Blog Earnings: April 2008
May 3, 2008 Posted by Tyler CruzIn my previous blog earnings update, I announced how March had made a new record by bringing in $1,746.14. Unfortunately, after two months of back-to-back record high’s, April broke the momentum by bringing in a disappointing $655.90.
The good news, if you can call it that, is that this was not a surprise and was certainly to be expected due to my server crash. It wasn’t that private advertisers cancelled their campaigns, as only one advertiser out of a dozen didn’t renew. It was because in order to compensate the advertisers for the downtime incurred, I extended everybody’s campaign by 10 days. This extension essentially pushed my advertisers renewal dates into May.
I had also been extremely busy working on fixing my server that I didn’t have time to write paid reviews. I am currently backlogged with 3-4 paid reviews, so that will certainly help May get “back on track”.
Yes, the graph now sports an ugly scar for April 2008, but that’s the name of the game. There will be high’s and there will be low’s. As long as the generally trend of the chart is directed on an incline, that’s all that matters.
Take October 2007 for example. It may have looked discouraging at the time, having dropped to $400. But the next month shot up to over $1,000:
Surprisingly, affiliate income almost tied with last month. Actually, I guess it’s not too surprising due to the extension reasons listed above:
Kontera currently accounts for half of my affiliate earnings, while AdToll is starting to grow. My Peel Away Ad has been booked on AdToll until July 15th:
Affiliate income has very slowly been growing as overall blog income. This is great as it diversifies sources of income, making it more stable and predictable:
- WordZe has continued to prove to be a consistent source of residual affiliate income. I only wish I catered more to affiliate marketers so I could promote it more. Their referral program is really lucrative, check it out if you have the chance, or read my extensive review of them.
- Kontera have been very good to me. They have been great with responding to all my questions via e-mail, and have worked with me directly to maximize and tweak Kontera’s earnings. They’ve also recently been making improvements to their network by introducing new features and improving existing ones.
- My AdToll income has been growing as more advertisers discover the value of my Peel Away Ad. I’m now booked out until July 15th! I love Peel Away Ads because they are a new and unique form of advertisement. They are also very visible yet not over intrusive.
If you want to buy a Peel Away Slot on my blog, the cost is $15 per week through AdToll. You can see on my AdToll rate card that the average CPC is only $0.25, which is a great rate for such targeted traffic in this niche.
- BannersMall has an affiliate program and since their service is awesome their conversion rate is very high. I made $85 from them in March which says a lot about their conversion rate considering I only get 10% and their banner prices are cheap…
Private Ad Shoutouts
I’d like to give some quick shoutouts to my repeat sponsors and advertisers:
- TTZMedia – John Chow has continued to renew his ad for his TheTechZone affiliate program on my blog and has made his way up to the top of my left sidebar. Check out TTZMedia.com and try John Chow’s very own affiliate program.
- Motive Interactive – Motive Interactive purchased both a paid review as well as the Embedded 300×250 banner, and have just renewed. Stay tuned for another paid review they purchased where I’ll be discussing new features and improvements they’re launching.
- BooksWealth.com – This is their 4th month renewing their 125×125 Sitewide Banner with us, so if you haven’t checked them out yet, maybe you should!
- SharpWitDesigns.com – Another advertiser who has renewed many times. Need a custom WordPress skin? Check out their colourful designs.
Side Sitewide 125×125 Banners Available
I currently have TWO sitewide 125×125 banners available. Priced at $40 a month, they are displayed across 100% of the site. New campaigns always start at the bottom to encourage renewals.
Get a Paid Review
I’m not afraid to say that my paid reviews are arguably the best value you’ll find. In fact, I’m not the only one to say so… For $130, you can order a custom review written by me on your website, service, or product. I cannot guarantee a positive review as it is after all a review and not one long ad. However, you will get the benefit of receiving an entire post written about your company or product in great detail.
Feel free to view some of the many past paid posts I wrote. Below are some recent ones:
- BusinessMart – The Business Search Engine
- Motive Interactive – Advent Review
- Retire at 21- Be Inspired
- Maximizing Blog Income- Real Life Example
Every single person that has ever purchased them have been extremely satisfied, with the exception of one advertiser who was angry not with the actual review, but because of the negative comments he received (he wanted me to delete them).
The only reason they are priced so cheap is because I’m trying to build demand for them. I have an RSS readership of over 1,500 highly targeted readers, and so for the price, I think that my paid reviews are an absolute steal.
May Goals and Predictions
Going through the numbers, I think that it will be very difficult to beat March’s income record of $1,746 in May. The only way that this is possible is if I get a lot of orders for paid reviews, or earn a lot through a new affiliate program. While I don’t think I’ll set a new record, I predict that I’ll get close, finishing in the $1,400-$1,500 range.
My goal for May is to make $1,800 from my blog, but that is no small task. Stay tuned a month from now to see the results!
Thats a sad part.
But anyway, your blog is good, you will surely make top in the next month.
Don’t worry Tyler, this isn’t a fall for you, but more of a success. Because of the problem the server caused, you were able to fix and add more backup to it, which in return, means success 🙂
-Mike
i love how you turn each monthly earnings post into a pull blown ad in seconds. Hell why don’t you just put a banner over your logo that says
“BUY MY ADS”
lol. Well, just take a look at this “blog”. It is full of those lame “paid advertisements”. This place is like one of those crappy infomercials you see at 4 in the morning.
Everyone seems to have had a limited April. Is this a sign of the USA economy collapse hitting web based activities?
Another excellent post, Tyler. I was surprised that you promote so few affiliate programs. In addition to embedding Kontera links into your content, what if you were to embed some additional revenue-generating affiliate links? I’ll bet some of the new tools/products or services you purchased during your server crash may have associated affiliate programs. Getting some of these affiliate links inside your excellent two-part series on your server crash should help boost thos affiliate earnings even more. Good luck in May!
You can definitely do it Tyler. Any speculation to why advertiser revenue was so low this month?
Sorry for your smaller income, but be happy, next month will come back. DOUBLE IT.
[…] Blog Earnings: April 2008 | TylerCruz.com: An Internet Entrepreneur’s Journey […]
April is typically a bad month for all online earners. Even John Chow was down.
Hope you will get more $$ on this month 😀
You still earn some interesting amount of earnings.
thats still some serious dough. I’m sure the time where your server went down that affected a lot of it.
I’m sure next month you’ll get right back at it making money.
dont worry about the fall .. such stuff keep coming and going ..
Anyways I am still wondering how can someone make money with annoying ads like Kontera .. I mean why do people even sign up for it?
I’m sure you’ll get back on track.
the ups and downs that keep us going and reaching for more.
I agree with a previous comment about you using affilaites so little.
congrats tyler im giving ML a try i like how the affiliate managers are really nice email me tips how to get better CPA
As you leave the blog aside everything falls, but still with affiliate you are getting better it seems.
Tyler, I think you need to practise using apostrophes 🙂
I just found this blog and I can’t believe you list all this cool data. I hardly every see anyone pull back the curtain as you do. Very helpful and inspiring to me, still on the path of creating my own online income. Thanks alot.
Your reviews look really cool and they would be ultimate earners for you always, than any other part of earnings 🙂
Good luck for the month of May!
The solution to meeting your May goals is to get more traffic…buy it if you have to. You’re already on a roll,so snowball it!
[…] schlecht sind die Einnahmen im April. Gerade die Einnahmen für bezahlte Werbebanner sind ausgefallen und drücken die Einnahmen […]
That’s too bad that the earnings slipped, but I’m sure you have recovered quite nicely because you have great content, which keeps readers coming back to your blog. I’m still quite impressed with your overall earnings, because I know that it’s difficult to do with a blog.
As u said “There will be high’s and there will be low’s.”
its very correct frd .. ups and downs is the GAME of living 😉
Blogging still remains a profitable venture though, and i hope you reach the amount that your aiming next month!!
I think everyone who is trying to make money online has saw their profit fall in April. I wonder why that is?
[…] Earnings: May 2008 June 2, 2008 Posted by Tyler Cruz Paid Advertisement In my previous blog earnings update, I announced how April had performed very poorly, having brought in only $655.90. This was due to […]
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