Blogging For Money :: November 2008

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For the first time since starting these Blogging For Money updates, I failed to provide an overview last month. As much as I’d like to blame it on the craziness of returning from a family vacation and then getting caught up in the holidays, I just kept putting it off and lo and behold it is now December.

In order to monitor progress, I will say that the month of October had been a pretty good month in terms of blogging revenue. For the month, I earned $713.17; down less than $30 from the prior month. Following the recent trend, I would expect the earnings for November to rebound and result in a modest increase in earnings.

Unfortunately the yo-yo trend has been broken – on the bottom end.

While I have been investigating a new affiliate network, I have yet to actually earn anything. Coupled with the glitch at PerformancingAds that locked up an advertising spot for most of the month, I am not surprised that there has been a slight decrease in November.

Dollars and Cents

The purpose of these monthly updates on my earnings is to demonstrate for all of you to see which tools are working on my blogs and which tools are not working. While that doesn’t mean everyone will experience the same results, as every blog is different, my hope is that it stokes the fire inside you to experiment with your blog until you find the right combination of tools.

With a decrease in earnings, one would think that there might not be too many bright spots. However, there are a few developments that are reason to remain encouraged:

• AdSense Earnings :: For the fourth consecutive month, AdSense earnings have surpassed the $100 threshold. While some of you may scoff at such low numbers, I know many people still waiting for their first $100 check so that is extremely encouraging.

• Amazon Earnings :: While not earth-shattering numbers, the earnings from Amazon have been a pleasant surprise. The last two months have had enough earnings to move into the second tier of affiliate commission, which is encouraging.

• Private Advertising :: During the month of November, I secured a new private ad deal that will run for three months but also saw one private ad deal come to an end. Private ads have been one of the best, most consistent sources of revenue all year.

Obviously not everything has been positive, as otherwise we would be talking about an increase in earnings as opposed to a decrease. Here are a few of the discouraging developments that will need some attention moving forward:

• Kontera Earnings :: Month after month, I continue to try and give them the benefit of the doubt. There had been a brief moment of hope when the earnings had more than doubled in September, however that moment has since passed. Kontera…you’re fired!

• TextLinkAds Earnings :: At one time this had been one of my strongest sources of revenue. While it still earns a nice chunk of change each month, it has continued to decrease and has given me reason to consider moving towards private ad deals only.

• PerformancingAds Earnings :: As I mentioned earlier, there was a glitch on the PerfomancingAds servers that caused one of my two ad blocks on this blog to be locked out for nearly the entire month – meaning no opportunity for income. After seeing the response from Chris, there is hope that this will reverse.

Plans for December

How much did the slumping economy impact my earnings in November? It is hard to quantify but it may have played a role as companies spend less on advertising. Traditionally the holiday season is when the earnings ramp up, so I have my work cut out for me in December.

As noted above, I have pulled the plug on Kontera for the time being. There have been too many months with earnings less than $10 to justify keeping it around. However, as we have discussed before, pulling the plug doesn’t mean my work is over. There is testing that needs to be done to see if removing Kontera has a positive impact on other revenue sources, such as AdSense.

With the server glitch at PerformancingAds behind us, I’d like to see the earnings return to form and book a couple of ad spots this month. In addition, I will keep experimenting with affiliate networks to try and squeeze a little earnings out of that pot as well.

The holidays and new year will be here before we know it. That means it is important to also take the time to slow down and enjoy time with the family and friends. As always, please ask any questions that you have in the comments below and we can continue the discussion.

How have your earnings been this holiday season?

Tagged as: advertising, blog, making money online