Here are some of my blogging milestones for Jun 2006:

Jun 1: Yet another writing opportunity cropped up, but nothing definite yet.

Jun 3: Thanks to a couple of recent posts on a high-traffic site that I was invited to blog for, I cracked 850 pg views today. Most of it was on that site. My own blogs have been suffering lately, with a couple of exceptions. I also cracked $5 in ad rev today, but fell short of my Sep 2005 one-day high of almost $6. Things are starting to get better, at least in terms of average daily revenue.

Jun 4: Shortly before I go to bed (4 am) on Jun 3, just after Google’s own change of date (Pacific time zone), my Adsense report shows the highest amount I’ve ever received for a single click, to date, as far as I’m aware. Later on, after noon hour, I wake up to find that despite being a Sunday - typically slow for the past 2 months - I’ve already cracked $5. Why Google does not give you access in your Adsense control panel to how much you made per click, I don’t know.

Most of the extra ad revenue is coming from one of the sites I’m writing for, which does not pay me per post - just ad revenue. 100% of the page. Owner takes the sidebar and donations. And to think, I almost stopped writing there because of priorities elsewhere (i.e., pay-per-post gigs). The day ends with the second-highest single-day ad revenue, and marks two days in a row over $5.

Summary: As you can see by the lack of entries above for the rest of the month, I didn’t have a lot of specific milestones in June. While my traffic and ad clicks were down, I set a new monthly high in Google Adsense revenue, but didn’t quite crack $50.00.

Since a part of that revenue was the result of a few popular articles I posted to a high-volume website, I’m probably going to have to repeat the feat in July and succeeding months. At least until my own traffic is built up.

I didn’t hit $5/d again after Jun 3rd and 4th, but I did hit 3 days where ad revenue was >= $3/d. While my average daily clicks in both long- and short-term periods has been done compared to pre-April, my average earnings per click has gone up significantly. Most of the time, anyways. If I could only find the discipline to just focus on the more lucrative topics…

In addition to the writing gigs I was offered in May, I had two gigs that were on the table. In late June, I was given the go-ahead for both of them. Both blogging gigs may expand in a few weeks, if I can keep up the pace. It’s going to involve a lot of research, but it’ll be worth it. And it doesn’t hurt that I enjoy the topics at hand.

So while my ad revenue is slowly but steadily increasing, my indirect revenue from blogging just jumped up by leaps and bounds. That’s if you consider being paid to blog for other people as being indirect blogging revenue. In other words, I’m not earning anything worthwhile (yet) on my own weblogs, but I am for other people’s weblogs.

Despite my previous long experience in writing, this will be the first time I’ll be making close to a livable wage from writing. I’m not including my technical writing contracts because they have always been a hybrid of writing/ consulting/ programming/ webmastering. I’m talking pure writing, even though I have to perform webmaster duties on my mini-network of blogs, and most importantly, all of which I can do from home.

Because this weblog documents my experiences as an aspiring pro blogger, I’m not embarrassed to admit that my writing earnings are still under the official poverty line. However, all indications are that this will not be for long. And I’ve only been at this seriously for just a tad over a year. Other bloggers have told me they didn’t make any worthwhile income for as long as 19 months.

So the moral of the story is that bloggin’ ain’t easy. But if you have the wherewithal to stick with it, it’ll eventually pay off, possibly in unexpected ways.