It’s the start of a new month and that means it’s time for the highly anticipated blog income report. Way back in September 2006, which seems like forever in Internet time but it’s really only 10 months, I made the decision to use this blog as a monetization case study. I wanted to see if it was really possible to make money by blogging and since John Chow dot Com was the only blog I own, it made sense to use it.
Starting with just Google AdSense, the blog made $352.94 in its first month, went up from there and finished off April 2007 at a record $11,702.66. Income dropped to $10,559.40 in May but set another record the follow month with $12,569.61 in total blog income. That was extremely impressive because half way through the month, Google decided to re-rank me in their SERP.
July is the heart of summer and the slowest time of the year when it comes making money online. It was also the first full month of living in the Google doghouse. How did the blog do under these conditions? Not bad at all!
Total Blog Income For July 2007: $12,406.76
A ReviewMe review came in at 1AM on August 1st. I thought for a minute about adding it to the July results but decided against it. Had the review request came in an hour earlier, the blog would have set a new income record. Here is the income breakdown.
- Affiliate Sales: $4,344.82
- ReviewMe: $2,600.00
- Text Link Ads: $2,056.63
- Private Ad Sales: $1,130.00
- Kontera: $1,000
- Google AdSense: $661.73
- TTZ Media: $349.44
- Buy Me a Beer: $114.33
- FeedBurner: $79.81
- Subscription: $70.00
- Grand Total: $12,406.76
Despite the efforts of Google, blog traffic for July increased from 315,827 page views to 319,165 page views and 167,105 unique visitors. Furthermore, full feed RSS subscription took a huge jump. At the start of July, it was sitting at 5,600. By the end of the month, that number had increased to 7,381.
Google AdSense continued its downward slide. I am getting the same number of clicks as before, but the CPC for those clicks has gone down because of the summer advertising slump. You can really see the effects of summer in the FeedBurner numbers – it dropped over 60% to just $79.81. I expect Google and FeedBurner to remain low until the fall. The blog continues to do well because it has many flat-rate ad setups that are not affected by seasonal changes.
If anything, the above numbers illustrates the importance of spreading out your income sources. I started with Google AdSense. If I had stuck with them and added nothing else, the blog’s income wouldn’t be nearly as impressive. I like to run as many advertising systems as I can get away with while still offering a good user experience. Check out my recommended moneymakers to find out more about all the ad networks I use.
Blog advertising expenses for the month was $195.55 for SiteMatch Google ads and $425.65 for normal Google ads. I also spent $50 for a review on CashQuest. Hosting for John Chow dot Com is sponsored by BlueFur Web Hosting, who recently set this blog up with a new dual-core Xeon server. Use coupon code JohnChowRocks for 15% off any BlueFur hosting packages.
You Have Questions, John Chow dot Com E Book Has Answers
Every time I post an earnings recap, I get bombarded with emails from readers asking how I did it and how they could do it. Many of these questions I have already answered in the blog. However, not many people want to go through 100+ pages of blog posts or use the blog’s very limited search feature. To better serve readers wanting to make money by blogging, I have created an E book on the subject. Please download it and read it before emailing me your blogging related questions.
Summer is very hot in Vancouver. It’s a great time to fire up the BBQ and settle back with a nice cold beer. Unfortunately, my buy me a beer fund seems to be running low. Good thing I have nine other income sources to make up for it.
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