Genius Types income last month was $787.33.

Income

The compound growth rate (three-month rolling average) is currently at 21% per month.

With 55,415 page views, the CPM (income per 1000 page views) was $14.20, up 20% from the month before.

Income Breakdown

$331.58 from Text-Link Ads
$242.89 from Google AdSense
$150.00 from LinkWorth
$20.69 from Amazon Affiliate Commissions
$10.00 from tips
$2.17 from Revver.com

Text-Link Ads: $331.58

Text-link Ads took the top spot for the first time ever. Genius Types made $181.58 from text links sold and an additional $150 from affiliate referrals.

Google AdSense: $242.89

AdSense income took a drop for the first month this year, falling into the second spot. Traffic has been slower lately, and AdSense income is reflecting that.

LinkWorth: $150.00

No new LinkWorth advertisers were added last month, but the residual income on the 3 that I’ve had remained.

Amazon Affiliate Program: $20.69

Amazon income paid for another book to read this month.

Tips: $10.00

A little excitement in the tip jar last month. Ten bucks from some really generous readers!

Revver: $2.17

I keep Revver around just to giggle every time the income stats come in. Most of the money comes from this little video that we did of our cat Milo. We like to joke that that makes him employed, unlike our other cat who mooches off us all day.

Subscribers: Don’t forget to visit the Genius Types home page from time to time for the latest Feature Articles, “Old-Old School Posts of the Day”, Twitter Updates, Comment Threads, and Most-Read Articles of All Time.

This income report has been revised because of an account adjustment by LinkWorth.

In an email dated September 11, 2007, LinkWorth notified all affiliates that a programming error had overstated affiliate earnings on new referrals. As a result of this mistake, they debited $300 from my account ($90 of which they had already deposited into my bank account for July, and $210 for September).

At the time, I had referred around 30 new publishers and each time I logged into my LinkWorth account, I saw a $10 credit for each of these referrals. LinkWorth claims that their policy never included this credit, and that it was a mistake to show it in our accounts.

Because of this change, my LinkWorth earnings in August were actually $138.71 instead of the $348.71 reported in this post; and total earnings were $631.58 instead of $841.58.

Genius Types blog income was up an incredible 57% in August, with earnings totaling $841.58. The gains were fueled in large part by stellar results from LinkWorth.

The compound growth rate (three-month rolling average) has consistently registered at 50% per month!

With 62,311 page views in August, my ICM (income per 1000 page views) was $13.51, up about 10% from last month.

I predicted this blog would grow exponentially, but I had no idea the growth curve would match up this perfectly.

Income Breakdown

$348.71 from LinkWorth
$259.74 from Google AdSense
$203.26 from Text-Link Ads
$22.31 from Amazon Affiliate Commissions
$4.95 from tips
$2.61 from Revver.com

LinkWorth $348.71

LinkWorth has been a surprise money-maker since I introduced it to Genius Types last month. LinkWorth is a text-link broker in the spirit of Text-Link Ads, but with more flexibility.

It claimed the top money-making spot in its second month.

Since LinkWorth allows us to set our own prices for ads, I’ve been able to harvest a higher fee per link. I sold another link in August to bring my total to three ads. I get 50% of the $100 fee per link for a pro-rated total of $138.71.

LinkWorth also has an outstanding affiliate program that gives you $10 per signup and 5% of the recurring transactions for the life of each account. Being a cashflow guy, I really like this model of recurring residual income.

As a result of an article I wrote about Linkworth, 21 people signed up last month, giving me a total of $210 in referral fees.

Google AdSense $259.74

AdSense income jumped 39% in August. The click-through rate has continued to be strong, and the average income per click is edging up slightly. Of coarse, the main reason AdSense income increased was the dramatic increase in pageviews.

Text-Link Ads $203.26

I reached a significant milestone with Text-link Ads in August when I sold out the ad slots. Unfortunately, TLA has kept the fee for each ad the same since I opened an account with them.

Amazon Affiliate Program $22.31

I’ve been pleasantly surprised with my Amazon affiliate income lately. I never really expect to make anything with them, but I’m selling more and more books for them with each book review.

Tips $4.95

I’m always amazed at people’s generosity when they leave something in my tip jar! Thank you to everyone who has!

Revver $2.61

Revver.combought another coffee for me last month. The majority of the clicks are from a silly little video of my cat, Milo. I guess I can stop bugging him to get a job.

I can’t wait to see what next month will bring!

This income report has been revised because of an account adjustment by LinkWorth.

In an email dated September 11, 2007, LinkWorth notified all affiliates that a programming error had overstated affiliate earnings on new referrals. As a result of this mistake, they debited $300 from my account ($90 of which they had already deposited into my bank account for July, and $210 for September).

At the time, I had referred around 30 new publishers and each time I logged into my LinkWorth account, I saw a $10 credit for each of these referrals. LinkWorth claims that their policy never included this credit, and that it was a mistake to show it in our accounts.

Because of this change, my LinkWorth earnings in July were actually $66.13 instead of the $156.13 reported in this post; and total earnings were $444.48 instead of $534.48.

Genius Types income was up 35% in July, with total earnings at $534.48.

That brings the compound growth rate (three-month rolling average) to 50% per month!

With 43,442 page views in June, my ICM (income per 1000 page views) was $12.30, up 52% from last month.

The big star this month was LinkWorth, which has blown away all my expectations.

Income Breakdown

$186.61 from Google AdSense
$156.13 from LinkWorth
$120.56 from Text-Link Ads
$45.00 from the SEO Book Affiliate Program
$13.95 from Amazon Affiliate Commissions
$11.00 from tips
$1.23 from Revver.com

Google AdSense $186.61

AdSense reclaimed the top spot this month. My click-through rate has continued to increase ever since I changed the link color in my AdSense ads from red to blue.

LinkWorth $156.13

I was introduced to LinkWorth last month as an alternative to Text-Link Ads. I was skeptical at first, by my mind was quickly changed when my first ad sold for over twice the rate that I was getting from Text-Link Ads.

LinkWorth allows you to set your own prices for ads. As an experiment, I set my ad prices at $100 per link (vs. $40 for Text-Link Ads). You also have the choice of taking 70% of the revenue and letting the market decide how many ads you sell, or 50% and having LinkWorth help market for you. I chose the latter and sold 2 ads within the first two weeks.

After those two ads were pro-rated for the remaining days in the month, I earned $66.13.

LinkWorth also has an outstanding affiliate program that gives you $10 per signup and 5% of the recurring transactions for the life of each account. Being a cashflow guy, I really like this model of recurring residual income.

As a result of an article I wrote about Linkworth, 9 people signed up last month for a total of $90.

Text-Link Ads $120.56

Text-link Ads dropped from 1st place in June to 3rd in July. I’ve just about sold out of my links, but my link price has been stuck at $40 since I joined.

SEO Book Affiliate Program $45

My review of SEO Book last month brought in a $25 bonus and $20 for a sale. This ebook is definitely worth the money, and they have a pretty generous affiliate program to boot.

Amazon Affiliate Program $13.95

Commissions from Amazon have been steadily rising with every book review. It’s not much, but worth the time to put in the affiliate links.

Tips $11

Thank you to all the generous readers who left tips last month! I’m always very surprised and flattered when I find a dollar in my jar!

Revver

Bringing up the rear again, was Revver.com, with a total of $1.23. I’m obviously not very impressed, but I’ll take the money and buy a cup of coffee.

It feels great to be making over $500 a month!

LinkWorth is a Text-Ad broker in the tradition of Text-Link Ads, with a special emphasis on Search Engine Optimization.

I’d never even heard of it until Matt (from the company) read my article on Text-Link Ads and left a comment to let me know that there was another option with quite a few features.

Last month, TLA was my #1 money earner; so I was open to hearing about similar concepts. I was skeptical, as I am with all promotions, but I decided to give it a shot.

Within my first two weeks with LinkWorth, I sold a text-link at 2 1/2 times what I was getting from TLA. They’ve got my attention now.

Flexibility

The first thing I noticed about LinkWorth was the wide range of options and flexibility it offers. It allows you to have more control over your advertising campaigns, whether you are an advertiser or a publisher.

For starters, publishers name their own price. I was able to set my price at what I thought my links were worth instead of leaving it up to someone else.

Higher Yield

LinkWorth offers publishers a 70% cut instead of the 50% cut at TLA; great for those who’s sites market themselves.

If you want help marketing your site, LinkWorth will help you out for a 50/50 split. I chose this option because I don’t want to spend time worrying about it.

Services

LinkWorth has a number of tools that are of interest to bloggers and site owners, especially those who are interested in search engine optimization.

Meta Tag Generator

Plug in some keywords and information into a tidy form and it spits out meta tags.

Keyword Density

This neat tool breaks down the keyword density for the top 20 keywords on any page in your site.

Search Engine Position

Find out how you rank for certain keywords on search engines.

Link Analysis

Get a list of all internal and external links on any given web page.

SEO Forums

I learned a lot by browsing the SEO forums. LinkWorth advertisers share stories of what is working in the world of SEO and what’s not. They share tips about how to get the most out of LinkWorth.

Attractive Affiliate Program

LinkWorth affiliate program is much more robust than most because it pays in two ways: upfront and recurring.

Most affiliates just pay you a one time fee for a referral. LinkWorth pays you $10 upfront and also a 5% recurring percentage of all activity on your referral’s account.

I like the idea of a cashflow-based referral program because I believe in income streams over lump-sums. If you slowly compiled a referral base of LinkWorth customers who stuck around, you would easily set up a pretty decent cashflow stream.

Instead just getting paid once for a referral, you get paid over and over again as long as they remain a LinkWorth customer. Instead of having to re-create your referral income each month, each referral adds to your existing base.

Worth a Try

LinkWorth is definitely worth a try. It doesn’t cost anything for publishers and advertisers can start as small as they want. It’s an easy way to generate advertising revenue for publishers or to improve SEO for advertisers.

Sign up for LinkWorth here. (My referral id is 4431)

Income produced on Genius Types jumped by another 58% in June, the third consecutive month of 50%+ increases! Total earnings were $396.29.

The compound monthly growth rate (three-month rolling average) is at a very healthy 60%.

Let’s pretend for a moment that I can keep up this insane rate of income growth for the next twelve months. If that happens, I’ll earn $69,665 in June of 2008!

With 48,952 page views in June, Genius Types earned $8.09 per 1000 page views.

Income Breakdown

$174.93 from Text-Link Ads
$171.36 from Google AdSense
$37.00 from tips
$10.51 from Amazon Affiliate Commissions
$2.49 from Revver.com

Does this graph remind you of anything? How about exponential growth?

Text-Link Ads

Text-link Ads Ads out-performed Google AdSense for the first time. I sold $174.93 worth of Text-links in June.

This number was boosted by a $25 commission for referring a new publisher to Text-link Ads.

Google AdSense

I’m currently averaging around $6 a day from AdSense. The day-to-day earnings have been much more consistent now that I’m averaging more than 1000 page impressions a day.

I made a huge discovery that almost doubled my click-through rate. By simply changing the color of my AdSense ads from a pinkish-red and black to bright blue and orange, I saw an instant increase in CTR.

Tips

June was my best month ever for tips, $37.

Ever since I changed my tip link from “please consider leaving a tip” to “please consider leaving a $1 tip,” tips have become a contributer. Requesting a specific number seems to be working.

Amazon Affiliate Program

I earned $10.51 in June from Amazon.com book sale commissions. The more books I review, the more books Amazon sells.

Revver

Bringing up the rear again, was Revver.com, with a total of $2.49. (Hey, it’s better than a sharp stick in the eye!)

Thanks again for all your support. I can’t wait to see what next month brings!

Text Link Ads have consistently been a top income earner for Genius Types, regularly competing for the top spot with Google AdSense. They are the logical next step for monetizing your website after you have built up a bit of traffic and page rank.

Advantages

Text-Link Ads have several advantages over Google AdSense and other ways to monetize your site including ease of use, certainty, faster payment, and competitive income.

Ease of Use

Installing Text-Link Ads is a snap. WordPress users can just download a plugin and place the ad code in your sidebar. The company does the rest for you.

My code is in the left sidebar under the heading “Featured Sites,” and I’ve barely touched it since I placed it there. By contrast, I’m constantly changing, moving, and re-designing my AdSense strategy to maximize click-through rates.

I have several AdSense channels and code based on where it appears on my site. Text-Link Ads pay me just about as much as Google without the hassle.

The Text-Links are unobtrusive, natural-looking, and less “spammy” than other types of advertising.

Certainty

Advertisers pay you a month at a time to place a link on your site. This gives you a lot more certainty when predicting your income for the month.

In pay-per-click advertising like AdSense, how much you’re going to make is always a bit of a mystery because it depends on your traffic, click-through rates, and the going rate for an AdSense click on your site.

Faster Payment

Unlike AdSense, Text-Link Ads will pay you even if you don’t earn $100. I get dependable deposits to my PayPal account shortly after the end of each month instead of waiting 30-45 days.

Competitive Income

Most bloggers can make as much (if not more) with Text-Link Ads than with AdSense. You have up to 10 slots to sell, and the company takes a 50% cut.

With rates starting at around $10-$20 per slot, the money can add up quickly.

Why Advertisers Want Text-Link Ads

A good publisher learns to think like an advertiser. There are two major reasons that someone might want to put a text-link on your site.

1. Traffic

The most obvious reason to advertise on your site is to drive traffic to their site. In this case, the advertiser might pick your site because of the subject matter you cover and the type of readers you have.

2. Search Engine Optimization

An advertiser may not care how much traffic they get from a link on your site. Instead, they may be more concerned with increasing their authority on search engines like Google.

Factors that Contribute to Earnings

Alexa Rank

Text-Link Ads advertises your Alexa rank to potential advertisers and an indication of the amount of traffic that your site gets. While Alexa ranks are not perfect, they offer a way to compare your site to the millions of other sites out there.

If your rank is in the top 300,000, you should be able to sell some links. Make sure you let Text-Link Ads know when your rank increases. I have found that they are slow to update, but it’s relatively easy to edit your publisher profile with your latest rank.

It’s important to keep an eye on this, because your rank may increase dramatically, making your site much more attractive to potential advertisers, but they will have no way of knowing it until you tell them.

Page Rank

To appeal to search engine minded advertisers, it’s important to have a decent Google pagerank. Increasing your pagerank is a science all it’s own, but it starts by setting up a webmaster account with Google and registering a sitemap.

I use a sitemap WordPress Plugin that does everything for me.

Under-Promise and Over-Deliver

To attract and maintain happy clients, it’s important to offer them the best product for their money.

1. Place your ad code in a prominent position, above the fold.
2. Make the links attractive by making them large enough and a vibrant color.
3. Use a title like “Featured Sites” instead of “Sponsored Links” or “Advertisers” to make them more enticing to clickers.
4. Put your code in your sidebar so it’s shown on all pages of your site instead of just a few.

More Money

As your Alexa and Google ranks increase, Text-Link Ads will increase the price for a link on your site. As your price increases, your total potential for income also increases.

Even though they take a 50% cut, they do all the work for you. They advertise your site to a market that they own, they deal with all of the administrative aspects, and they collect the money. All you have to do is sit back and collect your money.

Sign Up

If you’re new to blogging or monetizing your website, I would suggest that you start with Google Adsense. Once you have developed a bit of a reader base, the next step is to add Text-Link Ads to your arsenal.

I’ve been extremely pleased with my results and I’d recommend it to anyone who is serious about monetizing their website.

Click here to sign up for Text-Link Ads.

Google Adsense is the most common way to monetize website traffic. It’s easy to set up, it adapts to the content of your site, and it’s relatively easy to generate clicks for revenue.

AdSense is considered PPC advertising (or “Pay Per Click”), meaning that you get paid whenever someone clicks an ad. Since everyone knows and trusts the Google brand, it’s not to difficult to get clicks.

AdSense Trade-Off

Generating an AdSense click is a bit of a trade-off. A person who clicks on an ad leaves your site for someone else’s. In return for losing a reader, Google pays you for the click.

Building a blog for AdSense revenue is a bit of a paradox. The object is to accumulate regular readers (who are very unlikely to click your Google ads). Fortunately, the secondary benefit of gaining regular readers is an increase in search engine traffic, which tends to follow popularity and is more likely to generate ad clicks.

Once again, it makes more sense to focus on good content and organic growth than bursts in traffic.

Make Money With AdSense

How much you make with Google Adsense is determined by several factors:

Page Views

In general, you should expect to convert 1-5% of your traffic into Adsense clicks (this number is your CTR or “Click Through Rate”). Therefore, it’s necessary to get 20 to 100 page views in order to generate a click. The more traffic your website generates, the more clicks you will get.

Ad Positioning

Where you put your Adsense makes a big difference in how much you make. Ads placed “above the fold” (no scroll needed) are much more likely to be noticed.

A tried-and-true strategy is to place a 250×250 ad at the beginning of your article, a 120×600 tower in your sidebar, and some other shape mid-article.

I choose to place my 250×250 blocks above the fold next to my photos. The photo draws a person’s eye and exposes them to my ads. This technique has the added advantage of giving my regular readers an opportunity to skip the ad if they wish.

Ad Color

The more your ads stand out, the more money they will make. Notice that all of my sponsored ads have a reddish color which sets them apart from the blues, grays, and blacks in the rest of the text.

You might try to make your AdSense ads the darkest color on your site and the rest of the text a few shades lighter. You could also experiment with different color schemes that make it stand out.

Traffic Sources

The type of traffic you get can make a big difference in your click-through rate. People that find your site via Google searches are much more likely to click your AdSense ads than someone that found it through StumbleUpon. The reason is that Google searchers are on a hunt for something and are comfortable with Google while StumbleUpon visitors are usually just passing through.

If you get a lot of referral traffic from other bloggers, you’re not as likely to have a very high CTR. Most bloggers and regular blog readers are more interested in finding blog content than clicking on Google ads.

The best traffic sources for CTR in order are:

1. Search Engine Traffic
2. Blog Referrals
3. StumbleUpon or other Social Traffic

Site Topics

Since advertisers bid to get their ads on AdSense, more popular topics will breed higher prices per click. Making money is always a popular topic and seems to garner decent click rates. A topic like gardening might earn a little less.

Site Popularity

Advertisers can also directly target your site if they choose. The more popular your site is, the higher it will cost them to do so.

Does AdSense Cheapen your Site?

Some people are afraid to put AdSense on their site because they are afraid that it looks “spammy.” My experience has shown just the opposite. I find that having advertisers like Google AdSense tends to portray professionalism.

People expect advertising on popular websites like newspaper and magazine publishers, so why shouldn’t you have some?

Click Fraud

Whenever I tell someone that I make money using Google AdSense, their first reaction is usually a promise to click some ads for me. I always ask them not to for a couple of reasons:

1. Google keeps very close eye out for click fraud. If too many clicks are coming from one IP address, a red flag is raised.

2. Frivolous ad clicks result in a lower return on investment for advertisers, which means they will willing to pay less per click.

3. A few extra cents isn’t going to make much difference in the long run. I’m more interested in generating organic AdSense revenue growth.

$100 to Paycheck

One downside to new site owners is that Google only gives paychecks to those publishers that have earned $100 or more. It took Genius Types about 6 months of consistent posting to earn $100 in one month.

No Brainer

Putting AdSense on your site should be your first move to monetize your site. It’s easy to start and highly effective.

After months of suspense, the AGLOCO viewbar is finally available for download! Now we can all see for ourselves if making money is really as easy as browsing the web!

What it Is

AGLOCO is a concept that allows everyone to make a little money in exchange for a little ad space on your desktop. Plus, AGLOCO has an extremely attractive referral system that pays you on up to five levels of referrals. It doesn’t cost anything to join, so there’s no risk.

If you’re one of the few left on the planet who isn’t a member, be sure to read all about AGLOCO here.

First Impressions

My first impression of the viewbar is that it’s a little smaller than I expected. I guess I was willing to give up much more of my viewing space in exchange for some cash.

My second impression is that I can’t imagine ever clicking on the ads. Maybe that’s just my personality type, but I hope they can find enough people to satisfy their sponsors and therefore start paying all of us.

As expected, the AGLOCO website is completely overloaded today. I was lucky enough to catch it the minute they sent out the announcement. If you’re having trouble getting in, just keep trying every few minutes.

49 Sign-ups!

I’ve been fortunate enough to sign up 49 people, 44 directly and 5 indirectly. All I did was write an article about it and post a link under “Brian Recommends.” If you’re in my network, feel free to click here to read more about AGLOCO

Genius Types is all about the fusion of Creative Life and Passive Income. I like income sources that allow me the time freedom to be creative; but I love income sources that pay me to be creative.

That’s why I love the concept behind Revver.com. Revver is a user-driven video distribution network, but unlike YouTube, Revver shares it’s revenue with two groups: 1. content creators and 2. content distributers.

I’ve always like the concept of YouTube: allowing the average creative type a chance to put their work out there, but I never understood how they could hoard all the ad revenue for themselves.

Revver is trying to change all of this with their concept of attaching ads to the end of videos and splitting the revenue with the creator and distributor.

Here are the two ways you make money with Revver.

1. As the content creator, Revver offers to split its revenue 50/50 with you.
2. As the distributor of someone else’s content, Revver offers you 20% of the total revenue (the remaining 80% will be split 50/50 with the creator).

This gives anyone a chance to get in the game. Not everyone has the ability to produce creative videos on a consistent enough basis to make money with Revver, but everyone has the ability to distribute other people’s work.

Your Own TV Channel

For example, you might decide that you want to start your own internet TV channel. You start up YouTV.com and load it up with a WordPress Blog. Every day, you spend about 20 minutes browsing Revver.com picking and choosing content for YouTV.com.

You provide the service of weeding through all of the boring stuff so YouTV.com viewers can get reliably good video every day.

Since you have an eye for talent, you’re able to pick the ones that sweep the web like The Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments. You can share in the traffic firestorm when these videos go viral.

Throw in some AdSense, and you might be in the money.

While you’re at it, don’t forget to include my videos! (You can view Genius Types Films on Revver here.)

eRPM

From my own videos, I’ve earned a total of $12.86 from 1873 views, for an eRPM (effective revenue per thousand views) of $6.86; which is pretty decent. I haven’t been serious about promoting video until just recently, so stay tuned for bigger numbers.

Short Attention Span

I’ve found that people on the internet don’t have much patience, so videos that are short and fast-moving are the most effective. Try to find videos that are less than 5 minutes long and hold your attention to the end (where the ad is!)

Win-Win

You really can’t lose with Revver.com. Since the ads don’t appear until the end of the video, you aren’t giving up any precious web real-estate. Good video content on your site will attract more visitors who might also click on your AdSense and affiliate links.

For more information, check out Revver.com.

(Vew Genius Types Films on Revver here.)

Income produced on Genius Types jumped by over 50% in April! Total earnings rose to $152.53.

The compound monthly growth rate of income earned on GeniusTypes.com over the last three months is sitting at 34%. If it continues to grow at that rate, Genius Types will earn over $3800 in April of 2008.

Six Months to $100

Last month’s prediction of six months to $100 in Adsense just barely came true. Total Adsense income for April was $100.34. You can bet I was glued to my Adsense stats in the final hours of April. I got that last click to put me over $100 in the nick of time.

Income Breakdown

$100.34 from Google AdSense
$45.17 from Text-Link Ads
$6.72 from Amazon Affiliate Commissions
$.30 from Revver.com

Google AdSense

It was a great feeling to get over the $100 hump with Google. Here is a breakdown of how AdSense has treated me over the last six months.

Text-Link Ads

April was an exciting month for Text-Link Ad Sales! A total of three slots were sold for a total of $45.17.

Amazon Affiliate Program

I earned $6.72 in April from Amazon.com book sale commissions. It was nice to see Amazon actually do something this month. Hopefully, I’ll see more out of it in the future.

Revver

For the second month in a row, I earned $.30 from Revver.com. This brings my all-time total up to $15. This month, I should start to see more now that I’m producing more video.

Stay tuned for the full passive income report next week!

To celebrate the reinstatement of Genius Types on Technorati after one month of mysterious banishment, I’m holding a favorite exchange party like the one hosted by Dosh Dosh.

Come on in and enjoy yourself! Here’s how to join the party:

1. Favorite Genius Types by clicking this link.

2. Leave a comment with your blog’s Technorati link at the bottom of this post. Get a Technorati favorite link for your blog here. I’ll return the favor by adding you to my favorites (as long as you don’t have a spam-blog).

3. Mingle with other bloggers in the comment thread by visiting their blogs and adding the ones you like to your favorites.

4. (Optional) Host your own favorite party by linking to this post in a post of your own. I’ll update this post with a link to your party as soon as I get the incoming link from Technorati.

Happy Technorati Party Everyone!

Other Parties

1. azazil.net
2. AskaX World
3. Gauravonomics
4. Foreign Perspectives
5. Digital Information Technology
6. eJabs.com
7. The Rojak Blog
8. ShanKri-la
9. Random Expressions
10. Fyais
11. Vinod Live!
12. Rishiraj
13. Tech Lock
14. Technix Update
15. Planet Apex
16. Untwisted Vortex
17. Garry Conn
18. DOX
19. Andy Beard
20. i Thought, therefore i Blog
21. Localingo
22. Empower Women Now
23. Random Expressions
24. SMS Today
25. My Online Collections
26. Stories to Share
27. Life at Work
28. Shankar’s Tech Blog
29. Techlivez.com
30. TechChee.com
31. Spyware, Adware, & Registry Cleaning
32. Life in the Fast Lane
33. Nukilan Jejari Azhad
34. Six Degrees of Inspiration
35. Serendipity
36. My Affiliate Journey
37. Our Journey
38. Ms. Latina Renee Enterprise, LLC
39. Travel Blog for Business
40. Technacular
41. The Filipino Entrepreneur
42. IndiaPRBlog
43. Share Everything in Life
44. Blogosquare
45. MsMoneyGirl.net
46. Sleeping Princess
47. Mom of Many Redheads
48. Shakeroo’s Gold
49. Blog About Money Online
50. Cosmic Photo Art
51. Must Read Files
52. TechChee.com
53. Thinking Tunnel
54. The Outsider’s View
55. Anja Merret
56. Earn Money on the Web
57. Spark Minute

(Leave a comment if I left you out!)

There is no product that improves the quality of my life for as little money as my XM Satellite Radio.

Scan the archives of this blog and you’ll find that I don’t endorse products unless I’m absolutely convinced that my readers will benefit from my recommendation. If you don’t already subscribe to XM you should at least consider these ten reasons I find it to be such a great value.

My philosophy on affiliate marketing is to think of products that I already love enough to share with my friends without a commission and then see if they have an affiliate program. When I realized that I had already told just about everyone I know about XM, it rose to the top of my list!

I first mentioned it on this blog in an article called Five Devices I Can’t Live Without, before I even knew that XM had an affiliate program. When I realized that they were paying 20% to affiliates, I couldn’t write this article fast enough.

1. It’s So Inexpensive!

A while back, I was riding with my friend in his car listening to his snazzy XM Satellite Radio. I was intrigued with the fact that the artist’s names and song titles scrolled across his screen every time a new song came on.

“So that’s who sings that song!” I said to myself. “How much do you pay for this anyway?”

“$12.95 a month.”

“For what?”

“XM Radio.”

“No, I mean how much does the service cost.”

“$12.95.”

“A month.”

“Yes.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“I pay like $80 for my cable bill and I don’t even watch TV!”

The next day, I bought a radio, activated my service, and cancelled my cable! We’ve recently reactivated it now that we’re in a better financial position, but I still use my XM service about ten times more than my cable.

2. Excellent Music Programming

The music programming on XM is extremely rich.

Instead of hearing the same old loop of 20 songs on local radio, I am constantly exposed to great new music on XM.

I love the fact that I can discover new bands and get the artist and song title right on my receiver. I love the fact that I have access to music that I can’t find anywhere else.

There are 69 commercial free stations covering every taste and genre.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Channel 54: Lucy :: Alternative Music from the ’90′s. Reminds me of college!
Channel 45: XM Cafe :: Mellow Alternative. Good to write to!
Channel 65: The Rhyme :: Old School Hip Hop. The good stuff!
Channel 73: High Standards :: American Songbook. Get your Sinatra fix!
Channel 79: On The Rocks :: Online Exclusive. Lounge music with class!

3. Constant Access to News/Talk Channels

I have to have my information fix. XM lets me take the news with me. With live feeds from CNN, Fox News, CNBC, BBC, and more, I’m always in the know.

Plus, the selection of talk radio is unparalleled. Talk hosts with opinions all across the spectrum are at my fingertips including a whole station dedicated to Oprah (for my girlfriend of course!)

4. Portable Radios Offer Amazing Flexibility

When I heard about what the new line of portable receivers can do, I was blown away. I was just telling myself the other day that I wish I could record my favorite shows because I’m not always available when they’re on. Within a few days of that thought, I found out that the portables can do exactly that!

A portable XM Satellite receiver like the Samsung Helix is like having an iPod, XM radio, and digital recorder all in one! Plus, you get all this for a fraction of the price.

No matter where you are, you will have access to your favorite music, news, talk, & sports! As a self-proclaimed information junkie, this is a dream come true; plus, the recording feature makes it even better. Now you can listen to Art Bell at anytime instead of staying up all night!

5. Unique Specialty Programming

There is a lot of really creative programming on XM that you can’t get anywhere else. For example, being in the movie industry, I like to listen to channel 27 – Cinemagic. It plays nonstop movie soundtracks and scores. They mix it up with moments from movies in-between songs. Very cool!

There are several stations dedicated to comedy. Where else can you find stuff like this?

There is always something unique to listen to such as a live concert, Bob Dylan & Tom Petty as DJs, or interviews with artists. This type of programming is what makes XM special.

6. Sports Programming

If you are a sports fan, you have to get XM. There is such a huge selection of sports radio including ESPN and FOX Sports, as well as live, local broadcasts of hundreds of games in NCAA football, the NFL, NBA, NHL, PGA Golf, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, and just about any other sport you can think of.

7. I Can Access it Anywhere

I love road-trips, partially because I can give my undivided focus to my XM radio across the country. Instead of going in and out of reception and dredging through dead spots across the desert, my XM goes with me wherever I am.

8. Online Access is Included!

I’m listening to XM through the internet right this moment while I write this post! I love the fact that I can access my favorite stations even if I don’t have my radio with me.

9. Stock & Sports Ticker on my XM Receiver

This feature alone is enough to justify the price of getting an XM radio. I love having a ticker in my car! (once again, information junkie.)

10. Big Money Affiliate Program

You can’t beat 20% for an affiliate program. It doesn’t cost anything to join and there are additional perks. Click here to read more.

How to Get Started

1. Try it for Free!

Demo the content by signing up for a free trial of XM Online.

2. Pick Out a Radio

Visit my XM page and click on “Shop Now” to get a Special Deal on XM Radio. Radio’s start at just $39 and include free activation ($15 Value) and one free month of service ($12.95 Value).

(Important! I only get a commission if you shop through my page!)

I would recommend starting with either the Roady XT (because it’s very inexpensive), or the Samsung Helix (because it is unbelievable!)

3. Activate your XM Satellite Radio

Tune your radio to channel 0 to get your 8 digit radio ID. Call XM Listener Care toll-free at 1-800-XM-RADIO to activate your XM service or log on to
http://activate.xmradio.com.

Click here to get started with XM!

Enjoy!

Welcome to XM satellite radio! I’m sure you will enjoy it as much as I do. Don’t forget to come back to this page when you are ready to upgrade or add radios.

If you love it as much as I do, you’ll be telling everyone you know. If that’s the case, you might as well get paid! Check out this article for more information on becoming an XM iRep and getting a 20% commission on referrals!

Other Resources:

Learn all about xm radio at unofficialxmblog.com.

Monetization of Genius Types is right on schedule. I’m happy with the amount of money I’m earning and especially the growth rate.

The compound monthly growth rate of income earned on GeniusTypes.com in 2007 is 24%. If it continues to grow at this rate, Genius Types will earn over $1000 in March 2008.

Six Months to $100

I was reading a thread on Steve Pavlina’s Forum discussing the idea that it takes six months of good blog posts to achieve $100/month from Google AdSense. Most of the other responses echoed the truth in this general rule of thumb.

Steve himself responded, saying that he earned $53.02 in his fifth month, and $114.63 in his sixth. Reading this validated my performance, since March was my fifth full month of blogging and I earned $74.46 from AdSense.

Total Income

March’s total income was $96.97.

$74.46 from Google AdSense
$10.00 from Text-Link Ads
$10.00 from Tips
$2.21 from Amazon Affiliate Commissions
$.30 from Revver.com

This was a 36% increase over February’s total of $71.25.

Google AdSense

AdSense has been my most productive and reliable income source since the beginning. Here is a breakdown of my AdSense revenue over the last five months:

Text-Link Ads

In March, I sold my first Text-Link ad spot. Thank you MortgageTv.com for buying a link.

Tips

March was the second month in a row that I earned $10 in tips. Thank you Matthew Jabs of eJabs.com for your generous contribution and article.

Amazon Affiliate Program

I earned $2.21 in March from Amazon.com book sale commissions. I don’t know any blogger that is making much from Amazon, but I think it’s worth the value it provides to readers.

Revver

I only earned $.30 from Revver.com this month. This brings my all-time total up to $14.70. Almost all of this income is from the ads at the end of the videos in the article Five Ways to Create Passive Income with Little or No Money.

As I add more video content to this site, I’ll see this number rise.

Thank you to everyone for your support of Genius Types. It’s exciting to see my hard work paying off by people finding value in my posts!

Once again, my November 2006 Prediction is proving to be correct as more and more companies adopt network marketing strategies. Last month, I wrote about AGLOCO’s marketing model; and while I now have about 29 people in my network, we are all still patiently awaiting the release of the software that will actually make us money.

What is Network Marketing?

Network marketing is an advertising model that allows consumers to earn money by marketing a company’s products. Traditional network marketing models like Avon are entirely marketed by consumers and allow average people to make a lot of money with some good old fashioned hard work.

In the old days, there were a lot of headaches associated with traditional network marketing models including handling inventory, large initial investments, and making your friends and family uncomfortable. While the principle of transferring power from the corporation to the consumer was always noble, flawed models created a negative stigma associated with network marketing.

In the last few years, the stigma has started to lift as a new generation of network marketing models has emerged without the pitfalls of their ancestors. Even major corporations like AT&T have caught the wave, realizing the power of word of mouth. On the internet, affiliate programs (a simpler version of network marketing) are popping up everywhere.

The Latest Model

I’m excited to share with you the latest company to adopt a network marketing strategy (and this one actually has a product on the market!): XM Radio. I’ve been an XM Radio subscriber for about a year and when I heard that they were launching a network-style affiliate program, it made my day. The best affiliate programs are ones that you are passionate about, and I absolutely love my XM radio.

Why I Love XM

I just returned from a road-trip from Los Angeles to Austin, TX where we drove straight through, 24 hours each way. I have to say that XM Radio made the drive infinitely more enjoyable.

As an information junkie, I start to sweat when I don’t have access to what’s going on in the world. Because I had XM, I was able to take my favorite news, music, and talk radio with me; even in remote stretches of the desert. My radio even has a stock ticker to keep me up to the minute on my portfolio.

I personally think that XM is the best value of any subscription that I have. The $12.95 monthly fee is a steal compared to cable TV especially since I spend way more time on XM.

Making Money With XM

Now that XM has created a way for me to make money, I love it even more! Here’s how it works: You simply click on the link at the end of this article to go to my personal XM Radio iRep page. Once you are there, click “Become an iRep” and fill out the form to set up an account. Once you have set up an account, you will have your own personal iRep page and you will be in my network.

Once you’re in my network you will earn a 20% commission whenever someone buys something from XM Radio on your iRep page! There are banners and logos that you can put on your blog if you want, or you can just tell friends and family to visit your site.

The Really Exciting Part!

While 20% is a great commission, XM Radio has made their offer even sweeter to those who know network marketing.

A true network marketing model takes advantage of a wealth building tool called leveraging. Leveraging is the key to building wealth. (Read more about leveraging in my article on Passive Income.)

The XM Radio model allows you to leverage your time by finding other people who are interested in becoming iReps and giving you a percentage of their work. Specifically, XM Radio will pay you a 7% commission on any sale that is made on the site of any iRep that you referred.

Leverage is a beautiful thing, and it allows you to multiply your efforts across as many people as you can find to be iReps. It also gives you a support network. Since I will benefit whenever you make a sale, I’m willing to help you however I can.

It Gets Better

Not only will they pay you 7% on the work of those you refer, they will pay you 3% on the work of your referrals’ referrals. This means that you could be getting paid on the work of people that you never even had contact with.

XM Radio‘s compensation model stops at 2 generations while AGLOCO’s goes up to 5. I know some network marketing models that pay up to 7 generations. Obviously, the more generations, the bigger the opportunity to make money.

Not A Full-Time Job

If I were you, I wouldn’t quit my job to be an XM Radio iRep, but I would add it to my list of income streams. It doesn’t cost anything to join (even if you aren’t an XM subscriber.) Because they are paying on multiple levels, it is a more powerful affiliate program than most.

If you’re passionate about XM Radio like I am, and share it with people anyway, why wouldn’t you get a free account and take advantage of your enthusiasm?

A blog or a website is a great way to publicize it. If you don’t have one, you might put a link as a signature in your email messages. If you can’t think of a good way to describe it, just link your prospective XM Radio iReps to this page by copying this link.

Remember to include your affiliate link on your site or email. If someone referred you to this page, remember to return to their site or email and use their link to get started. If you are hearing this from me, click here to get started. Welcome to my iRep network!

(4 October 2007) This service is no longer available.

Recently I had a great conversation with one of my readers who found me through my contact form. His name is Sam Smith, a senior in high school who started his own T-shirt business using a company called CafePress. I told Sam that he is wise beyond his years to be thinking about financial freedom at such a young age.

This conversation brought back a lot of memories for me, because when I was his age, I was in the T-shirt business as well. Talking with Sam helped me realize how far technology has come in the last ten years, giving a young entrepreneur like Sam opportunities that were far beyond my imagination when I was in his shoes.

In the Old Days…

Back in the 90′s, when I was a senior in high school, a good friend named Chad Kalal and his coach started selling T-shirts for their soccer team. They were so successful, they started JOXX: a business that eventually included five retail stores and over 300 wholesale accounts from all over the country.

I was so interested in entrepreneurship that I volunteered to design shirts for free in exchange for learning about how their business worked (funny, my film career started the same way), and the knowledge I gained was priceless.

My unpaid design job turned into a paid job when I produced their first color catalog, and I eventually ended up as their director of marketing. (Click here to see a portfolio of some of the catalogs I produced for the company. See if you can find me in the pictures! (hint: I appear three times!))

After JOXX, I started my own T-shirt company by designing shirts for college groups while attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. (Click here to see a portfolio including some of my designs.) That gig kept me busy, but helped me pay for college.

I left the T-shirt business after college since back then it was very labor intensive. Designing the shirts was just the beginning. To get them sold, we paid thousands of dollars for color catalogs, mailing campaigns, and trade shows. T-shirts had to be ordered in minimum quantities of several dozen, which cost more money. Once we found someone to buy them, we had to pack and ship the shirts as well as provide customer service for the customers.

This kind of work is WAY more responsibility than an 18 year old should have! Kids in high school and college should be enjoying some of the best days of their lives while they still can, not spending all-nighters trying to meet deadlines and taking out huge loans to start businesses.

CafePress

Today, young designers like Sam have an opportunity to do something that I didn’t: they have the ability to start a T-shirt business AND enjoy life at the same time.

After all the blood, sweat, and tears Chad and I lost in the ’90′s, I have to say that I am dumbfounded at the services that CafePress offers entrepreneurs. You see, the problem with creative types is that they love the creative process of starting a business and therefore excel at it; but they hate the mundane mechanics of actually running a business and sometimes fail because of it.

CafePress takes care of all the boring stuff so you can just concentrate on being creative. Sam explains it like this:

CafePress is a great site, meant for those with the creativity and drive to provide the designs and marketing for an online store while the CafePress warehouse takes care of any stock, printing, shipping, and billing. For a Photoshop junkie like myself, it’s a real jackpot.

Basically, you just submit your designs to your own store on their website (kind of like an eBay store. CafePress sets the wholesale price of your shirts while allowing you to set the price and profit margin. They take care of the mind-numbing business stuff like taking orders, packing, and shipping. You take care of the fun stuff like design and marketing.

CafePress offers two kinds of stores to its users: free stores and premium stores. I started out running a free store for a few months before I realized its limitations. Free stores have a limited selection of products, only allow one design per product, don’t allow custom HTML or CSS. I realized that with all the ideas I had, establishing a bazillion free stores (each with a different URL) was a bad idea.

So I decided to take the plunge and invest in a premium store. I pay $6.95/month to have the ability to upload as many designs as I want, customize my store (as well as advertise with other sites), and really create a good environment for visitors.

Possibly the best feature of Premium stores is that they give “blanket” controls for the owner that allow store/section-wide changes to price, printing method, description changes, etc. This makes the process of setting up a new section very efficient.

What’s remarkable is CafePress’s ability to print one shirt at a time, eliminating the risk they take on your designs. Back when you had to buy screen-printed shirts by the truckload, you had to make damn sure you had a great design before you printed 500 of them. Now, you can put a bunch of designs up at your CafePress store, keep the ones that sell, and ditch the ones that don’t.

Another added benefit is that the customer gets to choose their own shirt color, which would have been impossible back in the day. People love to customize, and CafePress gives you this ability without any added effort on your part.

My favorite thing about CafePress is that it requires no initial investment. I can’t stress enough how important it is to stay out of debt when you start a business. If you can create income streams with little or no initial investment, you take out all the risk.

Passive Income

Those of you that read this blog know that my thing is finding sources of passive income to develop the time freedom needed to pursue creative endeavors.

(Read Passive Income,
Five Ways to Creatie Passive Income with Little or No Money,
3 Steps to Success for Creative Geniuses,
and A Roadmap from Debt to Living Your Passion for more)

You see, back in my T-shirt days, I used to think that the key to wealth was starting a business. I quickly realized that wealth without time is worthless. In college, my business took up so much of my time that I could barely enjoy myself.

Now, I look for income streams that are extremely low maintenance, or passive, even if they generate less money than actually owning a business. If your income streams don’t require you to be there, the number of streams you have is not limited to the amount of hours in your week.

Although I have not yet tried CafePress, my suspicion is that it fits along these lines. It doesn’t seem like a million dollar income stream (because you don’t have the same control over your products that you would have in your own business), but it does seem like a passive stream. Once you have designed your shirts and set up your marketing system, you could walk away forever and still collect an income stream as long as your designs were in fashion.

What college kid wouldn’t want an extra few hundred bucks month after month for a few week’s work? Who knows, if your designs are good enough, and they take off, maybe you could earn a few thousand. The fact that you don’t have to be there to ship and field customer complaints makes this worth doing.

Check out Sam Smith’s CafePress store by clicking this link to reward him for helping me with this post.