I’m a big fan of passive income. I’m also a big fan of SEO. Put the two together and I have built a network of information sites that drive passive income from affiliate programs. Historically, my main methods of monetization have been Google AdSense and the eBay Partner Network. However, I set the goal in 2010 of diversifying my affiliate programs. Even though I’m the biggest fan of AdSense around (and AdSense dominates my affiliate earnings), it always a great idea to diversify for added stability. To that end, I’m excited to report than I earned $991 on Commission Junction in the month of August, a new milestone for me. My earnings were at 100 percent margin, all from my SEO sites. Moreover, I spend less than 5 hours per month on this stuff (I’m a corporate SEM Director) so I’m super excited with the results.
My CJ Earnings Are Pure Profit
My friend Jeremy from Profit Addiction said it best. Jeremy’s tagline "When revenue is not enough" indicates that it’s all about profit and not revenue. You hear a lot about people making thousands and thousands of dollars with affiliate marketing. However, most of the time they are talking about revenue and not profit. There’s a big difference!
Just think about it: Pay per click is getting really competitive. If you’re a savvy affiliate, your percentage margin may be 25 percent tops (most are much lower). Let’s assume I earned my $991 via PPC at 25 percent margin (instead of my 100 percent SEO margin percent). That means my theoretical PPC revenue is $4,000 or $48,000 per year. Not bad!
However, PPC margins can be volatile. As such, I would always swap PPC dollar margin for the same dollar margin in SEO. In short, I’m a huge fan of SEO earnings. Sustainable SEO margin is just like a great dividend-paying stock, whereas PPC is more like active trading.
Affiliate Marketing Is A Small Percentage of My Income
So you may be thinking why is Ian writing about a $991 monthly profit, it’s not that much money. Here’s the cool part and why I’m such a big proponent of moonlighting: It’s all gravy on top of my salary and involves only a few hours a month. (Also its just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my affiliate income as CJ is a smaller component of my cash flow.)
However, I’m here to make a point… I spend the vast majority (99 percent) of my time on my full time job. A good percentage of my full time salary goes towards bills. My affiliate marketing income, however, is pure savings that goes directly into my bank account or other investment vehicles. With only a few extra hours a month I have learned invaluable SEO skills (helpful in my career) while building a stream of pure profit that goes to my bottom line.
Since my $991 is passive and recurring, it’s representative of about $240,000 value in my eyes (I would have to invest $240,000 at 5 percent dividend yield to get that same annual cash flow via stocks). In short, no matter how small your affiliate business, SEO margin is much more valuable than you may think!
Give Commission Junction A Try
I’ve been building out a lot of SEO sites and have been placing CJ ads on all of them. I have been very pleased with my results and highly recommend giving Commission Juntion a try. Many people I know don’t use CJ as much anymore since the eBay affiliate program is now managed by eBay (and not via CJ like it was in the past). However, I’m here to say that Commission Junction has many great offers that convert quite well in SEO, especially in "review" style sites.
Great monthly income from CJ Ian! Commission junction has been a bit tough on me, I usually only make around 100-200 per month, as I find it hard to do CPS verses the beloved CPA so I rarely include it in my sites, however, I do send some offers with CJ via aweber to make up for it!
Talk soon,
Dino
Very exciting Ian. Congratulations on such a solid month.
-Dave
Ian,
First of all, thank you for the link. I definitely appreciate it!
Secondly, GREAT post. I have actually built a handful of smaller sites recently based on your strategies discussed in a few posts on your blog. I’m hoping they can make some money!
Keep working hard, as we both know, revenue is not enough!
Jeremy
I’m also a big fan of SEO and this is my main source on traffic on either blogs or affiliate websites. It’s great you managed to earn $991 in the first month and being a passive income it means you can develop more websites and increase your profits.
I have done affiliate marketing in the past, but now it’s only a small part of my revenue too. I also want to get back in this business.
Hey Ian,
Fantastic job with CJ this past month. This post was really inspiring – it’s always great and motivating to read about specific success that people have with a particular network. The fact that you did it with organic traffic makes it even more incredible.
I know you’re a SEM pro, but I have a question – do you outsource any of your SEO work (or website creation work)? I’m in the same boat as you (i.e. full time job in addition to “side job” online endeavors), and I mostly find that that my energy level after a long day at work isn’t high enough to be REALLY productive.
Thanks for the great post.
– Eric
Dino,
As always thanks so much for the comment! CJ used to be smaller for me and really glad it’s now growing! Now, if I could only figure out Amazon, my worst performing affiliate program.
All the best,
Ian
David,
Thanks so much for the comment, I truly appreciate it! Looking forward to catching up with you sometime soon. We should do lunch in SF one of these days.
All the best,
Ian
Jeremy,
You are very welcome! Thanks so much for the positive feedback, I’m glad you liked the post! I can’t wait to hear about your SEO minisites.
All the best,
Ian
Alex,
Very much appreciate the comment! Thank you very much!
All the best,
Ian
Eric,
Thanks so much for the positive feedback, I truly appreciate it! You ask a fantastic question. I actually do both. I really enjoy writing articles and try to stick in verticals I truly enjoy so my passion comes through in my writing. That said, my time is so limited these days that I’m outsourcing a good portion of my articles now. Both have worked well for me but I have found that my own articles tend to be stickier and earn more money since the passion really comes through. Thanks again, Eric, I appreciate it!
All the best,
Ian
Congratulations for earning the extra money.Also thanks for the link I’ll mention it to my dad.Thanks again! 😉
Thanks so much for the comment, Bradley! I truly appreciate it!
Your very welcome.I love your blog.It is very nice.
Thats great I’m also a huge lover of passive income. Its a great when you combine it with an active income an progressive and continuos learning.
Great Post
Juan,
Thanks so much for the comment. As always, I very much appreciate it.
All the best,
Ian
That’s a good income from CJ Ian, I made a little bit more then that last month!
Keep up those nice numbers!
Thanks so much, Dan! I’m really excited about it because I’m big on revenue diversification and CJ is helping me get there. This month (September), I’m proud to announce that I have already slightly surpassed my August earnings! Great to hear about your success on CJ as well, that’s awesome! Now, if I could only get Amazon Associates to work!
Best,
Ian
Hey Ian,
Great job on the earnings. I’m trying to get those earnings up for CJ as well. Not sure what type of links you use on your SEO sites, ie text links or banner links, but which one do you find converts better?
Also, you might to check out Chris’ blog if you haven’t already. here’s the link to his site: http://www.makemoneyontheinternet.com
Jimmy,
Great to hear from you, thanks for the comment! I mainly use CJ banners, primarily because I outsource my minisites and it’s easier to just send them banners versus working text links into the articles and design. That said, I’m betting text links offer a lot of upside as well. I’m a big fan of Chris’ blog, thanks for sending it over.
Best,
Ian
I just earned a $1530 from cj so i googled for similar stories. Best of luck cj is a good source of income if you own a BLOG
B-)
I hear CJ are very bad at tracking sales as mentioned in so many forums, most of the advertisers have not updated their banners for a couple of years that is saying a lot.
Hi Jake,
Thanks for the comment and for visiting PPC Ian. I’ve had a good experience with CJ as of late, but it definitely took some time to ramp up and find the right offers that work the best. I agree some of the advertisers have not updated their banners. Although, I would encourage you to keep testing and finding the right niche within CJ’s vast array of offers. There are ones in there that can be quite lucrative. Happy new year!
All the best,
Ian
hai sir , i joined cj, and i got some company approved ,so i took that adds to my website, i have minimum 100 visitors ( impression) everyday, but any one didnot give any single lead, can you send me any tips or tricks to visitors give lead. send me the answer to my mail id sir
thank you
Vinothkumar, I just want to point out that impressions are not visitors. Commission Junction is a wonderful network. I’ve been earning more since I try to sign up with advertisers that relate to my website’s niche.