Thanks for your reply. A healthy discussion is always a good thing.

Two points you forget when calculating a blog’s earnings:

1. Compete and other traffic systems should not be completely trusted.

And more importantly:
2. Advertising earnings are only a part of anyone’s blog earnings – or at least they should be if you monetize your blog right. Affiliate sales and monetization of your mailing list should be your priority for any blog you build.

John

You have a very well done and top notch domain news blog (you are currently ranked #24 on our list of the Top 100 Domaining Blogs which is very impressive: http://www.domainsuperstar.com/top-100-domaining-blogs).

Some bloggers can certainly make a good income if they work hard to become one of the best blogs in their niche as you have done but I think my point is just that it is a bit of a stretch to say that blogging is a “top money earner”.

If someone achieves authority blog status in a profitable niche like domain names as you have done (very nice job BTW) then even using your rather robust pricing of $10 per 1,000 impressions and lets say there are 10 spots on the page all at $10 per 1,000 impressions = $100 per 1,000 impressions or 10 cents per impression (a very generous assumption) then with Compete.com putting your monthly uniques at somewhere around 13,000 and maybe then your monthly page views at somewhere around 30,000 then 30,000 X 10 cents = $3,000/month.

$3,000/month is a nice healthy income especially if there is some extra income coming in via affiliate commissions but I would respectfully still say that it is a far cry from a “top money earner”.

Just my two cents because I know that there are certainly exceptions as I mentioned in my post but I still would stand by my statement that blogging is not the highest ROI when it comes to making money online by a long shot. Yes, some can make good money and a few can make great money but those blogs that are “top money earners” are few and far between (from what I have seen – and yes there are some absolutely remarkable blogs like Bankaholic.com that make a killing I’m sure but my post was more about generalities as I would still classify blogging as having the “potential for making decent money” rather than a “top money earner”). – Joel

PS Keep in mind that I am only using your blog as the example since you first brought up your blog as an example in your post – and most people will not A)Choose a profitable niche to blog in like domain names or B)Ever get close to being one of the top 25 blogs in their niche as you have done. Great job and thanks for the opposing viewpoint.

Thanks

Brian
TeenDomainer.com