My first six months of affiliate marketing earnings

Right, it's that time of the year where I do my second assessment and have a look at how the second quarter compares to how I did in my first quarter (Jan 2009 - March 2009). It will also be interesting to see how I did, compared to the expectations I laid out for myself in the beginning of the year.

I short, I was on an earning average of R950 for the first three months and was hoping to increase my earnings to an average of R1500 for the next three months. Did I manage to get it right?

Lets have a look at my totals for Jan 1 to June 30. I have included screenshots as proof at the end as well.

Google AdSense
R614.49
Adgator:
R332.84
R285.95
R193.32
R751.39
Total: R1563.50

Traffic Synergy:
R324.64

Mantality:
R1864.35

Kalahari:
R 3492.30

Rhythm Records:
R70

All these give me a total R7929.28 earned for the first 6 months. That gives me an average R1321.55 per month for the first 6 months. This is on average R178.45 per month short of the goal I set for myself to earn an average of R1500 per month three months ago, but we have to keep in mind that I joined Mantality at the end of January and Rhythm records towards the end of April.

I stated from the beginning that I believe that it's possible for the average South African blogger to earn between R1000 and R1500 per month on the internet and here is your proof.

I reckon I would be able to get my earnings up to an average of R1700 per month within the next three months and hopefully up to an average of R1900 per month by the end of the year. Let's revisit the figures then and see how close I managed to get.

In the meantime, keep popping in over here as I try out new programs, drop others and try new things on the internet. I have a cool idea to make some extra cash on the web that I am working on. Not wheelbarrows full of cash. Maybe an extra R300 to R500 per month which requires some work in the beginning and virtually no maintenance thereafter. All the small amounts add up in the end. If I didn't start playing around with affiliate earnings, I wouldn't have had the extra R8000 that I earned from January to June. Double it up to get an estimated year-end total of R16000, without taking growth into consideration. It is starting to look more and more like a 13th cheque to me, so keep visiting this blog to track my progress and share my thoughts.

Some screenshots of some of my money earners:

Why you should join Mantality, a South African men shop's affiliate program

Back in February 2009 (roughly a month after I started messing around with online affiliate awards programs) I discovered Mantality, an online shop for men, chockablock with gadgets, gifts and lifestyle products.

After only 3 sales I was standing on just over R200, including the R30 they gave me for just signing up with them. I was quiet for a month or so and I had to wait for the sales commission to get above the payout threshold of R470.

In April I was sent a shaving balm by post with the understanding that I write a short summary of the product. I wrote my little report, posted it on one of my websites and more or less 2 weeks after that, I had more sales, all of a sudden pushing my commission over R1400. Becasue of that my commission level also went up. Just over R1500 was promptly paid into my ABSA account.

So, after getting paid, I am just over R200 again and the cycle continues. Here is s screenshot from all my earnings to date (Feb 2000 - June 2009)



Mantality is now my second biggest earner next to Kalahari

Something you could start implementing straight away once you have joined Mantality's affiliate program is their free online men's magazine. It actually has useful information plus it is free.



I would suggest that you get in there as quick as you can. A lot of you guys have already missed out on AdGator, as they don't take any new bloggers on board for now (there is a waiting list). Another example is the online casino affiliate programs. If you did not join them two years ago, there is almost no need to join them now - but more about this at a later stage.

Mantality does not have that many bloggers signed up with them yet. Join now and get a big slice of the pie before too many people discover this and leave crumbs for the rest.

O, and as a last point - Mantality does not sell crap. Take some time and browse through their site. I am sure you will find someting that will interest you.

I crossed the R3000 mark this month with online revenue!

- before we go on just a quick note. I received a total amount of just over R3000 commission in total this month from all the affiliate programs I joined. I have not reached my long term average goal of R3k per month yet, I still need to get to the short-term goal of R1500 average per month...

Right, so it possible to make some bucks on the internet and every other month one does get a nice total when all the nice payments fall within the same month.

Let's have a look at the money I made on interwebs this month:

Mantality R1542.09
Kalahari R1205.96
Traffic Synergy R268.80
Rhytm Records R69.83

Total for June 2009: R3086.68

Not kak at all hey? I used the bucks to help pay towards a new Canon S10 camera of around R4500. Very naughty of me, seeing that in these economic times I should be putting more bucks towards my bond. Sheesh! I will start behaving beetter next month.

I am still aiming for an average of around R1500 per month by the end of the year. Check back at the end of June to find out if I am still on track to achieve this goal.

I have also decided to go for a new template for this blog for various reasons. One of them being the new affiliate programs I am following and old ones I gave to boot. The new template will have all sorts of bells and whistles attached to it - adouble feature really: It makes for better reading or viewing and it will also illustrate some plugins and features I have discovered aling the way that for instance imporves adsense etc.

Check back later this week for the new features.

The Mantality of it

You were expecting the riveting AdSense story, weren't you? The long and short of it is that I am on $8, so it will have to roll over to the next post when I am on $15. Also, someone at work asked me to explain AdSense to him (probably because he is too lazy to read up on in). OK, I will explain AdSense to those lazy okes next time. Just not today. Being a smoker and drinker, $8 doesn't sound like much, especially after Trevor's budget speech today.

So you might have noticed another little square banner I added at the top for Mantality. They give you R30 just for signing up and pay out once you've reached R300 worth of sales commission. I thought mmmkay, I'd give it a month and then can it, but it is actually starting to pay off. And now I might decide to can the Loot banners in stead, as I am on R0, but I'd give it another couple of weeks and then give you my honest opinion of why it worked or did not work. Obviously, if it starts generating a couple of cents in the next 2 weeks or so, I will give strangle it a bit slower. Then can it.

Mantality is an online South African shop that sells products and gadgets that appeal to men. Products that I am interested for instance, is a waterproof wireless Ipod speaker. That's right, you gooi it your pool. It floats. You drink beer. You listen to your tunes. Another nifty product is a flint-like lighter that can start your braai even in the Amazon while its pissing down with rain, snakes and flu virusses. I actually saw it on some survival program on Discovery the other night before seeing it on the Mantality website. I am definitely interested in these two products but won't buy it for now. I will buy it from Mantality with the money they give me for selling (in my sleep) the same kak that I want. So far I am not doing too kak for three sales:



Doing some quick maths in my head, I am probably standing on around R2500 for the month for money made on the interwebs, but I'd rather give you a proper breakdown at the end of Feb with a start and finish date for all programs, so take it with a lump of salt.

In a totally unrelated event, a friend and I received our first AdSense cheque of just over R1000. We decided to buy beer with all the money. After all, we waited a whole fucking year to reach $100. See, its not that easy...