The worldwide metals value hierarchy goes like this:

No. 1 = gold
No. 2 = silver
No. 3 = copper

Today, gold is trading at US$1176, silver at US$ 18.34 and copper at US$3.13. There is a chasm of a difference between number one gold and number two silver.  The same applies to the world of the internet and blog incomes.

I’m a note collector.  The notes would be better served if I also noted the source of those notes.  Recently I was going through my “ blog content” file and came across a sheet of notes.  At the top I had written “No. 2 Sucks!”

Looking at the numbers I immediately understood why.

The numbers addressed Google, but as a rule of thumb you can easily apply it to any sort of traffic driven income.  Under discussion was the income that the top ten ranked in Google would get as a percentage of total traffic for a keyword.  Number one position can expect to get 42%, number two 11.9%!  The drop off after that continues but is not as dramatic, by the time you get to number ten, you are looking at 3%.

Let’s just stay with positions one and two and ten for the time being.  Take an extremely competitive keyword phrase, but an extremely lucrative one such as internet marketing.

Daily searches:  73,647

No. 1 ranked receives 42% of traffic:  30,930
No. 2 ranked receives 11.9%  of traffic:  8,763
No. 10 ranked receives 3%  of traffic:  2,209

Here is how the potential income for the keyword phrase internet marketing looks like in rounded off numbers

No. 1  = $259K
No. 2  = $ 73K
No. 10 = $ 18K

Now granted $18K isn’t exactly chopped liver IF you can get to that page.  Considering that there are almost 7 million pages which mention “internet marketing” the jostling in the lineup starts long before page 1.

What if you have a niche market where the daily search is 217 and the total number of pages that the keyword appears on is only 40,000.  Say the total purse for your chosen keyword is only $316.00, then this is what the figures begin to look like:

No. 1  = $138
No. 2   =$37
No. 10 =$9

In both instances the biggest drop is between position no.1 and no. 2.  It’s like that in everything in life.  The brand new car driven off the show room has the biggest depreciation in value after year one.  The leading movie star gets millions, the co-star thousands.  The gold medal winner makes the money with lucrative sponsorships, the silver gets the second tier.

That reminds me of the time my accountant and I were discussing my income and tax strategies.  As an employee I had only the most basic of tax deductions available to me.  I fell into the highest income tax bracket and was crying the blues about how little of my hard earned money I got to keep.  No wonder it was tough meeting all my financial obligations, I blurted out, how can anyone live on that amount?

My accountant looked me straight in the eye, and after what seemed like an eternity of time, he broke the silence and told me that I was in the top 3% income earners of the country, of the COUNTRY!  I was aghast.  I had no idea I was in such an elevated percentage. Considering what I was making, I didn’t think that was all that impressive. I immediately asked what did the top 1% make?

“Aaah, that’s a different story” he said.  “The difference is huge.”

If you want to develop a blog income life, to drink fine wines, dine on epicurean delights, travel on exotic vacations and live in the house of your dreams, then you have to write a “different story” and leap the chasm.  Work smart, put in the time and get to position one or at the very least on page one.  That goes beyond Adsense.  The no. 1 affiliate for a product is light years ahead of no. 2.  The highest traffic generating blog asks for and gets the highest sponsored ad dollars.  Pick your battle and go win it.

Happy Blogging!

Valentina

The Big Cheese is No. 1

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