Thanks.

jacob makes an interesting point about structures and blogs. I work as a lawyer in the structuring/company advice side of commercial law and think maybe – well definitely in Australia – there is room for some better advice and planning online.

I’ve found that a lot of internet marketers sell information products that say how to make money on the internet. Frequently, they say they couldn’t believe how successful it could be, and are passing on what they’ve learned for $49.97 or $997 with a zillion free bonuses, and that you can get started in just a few minutes.

What they don’t tell you is how much trouble you could get in with the FTC if you follow their steps but don’t have an attorney to draft terms of conditions, privacy policy, etc., check out your advertising claims, and incorporate as an Inc. or LLC. (And virtually all of them are sole managers of LLC’s and Inc.’s that they do business as.)

Blogging is definitely going to move that direction, and sites such as this need to be particularly careful. Did you know that you could be subject to FTC rules and fines for just one affiliate link?

There needs to be more dialogue on liability in blogging and internet marketing.

I’ll have to check out Chitika. I noticed you’re running both it and Adsense on some of your sites. Does Google not have a problem with that? I remember at one time, they wouldn’t allow other text-based ads. Maybe Chitika is graphic enough not to count?

And almost 7 figures is very nice, congrats!

(we said cheque in french too !)

you’re right Martin – that money doesn’t come from 1 blog – but numerous blogs.

#7 – it’ll be pretty good to make 1mill from the one blog – but I think you should realise that Darren runs quite a few more and if my memory serves me correct ProB doesn’t make that much.

Seriously, you have to be aware of the tax rules in your jurisdiction. Remember, with AdSense you have to fill out some tax forms before Google sends you any earnings, and the information you provide them is available to the IRS, who may or may not share it with your own country’s tax authorities. In general, you should be prepared to declare all of your AdSense income and to pay up on any taxes that come due. But c’est la vie.

That said, in Canada the AdSense income does not qualify for GST (we have it up here, too), it’s just treated as regular business income.

It’s interesting with Chitika coz I’m not getting as many clicks with it as Adsense (will have to tweak the placement maybe), but the clicks I do get are worth a lot more than the Adsene ones. On that, I can see how Chitika would have grown your business so much.

Also, for anyone interested, I have a WORDPRESS plugin that uses the post’s categories as the Chitika keywords. Have a look here: http://www.qwertyrash.com/archives/wordpress-plugin-for-customizing-chitika-keywords-using-categories/

Thanks again, Darren.