My Blog Income Stinks - But it’s Probably Better Than Yours

When I started this blog I have to admit I had little to no intention to monetize it. I wanted to learn how to blog and to use this site to blog about my niche websites and other projects. I had never blogged before and I wanted to learn how.

I started this blog on Dec. 1st if I recall correctly so I have now been blogging about 3 months. It didn’t take me long to come across blog income reports from the various blogs out there in the blogging world. It seems that many of them delight in reporting these income reports and it quickly became apparent why.

In a nutshell readers love them.

They flock to these reports it seems but I am not sure why. Do they want to see how their own income compares or are they just looking for proof that money can be made with a blog? Maybe one of you who read this can offer some suggestions as to why people like these so much as I don’t really care for them much myself.

I prefer to toil away in private and keep my earnings to myself for the most part. Most of these reports that I have read have come across as one of two things…either blatant bragging or an absolute crock of crapola.

I have read some wild claims that are clearly an absolute load of BS but somehow the blogger writes the post without being struck by lightning. I would hope that most can see through the BS but as PT once said…there’s a sucker born every minute.

Blog Monetization

My plan has always been to build the base of my blog before worrying about monetizing it and as such I have not put much effort into the monetization piece of it until recently. I decided to give it a go for February and start trying to introduce some private ad sales and a few other sources of income. I am far from where I expect to end up but happy overall with my first real month of effort.

If you consider these two revelations, that people like income reports and I am starting to earn income from my blog then it would only make sense that I will start providing an income report. It goes against my nature and I am not sure that I will continue them in the future but we’ll see how it goes.

The income that I am reporting is 100% generated by this blog and this blog alone, I am not including any revenue generated via ebay or my niche sites. I didn’t see the relevance of that income as most are more interested in what they can earn via a blog.

My First Income Report

So this said I present my first income report. I feel like I need to defend my efforts for some reason, when you compare to someone like John Chow my measly income from this blog pales in comparison. I prop myself up by remembering that 99% of bloggers make next to nothing from their blogs so I am doing well in comparison. I have zero expenses incurred generating this income as I don’t use PPC or any paid advertising to generate traffic to my site.

As I said, my income report is still quite humble compared to those of John Chow and that crew but I am sure he didn’t make a whole lot in the early days either….at least I keep telling myself that. I am still building my foundation so don’t be too hard on me.

As you can see no one category has emerged as a main source of income. My intention is to eventually generate more income via private ad sales than I have here. I introduced these last month for the first time and did reasonably well but my prices were quite low too.

Private ad sales are consistent and dependable but I need a better RSS, Technorati, Alexa and Traffic rankings before I will be able to consistently sell out my ad space. I am only dipping my foot in the water right now when it comes to this. I know I am not a heavy enough hitter just yet to command any kind of premium price but that is my goal.

Just the Beginning

So for my first real heavy month of monetization 420 bucks from this blog alone is ok by me. My Harley payment is 300 bucks a month so I paid that bill as well as the insurance. So is it a 30k income report like John Chow…nope not yet but if you could buy a (insert whatever toy you like) Harley Davidson with your blog then that would have to be a good thing.

The knowledge I have gained concerning blogging and how to monetize via a blog is invaluable and I have some future plans to really ramp up my efforts. I have only just started with this blogging stuff but I have found that I enjoy it quite a bit and I am looking for other opportunities as well.

My intentions are to really ramp up my efforts in 2008 all while providing a good value for my readers. If my or any blog isn’t interesting enough to read then it won’t be worth a nickel.

How about you…..did you make any money blogging last month?

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31 Responses

Tamera

March 3rd, 2008 at 7:51 pm
1

As you probably know, I am not a mmb (is that what they are called?). I see a different route for myself to those ends. You asked in the beginning about why people like that. I have NO idea, and it’s part of the reason why I don’t read many of those posts. It’s probably just the way I am. To me it seems unprofessional (hope I don’t step on any toes now), and there is too much of that in the blogging world. I come here to read because I am fascinated with the system and this world, and it’s a great riddle to figure out. Plus I like to “problem-solve”. I started blogging approx. December 20th. My husband is quite impressed with all of the hours I’ve used to study things, and how much I already know. So, I like the discussions going on over here b/c of that. I feel that income made is personal. It should be the knowledge that we share with each other. Sorry for the long comment.

Tamera’s last blog post..Blog Spotlight- The Aspiring Horseplayer
Bill

March 3rd, 2008 at 8:11 pm
2

Tamera…Honestly…I couldn’t agree more. I debated for 3 days whether to post this post and I figured why not try it.

I agree with you on many points, I personally don’t like the income reports and quite frankly I don’t believe half the ones I read anyways. I was curious what people thought of these so I decided to try one.

One thing I don’t have to worry about is this…at least you know I am telling the truth…as I am a much better liar than 400 bucks.

I am a new blogger too….I love it….it’s very entertaining and I too have learned a ton.
Tom Beaton

March 3rd, 2008 at 8:12 pm
3

Hey that is a great start mate!
I would consider this to be a successful blog already on the back of that. It will grow too! You are only starting to put yourself out there.

Tom Beaton’s last blog post..Essential Online Advertising Terminology
Bill

March 3rd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
4

Tom - Thanks. I keep telling myself that but I appreciate the backup.
Joliber Mapiles

March 4th, 2008 at 7:23 am
5

I think such post is ok as long as you tell the truth.. I just don’t like the idea of bragging about something that is not true..

I hope you will be able to monetize your blog. Just don’t forget to teach us with your own proven ways ok?

Joliber Mapiles’s last blog post..How to Create a Password that can’t be hacked even by Super Computers?
Tamera

March 4th, 2008 at 8:29 am
6

Question. Is it the same thing with traffic? I have been trying to figure out how people manage to consistently get a couple thousand visitors each day after only a month of blogging. When I see the content on the blog, I wouldn’t necessarily say that they are posts that would be stumbled often (But, what do I know..haha). I know I could get that much traffic if I bought it, but that traffic is seldom non-target traffic. I also know that one has to have patience with search engines after submission. It just doesn’t go that quickly in reality. Regarding SE, MSN is one of the first to usually crawl a site. Not a bad thing. I recently read that statistically MSN searchers/users are the most frequent purchasers on the Net. Does anyone here have an answer about traffic?

Tamera’s last blog post..Blog Spotlight- The Aspiring Horseplayer
MoneyBlog

March 4th, 2008 at 11:52 am
7

good income. I earned only 80 $

MoneyBlog’s last blog post..10 Tips for Killer Website Design
Saify

March 4th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
8

I certainly agree with you. For a starter it is quite difficult to attract traffic let alone make money from the blog. Research is very crucial to successful blog monetization.

Saify’s last blog post..More about contextual advertising
Bill

March 4th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
9

@Tamera….I haven’t written about it but I am watching my SE results improve day by day. I think I am working my way up the trust rank with Google. In the early days I received NO and I mean NO traffic from Google…..I’ve recently had days where as much as 10% was search engine traffic.

In my case the SE traffic sticks around, reads a number of pages and is usually on site for an average of 10-15 minutes…which is waaay better than my Stumble traffic.
Bill

March 4th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
10

@Saify….no question. I need to invest more time and energy into working my keywords. I have recently started using H2 and H3 tags in my post which look better and are much better for search engines but my SEO is still weak.

I need to work on it.
Life Sprocket

March 4th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
11

Bill you’re an inspiration! While I am not trying to build a blog to make money through ads and PPCs, I would like very much to build a readership. I am like four posts deep or something silly and very discouraged.

I started my blog with one goal in mind. Securing the financial future of my family through the internet. See, I am a web developer / designer and I’ve been living off of the web full time for about three years now. All in all it’s been a near seven year journey, but alas… it became self supporting. (Not my blog, but my design and SEO stuff).

At the point that I was successful enough as a freelancer, to support my family, the full time job offers started rolling in. The funny part is that at that point, I didn’t need the work. (Whatya figure)

So here we are today. My job is great. The people I work with are great, finances are steady… but something was missing in my life and I just couldn’t figure it out.

Then I started to notice that whenever a client came in with the next best idea, I jumped all over it and felt inspired to give it my all (even though it wasn’t mine). For a quick example, my boss owns a website called Gumbo Groove. It’s a social site for New Orleans. I re-designed the site for him and became almost obsessed with the concept of how pouplar and finacially viable it could become. It had been established, it was already popular, and all it needed was some TLC from a developer/ designer to make it look and function properly. To me… it was the perfect money making idea and he (my boss) refused to give it the time it deserved.

After some real hard-core self examination, I deduced my strange behavior down to the need to FEEL successful. I NEEDED to feel that what I was doing was appreciated. While I am the national manager for the web division of my company and I get paid well… I never really FEEL appreciated. The systems in place within bigger companies sort of take the bells and whistles out my day to day work. Where as a freelance guy… I got to experience personal satisfaction and in some sense… the glory of a successful project.

Then it came to me… after all these years, I’ve got NOTHING! I’ve built and designed websites for over 200 clients on my own, and another 250 for companies that subbed me out as a freelancer. Yet, I have no portfolio, no place to show off my work and in fact… I didn’t and still don’t even have a resume. No one would EVER start to appreciate me with out that. And what happens if I change jobs? Willing or un-willing, I had nothing to show for my years of work and that’s a little scary.

I decided that the solution to all my mental anguish was an online protfolio and blog where I could accomplish all those little things that were missing. After I started to develop the idea, I became supper interested in what other freelancers turned pro had to say about their lives… and guess what… I couldn’t find any. It’s not to say they aren’t out there… I just couldn’t find them.

The concept is born. I bought a domain name… to which I still regret (never will be happy with my own choices), I used WordPress as my platform and went to it. Motivated like never before I was on my way to building a place that newbies could use as a guide to building their own careers. Within ONE day… I wanted to give up. But why?

Looking at the big picture I was, and still am, going against the grain instilled within me. As a designer, I can see instant results of my hard work by the click of a button. At sales meetings… I close the deal at the table… again, instant gratification. As it turns out, writing a blog, is one of the farthest things from instant gratification and it hurts. It’s a painfully slow process and it sucks to be honest. Or at least I’m just not used to it.

any way, please forgive me eating all of your comments space… feel free to delete or move it as you please. I just got carried away and now realize that you didn’t need all this for me to just say your doing great. I’d like a Big Dog one day soon… you have me thinking.

-John
bennie

March 5th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
12

I see you only make $3 with adsense. I made only $2 with adsense last month and Im starting to think this thing doesnt provide so much income as other bloggers said. Adsense is the only income generating program I have in my blog for the moment because is easy to use but I dont have any hopes on earning big money with it.
What do you think about adsense?

by the way nice post!

bennie’s last blog post..What technological things should you have?
Futon-Matt

March 5th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
13

I think the bottom is a good place to start, I know I’m right there with you. Keep up the good work.
Bill

March 5th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
14

@John - Wow…now THAT was a comment.

I might be in the same boat as you….maybe we’re trying to build an empire piece by piece…a virtual empire. I dunno….I just know that whatever i try to accomplish I typically obsess over it until I feel I am successful.

It can be exhausting but it’s me.
Bill

March 5th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
15

@Bennie - I only made 3 dollars in Adsense because I only used it for about 5 days of the month and only on about 3 or 4 posts.

If you haven’t noticed I have little to no adsense on my blog. I am writing a series on Adsense and runniing a small experiment to see how it returns but I am not expecting big things and I refuse to adsense up my blog.

I don’t find it attractive in the slightest and I don’t need the money so I don’t foresee using it much on this blog. I do use it on my niche sites and it returns ok depending on the niche or the site.
Bill

March 5th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
16

@Futon - Matt….Congratulations. If you are with me at 420 bucks a month out of your blog then you are probably ahead of 95% or better of the bloggers out there.

It isn’t Chow money of course but it isn’t zippo either which is what most of em make.
Bill

March 5th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
17

Bennie….I just checked out your blog….you have 4 posts total including your 1st post which is Hi This is My first post.

Do you really expect to be making any money yet? You have no traffic, no subscribers, no content…….4 posts.

If you really think it’s going to be that easy then you are going to be incredibly disappointed. I am not trying to be a downer but you have to have realistic expectations here.
Tamera

March 5th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
18

See, and that’s why I mentioned acquiring a couple blogs with good PR built up, in addition to what you’ve got. I know people could “care less about Google”. I know I get irritated that they can corner so much of the market, and make their rules. But, it is what it is. There also may be a couple of goodies that follow along with that. Everything has its upside. Regarding monetizing….the future could bring in good advertising income spots, if advertisers see good ranking, because they KNOW about it as a measure of something they believe to be good. I don’t think they would be particularly impressed in the long haul with the types that use their space to yell out how much money they make. They also wish to be affiliated with something more serious. Just my two cents.

Tamera’s last blog post..Personal Development
Kate

March 5th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
19

Another reason not to do those posts: since G’s crackdown of paid links there’s no sense in admitting outright if someone’s involved with a particular company on G’s naughty list. That, at least, is why I stopped posting them on my blogs. Plus, aside from short-term traffic spikes, they did little to contribute to overall readership or income.

That said, I made $2995 last month.
Kate’s last blog post..Incoming Links Aren’t All The Same
Bill

March 5th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
20

@kate - I don’t sell paid links.

I’d be interested to hear how you made 3k last month? I checked out the blog that you linked to and their is very little monetization on it and the traffic ranking isn’t anything special….

Feel free to share.
Bill

March 5th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
21

@Tamera….I am trolling for a PR3 blog or higher right now on some of the forums. I have a few projects in mind.

I have to admit I like blogging….I like it a lot, much more than niche websites. They are more work but much more enjoyable, at least to me.

I will keep you posted if I can find anything and if you happen to run across one for sale anywhere I am pretty open minded as to topic.

I would even be willing to pay a finder fee of some sort.
Tamera

March 5th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
22

I’ll keep my eyes open :o)

Tamera’s last blog post..Personal Development
bennie

March 5th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
23

Bill:

Yep only 4 post and struggling to make new content for that blog. I was talking about other blogs I have with adsense probably more than 3 months each one and not impressive traffic but at least something and still only 3 dollars.

I dont expect to become millionare with adsense but at least 7 dollars a month jeje.

Thanks!
HART (!-800-HART)

March 6th, 2008 at 4:26 am
24

I personally wouldn’t compare yourself to others like John Chow .. but, as the income goes .. it’s an ongoing battle, and not a static venture .. more of a dynamic ADventure that you have to keep up at it.

I’ve posted my Feb2008 earnings over at http://HART-Empire.com .. I’m not that successful, but you can see that at least since Jan/2007 .. revenues and traffic slowly increase over time, if you keep at it!

So .. keep at it
Bill

March 6th, 2008 at 6:43 am
25

Bennie - Gotcha. Content is tough but once you get in a groove it becomes easier and easier. I am not a fan of adsense on blogs…it doesn’t typically do all that well.

Hart - Ouch…all those blogs, time and effort and it looks like you posted a negative profit for February.

That is another beef I have with “income” reports is that most of them don’t list expenses. Revenue doesn’t matter….profit is the real deal.
Erica DeWolf

March 9th, 2008 at 1:09 am
26

There’s no shame in 400 bucks. My blog income stinks too, and yours is definetely better than mine! Keep up the great work here. One thousand each month is just around the corner.

Erica DeWolf’s last blog post..CSS Garden: Inspiration Breeds Creativity
Majid Morabit

March 9th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
27

Hi,

I started my blog 4 days ago and I’m really enjoying what I’m doing. I was sure that it was easy to make money by blogging but I today realize that it will take some time and certainly some good posts As I said, I started 4 days ago and I already made 20$ thanks to my sales associates.

Let me know what you think about my blog and thank you for making me realize that I won’t be rich tomorow
Jeremy Steele

March 13th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
28

400 bucks ain’t bad at all. Most I’ve made directly from mine was around $60 or $70.

Jeremy Steele’s last blog post..Random Thoughts 3-13-08
Simple Mindz

April 12th, 2008 at 11:06 am
29

Well, I might make 50 bucks a month right now…lol. But it just paid for my Trend Micro subscription!
I just would like to make a few bucks here and there. While getting a good amount of readers.
More important - I like to write because it connects me to so many people on so many different levels.

I don’t even read Chow anymore because I thought it was just so boring.

Plus honestly? I often wonder if all that money is real.

I like your blog because you are real, honest and you write well. That’s what keeps me coming back.

Simple Mindz’s last blog post..Fitness Update week 8 & 9.
Living Off Dividends & Passive Income

April 14th, 2008 at 1:29 am
30

I made $1665 from my blog(s) last month and another $1000 from dividends and other investments.

your site is very nice. keep up the good work!

Living Off Dividends & Passive Income’s last blog post..By: The Banana Roundup : Week 15 : Just Personal Finance @ TheLocoMono Website
Genuine

April 15th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
31

What’s paticularly different for me as a blogger (than most anyway) is that I don’t blog about making money, blogging, how to sandpaper your driveway or anything like that. As a craft blogger who primarily writes about current craft projects or writes opinion-pieces on the craft community, it’s difficult for me to decide how (or even if) I would monetize the blog.

What I don’t want are annoying or irrelevant ads. Ideally, I would love to have a minimum of tasteful private ads related to what my readers would like. Naturally, I still have to generate enough traffic to be able to do this. A recent traffic spike, along with much residual traffic and links has produced some very busy days and overall higher traffic, along with some new subscribers, but I haven’t been writing the blog for even a month yet. So it’s personally fascinating for me to read about your blog, since your blog is always relatively young.

Genuine’s last blog post..Ninja Church Knitters: We Fight Dirty