I've been posting book reviews on my book review blog BookLinker for just under three years now and have now now passed a significant threshold, nay, a Rubicon of sorts...BookLinker is now officially IN THE MONEY!

Yes, after nearly three years, 67 book reviews and approximately 180 hours of work (review writing time, site maintenance etc.), BookLinker has now OFFICIALLY reached the magic number of $10.00 worth of referral fees as an Amazon Affiliate.

Who says you can't make the big bucks blogging?

Why is $10.00 the magic number? It is the minimum amount that Amazon requires before they will actually bother to send a check....

Interestingly enough, the ratio works out to one Amazon purchase for every 1,000 visitors.

Seriously, BookLinker was never started as a money-making enterprise, but as an opportunity for me to mix two things - my love of books and an opportunity to hone my writing skills on something other than marketing materials. The $10.00 is just a nice bonus!

Just to put it in perspective, my blogging efforts have earned me the princely sum of approximately $0.055 per hour.

Here is what I may eventually be able to purchase with my hard-earned Blogging Bucks:

1). My very own private 8.3 acre Bahamian island called Kalabash Cay for a mere US$995,000 or approximately 19.9 million hours of work. At roughly 2.69 hours per written review (plus site maintenance etc), I need to review only another 7,397,702 books.

Oh wait....that calculation doesn't include reading time. Damn.

2). A silver F430 Spider Ferrari for a mere US$198,667. This little toy would have me toil only 3.97-million hours or a miniscule 1,482,589 reviews.

Well the best things in life are free...but the expensive ones are still worth a look.

3). Fly into space with Virgin Galactic for just US$200,000. Technically shouldn't it be called Virgin Orbital, or Virgin Interplanetary? Either way, its only a paltry 3.6 million hours worth of blogging labour or 1,398,601 reviews. Dare I blog myself into space? Space is beckoning, a mere US$199,990 away!

I could go on, listing the many items that will be forever beyond my blogging revenues but I prefer to view this as a watershed, a triumph. In reaching that magic $10.00 mark I am probably ahead of 7-million other blogs! Eat my dust!

Enough already, where's the damn mailman with my check?....What do you mean I don't get it until the end of the quarter?!?

On a serious note thank you to all my site visitors, my friends at Blogcritics and to the terrific customers who purchased product through the site, thus allowing me to claim a blogging victory of sorts to my beautiful wife.

Maybe I can hit $20 by Year 4....