Blogging For Money - March 2007
After starting this site on March 8th, I’m happy to see that the traffic is building and I continue to meet more new people with their own interesting sites. With a little less than a month since starting, I thought I would do a month-end review of where I am at and review my progress towards becoming a Dot Com Mogul.
At the present time this site is not being monetized, so you might be wondering how I would have any progress to report at all. For those that do not know, I have another blog that goes by the name My New Choice and focuses on eliminating debt and building wealth. That site is monetized and is the only source of blogging income for the time being.
More Eggs In My Basket
After starting My New Choice back in August 2006, I entered the arena of blogging for money when I opened an AdSense account. As I any one that has used AdSense is aware, I was quickly addicted to checking my account to see if I had any clicks. The clicks were few and far between at the beginning but have been steadily increasing.
Following the mantra of John Chow, I knew that I had to do more than just AdSense though. The next addition to the site was Amazon, which I still use from time to time but for the most part was not going over to well.
As I continued to look for ways to optimize my earning potential, I applied for accounts with ReviewMe and Text-Link-Ads. While I was approved for ReviewMe, I was not as fortunate with Text-Link-Ads.
If you have applied for Text-Link-Ads and have not been approved, I strongly recommend that you call them directly and request that your account be approved. After hearing that advice from a few fellow personal finance bloggers, I gave it a try myself and my account was approved immediately. It took a little bit of time to get going but I have now sold 3 of my 6 ad spots!
Last but certainly not least, I just recently added Kontera ads to my site courtesy of the partnership between Kontera and John Chow. Kontera was not added to my site until March 29th but I already earned a very small amount. Until this partnership with John and Kontera, I had not even applied because my site did not meet the requirements defined by Kontera. If you haven’t done so already, I would encourage you to take advantage of this offer and apply for your Kontera account.
Okay…Get To The Money Already
As March came to a close and I began reviewing my Dot Com Mogul status, I realized that I had never actually sat down and tracked my earnings. Part of that is because I haven’t really earned enough up to this point to receive any money from anyone but that is all about to change.
- AdSense:
- Kontera:
- ReviewMe:
- TextLinkAds:
- Amazon:
- Grand Total:
- $22.75
- $0.91
- $60.00
- $31.88
- $1.16
- $116.70
To many of you this may seem like chump change but I am very pleased to have surpassed $100.00 in total blog earnings for the month of March. The biggest boost to my earnings were the ReviewMe reviews that I completed so it may be difficult to surpass these numbers in April. However, my goal is going to be to make a minimum of $125.00 for the month of April.
I’ve been giving thought to monetizing this site as well and that would certainly help with my goal for April. My focus has been on creating content and generating traffic but I may slowly begin implementing some of the same ads that I am currently using on My New Choice.
With a full month of Kontera and the possibility of two blogs being monetized, April should be an exciting month.
wow . that sounds like great news Derek . . . would you happen to have the extension of your TLA rep? I need to get on this soon too!
Gary, I don’t think I am important enough to have a rep but what I did to get approved was call their main contact number (877-480-9755). Then select option 2 for technical support and explain that you had submitted your site for consideration but haven’t heard anything back and would like to request a review of your account.
If it is anything like when I called, they will look up your account and tell you that they can go ahead and approve you. As a note, when I originally applied my site was pretty new and by the time they approved it I was at PR3 with decent traffic. But to be honest, I am not sure much of that was considered at the time they approved me.
Good luck and let me know how it works out!
They’re impossible to reach. I’ve been trying to call them for 2 days. No one returns calls over there!
Initially I had left a message and had been hoping/expecting a call back that never came. Be persistent with calling and try early morning, that is what worked for me.
Thanks for posting your numbers.. it always good to see how other bloggers are doing.. good luck and keep up the great posting!
You’re welcome. While I know my numbers are not that impressive yet, I am pleased with the initial progress and am confident that I will continue to improve.
What sort of traffic numbers do you pull in from your other blog? — if ya dont mind me asking of course
Don’t mind at all…maybe I should make a post out of this or add it to the blogging for money post.
But for the month of March, my other site had the following stats per Google Analytics: 1794 unique visitors and 3917 total pageviews.
If I look at my host stats, the numbers are 2913 uniques and 28,495 pageviews which is quite a discrepancy but I think my host stats include bots/crawlers.
Are you going to be monetizing this blog?
Bah…hit the button by accident.
Personally, I find Kontera a bit intrusive but then again, internet surfers like us are in the minority. Doesn’t mean I’m not implementing Kontera on my site, though.
I’m giving some thought to slowly start adding some monetization to this site. On my other site, I do feel the Kontera is a bit intrusive right now but am trying to give it a full week or so to let it learn my site and adjust accordingly. I’ve read their notes on how to target certain areas and exclude others so I need to take advantage of that as well.
Interesting posts, Ill let ya know how TLA goes when I get through, they didn’t pick up lol.
We are hosting a blog review competition at BAYB you might be interested in:
http://blogaboutyourblog.com/2007/02/28/announcements-and-blog-competition/
Ill get you a free shirt too when we get some lol
Sorry I didn’t mention this in my first response but try calling the number early in the morning. When I called the first few times it was after 10-11am and all I got was voicemail. Try calling around 8-9am EST.
I’ll check out the competition and will always accept that free t-shirt!
thats really early for me, that’d be like 6am my time. Ill give them a shot when I wake up.
Thanks for the tip, I should be accepted, they just haven’t processed it.
Hope to see ya reviewing us
Thanks. We will have more prizes soon too.. 
$100 isn’t bad at all! I’ve just got my AdSense up and thinking about some of the other options you mentioned too. Well done!
Thanks Melanie! You’re right that $100 isn’t bad and I am actually very happy with that progress. But it’s a far cry from the numbers some people can put up but I am confident that I will get there.
Good luck with your monetization.
Good job Derek! It’s great hearing other bloggers’ progress!
Thanks Kelly!
Interesting, I only made $7 in my first month
How long ago was that first month? Have you been progressing since then?
There is nothing wrong with starting small and continuing to build upon that success. Every journey begins with the first step!
First Month April 2007 = $7
Second Month May 2007 = $16
I’m still learning, hope one day I can live of blogging
Hey, if you continue that rate of increase you will be living off blogging in no time!
I’m still learning as well and keep striving to meet my goals and improve each month. If you want to see anything specific on this site, just ask.
Lets calculate:
June 2007 = $34
July 2007 = $70
August 2007 = $118
September 2007 = $240
…
Well I hope it goes a little more fast, but I only need like $450-$700 to live, maybe one day
Great!! Just let me think, I’ll tell you a nice topic soon
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