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.
Did you enjoy this post? Get John Chow Dot Com updates via email...
Stay up to date with all of John Chow’s tips for making money online and blog posts by subscribing via email. Your email will be kept private and never shared with anyone.
One of the most common complaint (or excuse) I hear from potential new bloggers is they don’t know how to install WordPress. Terms like FTP and CPanel are like a foreign language and setting up a database might as well be setting up the space shuttle for a launch. Because of the technology barrier, many would-be bloggers never start their blogs...