so I thought of tracking!)
That’s amazing John I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to you making more than me in 2 months time.
Congrats John! I wish I could make that much in one year from my site and you are making it in 1 month. All I can say is WOW!
Once you start earning 1/10th of that income, consider yourself to be on the right path!
Congrats on the income! I’ve been following your blog for a bit and enjoy the tips and community. Now I’m working on getting some more ads on my site. Keep up the good work.
Hey John nice numbers, sorry to see the $4k drop but heck those are still pretty impressive numbers. Was there a drop in traffic as well or just in revenues?
May be John can replace his appearance income to something else…?
Getting paid to appear at a show is really something
-Mike
I agree and that income is really unbelievable
Lol…..Gone are the days when big name bloggers paid their way into a show like everyone else.
…and the income is crazy!
Well done. It really is about the content. It took me a LONG time to realize this. There’s no substitute for hard work. You don’t work. You don’t get paid. It’s that simple.
Freakin awesome, highly paid blogger
Nice earnings this month. Keep up the great work. Thanks Greg Ellison
The first paragraph always talks about the same thing!
It is easy to just copy paste you know..lol
I think it’s a nice reminder that the blog started out making nothing. It’ll inspire others.
A very handsome income that John earn from internet…yuuhuuu..
I appreciate the numbers and breakdown. The grand total inspires, the breakdown teaches.
Very impressive. I think you will end up passing 35K next month.
You’re so inspiring to me.
I solely make my money online by selling a couple of products so I have not gotten into blogging yet. I intend to start blogging in the near future and hope that your success will rub off on all of us aspiring bloggers. Thanks for the inspiration. $34 grand in one month is not too shabby
Nice tips but the same scenario : “The key to making big money by blogging is to drive a lot traffic and then maximize the hell out of that traffic.”
Lots of traffic is the biggest problem that everyone has
Other then that almost the worst affiliate programs do perform very well if there is lots of traffic.
Great dude!!
Oh how i wish i could make a 30% of your income monthly..
Congratulations on your great work.
Best regards, Gonzalo.
Congrats John. It is very inspiring.
The Income for my blog is still 0 in Oct, but it is the first month i set up my blog, lol
Hope I will make my first dolloar in November.
Congrats, well done
Hi,
your success, encouraged my friends and I to start a blog but bcz we had diffrent interests , we start a magazine style blog to cover all the interests .
I want to know ur idea about such a thing we’ve created ?
That is some amazing earnings! If I could make $3000 a month I would be really happy with my progress. To be honest right now I would be crazy happy if I could even make $1000 a month off my website. I think I will be able to do it too. I just need to keep working at it.
Thanks for the inspiration John.
Congrats John!
Well done on the over 30k earnings once again John.
Having those recurring affiliate earnings are just something different!
Again, nice income John. Keep it coming.
Cheers,
The Moneyac
“Blog traffic for October was 321,983 page views from 218,396 visitors”
I’m happy to report that my World War II history site http://ww2db.com has almost exactly the same number of page views in the month of October as well, but number of visitors is lower at only about 40k. Income from affiliate sales and PPC ads for me is much lower. I’ve got much to catch up before I can reach John Chow status, but I’m still working at it! For now, I’m happy my page views is on par with John!
Hi All,
How much a blog with 10k page views daily can earn from adsene?
Congrats! Your average income is about $34,350.93 without googles traffic
very nice. GO John!!!
Best Regards
Damn, I hate you, John!! J/K
Great job!!
I read the third time and it still amaze me..
woowww!! Congrats!
Well done.
Amazing income from a blog, great job John
Woderful.. 34.000 Dollars/month.. Great Income.. :X I want to make 1000 2000 dollars /month ..
but i don’t know if i can make this 
http://you-v.com/2008/11/02/with-girlfriend-to-walk/
great job next month plan 40000 or 50000 ?
This earning this time is still an expected milestone that many pro bloggers want to reach. Congrats John!
Congratulations!
Like to get more details of your earning report john!
Congrats.
Hi John,
I’m curious what you wrote about in the first nine months of your blog to gain a decent readership before talking about monetization? I haven’t really checked your history, but fingers crossed you still have it here somewhere on the site? I’m curious because it might help me on my own blog, and others who are just beginning.
Anyways, keep up the great work (and earnings!!)
Adam.
Congratulations! you income amount always look so DAMN GOOD, hope u income will continue maintain
It’s nice to be $4,000 down and still be over $30k per month. Way to go.
Well done….. do you think a blog can hit a plateau? What would you recommend to get out of it? If you wanted to increase your income for the next 30 days ; what would you do?
*Inspiring*
John Chow still gets a ton of traffic from Google. Dont know where you heard he doesnt get any. The only thing that Google did was push him down in Pagerank. This lessened his natural traffic but didnt eliminate it. He currently has a pagerank of 3 which isnt bad. Id have a do a more in depth study to show you what he is getting hits on but its not worth my time.
Cheers,
Jeremy
wow, that’s great, but when i have 30.000 dollar/ month from blog..
Wow ! that’s great income John . Once again congrats
That was one mean income John. One of these days I will get the same revenue too. Congrats by the way.
Wow.. you’re making $34k per month on this blog now, maybe it’s time to have a new goal. How about $100k per month?
hi john, congratz on the report, i love to read how much people can earn from blog,it act as an inspirational tool for me, i know it take time and hard work, but the reward is very sweet,
that is tremendous improvement you brought .it is interesting to see your income jumping every month
.
Don’t know if anyone asked you, but it would be interesting to view your income graphs from different sources through all time of blog. Also compared to your unique visitor and viewed pages count.
I know that it is private information, but it would me interesting information to those who are trying to start their blogs.
I think it just goes to show what you can do when you put your mind to it.
Congrats sir! A whopping $35,000 with only $330 expense. Without ADSENSE?? That would be a great inspiration to thousands of bloggers out there.
Wow, $35k/month is quite impressive blog income. Being an affiliate is nowadays is probably the best way to maximize online earnings, and looks like it works for you.
Congratz,
Steven B.
Inspiring as always. This sort of disclosure is refreshing. There is so much material on monetizing blogs out there that its a great feature of your blog that you show the actual concrete financial results of your own advice. Thanks again.
Chow’s an inspiration.
This is such an envy..wish I can reach that stage one day..
wow, that is very impressive and some helpful info. Recently, I could not find any way to make money from my blog except for paid blog reviews.
That was really huge . I donno how you make such a amount from Kontera !!
your a huge inspiration for millions of bloggers…
Whoa.. You get about 1+,+++ visitor a day.. It just a far way to reach for me..
But your income encourage me to get more and more…
One of the must read post in every month
Your success is inspiration for 10000′s
wow….you did it consistenlty
Hey guys, I love John Chow and I am gunning for the NotJohnChow top spot in Google. If you will check I am number 2 for the KW “Not John Chow”. I’m getting about 125,000 uniques a month and an Alexa rank of 529,000. The NotJohnChow guy really dissed JC and I want to take his spot from him. Any ideas?
Lanie
http://www.fmqinc.com
lanie@fmqinc.com
still not bad money; I think I could manage!
Wow! it is amazing! Good Job! John
Your hard work has paid off! Next goal is to go for $50,000 a month mate!
that is too good to be true, these blogger keep saying you can make that much money but we never manage to do that.
Nice work! That is alot of money from one site. Do you get private ad sales and referral commission from banners on your site that are affiliate networks?
wow, just looked at my adsense revenue for the week – $7.54….only $33,765 to go to catch up!
As always, very inspiring John. If I could make only 10% of what you make a month I would be happy. I gotta lot of work to do lol.
I really hope i could earn 30,000 a month like John. LOL. Hope my wish come true soon…………………..
A good example of hard work that pays off! What is your next goal?
So nice, Your thinks sounds so better…
In Brazil we have a lot of problems with moneymakers, recently one of then bunned de cookies, so bad…
Impressed!!!!
What an earnings. I hope I could make at least 1k a month for my blog.
Congratulations… a great earning from a blog. Keep going
Wow, that is awesome. I know some people have commented on their Adsense revenue and mine is basically covering my Starbucks bill for the month. I guess I need to have more cool content and traffic! Thanks for the inspiration though – let’s us all know that we can share a piece of the pie.
Oh my god..your monthly income always more than $30k..John you’re so great man! Keep it up and do even better!
JohnChow,
I’m excited to see your monthly income, you show us that make money online is not impossible!! I’ll visit you again…
Regards,
Concrete Curb
Owwww 34k$$, in Brazil U´d be millionary.
I earn something like 2kR$ (1k$$)
John, congratulations on the continual achievement of a high level of income here! Have enjoyed reading this blog for a long time and watching it progress..Here’s to your continued success!
That’s amazing!!!
I’m starting blogging here in Brazil, but our localized market is very limited. I’m getting english lessons so, someday, I could write a blog in english.
For now I will continue to read and learn as much as I can. Thanks for all the advices!
Man am I glad I ran across this site. I have picked up some very cool information and tools.
Thanks a ton.
Milford
http://www.instant-article.com
wow. i guess, thats good number of earning. I hope i can earn well like you too. Thanks for sharing this interesting info.
Congrats Mr. Chow! I really wonder know how you can get such big income. Any secrets?
Wow…thats pretty impressive. I am working on a new blog, in about the third month now, and only making about $200. Trying to focus more on affiliates so hopefully that number will go up.
While $30,000 a month is nice, there are bloggers out there making low 6 figures off adsense alone. Instead of blasting out ads from all different providers (adsense, affiliates etc), focusing on one medium and optimizing it extensively will yield much higher results than littering pages with unrelated ads…
these is awesome… great business income
John you a truly an inspiration. Keep putting up quality content and I will keep reading
.
Wow, this is a great income from a blog. Congratulations.
Cheers,
Daniel
For blog that first case only to study it’s nature and now becoming monetized blog that inspires all of us with 5 figures income per month is something we should learn from.
Nevermind, John! 4000$ less isn’t good, but I am sure next month it will be better! Keep going
wow.. ur so kind.. I wish I could be like you.. I want to earn that bucks.. and donate in charity.. keep it up..
That’s An Handsome Income
I like your blog,its seem make community to share idea and advice all SEO work.
I also make my living by blogging, making a healthy six figures yearly. Certainly not Chow level income, but I’m happy. One things I’ve done that hasn’t been mentioned too much is to attach a membership program to the blog, generating recurring revenue. I mean, like all bloggers, I write a lot. It isn’t too hard to write some more and provide more value on a premium basis.
Just a thought.
wow, you are doing great. I have a ways to go.
I just wonder, if john alexa rank is 28, 174 does that mean, if we are in range of alexa rank 50K, we can approximately have the same income figure like John?please anyone I need your comments on the relation between alexa rank, traffic and advertising company who evaluate the prospect site by looking alexa rank.
Thanks in advance
Good job. Enjoy the site, and transparency with your income reports. Reminds me of the $2M blog.
Nice video with your daughter at the park!
My concern with our blog is that it’s a small niche (travel, mostly west coast and Baja) so I wonder if it can even achieve decent income levels. I suspect gadget sites have much broader audience potential. Not sure.
We’re at least having fun, being creative and growing our readership for now…
Would be curious what others think:
http://www.starksilvercreek.com
Cheers.
OK after having a glimpse of your earnings i have made a decision. I am going to start making money from blogs too. And i am signing up with ur blog so i can get that free Ebook of urs. Wish me luck.
We can all learn a lot from John!! I saw John on a segment on G4 Tech TV where he was talking about how to drive traffic to your website. This where I first heard about his ideas regarding the blog and using it to drive traffic! I must say, I was impressed, downloaded and read his ebook, and am applying his strategies to my own blog and my website daily.
Thanks John – I hope I can be even half as successful as you!!
This is a great story John. I think you’re an inspiration for many bloggers out there.
It is great to see success at this level. We are just starting and trying to learn how to promote our site. Thanks for all of the info.
http://www.WeLearnAsWeGo.com
inspirational figures…
It is inspirational, agreed. But it is also depressing,. When I make 100-200 dollars a month from all the work I have put in over the past 3 plus years and then see what John is doing, well, I feel like throwing in the towel and applying at 7.11!
well if you don’t know how to make money don’t run a blog about making money because its obvious you dont know your stuff. do something else that more relates to your interests and talents
Awesome income!
uhm.. $34,350.93 this mo ?
I got 185,000 / mo …
but in IDR (Indonesian Rupiah).. hehehe
your blog is my inspiration for trying start wrote in english ( although that’s seems difficult because i’gve bad in english class )
hahaha…. its just like me dude, 185k/month…
The scheme is impressive.. I should do maximum SEO as soon as possible…
Amazing..!
I will keep working hard to try to get to make a living out of blogging.
Regards.
Very inspirational, John! I just read your “Make Money Online” e-book and learned a lot. I highly recommend it to any blogger starting out or is at a lost for how to drive traffic to their blog. Keep up the good work!
A great inspiration John.
The key to generating a steady steam of cashflow is to use multiple income streams. As John says we should never rely on one source of cashflow. Never put all your eggs in one basket and constantly monitor and tweak different aspects of your blog to find if this improves your revenue..
Hi John,
This is my first time commenting but I LOVE reading your blog. I found out about it after reading a great book off amazon.com (“Making $40,000 per Month in Extra Income”) where they profiled and praised your site. With some doubt such numbers were possible, I came to your blog and was blown away!
Hope to keep reading more.
chris
ah great earnings.I have never even dream’t of such a money
great income from great traffic 328.000 viistor………the top income from affilite…… what is the key?
Wow that is just amazing. This type of post helps many bloggers to keep going.
Cheers to John.
John you are the man. I’m doing my best to drive traffic to my sports blog. The tips you have given has helped so thank you.
Thanks for sharing your income with us.
I will be happy if i can make 1/10 of what you are making now to supplement my income.
I wasn’t making any suggestions, just told you that entrecard was irrelevant. The “run a real contest with real prizes” was just to make a point.
you should buy a $30,000 iced out grill
Go to a dealership and get a test drive of a new car. Have a friend take a picture or movie of you driving off the lot and checking out the interior. End it with something like I can teach you how to blogging can earn you enough to afford your very own new car.
Ha!
Mike – Mike – Mike
What are you thinking????
Deception…..
Come on, surely you can do better then that…
I thought the same thing when I first saw this blog. Although you are correct, he still tells us how to make money..