Year end accounting for Our Daily Green

At the beginning of this year, Our Daily Green began to accept advertising from assorted affiliate companies. We decorated our space with banners encouraging our readers to click and consider the companies we promoted. We also pledged to donate half the proceeds of our advertising to the charity of our readers' choosing at the end of the year, under the optimistic assumption that we would generate tremendous income.

The results of the year long experiment are as follows:

• We had a few advertisers that paid a few pennies per click. That netted approximately 14¢ in revenue.
• We had a few advertisers who paid when friends signed up for a newsletter. That was a bit more profitable, resulting in $18.00
• We had some sponsors buy space for their advertisements and that was a $30.00 one time payment.
• Several of our sponsors paid commission for products purchased. Most of the purchases were our own, resulting in a rebate on items purchased of $15.68.
• The last category were sponsored postings. We had companies that wanted links to their sites, so Our Daily Green wrote about a product that fit both our mission and theirs. That resulted in $88.32. (after pay pal fees were deducted).
• We received a low flow shower head to test and 5 shower heads to giveaway.
• Our Daily Green also received a pack of recycled goodies from TerraCycle to giveaway. 

This is a grand total of $152.14 in cash revenue generated as a result of advertising on this blog. As pledged at the beginning of the year, Our Daily Green will make a donation to a charity chosen by the readers. With your indulgence, the donation will be a $75.00 donation, with the $1.07 towards blog expenses. We did not count the merchandise as it was given away.

While we are happy to make the donation, the paltry amount generated from advertisements on the blog did not warrant cluttering our readers' eyes and distracted from the message of Our Daily Green. In 2011, we no longer will be using affiliate advertising on the sides of the blog. We will still accept sponsored posts provided they fit our mission, and we still will showcase products that we believe are in line with our ethical and earth friendly mission. In each instance, we will disclose any financial incentive we receive and we also pledge again to donate half the proceeds to a charity of our readers' choosing.

Please nominate a charity in the comments below. Some suggested charities can be found in these blog posts from the past year. 

Be a Fan