It’s time for another annual poll here at ProBlogger – this one asking readers how much they earned in October 2008? I’ve run this poll a number of times over the last couple of years and the results are always interesting.
Just to qualify it – I’m asking about ALL blogging revenue that you can tie to your actual blog. Advertising, affiliate revenue, revenue that your blog might have brought in in terms of consulting etc. As long as you feel your blog drew the money in then I’m happy for it to be included.
{democracy:40}
Looking forward to seeing your results.
It is interesting that there is a gap between 10-15K and the last tier.
One of my New Years resolutions includes expanding my income to include money from my own blogs! It’s possible to make a living with blogs but it is a matter of approaching it like any other business – with a plan, consistency and focus!
Look at the results, this explains why it isn’t worth to start a blog if you want to make money.
it takes time but you can make a very nice living from blogging…just stick with it and learn something new everyday
Unfortunately, I think my earnings will be lower for November. This is because a client has stopped from getting my service.
Off topic: I know I may sound impolite, or promoting my blog but this is not my intention. Hope you have time to read my message below.
Darren,
I won a Problogger Book recently, courtesy of Kevin of Blogging Tips forum. I understand that you’re the one who choose me as the winner for sharing the best blogging tip. Kevin said the book will be send to me within 3 weeks.
I hope you still remember this.
“Inspire others, and be useful to them. This is the best strategy so far, even better than search engines and all the social sites you can find.”
With this, I am inviting you to read my gratitude post to you and leave a few words.
I will really appreciate if you’ll spend a few minutes of your precious time for me. This will inspire me more, and therefore it will help me a lot to inspire others more.
Thanks a lot!
I like how $15,000-$19,000 currently has 2 votes, but $20,000+ has 36 :)
The stats all seem pretty linear until that huge deviant.
HI Darren,
Its been 10 months and still i make below $10 a month. I am trying to learn the faults which i have committed in this period.
October was a decent month for me as far as income that came directly from the blog including some web development work etc. November has shaped up to be even better.
Those 36 that voted $20,000+ must be John Chow’s replica :))
It is a wonderful thing to make good money from blogging. It can be done but only with a determined focus and determination. Shooting from the hip hardly gets you anywhere. Darren your direction and help with this blog has been tremendous! Thanks so much for all you do!
I love blogging and would do it for free if I could.
I have 2 blogs. One personal blog that I had been doing for 2+ years. That one earns a range of from $20 to $50 a month.
I have a new blog A MAUI BLOG that hasn’t earned much but that’s the one I will develop this year into a career. I will be losing my job so I can focus on that.
Here’s what’s interesting. This year I received two gifts on a separate occassion – $1,000 each time. That’s a gift from friends who I helped through blogging. It was totally unexpected. I just helped them get through some difficult crises by blogging for them and they were so appreciative they gave me those generous gifts :)
Unfortunately I was in the under $10 category, but my blog was just started at the beginning of October, so I didn’t expect anything different. I feel like I have learned a lot since then from this and a few other sites and I just wanted thank you for your help so far. Last week our traffic slightly more than doubled from the previous week and from our previous high so I feel like we are moving in the right direction. Also, I just purchased your book, and I can’t wait to read it.
Thanks again,
Derek Clark
WOW, look at all the people who don’t make money from blogging. What’s holding you back?
Q4 2008 is shaping up to be my best ever…affiliate earnings are sky-high for October & November (ironic isn’t it, since people aren’t supposed to be buying…) – higher than they’ve ever been. Ad revenue was up in November, after a slump since August….things are definitely looking up, I’m seeing more and more new advertising inquiries (realization that NOW is not the time to cut your advertising budget) and sales. I’m doing very well, but my goal is to be one of those people who made $20,000+ in October :-)
Andrea,
Sometimes it takes a very long time to build traffic, especially in small niche markets. Traffic = money (usually). Don’t forget how hard it was for you to first get started. Sometimes success can cloud our memories of the difficulties.
For instance, I’ve been blogging for almost 10 years. For the first five years, $20 a month thrilled me.
Patience and diligence are key.
Still trying hard to make some money out of blogging :)
My blog earn $12.00 on october… all from adsense… i’m still new in blogging and just start my SEO campaign and traffic buliding…. got a lot of work to do… :)
October our sites brought in about $32,000. The key for us is affiliate marketing.
Know your readers and your market and you can maximize on your traffic. We easily earn $100+ eCPM on our sites each month.
What is cool is that Darren was the one who got me personally started in the first place. Read Problogger, emailed Darren and he was nice enough to write back and wish me great luck.
There are many other John Chows out there, we just prefer to stay behind the scenes.
Voted mine. I just have one blog and it generated about $1800 in October 2008.
ive been stuck at a $10/mo plateau for several months now!
Interesting poll! My blog did earn money in October from Adsense, but I haven’t seen any of it yet because I haven’t met their minimum amount to be paid.
But that’s okay! I blog, first and foremost, because I love it! I have fun with it and enjoy writing about literature. One day I’d like to be able to make a little money at it, if only to pay hosting costs and maybe enough for some giveaways or something.
I made $37 in adsense, and slightly over 17 bucks in adbrite, and I have never tried any other service before.
Hey everyone what do you guys have to say about Pulse360 ads, and adsonar? And why do people not use Microsoft and Yahoo ads?
I find it interesting all the people who make no money blogging but read your blog.
Since I just started, my blog is not making much yet. But readership and ad revenue is increasing daily! Much thanks to you, Darren, for making this possible.
Just a note, I answered in the 2500-4999 bracket, but my case is different form most people’s. I make my living blogging. The amount listed is the income I recieved from the contracts that were current.
I have two blogs of my own, but they are not monetized. One, a team blog about New Orleans after Katrina is a purely pro bono effort (the one that got me enough attention to go pro) while the other is my new blog I just recently developed in order to do some self branding separate from the New Orleans blog. Neither of them are are aimed at financial return, although the new one will become a place for business as well as personal connections on the web.
The income noted comes from the three contract blogs that I was writing at the time.
My income from blogging in October was good.
But, I’m looking forward to join the bottom of the list in 2009. ;)
I’ve only really started earning anything on October, thanks to the Today blogging program, which is one of 6 or so blogs I run.
Thankfully I discovered Brighthub to subsidise my income during November, and started a second blog with Today so hopefully I should see a nice increase in November and through to December
I made $55.62 in October. It is always nice to make money from my websites. Greg Ellison
Hi, Darren,
I would like to say I have earned thousands, but I have to say I hadn’t earned even hundred, and even $10..
But I’m positive about this, cause my blog is live only for a month, and now it’s having first visitor. I strongly work on it and believe I will succeed.
I wanted to say – Thank you !
for your tips, ideas and everything you do in helping others to achieve their goals.
Darren,
Seeing as you’re so happy to ask everyone else how much they earn, I’d like to see you answer your own question please. :)
Blogging for me just hobby, but in October I made ~$50. And I plan to make in November-December more than in October (: I want ~$100 :P
Andrea – “WOW, look at all the people who don’t make money from blogging. What’s holding you back?”
I can understand people that don’t make money blogging. That’s probably not their motivation.
But what about all the bloggers that make under $10 a month? Perhaps they are all new blogs, but I would be willing to bet many of them are:
a) In the wrong niche
b) Seriously inefficient at monetisation
It’s not wrong. I am not sure if I would be still blogging if it was only paying me $10 a month. If you want to monetise, surely this ain’t the way.
This is ProBlogger, after all – Not IJustDoItForTheLoveBlogger.com
@Andrea.. As one of the ones who makes no nada on hers, focus is on other “priorities”.. :wink:
We only get so many page turns per 24-hour period.. When one’s ISP regularly takes upwards of five minutes to a half hour to turn one single webpage, we gots to do what we gots to do with those precious few that do load each day..
With prevention of reprehensible Life loss being this blogger’s passion, monetizing simply *is not* on the radar at this time.. Maybe one day.. If not, que sera, it’s been a blogger’s Life amply fulfilled..
Off to pause a browser download now so I next send this off.. :grin:
Cyber hugs from North Georgia.. :)
Dear “A Maui Blog”,
Very interesting story – can you elaborate on those friends?
I made $0 last month. I don’t monetize my website at all. I will do one day, to cover costs, but not yet. I estimate I could earn around $3000 a month with my current traffic and demographic of visitors.
October was the month for me cause I made a whooping $80 from just by blogging. People might think it is quite less. But this is quite good for me cause it is 400% increase than my previous month. That’s why I used the word whooping.
Cheers. Happy blogging folks.
My blog helped me land a new job where I make 20% more than my last job.
Amount of money I made indirectly from blogging = $20k+
Amount of professional skills and opportunities I got from blogging = priceless
Each month I host a Poetry Fishbowl on The Wordsmith’s Forge. People post prompts, I write poems, and I have a donation button for sponsoring the whole fishbowl or specific poems. In October I made $48 and in November I made $120 (it varies) — but that’s all from a single day’s work. The trend is generally upwards; I’m seeing the long tail in action. It’s pretty exciting.
If you want to see how this works, the December Poetry Fishbowl is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 9.
I have been running two blogs for over a year and have yet to make $10. One blog, Forensic Astrology, has 400 subscribers on feed, has had 20,000 visitors over the past 6 months, has 185 inbound links, a newsletter and a forum. Nada. I have about a hundred ads on the site, in the niche area, and not one click. My other blog, the seed, has had far fewer readers and only a couple hundred on feed. I am moving both blogs into their own hubs and changing my focus on the seed. I don’t think I can do much more with Forensic Astrology. These are both serious niche blogs. What would you say I am doing wrong? What makes them click on an ad?
Have not been as successful monetizing this site as I had hoped ($20 – $50)/month. Have removed most of my larger ad spots and focusing more on affiliate leads than PPC. Traffic is growing nicely(50% increase per month since August), so maybe 2009 will be a breakout year. More time will be spent developing content, series and project related stories have been the main contributor to traffic growth.
In response to Alain Raynaud’s question:
Those two family friends are friends of ours from church who experienced crisis. One is a sudden death of a family member, one is a tragic accident. Both needed immediate prayers and support, and so I started a blog for family and friends to log in and get updates and express support. It was totally out of my desire to help. Their gift to me was totally unexpected. I shared it here only to inspire others to “give” and use our blogging passion to help others :)
I made a little over $1,000 from Adsense and other advertising. I don’t know how much I made from consulting and other sales that came from the blog but it was probably another thousand or so, maybe more- I don’t track that. Probably should, for curiosity if nothing else.
By the way, does anyone else find Chitika sending them more than you expect? My reports say that I earned less than $50 from them but they sent me more than $100.00 – and that’s been happening for several months now.
My blog earning was $13. I understand that i need to find more ways of earning money online.
I haven’t added my income up for the month yet (I will post it this week on my blog), but I routinely come in the $10K – $15K range per month. Working hard on increasing that. :-)
Hmm.. I’ve started to make some money, but it comes slowly. But I will have patience, and it is something I love to do!
These are interesting results. I’m certainly surprised about all of the bloggers who chose to not to have income at all.
It would have been interesting to see what the incomes above $20K would have been. A higher scale would have shown those who could at least make a living off of blogging.
10$ and couple of cents :D
Very little. Less than $10 cause I only started since August and I only blog in the evening cause I work.
Still reading all the articles here and learning how to blog.
I made almost 2300 in October through my blog.
On Stage Lightening — I’m one of those bloggers who earned less than $10/month. Earning money directly from my blog (i.e. ads, affiliates) isn’t my only goal, but if you have feedback about how I can improve those aspects of my blog, I’d be interested in hearing what you (or anyone else who knows something about profitable blogging) have to say.