How has the economic downturn impacted your blog earnings?
Team Nirvana recently emailed to ask me what impact the recession has had upon my blog earnings – it’s actually a question that I get quite a bit when talking to friends and family – (I guess everyone is asking it about everyone’s jobs at the moment).
In answering the question here I want to acknowledge that this is not one answer for all bloggers. As I’ve pondered the question for my own circumstances I’ve realized that the economic downturn will be impacted bloggers very differently depending upon factors such as their blogs topics (some topics are booming at the moment while others are not), the life stage of their blogs and numerous other factors such as the demographics of their audience.
That being said – here’s how things have been going for me of late:
Ad Revenue – Steady and Up in Private Ad Sales
My biggest income stream across my blogs at the moment has been advertising revenue. This comes from a combination of sources including AdSense and Chitika (I run these on DPS) and Private Ad Sales (here on ProBlogger, DPS and TwiTip) as well as a few other ad networks like Shopzilla and WidgetBucks.
Overall my advertising income has increased however this is largely due to an increase in private ad sales. I’ve noticed that ad networks like AdSense, Chitika, Shopzilla and WidgetBucks have been holding their own for me. Some have decreased a little but this is mainly due to me dedicating more ad space to private ad sales and decreasing the space I give to the networks (due largely to demand for private ad sales).
While I’m hearing other bloggers reporting a decline in private ad sales (which they attribute to the economy) I’ve seen the opposite and I put it down to a couple of reasons:
1. increasing traffic – DPS has continued to really grow in size and a natural reaction to his is that it is easier to sell to premium sized advertisers. For example we’ve recently been doing a large campaign with Lenovo which has gone particularly well.
2. my topic – here on ProBlogger I’m in a somewhat unique position to be blogging on a topic that there is actually more and more people coming online to learn about (making money online). As a result of this I’ve noticed more advertisers coming into the space. Similarly – starting a blog on Twitter recently was pretty good timing as Twitter is really growing at the moment.
Affiliate Revenue – Up a Little
Affiliate sales have certainly been healthy for me over the last 6 months (on all of my blogs). Again, there are a number of reasons for this:
1. Traffic is up – (see above – increased traffic means that you’ve more people potentially seeing your affiliate promotion)
2. Increased Affiliates to Promote – I’ve always found that affiliate marketing earnings seems to have periods where it naturally goes up and down partly depending upon what programs there are launching in your industry. For example in the ‘blogging’ space there were a few quality affiliate programs that all launched within weeks of each other a couple of months back.
3. More emphasis on Affiliate Marketing – at DPS I had rarely done an affiliate promotion (except for Amazon) since I started it two and a half years ago. In recent months I’ve begun to experiment more with it as an income stream on that site (with mixed success). I’m still looking for a high quality product that ‘fits’ perfectly with my audience but the attempts that I’ve had have brought some success so far.
Job Boards – Up a Little
The ProBlogger Job boards have continued to grow over the last month or so (particularly in the last month). Again this is one of those examples where the economy itself has actually benefited me as more and more people are moving online to find work and more and more people are looking to hire in this space.
Dollar Conversion Rates – Up
Perhaps the biggest contributor to an increased income of late has been the decline of the Australian dollar as opposed to the US dollar. Mid last year we were close to a $1USD = $1AUD scenario. As you’ll see by the graph below this has changed significantly which means as I write this $1USD converts to around $1.50AUD. Considering 99% of my income is in USD things have certainly improved of late. Of course the preceding 4 years saw us going from a similar position to what it was back in July so there are ups and downs in this type of thing.
Overall – Up…. a little
The largest contributor to my income increasing of late has been the conversion rate. All of the other three areas (ad sales, affiliate revenue and Job Board earnings) have seen small increases but not massive. In fact if you were to analyze the earnings increases against traffic increases I’m almost certain that traffic is up significantly higher than earnings – if traffic had remained steady I suspect earnings would have dropped.
My Strategy Going Forward
Here’s what I’m concentrating on in the next 6-12 months.
1. Building the Best Blogs I Can and Increasing Readership – while the amount of money that companies are spending online with their advertising MAY be decreasing, my approach is to continue to invest as much of my own time and energy into building great websites to attract what advertising I can now but to position myself for when things improve.
My prediction is that the internet is here to stay and will only continue to grow. As a result I firmly believe that we’ll see the ad dollars come back. I want to have sites with thriving communities and large readerships when the advertisers return.
2. Exploration of New Income Streams – on both of my main blogs (here at ProBlogger and at Digital Photography School) I am working on adding new income streams. I’ll hold off on announcing them here and now but in both cases they build on what I’ve already been doing on the sites and will hopefully add revenue so that I’m not quite so reliant upon the advertising revenue that the sites currently draw in.
How has the economic downturn impacted your blogs?
The more people loose their jobs; more people reading blogs. I think that many blogs will go up because more people will be online looking for work. Especially job boards…
Thanks,
Nate
Hi Darren,
I’m in the mind power and personal growth niche market.
I guess the economy hasn’t really impacted my blog. I’m new to affiliate marketing but I’ve had a 400% increase in my affiliate sales in the last two months as compared to the last two months of 2008.
This is mainly because of the same reasons you mentioned above; higher traffic and better conversion rates. I expect the income from these affiliate programs to continue to grow as my traffic grows. I would be curious to hear what others say???
Thanks for sharing! It’s always interesting to hear what the “big boys” are doing in terms of bringing in revenue. I haven’t incorporated WidgetBucks into my revenue stream as of yet, but now I’m going to take a second look at it. Thanks again!
I think there are both challenges adn opportunities in this downturn. While some companies might be cutting back on their online advertising there are certainly few who want to migrate to online from other expensive ad mediums. Also I dont think adsense revenues will be impacted by downturn at all.
Well, I bet you’ve got even more mouths watering now. If I didn’t already have a blog I’d go start one. People are turning to the web when traditional income sources are flailing. My first thought was your photography blog wouldn’t see the same influx as your MMO blog, but it’s linked from here and people are turning to creativity as a way to earn . . . writing, art, photography, they’re all seeing a growth in online coverage right now.
My website is far too small (low traffic) to determine whether the economic downturn has any effect. But it is good to see that, at least for you, it has had little effect.
For now you are the only economic indicator that matters to me.
When problogger begins to be effected then my website will surely also be effected. That is when the world crisis will turn into a personal crisis.
Hi Darren,
Very nice to hear things are going well for you. Things are going very well for me as well, although not from blogging.
I read PB a lot and am just starting to blog now!
Phew…. that’s good news atleast from someone during this economic downturn :)
Overall I’m up but traffic has increased considerably.
eCPMs for Google have held steady for some sites, but for others I’ve seen a considerable drop.
That’s encouraging news. I would agree that many blog niches right now, particularly the personal finance branch, are thriving right now due to the economy, as it’s exactly what people are looking to read about.
My traffic and earnings have either held steady or increased. February was my best earnings month ever!
Since I blog about personal finance, it makes sense that my traffic and earnings would go up some right now because people are yearning for information about how to save, earn more money and get responsible about their money because of the down economy. i expect it to be a good year in the PF realm.
Loved your post and I agree, now the economic situation will likely drive the quality of blog posting, which should, in turn, drive traffic towards better quality blogs. Leadership should increase as a natural consequence of quality postings.
I found the part about the exchange rate to be the most telling side; when looking at the economy and the way the internet can be leveraged. Great article Darren.
To capitalize on the exchange rate, I’m going to start blogging from Iceland. Really? No, but what would those Number$ look like?
i had an amazing, record quarter last of 2008, so Q1 2009 pales in comparison, but overall it’s the same or a little better than Q1 2008. i work with women’s clothing retailers and have seen affiliate commissions drop significantly since November/December 2008, in addition, I’ve lost several advertisers (the number of smaller online boutiques is diminishing as many close) and that has always been my biggest source of revenue.
so i see that the recession has impacted my direct advertising revenue as many of the smaller boutiques cut back on expenses…advertising is the first to go…overall i feel like i’m more impacted by the Q1 retail slump than anything else – that’s not a result of the recession.
My earnings have only been growing as I’ve developed my websites. Starting them, though, has been a reaction to the economic downturn. I want to build something valuable for a second income stream and hopefully one day I’ll be able to turn it into a job like you have. For now, it’s helping the monthly bottom line and I expect it to continue to.
Thanks for your breakdown.
As Roman said, my blog is small so there has been close to 0% change for me. I’m always interested when you share your progress with us. It’s usually encouraging!
Since the year started my CPC ads are taking off. I am getting more traffic than last year. Some of my sites went down recently but others still got clicks and I didn’t lose money. Great time for internet marketing right now. Especially for getting paid for leads.
This is the type of blog post I like to see here on ProBlogger. I enjoy seeing real data on how others are moving forward. And I especially enjoyed the part where you talk about your plans for the future. Keep up the good work Darren!
I have noticed an increase I my private ad sales as well throughout my blogs. But mostly on http://www.GuruOfSales.com
The affiliate stream has been exactly the same.
It must be interesting and nerve racking that you are so reliant on the AUD/USD conversion rate.
I’ve seen increases on the Adsense side with a decrease in private ad sales. Mine is fairly easy to explain. My traffic is continuing to grow and the old advertisers are clamping down and spending less on advertising.
Darren,
Very nice to hear things are going well for you. For me, actually since the economic downturn I am grateful things has been going so well! Especially on my web design services when selling new themes or even with siteflipping. My niche blogs stream has been exactly the same.
Regards
My income streams are only increasing as I start to gain more traffic everyday!
Thats good news for you but as far as i am concerned i have been affected a little bit by it.
Congratulations Darren! I think most of us are more interest to see how much you’ve earned in a month haha!
Between, my earning in 2009 has been increasing, I’m happy to see that and I’ll work harder to improve it! :)
Regards,
Lee
Ironically, my monthly affiliate earnings (through Sheet Music Plus) have more than doubled since the economic downturn. At the same time, my AdSense earnings have declined significantly. Because of this, I’ve dropped the AdSense and am doing more to promote sheet music sales, which pay out significantly more than AdSense units given my niche.
I see a slight increase in the income stream but its quite minimal as the niche of the website also plays an important role.
As Problogger is place which actually posts about making money and helping wannabe-bloggers learn the art of blogging, so its a potentially growing subject and is bound to attract more user attention.
By the way, I see a type there in your “Increasing traffic” point Darren :)
I see a slight increase in the income stream but its quite minimal as the niche of the website also plays an important role.
As Problogger is place which actually posts about making money and helping wannabe-bloggers learn the art of blogging, so its a potentially growing subject and is bound to attract more user attention.
By the way, I see a type there in your “Increasing traffic” point Darren :)
Edit–
I did a type there too! its typo and not type in my comment :)
my Traffic is up a lot. my adsense is up..probably because of the traffic…
my ebook sales are down…like in half…
Thanks for being so honest and up-front. Looks like I have some work to do on my site. I would really appreciate your comments regarding my site and how my ads are placed. Thanks if you have the time. I know you are busy! Have a great day!
thank for sharing. good to hear from the pro
http://health.okguru.com
Thanks for the post Darren.
It surely encourages and increases the morale of the bloggers like me and thousands around.
Hope everyone do take these points into consideration and do their best in increasing the monetary value of their blogs and sites.
Thanks for sharing this with us. Darren if you don’t mind i just want to know one thing from you. How much your yearly revenue from all sources ?
Glad to hear the positive news!
My site is rather a narrow niche, but over the past year, from January, 2008 – through the end of January, 2009, as my traffic has increased, so has my revenue. Then, at the end of January, something weird happened, and I’d love to hear what it could be attributed to.
January, 2009, like all the months before in 2008, saw an increase in Adsense earning – January 09 was my best month yet. At the end of January – almost with the turn of the month – my income fell by almost 1/3 through February, though my traffic kept growing, and my CTR and CPM kept their average and even higher. This month, I’m down about 1/2 of January, though in the last few days, I’ve seen a slight increase again.
So, with traffic growing, CTR and CPM keeping their average and sometimes higher, but w/ income falling, I can only assume that, in January (and the months previous), AdSense was paying more per click than they are now, right?
All I can chalk that up to is that perhaps AdSense hasn’t been getting the bigger advertisers in my niche? And if the advertisers aren’t paying for ads, then AdSense won’t be paying as much to publishers…
I don’t know how else to figure it, anyway.
That’s my story right now.
I’m glad to have read your post on this, Darren! Thanks!
Hey Darren,
previously wrote about AdSense publishers in the financial crisis. Focused on ad-relevancy. Less advertisers means less relevant ads.
http://www.duoblogger.com/adsense-publishers-in-the-financial-crisis/
Regards,
Hendrik
Thanks for being so honest and up-front. Thanks for sharing
My primary blog is too new to measure the effect of the economy, on it. I know I was making more per click on my Christmas blog last year, than I am on this one, but it is like comparing apples to oranges.
There are very few industries in that can thrive financially in this current economic environment. If you’re doing decent, you’re doing great.
I’m happy to hear someone is doing well. I’m one of those “lucky” bloggers who have seen a drop. I’ll wait it out and make some changes though. We all have to take a good look at what works and doesn’t with this economy.
Overall everything has remained steady with a slow growth trend. I am working on products now as I think the Internet market is growing with all the people looking for new options online.
Hi Darren,
I have one guaranteed way of earning more in 1H09 than 2H08 – start a business in February 2009 :)
With regards to currency I’ve experienced a similar thing (I’m in England), used to be just shy of £1=$2, now about £1=$1.40, when I convert get about 30% more revenue! Adsense down slightly but private ad sales up a lot. So all-in-all in England, in my experience, seems to be a similar pattern. Although not quite six figure sums ;)
I think in terms of already popular how to or entertainment blogs, for the most part you will continue to make money specifically because people always want to learn new things or be entertained..two areas that should never lose visitors..
I really like it that big boy has finally open up about this topic..i was thinking of writting my own analysis on my blog.but anyhow its all covered here..All i can say,blogs like problogger.com and http://www.frogblogger.com have great niche and will keep on Raking revenue with less difficult simply because of their audience nature.Do u guys agree?
It will be interesting to see how the global economy affects this issue. Your point about the currency exchange is most interesting. But I also suspect that the blogosphere is a bit insulated compared to say the corner shop with high overhead.
Glad to hear it’s going well for you. Your blog is clearly valued.
Thanks.
It is only getting better and I attribute that mainly because of the down economy, more and more ppl are looking for other ways to get paid.
Of course, we as internet marketers have the answers they need ;)
I have not noticed much difference.
Great plans and it is really great to hear that your blog is booming and you are making more and more profit. I hope this year goes well for me.
Mohammad Afaq
Free Website Traffic
Thanks for the post Darren.
It surely encourages and increases the morale of the bloggers like me and thousands around.
i will added ur post on my blog
http://bloggeronline.net