In the first part of this series, I was sharing some information about JD Roth’s keynote and monetization session at the wonderful Savvy Blogging conference in Colorado. {Note: If you’re interested in buying a transcript and recording of this monetization sessions, and others, you can do so here.}

Let’s dive back into more lessons and thoughts from JD Roth of Get Rich Slowly. As I shared last time, I think we can safely say that JD Roth is a six-figure blogger.

So how do I think his income breaks down, based on both the information he gave us, and what we can learn from evaluating his website? There are some important clues we can learn from looking at Get Rich Slowly that tell us about JD’s monetization practices:

• JD appears to post less than twice a day on average. On average, we can say that he posts somewhere between 9-13 posts a week.
• Not all of these posts are done by JD. Some are written by staff members, or done by contributing writers to Get Rich Slowly.
• The bulk of the posts are information-rich, but affiliate-poor. JD does not use affiliates widely, and many (if not the majority) of his posts seem entirely free of any type of revenue share on his end.
• Those affiliates he does use he does so sparsely.

If we add to these points his estimated traffic (he mentioned around 20,000 visitors a day while he was speaking at the Savvy Blogging conference) and other information we have available (like what different kinds of ads we see on his site),  we can put together a potential picture of JD’s monetization strategy.

I think we can say that the bulk of his income comes from the following three revenue sources:

• Adsense
• Private Sales
• Occasional affiliate products (bank offers would be a good guess)

So what is the breakdown of these revenue sources?

Here’s my best guess:

• Adsense – 55%
• Private Sales – 20%
• Occasional affiliate products (bank offers would be a good guess) – 25%

Does it seem high to say he makes more than half his income from one source? It may be a bold guess, but I think it just might be true;)

Why?

What we see in JD’s model is that he probably makes the bulk of his money simply from the fact that he has lots of daily readers. As opposed to many “deals bloggers” who post many times a day and have more opportunities to include small-revenue generating affiliate income in a larger number of posts, JD probably gets his volume simply because of his high traffic numbers.

When you have high traffic, and you are passionate about keeping your content free of affiliate mentions, this can be a great tactic.

Since I’ve just finished saying he doesn’t use affiliates widely, does it seem high to say he still might make 25% of his income from affiliates?

I don’t think so. If you are a blogger and you use affiliates only sparingly, you know that your readers are much more likely to listen to you when you do suggest something. For JD, using affiliates sparingly probably helps rocket the conversion rates on the affiliates he does use.

So what do you think? Does this seem like a correct diagnosis of the revenue breakdown on Get Rich Slowly?

After a whirlwind weekend in Colorado at Savvy Blogging, it’s hard to really sit down and thoroughly digest exactly everything I learned at Savvy Blogging about monetization, but there are a few gems to start with.

Not surprisingly, the monetization session held by JD Roth’s Get Rich Slowly was one of the most packed sessions there – and the last session as well! Not only do many bloggers like me love JD, but everyone was dying to learn more about monetization and to get good info from a blogger who has turned his blog into a full time living. In my ongoing quest for information about what is possible in the blogging world, I was eager for some real numbers!

As Carrie from Springs Bargains joked with me after his keynote, “Are you going to ask him what he makes?!??” Not exactly, Carrie, but I will be trying to figure it out on my own;)

So, first things first, what do we know about the person teaching us about monetization? Is JD Roth of Get Rich Slowly a – gasp – Six-Figure Blogger?

What do we know about Get Rich Slowly as a monetized blog?

• JD made about $1 his first day on adsense many years ago.
• JD now has staff writers to help him out with his blog (It wasn’t clear to me if these individuals were paid or not).
• JD mentioned traffic in the range of 20,000 hits per day.
• JD has about 80,000 RSS subscribers.
• In JD’s keynote, he mentioned it took about 2 years to be able to quit his other full time job (at the family business) and start blogging full time.
• JD now blogs mostly from his nearby office – which he pays $325 to rent and says is well worth the rent given the fact that he can better separate his work and his personal life. [Note this point for any of you bloggers struggling with work and home balances;)]
• JD was once offered $20,000 to do a series of credit card posts he was not happy about. Rightfully, he turned down this offer. Money isn’t worth your integrity!
• In the monetization session, when JD mentioned that he believed Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non-Confirmity made an income off his site, The Happy Housewife raised her hand to ask what he meant — “A full time, middle-class income?” I remembered a post I had read on Chris Guillebeau’s blog a while back about his stats, and I answered that he made around $30,000 – $40,000 a year (it turns out Chris said he made $48,000 here). JD thought that was small potatoes, saying: “I bet it’s more than that!”

• JD has paid off his debts with his blog, and now lives – as he put it – a very comfortable life.

So what do all these tidbits add up to?

All this leads me to believe that JD probably makes around six figures – say, $100,000 – with his blog.

Although I don’t get the sense he is nearing Pro-Blogger’s seven figure a year claims, I do believe JD is probably doing quite well with his quality, regular, content. He is clearly a successful blogger who has paved the way for other personal finance bloggers in the niche.

What do you think? Do you think JD is a Six Figure Blogger?

Next up in the series: In the next part of this series, I’ll do a breakdown of where I believe his income comes from and what his income model looks like;)

IMPORTANT: Remember, trying to ascertain the incomes of a blogger like JD isn’t about comparison as much as it is about learning. By evaluating what he can do, you can perhaps set your goals more powerfully, and more realistically, to achieve your own success in blogging.