October marks the last month that I’m doing all this part time as I will be giving up a very well paying job for this! However, I’m happy to report that it’s been another record setting month on the income end! Hopefully with more time, I will earn more money as I will be experimenting more, writing more articles and spending time marketing my blogs (something I desperately need to do).

Blog Income

• Market Leverage - $228.85
• Rocket Profit - $578.85
• Neverblue Ads - $20.50
• Commission Junction - $35.00
• Pepperjam Network - $90.00
• Private Ads - $3014.72
• Text Link Ads - $942.64
• Link Worth - $392.52
• Adsense - $491.22
• Ebay Network Partners - $50.30
• Newstex - $10.09
• Blog Consulting - $47.75
• ADSDAQ - $30.76
• ValueClick - $14.16
• Total - $5,947.36

I’m one happy guy right now! Let me give a breakdown:

Affiliate Marketing - $953.20
This month was a little weak in this area as expected because I didn’t really spend much time on this. I did have many things to take care of before I leave my job but there’s no excuses. It really shows that hard work pays off so I will try to spend more time in this area this month!

Private Ads - $3014.72
This totally exploded this month as many people contacted me for ads etc! This area is totally tied to the popularity of the industry and my respective blogs so I really look forward to more growth in this area!

Ebay Network Partners - $50.30
This was a nice surprise since I didn’t update the blog that had all the eBay links at all. I believe that the increase (from less than $10 every month) comes from the fact that people are just buying more during the holiday seasons.

CPM Ad Networks - $44.92
I’ve had it with Value Click. While I still made some money with them, I stopped using them mid month because I’m fed up with the system automatically adding low cpm ads (think less than $0.10). On my blogs, I currently run ADSDAQ (where I set my own price) and have affiliate ads as backup for times when the spot isn’t sold.

Final Thoughts
Every month when I prepare this post, it feels like a dream because I would never think that something like this was possible. The interesting thing with the Internet is that unlike the real world, you are rewarded with your brain (your writing, your dedication, your hard work) instead of your looks, your race, nor your sex. As long as you put in the effort, you will have a great chance of succeeding!

Wow another record month!  I’m so excited and feel fortunate of the progress I’ve made this year with everything that’s happened to me and my blogs.

Blog Income

• Market Leverage - $294.60
• Rocket Profit - $649.35
• Commission Junction - $62.00
• Pepperjam Network - $60.00
• Private Ads - $1996.63
• Text Link Ads - $1029.60
• Link Worth - $456.08
• Adsense - $398.60
• Ebay Network Partners - $3.88
• Newstex - $9.31
• Blog Consulting - $358.65
• ADSDAQ - $31.81
• ValueClick - $16.29
• Total - $5,366.80

As I inked a couple multi-month private ad deals, this month was amazing!  Here are some of the highlights.

Affiliate Marketing - $1065.95

This is pretty amazing as I had $0 just 3 months ago.  The CJ and pepperjam income was very surprising as all I did was put up some banners on my site when the cpm networks didn’t fill that particular ad spot.

Rocket Profit and Market Leverage was based on hard work promoting the sites but this month’s projection is going way down because many of the offers I was promoting expired and I haven’t had time to work on this much.  Once I truly quit my day job (starting in November), I will definitely be focusing more effect on this end as this can grow much quicker than all the other revenue streams.

Adsense - $398.60

Google ads continue to perform and it is going up month after month.  It helps that the traffic to my blogs are growing but the main reason for the increase is because of higher paying ads.  I hope that this keeps up as some of my fellow bloggers are getting even higher eCPM than what I’m getting so there is definitely room for me to grow!

New Additons - $57.41

As you can see, I started adding CPM networks into the mix (ValueClick and .  So far, they aren’t performing that well but it’s like free month so those will probably stay.

Final Thoughts

I’m extremely pleased with September’s income!  Even though I doubt that October will be as high as September, I really hope that it will continue to make new highs month after month!  I will keep you posted!

I got an email today from someone who wanted to find a network of 50 people who will intentionally click on each other’s Google Adsense ads.  My first reaction was to email the person back and kindly decline, then let him know that it is against Google’s terms and conditions and wish him good luck.

As I read on however, I was shocked by what he wrote:

… I have already clicked on you ten of your Google ads. You can check your Adsense acct.

This was definitely something I did not appreciate! I logged into my Adsense account and sure enough, the click rate was on the high side. I immediately went to the help center and emailed support of what I noticed in my account and I will await their resolution.

Something I also noticed was that although it shows more clicks, my earnings were actually lower than usual.  Perhaps Google’s automated system already flagged those clicks but hopefully my account won’t be disabled because of this person!

Tips to Keep Your Adsense Account in Good Standing

1. Don’t click on your own ads!
2. Don’t ask anyone else to click on your ads.
3. Don’t show a popup at all for your site that asks users to download or run special software.
4. The pages with Google ads should never be showed on a popup from anywhere.
5. Only show Google ads on sites without prohibited content (check out the program policy for details).
6. Google trademarks cannot be tampered or altered, nor can it be shown to artificially build your site’s credibility without Google’s prior consent.
7. Don’t change the Adsense code
8. Sites with Adsense should provide value for the user in some way.
9. Anything Google deems deceitful for the user is prohibited.
10. The site should be presented in a way that advertisers will want to place ads on the site
11. Publishers should be responsive to emails sent by the Adsense team (this is a little funny because the Adsense team is not always responsive to our emails :))

This is taken from Google’s help center.  For the original list, click here.

For those that are new to the blogging world, I strongly advise not to try gaming the Adsense system!  At the end of the day, this is just a waste of your time as Google is very good at catching people who violate their guidelines.

As mentioned last month, I will be focusing on affiliate marketing much more and so far so good because I was able to pull in about $600 with the first full month! My goal is $1,000 this month and $2,500 by year end!

I started with Market Leverage and also began to push some products with Rocket Profit. I highly recommend joining those two networks because there’s definitely money to be made! Affiliate marketing is definitely the future of my income so I will keep everyone updated on my efforts on this front.

Blog Income

• Market Leverage - $513.60
• Rocket Profit - $82.20
• Private Ads - $1670.20
• Text Link Ads - $1006.30
• Link Worth - $475.00
• Adsense - $307.55
• Ebay Network Partners - $8.85
• Blog Consulting - $280.05
• Total - $4343.75

I was extremely surprised that I blew by the $4,000 mark by quite a bit. It goes to show that as long as you work hard and just keep plugging away in the online world, good things happen!!

Many people add advertisements to their blogs and try to monetize the site as soon as it is up. The time when there are practically no visitors and hence no money to be made. The temptation is obvious. We don’t want to leave money on the table.

When we should start adding ads is one of the most asked questions online today. Everyone wants to know the perfect time to take this step. We want to leave ads out of the blog because we know it may turn off certain visitors but we know that eventually, it is something that has to be done.

Most of us read income reports from other bloggers and then quickly sign up for adsense. We spend hours tweaking and making sure it look perfect on our blog and then we proceed to make $0.02 in the next 30 days.

An Experiment to Illustrate

Last month, I added an adsense unit on two of my newest site. The result, a combined total of $1.69 in earnings. The rest, $177.70 to be exact, came from another 2 sites. At the current pace, I can afford 100 months of adsense-free advertisements on the two new blogs if I’m willing to forgo one month of earnings on two higher traffic sites.

So in my particular case (one that is typical for all new sites), leaving ads off the new sites was an easy choice.

Patience will be Rewarded

There is really no rush to put advertising on a blog. During the first few months of your blog’s life, the focus should be about driving traffic because money will not come unless there is decent traffic and a developed brand.

Notice on BusyBlogging Dot Com that there are no ads yet. This is not because I cannot find advertisers but because I intentionally wanted it to be clear of ads for the first few months to attract as many visitors as possible.

I know that once I start to develop a following by writing good blog content, advertisers will come knocking on my door asking to put ads on my site. Waiting for this to happen will make the decision to put ads onto the blog much more natural, instead of forcing it on the blog just because I cannot wait.

Putting ads on prematurely doesn’t make you money, so hold off and build your blog first.

July’s been a pretty good month for blog income.  I’m excited to report that I spoke with boss about transitioning myself out of my current position so I can pursue my online presence full time.  This means that I will have much more time to devote to this side of the business which will only mean great things about my blog income.

So far, the biggest part of my blog income is with private ads and it will probably stay that way for a while.  I’ve been trying to diversify my income stream the last month and have found some places that shows promise.  As I familiar myself with these new methods, I’m sure good things will happen!

During the last 4 days of the month, I also started playing around with affiliate marketing and it is a very exciting as I generated $50.05 in a couple days alone!  In the coming months, I will definitely be starting to focus more on this area and see where it will take me.

Enough rambling on.  Here’s the breakdown for July:

• Private Ads - $1908.36
• Text Link Ads - $830.23
• Link Worth - $546.25
• Adsense - $179.39
• Affiliate Marketing - $50.05
• Ebay Network Partners - $12.24
• Amazon - $1.84
• Total - $3528.36

Not earth shattering numbers but I enjoy what I do.  I didn’t start long ago so as I put more time and focus into this, I am sure the income will grow!  I will keep you updated!

How 125×125 Ads Became Popular

Google’s dislike for text link ads was made clear when they publicly announced that websites selling text ads will be penalized in terms of search engine rankings.  Since then, the text link ad industry took a huge hit as many people pulled all text ads off their sites.

With the lost of ad revenue, site owners started looking at other advertising methods much more aggressively.  At this point, the 125×125 ad started to attract advertisers from all over.  Some of the reasons this type of ad was popular included (but not limited to):

1. It fit at least 2 ads side by side on the sidebar comfortably, thereby increasing ad revenue
2. Small enough so even novice graphic designers can design something that look good
3. Loads fast enough so many can be populated without affecting site’s load speed

As more and more sites started utilizing this type of ad, bloggers who run popular blogs likeJohn Chow and Problogger started to notice.  It was coincidental that both of these blogs were redesigned around the same time to include this type of ad, which created a huge buzz around the blogsphere on not only the importance of blog designs but also the popularity of 125×125 ads.

If those two blogs put 125×125 sized ads on the runway, Entrecard gave this type of ad the fuel it needed to jump off the popularity charts. This online ad exchange system’s model was based on traffic exchange through 125×125 ads.  As Entrecard explored in popularity, 125×125 sized ads came along for the ride.

This is where Performacing Ads step in.  Cutting through the bells and whistles, it is basically a middlemen that helps you sell 125×125 ads.  Websites who want to sell ads sign up as a publisher and put the sites up for display; advertisers looking to advertise sign up to buy ads.

How Performancing Ads Make Money

As with all middlemen, they make money by taking a cut off your ad revenue. Performancing Ads is no different, taking at most 40% (meaning you keep 60%).  There seems to be a tiered system where they will take less commissions if your ads are performing well but it is not documented well enough for me to explain further.

Thoughts on the Ad System

What I Like
One thing I like about Performancing Ads is that I can customize how many spots I want to sell and how many groups (called regions) of ads I have on each page.  This gives me quite a bit of flexibility because I can sell 4 spots on the side bar and another 6 spots on the footer for example as long as I set it up that way.

Another benefit is that I can put my own ads up within the system, so if I have direct advertising relationships, I can use the system to put them onto my site without anyone taking a cut, which makes management convenient.

Installation
For those of us using Wordpress, it is very easy to install.  After you activate the plugin which is downloadable off the website, all you need is to add a line of code at where you want the ads to appear.  For example, my ad code was

perfads('regionid');

What Needs Improvement

Exchange Ads
When I wanted to book my own ads, I was asked to create a 125×125 ad.  Once I was done, I booked it without problem.  Then, I created two more ads in the ad exchange section for a total of three.

No problems right?  However, when I click on exchange ads now, I only see two and not the one which I originally created!

Where the third one is stored is a mystery.  Perhaps someone can let me know how this could be fixed.

Lack of Control in Managing Ads
In the brief time that I’ve spent using this system, I didn’t see an option to cancel ads. You can argue that this is done on purpose but I should at least be able to control my own ads right? I tried to see what would happen if I added the same ad in the system twice, and the results are self explanatory.

I’ve since contacted them to resolve this issue. I didn’t expect them to get back to me right away as I emailed them late at night but hopefully they can get this rectified in a timely manner.

Final Thoughts

The success of Performacing Ads will lie on its ability to attract advertisers, as new publishers will join the network if everyone in the system is having good results.

Despite the minor issues that I’ve found, this system is easy to implement and as 125×125 ads become more popular, Performacing Ads will be a good source of advertising stream.

These days, everyone is talking about how to make money online.  After reading article after article, success story after success story, it is really tempting to jump in and try to make money online.

What most people don’t realize is that nothing is as easy as it seems.  The successful people in this industry all work hard, are dedicated and love what they do.  Before you consider making money online, here are some things to consider.

1. There is No Secret Formula to Success - Don’t listen to anyone who claims that you will be able to make millions just by following their step by step program.  If it’s so easy to make money, why did they spend time to write all the sales pages to lure you to buy their product when they can use it for themselves?
2. It’s Not As Easy As Everyone Says - Although anyone can do it, not everyone will be able to make it.  There are many people who are successful in this niche, but there are way more that end up failing and quitting.
3. Be Willing to Put in the Hours - Making money online is very time consuming.  I admit that the hours are more flexible than a 9 to 5 job but most people spend more time doing this than their day job.  Once everything is established, you might be able to relax a little bit but be prepared and willing to pour lots of hours learning and tweaking everything or you definitely won’t make it.
4. It is Possible to Make Decent Money but There Are No Guarantees - Nothing in life is a lock.  If you work extremely hard, you will be able to make money online but there are no guarantees.  Don’t take things for granted!
5. You CAN Lose Money - I see so many people talk about the low cost of entry in making money online but what ends up happening is that people spend so much time doing it that they are actually losing so much in opportunity cost.  On top of this, lack of considerations or expenses like advertising and hosting may also burn a hole in your wallet before you reap any rewards.
6. You Will Make Mistakes and You Absolutely Need to Learn From It - Much of your online time will be spent testing different scenarios to see which works best.  Be sure to understand that most ideas will not work but be certain that to learn from them!
7. Try to Learn from Other Bloggers - One of the great things about a crowded niche is that many bloggers like myself have gone through many dead ends and are willing to share.  Read upon what others have to say constantly to not only avoid mistakes but to learn about great ways to make money.
8. Know Your Limitations - No one can do everything.  Don’t spread yourself so thin by trying too many things at the same time that nothing will end up working.
9. Making Money Online is Not Passive Income - By reading up to this point, I hope that you already see that making money online is not really passive income.  It requires time and patience as things change constantly.  If you are looking for the lazy way of making money, doing it online is not for you.
10. If Other People Can Do It, Why Not You - It’s not easy but I never said it was impossible.  There are many people, including myself that is having so much fun making money online.  With passion and dedication, you can do it too.