The calendar flips and it’s time to reflect on my alternative income from last month. Executive summary: Not as good as last month, but more sustainable.
This was the first time in a couple of months that I didn’t have $500 from Revolution Media Exchange referrals to factor in. I knew this was going to happen so it wasn’t exactly unplanned.
The other disappointment came from the Forbes Network. I’m so disappointed that I’m not even going to link to them. They contacted me last November to be a part of their advertising network. They said that they’d send traffic to me and take 60% of ad sales. I was pretty skeptical, but when Forbes comes calling you have to listen. Many months later, it turns out they don’t really send any significant traffic – I get only 5 to 10 visitors a month. Their ad pricing also doesn’t compare with other advertising networks. I made almost enough to order a pizza with their ads this month. In short, it’s sullying the good name Forbes had built for itself.
With those hits to my alternative income, I was pretty worried that I’d be heading in the wrong direction. Then something interesting happened… the Google AdSense that had dropped to 30% of what it was bringing in, grew 70%. This is why it’s great to have various income streams. That replaced a good chunk of the $500. When a couple of new ads came in, it was almost a wash in the end. I’m also seeing some growth on Lazy Man and Health and at some point it may even turn from something that I do for mostly fun to something that brings in a profit. It all lead me to bring in a revenue of $1646.92 after taxes, but only $1330.26 after expenses.
The outlook for July is actually pretty good. I’d expect it to be one of my weaker months as people head away on vacation. However, the trend is moving up. Website traffic is moving up (thank you, readers). I’m crossing the “T”s and dotting the “I”s on a partnership that I’m increasing getting excited about. I’m also working on two or three projects, which if they work, will boost the bottom line quite a bit. I have to admit though, there’s a lot of sweat equity going into them.
Oh man, yeah I was looking forward to working w/ Forbes too – sent over the signed contract and all, and then not a word since. Not even a “sorry, you are not accepted”. pshhhhh.
I’m glad July’s looking better for ya!
Great report, thanks for it.
Given that the vast majority of us don’t have blog income streams, what would you recommend for us mere mortals?
Way to go Lazy Man! It’s always good to see solid returns for your hard work. :)
Chris, it’s extremely difficult. I came in with the idea that I wasn’t going to be able to make any money online… that I was just going to have fun and help people. Then some offers came in and things changed.
I hate to fall back on the, help someone and you will be helped, argument, but I don’t know have anything major to suggest…
… actually I do.
1. Write content that people are interested in (I’m still working on that).
2. Market yourself and your content in appropriate, non-annoying ways.
I know how you feel LMM. I miss those RME referrals too.
I also got the offer to join the Forbes network but never followed up on it. Based on your experience, I’m glad I didn’t take the time to join.
Thanks for sharing your experiences and details on your alternative income .. it really helps!
I still remember the first time I saw some Amazon revenue ($1.94) “” I was so excited! Hopefully one day I’ll be making alternative income to almost cover my expenses too.
I got an invitation from Forbes but decided against it since the application was so long. It looks like I made the right choice.
I’d love to get my income up to where yours is at but I only have a fraction of your traffic. Still,I should make a 4 figure profit for the year so I’m not complaining.
I did sign up for Adify ( which is basically Forbes’s network). I made three times as much in May as June. My traffic was the same for both months. The reason is that there were too many sites that signed up and not too many advertisers to sign up for the Adify network. Thus you do not get paid for every impression at your site, because most of the times the ad spaces show some generic stuff, for which you don’t get paid. Anyways, the CPM at Forbes is super low. And the payout is $100.
I have come to realize that google adsense is the best way to monetize your blog for small bloggers.
O.D., I experienced exactly the same things. It seems a good ad in May wasn’t renewed for June.
Why was this the first month you knew you wouldn’t have $500 coming in from RME? Did you already hit the max on your account(s)? I noticed that I wasn’t getting any RME referrals the last couple weeks. I logged in today and realized I needed to update the referral link.
I also got an invite to join the Forbes network. It now seems like just about everyone got a personal invite. Now I’m glad I didn’t join.
I did max out my account and my wife’s. I thought the promotion was over May 15th, which meant that I wasn’t going to earn anything for June.
It looks like the RME promotion is still going on. I don’t see an end date on the promotion page only a note that, “Revolution reserves the right to terminate the Program at any time with or without notice.”
I think I get it now – you still get $10 if you refer a friend. The friend no longer gets $25 for signing up. That’s how it has changed.
Tom,
I think that you are correct. I had one referral in June but I don’t think the person got the $25 bonus.
In addition, if you had referral links posted to a website they will no longer generate referrals. You need to update the links.
Interesting to hear about Forbes. I’ve been with them not quite a month yet. We’ll see how it turns out.
By the way, did everyone know yet that Google is dropping its Referral ads program in August?