Genius Types income was up 24% in September to $784.08.

LinkWorth Reversal

If you follow my income reports, you might notice that September’s figure is actually lower than the figure I reported in August. The reason for this discrepancy is a controversial adjustment that LinkWorth made to affiliate accounts last month. This adjustment affected affiliates who have recently referred new publishers to LinkWorth.

In an email dated September 11, 2007, LinkWorth notified affiliates that a programming error had overstated affiliate earnings on new referrals. As a result of this mistake, they debited over $300 from my account. They even debited $90 that had already been direct-deposited into my bank account.

This whole mess started in July when I referred 9 new publishers to LinkWorth. Each time I logged into my LinkWorth account, I a saw a $10 credit for each of these referrals for a total of $90 that I thought I earned in July. In August, I referred another 21 publishers and showed a $210 referral credit for the month.

I had referred even more publishers when I received the email telling me that these credits had been a mistake. LinkWorth informed me that this particular referral fee was never promised in their terms and that a programming error was mistakingly crediting affiliate accounts.

In an email, I asked LinkWorth to consider correcting the problem from that point forward, but to leave our accounts alone. From my point of view, reporting it on our login screens implied that we earned the money.

LinkWorth’s response was basically that it was clear in the contract and they were going ahead with the account reversals. As a result, I’ve had to restate two months of blog earnings and I’m over $300 poorer than I thought I was.

LinkWorth is still a strong money earner for Genius Types and I would recommend it; but I think you can understand my frustration.

September Income

The compound growth rate (three-month rolling average) is at 25% per month: excellent, but less than the 50% I thought I had with the LinkWorth referrals.

With 66,207 page views in September, my ICM (income per 1000 page views) was $11.80..

Income Breakdown

$339.38 from Google AdSense
$200.00 from LinkWorth
$191.29 from Text-Link Ads
$17.64 from Amazon Affiliate Commissions
$3.00 from tips
$2.77 from Revver.com

Google AdSense: $339.38

AdSense income jumped 26% in August, on par with overall income. AdSense has been the most consistent and productive income earner since the beginning on Genius Types.

With rumors of a shifting policy at Google towards link-sellers, I’ll be interested to see if Genius Types keeps its pagerank of 6 and therefore high search traffic and AdSense clicks.

LinkWorth: $200.00

I now have 3 advertisers purchasing links through LinkWorth and my cut is $50 each.

The other $50 is a result of LinkWorth’s new affiliate policy on publisher referrals, which now pays $50 if the referral does over $100 in business. One of my 30+ referrals has achieved this.

Text-Link Ads: $191.29

Text-link Ads sold out all ten spots in September. At $20 per link, that got me pretty close to $200. Now, the only way I’ll make more with TLA is when they adjust my price per link. With traffic on Genius Types increasing the way it has been, I anticipate that happening soon.

Amazon Affiliate Program: $17.64

All the book reviews I’ve been doing as of late have paid off. The income is nothing like AdSense, but it’s better than a sharp stick in the eye.

Tips: $3.00

The tip jar had 3 bucks in it last month. Thank you!

Revver: $2.77

Almost all of my Revver.com comes from one article: Five Ways to Create Passive Income with Little or no Money which also happens to be my most viewed.

Overall, a great month on par with expectations. Let’s see what next month brings.