Determining ROI from TIPBlog
We as human beings are always objective or goal oriented. We may not know it, but sub-consciously, we are always attempting to do a given task or an activity towards certain goal. Many folks will not agree with me, because there is a perception that ROI is always related to money. To me, it is not. If I spend time with my family, its because the pleasure I get (that’s an ROI). If I did not get that pleasure, overtime it will automatically create a rift. Similarly, if I play any team sports, or go out with friends, it builds our relationship, it builds camaraderie, a sense of togetherness. It is not necessarily for getting any money in return, but to be part of social community. You cannot live alone in this world, right? Keeping with this, the question I am trying to answer today is what is my ROI from this blog? I need to know what I am getting out of this blog. Here also, I will use the framework provided by Avinash. There are multiple parameters to determine ROI from the blog.
Comparative Value
Blog is an asset. Like any other asset, the value of blog is also based on value perception and comparison to other similar blogs. This is again very subjective and I really do not know what would be comparative value. AK used the toy powered by Technorati to demonstrate comparative value. I do not have any noticeable presence at Technorati, so I will chicken out.
Non-Traditional Value
This is applicable to businesses. It measures how the effort put into business blog helps generate a buzz, conversation, or engagement on its product or any other related topic. Since this is my personal blog, with no formal product, I have no way to measure this.
Unquantifiable Value
This is the value related to networking, ability to influence in positive way, and satisfaction/happiness you derive from discussing ideas.
- I made few good friends after I started writing on this blog. What surprised me is that there are people out there who respect your work and are willing to share their experiences even without knowing your name and identity. Kudos to your spirit and thank you for keeping faith.
- I feel very happy when I get email saying, “it changed their perspective about investing”, “your reasoning is very convincing and hard to ignore”, “thanks for timely views I was going to make a mistake”, “thanks for your perspective, I did not think that way, I will continue to hold this stock”, and many more. When I find some more time, I will make a page out of those email message.
- Since I started writing this blog, I received (a) one proposal for freelance stock analyst for a financial portal, (b) one proposal for social media position in personal finance; (c) independent proposals from three individuals for personal portfolio advisor. As a business blog, it is certainly possible to quantify getting such leads and proposal. But since I did not take up these proposals, how would one value these?
- The blog has made me more disciplined in my investing process. Now, I have documentation to refer back to. I now read about 3 to 4 different companies in a month (earlier it was only one a month. Now, I have a watch list with identified fair value range (earlier, it was in the head which we tend to miss when really needed) and many more. Similarly, I get questions from reader about companies which I do not know, so that acts as idea generation. How would I quantify this aspect?
What is the verdict? On this aspect, I believe my blog has been a success.
Direct Value
This is related to revenue, profits, referrals, leads etc that a blog brings in. When we talk about ROI this is what everybody expects to find, right? Attached below are two images that show the total revenue generated by this blog.
This is the total revenue generated from March 1, 2009 to December 30, 2009 (10 months). The break down is as follows:
- Google AdSense – $191.92 (the image below shows monthly breakdown)
- LinkWorth – $251.13
- Text Links Ads – $27.42
- Info Links – $24.42
- Direct Ads – $550
Each of these sources has different timescales depending upon when they were started. E.g. Google AdSense is from March to December, Direct Ads and InfoLinks are from July to December.
Total of 10 months is $1047.21 (Total Rs 47,124 OR Rs. 4,712 per month).
- Earnings from AdSense
- Earnings from Other Sources
What is the verdict? I don’t know. If we compare it with some other A-list bloggers, it is perhaps a failure. Some A-list bloggers earn more than $1000 per month. If I say, my expectation was zero, then it is a success. I am just jumbling words and avoiding the verdict! That’s what we do, avoid taking a decision. I would tend to think it is a start. It is a benchmark for next year. All I have to do now is multiply my revenue by 10 times, and then I can become a full time blogger (if I want to become one).
The earlier post discussed blog analytics, while this post measured the ROI. With these two set of articles, I wanted to demostrate how we can measure what a blog is doing. Please note that, this is not my process, I have used framework discussed at Occam Razor. I am only applying this framework to TIPBlog. I hope this helps other bloggers who would be interested in a process to determine their blogging progress.
That’s it for now. What are you thoughts? What’s your verdict? Is it a success or failure?
blogging, evaluating blogs, ROI blogging, TIPBlog ROI
@Tip guy: that is a very good ROI. You could actually write about “how to blog”. there would we lot of people, including me, who would gain a lot from your articles.
it is refershing to read a blogger give honest and quality analysis and not rotting the same page views rant. i liked both articles.
happy new year to you and hope your blog prospers.
Hello Priyanshu,
thanks for good words and good to know you liked the analysis. I can teach you how to blog! will you be my first student
Best Wishes, and Happy New Year
@Tipguy,
happy new year. sincerely appreciate your ROI post. Not a great revenue, but very good start. many of us have no clue how to increase blog popularity. like your investing here also you are using process based nalysis.
thank you
Hello Chetan,
Yes, for me process is very important. Enjoy the process, and rest will take care of itself.
Best Wishes,
Hi Tip guy,
first of all happy new to you and i wish you have a great new year.
one question i have, why do you think your adsense revenue is so small compared to other sources. more so because it seems to have longer time frame. actually i am really surprised why it is very low in camprison to others.
thanks in advance
AS
Hello Aslam,
Happy New Year too…..
It is simply the fact that I have not optimized adsense. Until few months ago, I did not even use all allowed ads.
Plus i did not have much of search engine traffic. It has increase in last three months and that seems to reflect in tad increase…
We will see how it evolves. Its a learning process.
Do you have any tips for me for how to optimize adsense?
Best Wishes,
TIP guy,
Wonderful income stream. I appreciate your efforts and wish you a best of luck in blogging income.
MIP
Hello MIP,
I just wished it was 10x, so that I can become a full time blogger
Thanks for your good wishes,