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Blog Income Report – September 2008

written by John Chow on October 1st, 2008

After taking a few months off, the blog income report is back! The income report took a little break while I worked with Unique Blog Design to give John Chow dot Com a whole new look. The new theme is phase one of a makeover that will shift the blog’s dependence on advertising as its main income source.

The income report started back in September 2006 as part of a case study to see if you can really make 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 and by September 2007, blog income hit $20,512.17. How well did John Chow dot Com do on its second anniversary as a monetized blog?

Total Blog Income for September 2008 – $38,030.57

September 2008 goes down as the blog’s second biggest income month. The blog did break $40K back in June but that was due to a $10,000 blog post. If that post was not taken into account, September 2008 would be the biggest month ever. Here’s the income breakdown.

  • Affiliate Commissions: $12,807.69
  • Private Ad Sales: 11,730.00
  • Appearance Fees: $4,000.00
  • ReviewMe: $4,000.00
  • Text Link Ads: $2,028.59
  • Shoemoney Tools: $2019.60
  • Kontera: $1,000.00
  • RSS Ads: $444.69
  • Total Income: $38,030.57

At its current rate, the John Chow dot Com is on its way to a $400K year, which is pretty good for a blog that just rambles about whatever is on my mind. For the first time ever, affiliate commissions overtook private ad sales to become the blog’s number one money maker. This is something I’ve expected to happen and was working on. It’s part of my effort to make the blog less dependent on advertising sales.

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 after month. Refer enough people and it can create a nice pension. This is how affiliate commissions have overtaken private ad sales. I am still being paid for sales I’ve made years ago and that income will continue to come in even if I shut this blog down.

Blog expense for the month was $296.25 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 Six Figure Blogger

The key to making money by blogging is to drive a lot traffic and then maximize the hell out of that traffic. These are the two elements that you really need to work on. 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 ton of money on the table. Google AdSense is known as welfare for webmasters. 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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  1. Wow Nice to see the income report not only back but with a considerable increase on the last one. Congratulations John. I love these reports as they continue to keep me inspired!!

  2. nice as usual John!

  3. Great Income Report. Its good to see how much this blog has come along since it first started. Ive been a reader since Month 8 so yay for me.

  4. Congrats John. You are really living the dot com lifestyle. ;) You will break 50k until next year. ;)

  5. Nice income and glad to see the report is back!

  6. John,

    It is nice to see the income report come back as I have always enjoyed it. It really gives me something to strive for. I am glad you had such a good month and that the blog continues to do well.

    Adam

  7. wao! your internet income really awesome! man, i got to sign up everything in your make money tab!

  8. Good stuff as usual, keep up the good work. But please, I would have preferred to see 3,500$ instead and 4,000$ in review me and no “Weight loss pill review”… ;)

  9. I usually have to wait a couple days after the month to post my report, as some stats are delayed 24-48 hours.

  10. Big cash John, nice job!!!

  11. Amazing news! Two years and look where you are at! Kudos! This sure beats my 7.75 for the year. :o ) Keep it up!

  12. Hey John what about your blog’s traffic. What is monthly uniques and pageviews, can you give us a little insight in this field please ?

  13. Incredible!

    Can anyone beat you?

    I don’t know if Jeremy or Darren post their results, but yours are amazing!

    Rich Hill

  14. Congratulations!

    How about putting one month’s income into a contest for us blokes to win? ;-)

  15. What an awesome jump in the past three years! Congratulations, and you are very inspiring.

  16. Wow! Thanks for sharing. It tells everyone how real and possible it is to make real money online. Of course, you need to tell people the amount of effort you had to put in to get this up and running.

    cheers
    Daniel

  17. What’s that Appearance fees??

    Is it from any of the conferences where you spoke in the last couple of weeks?

  18. Nice work John. Maybe it’s time to increase my review price from a bowl of pho.

    On a side note, this is not your third anniversary, because John Chow dot Com has only been monetized for two years. This is your second anniversary. The first month would be, I don’t know, your “zeroth” anniversary, because it would be akin to your wedding day. You wouldn’t say that your wedding day is your first anniversary, right?

  19. Really impressive score!
    Congratulations John!

  20. John, you totally rock, you have fun, travel around, laugh at Michael Kwan’s Segway crashing and are a motivator to newbies like me.

    Thanks for spending some time with me at the Market Leverage dinner at BlogWorld Expo 2008, it was a great evening. Glad there was no ’shop-talk’ you get enough of that during the day I’m sure.

    Do you ever offer private consultation?

    I would WALK to Vancouver and Dot Com Pho, for some one-on-one time with the “JOHN-CHOW-INATOR ”

    By the way, did Tyler Cruz ever get his ‘ML-CASHINATOR’ ‘ money-stack back?

    Respectfully,

    Nicholas Chase – ‘the video guy’ at BlogWorld Expo 2008

  21. One Day for Diabetes is coming up in November, John.

    I’ll be challenging you to donate one day’s sales/commissions to the Team Diabetes effort.

    I’m looking forward to you spreading some of that wealth around ;)

    Congrats on another great month.

  22. Great great great.You are really converting those traffic to money .Great efficiency

  23. Geez dude. $40,000? That’s cool man. I would like to make money like that fast. Now I will read that free eBook you have and I hope to understand how exactly you have come to make such a lot of money from a blog.

  24. What about google adsense

  25. Posts like these continue to inspire me to keep going with my websites :)

  26. Nice to see your providing the proof necessary to keep up your ultimate blogging reputation.

  27. John,

    It looks like it was another rough month at the office! Kidding! You forgot to add in the money you stole from The Cashinator!

    Nice job!

    ~Debby

  28. I hope i also can get profit like that. it’s cool

  29. Great work, John, and thanks for sharing. Also, thanks for going to a dofollow blog, because that lets everyone in on some of the action.

  30. That’s Amazing! I see the breakdown, but I still can’t believe it.

    By the way, I like Beef Ball and Tendon in my Pho. No onions or parsley though.

  31. Do you not give a portion of the review money to Michael Kwan? Or is he just your bitch lol

  32. finally we see a blast.. :cool:

    Great man..
    what is appearance fee ?

  33. Love you or hate you, that is a nice income for making 3 posts a day.

  34. wow, so impressive. I wish I could earn at least 0.5 percent of it.

  35. love money….love money…

    ^^

  36. Haha… I’m still on welfare for bloggers. Good job, John.

  37. I am digging that double column after the first post. I have been wanting to figure out how to do that. Though I liked the colors of your old one better.

  38. UAU John,that´s money and just for saying this month i´ve received my first payment on an afilliate £15 and every month i receive more£5…and im happy with it imagine i received that …damn i would go to the hospital with an heart attack…lol

    Best Regards
    Soares

  39. You really are an example for all of those Big Shots from big companies who think that they are experts in marketing&co but they are actually useless

    I wonder what you can do with a website if you would have their enormous resources.

    Cheers

  40. Kontera seems to be constant at 1000 every month …..

  41. That’s pretty good Mister Chow. Keep it up

  42. Nice job on your income for the month John. I made $52.75 from websites. It is pocket change but its something. What I am proud about is that I increased my traffic this month.

    Greg Ellison

    • Greg,

      Don’t be dissapointed. As long as you manage to increase the quantity of traffic by keeping the quality of traffic you should do fine in the long run.

      Good luck and keep us updated on your progress!

      Dividend Growth Investor

  43. Albert

    Hey not to be a dick or anything but I’m just wondering why you had to take a break from posting these? It can’t take any more than 10-15 minutes to make one of these posts.

  44. Great inspiration and an obscene amount of money. Great stuff! :)

    Kind regards,
    Carl

  45. I’m not sure, but did you ever explain how that one “AllAdvantage” bar site was the main reason why your blog was boosted so high? I recall seeing you there and once they plugged you, you blog went sky high!

    -Mike

  46. Huh,… nice money.You really inspire me to keep going with my sites.
    What % of visitors are from google?

  47. What ever happened with the “anonymous” Blog you were working on? Is there an update on that?

    Great work John!

  48. John, you’re a bad bad boy, you know that?
    Anyway, great Blog and awesome to see you getting rich lol

  49. Joe

    If you’re making all this cash, why do you allow your sub writers to post cheap ads for sleeping pills? Surely you can afford to turn them down?

  50. Wow, this blog certainly has come a long way. Hopefully still a very long way for it to still go :)

  51. Tinh

    It is still a great new and success John! I think you can break 40K in the coming months. T

  52. Congratulations John on the great earnings report!

  53. Wow…i just find out how can generate income from affiliate programs since it seems difficult to tell other people to buy a product

  54. Great! The figures you mentioned are indeed inspiring for us new bloggers. I hope my blog can also have as much income or at least 15% of that income in the future. I’m still trying to learn though.

  55. Great job John! Another huge blow of hot air into the blog bubble.

  56. Impressive report! Keep up the good work…btw, how many hours you wok a week? 20 hours?

  57. What a huge amount brother, anyway I am still a newbie in blogging world. By following few of ur tips, My Google PR grown up to PR 3 less than 1 month, Thx friend!

  58. congratulation John… You really a role model for all bloggers

  59. Wow John, I really like your boldness by telling us how much your blogs are earning you, on a monthly basis even. I can also say I do envy the way you have successfully monetized every square inch of cyberlots you have. Congratulations.

    2 hours a day huh! What a schedule. Now my question is, what do you do with the remaining working hours each day? Can you make a separate blogpost about it to tell us what is John doing the rest of the day. That would be interesting to find out.

    Keep up the good work John, your inspiring us!

  60. Your income is great..
    40K for blogging is much…
    I must keep up my blog to earn more..

  61. I also want to earn money with my blog

  62. Well done! You have become a role model for all bloggers!

  63. Don’t belive that a blog makes that money.

  64. Dev

    great work Mr.Chow congratulation.

  65. Hello John, this money making machine is incredible

  66. I’ll be having the same amount like yours monthly in the future…I hope!

  67. You continue to amaze me. I would love to make 10% of what you are making off of your blog, but I have a long way to go. I’m working on the traffic thing but I have a long way to go.

  68. That’s just WOW! Did you know that $1 is Php 46? That would be approximately 1,748,00 pesos if you are living here in the Philippines.

    WTG!

  69. Its great to see the Income Report back in effect. I almost forgot that money was one of the main motivators for having a blog. Thanks for the fire under my backside.

  70. Nice.. Affiliate Commissions quite impresive.. :)

  71. you dont have to do any work, do you? just relax at home watching tv and money keep coming.. nice one though.. wonder can i be like you.. sigh..

  72. John,

    How about sharing some site statistics too. How many visitors, pageviews

    thanks

  73. Crazy number. John, what is your future plan ? Stay with this website or open more websites? Curious.

  74. OOHHHHHH pero vaya cantidad de dinero gandul…. a ver si aprendo un poco hehehe

  75. Once upon a time these posts were very inspirational to me… these days, it just depresses me further lol. Good job tho, I’m still dedicated to my cause tho!!!

  76. Maybe I should add to your income by having you review my site. Although Im not sure if you want to review the life of a wedding photographer. Do you know what the percentage of viewers go to the sites you review?

  77. That’s great! over $30k per month is my goal, for now my record is $3k per month, $1k from my blog and the rest from other websites that I run.

    Zak.

  78. wow, you must really understand psychology to inspire so many people to read and buy your recommendations

  79. Yeah! I like post like that, they motivates me!

  80. I have never had any luck with affiliate marketing like CJ …..lots of clicks, but no sales …….

  81. What a great monthly income john.thanks for increase my motivaton.

  82. kay

    hi john,
    your have great tools to motivate me that is your monthly income report.thnks john.

  83. Amazing! Your skill is worth more than the money here.

  84. Wow.. That’s really a very HUGE amount…… You are really doing a great job with just 2 hrs of work…..

  85. Wow … that’s all I can say. Wow. =)

  86. IMPRESSIVE. I remember last year when everyone thought it was “great”.

    Keep it up!

  87. Incredible! Just when I was starting to feel good about $450/month..I am curious how successful the tear away page corner ad works…But, it must be doing ok if it’s there.

  88. Fantastic John! It looks like the Appearance Fees & Shoemoney Tools got you that far, but still. That’s a nice amount of money to have in this day & age.

  89. Wow – I can not believe this. I am really looking forward to reading your e-book and newsletters this weekend!

  90. Absolutely amazing. You are one I look up to Mr. Chow.

  91. Mr.chow you r simply great.
    your articles are powerful and clear.
    that’s the main reason that i love in u r site.
    i visit u r site daily to know some thing new.

  92. Congratulations, this is a considerable income! I think that such receipts are in Europe with blogs not be achieved.

  93. Jon

    Very impressive, you are an inspiration to many of us!

    Jon
    http://woodmarvels.com – Create Unique Memories

  94. Oh my god..another make money blogging boost..Good job Johnchow! I love to see your income report..it push me to blog more! =)

  95. Thanks for sharing a detailed account of how you earn money from blogging; it’s an inspiration!

  96. Hi John,

    What are the other items that are part of your affiliate commissions? I mean, Shoemoney Tools did make you $2019, but that still about $12K in affiliate commissions that are not accounted for.

  97. 38K is huge! I wonder for how long earnings are going to increase on this blog. Well if traffic seems to increase then earning are doing the same. Keep it up John !

  98. congratulation. Mr.Chow . Just like Alex M. Say, 38K IS HUGE

  99. So you hit $38,000 but this time without the pay it forward post huh. It seems the blog will continue growing and shows no sign of stoppage. I wonder how much it will cap off at? 50k a month? That’d be awesome.

  100. H.

    That’s just madness !

    there’s no way I am going to ever monetize my blog like that.

    This is truly impressive, congratulations.

  101. DTanner

    Awesome numbers there..
    Bankaholic sold for $15 millions
    How much will you sell this blog for ? Any ideas..

  102. Congrats on the huge month John!
    Keep up the great work.

  103. You write: “Google AdSense is known as welfare for webmasters.”

    When Joel Comm says he earns anywhere from 500-1000$ per day [source: Adsense-secrets.com] and he said a few days ago it was an average of over 800$ per day, that would amount to 240,000$ when calculating just 300 days.

    Welfare? I think not.

    But I think you have proven the point that you started off with high quality, and may have needed some traffic generation using AdWords. You might not need AdWords anymore, but if you built your business upon offering others “welfare” you judge yourself by your own opinions.

    You still need traffic and I’m not quite sure all that many people are really FOLLOWING you anymore. We see your article collections by mail, but many don’t read you anymore. Wonder why? You don’t need to. It should be fairly obvious….

    Good luck anyway. :-)

    PS: Previously you also quoted expenses, but that has been taken off the table. :-)

  104. Wow, I really hope that I can earn that much per month. Congratulation, John.

  105. i also hope i can earn like John Chow……. and Congratulation

  106. Congrats John!..do you mind sharing the breakdown of your earnings from your “affiliate commissions”?

  107. $38,000 in one month, thats about what my dad makes working in the factory per year, and thats after being with them 7 years! Congratulations! I would be happy if my blog started making enough just to pay for hosting costs, haha.

  108. What a great income. All kidding aside, why would you say you just ramble on about random stuff. I would say this blog is very well thought out! You know better than I though.

  109. That is an impressive number – 40k per month! You are on the way to become a millionaire soon.

  110. Not too shabby, John. The legend grows.

  111. Great motivation for us all John. I’m not near that level yet, but I enjoy reading about how you monetize, which I believe is the key to all of this. Traffic is nothing without good strategy for how to monetize it.

  112. Wow is all I can say! …. and here I am trying to make enough money to cover my hosting costs. I think I need to take a better look at my monetization strategy.

  113. wow that’s a great money..

  114. I just wonder that is it the only source of income you have in your life? What i mean is are you make money only from this blog or have other source of income such as consultant, coaching,…..etc.

  115. Great job John! Very motivating.

  116. Well done John, keep on blogging!

  117. Crazy income during the economy downturn.

  118. That’s a big sum. If I can earn 1% of it, I will be happy. So I’m working on it.

  119. Its really great to see your income John.. Really inspiring.. :D

  120. hmm, I haven’t read any thing like this for a while. As a guy who want to make money online, i was glued to the article until i finished, you are simple and yet effective!

  121. John Chow never ceases to amaze me with his earnings. He is simply amazing! This man knows hot to make money online. When John Chow speaks…I listen!

  122. I made 50 cents on my site today.

  123. Oh so this is new look I guess. That is why I was thinking if I landed on the wrong blog or what.

    Nice layout :)

  124. Not sure If I want to slap you or hug you! Good work John!

    Also. I think we would all like a breakdown of your business empire, surely a post that would draw a huge number of visitors!

  125. Hey John, You really give some of us hope… even if it takes several years, it’s hope.
    Thanks for sharing

  126. I’ve got this post bookmarked for inspiration any time I start to get discouraged or don’t feel like posting on my blog for a day or two.

  127. To John Chow:

    If you continue that way, you’ll soon have to change the text about your e-book to Learn how I went from Zero to $40,000!

    Don’t forget to do that! ;)

  128. Lele

    Hi John

    Well done! It sounds like you have a really good system going there. I hope you don’t mind me posting this but I think your readers may welcome this if you guys want to make money from your blogs and article sites drop me a line at inspiringebusiness (at) gmail (dot)com we are looking to buy in post and article links on a regular basis. Not a 10,000 a month income but as they say every little helps!

  129. Wow, maybe I’ll buy a new car every month if I make money like you did. Good job John. Congratulation and don’t stop to teach us how to make money online. Nice to know you.

  130. Oh my god, this is truly amazing. I also like the new look, congratulations to the guys from Unique blog desgin. Keep on beeing awesome! Susan

  131. Such an envy…Congratulations anyway..

  132. John, it’s great that you support local business. I’ve hosted my sites on Bluefur since their MonsterHosting days. The service and support is top-notch. Gary always responds promptly (even at 2AM) and the characters on support (Tina, Susan and Matt—”from the beginning”) are a hoot.

    Cheers on your success and willingness to share.

  133. How did you manage to make $1,000 with Kontera. Wow, I am so impressed. By looking at your report, it seems you do not make money with Adsense? Are you not using this program. I downloaded your ebook and hoping I will make money just like you too.

  134. Pilar

    Dude! Can I borrow ten bucks? :D

  135. Wow ! John you truly are my idol ! hehehehehe

    I’ve followed your footstep and came up with an ebook myself. It would help if you will give me your inputs :-) Perhaps if you have time you may want to check it out (http://www.zdiaz.com/index.php/2008/09/29/finally-our-very-own-guerilla-blogging-ebook/)

  136. did you think about the posibility of create another blog to see how much you can make on a new one?

    Regards

  137. I’m so envy to you can maintain your income from blogging.

    To Your Success
    Bryan Hee

  138. bhas

    omg.. you guys are soo blinded in believing his blog income keeps on increasing every month and not a single income drop in a certain month. even google has their ups and downs. sure I could make up a blog income report just like this one too.

    this blog is getting better and better too now that there are more food cuisine pictures rather than case studies. lol!

  139. Cool guys earning cool money..thats is cool :)

    For sure will read more on your blog to know the secret on earning those secret money from the blog.

    Not to mention this is only your side venture!

  140. That is just unbelieveable!:..

  141. I cannot tell you how much your ebook did for my John. I will always remember you as the guy that got me into blogging. Someday I might just have $10,000 for you myself. :) Thanks for helping others succeed.

  142. Wow this is great motivation and inspiration for all those bloggers out there. Many people do not realize the amount of money to be made if you keep a consistent and engaging blog.

  143. JC, ur monthly revenue reports never cease to amaze me…very inspiring and keeps us newbs goin…~40k/m rambling about watever tickles ur fancy, but mostly about what u had for dinner LOL, not bad!

  144. Congrats on the growth. Truly motivating for me and my kids.

    I try to keep it only 3 hours a day but get it to 6 hours of work. Maybe in the near future I can get it down to 2 hours a day. Wait I have too many project for 2 hours a day. It is nice.

  145. Here it is, the famous John Chow income report that keeps people coming back no matter what you write between these.

  146. I wonder,what are
    # Affiliate Commissions: $12,807.69
    # Private Ad Sales: 11,730.00
    # Appearance Fees: $4,000.00

    at all?

    give me the example in your blog.Thank you.

  147. Thats awesome ..looking forward for your October earnings…if this is in USD you ll make a killing with the canadian dollar down against the USD

  148. Wow.. very motivate me to do like u John .. Congrate ..

  149. It must be great.
    Congrats John and enjoy the money

  150. I’ll be thrilled if I see 200 dollars a month! working 2 hours a day! Dammit!

  151. Wow, that was a great and unbelievable report.

    I never knew you can make so much money from blogging.

    This will really inspire the youngsters :)

    Thanks

  152. That was a huge amount . You will compete Mr. Bill Gates in the near Future !!

  153. GPS

    Wowzers. Congrats, and thanks for sharing.

  154. Tim Hanson

    I wonder if the secret to get a new blog up and moving is to lie about how much you make until you really make money then post that. I see so many bloggers brag what they make but now I think it is a marketing ploy. At the end of the day you can’t prove what anyone claims on the internet.

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