At least I can say that December was better than November. Actually, my December income was higher than October also, so maybe I should just shut up. But I really have to drastically increase these numbers in 2010, and I need to get it done quickly, though not necessarily through this blog. But this blog should be generating something, I figure, so some changes will be made.
First, the income numbers:
Adsense – $60.04
Commission Junction – $5.17
Infolinks – $14.84
Firetrust – $14.97
Voxant – $.01
Grand Total – $95.03
So, I made just under $100, which means I was under average for the year. This doesn’t bode well for my 2010 goals, but so be it; we all have to start somewhere, right?
First, you’re probably wondering where the income is from the book I helped promote, Beyond Blogging. I got one person who signed up under me as an affiliate, but that’s as far as it went. I don’t even know if anyone clicked on any of the links, to tell you the truth. All I know is that I didn’t make any sales, though I said I’d consider my part as being successful if there were even 3 sales. No problem; I’m still going to list the book over there on the side for awhile.
Second, I think it’s time for some physical changes to this blog on how I’m advertising things. I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do, but I do know that some of the affiliate ads you see now will be removed. There will still be a product or link of some kind at the end of each post, with more products than in the past, and more links to products within a post if something fits. Unfortunately, products don’t always have anything to do with the post, and I’m not going to try to be conscious enough to do that because, well, that just ain’t me. I also want to concentrate on finding more ways of driving traffic to my products, which you see here, but I know that I’m going to have to change up those sales pages to draw more visitors from search engines as well.
Third, I know I’m going to do something with both my Reviews of Everything and Services & Stuff sites, where I’m going to create more sales pages within both of those. My Reviews site will have reviews of some of the affiliate programs I have, since I know something about many of them, and when I review a product, I’m going to make sure to only advertise that product on a page. That will make a lot more sense than what I’ve previously done.
Fourth, my medical billing site is still my biggest Adsense producer, while my anti-smoking site has generated almost nothing, but my medical billing site used to generate way more money than it is now. I’m not sure if Infolinks has taken away from that, but one would hope that the two together would at least equal what I was making before.
No matter. I have big financial goals for my online activities this year, and I figure that my January report has to show at least an increase of 50% over this month to even make me think I have a chance on increasing finances. What you can still believe in, though, is that I still won’t be writing any paid posts, that I won’t be recommending anything I haven’t checked out first, and that I’ll be telling y’all what the heck I’m doing while trying to move forward.
And with that, onward and upward!
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010-2016 Mitch Mitchell
Looks like you’re doing ok for yourself.
.-= Rose´s last blog ..How to lose me as a Twitter follower =-.
It’s more than I made the previous year, but not even close to my monthly and yearly goals yet. But thanks Rose.
Five more bucks and you would have had that $100 mark. I think your ideas are great. I hope they workout for you in this 2010 year.
.-= Deneil Merritt´s last blog ..December 2009 Income Report =-.
Thanks Deneil; I’m certainly going to give it my best.
Firetrust? I haven’t seen that before. Your Adsense has always impressed me Mitch. That would be a nice goal for me, if I was into goals that is.
CJ struck out for me last month, but that’s OK because some other took up the slack. Switching to the Flexsqueeze theme was a good move. Not only did it improve my adsense, people could sense my excitement in it and that has caused a lot of repeat sales.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Final Stats For 2009 December Was A Surprise =-.
Sire, Firetrust is that Mailwasher program you bought from me. You were my income from them for the month. lol
Yes, it would seem that if you can show true passion on something as well as show it off then people get enthused about it. And my Adsense income is mainly from my medical billing site still.
Cool. That program is really pretty good and I’ll probably start promoting it soon.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Embracing The Difference In Fellow Bloggers =-.
I’m glad you like it, Sire; I swear by it, as you know.
Sure, which is the main reason for me buying it.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..A Blogger’s Opinion Is Highly Valued =-.
Mitch I have seen any adsense ads on your blog, so how that income? Well wish you that you can even earn more on the new year.
Chandan, I don’t have it on this blog, although I’m probably going to add a small block back pretty soon. I have it on all my other sites, though.
After reading your posts for several months, I’d love to see you do a site network revamp.
I mean draft a site map and ask yourself…
“Is every piece of content critical and is every piece of content where it needs to be?”
For example, finding this page…
http://www.servicesandstuff.com/article_packages.html
…took me over 10 minutes. I thought it would be on the SEO Xcellence site (which you didn’t mention here for some reason).
You’ve got a LOT of content, Mitch, and a lot of it is GREAT! Making it findable/intuitive would be helpful. Even more helpful to you if that content monetizes for you.
And am I the only one who is blind to the left/right margins unless Mitch brings it up?
Although it is nice to see your revenue moving upwards.
Blame that on your engaging writing…I’m too distracted to look at the ads!
Before I go: have you tried either of these monetization tactics…
* move your “Recent Posts”, “Archives”, “Categories” and cloud tags to make way for an offer?
* using any thank you pages/opportunities for an upsell offer (including when visitors make blog comments)
Hi Natasha,
The site is going to go through a little bit of a revamp; I just have to finish some paid work first before I can address it. The article packages page I only talked about the one time and I haven’t mentioned it again because at this point I only have one article package ready, and thus I didn’t want to promote only one package.
I’ve talked about my article and blog writing, which I advertise on my SEO site, but any money I make from that site will never be included as online money because that’s a regular business, per se. I only mention the site when I’m talking about SEO stuff or link to it via my book there at the top left.
You do bring up a point, which is something I’m going to be addressing, that being the main page being a bit busy, which of course means every page is a bit busy. It’s not all going away, but I am going to be minimizing some of it as I get some time to do so. Writing, believe it or not, goes much easier for me than design. 🙂
As to your last two suggestions, I’m not sure what kind of offer I’d make by moving the things you mentioned. On the second one, I don’t like when I get those things in my email, as I find it more “clutter” than offer, and you know me, anything I don’t like happening to me, I’m not going to do to anyone else; that’s concerning the blog commenting. As for the sales, no, I can’t say I’ve made any upsell offers if someone buys any of my products; then again, thus far, it’s such a rare occurrence that it hasn’t been an issue. lol
You can try ADSDAQ. It serves me well. 🙂
.-= Jayce´s last blog ..How to hack Facebook account profile =-.
Hi Jayce,
I did some checking into ADSDAQ and I have to say that most reviews don’t give them a high review at all. Not only that, but it seems they don’t pay you for all clicks, only 40 to 50% of clicks, and you never know which ones you’re getting paid for. Nope, that doesn’t sound like anything I’d trust.
Why dont you add email marketing to what you do? If you build a sibscriber list then as the list gets bigger you email them to direct to your blog posts then your income will go through the roof.
.-= Peter Davies´s last blog ..The Self Improvement Giveaway Event =-.
Hi Peter,
I’ve mentioned this one before in talking to lots of folks. I don’t build in email marketing because I have no idea what I’d market in that fashion. For instance, Lynn Terry has tons or products she’s created and programs she’s hooked up with. I don’t have a lot of things like that, and if I did what would I say in an email that I’m not sayhing in my blog posts that would be different? John Chow sends out emails with links to his articles for the week and advertising; that irritated me so much I unsubscribed after two weeks.