Well I never expected that ProBlogger.net would get Slashdotted (it’s not unusual on some of my other blogs) – but tonight it happened. They linked to my post where I talked about my last Google Adsense cheque. Let me start by welcoming Slashdot readers. I hope you enjoy your stay.
As per usual with a Slashdotting there are a number of impacts upon a blog.
1. Traffic – Lots of it. Last hour was close to 4000 visitors. It being the weekend has curbed this.
2. Server Problems – So far so good. My host tells me its hardly a blip on the radar and everything is holding up very well.
3. New Readers – The influx of readers brings with it a variety of perks. Subscriptions to my free weekly newsletter are up and there are some positive comments being left across the site.
4. Slashdot readers on the whole are a great bunch – but the comments being left over at Slashdot itself are as per usual ‘mixed’ to say the least with a lot of misinformation and generalizations.
Let me try answer a few of the questions and comments quickly:
- It is not against Google’s TOS to reveal your earnings. This changed a few months back. You are not allowed to reveal other details like Click Through Rate, Impressions etc – but income levels are fine.
- Yes I do pay tax on my earnings. the Aussie Tax Office makes almost as much as I do from my blogs.
- I do not use automated blogging tools to run my blogs. I work 8-12 hour days and have been at it for 2.5 years. In that time I’ve posted almost 12,000 posts on a variety of topics.
- I do not make the majority of my income off this blog. Some of the comments cast doubt on the fact that I earn what I do because of low traffic of this site. I’ve always been totally honest about the fact that this site usually earns me very little. Most days it’s enough for a coffee or two. My earnings come from other blogs – some of which are linked to from this site – others which are not.
- This is not a front for me putting the hard sell on readers. Whilst I’ve considered compiling some of what I’ve written into a book – at this stage I offer free advice to bloggers here. I figure I can earn a good living from what I do so I’m happy to give information away freely where I can.
- A side note to those who complain about blogs being passe or don’t believe blogs should have ads. You might want to look at the site that is sending me all the traffic today. Slashdot is a blog – it has ads. It would be making significantly more than I am.
- Yes I did earn between $10k and $20k in the month of May. If you want to know how much I suggest you start counting at $10k and stop counting a few hundred dollars short of the halfway point to $20k. As I said in the post everyone is coming in on – it was a particularly good month and June’s cheque won’t be quite as high (although July will be in the same region. I know a lot of commenters are doubting the figure – I’m not sure how to prove it and don’t feel I really have any need to. I know of quite a few other bloggers who earn well in excess of $10k per month. Whilst it’s not the norm by any means (and I’m realistic to my readers about this – most will never make that level of income) it’s not completely unusual and is becoming increasingly common.
If there are more questions that readers would like to check with me I’d be more than happy to answer them.
As a result of the many comments (and emails) which are doubting that I could earn what I’ve said I do and asking for proof I’ve decided to post a screen shot of my Adsense stats. I’ve blacked out some personal details and the details that I’m unable to share as a result of the rules that Google sets that forbid sharing of impressions, CTR, CPM etc.
You’ll see from the following that from 1 May – 31 May 2005 I earned $14,436.45. I know some will accuse me of doctoring this but this is all I’m giving you. I can’t think of any other way to prove what I earn and feel like I’ve stooped a little in doing it anyway. Hopefully in doing this I answer a few questions and dispell a few myths.
Right now though – I’m headed for bed!
Congrats Darren, sheesh, you’re going to be famous soon ;-)
Lets see. Maybe a nickname would come in handy. How about “Blogging Thunder From Down Under.”
Glad you posted that Darren!
I noticed this morning that you had been slashdotted, so read through the comments over there and was astounded at some of them.
Can’t quite decide whether the comments are the result of ignorance or jealousy, but I’m pretty sure its one or the other ;-)
One of the early comments regarding the design of your sites tickled me though – if any site on this planet is in desperate need of a redesign, slashdot is it!
Congrats, the trick now of course is to try to get as many of them as possible to become regulars.
Hey – congrats! When it rains, it pours, huh? Good on ‘ya.
Oh. I just read the comments. You’re right. Plenty of moronic comments. You can’t possibly follow every single piece of advice that you gave in this post – https://problogger.com/responding-to-blogging-criticism/ – right? Right?
Congrats Darren! Your latest entry on blog critics sure did come in handy. People fear what they do not understand and clearly quite a lot of them commenters know nothing about blogging.
Don’t worry about the comments Darren. We have a lot of nerds at my workplace like the readers of Slashdot. They have such a small view of the world and lose their grip on reality sometimes. They don’t realise that the majority of people aren’t like them getting excited about PERL scripts, coding, IRC chat and newsgroups.
I’m a /.ter(more a reader than a poster) and it’s clear some /.ters are either jealous or don’t understand what blogging is about. The quality of the comments on slashdot downgraded a lot lately. Don’t care about it.
[…] ng the latest entries from some of my favorite writers, I found that one I follow closely, Problogger, had been slashdotted. For those who don’t know what Slashdot […]
Indeed, re the Slashdot comment about your (this) site not working properly in Firefox on Ubuntu – that’s what I’m looking at your site with now, and (apart from the Google search text field bleeding into the article column) it looks fine.
(from another /.er)
I gave up reading the comments after about the tenth as some of them were so stupid. Goes with the territory I guess.
I’m willing to bet that you posted many of these comments yourself because you were upset about the reaction you received from the slashdot community. I would also bet that you deleted many comments that were posted by slashdot users as well.
Pound Sign – I’ve got more productive things to do with my time than to post fake comments on my own blog.
I do delete comments from time to time but it’s a rare thing and only as a result of spam, offensive comments (it has to be pretty bad) or defamatory comments.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hmm not sure if I really want to be Slashdotted
I used to want to be slashdotted – not I’m not so sure…Sometimes getting more traffic isn’t worth it if it’s the wrong type of traffic. Problogger was recently slashdotted recently but ended up just receiving all the jerks from Slashdot.
…
[…] r those readers coming to this post via Slashdot – welcome. I’ve posted a few points here that answer some of the many comments that are being made at Slashdot […]
You’re a complete lier. There is no way your blogs earn that much. This is a scam.
Congrats! It seems you don’t suffer on non-relevant ads like many other blogs, and you’ve picked a few money words. Now find a way to convert shashdot traffic, good luck ;)
You still haven’t listed your blogs. Unless you’re embarrassed by some of the content (porn, prescription sales, etc), there’s no reason for secrecy. We’re interested in you. Take advantage of it. :)
Paul – some of his blogs are listed at the bottom of this page, he’s certainly not being secretive about it.
Randy – not sure whether you deserve a response at all to be honest, but if you had the slighest clue about the blogging industry, Darren is just one of many people that can earn this kind of money. There are a good few bloggers earning much more than this in a month, and some mini-networks earning well over $100k a month.
I want to make $15k a month by blogging.
The only reason I dont plaster all of my blogs all over this site is that I dont want it to be a huge self promotion. I also don’t give all my projects away – it’s common sense to pick what you share publically or not. Not because I’m ashamed (I don’t do porn, gambling etc) but because some of my projects are very young and I don’t need everyone duplicating everything I do.
Also I’ll point out that not all of the links at the bottom of this page are mine. Some are partners and friends.
I want to make $15k a month by blogging.
Hmmm, apparently me making an edit to my post sent over another trackback, sorry about that.
Hello Darren,
I am astonished by the way some of the slashdot users can comment a thread (this one is about your revenu). The problem is not to ask question about how you earn from adsense, not, the problem is about how they ask the question. Sometime, I think that they would need to read quotes about criticism like these one I got from the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” from Dale Carnegie (BTW, a book that I recommend to anyone that would like to be a better human being).
Salutations,
Fred
The government is taking half of what you make? That’s ridiculous… Congrats however on your income, you deserve it for what you are doing.
wow…congrats…..I would hope to get that too someday.
Now if I can make 10% of that a month, I’d be free from my 9-6 job, and able to do what I love, blogging and reading.
Darren, anybody that’s read ProBlogger for a while knows that you’re an upstanding guy, and Slashdot is known for people who’ll spend ten seconds on an issue and make a judgement. They’ll lump you in with those who blatantly abuse systems like adsense to make a buck, because that’s so common right now and they don’t take the time to tell the difference. But don’t let it get to you.
If someone doesn’t give their own link, don’t even register their accusations. When they put ownership on their comments, then they should be taken seriously. Responsibility only comes with ownership.
Darren, I agree with Frank. Keep up the good work, you deserve it! Jumping to conclusions are just what people do, it happens all of the time.
Keep up the good work bud.
Eh, way too many /. readers are complete idiots. I suspect that’s half the fun of /. for some people. I finally got sick of going to /., stuck it in my RSS aggregator for the headlines, and rarely actually visit anymore. And there are days I think about dropping it.
Hiya! Just wanted to say you have my compliments, in my opinion you deserve every penny you get, and you’ve taken an incredibly mature and careful attitude towards people’s views. Honestly, congratulations, and at the end of the day you wouldn’t be getting that cash unless your blogs were *worthwhile* reading… just like /. ;P
Have fun, don’t spend it all at once! Invest it, you’ll get a good couple of pence by today’s inflation :D
Congrats on your nice income. I will never reach that far but you really do deserve it!
If you want to improve your /. experience, raise the Reply threshhold to 3, 4 or maybe even 5. Most of the twits are shut out that way. For example, I only saw 21 of the 165 comments from this story, and NONE of them were negative in a sophmoric way. And the two posts beside it were 26/136 and 23/184. Only the good stuff gets through. If I had to wade through all the morons I’d have quite by now, too! :)
Thank you Reason, that is how you do it.
But come on guys, don’t bitching and generalizing about all /. readers. There are the annoying jerks who, as in life, are louder and more common than high quality. So don’t whine about /., if a particular comment/user says something dumb then say it, otherwise…
[…] D in the month of May, in Google Adsense fees. Found via Slashdot, via Scobleizer. Edit: The post-slashdot follow-up post. […]
So is this $14,000 in real money or Australian monopoly dollars? That’s like what, $3.50 in real money?
[…] amaze me how negative people get when they hear about someone elses success. A post about Darren Rowse’s recent $10,000+ Google Adsense payment was featured on […]
That’s some feat. Congrats!
May was my best month as well. Not nearly as close to the earnings you’ve reported but it brings up the fact that that month gave unusually high returns for others as well. Now I’m really curious: what was so special about May?
Yep Pound Sign Darren often impersonates me, he just happens to be kind and promote my website as well – oh no hang on this is me writing this comment, just like the other people – oh no hang on they are all individual people as well. Why would Darren waste time making up comments? Maybe he has to prove things by posting IP and web logs too? But then of course he’d have doctored those too…
Grrr…
Isn’t it amazing how every single negative commentor on this page refused to leave an e-mail or web address…cowards all, apparently, and hence not worth your time, or mine : )
I love the suggestion that you left a bunch of negative comments yourself. Like you said…some of us have WAY MORE important things to do…like have a life!
Darren, as always, you rock! Glad to see that most of the comments on this blog are positive!
Darren,
Congrats ! And worry little about the comments of those that don’t sign your check or pay your bills.
Life’s tough…Blog Hard !
The good thing is that when it’s all said and done, the morons will go their way, and you’ll be left with a substantial number of new readers : )
Darren,
I think you’re an awesome guy and deserve all the money you get from blogging. Cary and I are grateful for all your support and I am a firm believer in “what goes around comes around.” That’s why you earn the BIG $$ and these jealous losers just leave negative comments.
Why is it that these jealous idiots hardly ever leave a return address? Cowards too I guess?
Blog on Darren,
Lori
Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!
Love the comment about the Aussie ruble. Very generous of you to address the curiosity of /.ers. Some, at least, appreciated your consideration.
You really don’t need to prove anything. People who read your blogs know how much time and effort you put into them. And timing has certainly played a part in your success. Keep doing your thing, buddy!
Bravo!
What an excellent exercise in self-promotion. Really, its a work fo genius, posting the equivalent of:
“Really, I’m not self-promoting, nor an attention whore – I just want to put it out there that I made about 20k this month (ha ha ha) blogging, you poor sods, and btw, its no big deal, so don’t tell anybody”.
Then you just sit back, watch the controversy brew, and the hits come pouring in.
The irony, of course, is that your initial post was total, utter bollocks – or total bullshit (tkae your pick) – but it worked, so that doesn’t really matter now, does it? After all, the desired effect was acheived.
Still, being as good a samaritan as you are, my mates and I have taken it opon ourselves to inform both Google and AdSense about your little TOS breech (stangely enough, neither company agrees with your take on the rules, funny that). Why? Simply because turnabout is fair play, and gloating about the money you’re making makes you a bastard.
So please, enjoy the newfound popularity while it lasts. It’ll only make things that much more…shall we say, piquant…when the revenue streams are shut down.
Hi Darren
Good job. Ignore the green eyed monsters- I didn’t realised the tall poopy syndrom was a worldwide effect!
I have to say that when I came to your site (based on the /. article) I was pleased to find that you were a fellow Aussie :)
Troy
Thanks for the comment ‘You’ve Been Buggered!’. Nice of you to stop by and say your piece.
Not sure where you got the feeling I was not into self promotion – of course I am. What blogger isn’t. I wouldn’t call myself an ‘attention whore’ but I don’t mind people reading what I write and I don’t mind earning money from it.
I also really like helping others reach their goals and potential. I don’t see why those two things (making money and helping people) have to be mutually exclusive.
I also don’t know where you got the idea that I don’t want anyone to tell anyone about me or my blogs. I’m more than happy for people to spread the word.
My initial post is ‘utter bollocks’ or ‘total bullshit’ – nice. Sure it wasn’t for everyone – looking at the comments it attracted I see some found it helpful others didn’t. That’s pretty normal. I suspect the comments your comment provokes will have a similar spread of opinions raised about it.
I appreciate you informing Google and Adsense. Actually they are one in the same company so you could have saved yourself an email. I’m more than happy for them to come pay my site a visit – in fact if you’d read a few of my last posts you’d see that I’m already chatting to them about my blogging – they asked me if I could tell them about what I’ve learnt and for my tips on how I use Adsense.
I don’t see anywhere in Google’s policy that you can’t reveal your earnings – Google changed that rule months back.
Lastly – I’m under no allusion that I’m ‘popular’ or that the recent influx of visitors and income will last a lifetime. I AM enjoying it while it lasts (but thanks for the advice to do so). I’m also trying to make it last as long as I can but making plans for the day that it ends for one reason or another.
So thanks for stopping by and giving your helpful feedback. Let’s chat again sometime shall we.
I don’t know if anyone has linked to this or not yet, but someone should:
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=banish
If that doesn’t link type it in, I don’t know if this accepts UBB or HTML but eitherway, that article pertains to every one of you.