Yesterday I published a post telling my story of adding 12 income streams to my blogs over the last 10 years.
One of the comments and tweets I had a number of times was a request to make the diagram I used shows how the 12 different streams of income go towards making the overall revenue on my blogs today.
It has been a over a couple of years since I did an income breakdown so I decided to put together the numbers today. The categories don’t completely coincide with the 12 income streams mentioned in yesterdays post (for example I no longer do consulting and I’ve combined all the affiliate income and all the ad network income – however you’ll get the picture.
The above breakdown is for last month’s income (April 2013). It is worth noting that while I chose April as it was a pretty typical month for me that things can vary quite a bit from month to month depending what the monetization focus of my blogs is.
For example if I were to show you December last year you’d see Affiliate earnings and eBooks dominating the chart more as we do a 12 days of Christmas promotion on Digital Photography School that promotes a series of affiliate products and our own eBooks over a two week period.
Or if I created a chart for March this year you’d have seen ‘Events’ as a bit bigger as we launched our ProBlogger Event Early Bird Tickets that month.
I hope it helps to see a visual of the breakdown of what I was talking about yesterday.
What was your #1, #2 and #3 income stream last month?
My guess is that you bank over $100k a month from your 12 sources of income as a blogger. It might be more possibly. I doubt less. You’ve been around as long as Facebook now! :-)
Always nice to see what’s working the best for other people, especially at this level. For me, Adsense came first, then affiliate sales second and third was a paid app review.
It’s always nice to see how these things break down thanks for being so transparent with your earnings.
As for me I currently only have three streams and I don’t generate all that much from any of them I’ll do a Q1 breakdown (Jan – March 2013) – #1 Adsense (Site & Youtube) #2 Photo Sales #3 Amazon Affiliates
I’ve only recently launched my new print store so I’m hoping that photo sales will pick up over time and I’ll be looking to add a few other streams in the future.
75% of the revenue is coming from 3 sources…is that usual? If so, are you attempting to broaden the revenue out to the other sources of income.
Interesting graph,
Thanks for sharing it.
My top income earner is from revenue sharing sites, which is not blogging income per se. I’ve started getting some referral income that has increased quite a bit over the past month or so. AdSense and Amazon have not been nearly as successful. Of course, on my latest blog, I did not use AdSense because I want people to click referral links instead.
Hi Darren,
Even though I don’t have the results you do, follows my #1 and #2 income for last month’s stream:
#1 – adsense
#2 – affiliation programs
Rui from Troia Portugal
Hi Darren,
Good to know that Ebooks has the biggest part of it.
38% of revenue from E-book is a quite interesting. Few of blogger make 50% of income from affiliate programs.
Goal = Dream + action
:))
Absolutely right
it is pretty much surprising that your highest source of income for a month was ebooks it means bloggers should take ebooks seriously and should not make it simply a source of bribe to enhance their email list
Darren, Glad to see that eBooks help you to earn more bucks. Cheers :)
Greate earnings … All the earning depends on popularity ? What you want to say Darren .
OMG, Awesome man I am following your blog since 2 months, And I want your help, my absence was disabled last week but I don’t know how to approve It once again so please help me i am waiting sir for your positive response
I see here that E-Books are your great source on income though. Currently i have only Adsense as the source of Income.
I am just starting out and hoping to make money from my blog in the long run. To begin just to cover my costs. Looking at your chart is encouraging as it shows it can be done.
I’m going to look into eBooks when I have established an audience. Currently only get 5 – 10 visitors a day so my main aim at the minute is to turn that into 100 visitors a day and go from there!
Great article and one that gives me some inspiration to carry on.
Hi Darren, I am quite new to blogging so don’t have much to contribute in terms of income discussions. But I have been implementing some of your advise (added adsense recently despite many Naysayers and people saying it won’t be approved for such a new/small blog). Let’s see how it pans out in the coming year.
Thanks again for sharing your wisdom
ashley
You’re one rare of a kind who earns more from E-book sales rather than Ad Networks! Goes to prove you are indeed a true problogger.
That is quite good diversification, this is something I need to start implementing as well, since one just can’t depend on one source of income these days.
Hello there,
Thank you for the article. Actually, i was thinking that a blog would get started with such kind of various money-earning instruments from the begining.But as i have understood (also form your other posts), blogging is not that easy and requires hard-working and patience. I found this blog today and definitely will read every word i see here.
Thank you all
i am quite impressed i was not knowing that Ebooks will contribute to such extent, very crucial information,thanks man !!
Pretty impressive and awesome and after seeing your income report after a long time I really got inspired to work more and put more efforts on my blog. Thanks for sharing this.
Great to know that the highest part of your income come through ebook selling. Thanks for the share, Darren.
I hope some days I can make money online from many source like you.
Thats very much awesome! I guess the commentor of the last post must be needing the exact income. But you are smart and you depicted your income in percentage.
First of all congratulations to get so many income streams and they are accounting to your income from this blog.
I will be happy If you write any guidelines or tips for writing e-books. Cheers! :-)
My main income stream is Google Adsense but I just started. Last month my AdSense income was $56.93 from my food blog http://ifoodreal.com/april-income-86-18-blogging-tips-life/ . Honestly, I’m proud of it!:) never made a cent online before.
Olena – your Adsense screenshots are showing stuff that google doesn’t allow you to publicise. Others on here will know it better than me, but CPC etc need to be blurred out. You don’t want to lose your account just as you’re getting going.
Best wishes,
Andrew
I am considering where you sell the ebooks which contribute to your income. Is dps the site which sells the most books? Is the figure listed only related to problogger.net?
Very interesting! Thank you for sharing!
My biggest income right now is affiliate programs.
Very encouraging and eye opening. Thank you for sharing!
And I still get some dollars per month from Adsense
This makes me want to get cracking and write an ebook! Thanks for sharing!
Wow, I love it that people such as yourself and many others make a very healthy living off the internet. Darren you do amaze me and I have been following your blog for a few years now. Keep it up
Interesting facts and comments. I’m almost a month in the game, still an aprentice, still have to be approved by Adsense. I had a few affiliate programs going before I changed my template but no income. I pray I can also be just as half as successful as some of the big guns out there. That being said, its an inspiration to see $$$ can be made after the hard work.
Your e-books are really useful sir. Revenue sources are showing same thing.
Wow, Thanks for sharing Darren this is extremely inspiring.
I’ve bought your books so now I see I’m not the only one. lol
E-Books with quality content can be a great source of income for anyone when marketed properly. Problogger e-books have provided lots great information over the years and have provided me with great tips on creating a quality website! Great work Darren!
My number one is Adsense. It’s easy with some set it and forget it mentality to it.
Number 2 is actually Media.net. I use this in conjunction with Adsense because after some split testing, I realized that Adsense’s look works best on my site in the sidebar than Adsense did.
Number 3 would be a combination of my affiliate sites. Google is killing me by getting rid of their programs.
Infolinks pulls in a good 4th stream of income as well.
i was not knowing that Ebooks can contribute to such extent, terribly crucial data
Thanks for sharing
Hi Darren,
Good to know that Ebooks has the biggest part of it.
I am a newbie, the income earned just blow my mind. It reminds me of what Seth Godin says about our digital era, it is revolutionary , an individual can really achieve a lot if he really put his heart and mind into it,
we have all the tools ready for us, what we need is persistence and focus.
You get highest part of your income by selling E-Books. That’s too cool… I wish I could do the same….
Hi Darren,
I’m curious about your ad negotiation activities. Do you find advertisers for other websites and simply get a percentage of their deal? For example, you negotiate $40/month for a link and take $10/month. Or do you charge a fixed rate to find advertisers for them?
It’s really good to see that you are making a lot of money through ebooks and that clearly tells you why you are the ultimate Problogger!
No blogger ever thinks beyond Google Adsense or affiliate marketing for making money, and this post of yours comes as an inspiration that money can be made using many methods, all you have to do is find it and work on it.
Thanks for your income breakdown :)
Always interesting to see how top bloggers monetize their site. My top 3 incomes were:
1: Adsense
2: Different Affiliate programs
3. Sponsored blogs through Teliad
Although I’m sure I do not nearly make as much income as you do.
Mine? I still rely on ad networks and affiliates. I guess they’re the best for non community blogs :)
Currently my only income stream is affiliate; I find it easier to concentrate on just the one!
Inspirational!
Well this month I monetized my website through these methods:
1. Affiliate marketing
2. ad sales (Private)
3. Consultation
4. Paid reviews
and now going to try yours ;)
Nice sharing for the post
Please visit my website http://www.operion.com.my for more details about E-commerce
Thanks so much for sharing this information. I just started my blog and I hope to be where you are someday! You provide great information on your blog. Thank you!
Great to listen that you earned that much with E-books selling.
Thank you for this post! Would like to hear more about revenue from the job board. How does it generate income? From employers posting or employees searching? Thank you!