January Income Report and 2016 Goals

The first income post of a new year is my favourite as I get to share both my new goals for the year and the direction of my business.

NOTE – If you have an Amazon Affiliate site and are interested in selling please let me know ASAP as I could potentially pay competitively for it – Contact me at jon11 (at) gmail (dot) com or  here 

 

2015 was a great year highlighted early on in January with the birth of my Daughter and overall a record-setting year for my business, in 2016 I will continue to grow my business to new levels.

My “why” for this business continues to be clearer and clearer and that is to provide financial security for my family, allow me to spend more time with them and give me an outlet for my need to build interesting/useful teams & systems.

The business ended the year strong with record months in Nov and Dec I was excited to try and keep the momentum going into the New Year.

My new monthly report format will focus on my 4 main business “divisions”…

1. Passive Income Website Portfolio
2. AuthorityWebsiteIncome Blog
3. SEO & Expired Domain Services:
   • Domain Finding Service (buy domains that meet my metrics)
   • Done for Your Private Blog Network (let my team build you a personal PBN) (just re-opened)
   • LightningRank (get access to the most powerful PBN available!)
   • Brand Builders (FBA Branded Site Creation & Affiliate Site Creation)
4. Amazon FBA Business

Key Successes

1. Amazon FBA Business & Unique Opportunities – As the FBA business continues to grow! Lots of unique opportunities are presenting themselves and it will be an exciting year to see where this business model and my team will go.
2. PodCast Interviews – It was a fun month doing a couple podcasts both at EmpireFlippers and TheAmazingSeller talking about my Amazon Affiliate Site + FBA model along with my newest partnership service – BrandBuilders.io
3. This Website Redesign & Opt In Increase – Although far from perfect the new site redesign has had a substantial improvement in my email opt-in rate! There are still many problems with the site and I would like to improve the user experience to not have multiple pop-ups for a visitor but overall I have received mostly positive feedback and the results as far as opt-in increases has been great.
   1. New favourite page – https://websiteincome.com/start-here/

Key Failures

1. Balance – With some parts of the business moving EXTREMELY fast in January my ability to balance everything that is important to me was a challenge. Typically I don’t like to sacrifice sleep as it usually doesn’t pay off in the long run however I found myself working until 1am some days and waking up at 6am. Not ideal! I did a reasonably good job at not sacrificing my #1 priority spending time with my family (when they are awake) however there were a few times where time with them suffered as well.

 

2016 Business Goals

Below is my businesses main goals for 2016

Download This Easy to Edit and Printable Goals Template – FREE

Part 1 – Passive Authority & Niche Website Income Profit/Loss

3 Goals in 2016 for my Website Portfolio Business

1. Systematize Top 20 Sites in Portfolio

Jan Update – Although I have a pretty good start on this process it is not where I want it to be. I know I am leaving a lot of money on the table without fully optimizing each of my sites. Here is the basic systematic plan I am working with now but I know it could be a lot better – 3 Steps to Authority Website Traffic Growth. Especially on the monetization side there is a lot of room for improvement.

2. Buy 1 Site Per Month

Jan Update – As mentioned in my last post (How to buy a website fast) I was able to purchase a website in the same niche as my FBA business.

• GOAL = 1 Website
• ACTUAL = 1 Website Purchased in January

If any readers are looking to sell their profitable site(s) VERY 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 Here

I have found the right sellers are those…

• Looking to sell FAST (under 24hrs has been accomplished!) (shorter time for due diligence on my end increases risk for me)
• Not wanting to spend a lot of time on the sales process (analytics and income proof is all I need)
• Sites are medium-questionable quality (questionable SEO, non-native English articles are OK)
• High quality sites making over $500/month often make sense to sell via other channels (EmpireFlippers is a great marketplace)
• Understand that the benefits of the bullet points above means the sales multiple will be lower

If you have an Amazon Affiliate site you are looking to sell fast please let me know – Looking to buy fast at market value!!

3. Sell Websites Strategically for $100k Total

Jan Update – Based on my monetization strategies I need to realize that there are times when my websites in the hands of other people make a better strategic fit. In 2016 if the opportunity presents itself I will be looking to sell $100k worth of websites but only if there is a strategic fit.

PRIMARY GOAL – OVERALL INCOME FOR WEBSITE PORTFOLIO

Part 2 – Authority Website Income Blog Profit/Loss

3 Goals in 2015 for AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com

1. Post Once Per Week

Jan Update – Never missing a week will be a challenge for me but I am committed again to making this happen!

• Plan = 4
• Actual = 5

2. 10x my Outreach

Jan Update – In 2015 I did a terrible job of outreach and I plan to correct that this year! This month was a solid start with 2 large podcasts and participated in several expert roundups. Need to continue to push on this goal is it is often one of the first items to get dropped!

3. Site Redesign – Completed!

Jan Update – It is nice when one of the major goals of the business for the year can be completed within the first month! The site redesign was a substantial effort which started in December but really got finalized in January. The site is now using a Thrive Themes with Thrive Leads connected to ActiveCampaign for email automation (switched from AWeber and loving it).

PRIMARY GOAL – GROW TO 30k VISITORS PER MONTH

2015 was not a breakout year for AuthorityWebsiteIncome and overall was actually a little on the flat side for traffic to AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com but I expect that to change this year with increased outreach efforts and my dedication to providing useful posts written by me every week!

Part 3 – Services Business Profit/Loss

1. Systems Overhaul/Refresh – This one hasn’t started yet but I have a plan for it mapped out. We need to better establish auditing of our existing procedures and over time some of the procedures have gotten stale. This is unbelievably boring but incredibly important work!
2. Improve email marking and sales automation – In January I started down this road moving all contacts over to ActiveCampaign but have not fully fleshed out the sales automation yet!
3. BrandBuilders.io Becomes The Go-To Resource for Done 4 You Amazon FBA Private Label Websites – Great progress on this one in January with a podcast interview at TheAmazingSeller.com and several VERY happy customers.

PRIMARY GOAL – STAND ALONE SYSTEMATIZED SERVICES BUSINESS IN 2016

Part 4 – Amazon FBA Business

1. Sell FBA Business for 25x-30x with 3+ Solid (12k) Months – Progress in January with this post and one email I have interest from 2 very ideal parties (private equity syndicate & larger sized marketing company).
2. Launch Brand #2 – For my next FBA Brand I have the affiliate site ready to go (not making as much as I would like), currently adding a ton of articles, trying to find more sites to buy, shipping samples to me now (delayed due to Chinese new years). Goal is my first sale in March.
3. Launch Brand #3 – Not Started (but some interesting options with partnerships presenting themselves I am exploring)

FBA Business Results

Overall Income Update

Original (2012) Monthly Net Income Target ($15k/month reliable income by age 35)

• Target Net Income = $8,300
• Actual net Income = $28,627.85
• 2016 Average Monthly Net Income = $28,627.85 (stretch goal is 30k average for the year)

Gross revenue is a vanity number for my business and I do not share it

Final Comments

I don’t know about you but I am committed to 2016 being an inflection year for me! Shit will blow up and I am looking forward to sharing it all with you!

In addition to everything listed above I do have a couple ideas up my sleave I may be rolling out. One of the common questions I get is am I doing too much shouldn’t I be focusing on my One Thing? Is Family + Day Job + Multiple Online Businesses too much?… the answer is maybe but I will leave you with a paraphrased quote I heard from someone…

Only those who risk doing too much can ever realize how much they can do!

Let me know how I can help you in your business!