December 2007 Adsense Earnings and 2007 Overall Earnings.

I had said in a previous post that there was a possibility that I had been 'smart priced'. Well, I have had a closer look at my Stats (which I should have done in the first place) - and I am now certain that it is only the CTR that has dropped on my main web site, with my earnings per click staying fairly constant...

So even though my eCPM is down significantly from what it was in September 2007, I am still earning more or less the same amount per click. The reduced CTR could be due to any number of factors, the most likely being that there are simply not as many well targeted adverts on many of my pages compared to September 2007. This could be due to the 'downturn' in the global economy perhaps??

It is hard for me to check what adverts are appearing on my web site for any parts of the world other than the UK and Republic of Ireland - so it is hard to know. But as far as the UK and Ireland go - there does not seem to have been a huge change..

Adsense Earnings for December 2007 are $519 - my worst month since April 2007, although December is traditionally not very good for me as I do not have any really good Christmas Wallpapers.

Adsense Earnings over the entire 2007 year are $6,992 the VAST majority being earned from 336x280 adsense units - with a small amount from Adsense For Search, and Google Referrals .

Earnings for selling hi-res photos in 2007 are approx $220 (a bit down on last year), and as I said in a previous post it is probably not worth all the hassle..

Earnings from all other stuff that I have tried (CPA / Affiliate stuff etc) - amounts to pretty much ZERO. So while I may grumble form time to time about how poor Adsense can be - it is still far and away my biggest earner AND takes up very little of my time!

Here are visits for the 2007 year for irishviews.com (approx 400,000):-



Ignore the spike which was caused by an ill considered javascript on my site. But overall traffic has been increasing quite significantly over the year as I have added more photos an improved the navigation on the site.

Here are visits for 2007 for irishmyspace.com (approx 73,000):-

The spike near the start was caused by Saint Patricks Day what with my site being 'Irish' and what have you.. I have put very little effort into irishmyspace.com this year - hence why the traffic has not increased overall during the year.

I would also give you a graph of visits for ireland-screensavers.com - but I somehow seem to have messed up the Google analytics code on that site. But very approximately it got 13,000 visits over the year.

Since I started my money from photos blog in June 2007 - it has made me practically no money at all - and only brought in modest amounts of direct traffic to my main web sites - but apparently there are lots of less tangible benefits to having a blog! I am still not sure it is worth all the time and effort, but having said that, I do quite enjoy keeping it up to date... here is the graph:-


Ignore the bit which shows ZERO visits for a few days, as I had changed the Blogger template and forgot to include the Analytics code... But since it started in June - it has had approx 6,000 visits. I tried Adsense on it for a while - but took it back off again - as it is generally accepted that it does not work very well on blogs, and I did not to risk getting 'smart priced' for the sake of approx $10 per month! I will be looking into other ways of making decent earnings form this blog in 2008, so stay tuned!

All the above stats were taken from Google Analytics - which is quite 'conservative' in the figures it quotes.

If you want to see a more 'optimistic' version of these stats from Quantcast, Click here.

So to recap - Adsense Earnings for 2007 by month (In US Dollars):-

Jan 2007 - 215
Feb 2007 - 271
Mar 2007 - 377
Apr 2007 - 375
May 2007 - 525
June 2007 - 524
July 2007 - 755
Aug 2007 - 811
Sep 2007 -1091
Oct 2007 - 668
Nov 2007 - 815
Dec 2007 - 519

Overall 2007 earnings from my main photo related web sites were approx $7212 (US Dollars).

But in case anyone thinks this is an easy way to make money I have to point out that the large number of hours invested in my web sites means that I not exactly earning huge dollars per hour!
NB - My outgoings for the year for hosting etc were in the region of $120.

Most of my earnings are due to 'SEO' - and I thoroughly recommend the Search Engine Optimization For Dummies book which taught me most of what I know about Search Engine Optimization, and if you want to keep constantly up to date with the latest SEO techniques, SEObook also comes highly recommended.....

Photo Of The Day - Maid Of The Mist (Niagara Falls)

Taken from my Niagara Falls page:-

Photo Of The Day - CN Tower View Downwards

Taken from my CN Tower Views, Toronto page:-


It is a *very* scary thing to stand on the observation deck of the CN tower on the glass floor and look down! This photo does not really do it justice!

Selling High Quality Photos Part 2.

I said in a previous post that selling high quality photos was probably not worth the time and effort required..

December 2006 had been my best month for selling hi-res photos, mainly to local companies who wanted photos of the local area to put on their calendars for the coming year (which they would send out free to clients as part of their marketing campaigns).

Unfortunately, in December 2007 - NOBODY contacted me about this. I am not sure of the reason why... Maybe people are being less honest this year and just using the lo-res versions, or maybe everyone has worked how to use stock photo web sites??

Anyway, I did manage to make approx $102 in profit on private sales of my photos, which took up about and hour of my time in total.

Most photos were just emailed to customers, but a couple of clients wanted prints delivered to UK addresses - so I did this via photobox.co.uk, which I would recommend for quality and speed of delivery, even if they are not the cheapest...

Here are the photos I sold :-

http://www.irishviews.com/antrim-countryside.jpg

http://www.irishviews.com/irish-countryside4.jpg

http://www.irishviews.com/near-giants-causeway.jpg

http://www.irishviews.com/rock-of-cashel.jpg

http://www.irishviews.com/antrim-ireland-coast.jpg

http://www.irishviews.com/switzerland5.jpg

http://www.irishviews.com/silent-valley-reservoir.jpg

http://www.irishviews.com/castlewellan-forest-park10.jpg

http://www.irishviews.com/castlewellan-forest-park15.jpg


NB - after the event - I think that I sold some of these photos too cheaply - but since December was going quite badly for me this year - I thought it was better to get SOME sales rather than none!


Irish Wallpaper / Photos / Desktop Backgrounds
Irish Myspace Layouts / Backgrounds / Codes
Ireland screensavers

Photo Of The Day - Blackberry

Taken from my Blackberries page:-

Photo Of The Day - Foxglove 4

Taken from my Flowers page:-

Photo Of The Day - Brown Labrador 10

Taken from my Chocolate Labs page:-

Photo Of The Day - Butterflies

Taken from my Butterflies page:-

A Good Article On Time Lapse Photography.

http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/ultimate-guide-to-time-lapse-photography/

Photo Of The Day - Golden Fly

Taken from my Fly Insects page:-

Get Seen By Over 90,000 Visitors...

I am trying out 'Scratchback' on my main photo web site.

To get the ball rolling, I am flogging a prominent place at the top right of every page of my photo web site for only $25 for one month!

NB - the links are all 'nofollow' (If you are reading this Google:-)- but you will still get great traffic!

Buy one now - before the price goes up!

Irish Wallpaper / Photos / Desktop Backgrounds
Irish Myspace Layouts / Backgrounds / Codes
Ireland screensavers

Photo Of The Day - Worker Bee 2

Taken from my Bees/Wasp Like Insects page:-

Entrecard.

There have been LOADS of posts about this so far.

Most have been very positive (I am with them).

Here is a good post about it here.

I'll not reinvent the wheel by posting stuff that has been posted lots of times already - but I will post this tip - that I have not seen as yet....

Make sure you are using Firefox.

1. Go to entrecard.com/latest
2. Click in the 'Address' bar at top of screen
3. Press CTRL+C to copy the address
4. Press CTRL+T to open a new tab
5. Press CTRL+V to paste the address
6. Press Return
7. Repeat steps 4-6 until you have 30 'entrecard.com/latestlatest' tabs open
8. Press CTRL+SHIFT+D to bookmark all tabs
   

You will end up with something like this:-

Once a day - you can then quickly open every new entrecard site and drop your card, which should take less than 5 minutes...

Photo Of The Day - Dragonfly

Taken from my Dragonflies page:-

Photographer Interview - John McManus From Pictureourland.com

Since this Blog is about photography as well as making money here is my second interview with a talented Northern Irish photographer ...

• What camera and other equipment do you use?

At present I use a Canon EOS 350d. The majority of my landscapes are taken using a wide angle lens (sigma 10-20mm) which allows for a greater area to be covered in the shot which is important when shooting landscapes. I also carry a 70-300 zoom lens as it comes in handy for shots in which I want to concentrate on a specific feature.

• Which software do you use for image processing?

I try to ensure that the shots are composed and exposed as best as I can ‘in camera’ so that only slight enhancements are required in post processing – this is as much a time saving exercise as an artistic decision as I would much rather spend my time outside taking pictures than staring at a computer screen for hours on end. I use Photoshop Elements for any enhancements – generally tweaking levels and boosting saturation where necessary.

• If you had to give just one tip for budding photographers, what would it be?

To enjoy taking pictures – if you don’t enjoy taking pictures it is virtually impossible to drag yourself out of bed at 5 in the morning to catch a sunrise or stand in the freezing cold on a winters night to get a sunset!

• When did you start taking photos?

I have always been interested in photography and taking pictures but it wasn’t until I took a course in 2005 that it began to really think about composition and applying techniques (long exposures, use of filters) to my pictures.

• Where is your favourite landscape?

Rossbeigh Beach in Co.Kerry - See Rossbeigh Beach Co.Kerry

• JPEG or RAW?

Both – I always shoot using JPEG and RAW – this takes up quite a lot of space on memory card but it is nice to know that, if necessary, you can work on an umcompressed file that contains all the data that your sensor has recorded. This gives you much more control over how the image will look and allows you to correct any sins you may have committed when taking the shot - such as exposure settings or white balance!

• What is the ratio of your time spend taking photos / post processing the images?

At the moment I probably spend 60% of time taking photos and 40% in post processing (amendments to shots and preparing for the web)

• What is your next camera?

A Canon EOS 5D.

• What equipment would you buy if money was no object?

A Canon EOS-1D Mark III and half a dozen L series lenses.

• How do you print your photos?

Photobox – they use top quality paper (FujiFilm Crystal Archive) and provide consistently high quality results and an efficient service.

• What price do you sell your prints for?

I have 3 purchase options for all the prints on my site and 3 size options

Prints – these sell for £15, £25 and £35

Mounted Prints – these sell for £30, £40 and £50

Framed prints – these sell for £60, £80 and £100

I also sell panoramic prints ranging in price from £50 - £150 depending on size and finish.

• Show me your 3 favourite photos?

This changes on a daily basis but at the moment it’s -

The Ha’penny Bridge Dublin

Fastnet Rock Lighthouse Co. Cork

Rossbeigh Beach Co.Kerry

Free Images For Your Blog!

Fellow bloggers,

Photos, images, pictures, can all make a big difference to your blog (I know I am guilty of not including images often enough in any text heavy blog posts I do)...

So, please feel free to use / hotlink to any of my images on http://www.irishviews.com

All I ask in return (if possible) is a link back to my site.

Here is a wee example (view the source of this web page if you are not sure how to hotlink to an image from your blog):-



(Image courtesy of http://www.irishviews.com)

NB - any image you can find on my web site *should* have a corresponding smaller image in a /400x300 folder on my site which you can use directly in your blog (as I have done above) without having to resize it 'on the fly'. But you can still link to the full size image if you like...

For example, Blogger allows you to link to the full size image but specify
'small' (200 pixels wide)
'medium' (320 pixels wide)
'large' (400 pixels wide)

Here is a 'medium' image that is created in Blogger when linking to the full size image:-



Although it is worth bearing in mind that if you link directly to the image in the 400x300 folder then the image and your blog page will load faster and the image will be better quality!

NB - I have approx 1000 images that you can use ranging from Sunset to Landscape to Flora to Fauna...

Christmas Wallpaper

Taken from my Christmas Wallpaper page.

I hope people will forgive me the fact that my Xmas photos are not very good (or plentiful).

I promise to put more effort into it in the near future and have a much better page for next year!



Irish Wallpaper / Photos / Desktop Backgrounds
Irish Myspace Layouts / Backgrounds / Codes
Ireland screensavers

Photo Of The Day - Ladybug 11

Taken from my Ladybugs/Ladybirds page:-

Photo Of The Day - Squirrel 2

Taken from my Squirrels page:-

Photo Of The Day - Lambs

Taken from my Sheep/Lambs page:-

Adsense Earnings November 2007

Earnings for November are back up a bit to $820, although eCPM is still a good bit lower than it was in September i.e. I am getting a fair amount more traffic (mostly through SEO For Images) than I did in September, and still earning less!

I covered possible reasons for this in my October 2007 Adsense Earnings post.

The good news is that traffic to this blog has increased considerably (approx 1,400 visitors in November), so it is at the point now where I will consider adding some sort of affiliate program to my blog (I decided not to use Adsense on this blog any more, as it earned me very little, and it probably does not convert very well - possibly resulting in getting my Adsense account 'smart priced'). I'll let you all know how I get on!

Adsense Earnings For Last 12 Months (US Dollars):-

Dec 2006 - 157
Jan 2007 - 215
Feb 2007 - 271
Mar 2007 - 377
Apr 2007 - 375
May 2007 - 525
June 2007 - 524
July 2007 - 755
Aug 2007 - 811
Sep 2007 -1091
Oct 2007 - 668
Nov 2007 - 815

NB - subscribed readers to this blog has now reached the grand total of 34! (Only about 13,000 more to go until I have more readers than Shoemoney!)