April has come to a close and that means it’s time for another income report. You can click the “continue reading” link below to skip right to the goods, but for those that are new to my blog I like to include this disclaimer: These income reports aren’t meant to brag at all (many people make considerably more money than me) instead I’m trying to use this as a means to help motivate myself to reach my goal of $150k in 2010 while at the same time keeping me publicly accountable. With that said, let’s get onto the earnings:
Income Graph:
Income Analysis:
My biggest earner of the month was of course the Amazon Associates program with $4,843.76 which took up 84% piece of the pie. I’m back up $800 from the last month due to increased traffic across my network of websites and a few new linking strategies I’ve implemented. As I mentioned before, I’m in the process of putting together more info to share on how I earn money with Amazon’s Associates program so be sure to subscribe to my blog so that you don’t miss out. If you are looking for a resource to use to help improve your earnings with Amazon’s associates program you should check out my article on Top 7 tips I used to make $41,438.42 in 2009 with Amazon Associates. I also suggest that if you’re struggling to earn money with Amazon Associates be sure to avoid these common pitfalls. My goal continues to be $5,000+ per month earnings with Amazon.
Google Adsense was about $50 higher than in March which admittedly isn’t a large amount but it is a 20% increase. To earn this additional amount I simply looked at the last month earnings report on the 10 different ad types I used in various sizes and colors and eliminated the lowest performing units that had been cycling in my ad slots via the OIOpublisher plugin. As I’ve said before, I really want to get another source of income earning more than $1,000 per month and it will either be Google Adsense or Private Advertisers that make it there first.
Private Advertisers:
I’m still trying to push this number higher and sadly haven’t had a lot of success with third parties to help sell advertising (i.e. BuySellAds.com and Technorati Media). As I’ve stated before, I believe my best chance at succeeding in my goal of earning over $150,000 in 2010 will require me to start making four figures a month from private advertisers. When I have my first $1,000+ month in a category other than Amazon’s affiliate program I’ll have a mini celebration.
Vibrant Media, Click Bank, eBay Partner Network and other Misc Earnings
I used Vibrant Media ads for most of the month and still managed to earn a respectable $154.91. My experiments with using ClickBank products has paid off and I earned even more with them in April. eBay Partner Network only gave $55 and I only use them on a couple websites in a single skyscraper ad slot. I also got a few other random affiliate commissions paid to my Paypal account but there wasn’t enough to warrant discussing it here.
Wrap up:
Now that I’ve eliminated the lowest performing Adsense units I’m going to test out some new more aggressive inline ad placements. I’ve been hesitant of this strategy in the past because I monetize most of the websites in my network with Amazon’s affiliate program and I don’t want users to click away and buy something via an Adsense link when I can earn much more for selling a product via Amazon. But the only way to earn more money (besides getting more traffic) is to constantly experiment with monetization strategies. To ensure the new placements via Adsense do not canabilize my Amazon earnings I’ll be monitoring both the number of clicks to Amazon links as well as the amount I’m earning on a daily basis. Finally, I still need to sell more private advertising space. I’m going to drop the prices I set via 3rd party networks to see if I can entice some more sales on the blogs I’m running 3rd party ad code on. I also use OIOpublisher to serve ads on other blogs and I highly recommend you buy that WordPress plugin.
I have several more interesting case studies to share in May so be sure to subscribe to my blog so that you don’t miss out.
Looking forward to reading more about your Amazon process. I’m just getting started with it myself so it will be interesting to see what works for you.
Sounds good – let me know how your efforts pan out too.
Chris
Wow, this is a very good income online. However at this pace, seems like you will hit about 60K in 2010.. Which is not bad at all of course..
.-= Blogging Banks´s last blog ..$100 Bank of America Yankees Account Cash Bonus =-.
Yah, so I have a couple of things I’m working on to help improve my income and I also anticipate I will hit five figure months in both November and December if I play it all right.
You’re right though I have fallen behind a bit unfortunately 🙁
I’ve been an internet marketer for a long time but I am a complete novice when it comes to Amazon associates. I have a couple sites with Amazon on them but it was pretty much just thrown up there without much thought. However, I would really like to start using it more to add another stream of income to my business. So I am very interested to see your process since you obviously have it mastered.
.-= Trent @ Earn Money´s last blog ..How to Make Money Right Now =-.
Hey Trent, I heard a few people via email ask me to show a video of some of the more specific examples of the stuff I do so perhaps I’ll try that out as well.
That would be great!
.-= Trent @ Earn Money´s last blog ..How to Make Money Right Now =-.
that must help many chris
looking forward for the videos
I have one Amazon site that does quite well and several others that are not performing as I would like. Thanks for the motivation to keep on going!
That is a very nice monthly income this month. It is always nice to see an increase from month to month. Keep up the great work. Thanks for sharing. Greg Ellison
.-= Greg Ellison´s last blog ..Video � Luna Playing Outside =-.
Chris,
It’s good to see that Amazon is still doing well for you.
I see that you’ve dabbled in quite a few ad networks and affiliate programs, but was wondering if you’ve thought about using related CPA advertisements for your traffic?
Hey Yolanda,
Could you be more specific? i.e. do you mean stuff like Commission Junction instead?
Chris
Thanks Chris. Sharing is caring. You had a pretty good increase tbh. you should be stoked.
Why do you think your traffic slipped for your amazon sites, then picked up again? What could have caused this? Did you move down in the search engine rankings?
Could just be the content I was writing. Not certain as traffic remained fairly constant.
First time I’ve seen your work, Chris. Very impressive and I appreciate your transparency and tips!
Question: do you notice or measure if your Amazon customers only buy the item(s) you promote, or are there some random items in the mix also? (I am waiting for someone to go to Amazon for shinguards and happen to pick up a Kindle or two LOL)!
.-= JennyLee Watson´s last blog ..Run, Forrest, Run . . . but . . . Don�t Run, Little Pele? Huh? =-.
Hey JennyLee, yes I would say 70% of my earnings come from people that are buying something that I was promoting on my website. The other 30% are buying other things since they just happen to be there. That’s partly why I love Amazon so much. (despite the 24 hour cookie)
Chris, just recently found your site, great blog man! My question is this (and you’ve probably already answered this): how many sites do you have in your network? And what kind of linking strategies and SEO strategies do you use?
10+ blogs, some forums and some general info websites. I don’t really have any silver bullet strategy when it comes to linking. I just use the usual suspects – social bookmarketing, directories (less though now), comment on do follow blogs (little), link bait articles, etc.
Hi Chris
Are you saying that the bulk of the April income posted above comes from 10+ amazonsites? If so those are pretty amazingly good numbers to be getting if mostly based on organic niche traffic. Good work!
.-= Mark´s last blog ..Beginner info on Adwords and traffic =-.
I’m interested about your amazon earnings. hope to learn more about them for I am going to start a blog soon taht is set to earn from amazon.
.-= paul | entertainment tonight´s last blog ..Meet Jack � Teenternational at Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition 3 =-.
[…] Make Money on the Internet April 2010 Income Report […]
Hi Christ,
Thank you for sharing the information and congratulations on your earning. This is the first time I am here so I need to look around before I ask you suitable questions. They may have been answered in your other posts.
I have been doing Amazon for awhile but do not get good result. I have seen your tips on warrior forums and I understand why. I did all the DON’T things you mentioned.
I may have some questions after I have read more of your posts.
Cheers,
Jim
.-= Jim Somchai´s last blog ..How Your Food Appetite Works: The Truth that You Should not Miss =-.
Awesome job Chris. I just discovered your site today and I must say you are killing it on Amazon. I’m off to read that article next.
.-= Mike Roosa´s last blog ..Don�t Obsess Over Stats =-.
Thanks Mike. Yah I’m still trying to diversify my income streams a bit. It’d be nice to get my income up to $10k monthly with 50% of that being Amazon and the rest of it taken up between private advertisers, Adsense etc. so that’s what I’m trying to do right now.
I’m just curious, how much is TAX for such activities in the States?
.-= Mike´s last blog ..2010 � new road, new challenges? =-.
Hey Mike,
I’m married and filing jointly. My wife just finished grad school but she has six months of unpaid internships so simply put she won’t get a job until 2011.
So my tax bracket will be 15% up to $68,000 in income and 25% on anything from $68k up to $137k
If I sell a few of my websites I’ll probably be put into the $137k to $209k tax bracket which is 28%.
In either case I’ll be reinvesting as much money possible and maxing out my IRA contribution as well to minimize the amount of taxes I have to pay.
How come I don’t see any Amazon affiliate products here and yet you are making the most out of Amazon.
I don’t produce an income from this website. I have about 10 other niche sites that I use to make money from Amazon on.
So it seems that most of your Amazon income comes from one gadget niche site. Isn’t it true. Congrats anyway and good luck for your online journey.
I have two questions: what did you use to make that pie chart of your earnings, and what plugin are you using to add the additional checkboxes for your newsletter and follow on Twitter to your comment form? Those are awesome!
I just used Excel to create a pie graph and then just used the print screen button to paste it into Photoshop.
The plugin I’m using is Standout Comments. Look on my blog for the “best wordpress plugins” you’ll see it on the list there and I also got a coupon code available to help save you some money.
Thanks! I’ll check it out… definitely looks like something I need!
.-= Kikolani´s last blog ..Make Money Blogging =-.
Also, just wanted to say your Amazon earnings are amazing. I’m going to check out the tips on how you made your profits last year. I’ll take any help as I’ve only made about $.30 so far from them. Ever.
It all really depends on the niche too. I’ve been to your main blog and it wouldn’t be best to bother with Amazon on there except perhaps with book reviews maybe. But I assume you have some other sites you can try it out with.
Great post on WF and thanks for sharing. I have recently had some success as an amazon affiliate but nowhere near your income! Would love that thought!! I have been motivated by the content here to work a little harder to make something decent out of it. I am so glad I have chosen amazon affiliate as my business model and surely the content I find here will greatly help me on my journey. 10 sites is pretty good as everyone keeps going on about 100-150 mini sites! Fantastic!
Thanks!
.-= Abbie´s last blog ..Affiliate Marketing =-.
Thanks Abbie! I so think the 100 – 150 site strategy is also viable but I prefer to focus my efforts on sites that can earn at least $xxx per month and it’s worked pretty well for me.
Chris,
Nice blog you have here. Its great t see real people making money. Not this guru stuf of “$100,000 a month”
Well, I started internet marketing at the end of February and have made well over a $1000 from clickbank.
Am very interesting in learning more about Amazon. You are really making a dime out of them!
Dennis
OMG! seems you’re like a god father to earn money in amazon! Now onwards, I follow you website. Going to subscribe ur blog.
.-= Arun | A Shout´s last blog ..Work 3 minutes and earn max of $2++ and min of $0.10 =-.
I always like to see these kinds of posts that have grown over time. The income information therefore gains credibility. It is good to se Amazon still performing well. Thanks for posting.
.-= mike@Simple Seo´s last blog ..High conversions with effective sales funnels =-.
My wife and I just decided to start learning more about internet marketing and it’s because of stories like yours. I understand that most people probably aren’t making the kind of money you are online, but we’re hoping to get there someday. Thanks for the great post.