Squirrelinabox Network (http://www.squirrelinabox.com)

Ok, so some people have asked me in the past about how I make money with my sites, and more specifically, which programs earn the most. Now, let me first say that I make very little with my online endeavors right now - definitely nowhere near enough to quit my day job. As such, this is really just an inside look at my personal earnings and not what you should expect on your sites.

1. Google Adsense - 44% of my July earnings came from Google Adsense clicks. It surprises me each month that the money I earn from Adsense is generally stable even though the payout could potentially vary wildly due to the seemingly randomness of user clicks and advertiser bids.
2. Text Link Ads - With 42% of my earnings coming straight from Text Links sold by Text Link Ads, Google Adsense may soon be bumped as my #1 earner. I’m a huge fan of Text Link Ads as it seems to be a much more stable revenue option for me.
3. SIAB GEAR - Last month was a fairly big month for SIAB GEAR (my online apparel store). Normally I make about 2-5% of my money from the store, but last month it jumped up to 11%. While I don’t expect it to remain that high, it’s always good motivation for me to get off my but and keep adding more designs.
4. CJ and Amazon - I’ve clumped together both Commission Junction and Amazon as both are CPA affiliate programs and together still only accounted for 2% of my earnings in July. My current sites really don’t lend themselves well to product-based revenue streams, but hopefully I’ll be able to take advantage of such potential with future websites.
5. Chitika - Last, and well… least, Chitika brought in a whopping .5% of my revenue. Granted, I’ve taken off most of my Chitika ads because they have really never performed well for me, so the number is both a combination of the type of ad not working well and me not using them as much as, say, Google Adsense. Again, I think it’s mostly due to my sites not lending themselves well to product-based ads (which is what Chitika ads primarily are).

So there you have it, a breakdown of my earnings for July. No, I’m not going to post any dollar amounts next to the percentages above. And no, I won’t be breaking down my earnings by website. I’d prefer not to give away any possible ideas to competitors - though again, my earnings are so meager I doubt I have anything to worry about.

I’ll probably do a report like this each month because I think it does provide some good insight into what revenue streams I’m using and why. Also, it’s a decent motivator for me to really try and bring up my numbers and try to figure out why certain areas aren’t performing as well as they should.