Motivational Monetization Slide
This is one of the slides that I had in my presentation at Animax. The purpose of the slide is to:-
1. Help folks who don't beleive in blog monetization.
2. Encourage folks who are starting out in blog monetization.
Its a screenshot of my affiliate earnings at Amazon over just a few weeks.
The blue rectangle shows that I made 28,721,730 yen (302,286 USD) for Amazon and the red rectangle shows that they gave me 1,857,732 yen (19,551 USD) for my troubles - just a few weeks earnings and thats just for my Japanese Amazon account.
dannychoo.com started off as a place for me to experiment with blog technologies (which you read about in the history of dannychoo.com) and somewhere along the line it turned out that I could generate money from doing what I was passionate about - blogging about otaku subculture and Japan.
Identify and live your passion and the rest will just follow - it always does.
And for those who are already doing Amazon affiliating and wondering about the different tags - I use them in different places to identify which areas of the user interface convert well.
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Student
http://yellowguy89.blogspot.com/
wow...those are some impressive numbers. You're passion brings in tons of money, I wish I could do the same, or am I simply just too scared to follow it? I dont know..
part time illustrationist, doll clothing seamstress
http://puppy52art.com/
Wowness! :D :D
Limousine Driver
Wow is the first word that i said to. This is by far the best Japan related site on the Web. It is obvious that you put a lot of work into it and that is what keeps me coming back here. You earned it Danny, it's that simple. Boy... that sounded like a real suck-up. Forgot myself for a minute.
流浪人
*starts discreetly siphoning money from Danny's account* ^^
Unemployed bummer
i thought you took over EVERYTHING at Danny's place?
Student, part-time Haruhi wannabe (that bit about godhood etc)
http://www.aprilius20.com
Yup. Now he's started embezzling company cash:)
流浪人
Shhh...it's a secret... ^^;
Unemployed bummer
why'd he need to embezzle anything if he did a hostile takeover? lol!!! moshikashitte~ bare-chatta desu ka?
流浪人
You can only embezzle from accounts entrusted to you. Prior to the takeover, the company's accounts were entrusted to Danny. Post takeover, they're mine. Hence, embezzlement... ^^
overemployed
http://www.jamaipanese.com
thank you for the inspiration! I don't blog for the money but I would like my blogging to support my Japan obsession one day.
Dropping computers, starting all over again at Journalism
http://xspblog.com
T_T There's no Amazon in Brazil....
But we do have a couple of big online stores, which probably don't pay as much as Amazon, but I guess it's a start.
I still didn't migrate my blog to self-host from Wordpress.com, so I'm still not able to explore it commercially, but it's in the works...
Thanks for the encouragement Danny! You're my role model!
http://www.marvinryan.com
tried puting up amazon ads on my blog once. Unfortunately didn't earn a single penny. However after seeing this wonder if I should try it again. :)
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/
Those stats seem a bit disingenuous as all the earnings come from JP users, so if you don't publish in Japanese they aren't really relevant (although of course it is even more impressive to get so much from a limited proportion of your users) - the rest of the anime related affiliation programs are pretty useless compared to Amazon.co.jp, who are themselves useless internationally.
Affiliation is sadly rather problematic for such international otaku type sites, though banner advertising is another matter...
ダメ人間, ひきこもり
yes, I agree. While amazon.co.jp has their wide collection on anime/otaku related materials, we international users would first have to learn Japanese, then we proceed onto user registration to amazon and lastly buying the item with super high shipping fee. I've not tried calculating this properly, but I think for a book, ordering via nearest local Kinokuniya stores would be a lot cheaper than amazon. It's either amazon.co.jp is not really gaijin friendly or otaku related materials are just too hard to find outside Japan.
btw where can I buy manga (in nihongo) online? (website preferrably in english though)
P.S. maybe amazon.co.jp also calculated on how many access to their site were redirected from dannychoo.com? like google advertising program, 10cents each click ^_^
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/
Amazon.co.jp actually has an English interface. The problem is they will only ship manga and anime DVDs overseas, everything else is NG.
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/
Zeph, as you said, it is problematic to try to buy Japanese periodicals online for international users. One site I do know of that does offer a wide selection of manga and related goods such as magazines and offers Int'l shipping is http://www.mangaoh.co.jp/
However, only their user account creation page is in English, the rest of the site is entirely in Japanese. Studying and Rikai-chan plugin https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2471 is all I can offer for any language troubles.
It very well might be best to continue buying from Kinokuniya bookstores, despite their new merchandise being marked up over twice the original price. Ideally you could find a used-bookstore similar to Book Off that caters to Japanese emmigrants, but I don't know if those exist in Singapore.
カタイ－ガクセイ
Rikai-chan is a godsend.
カタイ－ガクセイ
Learning japanese now!
Neko to karuma.~
Ichi, ni, san, yon, go, roku, nana, hachi, kyuu, aaaand, I dont remember 10!
Yeah.. I just started.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
Most of my dosh does come from Japanese content but you have not seen the other english bloggers who earn *much* more than I do? Cant remember thier names but they always take photos of their cheques and have zillions of readers ^^;
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/
Of course, I am just thinking of tactics for doing it in this sphere - in some ways anime and similar are a far better proposition than what some of those sites deal with for making money... It is an interest which revolves around buying things after all.
Research Engineer/Student/Daddy ^_^
http://www.scanx.fr
Do you mean John Chow?
http://www.johnchow.com
student , otaku and awesome blogger
http://otakudan.com
I took down some of my ads because I saw not seeing any progress in months and the only thing that is making me money is AdSense.
student , otaku and awesome blogger
http://otakudan.com
I saw that it was not making any progress*
University Student
Wow, Danny is rich!! Thats enough money to pay off 1/4 of my university tuition!!
pervert
with the money you make from amazon you dont even need to work as hard as you do now
Hikikomori
http://toxxyn.blogspot.com/
Wow, amazing! Maybe I should get into more blogging myself =)
University Student
Thanks to your usual inspiration Danny. I was finally able to decide what I wanted to do in life ever since I read an article of yours that had "find your passion in life" in it. Think my dad disagrees about me working in the gaming industry.
Artist
Wow Danny, you went from a former employee to one of their best sellers. Congratulations, I hope this proves to the doubters that you can make money from Amazon associate program, not just adsense.
University Student
It´s twice OVER 9000 $ in just a few weeks! Awesome, i wish i could make so much money with working hard on having fun... Danny you are the living motivational pic!
Delivery Driver | Semi-student
http://www.soulfringe.com/
@@
Ever think about upgrading your storm trooper armor with diamond studs ?
王オタク ｘ 天才様
http://www.zakarius.com/
That's an idea for a new TV spinoff, "Pimp My Armor"
Delivery Driver | Semi-student
http://www.soulfringe.com/
And you know, I was just saying Danny should host his own tv show after seeing that "Hi this is animax and your watching danny choo" video.
Well I guess this can be his show !! Someone get Mtv or G4 on the phone pronto !
Moe Hunter
http://moehunter.wordpress.com/
£10000, for just FEW weeks ....
I'm beginning to feel like striving to do my hobby for a living isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Most musicians live a life of poverty :(
Pianist
Don't remind me, I happen to be one.
Hikikomori in the making
http://supermariabros.deviantart.com/
Wow, look at those digits!
thousand master II, Internet Learner, Auto didacta
http://pipopaz.wordpress.com/
yea im getting the inspiration or doing something like this when i'll live in japan but in spanish, there is a lot of otakus out there
DSL Tech Support T____T, Kita-Kon Chairman
http://www.kita-kon.org
As i would suspect from a site that generates so much traffic. Amazon Associates does not work well on smaller sites, so its pointless for the normal blogger or webmaster. I would love to generate 1/10th of that but getting that kind of traffic is tough. It also doesn't help that my knowledge in anything past HTML/CSS is extremely limited.
DSL Tech Support T____T, Kita-Kon Chairman
http://www.kita-kon.org
Hahaha, I think your post made me more depressed Danny ^^;
Programmer
http://www.philanime.com
yeah, i agree. I put up Amazon Associates ads on the old format of my website before and didn't earn anything. (T_T)
Student
http://andreijournal.blogspot.com
I'm still confused about affiliating. I'm still wondering that even 1 cent won't come in my account. LOL, maybe I need a super-grabber article just to start the traffic? Anyone? XD
Student
http://irregularbloggers.wordpress.com/
Always an inspiration to see how you've turned something you love into a profitable venture and still love doing it. I use you as an example of how my friends can continue what they love doing among other things, and it also has caused my recent interest in blogging. Maybe I won't make any money doing it but I'm doing something I like and sharing it with people. Keep up the good work Danny!!
http://gakuranman.com
Nice! I've been reading up on blogging more seriously and earning some money from it too a lot recently. Seems I have a loooong way to go before/if I get to that stage. And I don't think my quirky love of bioluminescence will help much ^^; I'll have to big-up the Japan section then :P I for one would appreciate more advice on this topic from yourself if you are happy to give it ^_^
Office Administrator
http://aquilla429.co.uk
'Identify and live your passion and the rest will just follow - it always does.'
Easy for you to say, but sadly not everyone has a passion or dream to follow. It's been 6 years since I left school and even now I have no dreams or ideas for what I want out of life and as a career. When I was still in school all my friends were saying 'I'm going to study to be a [insert career here]' but even back then, I just didn't have any dreams or aspirations and I still don't.
I've ended up in administration just because I have good pc skills and I'm able to do the job and you don't need qualifications and stuff to get into it. I really don't know if I'll ever work out who I really want to be.
CEO MIrai Inc
http://www.dannychoo.com/profile/eng/
>Easy for you to say,
I was in the same boat. No dreams. Didnt know what to do when younger and took classes just because friends took them. Will talk about this more soon.
Passerby
http://jitokun.wordpress.com/
Seems like it's quite common. Me too also not sure what I really want for my career after working for more than 3 years.
Wage slave by day, semi-pro blogger by night
http://fivecentstencents.com
I've been working 13 years+ and I still dun know what I want for my career. :)
Not many people really sit down and think about what they are about to seriously choose the career they love. In reality, for me, my career choices were really luck at certain points in time. I'm doing okay as an accountant but it's not really my passion. But it pays the bills and paid for my home (fully paid) before I am even close to retirement age. :)
You may want to consider taking weekends to pursue different activities and from there discover what you are truly about. It's never too late to follow your dreams. In the meantime, find out more about yourself and what makes you happy even in your current job. :)
free lance otaku, full time Protector of Peace.
am i right to say that the banners around dc.com are money makers for you?
College Student
Just to say well done on everything.
Maybe I wil be able to make a living from doing what I love someday :/
Blogger, Figure collector, Baby Photographer?
http://www.howagirlfigures.com
i had put up some ads recently and have been able to get a steady stream of $ to come in. But i never blogged with the intention of making money. I just hope people don't think that i'm only blogging to make money, i'm blogging to just talk about my passion.
王オタク ｘ 天才様
http://www.zakarius.com/
Once again, Sir Danny Choo is an inspiration to us all.
I do find it strange that amazon doesn't ship much internationally though. Seems like they are losing quite a bit of business with that policy.
Otaku
http://imperiomoe.wordpress.com
First I need something to blog about. Danny took my first option and BTW I not leaving in Japan.
Wage slave by day, semi-pro blogger by night
http://fivecentstencents.com
Why don't you blog about Edmonton, Canada? Do you know that there are landbanking companies selling land in Canada in Singapore?
Otaku
http://imperiomoe.wordpress.com
your right now I have some ideas.
Scientist, unemployed.
http://fmphoenixhawk.livejournal.com
My only blog is a LiveJournal, so no money there. And I don't have enough of an interesting life to have enough visitors to make money off a blog ad. Sad, I know, but that's life.
Student
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dramacd/
All the good blog subjects have been taken... There is nothing left to monetize. (ﾉД`)ｼｸｼｸ
Pianist
The national convention on dolphins and eyes and their relationship to bread and eggs.
Wage slave by day, semi-pro blogger by night
http://fivecentstencents.com
Saw that slide during the Animax Blogging Workshop (19 Nov 2008) in Singapore.
My own experiences with blog monetisation is that there is no one best way to monetise your blog or website. AdSense is easy to set up and pays decently and is the market leader, but you can also use others like bidvertiser, kontera, textlinkads etc. There are tonnes of affiliate programs, some good, some bad. Just google, "making money online" and read through.
But be careful of scams, ponzi schemes etc. It's simple to set up a blog and start putting AdSense itself but not easy to make money. I used to make $0.10 a day or less for a few months until 2 years later, I managed to get to around $10 a day on good days. I can't quit my day job but it pays for internet and handphone costs.
Check out my post here if you are interested in blog monetisation tips: http://fivecentstencents.com/2008/11/20/otaku-banzai-what-i-learnt-from-the-number-one-otaku-internet-entrepreneur-danny-choo-san/
Multimedia Technology Student
http://thehappyninjadrawn.wordpress.com
Wow very nice numbers, very inspiring Danny =]
Kawaii Pink Stuffs FanGirl, Cat Lover, Otaku, MP3 Hunter, Matcha & Afternoon Milk Tea Addict.
http://lethiachan.blogspot.com
wow, amazing numbers O.o
browsing the nets
http://otakuposts.blogspot.com/
looks great. maybe i should start blogging seriously. then when i have enough followers jump to my own domain and sign up for affiliate account.
Otaku
http://hakushne.blogspot.com
Cool .. that's a lot of cash
I think I am gonna try it
Thanks for the info..
Figurine Enthusiast, Uni Student
wow good money!
if only my blog has so much visitors per day
NEET part-time - Technical Support Officer - Network security engineer
http://burugureibi.blogspot.com/
holy moley
I WA SHOCK
大学生
My.. How many weeks was that actually? Haha.
And how the hell did you give Amazon $300,000 in earnings?!
Student artist
http://www.requestview.wordpress.com
He has the force!
Student
http://animize.wordpress.com
with so many people trying to monetize their blogs now, it's really not easy to draw such a large community like yours >_>
I would say that this "industry" is beginning to converge into a more oligopolistic kind of market structure ;_; too much barriers to entry...
Student artist
http://www.requestview.wordpress.com
Wow danny you can become a millionaire withing weeks. That is a lot of pocket change!
student
http://www.gunpla-inochi.com
I feel slightly envious only because you make more blogging in a few weeks than I make working half a year ^^;
Student
Thanks for the informative numbers. Very few sites as powerful as this are willing to show such statistic, so big thanks:)
Proud Otaku and Part-time NEET
http://centakume.info
Awesome slide! Someday I wish I could do the same. ^^ I should start putting more Amazon ads on my blog, and maybe pick something else other than DVDs and Games. Then there's the traffic.. >_<
Student Otaku (ITM Student) and ACG NA Staff
http://koiaichaku.com/
I want to do something like this someday...
When my blog evolves over time...I might do that later...
Student
http://konadora.wordpress.com
I remember when Danny showed this slide during the Animax blogging workshop, everyone went 'wow'.
Self Employee NEET
http://www.nekoroid.com
For the very first time you have declared to create mirai gaia, you have become my inspiration, Danny. I now creating blog from zero using my own CMS, still alot of things need to be fixed but i'm working on it.
Oh, for the other reader, if you got time, please visit my blog and give me your comment and suggestion. It's in Indonesian Language but, here, this is the place where i ask people to give their comment and suggestion regarding my site construction (just don't click the link icon on the header banner because still not working):
http://pus2meong.890m.com/bocah/index.php?itemlist=1&id=20
Research Engineer/Student/Daddy ^_^
http://www.scanx.fr
Where can we download the slides? I'm very interested in reading them.
student
mee too
student
me too
Student during the day, otaku at night, and amateur musician ^_^
http://www.thebanzaieffect.com/
Woah, very impressive.
That's it, you are my inspiration after all.
Earning money from hobbies, that's a lot of fun.
Dance Trooper: DCX-001 O.D.E. (Order of the Dancing Empire)
http://dannychoo.com.my
Very impressive commission ^^ no wonder they are paying for most all your expenses ^^
Dirty Gentleman
http://cantstanzya.wordpress.com/
MMMmmmmmm. MMMoney. *Reconsiders blogging haha*
http://www.wotakunow.co.uk/
I'd love to get money from ads ... but I dont think I get enough traffic to warrent any :(
student
http://isdope.info
Hi Danny,
do you share the slides file? if so, how could I get it from you?
thanks
Freelance otaku
I'm so happy for you Danny. Sometimes hard work pays of.
Student
http://www.certaincake.com
I'd also like to know how many weeks 'a few weeks' are exactly. I could live off of that for two years. O_o
videographer / photographer
http://tune-in-tokyo.com
Nice numbers. I've been playing around with blogging recently but haven't made any serious cash. Once I find my niche I think things will pick up a bit. I'm going to go with what I know best and I'm going to keep the faith. Thanks for the inspiration. I needed it today!
Billy
Network Security Specialist
Danny you make so much money, but i see sometimes you shop at the 100 yen store! ^^ Your very good at managing your money, ne? I will follow suit!
Interesting read - http://www.blogtoilet.com <a href="http://www.blogtoilet.com">Two Voices</a> going <a href="http://www.blogtoilet.com">Blog Crazy</a>
Programmer
http://yihsheng.blogspot.com
Wow.. that's impressive.. by the way, i do earn some for my AdSense (USD25++) through Danny help where he kindly allow us to link our page to his page and pump in our adsense code. But i think this does not work anymore. Why... :P
Programmer
http://yihsheng.blogspot.com
Oh ya, is DC Rewards actually. :)