Where's The Blog Money?

This blog already earned around $500. This month? Before your imagination goes wild, I want to make it clear. I made around $500 only in its more than four years of existence. On the average, it's roughly $10 a month. If I bought Starbucks coffee with it, I only got to drink three mocha frappe.

So, where do you find the big money in blogging?

After the sponsored post frenzy two years ago, wherein I earned 99% of my keep, the income from this blog is purely on adsense. And looking at my adsense stats, I earn less the twenty cents per month. I got a big fat zero yesterday, and nothing also the other day. Maybe I should write weird stuff in here. A lot of people are searching for scandals, right?

Seriously, there are ways to make money from one's blog. Here a video posted two years ago by someone who must be successful by now:



Now you can earn millions with your blog. Sorry I didn't.

Adsenseless

Adsense is senseless, says a friend. She could not understand how people earn from it because she has the codes (and the ads) for many years now but she hasn't really earned beyond the $10 mark for her to qualify even for the pin code.

Adsense is useless if you only blog about yourself and your personal stuff, says another friend who had crossed over to the SEO side of blogging, and is now enjoying monthly pay-outs.

Adsense is the best make-money online scheme out there, says a young blogger who earns four-digits (on adsense alone) a month. He is not really telling the exact figures. He is discreet about it fearing some sabotage. (yes, there are blackmails and sabotage too)

Well, for me, I got my first pay out 13 months after I installed the codes. If I only relied on this blog, I would have agreed with my friend who ranted on the futility of adsense. I wouldn't even reach my first $10 by now, which is 22 months after I first displayed ads.

Of course, if you are interested to find out some local adsense success stories out there, you wouldn't run out of articles. Some are even earning while copy pasting articles, aggregating blog posts of others, and by even writing crazy stuffs loading them with keywords. Sounds easy, but it is not.

Monetization of Everything

Monetize here, monetize there. When did we first learn to make money? As children we ask them from our parents. Then some monetize household activities, like asking for money in exchange for washing of the dishes, or a mere shining of dad’s shoes. No, I didn’t do that. My monetization was based on the 100% grade I received at school -- P1 for every paper that has 100%.

In our teens, we get our allowance from our parents. Some gets P50 per day, others get more. Mine was a mere P20 then in the ‘90s. I have to sell used newspaper and bottles to get some extra money during summer.

At that time we got our first job, our glee reached high heavens when we received our first ever salary, even if it’s only a minimum wage. Then our needs grew, and so are our expenses. As we earned benefits, we want some to be monetized. Like our leaves credits. We want money more than a day of relaxation with family. Some benefits or even awards, trophies and recognitions, we want converted into cash. Can we cash-in the ‘most punctual’ award? At times, we might also prefer money for gifts this Christmas. You don’t have to think high and low of kris kringle gift ideas if your kris kringle wants cash.

And as to blogging, we too joined in the monetization bandwagon. We monetized our first personal blog. We added 10 more for the same purpose of making more money. Some sacrificed quality, content and even readership because of the lure of the green bucks. (Of course there are money bloggers of the rare kind)

At the high level of politics, we suspect some moves as an attempt to make more money. The longer they stay in power, the more they get from the people. Political relationships are also monetized, like what the Illinois Governor is charged of. (So it does not only happen in the Philippines).

After everything is said and done, we are now moving towards 2009. There will be even harder times in the future. What would be your New Year’s resolution? MONETIZE even more?

Make Money With Bloggerwave

It has been a while since I made a post of something like this. Perhaps these last few months, after the Google penalization, my interest probably dwindled. But I'm not quitting. As you know, there are plenty of money-making opportunities a blogger can take part in the blogosphere.

One of which is by joining Bloggerwave, an advertising company that aims to be Europe's biggest advertising media on blogs. Blog and make money. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Finishing The Term Paper

One of the most difficult challenges a student will face is the term paper. It is often referred to as thesis or research papers. Many students dropped out from school, or shed many tears of frustrations because they just could not find a way to complete their projects.

I remembered my first encounter of the term paper when I was in high school. I worked alone on it. I chose a very uncommon topic which was appreciated by the teacher. But I did not know it was gargantuan task. I had few resource materials, even our own library lacked the necessary reference books. But I was able to find a way by interviewing experts on the subject.

A classmate was wily enough to invent his own materials, jumbling our names as book authors. It was a risky act that could merit school stiff disciplinary action. But he got away with it.

Today, one does not really have to fear doing term papers, or the intimidating essays that teachers throw at their students. By joining Peerpapers.com, one of the largest, most-trusted databases of essays, term papers, book reports and research paper, you will find the much needed information to complete your assignments. Over 100,000 A+ grade papers covering all topics are in their databases.

The little investment you will make in joining Peerpapers.com goes a longer way than having to repeat the course and miss graduation.

Waffles, Anyone?

When I was a kid, everytime my mom would do groceries, she would also bring me to a store in the downtown selling waffles. She would always tell me to behave and be a good kid, and not demand for some toys to buy. I would silently obey because I would not want to miss out on the waffles. It’s one of my favorite snacks.

When I got married, my wife and I bought what we think is the best waffle maker. We had a heyday making waffles for both of us and our nieces and nephews. But the equipment got busted after a few months.

At Wize.com, you can read reviews and ratings of the best waffle maker in the market. The reviews are made by real people and actual users. Your search for the best waffle maker should end here. It’s time to enjoy the waffles.

Budget As A Priority

If you have ten thousand, would you spend twenty thousand? Of course not! But what if the monthly bills exceed that ten thousand?

According to a new research done by Friends Provident, consumers in the UK placed budgeting as their topmost financial priority. But I don’t think that is something new. In heydays, budgeting is often left to the accountants and number-crunchers. If the inflows exceed the outflows, there is little difficulty in budgeting. But in times when there is a global credit crunch, like what is happening in the world economy today, tightening of the financial belt is expected.

I’m not going to be harsh in my example. Let’s say that after deducting all of the recurring monthly expenses and the mortgages installments, you are still short by five hundred bucks. What would you do?

First, you need to find ways to increase your income legally, like working in two jobs or some business endeavors. If one is employed, there is a certain ceiling to the earnings, unlike when one is into business whose earning potential is limitless.

Second, is to streamline your expenses. If the mortgages consume half of your income, you need to seek advice on restructuring some of them. Cut on those unnecessary expenses that satisfy only your vices. In other words, save up to the last cent.

But if you have excess funds, don’t throw them away. Cancel out high interest debts. Invest your money wisely and make it work for you. Budgeting is an excellent tool to manage your finances better.

Online Shopping To Satisfy My Wishes

The internet is really a wonderful thing that you can do so many things with it. In my previous post, I wished for a DSLR camera and a new pair of badminton shoes. So I just commenced my search using the internet.

At QuickShop UK (the first international expansion off ShopWiki), the largest online shopping search engine in the UK, you can actually find almost anything that you are looking for, be it for electronics, appliances, clothing or anything. The have 35 million products in their list. You can find the best deals and discounts in their more than 30,000 stores.

When I searched for badminton shoes, I was given a comparison of the best prices from the various stores. This is really great! Now I tried searching for a Canon 400D Camera. The search led me to great prices and reviews. This is really a convenient way of shopping online.

Brand-Conscious Shopping

I don’t remember anymore the last time my wife and I shopped for clothes together. Was it last December? Yep, once last December. It was because she was looking for new clothes to wear on my sister’s wedding. We found what she wanted at a night bargain store, and not in some popular malls.

She’s not into brands. Unlike her, I put some premium on brands. I value very much my Florsheim shoes that I don’t use them very often. It’s kind of reserving it only for special occasions. I kept on returning to the Lacoste shop because I like to buy one of their displayed jackets. I never bought one though despite after many of the visits. I’m also impressed at one yellow Burberry t-shirt that I’d surely buy it when I see it again, wishing that they’d sell it at a discount. I am also hoping to replenish some of my Adidas dry fit shirts.

Now, one can do online clothing shopping at Smart Bargains, Kohls.com, Figleaves and Bloomingdales. These are big name stores that sell heavyweight brands. And they are now into the online business. At 1-coupons.com, you can get coupons, discounts and coupon codes so that you can get great-value prices when you do online shopping at premium stores.

Moving To A New Home

In an attempt to change profession and alter the course of our young accounting career, a friend and I took the local real estate brokers’ exam and explored the possibility of becoming realtors. Both of us took the top two places when the result was released but we stopped there. At least, we got ideas about the real property business.

A realtor or what we usually refer as a real estate agent or broker does not only sell subdivision lots or houses but they can also assist one who is relocating to a new city. This we learned in our review. This is not really a familiar transaction here in the Philippines but in the USA, you certainly need a realtor to assist you in buying homes or looking for a home for rent. Realtors have this extensive property listing that you don’t have to search the properties yourself. They can also assist you in the mortgage quote.

At NationalRelocation, they provide assistance to people who are relocating and are on the move. Moving to a new home would no longer be a hassle.

Bad, Bad Credit

In good times, credit card and loan companies easily attracts plenty of takers. They call you and offer you this and that. Some people just find it easy to flaunt their plastics in making payments at grocery shops and shopping malls. Credit approvals are fast and easy. But comes payment time, or when financial crisis is on their necks, the debtors have to dig deep.

And when one is in the mire, it would be difficult to come out of it. Indeed, there are plenty who have bad credit standings, and most don’t know how to go about it. But there is a free online resource that compiles information about the best bad credit loans opportunities available.

BadCreditOffers is dedicated to provide consumers, regardless of a bad credit history, with the knowledge and resources to help them find the best credit offers and rebuild their credit standings. It could be credit cards, home loans, car loans and personal loans. Plus, one can apply online instantly.

Selling Online

Creating an online store is part of my medium-range plan aside from the goal of owning my own domain, which I think I should purchase within this quarter. I’ve been toying with these ideas since last quarter of 2007, but it has not yet reached to the point of obsession or conclusion.

I believe in the future of ecommerce. A friend and I exchanged ideas about the matter but he still prefers the traditional one. “I’ll sell your products online. Give me your best price” I told him. “Sure” he replied.

For a start, a small online business would be appropriate. Then add an innovative ecommerce software to it, like the Ashop commerce shopping cart software. It has world-class features and easy to set up. You don’t need extensive experience to set up your software. Free technical support is readily available. Ashop Commerce, a leading provider of ecommerce solutions, offers a complete package for one to sell online.

Online Money

50 days after announcing that I crossed over, my paypal breached the $100 mark. The first time I bumped into dotcom mogul John Chow's site a month ago, he mentioned celebrating some milestones in one's problogging career. So, after seeing the email that I got paid, I told my wife that we're going to celebrate.

She asked me why, but I just smiled and did not give an immediate answer. "Wait until we're seated in a restaurant table" I told her.

After our orders were set in the table, I told her about my problogging milestone. "Is that it?" she naughtily asked, withholding her delight.

"That's about P4,070 at present exchange rate" I said. Then we laughed. "Honestly, I still don't know how to withdraw it" I added.

Recalling the opps (mostly gambling) that I intentionally skipped, that could have summed up to more or less another hundred bucks. But no regrets in anyway. I blog only for the topics I like, and which can add value to the readers.

Deleted Files

What if, after working long hours on payroll, the payroll clerk accidentally deleted the entire computer file a day before payday?

It’s actually one of the worst fears of management, and even to the person handling it. It would not be a problem if there are only a few employees. But what if you have hundreds or thousands of them? The affected personnel may complain (or even wage a strike) against management. They certainly don’t want a delay of their salary even for just a day.

Part of the every company’s contingency plan is risks management. File back-ups and physical security are considered, even the plans to recover deleted files. File-saver is a useful tool to aid persons and companies wanting to recover their deleted files. Check out http://www.file-saver.com/ now.

Tough Defense Lawyers

One is presumed innocent until proven guilty, whatever the case may be. But it is better that you have tough lawyers on your side.

Take for example the cases of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. Both were arrested of DUI (driving under influence) many months ago. They spent some time in jail alright but the penalty was very light. I credit that on the work of their attorneys.

In Southern California, Kestenbaum, Eisner & Gorin, LLP lawyers have over 50 years courtroom experience and specialize in all criminal and DUI matters. With them, clients can be confident that they have hired a knowledgeable, reputable, tough and tenacious legal team that will exert every effort into helping them avoid a criminal conviction and keep them out of custody.

But the best policy is to keep away from trouble.


Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorneys | California DUI Felony Misdemeanor Lawyers

The ProBlogging Experience

These are the 25 things I learned in my first 40 days as a semi-problogger.

1. Blogging on your own dotcom is better than on a free site. Opportunities are reduced 4x when on a free site. I still have to find out why.
2. You need to have at least a 90-day old blog with no less than 20 posts, indexed by search engines and with regular updates.
3. The more blogs you have, the better. It multiplies your earning potential.
4. It’s not easy maintaining multiple blogs. You’ll run out of juice in the long run.
5. PR matters: Those with nil are given fewer opportunities, and lesser payout.
6. The higher the PR, the more the opportunities, and the bigger pay.
7. Google swoops down the PR of those with too much sponsored post. Money or PR?
8. You begin to worry about your own PR. Ghee and Javi expressed their concerns about my PR.
9. Location matters. North American and European bloggers have more opportunities. It is advertisers’ preference though. We can’t do anything about it.
10. Those with high traffic blogs can earn more with google adsense than doing sponsored posts.
11. After 45 days with adsense, I still have a little over $1. I don’t have a quick-fix solution. I don’t know how others got hundreds.
12. My first 8 posts in smorty gave me $76.40. They approve posts in 5 days and pays out weekly. The fastest so far.
13. Some sites offering paid posts snub you. Or they just don’t approve your site immediately.
14. You have to regularly log in to the opportunity sites in order not to miss out on some writing tasks.
15. Some of the opps are just like bubbles. They appear and disappear before you even touch them.
16. Blogging becomes a chore when it comes to some of the paid posts.
17. You tend to skip reading the sponsored posts of your blogfriends, even failing to notice the more important ones. My apologies for falling into this. But there are those that are really good at concealing the ads.
18. You fear you might have lost some of your readers because of the paid posts.
19. Blogging for money is not on my original list on “Why do I blog”. Still, money is not my reason for blogging.
20. You don’t love some of the opportunities presented.
21. You love to blog about some opportunities you don’t qualify.
22. You’ve got to have a paypal account.
23. The good thing about paypal is -- registration is free.
24. You get excited seeing the first few dollars in your paypal account.
25. The bad thing is – you can’t withdraw it on any RP banks (except Union Bank). I’ll have to wait a little longer.

Not In Good Standing

Robert Frost once said that, “A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.”

There is actually truth to it when it comes to someone who once had plenty, and then suddenly went deep into financial trouble. But there is still hope for those with bad credit standings. BadCreditOffers is a free online resource dedicated to help those with struggling credit ratings. They have staff who continuously monitor the credit marketplace and compile the best bad credit loans offers available.

Take for example the credit cards. They have a list of those banks offering the best deals and who can help you back on your feet by, aside from quick and easy approval, featuring monthly reporting to credit bureaus which could lead to restoring your positive credit standing.

BadCreditOffers main goal is really to provide consumers with the knowledge and resources to help them find the best credit offers, whether it is of credit cards, home loans, car loans and personal loans, regardless of a bad credit history.

An Alternative To Medical Insurance

Most of us know how a medical insurance works. You pay a premium, and when you are hospitalized whether it is for a simple medication or a major operation, the insurance company pays most, if not all, of the expenses. Or if your insurance has a low limit, say $20,000 a year, you’d bear the excess.

Insurance is not cheap. But if you don’t have any insurance, it becomes very costly when availing on medical services or when you get hospitalized.

However, there is an alternative to medical insurance.

Ameriplan offers medical and dental discount plans so that you can avail up to 50% discounts from over 400,000 physicians and specialists in their network all over the USA. The services include doctor's visits, specialists, lab work, and imaging. Another major part of the Ameriplan Health program is their advocacy program. The advocacy program will work on your behalf and will be your representative to the hospital during your confinement or treatment.

They have various plans designed to fit your needs. The goal here is to save money. Check out Ameriplan’s website now for more details.

Exploring New Grounds

I’ve been treading on their grounds for some time now, having read about the buzz from some of my blogger friends. The grass is greener on their side, so they say, and I slowly strolled my way there to find it out for myself. This is the fun in crossing over; exploring new grounds and finding more opportunities wherever available. I did some digging on the archives of my problogging friends and used the search engine to find out more about paid opportunities.

It was exactly a month ago yesterday that my blog was approved. Yes, I signed up for payperpost in order to get paid for blogging. Joining is pretty easy. Go to their site, register an account and your blog. Wait for their approval, and when approved, a $20 awaits for your first post. That is not a small amount for a start. At the present peso-dollar exchange, that is already equivalent to more than a 3-day salary for a minimum wage earner in Cebu.


When you get paid to blog about the things you love, the financial reward is really something extra. Your own creativeness can be put to good use since you write about it your own way and your own style. Plus, they really have lots of opportunities waiting for posties.

Widening The Road

I'm widening a bit my road in problogging. I registered in Blogsvertise and will soon write reviews for their advertisers.

It is so easy to join. Go to their site, register your account and blog, and then wait for their approval. Once approved by the administrator, your blog is inserted into the assignment queue. Then you will be emailed tasks and new assignments to write about in your blog.

Writing an entry is not a really a big hassle. You can review the advertiser’s site, compliment it, relate it in your everyday life, or even complain about it (hmmm…I’m not sure if complaining is a good idea). Make a link to the website at least 3 times in your blog/journal entry. You can write it your style.

Once your blog entry is approved, Blogsvertise will pay you after 30 days via paypal. Again, you MUST have a paypal account in order to be paid. This is just some added power to the blogger.