This is a question that I get asked more than any other. I was brought up not to really talk about money and what you earn so I’m always hesitant to do so – but due to the large interest in the subject I’ve from time to time given some indication (it can be vague) of what kind of money blogging brings me.
Keep in mind that I have numerous blogs and these figures are not just for ProBlogger (in fact this blog is one of my smaller earners). I also use a variety of income streams including AdSense, Chitika, Text Link Ads and Amazon Associates (to name just four of the main ones).
update: here are my top earning income streams from my blogging..
Here are a few of the more recent posts I’ve done on the topic:
- Earning a Six Figure Income from Blogging
- Look what Blogging Bought Me – the house that Google Bought
- Network Blogging vs Individual Blogging
- I’m a Six Figure Blogger
- Chitika eMiniMalls – How much do they Earn? – the day eMiniMalls became my number 1 earner!
I should clarify (as its a misconception that I often come across) that my earnings do NOT just come from this blog – rather I have 20 or so that I work on plus am now involved in various others through b5media which I am a co-director in.
I also earn my income via a number of courses including the Adsense program and especially Chitika’s MiniMalls.
I also always like to emphasise that blogging is NOT a get rich quick thing. To balance the links above (and before you run out and quit your job to become a Pro Blogger) I also STRONGLY recommend you take a look at some of the links and information that I mention in my ProBlogger Public Announcement Post.
About Darren Rowse
My name is Darren Rowse and I’m a full time Blogger making a living from blogs like 
I tried a lot to increase revenue with adsense by putting unique content. But not seems to be working. It never adds to traffic.
Fahad: I have been making a living from my websites since 2005 – not just from blogs but websites too. There are 3 things that you should be concerned with to make good money from Adsense:
1. Find a profitable niche. Some websites pay as low as $0.01/click (e.g. wallpaper) and there are those that pay $1.50/click (e.g. credit cards) and higher.
2. Try different ways of integrating your ads, i.e. by blending in or making them stand out. Also, ad units perform better than link units and images. Keep in mind that having more ad units doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll earn more but guarantees that your readers will be distracted/irritated.
3. Make sure that you market your website/blog well. On average, expect 2-3% CTR for content websites/blogs, and less than 1% for wallpaper websites and forums for example. Optimizing your ad placement can bring your CTR to 7-8% – I have experienced 12% CTR on a particular website.
Hope that helps. I blog about SEO, online marketing and making money from the Internet at http://www.larrylim.net/seo-online-marketing/
While I’m not a full time blogger, but I still got good income (5 figure) from the Net on monthly basis. Mostly it comes from my affiliates, Google Adsense, TLA and other venture.
I just happen to became a paid reviews using one of my blogs. Right now I have about 10 website and blogs managed entirely by myself.
I think google adsense program is the best way to make money online. All other ad program are not that much important.
I have not recieved my First cheque From Adsense till now.. I have been running a website from 2 years
I liked your blogposts. I have started Oracle apps blog where I post interview questions, faqs etc. How more I can help the users to read my blog?
http://easyapps.blogspot.com
Thanks
Rao
I also have about 5 blogs. I have even followed advice from famous AdSense gurus (even bought their ebook). But I still haven’t earned a $100. I dream about earning atleast $500 a month. Do you have any tips except the fact that Ad placement is important??
Being a starter blogger I haven’t made any serious money to this day. (13 cents and counting)
I just wanna say thanx for the enormous amount of usefull tips and info you have put up here, which for starter bloggers are a valuable guideline on the road to blogging succesfully.
Dennis
http://www.mad-bike.com/blog
so you earn money from blogging? now how do you receive your earnings? by mail? or thru your bank account? do they give it to you cash or check? How?
I was going to buy blog but decide to buy file hositng site. http://www.bigfilez.com. My question is which is better?
Run an ads yourself or adsense. I know it is easier to run google adsense but do you make more money running your own ads in the long run?
Unless you are doing serious traffic, adsense is like nickel and dime
Check out my site:
http://www.bigfilez.com
I enjoy reading your blog and I am getting a lot of inspiration from it.
Thanks for a great blog I will try and see what I can do with mine
i tried using adsense too in a blog. its great. see my website abt poems!
but i love problogger. hope to earn like him one day!
There are many people interested to know how much money a blogger can make, but they neglect how much a blogger to put the effort in . Darren, may be next time you should make a post ” how much time/resouce I spend in blogging” :P
just my 2 cent
Thanks Darren for all the helpful tips. I started a blog on funny contents 2 months back, now i do see some traffic building up but not the adsense revenue.
Only time I get good adsense revenue is when I publish my content it on various social networking sites – some times it get to homepage for some resulting in some revenue. Otherwise no revenue from people coming from google. Hope it improves in future.
Great set of links. A lot of money is to be made from AdSense however I think that their payouts have gone down substantially since its inception.
Google adsense still my favorite program to generate income
hi. im a blogger too. but my blog does not earn so well.i only have 5 dollars. and i still dont have a page rank. and yet i have a nice blog.so pls help me how to earn….
I just made 10$ in 1month from Google Adsense.
My blog is at:
http://analogstuff.blogspot.com
I didn’t realize Chitika was such a high earner for you. I’ve heard about it but never bothered giving it a try. I focus a lot on Adsense which I absolutely love. I’ll have to keep Chitika in mind for future blogs. Thanks
your site has always been an inspiration to me
thanks
I have been working hard to become a pro blogger. I also have a lot of blogs that I keep updated and I found out that certain blogs bring more than others. I guess that it is the way you write and what you write about.
I feel that blogging does not work. To me custom sites only have worked.
Nice write-up, but most people would love to be spoon-feed since they most times don’t get the right traffic after following some of the pro assumed miracle working advise, but the truth is “time” and a good piece every time, makes your blog attract the right traffic, also note that not that people don’t visit, but having the right article every time on your site, that will keep them coming back matters most and that is the issue.
Hope to meet you all at the top.
thanx Darren for sharing your earnings,but why you don’t have adsense in your blog?
are you banned from the program?
or valueclick is better for you?
How long does the low-page-rank web or blog get revenue from selling pages to advertiser?
Well, think I’ll try chikita in a while. Currently looking into private ads, as I think these will offer me more value. Have earned a little from adsense over the last few days, and I haven’t even started my challenge yet – so that’s good!
Hopefully I’ll be earning in the region I want to by 2009, if not, then I’ll just have to work that little bit harder!
Thinking of checking out your six figure blogging course in april next year as currently on Yaro’s blog mastermind and on teaching sells – don’t want to overload myself.
Wow, six figures, but 20+ blogs. That seems like a ton and a half of work.
Great tips and help. Also very helpful comments and link. I am not so good earning from blogging but still trying. Love to follow many useful tips found here
I made two blogs on earning money online (all my programs are very good and really help earn some good money) which earn a few from google and bidvertiser. I still am improving. I think trying many more different ways and have some patience is important to earn online.
Good to mention it’s not a get quick scheme. 6 figures though is pretty impressive, and gets me interested.
you lot think its so easy dont you/!
blogging is a waste of time and doesnt get you as much money as a website.
my earnings are between $600-$850 a month, with little work at all, just about 20 mins a day and thats it.
but its only come to this after 9 months of hard intense web developing labour- 3-7 hours a day, 4-5 times a week at the start.
now i think its paid off, and my earnings should increase over the next year or so.
believe me, now theres no point of blogging, just remeber there are about millions of blogs on the same topic, think of something new, my websites on music, so obviously, im gonna get huge traffic.
Adsense is one of my better earners, just like with you. I wish you more success in the future, keep blogging I think you are doing a great job. The more blogs the merrier, eh? As long as the quality doesn’t slip, then you’ve got a gold mine.
Wow, well I can say, that I’ve been earning a consistent
$1,000 a month from my blogs. I own 4 that I keep up to date with regularly. I write new post 3- 4 time a week all which are keyword targeted.
So yes earning money with blogs like am is very possible, but keep in mind that I am still the small guy. There are many more out there that are earning much much more then I am.
Paul
Till now adsense is the # 1 earner for me,next ix text-link-ads.
Wow $1000 a month..i will be happy if i make that kind of amounts..!!!!
I started a couple of weeks ago and I don’t spend much time in the blog (max 20 minutes a day) however I experience an increasing traffic.
By the way, Adsense would need some fine tuning, the ads are not so relevant.
Best CTR is with Amazon, however they don’t PPC…
My blog http://www.eeejournal.com
Hi Darren, I recently started up my own blog about family life, nutrition and frugal finance. It’s most important to me to have quality content but I was curious about how to go about responsibly – but effectively – monetizing it. Thank you for all of your tips here on ProBlogger!
Hi
Your stats looks great! I wish I could make such money in my blogging life in one day!!
I’m still building my blogs and need to study more about blog monetization. It will be great to get income from blogs. I got an idea now ! Thanks for the good information !
Does anyone want to post any proof of their income?
is there any PPC site that can beat adsense? I don’t think so, but maybe tribal fusion can give this hope
I also have several sources of web income (sites and blogs). i have to agree that so far Adsense is the top earner. But I have also experimented with Kontera and Amazon.
Its not enough to make a living off of but it is more that enough to pay for the cost of webhosting.
Scott
http://itfixed.blogspot.com
Interesting information.
Since the Google Slap i have been finding it difficult to balance my google adwords costs and Google adsense earnings. I used to pay minimal cost per click and reaping the rewards through high adsense clickthroughs and earnings. Now this method is defunct since all my keywords in Google adwords are sky high.
Interesting Why Yahoo is not introduce yahoo lab?
I just started my blog and I’m trying Google Adsense right now. I hope it works for me. If I’m not mistaken, Google will penalize our Pagerank if we serve Text Link Ads, am I right?
My blog is a computer tips blog. I feel that it’s really hard making money through computer blog. And this is maybe I’m not really motivated in writing posts. I call myself lucky when I earn a penny from a click. It seems that everybody has seen the same ads from a computer blog to another computer blog. And I also feel that tech guy tend to not clicking the ads when they see ads. What do you think?
It’s amazing how many people have succeeded in living the internet marketing lifestyle through monetizing their blogs. I’ve never tried blogging and have only done some affiliate marketing. I guess blogging isn’t for everyday, particularly for folks to prefer to stay in the ‘backscene’.
I’m not curious on how much you earn from blogging, but I’m curious how could you manage many blogs while sometimes I feel overwhelm only with one blog :D