After having my previous streak of five consecutive months with record earnings come to an end, January had been a strong rebound as I notched the second highest total in earnings since I began blogging.
Well, it was the second highest total.
February was an exciting month and continues the trend of building upon the success of the previous month to reach new heights. While things with Spicy Tech Deals have been slow thus far, it has certainly been a learning experience and a lot of fun.
If you’re trying to make money online, you need to constantly be exploring new tools and methods of making money. You will not be successful if you simply put up Google AdSense ads and expect the money to magically appear. With this monthly recap, I hope to share with you the tools and methods that have been working for me as well as which ones have not been working.
Dollars and Cents
As many bloggers are trying to squeeze a few dimes out of their blog, I like to share the details behind the tools and methods that have been working for me and those that have not worked quite as well.
- AdSense:
- Kontera:
- ReviewMe:
- TextLinkAds:
- Amazon:
- LinkWorth:
- Private Ads:
- Affiliate:
- PayPerPost:
- Misc:
- Grand Total:
- $75.99
- $11.74
- $25.00
- $205.05
- $0.00
- $96.43
- $109.00
- $0.75
- $0.00
- $25.00
- $573.96
For the first time in nearly one year there was a ReviewMe review ordered in February and that added a nice little bonus to the monthly earnings. In addition, AdSense has continued to perform well and turned in the 2nd best month while TextLinkAds cracked the $200 barrier for the first time.
Over the course of the month there were a few opportunities to earn more money that I opted not to pursue. As you might remember, there was a question about advertising for casinos where all of you had a voice in the decision. While many of you indicated your support regardless of the type of ads on the blog, I decided to pass on the casino ads and the associated money.
Then towards the end of the month, there was an opportunity from TLA to be included in their premium inventory – which would come with an increase in the rate and additional exposure. However, there were a few restrictions with one being that I could no longer mention TLA or link to them from this site. While that doesn’t seem like a big deal, I prefer to be as transparent as possible here and it just didn’t seem right to me.
Plans for March
The year is off to a great start and this is no time to slow down. While there are four to five tools that are bringing in consistent money, there is still a need to continue experimenting in order to reach new heights.
With February coming in as my 2nd best month, I will be striving for March to improve upon that further and challenge for my best month ever. There will be additional tweaks to existing tools and the exploration of new tools as I look for the proper mix to maximize the earning potential.
The string of consecutive months with an increase in earnings is back in gear and that should continue in March. Right now the goal is to get to the point of earning $1000+ per month and it will certainly require a good deal of hard work – but that is what makes this all so fun.
As always, please feel free to ask if you have any questions!
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Congratulations! I recently signed up for PayPerPost. Must say your dismal experience with it is disheartening. My personal experience with it thus far hasn’t been much to talk about either. I am hoping things will improve.
Congratulations Derek. I am happy for you and also glad that you decided to pass the casino ads by. Yes, you will get there, I have no doubts whatsoever. I wish you all the best.
Did you get penalized w/ page rank for using text link ads? I lost a point and cancelled it. Looks like you’re cleaning up with it though.
Those are some handesome stats sir! Well done in February. More to come I am sure.
Most everyone on the net makes peanuts. But your earnings are pretty good. And it’s really interesting to see your income from TextLinkAds. Is there something we should know about how to maximize the income from them?
Congrats Derek on the progress. I too have signed for Pay Per Post, waiting for it to get approved. But after seeing your stats, I’m wondering now……should I go ahead with it or not.
@Nicole :: The lack of results from PPP is more because I just haven’t done anything with them. The opportunities are there, although more and more require a positive tone which I don’t accept as I don’t want to be swayed in my opinions just for the money.
@HRS :: Thanks for the support!
@Goyin :: I’ve been penalized on one blog and not on another, but I don’t have any plans to cower to Google and remove it from my sites. Maybe that will bite me in the end, time will tell.
@Damien :: Thanks!
@Ling :: There aren’t really any secrets that I have regarding TLA other than having a niche that is attractive to advertisers.
@Eva :: I would say that PPP is worth pursuing. There is a risk of being dinged by Google as PPP seems to be on their shit list as well, but there is the opportunity to make a decent amount with them. My lack of earnings is more a result of not pursuing opportunities as opposed to the service not being worthwhile.
Derek – It’s nice to hear of your earnings last month – almost like a breath of fresh air! For real! I’ve hardly earned anything in the last few months – so I’m so happy to see that it is still possible. You give me hope to keep going!
And I wanted to say, “Happy Blogiversary!!” too – but, on another post, since I don’t need any more hosting right now. Congrats – and I’m glad to know you! I can’t wait to see the changes to your eMoms blog – I’m excited about it!
Derek, first of all I congratulate to you for earning this much amount.
I wish that you will get $1000+ on this month. But, don’t forget to give some to me. hahhh hehahhh 🙂
Looks like you’re doing great with the earnings from your blog. It’s always nice to hear of people doing well in this area and quite inspiring. I’ve just published some ads on my blog, so I’ll probably be posting some numbers in a months time.
I would like to know how much traffic you are getting to make this much money.
I just started and one of my posts got popular via stumble upon. So i have average like 500 uniques per day, yet I am not making any money. A grand total of $.22. Please email me or reply to this post if you have any tips for me to better monetize my site.
Thanks so much,
David Carter
@Lisa :: Thanks, it is absolutely still possible to make money so don’t give up! Glad to see you stop by.
@SN :: Thanks for the well wishes, when I get to $1000 per month there will surely be a contest to share some of that with the readers.
@Brewster :: Thanks, I’m looking forward to how you are doing with the ads!
@PF :: Are those 500 uniques per day according to something like Google Analytics or your webhost stats? The reason that I ask is many of the stat packages in hosting accounts have inflated numbers. According to GA, my sites get much less than 500 uniques per day so huge traffic isn’t needed to generate money. I’ll be taking a look at your site, always happy to see another PF site.
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