Blog Monetization Update: Big Money, No Whammies! (derp, derp, derp)

The call to have some readers click on advertisements so I could learn a bit about how things work, and make a tiny bit more cash, did exactly that. I learned very little, earned very little, and only a handful of readers contributed. Thank you to those that did lend a click.

Blog earnings lifetime total grew from $8.88 to $11.29 and taught me that some ads are only worth a few cents while some can be well over a dollar. Since beginning monetization 7 years ago, the blog is averaging $1.61 per year. I know, shocking!

If you are reading the blog on a mobile device, and most folks are, then your traffic is valued less per click than someone on an old-fashioned computer. If anything it should be the other way around. 

 Providing the motivation hits, I would like to rebuild my reserve of completed draft posts, and boost output again so I can make another effort to draw ad clicks and see what if anything changes.

So cheers to a strong 2022 on the blog, and here's to the prospects for 2023.

Blog Productivity - Average Posts Per Month Comparison

This calendar year, the 11th for the blog, has been incredibly productive. Per calendar year it exceeds all previous years by a good margin. It is the highest number of articles beating even the first year. Average posts per month for 2011 is exactly 16 (6 months), and the average posts per month for 2022 is exactly 16 (9 months). Had I not fallen ill, and had instead scheduled the two articles planned for this week, the average would squeak to the top by .22

Recently the rate of posts slowed slightly for a number of reasons. Foremost is the downturn of active game play. 

My Saturday face-to-face game has been on another extended hiatus since the beginning of June and remains so till at least into the new year. We had previously lost over two years of play due to Covid, so this period ads insult to injury. 

I have stopped playing in the Thursday Knights campaign for a couple of reasons, one of which is that my character, Ennark, completed his overall goal of recovering major holy artifacts of his faith., and the other reason is personal. 

The Friday Ptolus campaign has seen over two months of postponements from a combination of player health issues and personal responsibilities, and taking a break until the new year.

Add to all of this the decline of motivation to write, thankfully not a complete shutdown like the three year total absence from early 2019 till early 2022. New posts are still being written, but nowhere near that early manic pace.

Because of the manic period of writing running from early March through early June, I still have nearly 60 completed articles sitting in the drafts folder awaiting scheduling, and have plans for a couple more subject matter series to work on for 2023.

It appears that 2023 will be productive, but it remains to be seen if it can come close to 2022. The aim is to manage 10 posts per month or better. If I get my other article projects moving then that will be manageable. 

The graph below is not relevant to the information above, but at least it is D&D related.

Blog Monetization Update (2) - Brother Can You Spare A Click?

Since the last update earlier this year, things have happened. Two people each clicked on an advertisement and the blog earned a whopping .27 cents! Woohoo! Um, yeah.

So at the time of the previous update the blog had earned $8.88 from the start of monetization in 2015. The accumulated earnings are now $9.15. This is still far from the $100 dollars needed for an automatic payout. (I could claim it, but why not wait to see how long it takes.)

What this means is not really anything of significance, however, if everyone that reads a post would click an ad (and then presumably clear their cookies to get the bad taste out of their browser), the blog might make enough money through the rest of this year to allow me to buy TWO cups of big chain coffee.

Of course I would love to bring in enough from the blog to help defray the costs of my Dwarven Forge addiction, but that would likely require courting controversy which I am loath to consider.

So PLEASE everyone, click an add when you read an article and hopefully soon I can get the earnings into the double digit dollar range.

Happy 11th Birthday to the blog.

I'm amazed this blog even exists after giving up on it for the last three years. Returning to my campaign after Covid had derailed it, was the motivation to dive back in and start writing posts again. Here's hoping the blog continues to thrive, and here's wishing everyone good gaming in the years ahead.

Happy 11th Birthday The Dice Are A Lie