November Earnings
December 1, 2006 – 11:02 pm
Despite it seeming a fairly quiet month we've actually beaten last month's income and have earned above average for this month. Although our PPC total was down on last month our main AdSense site which used to earn $100+ each month and dropped badly last month has actually improved by a 25% increase. All good news, and hopefully the steady climb will continue and we can get back to the higher figure we experienced in the Summer of $200+.
So the breakdown was
PPC: $76.77
Advertising: $28.87
Affiliate: $61.62
Total: $167.26
No product sales at all but I'm hoping that will change once I finish the new digital product download work for our product site.
One downside I did notice today was after being paid by TLA into my PayPal account I checked how much it had converted to and noticed that PayPal's exchange rate works out at over USD2 to GBP1! I know the current exchange rate is pretty high at $1.90 virtually to the £1, but PayPal's rate is quite excessive. I'm glad I don't get to much converted through them! It's bad enough as it is with this exchange rate. A simple example, in September I paid $165 for an item and the other day I also paid $165 again. The first $165 converted to £91 the second to £87! Great when you're buying, lousy when you're selling…!
Still it's only 24 days until Christmas 
3 Responses to “November Earnings”
I always forget about conversion rates. I guess living in the US it would be wise for me to target the GBP traffic. Is that possible?
By 45n5 on Dec 1, 2006
I don't see why not. You could target by getting into the UK search indexes of Google and Yahoo - either by using a UK domain or get hosting on a UK server (I recommend my own UK host at meirhosting.net). You could also offer prices or approx prices in UK Sterling, either by displaying both the USD and GBP price, or alternatively set a cookie to determine whether the visitor is UK or US to control which price to show. This is what I'm thinking of doing on our new products site.
At the moment a lot of online UK shoppers know that it's far cheaper to buy from the US so if they can get a good deal with a good service then they'll buy. Often the big sites offering digital products such as software restrict their US prices to US only customers which is pretty frustrating to UK buyers who are made to pay more. Perhaps it's down to tax or customs but it's plain unfair in my books.
By Sarah on Dec 2, 2006
Thanks for the Info Sarah. I think I will try my hand at this sometime in the future.
I want to target a niche specifically for the GBP however, so I woudn't worry about US people.
I also just searched CJ.com and they listed quite a few merchants paying in GBP.
I may have to look you up then
By 45n5 on Dec 2, 2006