Written on September 12th, 2009 at 12:09 am by Darren Rowse
Has the Economy Impacted Your Earnings?
The news continues to be full of economic gloom and doom (although here in Australia we seem to have avoided being in recession and there seems to be some confidence around) yet I continue to talk to bloggers whose income is actually on the rise.
But is this just a few bloggers who’ve avoided a downturn in their earnings (and seen them rise) or is this more common?
I’d be interested to hear your experience. Is blogging income up? Down? About the Same?
If there’s been a change what’s been behind it? Is it a decrease in advertising CPM, a change in traffic levels or more to do with your own change in focus?
My Situation:
Back in March I wrote a post on how the economy had been impacting my blogging. Things are similar now – I’d summarise my own earnings as:
- Overall they’re up (around 15% on last year)
- Ad Revenue has been a little down on the last few months when it comes to private Ad Sales
- Ad network revenue has been up quite a bit (I’m filling in a few of the private ad spots with them but also seeing more advertisers targetting my photography blog via AdSense)
- Affiliate revenue has continued to grow (partly because I’ve had an increase in traffic and partly because I’ve focused more upon affiliate marketing)
- Diversifying by releasing the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook certainly was helpful in making up for some of the private advertising revenue lost
In short – things have risen. I think because I’d been expecting the worst I decided to do some diversification. This has led to an overall increase – mainly because the decreases were not as bad as I’d expected and the diversifications paid off. In a strange way the economic downturn has actually been beneficial to me as it forced me into this diversification and new income streams.
How’s it been for you?
PS: Check out this post I wrote late in 2008 called – 13 Tips to Recession Proof Your Blog.
I guess I took my own advice in many of the points (particularly with points #7 and #9) and it paid off. I still think point #1 is key – keep building your blog, keep increasing the quality of it’s content and you’ll position yourself well for when things do bounce back.
77 Responses to “Has the Economy Impacted Your Earnings?” - Add Yours
Sohail
September 12th, 2009 1:00 am
well i started earning in recession lol so can’t say if it has impacted on my income may be i would earn more if it was no recession time
Matt Jones
September 12th, 2009 1:01 am
Yes, in a positive way. I live in the UK, but Google used to pay in Dollars (up until part way through the recession). The conversion rate of USD to GBP earned me extra. Also, I’m now employed as an SEO and blogger, and that’s because the company that employes me has less money and are looking for more ‘creative’ ways to bring traffic, rather than PPC.
So my self employed earnings and job have been helped by the recession :)
(although who can say what would have happened if the economy had gone the other way!)
Shajib
September 12th, 2009 1:02 am
Now my income is very poor…. :( need some money to overcome…
trying my best.
Technology Slice
September 12th, 2009 1:08 am
I started blogging in the middle of the crisis so ‘crisis’ is the norm for me.
Kosmo @ The Casual Observer
September 12th, 2009 1:08 am
The income from my blog is laughably low. Since I started during the recession, I’ll blame it on the recession. Yeah, that works :)
(Or maybe it’s the fact that I don’t focus a lot of time and energy on revenue maximization)
Kelvin Servigon
September 12th, 2009 1:10 am
This recession pushed me to do more because I am afraid that it will affect my income. Result? My income goes up, too.
You’re right, this recession is beneficial in some ways. :)
More power to you!
poorblogger
September 12th, 2009 1:13 am
I think there’s an impacted in my earning especially adsense..
My earning is down about 10%.
Blake @ Props Blog
September 12th, 2009 1:15 am
I’ve been blogging less than 3 months, so I don’t have a reference to compare to. What I do see as a possible trend is increased traffic for those in the MMO niche. It seems like with people losing their jobs or with jobs not paying as well, MMO would be on the rise. I’m not in that niche since I have zero experience making money online.
I have always been curious where pro bloggers get most of their income (CPA, CPC, CPM, etc..), so it is interesting to see how diversifying has helped your income.
For new bloggers, some of the ads aren’t really available (not enough traffic). What do you recommend for new bloggers to start with?
Eduardo Maio
September 12th, 2009 1:18 am
I was hit quite hard, the worse part is that my blog is automotive related and the automotive industry was one of the worse to suffer with the economical crisis.
Todd - Home Construction Improvement
September 12th, 2009 1:30 am
My revenue is up significantly from last year. I attribute it to growing the blog steadily and not focusing on the news. The recession here in the US has probably helped my site. I write about DIY and home improvements and many people are doing things themselves right now to save money.
dinu
September 12th, 2009 1:30 am
adsense earnings were affected really really bad … but it is showing signs of improvement these days ..
Saham | Investasi
September 12th, 2009 1:41 am
Some people grow in spite of recession, some people falls in spite of good economy. To me, i feel i grow in this difficult time…
ngan
September 12th, 2009 1:46 am
It is hard to tell with adsense, coz i received at least 2 emails on ‘free’ USD100 advertising money for adwords from google itself.
Benjamin Cip
September 12th, 2009 1:46 am
I started my blog on recession day, so I can’t say anything about it, except that I’m making some good money online now… Just wish to make a 6 figures income soon :)
Roseli A. Bakar
September 12th, 2009 1:48 am
I’m glad that my overall income is much better than previous year.
I took Darren’s advice last year to diversify my income streams and it have come up great.
Bill Hutchison
September 12th, 2009 1:51 am
Initially my income dropped, but now it’s higher than it ever has been. I’ve just kept working on the site and now my income is more then double what it was last year!
Like Todd my primary web-site is about home improvement and renovations, so that could be a trend. My click through rate is up, as is the pay per click.
R.W. Jackson
September 12th, 2009 1:56 am
My earnings are significantly higher than they were last year. I attribute this to focusing on creating quality content that people can actually use to increase their own money making blogs performance. My affiliate earnings are much higher than previously, probably because I take great pains to point out that they are affiliate links of sites I use and that by clicking on them, people don’t sacrifice any cost or function, it’s another win-win situation- which I am constantly on the lookout for.
Another thing that I think makes blogs like mine and Darren’s do better in times of economic troubles is that many people have found themselves without work and are turning to the internet economy, specifically blogging, to supplement their income and/or provide some relief from rising levels of debt, higher costs of living, and lower incomes.
Certainly, I’m not yet pulling the six figures of many A-list bloggers but News Notion manages to keep me housed, fed, and clothed and once in a while I even take a trip to the movies or out to a nice dinner.
In a few weeks I’ll be taking a low budget trip across three continents and I might point out that I don’t have any other job. Part of this is that I know how to travel cheap, but even if you are traveling cheap, you have to have some money coming in…
Right Darren?
Anyway, this is a rather rambling comment when I could have just said “Up!”
All the best,
R.W. Jackson
p.s. I happened across a blog that was calling you a shyster last night Darren and I have to say that the way you responded to her and conducted yourself was beyond admirable. I’m no sycophant, but seeing things like that gives me hope that civility might someday prevail on the wild wild web. ~cheers.
Bible Money Matters
September 12th, 2009 2:04 am
My earnings are way up since last year. Of course my blog is a personal finance blog, talking about how to manage your money better – and that’s the kind of advice people happen to be looking for when times get tough. So the bad economy has been great for my blog! Go figure.
Web Marketing Tips
September 12th, 2009 2:13 am
Yes some how this will give some impact but however my other projects cover that and altogther I do not have any deficit in my earning.
Steve
September 12th, 2009 2:21 am
There was an initial jump in revenue with the release of Bing but that has turned into some very slow months as Bing modifies their search results and Yahoo! goes away.
Dave Doolin
September 12th, 2009 2:23 am
I’m with Technology Slice. I’m too new to be making much money right now, and my topic areas are very competitive.
By “new,” I mean inexperienced and suffering from wrong beliefs. I know the money is out there, but I haven’t figured out how to present myself as the best value in my topic areas.
James Joyner
September 12th, 2009 2:33 am
Mine’s dropped, since I mostly rely on advertising revenue and my main sites are dependent on either political news (and it’s an off cycle) or Google referrals (and one site has really fallen off their radar inexplicably). But the drop in ad buys would be there, regardless.
Further, one can’t simply compare earnings to last year but earnings per 1000 pageviews (or whatever). If your traffic has doubled and your income has gone up 10 percent, you’ve been hurt by the economy even though you’ve “grown.”
Bill Hutchison
September 12th, 2009 2:48 am
I think that we can compare earnings over last year as an overall, rather than per 1000 pageviews.
It means that despite the recession the revenue for the business (or blog) has still continued to grow. For personal reasons I have probably been doing less work on my blogs this year than last year, but what work I have done has increased the pageviews, and has increased my overall earnings from the sites.
Ms. Freeman
September 12th, 2009 2:54 am
Being a new brand I can say, I have nothing to base my revenue against just yet. However, I do wish I had gotten into the game before the major layoffs began prompting everyone and their brother to become bloggers for money. The ponds is full for us guppies, but, I am staying afloat and learning as I go.
Brent Trahan
September 12th, 2009 3:25 am
My earnings are down 40% :(
Brian
September 12th, 2009 4:13 am
I’ll be honest; the economy has actually pushed me into the creation of my blog. Though I have not lost a job like many others have I feel that I need to diversify my income and blogging is a way to do that without heading down to the local mall and signing up for a weekend shift.
In four months my blogging income is microscopic compared to my day job but every month it improves. I figure by next year I’ll have a bit more income diversification and little more peace of mind.
SEM Business Blueprint
September 12th, 2009 4:46 am
The industry I have worked for the last 30 years is being hit really hard this year. The bicycle industry slipped through 2008 pretty well because of high gas prices but this year 2009 has been really ugly. Sales are way down. A sign of the times I guess.
DJ
September 12th, 2009 6:12 am
My blog is a week old so I can’t say that the recession had an impact on my blog. I really hope the recession will not hinder my blog from earning any money. I only have a few ads up right now and still have a lot of learning to do when it comes to monetizing my blog.
dreams` box
September 12th, 2009 6:21 am
I happy as I started my blog since some weeks only :D so I didn`t witness it
Lex G
September 12th, 2009 7:14 am
The crisis did not change my financial position.
I work for small businesses and my services are in a price range which are mostly still payable. The services are also imperative for the SB’s continuation, so long term relationships with clients have been under almost no pressure.
On the other side, finding new clients has been somewhat less easy, meaning that probably the main reason that I haven’t felt the recession so clearly is because I work alone …
Janette Toral
September 12th, 2009 7:22 am
Hi Darren. What I noticed is that sources of income are changing especially as more folks get into the same field therefore providing alternatives to our target revenue sources. Although with strengthened relationships with key target audience (old and new), new opportunities come up to make-up for those that dwindled.
Mitch
September 12th, 2009 7:29 am
Being diverse is always the best thing. I have made up for lost income in other areas. And adding the extra income streams has been fun.
yavuz
September 12th, 2009 7:50 am
adsense earnings were affected really really bad
Jenny
September 12th, 2009 10:43 am
My earnings are definitely up – I attribute it to growing pageviews and diversified advertisements coupled with teaming with other bloggers (one might say competitive, but I prefer the term “complementary”) in my niche. Moreover, I think consumer interest in my niche has increased despite the economic downturn and that helps too.
Diabetis
September 12th, 2009 11:22 am
I hadn’t seen any changes on my online earnings.
clarky
September 12th, 2009 11:23 am
Thanks for the economy’s help, my income is down to the bottom. I heard that every time when after the olympic game is over, there will be a Financial Crisis. I don’t know if that is true, but this 2008 Beijing Olympic Game really effort economy a lot.
SeoNext
September 12th, 2009 3:14 pm
My earnings are continuously going higher than they were last year. I am continuously focusing on creating quality content.Really a nice & informative post.Thanks for sharing.
louis
September 12th, 2009 5:14 pm
I have made up for lost income in other areas, too. and I started blogging in the middle of the crisis so ‘crisis’ is the norm for me
batterie 12v
September 12th, 2009 7:05 pm
Yes, I can say that Economy impacted my earnings because there is a lot of down time in the developing field at this moment otherwise there would have been lot of earning opportunities in this field……
SEO Workgroup
September 12th, 2009 9:54 pm
Some people grow in spite of recession, some people falls in spite of good economy. To me, i feel i grow in this difficult time. Nice stuff.
Ryan Biddulph
September 12th, 2009 9:57 pm
Darren,
Being creative makes you recession proof.
Depend on outside conditions for earnings and you’ll be ruled by those outside conditions; ie – recessions.
Create, create, and create some more. This is the content which you speak of. Don’t compete.
Seek to add value with every action and your earnings will continue to rise.
RB
Angela Neal
September 12th, 2009 10:27 pm
Interesting to see people’s responses. I have quite a few web properties, and overall revenue from the blogs is up due to advertisers looking for more affordable ways to get links/traffic. I have seven advertising options on my busiest blog which pretty much leaves it open to any budget.
From a business perspective my sales are going to be triple what they were last year, as I am focussing on consulting, reports and education rather than services. These are more affordable, easier to package, and provide a long term investment for businesses who are super-careful on how they spend their budget at the moment.
My motto in any climate is to find a solid common ground where both parties get a win-win and then really push that philosophy in my marketing. Has really paid off this year.
ngap
September 12th, 2009 11:02 pm
My earnings are not impacted wheter recession or not … maybe because small earning … Thanks for sharing.
Typhoon
September 12th, 2009 11:23 pm
I would say Yes! it has affected some how as My Google Adsense earnings are not good as compared to what I used to earn a year back.. The reason could be that Advertisers are paying less or something else.
Regards,
Typhoon a.k.a Sushant
http://www.smartbloggerz.com
ITrush
September 12th, 2009 11:23 pm
Impacted or not, my challenge is really to be consistent and persevere that maybe someday my earnings will help my family. Who knows right.
MillionDollarBlogger
September 13th, 2009 12:08 am
The recession has a negative effect on new bloggers more than old ones.
New bloggers are often still dependent on their job as a primary source of income. I’m new to the blogging world myself so I’ve been doing it in my spare time.
If you can only blog in your spare time, remember that you’re in it for the long haul. Don’t try to do too much at once or you’ll get burnt out. I wrote a post on avoiding burnout as a blogger here: http://www.farawayfreedom.com/avoiding-burnout-a-bloggers-worst-enemy.
Last week was tough for me. Its a 40 hour a week gig with an hour commute each way. I would have about 2 hours before work and 2 hours after to work on setting up my site. Because I’m new, I still need to work out all the kinks with html, writing good copy and setting up Adsense.
Anyway, about the recession, yeah, it sucks. I sold marketing services over the phone to local businesses last year when the economy was really bad, and one of their favorite rebuttals to give was that they were cutting back on advertising because they weren’t getting any business. But that just creates a downward spiral because they cut back on marketing, which lowers traffic, which lowers sales, which lowers money available for marketing, and so on.
Joi
September 13th, 2009 12:15 am
I read, studied, and memorized the great post, 13 Tips to Recession Proof Your Blog, and put the ADVICE into ACTION. As a result, I’ve actually seen earnings increase and traffic go up on my various blogs.
Basically, ProBlogger has taught me to focus on content and to not put all of my eggs into Google’s basket. It’s still my favorite basket, mind you, but there’s a lot to be said for having plenty of baskets!
Jhay
September 13th, 2009 12:49 am
Yep, it’s been gloomy for my ad earnings. It went down some 30% compared to last year’s figures.
Hopefully, things will rosy up once the economy recovers.
Exchange Money
September 13th, 2009 2:10 am
I am new blogger, my earning is increasing.
Don’t know what will be the impact in coming days.
Reza Winandar
September 13th, 2009 4:34 am
Crisis means two things, disaster and chance.
Earn Money Online
September 13th, 2009 7:17 am
The waning economy makes it better for my business. Since mine deals with making money online, which many may look to start heading for.
iPhone Chris
September 13th, 2009 7:42 am
I’m lucky to have a blog about a product that’s thriving despite the economy, the Apple iPhone. My earnings have been increasing significantly lately — especially every time Apple issues a new iPhone or an iPhone software update.
I think in general, Internet businesses are a good idea in a recession because of the wide reach you can attain. People from all over the world read my blog, whereas if I owned a brick and mortar store I would only have customers from my town.
Martin Richardson
September 13th, 2009 9:23 am
I started during the recession, at least when I started using adsense. I just recently started using affiliates and adsense for search, and my income has increased consistently every month. I’m getting smarter everyday with it and learning how to make it more effective for my site. God has blessed me during this time!
David Stillwagon
September 13th, 2009 11:57 am
things have been down but you have to stay positive about the future
Albert Fang
September 13th, 2009 12:07 pm
The recession doesn’t seem to have much affect on my blog. Nowadays, with the right promotion, I am earning more than I did in the past months. The more effort you put into your blogs, the more you will earn.
David Risley
September 13th, 2009 1:09 pm
My blogging income hit the six-figure market in June, I believe. Highest ever year for me. The key is not to be reactive, but be proactive. Build your brand, build products, and build a business.
Kayla
September 13th, 2009 1:46 pm
I’ve noticed a drop in my ad sales, but I’m not sure if it’s related to the recession or not. My blog is still under a year old, so I have a number of other factors to consider, and it may just be a “recession” in my blog itself.
Bjorn
September 13th, 2009 6:22 pm
My blog-income has fallen… And risen again!
And then fallen again… And risen again!
I feel that through the economic troubles, income goes down, but by simply not giving in to it, and trying out other things instead of sitting by the road, you can manage to increase, and even be stronger then ever before.
Wonder what that will bring once recession is over ;-)
Galachadas
September 13th, 2009 6:59 pm
I think that affiliate marketing is the best choice when you have lots of traffic, it is a way to lifelong advertising.
Best Regards,
Rajput
September 13th, 2009 7:22 pm
I don’t think, that the present economy has any impact on my blog because I am not concentrating on monetizing my blog.
The Niche Think Tank
September 14th, 2009 3:02 am
HI Darren, The economy has taken a hit pretty bad. I sell Hellraiser Puzzle Boxes on Ebay and they aren’t even selling that well. even at a 50% discount, or a signed one from one of the actors of the movie Hellraiser. I have a post about luxury vs need and my Hellraiser puzzle boxes here:
http://www.thenichethinktank.com/hellraiser-puzzle-box/
which sort of tells how the economy has affected a lot of different sectors, namely luxury and want sectors. Not need and necessity.
Good tips on your other post as well. Thanks and have a great day.
Larry C.
MoneyEnergy
September 14th, 2009 9:07 am
My earnings are up considerably, and rose throughout the recession, but that’s more due to my own timing. My site is about a year and a half old, and it took me 6 months to get settled into a groove with it. I focus on personal finance and investment topics, which I suspect also benefited from the recession, with people seeking out some of that kind of information. In another year I will have a much more accurate picture of what consistent earnings look like.
farouk
September 14th, 2009 7:26 pm
adsense had a dramatic drop, but that was countered by the increase in sales of my ebooks (increase in traffic)
Merchandising
September 15th, 2009 12:45 am
I work for a field marketing agency so work is particularly reflective of the state of the economy. Whislt the last few months have been reather slow, it looks like things are rapidly starting to turnaround now.
bernard
September 15th, 2009 3:06 am
earnings went down with 30% due to Adsense going down with 90% in earnings and this with the same amount of clicks. I countered part of it with other ways of advertising.
Look at it like this: if you can more or less keep your earnings under control during this recession then you will be possibly earning more than usual when the economy gets back on its feet.
Jonny
September 15th, 2009 3:39 am
My friend’s earnings got down on his clickbank sale.
Michael Comeau
September 15th, 2009 7:58 am
My main blog is focused on investing and I’ve noticed that my revenue per click has gone down quite a bit. However, it’s been more than offset by a huge improvement in my CTR – I figured out that only about 3 of 200 blog posts generated clicks, so I started writing more like em!
Paul Wilson
September 15th, 2009 9:05 am
I have only had my blog up and running for around 2 months, so I have no real justification to comment on sales.
The general feeling I get from looking around, is that people seem to be doing about the same, certainly in the IM niche.
High ticket items seem to be much slower to shift though.
Paul
ContestHeat.com
September 15th, 2009 11:01 pm
I have no income from my blog :)
SEO Basics
September 16th, 2009 12:56 am
I can’t say earnings have went down, but I can say that the economy has pushed me to keep going and work harder.
adsmoneyblog
September 16th, 2009 5:37 am
why is it that my ads revenue is down?
Awesome
September 16th, 2009 10:42 am
Income went down in 08 when the US was falling apart, but since then, things are up.
Hans Desjarlais
September 17th, 2009 11:16 pm
You learn more about your business and yourself in hard times. This makes you more creative and innovative. It obviously depends what market you are in. I sold my Japanese engine import business in 08 and since then the sales have gone down. With my current business sales are going good because I am offering services and products that people need in a recession. So all in all you have to be smart, innvative and creative. I am sure many great businessmen will come out stong after this recession.
Brad the Builder
October 1st, 2009 7:54 pm
Just set up a new business, so although it doesn’t seem like a great time to be doing so, we’ve done surprisingly well.
Josh
October 2nd, 2009 6:43 am
Blogging is a great way to earn income for yourself especially during these times. We are offering a new way to monetize your blog through pay-per-lead.
We are looking for blog users to help us out in our beta testing and get feedback so we can provide a quality service and help website and blog owners make money.
Check us out at http://leadolution.com
umar
October 11th, 2009 8:15 am
Economy really has impact
Financial Samurai
November 2nd, 2009 2:56 am
I think most people, like yourself are making a lot more money from this recession ironically.
There’s more money out there than we can ever imagine, and it’s just the media saying things are bad. Wherease you yourself have proved to us things are pretty good!
Best,
FS
Comments will be closed off on this post 90 days after it is published. Apologies to those this impacts but it's a regrettable and temporary measure to combat a growing comment spam problem. See our most recent posts where you can comment here.
Leave a Reply