December Monthly Income Report – New More Revealing Format
With 2013 coming to an end it is time for me to change the format of my monthly income reports. This monthly income post and entire site was started around my authority site case study for (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden). However, as my focus has moved my monthly post has not kept up with the changes in my business.
The new format is going to be a snapshot with lots and lots of data/visuals of the 3 basic focuses of my business for 2014…
1. Building, Buying and Growing Authority/Niche Website Properties
2. Growing an audience at AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com blog
3. Growing the Services I offer (expired domain finding and private blog network building)
The reason I think sharing all this information is a good idea is…
• It increases my accountability for my goals (definitely disagree with this Ted Talk)
• It ensures I take the time to do a monthly business snapshot I might not otherwise do. It is also a great way to leverage the time I take to do the snapshot to create a useful/entertaining post.
• Shows with data that I am no internet marketing/SEO genius but I am having some success and people can decide if they would like to follow my other posts/tutorials based on their own ambitions.
So here is my first updated monthly income report. I would be very happy to hear how you think it can be changed/improved?
Key Successes
- Affiliate Earnings on AuthorityWebsiteIncome – This site has typically generated around $500/month in affiliate earnings but with my Black Friday then Cyber Monday promotion it hit new levels. Thank you to anyone who took advantage of the promotion.
- Worked minimal hours during the holiday season and nothing missed a beat.
- My wife helping with the business!! I am far better at setting up systems than following them where she is maniacal (I use that word lovingly) about entering correct numbers. She identified in a cheque I received that I was not credited with the full amount I should have been and after a couple emails I will now be receiving the balance(approx. $1k)(this is separate from webhostingpad written about below). In addition to tracking down unpaid commissions her entering the vital numbers for my business allowed me to create my business dashboard which will be showcased in the monthly income posts moving forward. I now have a very clear snapshot of my months performance, progress against key goals and save A LOT of time creating my monthly post (THANKS!)…
Key Failures
- Inability to get $2k owed to me – WebHostingPad has dodged my calls, emails and network compliance escalation at CJ.com…after sending them 20 sign ups that I can confirm with the customers email I have been credited with 0 commissions. This battle is not over and it will be a “key success” in the near future!
2014 Business Goals
One of the most commonly quoted acronyms at the start of a new year is to make new years resolutions SMART (Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time Based). However I suggest we all make our goals SMARTR (rate-able) (this is just cheesy enough I should write a book on it 😉 ). Looking at a goal when the time frame is done gives you no ability to course correct. So if I REALLY care about a goal I need to be able to track against how I am doing throughout the given time frame.
Instead of doing a separate post on goals for 2014 I am going to share the progress towards each every month!
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
I have built lots and lots of sites. Some really high quality helpful sites and some crappy sites that shouldn’t and don’t make any money. The mission of my website income side of my business is to build, buy and grow websites that earn over $100/month.
The $100 floor means that it keeps me focused on the site I am building until it reaches a healthy, self-sustaining level. This does not mean the sites only earn $100, many are well above this target.
With my shifting focus the number of sites I built was too slow in 2013, I have made some changes to my team structure to assign a dedicated team member to helping me grow this side of my business.
- # of greater than $100/month Sites = 7 (+/- 0% )
- Sites:
- PMSL
- OIC
- ACLSR
- GFD
- RBC
- RFNF
- BCR
- Sites:
- Revenue = $2,269.36 (-11%)
- Costs = 731.27 (+23%)
- Net Income = 1538.088 (-21%)
Dec Comment – Other than Amazon sites December is always a low traffic, low income month. The good news is that January gets a nice uptick!
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.
- Income = 919 (-31%)
- Traffic = 8,737 (+8.75%)
- Citation Flow = 31 (-1)
- Trust Flow = 18 (-1)
Dec Comment – Big drop from the high in June, however the student loan niche is very seasonal and after only one week in January I am predicting maybe not record highs but definitely a big up tick from the last couple of months!
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 – I am back to building up several sites now and although I don’t expect to hit $100 in the first month of the site I think I will be able to achieve this goal for 2014.
Part 2 – Authority Website Income Blog Profit/Loss
One of my favourite parts of my business in 2013 was running different tests and experiments then sharing the results with the audience here on AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com. Expect once per week posts from me in 2014 and one MONSTER of an ultimate guide a little later in the year.
- Visitors = 10,961 (-11%)
- Subscribers = 1,680 (+13%)
- # of Posts = 5
- Affiliate Income = $4,376.83* (+46%)
*Dec Comment – Both November and December were unusually high in the affiliate income department due to the Black Friday and Cyber Monday hosting promotion I ran on 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.
Part 3 – Services Business Profit/Loss
In 2013 I had a LOT of growth in this area and plan to keep it going for 2014.
The key metrics I am going to share on this side of the business each month include…
- # Sites Built = 80 (+86%)
- # of Domains Found = 99 (-4.8%)
- Net Income = $13.27 (-$6,106.73)
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.
Progress on Key 2014 Goal…
2014 Goal #4 – Automate the entire fulfillment process. I am personally still approving all domains and supporting client’s requests.
2014 Goal #5 – Launch a new game changing business/service (this one I will not share until the time is right)
Overall Financial Goals
Original Monthly Net Income Target (original – $15k/month reliable income by age 35)
- Target Net Income = $3,925
- Actual net Income = $5,928
“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.
2014 Monthly Income Target
This is another big time stretch goal. In 2014 I am targeting to average $10k/month in net monthly income.
Final Comments
Although this was the December income report it really sets the stage for the direction I plan to drive my business in 2014. I share a LOT of information here and would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on what you want to see more or less of while I improve this report in the subsequent months.
Hope everyone’s 2014 is off to a great start!
Nice Jon. Very interesting to see how your services income dwarfed both affiliate earnings and website earnings. Infact, website earnings was the lowest both months overall.
Reminds me of who made the most money in the gold rush 😉
Looking forward to see your “game changer” service in 2014!
Yah Mr Levi’s did well in the Gold Rush. The theme here is that everything I do should be leveraged. Anything I can do and share it is a great time saver!
Hey Jon,
great to see you back on track and defining solid goals for the new year. I’m excited to read the “ultimate” post you anounced!
Cheers
Phil
Thanks Phil, I will definitely try and deliver!
Hey Jon,
Great set of goals for the new year! Love all the detail you put into the financial reporting and looking forward to the monday content.
Let me know if I can help you with your site acquisitions in 2014. Lots of quality sites coming though the pipeline, so hop on my newsletter or reach out via email or skype so I know what your exact requirements are.
Hey Ryan, definitely interested in potentially picking up a few this year. Cheers Jon
Hi John
As usual, great job with detailing your report. Love reading this, keep me motivated in moving forward.
Keep pushing to that 10K a month.
Will do Miki, glad to hear you are motivated. Will keep pushing to the 10k.
I was thinking the same thing as Jason. Service businesses of offering shovels to the gold diggers seems to be a great way to build a solid income stream. Especially you automate it like you will be doing.
Great post. Looking forward to following you this year!
-bryan
Hi Bryan, I agree…I definitely plan on growing all sides of my business this year.
Awesome report Jon. I love the new layout. Nice teaser too, btw – concerning your future ultimate post. I’ll be sure to set aside an entire weekend just to read it. I still haven’t made it all the way through the expired domains post! Haha
I’m really looking forward to following your journey this year and watching you grow your business.
Hey Matt, glad to hear you are liking the new layout! Yah the ultimate post will be pretty solid! I will give you a heads up to schedule some time to read it all!
New format is good, Jon. Looking forward to your monster post and game changing business (and of course more frequent posts on AWI).
No doubt you’ll succeed!
Thanks Curt…will be sure not to disappoint.
I love the new report and the way you split your business. When reading this, I thought of doing the same thing for my own business! It’s’crucial to have separate goals and different types of follow-ups with your different segments of business.
Good job!
It has provided some clarity to me I didn’t fully expect. Definitely a balance to get the right balance between spending time getting the details vs flying fast/blind.
Hey Jon – The new format is great. Well done! I like that you’re getting the wife involved. My efforts would spiral out of control if my wife wasn’t guiding me. 🙂
Like the others mentioned, I’m excited to see the game changer. Keep up the excellent work!
Glad to hear your wife is helping you out as well. I will keep you posted.
Great Plan John, I am always reading your new posts which always encourage me to work harder. Of course, I am now still in the process of building Private SEO sites to test the quality it of.
Anyhow wish you best success in 2014 and give us more GEM 🙂
Best of luck to you as well in 2014
Great report! Good luck on your goals for 2014. Can’t wait to see that epic post and the new service you will be offering!!
Thanks Nathan…looking forward to delivering them.
Jon, you are so organized! How long does it take you to write these income report posts?
Setting up the new structure took some time but the great thing about the new format and with my wife helping I should be able to complete a post in 0.5-1.5hrs once all the data is loaded into the dashboard(which my wife will help out with. This first post with building the dashboard and loading the data myself it took me about 6-7hrs.
Being inspired to see your income report every month! Keep it up brother 🙂
Thanks Al-Amin!
Great report Jon
Congrats on a great 13 and good luck for 14.
I’ve just finished your 7 steps series and just wanted to say thank you for showing that a normal guy can have success online.
best
Tom
Thanks Tom, I am glad you liked the email series. I put a lot into it and hope it is a good start-profitable site roadmap.
Best of luck for yourself!
Past few weeks I kept thinking how to build my own PBN to support all my money sites (planning for 2014 expansions). “What if I build my own, what if this, what if that, lots of what ifs”, then I concluded I’ll just let you do the job because your system is wayyyy more trustworthy and reliable than my own. Looking forward to support your future service expansions! Very excited to see where your systems can lead you to. 2014 is a year of “systems” for me – entirely influenced by you.
Daniel
Systems are where it is at for 2014 🙂
Happy to be helping you grow your business!
I always enjoy reading the honesty and clarity in your posts Jon. You are very ambitious and because of that very successful too.
Good luck with getting the money owed from that affiliate. Having them named and shamed on here is not going to help their reputation. It is in their interest to settle this matter pronto. Also I’m impressed at how diligent your wife is with the numbers. Don’t want to miss a penny 🙂
Wishing you continued success in 2014.
Thank Guy…still working on getting the money. Having awesome readers is helping! Best of luck to yourself in 2014.
Hi Jon
Your income report is always great as usual. I haven’t published any income report yet, due to my income is still to LOW. Hahaha! But that’s true. I need to build more online stuffs and grow my business before I can share my income report. Well, your goal is really great.
Thanks
Hi Raweewan, no reason to not start with your income reports now. Starting small and watching it grow is very satisfying for everyone involved.
Hi Jon,
Great report as always. I love you plan ahead for this year with all the details plan.
Never thought of the money in bank target. Nice point you made on the commission made for current month will be void in next month?
I do better keep track on the new network that i work with. Never really read all the terms and conditions applied.
Thanks again for this. It really spurred me to work very hard this year to achieve the plans that i made for this year.
Hi Jeff, thanks! Best of luck in achieving your goals in 2014!
Hi Jon,
Very detailed post – certainly made for some interesting reading. Agree with you that systems are where it’s going to be in 2014! Invest the time upfront in your system and you can reap the rewards time and time again!
Cheers,
Steve
Hey Jon, thanks for breaking down your various sources of income for December. Have a good one!
Jon Gillham, I am inspired to see you income is increasing. I have started the same journey; now I am building five Amazon niche site with my team, the target is 20 site within a year. But my confusion is, is it possible to reach my goal? As I am investing lot’s to run my team as well as an office, how can I be motivated and how can I use my money wisely? Please give me suggestion