Comments on: On blogging and money

By: Funny

Funny — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:05:08 +0000

@ Revanche & Mrs. Accountability: I don’t understand where the traffic is coming from, but I’m not arguing. One or two posts achieved great popularity (notoriety??) and stayed popular for a long time, and one post hit LifeHacker, which briefly jacked up the traffic. Apparently a fair number of folks read my maunderings, and (since I have no spies out there madly punching at advertising) some of them must be interested in some of the ads they see. It’s an interesting phenomenon, this whole Web business.

One thing you have to say for Adsense is that it does seem to generate relevant graphics. A lot of the ads fit the content surprisingly well (some of it’s a little strange, but hey…you can’t be 100 percent all the time).

I’d like to try buying one of those ads, to see if it would generate readership. But am a little cautious about spending on that…it feels a lot like buying a lottery ticket.

By: Mrs. Accountability

Mrs. Accountability — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:38:05 +0000

Wow, Funny, you’re doing pretty darned great with Adsense!! $100 for just three months? Whoa. I’ve had Adsense on my site since July 2008, and I’m barely at $23.56 for all time. Why, just today I made TWO CENTS, and yesterday FOUR. I’ll be able to retire in no time. I guess Adsense pays me about 1 penny for every ten hours I’ve put into my blog. LOL.

By: Revanche

Revanche — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:45:49 +0000

Yep, you’re telling me. But to be honest, I experience a whole lot less traffic than most PF blogs, so it’s not surprising. I’m sort of determined to get that d@&$ed check before I jump ship, but I will have to spend some time looking into affiliate advertising while I’m a free bird.

By: funny

funny — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 06:02:54 +0000

@ Revanche: Holy mackerel! So they’ve been running ads for free on your site for the past three years? Now THAT’s a rip-off.

Have you looked into affiliate advertising? Some people seem to have better luck with that. Also, both ProBlogger and Dave Taylor have a lot of information and ideas about generating revenues, including leads to Adsense alternatives.

By: Revanche

Revanche — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 23:59:31 +0000

I’ve long passed my three year anniversary and STILL haven’t cracked the $100 mark on the Adsense account so you’re still ahead of me in the real life experience. I’m flirting with the idea of just going with text links if any of the contacts I’ve received are legitimate. Assessing THAT, however, is another bit of time I’ve not yet invested.

By: funny

funny — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 18:01:07 +0000

Yeah, I think it’s a matter of time for most of the successful blogs, although some of them succeed quickly because the proprietor has an original, truly interesting, useful, or fun idea.

@ frugalscholar: I do enjoy Get Rich Slowly. J.D. Roth is a wonderful writer with a distinctive, likable voice. You can’t read GRS without connecting with the guy. If you read very much of his stuff, though, you come to realize that not only is he a very good writer, he also is sophisticated with things technical. It’s clear that he does very much know what he’s doing. In his case, I think it’s a combination of native talent, technical expertise, and hard work. The same appears to be true of Trent Hamm: personally, I enjoy J.D.’s writing style a bit more, but Trent also is a strongly competent writer, technically knowledgeable, and an extremely hard worker. Neither one of those two lets any grass grow under his feet. Which may go to prove the old saw about 98 percent of genius…

By: frugalscholar

frugalscholar — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:46:22 +0000

Actually, I think the personal finance bloggers who got started earlier (i.e. only about 3 years ago) and attracted a big audience make plenty from ads. I don’t read Get Rich Slowly regularly any more, but when he quit his job around 1 year ago, he was making $5000/month from his blog. I’m sure it’s more now. But I think his PF blog was only around 2 years old at that time.

You are one of the best writers around! I think the early start makes a big difference–a la Gladwell’s Outliers: combo of talent with a large dose of luck.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:58:55 +0000

I’ve not had much luck with AdSense either, in 8 months now I’ve made at total of about $40. I’ve had a lot more success with Amazon affiliates and Chitika (Chitika is kind of like adsense but only shows your ads to people who arrived via google search so that your “friends” don’t have to see the ads).