BlogSpinner May 2006 Milestones

31 May

Posted by rdash as Multiblogging, Writing, Revenue, Google Adsense

Here are some milestones for May 2006, for my collection of weblogs and Squidoo lenses:

May 4: Squidoo reports that I have earnings of US$0.52, minus my fixed-percentage donations to charity, resulting in a total of US$0.44 into my pocket, paid via Paypal. Actually, that’s not bad considering that it took me far longer to make money on my weblogs. Only annoying thing is the email from Squidoo claiming that I “can enjoy a cup of coffee” on them. Sorry, but where in North America is a cup of coffee $0.50? (Actually, my mother’s diner, if it’s the 2nd cup.)
May 5: I decide to combine BlogSpinner and my other writing-related blogs into a single journal entitled CountWordula. And to not have advertising on CountWordula. While I may add advertising in the future, I’m leaning more towards monetizing the site with writing-related services and e-books.
May 9: Paypal sends me an email that I’ve just received a payment from Squidoo LLC for US$0.44. Question is, do I spend some time improving my lenses? I mean, how dynamic can an otherwise static lens become, without also becoming a miniblog? I tried the miniblog thing with my cooking lens, but have been busy with other projects. Surprisingly (or not), that’s not the lens with the most traffic or earnings. Hint, if you have knowledge of any creative craft, turn your knowledge into a lens, then consider creating a blog as well. On the other hand, I’ve always had doubts whether Squidoo will actually work. But TechCrunch already has a post about this, so I won’t write anything just yet.
May 13: I’m offered a pay-per-post blogging gig of 20 posts/month, maybe more. It’s my second paid gig. It’s a new blog, but if handled correctly may become very lucrative.
May 15: I’m offered a chance to blog 3 or more times per week at a site that’s been around for a few years and now gets close to 3,000 visitors per day. Payout is 100% AdSense on 2 of 3 ads on my own pages. The editor reveals something to me that I can’t believe I didn’t know: the higher your Google Page Rank, the higher your average CPC (Cost Per Click, i.e., pay per click)
May 16: It’s been a volatile month so far, with lots of up and down traffic and adsense clicks. I’ve cracked $3+ AdSense (single day), for only the third time this year. But this time, I’ve done it with 1/3 the clicks of the last time, and about half the traffic. Oh, and I’m offered a chance to write for yet another blog (new), on a pay-per-post basis. Three new blogging gigs (all tentative, and with different conditions) in 4 days. Time to start exercising to build up my energy and stamina And time to turn off the distracting television while I’m researching and writing.
May 17: Despite the positive (get some writing gigs), blog performance has been volatile lately. The previous day, I cracked $3+ in AdSense revenue. Today, I not only did not get any clicks (which has happened since Xmas 2005), I also did not get any CPM (Cost Per M, or thousand) ad revenue, which is impression-based and not clicked-based. That has happened since early Oct 2005. More proof that I have a long-way to go before my existing blogs earn regular money. And probably more proof that I really should focus on no more than 10-20 blogs, instead of expanding so much due to indeciveness.
May 18: This the first time my pageviews cracked the 500+ barrier in one day. However, this is due mostly to two articles that I was asked to contribute to a “new” blog. Actually, the blog is new, but the domain is over 3 years old and, as a result gets around 3,000 pageviews per day. My two articles managed to garner close to 400 pageviews between them. Unfortunately, the clickthrough rate for Adsense was extremely poor - probably because the ads were of no interest to readers. Also unfortunately, the rest of my blogs have continued to do poorly. It’s as if I’ve lost some rankings or some such somewhere.
May 31: Cracked $3+ for the fourth time this year.

Despite the otherwise poor month (sort of like the American stock market this month), I managed to end it off with a bang, adsense-wise. Not a lot of money, but more than I’ve been making. I also managed to a get a few more 300+ pageview days in, primarily because of one of my new writing gigs (adsense revenue only) - where my articles seem to be getting bookmarked, including at Digg.com.

Speaking of which, I’ve also been offered the possibility of 2 big writing gigs (pay per post), whose total monthly payments exceed my part-time job earnings. Indications are that this could be an even more lucrative gig in the future, simply because of the topics. On the other hand, my application to be a “Guide” at about.com was rejected. They have a guaranteed income of US$500/m for successful applicants. Details are at Be A Guide.

My total number of writing gigs (excluding my own weblogs and websites) is as follows:

Adsense/ Chitika eMinimalls revenue only - 2 weblogs with relatively high traffic. Only weblog allows the possibility of earning money from writing e-reports and e-books. Earnings are dependent on quantities sold.
Pay-per-post: 3 weblogs, 2 brand new. Tentative offer of 2 more weblogs, based on the quality of 10 test posts I’ll be writing.

As a number of bloggers have noted, making a living from your blogs through advertising and/or affiliate programs is tough work. Those who are succeeding are now starting to pay others to write articles. While these new gigs will help pay my bills, I’m still 100% convinced that, based on my weblog statistics, I will eventually earn a living from the writing on my own websites.

Technorati Tags: blogging, problogging, online writing, writing career, adsense, ad revenue, Chitika