www.affiliateconfession.com

Well, 2008 certainly didn’t end as planned at $10,000 as the goal for December, but income did come in slightly over the $3,000 mark, so my wife and I can still put food on the table and maybe get a coffee at Barnes & Noble, lol!

I wasn’t anywhere near the goal mainly because many of the PPC campaigns I tried during December just didn’t work out and in fact much of what I tried lost me a good chunk of change. One campaign that I though for sure would produce well was losing me about $90 a day for almost a week until I finally shut it down. No amount of tweaking was able to get it ultimately in the black. I had one day where I made some profit and spent the rest of the week foolishly losing money. Sometimes you just have to wait and see where things are going, but I probably waited too long on that one.

Then there was the complete shutdown of the content network that Google hit me with about 6 days before Christmas. I don’t know whether Google decided to review my Adwords account and slapped me like an unwanted stepchild while they were having a looksy or they just like messing with people around Christmas because they are evil. Starting about 10 days before Christmas impressions on Google’s content network slowly dwindled down to nothing except for 1 campaign. And 6 days before Christmas I was getting zero traffic from the content network. Yes, I mean nothing, not a single impression for 15 out of 16 campaigns.

As with Google’s great customer service and full disclosure policies, there was no notice emailed, no disapproved ads or alert in my Adwords account, simple zero traffic and impressions for 2 weeks. The search network was down a little, but I was still receiving some traffic. During the busiest time of the year online and while I was peaking with a food related offer paying around $15 a lead and producing 10 to 12 leads a day, Google arbitrarily decides to cut off my content network traffic. And they’re motto is, “Do no evil”, really? As if by magic, most of my campaigns on the content network at present are nearly back to normal levels, again, with no explanation.

Anyway, I still wasn’t even close to the goal I set but was able to produce a decent income for me. And for that, I’m a happy camper. Total revenue produced was $5,225.09, and with expenses at $2,218.21 actual income was just above $3,000. Everything for December 2008 breaks down as follows: 

Google Adsense – $1,148.32
Commission Junction – $271.68
EPN – eBay – $295.60
Meal Planner Ebook – $102.00
TripAdvisor – $168.66
Clickbank – $202.16
Private Advertising – $155.00
AzoogleAds – $1,333.95
Pepperjam – $15.50
Neverblue – $1,457.90
Other Affiliate Programs – $74.32
 
Total Revenue – $5,225.09
 
Total expenses – $2,218.21
 
Total Income – $3,006.88

I’m glad that 2009 is here, the holidays are over and it’s time to get back to work. I think 2009 is going to be an exciting time with everything that happening in the economy and the plans I have for the upcoming year. I’ve set goals and adjusted priorities to focus on the things that have been producing income for the long haul and have decided to put lesser income producing projects on the back burner.

What about you? Are you going to rock in 2009 or sit by and watch things happen?

Popularity: 9% [?]

The following is a guest post by Jerry from NicheFree.com where you can find Free Niche Marketing Ideas.

Finding a great idea for a niche market is as easy as standing in line at the grocery store.

Next time you are standing around waiting for the cashier to ring you up, take a few minutes to browse through the gold mines along the counter – the magazines.

Want to know what people are buying? Look in the pages before you – and take notes.

Check out the topics on the front cover. They are probably about finances, weight loss and health. Then dig deeper and see what the articles are about. What specific issue do they address?

Another great way to get ideas? Check out all of the small mini-magazines and booklets at the counter. Those are also full of great ideas for niches.

I keep a small notepad with me and jot down notes as I shop. (Why not get ideas for making money while I kill time, right?)  I can get 10 or 12 ideas in a single afternoon of running errands. Do I use all of them? No, of course not, but out of 10 or 12 I can usually have an idea I use.

Here is how I got  an idea for a wonderful niche:

While waiting in line, I saw several booklets for diabetics. Magazine articles, too. But I also saw one booklet that had quick, easy recipes that were diabetic-friendly. Hmmm…

So I started a blog that has recipe tips for quick, easy meals that are suitable for diabetics. I put up about 10 posts to put some good content on there and attract visitors. How do I monetize that? Simple. I use Adsense and I advertise products that promote diabetes control through a healthier diet (because it is a blog with meal tips) as well as Once a Month Cooking (TM).

Using the ideas all around you, you can create a moneymaking website or blog in a matter of hours – and be making money soon after.

Popularity: 13% [?]

The figures are in for the monthly affiliate income report and it’s a new record and one that’s another significant milestone for any affiliate marketer. After expenses, actual profit was over the $5,000 mark finally realizing the goal set for September when I missed it by only $260. It’s also significant because earnings have doubled since starting this blog 1 year ago. Combined earnings for both September and October came in slightly over $10,000, meaning the average was over $5,000 for each month.

Leading the increased earnings were Google Adsense which was almost $500 more than last month and the eBay Partner Network by utilizing Build A Niche Store came roaring back and was over $1,000 again. However, I did spend a little over $300 for some search traffic to a couple of my BANS stores making my profit just a little under $300 more than last month. I’m not sure what happened with EPN in September as it was down to half of what I usually make.

Total revenue for October was a record as well bringing in $8,515.41. As you might assume, expenses were also at a record high of $3,199.93 of which $2,700 was from pay-per-click traffic, but that gave me a healthy profit of $5,315.48 which is obviously also a record. Everything breaks down as follows:

Google Adsense – $1,525.75
Commission Junction – $82.43
EPN – eBay – $1,013.80
Meal Planner Ebook – $119.00
TripAdvisor – $176.28
Clickbank – $88.72
Private Advertising – $140.00
AzoogleAds – $637.55
Pepperjam – $51.89
Market Leverage – $23.00
Neverblue – $4,342.85
Other Affiliate Programs – $314.14

Total Revenue – $8,515.41

Total expenses – $3,199.93

Total Income – $5,315.48

I’m hoping this trend continues, but next this month will be quite a challenge as my earnings through PPC seem to be trending down towards the end of October and the beginning of this month. Traffic from my most profitable campaigns is down significantly and I can’t seem to get anything working in the last couple of weeks. Of the 20 to 25 PPC campaigns started in the last 2 weeks, nothing is producing much volume. Sometimes you just never know when Google will be nice to you, you just have to keep working at it till something breaks through.

Since we are heading into the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season there’s lots of opportunity for affiliate marketers to do well during this time of year and with the election wrapping up in the next couple of days, there’s a great opportunity to earn there as well. Really, you almost never have to worry about finding ways to earn money online and rather than go into a long winded discussion about that, check out Zac Johnson’s 5 Ways to Cash In Big Before The New Year for some ideas.

I’m setting a goal right now to earn $10,000 in December and I told my wife we’d have a huge celebration when we hit that mark. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to earn some great income coming up in the next couple of months, but also in your quest to earn big bucks in affiliate marketing, don’t forget about what this season is really about.

Popularity: 10% [?]

When it comes to checking stats too much, (Adsense, Adwords spend, eBay, Neverblue, etc.) I’m probably the worst offender. I usually check them early in the morning for the previous day, some stats after lunch and then do the rounds again before I go to bed.

That’s what I plan to do, but it rarely is limited to only those 3 times per day. You might know what I mean. You go to check email and while you’re waiting for it to download, you’ll just run over to your Google account and see how Adsense is doing or how much you’ve spent so far today with Adwords. I do that a lot and then I see something and decide to delve a little deeper and find that one of my sites isn’t giving me the usual Adsense revenue I’m accustomed to, or I see lots of clicks on one of my Adwords campaigns, better check the CPA company to see if I’m earning more than I’m spending.

Pretty soon I’ve spent the last hour over-analyzing everything, stressing out about some little anomaly I’ve run across and I’ve forgotten I just wanted to check email. Funny thing is, my stats will be the same at the end of the day whether or not I check them every time I download email, wait for a Photoshop file to save, wait for a browser reload after leaving a comment on someone’s blog or anyone of a hundred other things where I think I can just “check this one stat here.”

It’s kind of like waiting for concrete to dry. We had our slab poured early this morning for the extension on our home and it was kind of cool to watch the whole process take place. The concrete came out of the pump looking kind of thin but I was assured that it would set properly, it’s just a little thinner than normal so it can be pumped through a hose from the front yard to the back yard.

Even though we have thinner than normal concrete setting right now, no matter how many times I walk out of the home office and go watch it dry, it’s still going to cure at the same pace and at the end of the day we’ll be able to walk on it. There might even be some weird kind of mental-wave-mind-meld sort of thing going on that actually causes it to cure slower when watched. You know that creepy feeling when someone is watching you.

Maybe this will be a good reminder not to log into my Adsense account 10 times a day.

Popularity: 10% [?]

September was an awful month for my eBay affiliate earnings. It was one of the slowest months in a long time, down from a high of just under $1,200 in July. In the first 19 days of September, affiliate earnings were only $179.13 or $9.43 per day which had me seriously concerned. In the same time period in July, earnings were at $694.95. That works out to $36.58 per day. What makes September even weirder is that eBay affiliates received an email on Sept 12th stating that revenue had accidentally been over-reported on Sept 5-9. Fantastic, I thought, I was having a terrible month and eBay has actually overpaid me.

However, as bad as September was, earnings for October seem to be back on track. As of the 4th of this month, revenue is already at $176.74 or $44.19 per day. Of course, this seriously makes me wonder just what the heck was going on at eBay in September.

I’ve read many a complaint on the eBay affiliate forums, but have never experienced anything remotely like what others have. I remember reading about someone who had been sending 10,000 people a day to eBay and saw that drop to something like 1,000 to 2,000 a day after eBay brought their affiliate program in-house. I didn’t follow up on that, so I don’t know what happened to this individual, but that was an obvious problem. I’m not sure that’s the case with my issue. Sometimes that’s just the way it goes with affiliate earnings. Traditionally Saturday is the slowest day for Adsense earnings, but one Saturday in August was nearly a record and the next Saturday was right there well below average.

Large swings in income from one source of revenue to the next is nothing new. I’m not terribly alarmed, but I will be posting at the eBay affiliate forums and BANS forums to see what others are experiencing.

Thankfully my highest earning Build A Niche Store is leading the revenue race as usual with another store in the same niche, only much wider in scope, running a close second. So far October is looking good and it would be nice for a couple of stores to be doing well instead of just one providing 80% of my eBay income. We’ll see how it all pans out at the end of the month, that is provided we have anything that resembles an economy left in the United States.

Popularity: 7% [?]