It is a New Year and I am setting out with some good intentions but first, what worked for me and my blogs in 2008 and what didn't.

What Worked
I tried numerous strategies and advertising approaches but frankly the only thing that generated any revenue was trusty old Google adverts and paid posting. To be honest, even Google didn't work that well as I have yet to reach that magical $100 pay out number although I am oh so close.... Adbrite ads also are beginning to generate a little revenue but just a few Dollars a month.

I did make money writing paid posts but I have now discontinued this because although I made money, I also lost my page ranks!

Page rank has become more important to me because I am making some good cash through TXN and the higher the page rank the more money you receive for a link on that page. If you haven't checked out TXN do so.....

What Didn't Work
Almost every other advertising system. Generated next to nothing including bidvertiser, crispads and more besides. As a result, I am culling all of these programs and focusing on just Google, Adbrite and TXN this year.

What Have I learned?
If could go back a year or so to when I first started blogging I would certainly do things differently. Here are a few things I would have done differently;

I haven't posted in a while mainly because I am a bit disillusioned right now trying to make money blogging. I had a good little revenue stream going with paid posts and that dried up it seems recently. No one but no one signs up for any affiliate programs I recommend and about the only thing that is doing well right now are google ads.

I'm open to your suggestions but I just can't seem to drive enough traffic to the blogs to make it worth my while....

In the past, Google ads haven't done that much for me. Just a few cents per day. But the last two months something strange has happened. Overall, traffic hasn't grown that much but Google ad clicks have soared. I have not a clue why.

The clicks are mainly on my main blog over at Rant Here. The blog traffic has declined in the last two weeks - probably because I have been too busy and sick to do much blogging but click throughs are up. I didn't change anything or do anything differently either...

But there is one BIG difference. A lot more traffic is arriving via the Google search engine as opposed to social networking sites or other sources. Could it be that visitors via a search engine are just more likely to click on those ads?

Time for a quick update on my progress to date in making cash from blogging. Just recall that I have four blogs and that these numbers represent cash made from all four posting paid articles on them. Also note that the best ranked blog has a PR of zero (thanks payperpost!), an Alexa of 990,000 and a Technorati rank of 220,000. My other blogs have page ranks of 2 or 3 but Alexa and Technorati rankings well below my main blog. Remember - traffic = money and therefore rankings = money too....

So let's look at each money making (article posting service) scheme in turn and look at earnings to date....

Sponsored Reviews
Sponsored Reviews has been my best performer. The service appears to be unique in that you bid on advertisers opportunities and I really do like this feature since I detest getting a bunch of opportunities simply handed to me for things like face lifts, belly tucks and penis enlargement when it has NOTHING to do with the content of my site.

However, opportunities seem to dry up from time-to-time and so it is sporadic and unplannable at best. Recently, I have also earned some payments for signing up an advertiser at the site too...

The new alexa rankings which no longer rely simply on Alexa toolbar users is hurting me. Everyone of my blogs plumeted like a stone when the new rankings came out suggesting that I had a high Alexa toolbar user readership.

Not only was this just bad but it has dragged down the value of my blogs in various programs that I use to make money making it harder to obtain paid posts and diminishing the amount of money I can get for each paid post.

So now I have to work harder promoting the blogs to a wider audience....

Earnings for March from five blogs including this one totaled just $94. Not enough to justify the effort and a reminder - if it were needed - that I do this primarily for fun. Traffic was up though!

Revenue Analysis
The revenues came primarily from paid blog articles. This would be a great source on revenue if there were more article writes available. I am a member of 6 different paid to blog sites but two of them have not yet provided an opportunity and one (Payperpost) seems over subscribed by bloggers.

Other revenues came from click through advertising and affiliate programs. Amazon was once again a big zero for the month.

Here is the breakdown;

Paid articles - $65.60
Click Through Ads - $7.40
Other - $20.00

This was actually down from February when I made $98.00.

Traffic
Total traffic across the sites was 27,995 visits up from 17,567 the previous month. A nice bump but not reflected in revenues.

Thoughts and Analysis