Posted on November 28, 2008 - by Justin Hartman
88% of SA Bloggers make no money
Hey, it looks like you're new here to my blog! You may want to consider subscribing to my RSS feed and you'll automatically get notified when I post a new blog entry. If web feeds aren't your thing then why not join my email list by clicking here. Thanks for stopping by.
Alistair, the brains behind the SA Blog Survey, sent me a very interesting slide yesterday about the revenue that bloggers earn from their blogs. As most of you will know Afrigator was proud to be associated with the 24.com SA Blog survey and according to Alistair there were over 1,000 responses to the survey.
I think this is a pretty good response rate, all things considered, but for me the interesting bit was seeing that 88.4% of SA bloggers earn zero revenue from their blogs while the additional 11.6% earn no more than R3,000 a month.
As you can see, of the people who do earn money, the average a blogger makes is between R1 and R200 a month. 24.com have said that “blogging for the most part is not about making money” but I have to wonder if this isn’t because there hasn’t really been a viable method to earn revenue from blogs.
I have believed for a long time that bloggers don’t make money from their blogs not out of choice but simply because there hasn’t been a model that is tailored to them. I speak from experience since I’ve tried Google Adsense, Affiliate Marketing and various other forms of revenue generation and to be honest getting a cheque from Google once every six months for R750 just doesn’t cut it for me.
Most blogs don’t generate that much traffic so PPC and CPA are models that simply don’t work. These are great revenue streams if you’re generating 1 million plus impressions but if you’re only doing 5,000 it becomes a lot more difficult to make any real money.
I think this slide further validates my position on launching Adgator into the SA market. As with Afrigator, everything we’ve done has been based on our own personal experiences and Adgator is no different. There is a lot of money being thrown around in online advertising and I think it’s time bloggers shared in the revenue.
Don’t get me wrong – I don’t like advertising that much and the thought of bombarding my limited readership with dodgy ads is not something I take lightly however I do feel that if the value proposition is right then I’d be happy to dedicated a spot on my site. If I can truly see earning potential then I’d take the plunge because R750 a month is a lot better than R750 every six.
Adgator has been doing phenomenally well since we launched it some two weeks ago and the good news for bloggers and advertisers is that we’ve just finished building the backend interfaces. This means bloggers and advertisers who’ve shown an interest and/or signed up will be getting login details to monitor their earnings and track campaigns.
Adgator has been an unbelievable learning experience. While we may have honestly believed we were ready for a launch I know now that there was no way we could have prepared ourselves for the massive uptake of the program. That said, the technology is now complete, we have most of the data we need and we have an exciting advertiser coming on board from 8 December. Money will start to filter through to the bloggers who’ve signed up and the earning potential is going to increase considerably in the new year.
I know that guys have itchy feet but in the coming months the average money earned by a blogger through Adgator is going to be a lot higher than R200! I can’t wait to see the blog survey stats this time next year…
I am the MD and co-founder of 
Visit My Website
November 28, 2008
Permalink
88% of SA Bloggers make no money – http://tinyurl.com/5dqj53
Visit My Website
November 28, 2008
Permalink
RT @justinhartman 88% of SA Bloggers make no money – http://tinyurl.com/5dqj53
Visit My Website
November 28, 2008
Permalink
I must have missed that question as I earn more than R3000 a month from my blog.
I am so pleased Adgator has come on the scene as I have been saying for a loooooong time we need a local model for SA. All the revenue I earn is from international ad programs like BlogHer, BlogAds etc. I make fairly good money out of it.
Looking forward to seeing some Adgator ads come through on my blog soon!
Visit My Website
November 28, 2008
Permalink
Hi T, thanks for your comment. I wondered if you were the one who selected R3,000 or not
Anyway, 8th Dec is launch date of the first advertiser with a few more in the pipeline.
It’s been a bit slow kicking it off and we’d hoped it would have happened a lot sooner but things will pick up pace quite nicely in the new year I think!!!
Visit My Website
November 28, 2008
Permalink
Great initiative Justin, will def have a look at what adgator has to offer, on release of my blog.
Nice to see alternatives to the horrendous adsense.
Visit My Website
November 28, 2008
Permalink
I reckon the true earners haven’t participated in that survey.
I’m well into double figures on different revenue programs including AdSense
Excited about AdGator as well.
Visit My Website
November 28, 2008
Permalink
Great work, Justin. I know quite a few Afrikaans bloggers who really welcome this initiative, because frankly, if you think Adsense earnings for an English blog is crap, wait till you see it for Afrikaans. Google isn’t even supporting the language!
I’ve earned 17 dollar in 3 months with my blog. Beat that
Once again, great stuff! I hope this project prospers and starta circulating African money in Africa, where it belongs – not in the pockets of some fat cat in America.
Visit My Website
November 29, 2008
Permalink
Justin, thanks for the heads up about adgator, I’m always looking to increase earnings, and will definitely keep an eye out for adgator.
Visit My Website
November 29, 2008
Permalink
I’m about to earn -R461 500 because I’m being sued for what I wrote on my blog. I complained about being lured to a timeshare presentation under false pretences, and now the timeshare company is suing me for damages.
What was defamatory? They won’t say. Yet they want to drag me off to the High Court and hire an attorney and an advocate to defend myself against their nonsense. In the meantime they have obtained a restraining order against me that is so vague as to be meaningless.
Visit My Website
November 29, 2008
Permalink
I think the word DIRECTLY is missing here. I have brought clients on board in my actual business just because I have a blog. (as opposed to because of something posted on my blog) And I don’t even have much of a blog to speak of.
This is what Adgator’s main function will be. To provide revenue generated DIRECTLY from your blog.
Visit My Website
November 29, 2008
Permalink
btw.. i’m having mild anxiety attacks waiting to see what adgator’s gonna dish up.. i’m genuinely excited. this is not only a first for africa, but a first for the global blogosphere.
Visit My Website
November 29, 2008
Permalink
Bold assessment to say that the average blogger will make more than R200…??
Best of luck with the project though – very curious to see how this plays out.
Visit My Website
November 29, 2008
Permalink
Justin, Adgator sounds great, I would love to give it a bash over Adsense. But as mentioned for, many, I think mu blog is an online presence, a means to other income streams in some cases, introductions and so forth. How does Adgator going to differ from Offerforge and TrafficSynergy?
Visit My Website
November 29, 2008
Permalink
“How much money do you earn each month from blogging?” It never asked how much you earn from your personal blog, it asked how much your earn from blogging. The stats for commercial blogging is surely higher than only 15%? huh
Visit My Website
November 29, 2008
Permalink
[...] I read an interesting post by leading IT / web entrepreneur Justin Hartman. [...]
Visit My Website
November 30, 2008
Permalink
I must have missed this question too, I earn well over triple that *snigger*
But ye, I think a great deal of it has to do with the lack of platforms for South Africans to use to generate and therefore I think AdGator is a great idea, as long as enough advertisers are signed in order to deliver anything near what the revenue estimator says on the site
I can’t wait, I’m ready for the banners!
Visit My Website
November 30, 2008
Permalink
I thought I filled in that question and I earn more than R3000 a month from my blogs.
Visit My Website
November 30, 2008
Permalink
[...] received an exciting slide from the SA Blog Survey and decided to share it on his blog for everyone to see – good on you [...]
Visit My Website
December 1, 2008
Permalink
Justin, if this slide is not accurate (not by a long way!) then how can any of the other stats be trusted?
I too ticked above R3000 pm and completed the survey.
Very poor effort IMO and if anyone quotes anything from this survey – I’m calling it bull.
Visit My Website
December 1, 2008
Permalink
JBagley, I’m really happy to see another local blogger who’s agreeing with me on this matter. It sort of makes you wonder about the certain companies which are involved and why it might make sense to say that bloggers aren’t making that amount of money don’t you think? *snigger* I could go into this quite a bit deeper, however, I prefer not to just incase I make some enemies, which isn’t cool cos I’m all about love
Visit My Website
December 2, 2008
Permalink
How does 610 out of at least 1000 respondents = 88.4%?
Visit My Website
December 2, 2008
Permalink
The company which conducted the analysis are commenting on my blog about the incorrect stats..
http://imod.co.za/2008/11/30/is-the-sa-blog-survey-null-and-void/
Sorry to hijack Justin!
Visit My Website
December 2, 2008
Permalink
What has become clear, if you look at Chris’ post, is that this slide is completely inaccurate. More and more people are voicing that they completed the question and have indicated an earning higher than R3000.
Amanda Reekie from imagineNATION Alliance (who compiled the stats) has said that they omitted the 2.9% of bloggers who earned more than R3000. After reading the comments I have to say it looks like it was omitted for sensationalist reasons.
It sounds so much better to say NO ONE makes money from blogging than to say well actually… 2.9% make in excess of R3,000 a month and in fact they will continue to earn big.
And to add I’d also like to ask (as per Coda’s comment) how did they get to 88.4% from a total of 610 users in a pool of 1000+ respondents?
It looks like this one slide is going to ruin the entire survey which is sad.
Visit My Website
December 2, 2008
Permalink
It’s a big shame, because the survey questions were well thought out :/
Visit My Website
December 2, 2008
Permalink
@Code – Ok so I’ve been trying to work this out. On the results PDF there is a slide showing the blogging platforms used. The total shows 856.
So now we know that there can’t be more than 856 respondents but what this slide doesn’t take into account is that people could have selected multiple blogging platforms thereby making the respondent amount less than 856.
Either way if you take 856 as the respondent field then 610 users would actually equate to 71.26% of bloggers earn no money.
However, if 610 is actually 88.4% of the total pool then it means the total respondent number is in fact 690 and not 1000.
I will check with Alistair on this.
Visit My Website
December 2, 2008
Permalink
Please do, I’d love to know.. thanks Justin
Visit My Website
December 3, 2008
Permalink
[...] the stats shared my way by Justin Hartman of Afrigator, 88.4% of SA Bloggers earn zero revenue from their blogs, which makes me wonder if Google Adsense is a viable method to earn revenue from [...]
Visit My Website
December 3, 2008
Permalink
I will be happy if someone told me how do they make money from their blog?
i also wanna put my fingers in those bugs
Visit My Website
December 3, 2008
Permalink
my website link
Visit My Website
December 3, 2008
Permalink
@Girl Talk – Good question, I’m sure Justin will take the time to explain to his readers how we can all make money online! Let’s hope so at least..
Visit My Website
December 5, 2008
Permalink
Hi Justin (and others)
To our dismay we did find an error in this and one other slide. We have corrected both of them and they are already live (the slides with corrections are marked as such). We obviously regret the mistakes, but I believe wholeheartedly that they don’t have any material affect on the trends and findings of the survey. Amanda, our survey guru, is offering face to face sessions with anyone who wants to discuss the data in detail and confirm its validity. We are not trying to hide anything – we are proud of the survey and we stand by its validity.
Thanks for the great post.
Alistair