It just hit me – like a truck – that I’ve just become six figure blogger.
When Andy and I selected that name for our course on entrepreneurial blogging – earning over $100k from blogging in a 12 month period was more of a catchy name and a dream than an achievable thing – but sometime in the last month or so it actually became a reality.
August is over and my monthly Adsense figures were a new record – the daily average was $511.27 with the monthly total coming in at just a stones throw from $16,000 (USD). The following picture is a screen capture (with my personal details blocked out) of the monthly total. It actually ended up being 0.36 cents higher than the total you see there (it all counts I guess).
As you’d expect, I’m pretty happy with that total – but what made me even happier (and made my heart skip a beat) was to look at the total for the past 12 month period and realize that this month’s total took me over the magical $100,000 since 1 September last year. In fact it took me over that mark considerably.
I wasn’t planning on an announcement of earnings this month – but I guess in the lead up to a course on six figure blogging it might be a good thing to actually let people know that it’s possible for a one person show to hit that kind of mark with enough time, luck and honest hard work.
Also read this companion piece to this post
Six Figure Blogging – How Long?
About Darren Rowse
My name is Darren Rowse and I’m a full time Blogger making a living from blogs like 
We are happy for you and for the ones that do not are affraid of working in something new! Congratulations and thanks for sharing your “Geist”
Yeah narf of course these comments are censored – how do you think idiots like “Heywood Jablowme” get through.
The signup is initially for a free conference call.
What’s wrong with that?
And quit putting things in ‘quotes’ like you think it makes it sound all suspicious. You’re the one sounding suspicious. If you don’t like what’s happening here, don’t stay.
I might add, and remind people, that, according to Darren, he has 15 blogs. It ain’t all from one blog! you gotta remember that when you’re trying to work out why your one and only blog makes nothing like $15K a month.
I know he’s talked about some doing better than others, but averaging it out, comes to $1000 per blog which is $33 a day. And that’s probably a lot more realistic. And a good goal to aim for.
Not many people are going to make six figures with one blog. Well, not in a hurry anyway.
BTW Binary Zero – of course it’s Photoshopped!! How else do you think he blocked out the private information?
Wow — Congrats! We have seen increasing $$$ recently as well…
Bone
http://bonesmith.blogspot.com/
I’m amazed… I only hope my own blogs can give me even a fraction of that someday.
Congratulations, again.
congrats..Darren. I am happy for you. You are the master of all bloggers. WE salute you
And yet the money that you are making, and will make, from your blogging is still only a small fraction of what will ultimately be derived from blogging. We argue at http://www.perceptric.com that the revolution underway in blogging will be topped by the integration of blogging into commercial organizations and business processes. Like any small business, it’s taken immense hard work over several years for you to get to six figures.Many others might make that much too.And the market is certainly growing quickly. But the real money will come as companies embrace blogging to change their culture, their business activities, their marketing, their processes, their internal collaboration. And funnily enough, it will be the work of blogs like this that will have shown the way forward to the big, conservative companies and business organizations.
Congratulations on your achievement, not only is it good news for you, it’s good news for every blogger out there trying to reach profit with their blog(s).
Hopefully this will also lead to better content driven blogs and more quality for the blogosphere.
Wow, I would love to earn that much each month through Adsense. I still haven’t earned my first $100 though required to be paid by Adsense. Maybe after some redesign to some sites and more promotion I will be able to get there.
Congrats, Darren! You deserve your success after so much hard work.
Simply amazing, congrats Darren !
To the naysayers I can only say that if you knew what Darren has done for me and my wife, without even knowing us “offline,” you would be eating your own words for dinner.
Congrats, Darren…you are, and will remain, THE MAN! : )
Thanks for all of the kind words, encouragement, and outright help.
We are forever in your debt, my friend. Hope you’re having an excellent and relaxing weekend away from the computer!
–Cary & Lori
Congratulations Darren, but what is the real deal?
What were the ads promoting, and are the customers who bought the products promoted by AdSense satisfied with their purchases?
Are bloggers wanting to make money by running ads on their blogs? Then the blog becomes a vending machine and the content is going to possibly encounter credibility disadvantages.
When a blogger publishes great relevant useful valuable content, it would be very nice if he or she could make money at the same time.
I would love to see all high quality bloggers be able to live on blogging alone, and not have to work the crappy jobs that most people are resentfully forced to take just to survive.
What I cannot figure out is why anyone would click on an ad that appears on a blog. I think most blog ads look bad and I have no trust in whatever sites they lead to. Then again, I’m opposed to online shopping due to identity theft and the failure of companies to protect sensitive consumer data, as we’ve seen with ChoicePoint, et al.
Are you announcing this income to promote your seminar, AdSense, or both? I see how this declaration of income lends credibility to your concepts, but are you sure those who sign up are not expecting to get rich quick in a false hope of reproducing unique results?
I am sure you are legitimate, but I do have these questions.
:^)
Wow – what a list of comments. I can’t possibly respond to you all in person or even in detail here. But here are a few comments:
- do I edit comments? – yes I do edit comments but only by those that are offensive, spam, slanderous or vulgar. This is rare. I have removed one from this thread for vulgarity.
- have I announced my income levels for a number of reasons. Firstly because I love blogging and think it has amazing potential to be life giving in many ways – including by paying them a wage. As a result posts like this spread the word about that. Secondly I do it because there is a community of readers at this blog (about 2000 read it daily) who are trying to make money from their blogs and who from time to time get frustrated, disillusioned etc – posts like these hopefully give a little inspiration. Thirdly posts like these obviously bring some publicity and generate interest in my blogs and the seminar I’m doing. I’m not going to pretend this isn’t the case but I’m also not going to do anything underhanded here and stand by the information I’m providing. Yes I’ll make a little money from the course – of course we’re paying 50% of commissions to those who promote it, then paying our other expenses and splitting the rest – it’s going to bring in some money but I hardly think it’ll be more than what I get from my blogs in a month.
- if you sign up for the seminar you’ll hear Andy and I talk about how not everyone who blogs for money will succeed. As I regularly write here – this is not the case. I’ve been lucky, I’ve been a workaholic, I’ve been patient. This will come out in the preview call for the seminar and hopefully no one will sign up with any false allusions of making easy money from blogging.
- yes the screen capture was photoshopped but only the bits that blocked my personal details and the details that Google do not allow to be made public.
- some have observed that what I earn isn’t massive money if you consider all the hours I put in. I guess there is truth in this. I would say that in my previous job I used to work 40-50 hour weeks and get paid 10% of what I do now. These days I probably put in around 50 hours a week and get this kind of money – I’m not complaining.
- I have about 20 blogs – 15 of which are currently active. I don’t reveal details of what each one earns – not because I’m hiding anything but because most businesses don’t reveal EVERYTHING about how they make their money. I do reveal most things but not all details. Partly because I could spend my whole life writing about what I do and not doing it and partly because it just wouldn’t be too smart to do so.
i’m sure there are more questions in the 78 or so comments before this one – but hopefully this will clear up some of the things that have been said here.
That’s amazing. Congratulations.
Kavs @ FreelanceRatings.com
Congratulations !
I hope this situation will last !
I mean, that’s exciting to think good ideas and work can allow independent people to earn their living.
:-)
I’m inspired by your results
wow!
Holy crap! I’m sure if you think about it, you also helping pay a fraction of some Google programmer’s 7 figure income ;)
do you have any page where you show all your blogs?? I’d really like to learn even more from you…
Its great to knw the power of Google Adsense once again. I’m a beginner & I earn just abt $4 / $5 in Google per month.. I think I should contact you on this matter
I got here from my friends page ,
I was like , ” Whaa !!!!!!!!!!! ”
That`s a great job man , keep it up :) . I`m blogging from about 3 months now stilll get a 2 figure he he . :P
wow that’s really cool… my goal is to make a total of $80K.
Great! Congratulations for your great Achievement. Yeah, thanks for so wonderfully sharing all the info and I’m sure gonna visit for more scoops from ya! I dream to c that figure myself;-) At least half would do…lol
-ilaxi
Hmm how much taxes did u pay . the same as a salaried person. or internet income taxes are lower.
I pay what a normal person earning what I earn pays in my personal income tax.
I am new to blogs and Adsense. I have lots of good info here and thank you for that. Too see that you have done so well with adsense makes me wonder if I too will have those results in one years time.
Thank you for all the help
jason
Hi,
wow it must be really awesome! Look at the figure! Congrats!
My question: How did Google react to this? Any comments from them?
Hello
Nice a blog, that`s the stuff !
Good Luck
Regards from cycate panienki
Wow Darren,
Congratulations,
I could never have imagined that one could earn so much money just by blogging. This whole stuff looks amazing to me. Well Good luck in your future prospects.
Cheers
big4guy
http://www.big4guy.com
Darren,
I know this is late but I wanted to pop in and say “CONGRATS”!!
It’s exciting to see that blogging is profitable for those that are really passionate about it. I wish you much success in your blogging future.
BTW, How is the six-figure blogging course coming along? I was to late joing the crew. Hopefully, you’ll have a home-stufy version available, eh!!
Again, Congrats and keep the $$$ rollin’.
This is fantastic.
There is no reason why blogging shouldn’t be turned into a commodity.
With the continued popularity of physical media, like magazines and books, there is an obvious market and target audience for blogging.
Thanks for paving the way for us, Darren.
Congrats! I’m only in the $x,xxx range per day with my site http://www.ShadowClick.com IT’s a site that allows you to check your fav. sites from work or school. I’m using it now. Bypasses the firewall and blocks. Congrats!
Money is cool!
Congratulations!
Either we will find a way – or we will make one!
http://www.ultrafeel.tv
Hi all,
A group of newbie bloggers has started a new blog to track achievments like this one. it is at bloggingrates.blogspot.com. If you know of any interesting blogging salary achievements and could suggest them to us we would be much obliged, or if you want to get listed, stop by and check out the burgeoning list of bloggers salaries.
Cheers,
The guys at Bloggingrates
Adsense bring me 0,50$ per click
Congratulations. It’s nice to hear about success.
I have been reading your blog most links- I wonder how you’ll keep up this amazing flow of brilliant content. That is awesome!
Well done. It just shows that blogs are a great way of building up an active readership and monitising them
Man, that’s inspirational. Six figures from blogging and Google adsense. Amazing! I hope to reach a figure like that soon too. I’m up to 6 cents at the moment ;-)
That’s really great. But you did not specify how much you spent on hosting and all other cost of maintaining your sites.
You are great man.
Hey Darren,
Great work on your blog and content. Tinu suggested I should check out six figure blogging and I think she’s right ;-)
Ewen
orange blog! i like it!
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Wow, my jaw is on the floor… congratulations!!!
Wow that is phenomenal. I am working on my own empire starting with this site: http://www.allstarsbigbrother.com. I hope to grow up to be just like you one day!
Thanks for the inspiration,
Sean
I think this earning is caused by faking with proxy servers or sth. else
400 euro – I don’t even know what that means let alone how to do it!
I have multiple blogs with 40,000 or so daily readers on good commercial topics – thats how it works.
They are some awesome figures! I can only dream of earning that!
What I would like to know is how much you earn now Darren!