January Income Report – 10k Target Reached

With a lot of aggressive goals in 2014 I really wanted to get the year started off with a bang. Although my costs started to grow a little too high overall it was a great month for all 3 parts of my business…

1.  Passive Income Website Portfolio
2. AuthorityWebsiteIncome Blog
3.  Expired Domain Services (Domain Finding Service,  Done for Your Private Blog Network)

One thing I have realized with my new format is that it provides more than vanity numbers and actually lets me make data driven decisions on what changes I should be making in my business!

Key Successes

1. 2 website purchases this month. 1 of the sites is a solid earner I was able to pick up at a good multiple since the seller was looking for a quick sale and the site had some traffic risk I was willing to accept. The second site I purchased on Flippa and was in the student loan niche but doesn’t make much money.
2. Content quality – I had been struggling with my done for you private blog network service getting consistent quality. But with some team nchanges my failure rate of poor quality being published has dropped from 10% to 3%!
3. Turned one website from a low earner into a health earner by going “up-stream” in the lead sales and selling insurance leads directly to a broker for a lot more per lead than I was making previously!
4. Mentions – It seems like there are more people than ever who are really cutting through all the crap and producing some great articles online about how to really build a successful profitable website. Several of those people have dropped mentions of AuthorityWebsiteIncome in January and I wanted to say thanks – Justin from EmpireFlippers on Spencer from NichePursuits Podcast, Quinn at Cubicle Free in his podcast, Doug at NicheSiteProject and Tung at CloudLiving both in their Private Blog Network posts.

Key Failures

1. Pace of website creation. It is a very tough task to create a team to build quality PBN sites for a very reasonable rate and although things are going incredibly well the number of sites created was too low this month. It resulted in me falling behind in my promised delivery dates but with very very high quality sites being created people were very understanding!
2. Latest niche site I am building is not doing great in the rankings/traffic but it is still early and I haven’t put a lot of effort into it yet.
3. Potentially stretching myself too thin! With my 3 focus areas and not one I may be stretching myself thinner than I should be. This is of course normal for everyone but the ability to focus on a single business model continues to seem to be something that separates amateurs from successful pros.

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 and Niche Website Income Profit/Loss

I put a lot of focus on the purchase and growing side of my passive income website business this month.I purchased one website that is a $400/month earner for $3,250 but the site has a lot of risks with most of the traffic coming from one link. The nice thing is that I was able to get the site at a low multiple and hope to improve conversions to have it make even more. Plus, anytime I can diversify away from my businesses Google traffic dependency I am happy.

Key to the Deal was my Ability to buy fast!

The seller reached out to me and was looking to close the deal ASAP and ultimately I was able to have the money in his PayPal account 48hrs after he emailed me.

Improve Earnings by Testing Monetization Methods

As I wrote about in last weeks post on LeadPages Alternatives I was able to grow the income earned from one website by a sizable amount by selling leads direct to an insurance broker instead of a lead generation company.

• # of greater than $100/month Sites = 8 (+1)
  • Sites:
    • PMSL
    • OIC
    • ACLSR
    • GFD (purchased)
    • RBC
    • RFNF
    • BCR
    • IF (purchased) (NEW THIS MONTH)

• Revenue = $2,825.28 (+24.5%)
• Costs = 702.30 (-4%%)
• Net Income = 2,122.98 (+38%)

Jan Comment – The addition of a $400/month site to my portfolio really helped to bolster my passive income portfolio. With plans on growing it and the increased lead generation income I hope February will be another solid growth month.

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 = $937 (+2%)
• Traffic = 11,785 (+34%)
• Citation Flow = 31 (+1)
• Trust Flow = 18 (+1)

Jan Comment – I have hopes that the increased traffic and the long loan award cycle will result in an increase in income in February. The 30+% increase in traffic is promising! However, I was secretly hoping for a much bigger spike.

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:

Jan Comment – Taking a balanced portfolio approach to my sites seems to be working. My current strategy of growing some of my own sites that show promise, building new sites, buying solid earning sites and milking my cash-cows will definitely be a winning combination in 2014. The problem is if I can maintain all parts of my business!

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 = 12,413 (+13%)
• Subscribers = 1,924 (+14%)
• # of Posts = 4
• Affiliate Income = $1,151.06 (-74%) (every month can’t be black Friday/ Cyber Monday J )

Jan 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. So the drop in January is to be expected. The steady growth of my email subscribers is great to see!

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 = 43 (-54%) (improved quality in content resulted in delays in site creation)
• # of Domains Found = 107 (+8%)
•  Net Income = $7,467.27 (+99%)*

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.

No progress this month on this important goal! I am still in charge of approving all domains!

2014 Goal #5 – Launch a new game changing business/service (this one I will not share until the time is right)

Something is in the work 😉

Overall Financial Goals

Original Monthly Net Income Target (original – $15k/month reliable income by age 35)

• Target Net Income = $4,100
• Actual net Income = $11,141

“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.

Jan Comment: All financial goals were achieved in January and the money in the bank growth was better than expected considering the website purchase which I didn’t count as an expense only as a hit to my available cash.

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 = $11,141

• January = $11,141

Final Comments

I hope you are a fan of this new format because I am. Not sure if it’s possible to have too many graphs on one post…

Can you have too much of a good thing?

I am still happy to hear feedback on how I can make my monthly income posts more useful/entertaining/enjoyable to read.

Thanks to everyone who has helped make last year a success and the first month of this year a success. It is definitely clear that the goals I have set for my business this year can be achieved if I continue to work my ass off and be as helpful to people as possible!