Blog.Azwan

I have a niche blog using blogspot, which I only update about 2-3 times a month. It’s not making much, but the income is consistent and the fact I don’t need to update it frequently makes that blog very special. However there’s a problem lately. Traffic and CTR are consistent, but earnings have come down by almost half. Income (Dec 08 – Jan09) coming from direct advertising is affected too.

Looks like problems in the real world has started to affect the virtual world (and almost everyone). Read TechCrunch.

The US is in a recession. Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, is in a recession. Same goes to Singapore and Japan. Although Malaysia is not (yet), but the problem at the other parts of the world will affect us eventually.

Advertisers are reducing their online advertising budgets and consumers are also spending less to save more money which will make us, the people that are making money with blogs, get lesser. As a part time blogger, who is also making money on the internet, these are the few steps I’m taking so that when everything is back to normal, I’ll make more.

I am going to (in sequence) :

• Start to increase the traffic to my sites further. By at least 50% by year end.
• Make more money from links. Will negotiate further to sell from post with high PR rather than from sidebar only. Use a broker rather than direct. I know Google will not like this (some people even call it unethical). To me it is still advertisement.
• Increase affiliate marketing income.
• Start using Private Label Articles.
• Open up more advertising space, but without turning my blogs into brothels.
• Try new advertising network. See whether there are others that can complement the current ones that are already making money.

What about you?