When I first started blogging, I had no idea where it would go. My original intention was never to build the blog with the intention to sell, or market my own products, but to continually provide information and resources for free. Instead of writing an ebook, or selling my own marketing course, I would focus on providing as much information and resources as I could to my readers, at no cost. I would focus on quality content and building a reader base, then worry about revenue generation later.
During the first nine months of the blog, there were no advertisements and not much interaction with the user. After having my original blog design redone by Unique Blog Designs, the site started to generate money with on-site advertising and network referrals. Nearly a year after ZJ Blog version 2.o, UBD worked their magic again and version 3.o was released on 11/24/08. The results of quality content, multiple blog designs, networking and support from advertisers… I’m proud to say the blog is now generating over $12,000 profit per month.
The Original and Previous ZJ Blog Designs
As mentioned earlier, I never started the blog with the sole intention to for it to be my next money maker. Instead I wanted to focus on creating an resource site on how to make money online and for others to learn what “affiliate marketing” is. After all… isn’t affiliate marketing better than 99% of the “real” jobs out there? To this day, creating this blog has probably been one of the best decisions I have made. While it was great to be an “affiliate in the dark” for the majority of my 13+ years of making money online, it’s also great to share my stories and knowledge, and hear from new blog readers every day and how they just started making a few dollars online!
Over the past year I’ve also had the following to attribute to the blog:
– Recently published my 500th post on the blog, over 12,000 comments and just passed 6,000 RSS subscribers.
– I had the honor of taking part in the “Super Affiliate Blog Panel” at Blog World with ShoeMoney, Brian Clark, Darren Rowse and John Chow.
– Several thousands of dollars in cash and prizes have been awarded by networks from contests and promotions run on this blog. Not only bringing in new business to affiliate networks, but also creating new revenue paths for affiliates.
– One of my proudest accomplishments from the blog, is seeing that it has helped generate over ONE MILLION DOLLARS in new commissions for affiliates. With over 1,500 referrals to Neverblue alone, and hundreds more of affiliates to other networks, the blog has greatly exposed new networks and brought in a lot of new affiliates to our industry.
Thank you to everyone who has helped ZacJohnson.com grow into what it is today.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Good work, I have been following your blog for at least 1 year and have actually been taught a thing or two believe it or not!
Keep it up.
Zac,
Keep up the excellent work, your blog not only looks great the but the content is invaluable.
Cheers!
i love reading you blog though, but sometime i don't know what the heck the writing about, maybe it for people that in your industry which i dont.. but still keep coming to read something at least related to me.. 😀 but congratz man..
first time i here.. the spiderman make me stay. haha
You rock, Zac. This blog is what got me started.
I would like to congratulate you to your success.
<a class="replyTo" href="#comment-103045" rel="nofollow">@Jeremy:
Awesome Jeremy! So glad to hear the blog helped you get started. Seen your blog a few times now.
Nice zac, heres to the next 2 years! cheers!
Congrats for your success and keep up the good work. I've been following you since version 1.0 of your site and I appreciate very much the quality of your content.
You are My man.
$12,000/mo is Huge!!
I'll get the cake! Feliz Cumpleanos!
It's amazing to think how far the blog has come and what a tremendous money maker it has been for you. It shows what you can do if you work hard and keep focused on your target.
Congrats Zac! That revenue is well deserved as you crank out some great content.
The UBD designs are awesome. They fit everything I wanted to do with my sites to a tee. I looked through the free templates on wordpress over a weekend and didn't come up with anything close to what those guys were doing. I've applied their designs to 7 blogs since Dec. and am planning on going back to them for a site redo once I hit a profit level. I had read one of your posts about them quite a while before I was looking, and had to come back to your site and re-read it. Thanks for recommending them.
Happy birthday ZacJohnson.com and happy blogoversary Zac! It's been great following your journey, and I look forward to many more great posts!
simply amazing! Congrats on the first two and look forward to reading and learning some more from your site.
Congrats Zac. You do a great job blogging. Here's to many more years of success!
Zac,
Proof that giving away from yourself has a wonderful reward. You provide such consistent value and encouragement to newbies like me, we just need to implement what you have shared and be patient.
Our reward then will be a great success story to share with the next group of hopeful bloggers!
A fine example of persistence paying off! I'm going to keep going, 100 visitors a day to my blogs and growing, since beginning in September 2008 after BlogWorld Expo.
Respectfully,
Nicholas Chase
http://www.twitter.com/nachase
Good work mate, keep it up! $12,000 a month is brilliant.
I'm sooo jealous but congrats, you make me believe 😉
Congrats Zac! 🙂
-Mike
generating over $12,000 profit per month. Thats awesome Zac, I wish I could do that, but slowly I will one day.
Zac, congratulations on 2 years! I did not realize how far the blog has come over the time-span. $12,000/month is incredible, as is the 1 million dollar mark. You definitely have reason to celebrate your success.
Congratulations! And happy St Patricks Day back to you. It is a special day for me, because it is my birthday!
Congratulations on the blog birthday and hitting these amazing goals – Keep it up next year we can celebrate 24K a month profits !! Again congratulations from team Motive !
happy birthday to you
Wow, those are really impressive stats, congrats on that and keep up the great work!!!
Happy belated birthday to your blog! A lot of bloggers start out with nothing and no idea where to go similar to your situation. Most out of those people end up quitting, while people like you took it to a whole new level. Congrats!
Most excellent Zac. The fact that you can concentrate 100 percent on your blog and make a great living is a wonderful thing. I am totally inspired by your efforts and your progress.
Congratulations on the blog birthday and hitting these amazing goals.
Colon Cleansing
How do you look for information for your blog content?