Blogging Income Stream Breakdown by Darren Rowse

Darren Rowse runs the internet’s top blog about blogging and recently he posted a breakdown of his income streams in percentages for his different blogs that he runs.

It’s interesting to know that Google AdSense is still a top earner for him, despite many other bloggers writing about a significant decline in AdSense revenue. In the video he shares that the AdSense revenue is generated largely from his Digital Photography School website and not from ProBlogger.net, where he no longer runs AdSense at all.

From an outsider perspective it would seem that readers looking for digital photography tips are probably also in the mood for buying or learning about other products that happen to fall under consumer goods. The type of reader that is into digital cameras is probably interested in new technology, which some of the AdSense ads may be portraying. Thus there inclination to seek out other information and click on ads. This versus ProBlogger readers who go to that site solely seeking information about blogging. Information products are a bit more intangible than hard goods, so it makes sense that advertising in the PPC (pay-per-click) form would be less effective.

In the end having an actual product to sell is probably the most reliable way to earn an income from a website, but a site that is tied into tangible hard goods like a gadget review site would be, can be effective for advertisement driven income generation because that type of site captures the attention of consumers in a buying mood. In a nutshell a reader is more likely to click an advertisement for something they are trying to buy, and that they have actively sought out versus something they stumbled on by accident.