Blogging For Money :: June 2008
After a taking a few steps forward the last few months, June was a disappointing step backwards in terms of blogging for money.
There were two primary reasons for the drop in income this past month.
The first reason was that one of my blogs was victim to a WordPress hack that was stealing the search traffic from Google. The second reason, which could very well have been a result of the first reason, was that my best earning blog received a significant PR smackdown from Google.
In addition to all of that, the last week of the month was spent mourning the loss of a family member, which really made all of this feel a little less significant in the grand scheme of things.
Dollars and Cents
Through these monthly updates, I like to share what has been working for me and what has not been working for me as I attempt to make money from my blogs. With open communication, we can all educate ourselves a little more and put forth our best effort.
- AdSense:
- Kontera:
- ReviewMe:
- TextLinkAds:
- Amazon:
- LinkWorth:
- Private Ads:
- Affiliate:
- PayPerPost:
- Misc:
- Grand Total:
- $42.58
- $3.72
- $0.00
- $251.11
- $6.70
- $77.00
- $159.00
- $0.75
- $0.00
- $0.00
- $540.86
Earning more than $700 last month made the recent drop in income even more difficult. The drop is due in large part to a decrease in traffic, as the blog that provides my main source of income saw the traffic decline by roughly 60% as a result of being hacked and the PR bitch-slap.
The unfortunate thing is that the two services that likely played a part in the PR decrease, LinkWorth and TLA, have seen significant drops as a result of the PR decrease. Before the page rank decrease, these two services pulled in more than $450 but have now dropped to just over $300 - and it looks like July will be even lower.
It is a bit of a catch-22 as the advertisers using these services like a site to have a quality page rank, which I did until I was penalized for using these services.
On a positive note, Amazon earnings did increase slightly and this marks the second month that Amazon has shown some form of life. While I don’t anticipate that Amazon will be pulling in a significant stream of income, any little bit helps.
Plans for July
Right now is a time when I need to regroup and focus my efforts in order to turn this around and start heading back in the right direction. The double-whammy of having a site hacked and the page rank decrease really hurt my efforts in June.
As many of us are well aware, blogging for money is not an easy task. Unfortunately, I was given a healthy reminder of that this past month. This is one of those situations where you are faced with a decision - fold up and run for the hills or roll up your sleeves and fight your way back.
Let me tell you that I am not going anywhere and will be battling to get my blogging income moving back in the positive direction.
It might seem cliche (and overkill) but the mindset that I have with the challenge to overcome the decrease in blog earnings is the quote from Friedrich Nietzsche, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”
Looking on the bright side, this is the month that you learn to what degree diversification helps. And you learn what sort of thing is shaky and what is not. At least you are not relying on your blog income to pay your rent!
C’mon. It’s not so bad. $500 plus is still pretty good, by any standard, for a blog. Besides, like you, and that Nietzsche guy say, it’ll probably make you work harder and you’ll end up better off for it. And secondly, if you start panicking every time Google traffic dips a bit, well.. You’re gonna need a lotta meds to calm you down. Far as I’m concerned, your blog is still as good as ever.
Those are some impressive stats.
keep going.
latest gadgetss last blog post..Free Wordpress theme
If you are a golfer, you will like this quote from Garry Player - ” The harder you work, the luckier you get…”
You have got your work for the second half of 2008 cut out for you.
All the best.
Nicole Prices last blog post..Fitness Equipment: Some Good Deals
I love that quote, thanks Nicole.
Sorry to hear about your recent setback…I’m sure you will turn things around and have another record month next month. You gotta admit though, even with the setback you’re still doing pretty good from it.
Nicks last blog post..Prosper Removed The End Date For Their Referral Program
sorry to hear about the last or previous month.
Now forget all those thing and set new plans that you have already done for July..your target must increase and have to cross the sky
all the best for coming months
Thanks for sharing your income stats with us. A drop in income every now and then, is the sheer reality of this business, however you do have the right attitude and will be back on top. Does this mean that you might move away from TLA & Linkworth?
You make a good point. If it weren’t for a decrease every now and again, we might think he was making these numbers up.
I have to admit that I have given it some consideration but for the time being will stick it out and see what happens.
How has the drop in PR affected things Derek. My understanding was that traffic wouldn’t change too much but were advertisers reluctant because of the drop?
Also, is there a season effect here. What were your figures for the same period last year?
It is hard to say how much of the drop was due to the PR decrease versus the lack of traffic as a result of the Wordpress hack.
It is also hard to compare on a seasonal basis as my earnings this time last year were still building up, as I earned about $165 (which at the time was a record month for me.)
PR drops really do not effect most websites at all. Perfect example is a website named favoriteparts. He only sold a few ads on his site and his PR was dropped to 0 (nearly 2 years ago). But his alexa didn’t change at all and he’s still number 1 for almost all of his targeted keywords.
That’s still a good amount of money, I’d like to see that much for my site!
Hey, maybe its a blessing in disguise. Some of my best ideas have come after re-grouping, re-building and re-planning my efforts.. Its a part of refinement that not many can tag along for the ride, but in the end, it is worth the effort..
Good luck in your Blog..
Do you think you will continue to use TLA? Even though the PR reduction has occurred? Although there is no way to clearly tell wether the pr drop occurred only because of the TLA…..
That’s quite disappointing that your income is declining, but you are still making a lot more than 95% of bloggers out there. I’m sure you’ll get back up there eventually, shouldn’t take too long!
Maybe the inflation and dollar recession are some of the factors which been felt by the bloggers in domino effect.
Those are pretty good earnings actually. I wish I was making that kind of money on my blogs. My only income is adsense though, and it really varies for me.
I’d just like to say thanks to everyone for the encouragement and support - it means a lot!
Well i think like some people here, that 500 isnt so bad for a blog. I think that is a great number. All you can do is work harder this month to get them numbers back up.
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