Amazon Affiliate Income Alert

Blogger Allyn Hayne at Blogger Illustrated right here in Northwest Indiana wrote a post last year, where he compared miserable results using Pepper Jam versus much better results on Amazon Affiliate products.

Video Reviews for Amazon Affiliate Marketing

Is anyone making money online

Well sure there are tons of bloggers and new media entrepreneurs making money online, but what about locally here in Northwest Indiana. Think anyone is actually turning some money, and what model are they using? My thoughts below, but glad to have new ones added ... this is more a start to the conversation:

• By my own estimate there are roughly 300 blogs in Northwest Indiana, but only 30-50 that get posted daily. I follow them all on Northwest Indiana RSS Feeds
• Of these blogs, it looks like the predominant monetization strategy is google ads, which we all know only makes money if the traffic is extremely high. Best I've heard is that a few local bloggers are pulling in $500 a month from clicks on their google ads. Anyone better than that?
  
• The Times of Northwest Indiana does feature both normal ad blocks as well as google ads. They have not given me any information, but I get the feeling that the ad blocks are generally given away to print ad buyers as a plus. The Post Tribune is pretty weak all the way around online.
• ValpoLife and PortageLife seem to be the best examples of making money with 100% online content, balanced between sponsorships and ad block sales.
• Another method of monetization for websites and blogs is affiliate links, where you only get paid if the consumer purchases from the advertisers. It looks like New Media Whistle, Dave Woodson, Natfinn's site, and some very secretive sites by others are going after this SEO heavy tactic. No one is willing to talk money, but my gut says the best results so far are combinations of sites pulling in $2,000 per month. Anyone have a better result?
• Lastly are those who use their online profiles and writing to gain offline business, many real estate agents, insurance quotes, mortgage bankers, and coaches use this method.

I will begin posting online income results here on April 1st, no not a Fools joke, and I'm guessing the google ads, affiliate income, banner ads total will be roughly $700 for March. My goal, like many others is to push this income up this year to the point that all online marketing expenses are paid by income and I can grow my home building and mortgage businesses for free online.