While I know that lots of people like to know exactly how much people are earning from particular programs, it’s not as valuable as you may think. The phrase your mileage may vary is more true in this case than any other. That being said, seeing other people’s earnings can still be very helpful in order to get you started so I thought I’d take the time to toss out my relative percentages to show what’s bringing in the big dollars and what’s barely worth the effort.
The breakdown is roughly as follows:
5% – Google Adsense
9% – Text Link Ads
86% – PayPerPost
If you compare this to others, you’ll see significant differences. John Chow for example pulled 41% of his revenue from affiliate sales and only about 25% from sponsored blogging. He was also earning so little from Adsense that he dumped the program in favour of selling his own ad space.
I know that there are others out there pulling in the bulk of their income from Adsense. The point to all of this? There’s no right formula. Everyone’s going to have different programs that will resonate differently with their own audience. The best advice that you can take from this though is to diversify. For example, I’m not pulling in any revenue from affiliate marketing. If I did, as I intend to, work into the affiliate partnerships properly, I could add a very significant stream of revenue that currently remains untapped on this blog.
If you keep hearing people talking about diversifying your revenue streams and don’t know what they’re talking about, have a look at John’s August income report is great example. Mine, in contrast shows how risky things can get when you rely too much on a single income source. If something were to happen to my PPP revenue, I lose 86% of my revenue. That’s a pretty big loss. I’ll be working to further diversify my income streams over the next while. Not only does that offer an opportunity to improve revenue, it also will help make that very revenue more robust and less susceptible to market shifts.
helen_H // Sep 12, 2007 at 2:21 am
You’re definitely the guru on this aspect.
In my country, it is now chic to start a blog and monetize it. In a big way. Wait, not ‘a’ it’s 5 or 10 blogs.
I read from somewhere Adsense only matters if you’re getting at least 3000+ visitors a day. In my humble opinion, only money making (those that teach people how to earn money from blogging) and tech blogs are getting this kind of hits.
Cheers.
Copes Flavio // Sep 12, 2007 at 6:09 am
It has been said that many techie sites do not earn from adsense because the readers know it and are so accustomed to it that they don’t see it at all.
Marc // Sep 12, 2007 at 8:36 am
Helen: Thanks for the flattery, but I’m no guru
I’m just someone who has learned a lot from other bloggers and forums and wants to share his own experiences with that very same community.
Copes: That depends. There are some types of techie sites that will do very poorly with advertising, think open source software. But there are many that can make a ton of money, think review site of the latest and greatest gadget.
It all has to do with the motivation of the visitors. If you write for people who want free stuff, your advertising will be limited. If you write for people who want to buy something, you’ll be positioning yourself for some lucrative opportunities.