Over the last few months I’ve been sharing a monthly breakdown of where my income comes from in the hope of illustrating some of the methods bloggers might like to look at when making money from blogging (see previous months linked to below).
The month of July was the second month in a row where eBooks were the biggest money maker for me. Here’s a pie chart showing the percentage breakdowns.
Before I say much more let me show you how the different income streams have tracked over the last 4 months (note I’ve expanded ‘speaking’ to be ‘speaking and events’ to include the ProBlogger Training Day (which wasn’t a massive earner as we kept the price down – but because it’s something I’d like to try again). I have also added a ‘total’ line to this chart to track total income.
A few comments:
- Obviously there was a big eBook spike in June as we launched a photography eBook that month. July was down on the launch month but still very healthy – partly because of a few specials that I ran in July (I did a ‘Christmas in July’ special as well as offering a few communities a discount on the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog workbook).
- AdSense was also pretty good last month – there’s no real explanation for this as traffic was steady. I can only guess that some advertisers were involved in a bit of a bidding war on Digital Photography School which drove prices up a little.
- Affiliate programs were quite down – that can be explained simply by me not doing as many promotions in July – mainly because there were not too many product launches in my niches (for some reason they always seem to come out at once).
- Direct Ad Sales are on the rise and you’ll see this continue to grow next month as I’ve been working with a direct ad sales rep who is now selling ads for my sites which has already led to some new clients.
- Over all it was a good month. While not as spectacular as July it was up on the previous two months significantly.
- Continuity Programs – a few people have asked what they are. In short – they’re membership sites – ProBlogger.com and The Third Tribe.
August is shaping up to be an interesting month. Later this week I’ll be launching a product here on ProBlogger (at a fairly inexpensive price point) which will be interesting to track. I’ve also participated in a couple of affiliate launches and have seen some interesting direct ad sales. I’m not quite sure whether it’ll be as good as July but am working toward it.
How was July for you?
If you’re interested in the previous months breakdowns they’re at:
Hey Darren,
I have to say that this is cool when you display the breakdown. I think you are the only person that does this and it is so educational. Thanks!
Chat with you later…
Josh
I cannot say that July was soo goood for me, but I am hoping to have a record-breaking fall with the release of a couple new products. As always, thanks for the breakdown. It shows how important it is to have multiple streams of income on your site.
-Joshua Black
The Underdog Millionaire
Nice nice!
An advertiser on my college blog decided to stop advertising! But that was in August, so July has been good. I’m making a more and more interesting amount of money through my blog, actually bought a flipcam with it!
As awful as usual! AdSense going down like an engineless 767 and my eBook being sold as usual… Just once every other week!
But I’m happy! I love blogging!
Hi Darren!
I saw your income streams but don’t know how much you earn yet??How much actually?
Hi Jayant – sorry but I don’t go into specifics into how much I earn except to say that it’s now over 7 figures in a year.
It is interesting that your adsense earnings went up. I have noticed an increase in my eCPM over the last two months.
HI Darren,
Thank you for sharing these results. The ebook success is really driving home for me that we need to get started on our book! We have just started the affiliate links for Amazon, but have been including them inside posts (book reviews, author credits, etc.). We are from Canada and have been using Amazon.ca because our existing readers are mainly from the region. But this leaves out Amazon.com. Can you please suggest how we can better optimize this affiliate to include both the .ca and the .com? We’ll really need to do this when we launch our art marketing e-book next year. Thank you! Karen
I wish more people did this! Often I see many people talk about their multiple streams of income on their blogs. Some people I believe and others I don’t. It can be obvious that someone is rocking out, and obvious someone is just plain lying. Not only is this awesome in the name of education and disclosure, but it’s just downright interesting! Cool!
Darren,
Thanks for the breakdown. It is very interesting to see these results and the way that the multiple streams of income really push the whole. Thanks.
Steve
Hi Darren, thanks for this post. I have been into google adsense for some time. But i am thinking of going into affiliate marketing.
Hey Darren,
You always inspire us :)
Hope you have great August!!
It is interesting to note that mostly your income from the sales of your ebook. Most bloggers don’t have that luxury to produce an ebook and make money out of it. Most of them depends on two things, adsense and affiliate programs.
July was more of a planning month as I get my latest project off the ground, so it was smaller than usual. August is looking good though!
Looking forward to seeing what you put out for your latest product.
Very informative schematic. I see that the percentages are still recognizable from months prior, but with ebooks still pulling ahead in recent months. Probably not similar to a lot of other bloggers’ income diversifications, but that’s a good thing.
I think you hit the nail right on the head with this, all of my income in the internet marketing space has always been made from selling click bank ebooks. nice to see the diversity ,though.
It’s really interesting to see how the breakdown changes from month to month and always interesting to see how well others are doing! Each month for me is getting better and better. I’ve still a long way to go, but it’s happening faster each month so that’s exciting.
Thanks Darren.
It’s always interesting to see the breakdown of your business revenue. Your income has become more diversified with the introduction of more ebooks.
Do you have budgets for the revenue you aim to earn each month? Also, for some months the revenue can be a bit skewed (i.e. if you launch a new product) – any chance that every 6 or 12 months you show some consolidated figures over that time period so we can get a picture of how things average out?
Hey Darren,
I love seeing posts like this, they really give me some great motivation to keep on going, theres nothing worse than falling into a rut because of lack of it.
Thanks :)
Nice breakdown of profits making chart!
This can serves 2 purposes:
1.Inspire other ads publisher of which ads to promote. And
2.As a comparison for other ads alternative. Hopefully,those not presented, could make some improvement so that more ads publishers can use their services for mutual beneficial.
Darren, thanks for very nice info.You rock!
Very helpful breakdown Darren. Thanks for providing it. I hope to provide you something similar once my blog is a little further along! Thanks for your contributions to The Daily Brainstorm. They’ve made a huge difference.
Congrats on your success,
Scott
My Adsense is up thanks to the views!…
I really want to launch an E-Book… $25.00 a sale would make a huge difference.
:]
Darren – do you do a forecasting exercise at the beginning of every month trying to estimate what your earnings for the month are going to be?
Would you recommend it? And if you actually do this forecasting exercise, how accurate are your forecasts to your actuals?
Kapil – I don’t do any forecasting – to be honest I don’t have any real need to as my income outweighs my expenses and I don’t really need to have too much of a budget.
Thanks for this info.
By the way, what is continuity?
Best Wishes
Mat – I’ve updated the post with a note on continuity programs but they’re membership sites.
My July is not good enough…
Can’t make any minimum payout .. So there’s no income.. Poor me.. :(
Hi Darrenn,
It’s nice to know that your eBook sales are giving the most share in your income stream.
Hoping to see your new product launch!
Kindest,
Nabeel
Adsense and ebooks play a bigger part in your revenue. But I am curious yout total income :-) I really admire your work!
Adsense is up but Chitika hit the can big time. The changes they made resulted in an epic Chitika failure on my sites. I took the ads down on most of them because they were just wasting space.
I hate it because they’re such great looking ads!
Affiliate sales are doing great – especially on my Office Supply blog, my recipe blog, and my cat site. Office workers, cooks, and cat lovers.. they’re where it’s at. :)
Darren,
Thanks for sharing. I have questions related to how you go about finding a Direct Ad Sales Rep? Is there a good site to go fishing for one? Does the person work with a larger company or network or are they independent?
Is the person niche specific? What’s a good commission range to expect to pay them? Do you sign a contract with them? Do you provide them leads and does this change the commission at all?
Thanks so much for your insight on this. And here’s to your continued success.
Erika
I just want to thank you for posting this – as a new(er) blogger I’m trying to figure out now to monetlze it and this series is immensely helpful. Rock on!
Hi Darren,
This is a really interesting article. My partner is just about to start your 31 days to build a better blog work book. Her blog is in the vegetarian niche. Do you have a preferred network (i.e adsense) you use when launching a blog or it a case of testing and seeing what sticks?
Over 7 figures in a year!!!!!!!!! That’s unbelievable!
I want to set my goal to 7 figures too =)
I love the way you display this in a chart, makes it easier on the eyes for sure. I have always been better at visual tools! Love that you share this as well. Happy to have been following your blog for some time! Oh and this reminded me that you do have job boards here! Have to check them out again soon!
Thank for the detailed breakdown. Encouraging to hear about ebooks being such a good seller, I’ll be pushing them a little harder! :o)
Congrats Darren. I like what I saw…literally feeling motivated at present. Hopefully I would also become a successful blogger apart from being freelance writer right now. Your stats are inspirational, no doubt!
July was my best month so far–in terms of making money from my blog–and August is shaping up to be even better. It’s all been from sales of my two eBooks. Definitely the way to go!
So now those ads of chitika where you say that Chitika is high earning after adsense is false now … lolzz
Congrats Darren. My biggest earning is came from adsense, actualy i want to join with affiliation but affiliation is always difficult for me. i have facebook fans page which has 630.000 members. but i dont know how can i monetize this fans page.
can you help me Darren?
This is quite interesting Darren.
The past few months are down for me compared to last year, but I’m now working on a few new strategies that should increase revenues in the coming months. My objective is to make the next 5 mos the best so far and really turn my business around.
Krizia
Thanks for sharing this info. Not many people feel comfortable showing their stats. The most interesting thing is that content is still supreme, with your ebook being your highest grosser. Equal to that almost of the adsense revenue.
Very informative schematic. I see that the percentages are still recognizable from months prior, but with ebooks still pulling ahead in recent months. Probably not similar to a lot of other bloggers’ income diversifications, but that’s a good thing.
You’re doing a great job with your site and we all have to admit that it’s not an easy work to achieve what you’ve achieved. But who knows.. maybe in time we will speak the same you do ..
Great job … i’m reading a lot every day!
Darren thanks for sharing the earning breakdown. But how much actually do you make. Especially from adsense?
congrats for your success, my blog doesn’t make money until now since 6 month ago and I can’t sell anything
I make probably 90% of my online revenue per month from referral commissions to cashback rebates websites. So I guess that is affiliate marketing, but not for a specific product or store, but for cash back rebate programs that have thousands of stores.
James parker,
ProBlogger had been working very hard to arrive at this stage.I believe effort would soon paid off.
Just browse around here, the content is super.
If you would like to know how to convert traffic into sales. I hope you are smart enough :)
Have a traffic conversion your way.Take the action.
What is the commission rate you are paying for your direct ad sales rep? 25-30%
Thanks.
Wow seems that your earning from ebooks takes a large pieces of the apple pie, and your adsense earning is close to ebooks earning, I can image how huge they are. Income report always pushes others to work harder because it shows that online business is workable, and I believe that many people are excited to know the exact figure instead of percentage. lol!
Great job Darren.
Regards,
Lee
Thanks for providing it.The most interesting thing is that content is still supreme, with your ebook being your highest grosser. Equal to that almost of the adsense revenue.It is interesting that your adsense earnings went up. I have noticed an increase in my eCPM over the last two months. thanks for sharing. nice blog.
Great! article, graphic display and list of businesses. I hope to one day have a list like this with some type of success.
Great comparison with Adsense and ebooks. Most people say making money with adsense is difficult and you don’t make much at all are all wrong. The fact that its your second best revenue stream speaks a lot.