April 2008 earnings, and frustrations about the offline world

by Sapphire (May 2, 2008)

April was a big improvement for me over the past few months. In March, I realized I was killing my earnings by trying to upgrade all my sites to be way above spamminess. I don’t consider any of my sites “spam” per se - I don’t just optimize them for search engines. But the fact is, sites full of good but not particularly unique content can bring in some very decent profit. I called them “chaff sites” and set them all up with followable text link ads (from and LinkWorth) and - yes - AdSense.

It may be a short term earnings plan, but this is how a lot of people who’ve only been at this for a few months are earning more than I am: they’re building tons of short term sites while I’m struggling to build sites with longterm potential. They’re raking in hundreds on their “chaff” sites, and by the time the chaff money runs out they can build some high quality wheat sites for the long term.

My earnings bounced up considerable from last month’s sad $190. In April I earned roughly:

• TOTAL: $249
• : $82
• LinkWorth: $28
• BlogHer: $64
• Independent ads: $43
• AdSense: $4.85

AdSense really isn’t pulling its weight, but I need to promote those chaff sites more. Since they are chaff and I’m prepared for their eventual toasting by the search engines, I can do easy stuff like directory submissions and article marketing. But I’ve got to do it, and lately…

…my time just hasn’t been mine. I’m starting to develop a reputation online based on my work with Project B-2 Bomber, and as a consequence, people are coming to me for answers and responses right and left. And I want to participate, because that’s the “making the world a better place” side of my life. That’s the stuff I’d have spent all my time doing if I was born with trust funds and didn’t need to earn a living. I’m learning to delegate and to remind people that I just don’t have time for everything they want from me.

I really really want to get to a point where I make enough money that I have time to do the stuff I really care about: trying to make the world a better place, and writing novels. Don’t worry about that first one: I’m not out campaigning to change laws - I just want to open minds and get people re-thinking a few things. Not the least of which is this insane concept that “working” means doing things that don’t need doing in order to justify your existence. I don’t think we should be working harder for the same money our parents worked for. I don’t think longer hours means better end results. Which, you know, is why I’m an affiliate marketer - to take control back in my life.

And on top of everything else, I’ve been hit with something in my personal life that’s going to suck many hours out of the next few weeks. To compensate, I’ve come up with a way to make the end result a much better situation than the one I’m currently in. Whoever said “if life hands you lemons, make lemonade” wasn’t thinking very big. If life hands you lemonades, put ‘em together with some other stuff and make a world-class lemon icebox pie, and then market it.

Huh… I had no intention of typing all that out when I started here, but I’m glad I did now.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing
Subscribe to the feed or email updates