April Income Report – So Close to 15k
Well April was another great month, last month my earnings were down but I was able to see a solid bounce back with record revenue and net income.
Spring has also finally arrived and as a result I was spending a little more time outside doing yard work etc. Being time-poor is nothing new and I know there is no “solution” but I need to continually work to maximize every minute I get to be able to continue to push each part of my business forward.
This monthly report will share all the details about the different “divisions” of my business…
- Passive Income Website Portfolio
- AuthorityWebsiteIncome Blog
- Expired Domain Services (Domain Finding Service, Done for Your Private Blog Network, LightningRank)
Key Successes
1. Custom Powerful PBNs Built for SEO Consultants and Firms – I have been approached by several SEO Consultants and SEO Firms for me to build out a powerful PBN exclusively for them. This is a great fit for my team since I am able to build a PBN charging less than companies can do it themselves. Plus, they receive the benefit of my teams experience and ability to handle many sites quickly. I have been able to craft a special offer exclusive to larger general orders that fit SEO companies well. Basically I build their own LightningRank network but with lower metrics.
“I’m impressed with Jon’s thoroughness when developing procedures for domain selection, hosting segregation, and site building. I believe this is the most robust PBN solution available on the market. I’ve done the numbers and I’m unable to produce a site network of this quality for the same price.
– Simon Pilkington, Founder and Lead Search Strategist, Technium.com.au”
If you are interested in having your own larger high authority PBN created that will help push your clients or your own sites to the first page please Contact Me at jon11 (at) gmail (dot) com or here.
- Responses to Round Up Posts – My VA has been doing a fantastic job following the post “Complete Guide to Outsourcing the Creation of Niche Dominating Round Up Posts”. It is taking a lot of work and time but I believe it is a great way to systematically produce an amazing piece of content which can be used as the main 3,000 word homepage article. In both the niches my VA is doing this in I believe the eventual article will be the best resource online for my target search term. The combination of having the best article and some very powerful links is still the surest way to get great rankings.
- LightningRank Rankings – LightingRank.com has now been open for a few months and the results are continuing to be very strong. Both for my sites I have been continuing to test it on as well as for clients sites. Great testimonials continue to roll in. In April I shared a post about how LightningRank affected my rankings and shared some others testimonials here – How Many Backlinks do I need to Rank #1
- Sales Manager / Executive Assistant Added to my Team – Thanks to a recommendation from my Mastermind group when we were talking about how to replace myself further I have gone ahead and hired a Sales Manager / Executive Assistant position. The idea of this role is to help with email inbox management and take on sales outreach assignments. It is going to be a long training process but so far things are working out great.
Key Failures
- Consistent Progress on Niche Sites – Pushing all my sites I am building out right now at a consistent pace is difficult. My clients are the priority but I need to continue to grow my own sites. I had some great starts in April but struggled to find a rhythm other than with the outreach promotion talked about above.
- Too Much TV – It was only a few hrs a week more than my normal 1-2 but still when I only have ~20hrs to work on my business and I spend 3hrs watching TV it is an expensive waste!
- Domain Transfers – Several customers who have been happy with the Done For You PBN service but would like to bring the domains in house have had some challenges with the domain transfers. The tricky part is there seems to always be a little nuance to the transfer so my procedure always seems to break down. Hopefully after a few more transfers we will have a procedure to deal with 95% of the problems that pop up.
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.
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!
2014 Goal #4 – Automate the entire fulfilment process for my services side of the business while also improving quality.
2014 Goal #5 – Launch a new game changing business/service (this one I will not share until the time is right)
2014 Goal #6 – Continue ahead of the monthly net income curve targeting $15k/month in reliable online income by the age of 35.
Stretch Income Targets (BHAG)…
- Hit my undisclosed “money in the bank” target
- Average $10k/month net income for 2014
Part 1 – Passive Authority & Niche Website Income Profit/Loss
Ranking of my sites have continued to be strong with traffic following. A few of the sites I am looking to grow out have not had the conversions I would like.
If anyone is looking to sell their profitable site(s) quickly let me know by emailing me.
- # of greater than $100/month Sites = 9 (no change this month)
- Sites:
- PMSL
- OIC
- ACLSR
- GFD (purchased)
- RBC
- RFNF
- BCR
- IF (purchased)
- CCRB
- Revenue = $2,880.06
- Costs = -$550.85
- Net Income = $2,329.21
- Sites:
Apr Comment – My anchor site has been able to get back the affiliate program I lost for 2 months. It will take another month to get back and have a full funnel earning commissions. Overall my portfolio took a little dip this month but traffic and rankings are moving in the right direction.
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 = $496 (-6%)
- Traffic = 9.396 (+6%)
- Citation Flow = 30 (-1)
- Trust Flow = 20 (+2)
Apr Comment – Like I mentioned above and last month, the loss of my affiliate hurt my income but hope that now that they are back my site will see a rebound next month.
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:
Apr Comment – I added 1 to the site last month. A few sites are showing some promise and hopefully in the next 2 months 2 more sites will be added.
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 = 14,122 (-5%)
- Subscribers = 2,450 (+9%)
- # of Posts = 4
- Affiliate Income = $650 (-24%)
Apr Comment – It is too bad to see the growth of the site slow. I will have to work to continually put out more and more helpful articles. My outreach and interaction with other sites has also slowed so I need to continue to get back involved in reading, commenting and emailing other people in this space since it is fun, educating and also naturally helps out this site. The affiliate income drop does not concern me since it is not the focus of this site.
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! Plan is in motion but it will take several months to assemble all the moving parts. A pretty epic post was posted in April on how to outsource the creation of a niche dominating round up post – here.
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 = 83 (-14%) (doesn’t cover all sites)
- # of Domains Found = 56 (-50%) (doesn’t cover all sites)
- Net Income = $11,504 (+239%)*
*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 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).
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.
Big Progress Again! For 2 months in a row I have added another Canadian team member who will take on the role of sales manager and executive assistant. The process will continue. The next step is to integrate the entire ordering process into a seamless system.
2014 Goal #5 – Launch a new game changing business/service (this one I will not share until the time is right)
I am unsure if this service will still be offered…I have some ideas but unsure if it still makes sense.
Overall Financial Goals
Original Monthly Net Income Target (original – $15k/month reliable income by age 35)
- Target Net Income = $4,625
- Actual net Income = $14,484
“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.
So for this reason a metric I am going to track in 2014 is my Money in the Bank target. Although I share a lot I am choosing to not actually share my bank balance…I will simply make it a % of my overall goal.
Apr Comment: April was one of those months where some late revenue in April I will be paying for in May so the income is skewed a little high. But definitely everything is moving in the right direction. I just need to carve out some more hours to dedicate to my websites and continue to grow that piece of my business.
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 = $11,134
- January = $11,141
- February = $12,193
- March = $6,719
- April = $14,484
Final Comments
Income numbers are higher this month and I came very close to the $15k milestone. Here is my income post summarized for my 3 key parts of my business…
- Niche Websites – Rankings and traffic are improving on all new sites but monetization is not enough yet and with the loss of my one key affiliate 2 months ago my earnings are down…however, with the return of that affiliate I expect a jump in May
- AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com – Published 4 quality posts on schedule
- Services Business – All PBN offers are going well with great results for many clients. Some late in the month revenue has resulted in a spike in income without accounting for the expenses associate with that order.
How was your month?
Wow man you’re way ahead of your goal here and almost hit the $15k – congrats!
Hey Dave
Thanks for the post.
Cheers
Jon
Hey Jon, with so little time to commit to your online business each week you sure are doing a great job of maximising the roi you get on those hours!
Keep up the great work and here’s to May hitting that $15k mark!
Hey Lewis
Thanks for the post
Cheers
Jon
Really great report, Jon. Excellent news on the new hire and record income, it’s cool to see how you are leveraging the team you built to help you with the service side of things.
Hey Curt
Thanks for the comment.
It defiantly will be a step to building the businesses to where they need to be.
Cheers
Jon
solid stuff Jon. You’ll get there before summer time 🙂
Thanks Andrew
I appreciate the encouragement.
Cheers
Jon
Nice work Jon, glad to see that you’re averaging 10k per month online. It gives me hope that I’ll be able to get up to that level at some point with more hard work.
Great to see that the services business is going so well for you. I’m a prior customer and I know that it’s a great investment. I made the investment in december, and am finally starting to see the rewards from it! Looking forward to getting more use out of it.
How many VA’s total do you have now?
Hey Jeff
Thanks again for your service and I’m glad the domains are finding you traffic.
Cheers
Jon
I’m shooting for $15k/per month myself 🙂 I’m assuming the $11k in services includes LightningRank?
…and lol on the “too much tv”. I actually don’t watch any tv myself, except for the occasional UFC event 🙂
Hey Josh
It’s a good habit to break or at least cut down.
Well done eliminating that habit.
Cheers
Jon
Nice Progress Jon ! Would love to see another post analyzing the reasons for the traffic drop to your student loan site 🙂
Hi Anisul
Thanks for the post.
Possibly in the future I may write one.
Cheers
Jon
Congrats Jon on the high income reports. I agree that while watching tv is an incredible offense when you have only 20 hours to devote to IM, we all are just humans and need something to relax
Hey George
Thanks for the post.
I definitely agree, were all humans and relaxing is what the body needs some times.
Cheers
Jon
Great inspiration. I have a goal to reach $3k per month in (mostly) passive income in 12 months or less. I’ll be using your guide and this site for help!
Hey Rus
I’m glad I could be of some help. All the best with your goals and aspirations.
Cheers
Jon
Congratz dude! It’s not an easy task!
Thanks!
Yep, definitely good progress, Jon. I just love these kind of updates – I live for them as I know some day soon I will be in your seat.
I had to cancel my IX Web Hosting account just earlier my friend, so my apologies for a tiny loss in your affiliate income for May – no harm intended, promise. After the fourth domain I added to my account (even waiting a day or two in between) I started getting the same C-Block IP assigned. I decided to rather go with Host9 as I believe my chances may be better for success over there in the long run…
Alas, as mentioned, 10 more domains to be ordered from you within the next day or two. So does that qualify me to be forgiven? 😛
Hey Ruan
Thanks for the post and for your business.
Im excited for finding you more domains.
Cheers
Jon
Nice work this past month. So close to 15k!
Hi Nathan
Thanks! I’m getting close to my goal.
Cheers
Jon
Congrats Jon! Your results are really amazing and your PBN services rockz man….Advance wishes for your $15k during the month of May.
Hey Suresh
Thanks for the words of encouragement.
Cheers
Jon
Looks like you’re doing awesomely Jon! Good on you – and just a “thumbs up” to the format of your monthly reports – I love the level of detail you provide here.
As to my month? Last month was mainly a “prep” month for the next few months. Lots of research for potential new sites, content ideas, outreach opportunities and so on. So while I don’t have a huge amount to show for my extra efforts yet – hopefully that’ll come with time.
My standard “bread and butter” sites have new content written, formatted and scheduled for the next couple of months to give me some “breathing space” and enable – what I hope will be – some serious expansion over the summer. Oh, and some trips to the beach 😉
Hey Rick
Thanks for the post.
Cheers
Jon
I just came across this site and frankly, I’m inspired. Just one simple question for you Jon. Do you think niche sites are still relevant as far as making money online is concerned?
Hey Tito
Thank you for the Post.
I believe that niche sites are still relevant for making money.
Cheers
Jon
Hi John, you’re awesome for this month. You’re getting closer to your goal and you know? This is really good news for me. I’ve been reading your blog for over 1 years. Your income report is also one of my inspiration for me to drive my online business to the next level.
Thanks
Raweewan
Hey Raweewan
Thanks for the post
I really appreciate the comment.
Cheers
Jon
Hey Jon,
I just discovered you site from Vincent’s Cloud Living blog. Great content here! I’m a little annoyed though because that means now I have a lot of catching up to do! jk.
Quick off topic question. How do you create those charts and graphs for goal tracking? I need this in my life. hahaha
Thanks,
– Bronson
I always enjoy reading your honest reports Jon. You are doing really well and your dedication is an inspiration to many. Keep up the good work.
I was going to suggest for next year revising your target to $ profit as opposed to income. Mind you it was then I noticed you started talking about cash in the bank which is a very similar metric.
Looking forward to seeing your continued progress. Wish I was under 35 again.
Hey The Guy
Thanks for the post.
Il defiantly take that advise.
Cheers
Jon
Expired domains is a new concept I just learned and was glad to find your site. Looks like you have some of the most comprehensive stuff on the topic here.
While I was reading your ultimate guide and your expired domains for sales details some questions came up that I couldn’t understand. Can you clarify please,
1. You’ve mentioned checking the previous history before buying an expired domain. Does this also carry over to when registering any site? What I mean is, unknowingly you could get a spammed site (while registering for a money site or personal blog, for example), right? And if that does happen, will it harm your chance to rank too? (I don’t think people do these checks when signing up for a new site)
2. I’m got a bit lost on the redirect portion in trying to understand buying expired domains. Do you need to redirect the homepage of the expired domain when you purchase it, or just the inner pages?
3. Also, is there a way to check if an expired domain has been redirected?
Thanks
Larry