This is the second month I’ve documented my income for 2010. As I mentioned before, these posts aren’t meant to brag at all (many people make WAY 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. There was a time I couldn’t even afford to pay for my dedicated server’s $200 a month cost with the money I made online so it’s been a long and arduous road. In any case, I believe what I share in these reports will help other internet entrepreneurs so I’ll continue to post them along with the steps I’m taking to improve earnings in each respective category I make money from. I am also willing to help out others that ask questions. I respond to every blog comment as well as personal emails. With that disclaimer in place, let’s move onto the earnings continued after the break:

Income Graph:

Income Analysis:

Amazon Associates:

My biggest earner of the month again was of course the Amazon Associates program with $4,664.22 at a whopping 88% piece of the pie. This is a drop of about $1,000 from last month, but because February is the shortest month of the year I knew the earnings would be lower. It’s also worth noting that because February ended on a weekend and items don’t ship out on Saturday / Sunday (so I didn’t get credit until Monday March 1st) it’s as if February was even shorter. I bought a new WordPress plugin called PHPzon (from the makers of PHPbay) and I’m experimenting with it right now on a few of my niche websites. From what I can tell it should be able to help me make even more money from Amazon Associates. Check out my article on how to improve your Amazon Associates earnings if you’re struggling to make progress with them and be sure to avoid these common pitfalls. My goal continues to be $5,000+ per month earnings with Amazon (even though I fell short in February).

Google Adsense:

Google Adsense was lower in February than January but not by much. I sold more private advertising so I lost a few slots that Adsense had previously been used in so I’m not too concerned about the results. In January I said I was going to spend more time testing and I have already made a few changes that should really improve my earnings on Google Adsense for March. I’m still going to spend more time testing and analyzing ways to improve my Google Adsense earnings through minor tweaks (i.e. color, border / no border) as well as mixing up the placement. My goal for Google Adsense is to reach $1,000+ per month before Q2 and move on from there, but I need to make significant strides to reach that milestone.

Private Advertisers:

This is something I’m constantly trying to push in 2010 and what I believe will be my best chance at succeeding in my goal of earning over $150,000 in 2010. I think that using Private Advertisers over programs like Google Adsense and eBay Partner Network will always provide more money because you’re cutting out the middle man and locking people into fixed monthly rates that don’t fluctuate. More importantly, if you have a web property that matches up really well with a company that sells a product related to your niche then you can get a solid income stream for ‘life’. Last month I emailed a company asking them to advertise on my blog because I believe it is a good fit. This could end up blowing up in my face and damaging a relationship, but I think it’s worth the risk. (I’ll be sure to tell you how this strategy in procuring advertising works in a follow up post). I truly believe by years end private advertisers could rival the $5,000k plus I currently pull in from Amazon Associates and fortunately this month was the first time I’ve had an increase in this chunk of the pie.

eBay Partner Network InfoLinks and Misc Earnings

I’ve decided to remove earnings from InfoLinks, eBay Partner network, Click Junction and other small earners unless I make more than $100 per month with them so that I can save time compiling these reports. I still believe the absolute best way to make money with eBay’s Partner network is to take advantage of the WordPress plugin PHPbay so if you’re looking to implement ads on your blog from the eBay partner network I recommend try it out. The price is currently $79.

Wrap up:

So my main focus points for March include optimizing Google Adsense and selling more private advertising space. I currently use OIOpublisher to serve ads on my blogs and I use that plugin to help optimize and test my ad space. Without a doubt it’s the best $47 I’ve spent in this space. If you’re a blogger and don’t have it yet, buy it.In any case I’m looking forward to next month and earning more than $5,294.95.

I’ll be giving an update on my Five Figure Niche Network case study this month and I have an exciting new update to my command center I’ll be sharing via video blog post later this week. For the gamers out there you won’t want to miss it 😀