I always like to start these posts by saying they 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. There was a time I couldn’t even afford to pay for my server’s $200 a month cost with the money I made online so it’s been a long and arduous road. In this update I’m addressing my goals for 2010 based on Q1’s performance which will be 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 $4,085.33 which took up 84% piece of the pie. This is a drop of about $600 from last month, which is primarily due to a softening of traffic across my network of websites. 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. In the mean time, 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.

Google Adsense:

Google Adsense was about $100 higher than in March and I’m currently still testing a wide variety of placements, sizes and colors across my network of websites. Starting in April I’m going to be convert my ad units over to the highest paying placements, sizes and colors that I tested during the month of March and because of this I expect to earn at least $500 next month with Adsense. I really want to get another source of income earning more than $1,000 per month and it will be a race between Google Adsense and Private Advertisers so we’ll see how it turns out.

Private Advertisers:

I’m still trying to push this number higher and have started experimenting with using 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

This month I tried to add up every single program I made money on last month. I tested out Vibrant Media’s in text solution over Infolinks (see my Infolinks review) and I’m very pleased with the results. On the test website I used I earned about triple what Infolinks was paying. I’ll have an in depth review up later this month that provides more details. I’ve also started experimenting with using ClickBank products as you can see by the $100 I earned from them last month. eBay Partner Network only gave $32.89 which is so small it’s almost worth removing them from the few websites I use them on, but I’m not sure what else to replace them with. I tested out Yahoo Publisher Network in March on one website that usually earns about $80 from Adsense and as you can see the results were dismal. No wonder Yahoo decided to shut down their beta program. The payout is terrible!

Wrap up:

So my main focus points for April include removing the Google Adsense units that performed worse and tweaking the ones that performed best. I also need to sell 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. I’ve also decided to open up advertising for sale on my blog here.

I have several more interesting case studies to share in April so be sure to subscribe to my blog so that you don’t miss out.