Year end 2009 total “net” blog earnings $3,110
I write these CAN Blog Stats posts to analyze my job effectiveness as an online publisher. I also do them to provide 100% transparency to my readers and advertisers. I hope some of my notes here can help you earn more.
CAN stands for:
Circulation (inbound links)
Analytics (visitors)
Net (Income)
What did you earn in 2009 Damien?
2009 ends today and as I type this post I am filled with positive energy about what 2010 holds for me and my online publishing. In this post I wrap up the last CAN Blog Stats statistics for December 2009 and looking at year-end earning totals. I’ll also touch on the best companies to earn from as well as what I’ve learned is most lucrative to do as a blogger. My friend Justin Germino has an excellent post that covers a lot of ground on blog income sources. But before I get into that, here are my last CAN blog stats for 2009:
Damien at the Speed of Life
C: 4685 inlinks
A: (12/09) 638 visitors (2009 average was 20 visits a day) / 34 feed subscribers as of 12/09
Postcards from the Funny Farm
C: 8916 inlinks
A: (12/09) 5595 visitors (2009 average was 205 visits a day) / 255 feed subscribers as of 12/09
Dynamite Lesson Plan
C: 1140 inlinks
A: (12/09) 1754 visitors (2009 average was 43 visits a day) / 305 feed subscribers as of 12/09
Welcome to the Profession Kids
First of all, you may want to read and bookmark this post called Companies that Pay You to Blog and Others that Suck You Should Avoid. I recognize it has a slant but it is my 100% personal experience of who pays and who doesn’t. Okay, now on down this road …
In order to make money blogging, a person must study and reflect on the profession. Yes, I said profession. It has been my experience that haphazard toe-dips into blogging can never make money. Rather, the serious dedication to readers and the blogosphere can and does yield profits. Many people in my life have assumed falsely that because I make money, they can as well. I used to encourage people in that thinking and all it got me was a bunch of frustrated, discontented friends. To make money blogging you must do a lot more than simply apply to sponsored post companies. You must establish your blog and your voice as credible and valuable to your readership. You must also develop natural traffic. This means traffic you get when you exert little or no exerted effort. This is a significant number to watch, especially if it holds solid. Natural traffic is gold. It doesn’t mean you stop promoting your blog and posts, but this is a sign of a blog with staying power to make money.
Ok, this is dragging a bit Damien
Sorry, this is a year-end post. The monthly ones are much shorter. I’ve learned that, plain and simple, blogging is a job. I think because Bill Gates started a trend of the computer being something cozy in your home on a desktop or laptop many have impressions of earning being cozy. It’s not, it’s a hell of a lot of hours and work. Just setting up one post can take an hour or two and it never gets easy. The minute it gets automated or easy, your emplyers drop you because your work starts to look like Spam. I don’t call myself a blogger. Rather, I am an online publisher.
I don’t mean to discourage anyone except those who assume blogging is easy money. It is the farthest thing from that you can imagine. You must be a designer, link collector, avid reader, personality writer, and all this while respecting ftc compliance. Below are some impressions of blogging I have now reflecting on the year. I hope you take away something you can use in your quest to blog as a profession.
More truths from the peanut gallery
Earnings tracking spreadsheets are cumbersome. Just do your work as you go and let PayPal be the measure of how you did.
Google PageRank sucks in my opinion as a measure of a blog’s value. It dropped to zero on the blogs I sell links on. This is a great argument for having multiple blogs with different niches. I now have two blogs that are set to 0/10 Google PR and that make over half of my blogging income. On the face of it, this shows how low the importance of PR is to an online publisher. Though I hate PageRank and the way Google penalizes selling links, I love Adsense as you can see in this picture of me by my pool with an Adsense check:
DLP rose to a 4 recently. Nice! But how telling that the stats are not as high as the other two Google says are 0/10. (refer to stats above)
DLP RSS feed subscriptions rose from 8 to 305. This should be a monthly criteria published under analytics. It shows the value of the content. I will now feature the RSS feed in each monthly blog stats post.
Almost up the hill Ethel
Having multiple blogs is lucrative because it draws different readers in different niches. If blogs have the same niche, you are better off absorbing into one. I see many poor losers out there with like 5 personal blogs. That is just so very sad. What a waste of time on the computer.
IMPORTANT: I’ve learned that circulation is not affected notably by guestblogging. DLP has many inlinks based on niche and reputation. I do guest blogs as favors for friends and not to increase circulation. This is big since I will no longer be making guestblogging a priority.
The best and most lucrative increase in traffic is from search engines and social media NOT from friends or peers.
Hate to say it, but friends don’t really matter as much as strangers do to the online publisher.
If it is lucrative, it gets tracked, if not … it is unimportant.
There is nothing wrong with writing sponsored posts as long as they are well written with regard to value for the reader.
Started using Yahoo! Site Explorer for inlinks. In 2010 this will be my source for inlink reporting.
Will use GA for tracking visits, Feedburner for feed subscribers.
Learned about the value of systems, routines, and grooves. They must have value.
Seriously this time, home James
Learned about the terms “relevancy” and “conversion.” I don’t sell products so conversion doesn’t really apply. Relevancy of my articles will determine adsense clicks and link sales.
Postcards used to be the king of my 3 blogs. Now it is DLP with regards to earnings. I am careful to not sell links there and lose my PageRank because that is what gets me higher in searches and greater in adsense clicks.
I took my family to Vegas this year spending only on my PayPal card which was 100% blog earnings and mostly adsense.
I have declared myself an “online publisher.” The term “blogger” is vague and to me it connotes someone who uses a blog to “gab” and simply network with friends and family. That is 100% the opposite of why I blog. I labor to create and innovate content of value for my readers and advertisers.
I hope you’ll tag along with me in 2010, this blogging adventure keeps on getting better. Each month I publish an article stating what I made as an online publisher and a little bit on how. Here’s to a great new year! Best to you my reader.
An Irish blessing:
May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
May the rains fall soft upon your fields,
And, until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.
-Old Irish blessing
