Annual Online Income – 2014 Wrap Up Report
As I talked about a few times the last few months of the year were unreasonably busy and I had to cut several things, one of which was my posting schedule here including my income reports.
Luckily my wife continued to keep immaculate records and I am now able to dig into the data and analyze the last quarter of the year.
Today I post my income and stats for the last 3 months including my annual online income wrap up.
Plus for the first time you can see my gross income (something I have never shared before!).
This monthly report will share all the details about the different “divisions” of my business…
- Passive Income Website Portfolio
- AuthorityWebsiteIncome Blog
- Private Blog Network and Expired Domain Services:
Net Income for 2014
This is the number we all want to see. It was a great year and I am proud of what I built up over the year. Many challenges and a dip at the end of the year I have had to bounce back from but overall
Net Income 2014 = $141,876.65
[wpsharely id=”1676″]TOTAL GROSS INCOME & PROFIT MARGIN
Never Shared Before…
Key Successes
- The Business Running Systems Held – Even with me unavailable for much of the last three months of the year my services business was fully systematized and was able to deliver results for all customers. My entire team and especially my key project manager did a great job in this time!
- Diversified Passive Income from Websites – The passive income portfolio side of my business did well especially with the December up-tick. What is great about the diversified portfolio is in December when it is typically a very low month for student loan related sites my Amazon sites did very well.
Key Failures
- Business Growth not Systematized – I have yet to figure out a way to systematically grow my business without my involvement. Without me being directly involved in producing content, reaching out to people and launching new initiatives it proved very difficult to grow my business.
- Missed Several Goals – I thought I had time after my busy period to get caught up on my goals but the year just ran out of time. I hate missing goals but it leaves some low hanging fruit for this year.
2014 Business Goals
Here is where I share my progress towards each of my key 2014 goals…
Here they are…
- 2014 Goal #1 – Increase the number of sites making over $100/month to 15 by building, buying or growing 8 quality sites. – CLOSE
- 2014 Goal #2 – Publish 52 Posts on Authority Website Income. For the growth of this blog there is nothing more important than consistently producing great articles every single Monday. – CLOSE
- 2014 Goal #3 – Produce 1 ULTIMATE post that will put my Ultimate Guide to Expired Domains to shame! – FAIL
- 2014 Goal #4 – Automate the entire fulfilment process for my services side of the business while also improving quality. – SUCCESS
- 2014 Goal #5 – Launch a new game changing business/service (this one I will not share until the time is right) – FAIL
- 2014 Goal #6 – Continue ahead of the monthly net income curve targeting $15k/month in reliable online income by the age of 35. – SUCCESS
Stretch Income Targets (BHAG)…
- Hit my undisclosed “money in the bank” target – N/A
- Average $10k/month net income for 2014 – SUCCESS
Part 1 – Passive Authority & Niche Website Income Profit/Loss
If you are looking to sell your website site(s) quickly let me know by emailing me. I can let you know in 12hrs if I am interested and complete the purchase in 24-48hrs – Contact Me
Other options for selling like Empire Flippers or Flippa will bring you a higher return but I don’t know of another option that will put money in your PayPal account in 24-48hrs!
I will need to see…
- Some income history
- Google Analytics access
Here are the results from December for my niche sites…
# of greater than $100/month Sites = 10 (added one and lost one)
- Sites:
- PMSL
- OIC
- ACLSR
- RBC
- RFNF
- BCR
- PPR
- PFA (purchased)
- IFA (purchased)
- GFB (purchased)
- FN
- L4P
- SS
- JFB
- Revenue = $4,966.21
- Costs = -$628.557
- Net Income = $4,337.65
Sites that fell below the $100/month line = none
Dec Comment – The Christmas boost really helped push sites into the $100/month range.
Public Case Study Site Status
AuthorityWebsiteIncome started with one case study – This site was started the same day as my case study site and every month I documented in detail exactly what I did to grow the site. It turned into a great site for me earning over $3k/month in its peak months and helped launch AuthorityWebsiteIncome. The monthly case study income reports have grown beyond just one site but I want to keep tracking this site separately from all the others so everyone can keep tabs on it.
- Net Income December = $776
Dec Comment – December is often a low month for this site. In 2015 this site will mostly be on autopilot but will have a few big pushes and maintain a systematic content creation schedule of 1 article per week.
Progress on Key 2014 Goal…
2014 Goal #1 – Increase the number of sites making over $100/month to 15 by building, buying or growing 8 quality sites.
Progress:
Dec Comment – SO CLOSE! Only 1 site off! Overall I am not sure this goal drove the right behaviour from me in 2014 and will make some adjustments in my 2015 goals. I aimed for 8 but achieved 7.
Part 2 – Authority Website Income Blog Profit/Loss
My commitment on this site is to provide once per week posts from me in and one MONSTER of an ultimate guide a little later in the year.
Here are the monthly stats for my site…
- Visitors = 12,607 Oct, 10,590 Nov, 13,396 Dec
- Subscribers = 3087 Oct, 3197 Nov, 3,282 Dec
- # of Posts = 1 Oct, 0 Nov, 6 Dec
- Affiliate Income = $298.28 in December
Dec Comment – WOW! That did not take long! With the percentage of my readers being 50% returning there is not much point in returning if no new content is being created. That was understood and re-confirmed! If I don’t publish my site starts to die…as far as my site goes in 2015 publish or it dies…so I will publish useful articles!
Progress on Key 2014 Goal…
2014 Goal #2 – Publish 52 Posts on Authority Website Income. For the growth of this blog there is nothing more important than consistently producing great articles every single Monday.
2014 Goal #3 – Produce 1 ULTIMATE post that will put my Ultimate Guide to Expired Domains to shame! I was unable to achieve this goal in 2014…but it will remain as a goal for 2015.
Part 3 – Services Business Profit/Loss
This is definitely where my biggest opportunity lies and although I want to keep a balanced portfolio of income producing assets.
The key metrics I am going to share on this side of the business each month include the following for my Done For You PBN Service (here)…
- # Sites Built = 71, 30, 5 (doesn’t cover all sites – Service was scaled back at Oct to wait for data on PBN performance – it re-opened in January and sold out again)
- # of Domains Found = 131, 90, 68 (doesn’t cover all sites)
- Net Income = $9,158, $3,639.34, $2,598.60
Dec Comment – Temporarily shutting down my services business for December to revamp and re-launch in January hurt my numbers but has been a smart choice based on the demand in January for the services.
Both the Done for you PBN service option and LightningRank have been in high demand in January! If interested the Done for You service is sold out but LightningRank just opened again.
*Note about the Net Income – each month varies greatly since the expenses for building the sites incur the month the sites are built while the income occurs the month the sites are sold. So there are months like December(and June) where I only have a handful of new clients but I am still building sites for all the others who paid in the previous month. For the accounting purists, yes, I am aware I am violating a GAAP accounting principle (revenue is to be counted in the months the expenses to earn the revenue are realized – but that creates more accounting headaches for me).
Dec Comment: A scary looking graph but one that does not show the whole story! We were able to fully support existing customers and shutting the service down for Nov and Dec clearly hurts but January so far has been a solid month!
Progress on Key 2014 Goal…
- 2014 Goal #4 – Automate the entire fulfilment process. I am personally still approving all domains and supporting client’s requests.
Complete – Not via systems but via hiring key people! - 2014 Goal #5 – Launch a new game changing business/service (this one I will not share until the time is right)
Did not pursue!
Overall Financial Goals
Original Monthly Net Income Target (original – $15k/month reliable income by age 35)
- Target Net Income = $6,025
- Actual net Income = $7,235 (closest I have been in 1 year!)
“Money in the Bank” Target
For those that have been trying to track their online income and reconcile with money in the bank it doesn’t take long to realize just because you think you made $1k in a month your business bank account doesn’t go up by $1k that month. The reason for this is that it takes some time for advertisers to pay their affiliates. Plus, some affiliate commissions you earned will be voided in the next month and you will not be paid for that commission you thought you made.
I had to abandon this goal as it became more tax efficient to not retain earnings in the corporation.
2014 Monthly Income Target
This is another big time stretch goal. In 2014 I am targeting to average $10k/month in net monthly income.
RUNNING AVERAGE = $11,823.05
- January = $11,141
- February = $12,193
- March = $6,719
- April = $14,484
- May = $21,135
- June = $7,275
- July = $16,208
- August = $13,189
- September = $14,056
- October = $12,269.88
- November = $6,088.00
- December = $7234.53
TOTAL GROSS INCOME & PROFIT MARGIN
Never Shared Before…
Final Comments
I missed or abandoned many of my goals in 2014 but hit some of key income targets.
Overall it was a fantastic year I plan to build on and do bigger things in 2015!
More to come on my goals for 2015 and tracking my progress towards them!
That’s a nice income report.
Jon, i know its too risky to disclose the domain name of your purchased sites but it would be better understandable if u at least mention the niches at the side. Actually (PMSL, OIC, ACLSR, RBC, RFNF, BCR, PPR) i don’t understand anything this way. Look forward to u.
Yah the acronyms are probably just confusing garbage. Revealing niches in some would be dangerous as well…probably just do without the list.
Jon that is spectacular, how do you keep focused in your day job with such a large presence online, why have you not quit your day job yet to do this full time?
Hi Chris, thanks. Well both actually make be better at each other. The opportunity to quit is there but right now it is still a good fit for me and my family to do both…I know it seems crazy!
Best of luck to you and your family. I dont know how you do it, just doing a few sites and having kids and a job i feel like i run around with my head cut off…
Hey Jon!
Really very inspiring numbers and you set yourself as a role model for IM beginners.
Best of luck for 2015!
Thanks Suresh…best of luck to you as well!
Hi Jon,
Good to see you posting again and I hope that you stay active! I always enjoy reading your articles. Congratulations on the successful year and I aspire to someday teach your level. I saw that you are interested in possibly buying some sites? Well I have a site that I am planning on selling would love to hear what kind of offer you would give me. I will be emailing you within the next couple of days asking more about. Once again, great post Jon and talk soon!
-josh
Hi Josh, I will definitely be active again this year. I look forward to seeing your email. From initial email to funds transferred & domain pushed for one site purchase was 16hrs recently. Always happy to see sites and if a deal can be made.
Thanks for the reports Jon..
I was wondering about the new websites you buy, do you include it in your report the amount you buy them for?
Revenue = $4,966.21
Costs = -$628.557
Net Income = $4,337.65
You bought three new sites and your expenses are only $628?
Would be nice to see when you break even for the sites 🙂
Hi Victor, I don’t count site purchases in my expenses line for my niche sites but I do in my money in the bank numbers (which I had going until Oct).
I will have some posts on the progress of my website purchases.
Hi Jon,
Congratulations on all the success and your little girl. Having had the opportunity to talk with you in person, I can say that your success is due to a strong work ethic and smart processes. I a “koolaid drinker” of yours and I’m working to follow in your footsteps in 2015.
Thanks Tim! I thought it was due to my good looks and humor 😉
But I agree a solid process and working it is the only reliable way to find success online in my opinion.
Nice report! Keep it up!
Quick question, as I get it, most of the income is from ads/affiliate income. Any thoughts of building own products for each property to? Pros/cons?
/Mikael
Hi Mikael
I have done that for a couple of sites…for me it takes a lot of time and has only some certainty of success.
However, it takes a lot of time and customer service which is more difficult to outsource. I definitely agree that it is a great strategy if you are willing to invest the time/energy.
Can you confirm if building amazon niche sites still work. I lost interest in building new sites after the existing ones got affected by google update few months ago.
Looks like a record setting year,congratulations! Quick question though,what plugin are you using to create those professional looking graphs in your monthy income reports? Thanks.
~Tyronne Ratcliff
Hi Tyronne, I am just using excel to make the graphs…I collect all the data in excel and analyze it there then create graphs to help visualize it.