Don't use Google AdSense in South Africa

As stated in previous posts, I had Google AdSense clocking up some Rands and Cents in the background, not paying much attention to it. I even received the little postcard with my confirmation code which one receives after a couple of months.

Without any real in-depth explanation, my AdSense account was suspended just before I reached my payment threshold of R1000. they basically said they discovered irregularities that pose a risk to their clients advertising. Now, with irregularities I would presume they mean click fraud which, with making between R1.50 and R4 per day with AdSense seemed highly unlikely.

This is particularly annoying, as I put up with their ads on my websites for over 9 months. I didn't particularly like their ads, but thought I would have gotten rid of it as soon I received my first payment. I contacted them to explain themselves and they basically gave me the same answer.

This has happened before, as I had an AdSense account that was not that active, as I only really started experimenting with affiliate advertising in January this year. I had made a couple of Rands and the AdSense account became inactive. Together with the new account that was closed, I probably lost on on R1000.

Who knows how many people's accounts are closed daily before they reach payment threshold? AdSense is not really worth the hassle. Programs like TrafficSynergy and AdDynamo also run locally and pay almost at the same ratio. The difference is that their payment thresholds are lower, so you get paid more frequent - thus problems would be pointed out earlier, should they arise, and probably with a proper explanation.

I will probably update some more payment figures and screen shots soon. A new affiliate was added in the place of AdSense - AdDynamo. More on that later.

Go delete your AdSense account. It's not worth it.

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:

Try easy and free ways of getting traffic to your site

I sort of lost interest in doing the whole online guide thing, but I will periodically try and update some findings here, time permitting.

Last time I mentioned some tips to get more traffic to your website. Its kind of easy and you just need to think about it logically. Its impossbible to name all the tips, but here we go anyway:

1. Change your e-mail signature so it contains a URL to your website

2. Set up RSS feeds so people can get automatic updates to your blog / website

3. Join free websites such as Youtube , StumbleUpon and Facebook and have your website's URL in your profile.

A note on StumbleUpon for those who are not familiar with it:

"StumbleUpon discovers web sites based on your interests. Whether it's a web page, photo or video, our personalized recommendation engine learns what you like, and brings you more."

Its easy as just clicking on an icon and it takes you to your next website of interests that you set up according to personal taste. Its a great way to get to know the internet if you are bored or just looking for something interesting to browse. Also, when looking to increase traffic to your website, its probably the easisest way to come across site with interseting discussions, funny pictures or videos or just straight our weird shit. Most sites have a comments section and more often than not you dont even need to register - just choose a handle / nic and leave a comment together with your website's URL. Also dont post bullshit or spam them. Try and contribute something short & sweet or interesting. If you contribute something meaningful, chances are that people will click on the website link you left with your comment.

Try it for yourself. Note the amount of hits / unique visitors you have had to your site the last week or two. Now try and leave around 10 comments on 10 different sites per day for a week long. Remember to at least update your site with content as well halfway during that week.

Make a note of the sites you visited or stumbled across and check your stats after a week. You should have some increased traffic from those sources.

If you contribute someting useful (ie original) to Youtube, you can do more or less the same. Create your own channel and make your URL to your site part of your profile. Respond with videos / comments to other users. Posting stuff like "Amy Whinehouse as a fucked-up coke whore" under an Amy Whinehouse video might me slightly amusing, but it won't neccesarily draw traffic to your profile and then to your website.

4. Find websites with similar content or complimentary content and politely ask for link exchanges. Those are usually free.

After increasing traffic to your website, join some affiliate marketing groups.

Because I do this part time and as part of an experiment, I am not really interested in the international stuff (apart from Adsense and Synergy). I want to see if its possible to make some reasonable money in South Africa passively. You will probably come across some banners of stuff that I am trying out. In the next post I will share with you how to join these programs and some stats and figures of my personal earning, if any.

PS: The sad part is (as far as Google AdSense is concerned) that because I am adressing issues such as AdSense itself and against working from home scams - AdSense will probably pick up and advertise click-through links for SEO and Google optimization. If you see stuff like that or links that try to capitalize on you its easy to avoid: don't click on it. You dont need to pay anoyne a cent for any information. The internet is full of true, free, no-obligation info.