July Income – Grinding it Out
July I was able to get back to working and building my online business and it felt great!
Although I didn’t get as much done in July as I had planned (rarely do) it was great to see forward movement on several of my goals for 2015 that hadn’t made much progress through the first 1/2 of 2015.
Income was solid again but I didn’t see an immediate uptick for my increased effort but believe the changes in July will pay dividends moving forward.
Already the first week in Aug has been a record week in part due to having the Top Selling product at the Source Wave marketplace – Done for You PBN Delivered in 24hrs w free hosting for 1 year! (great reasonably relevant introductory PBN offer & very promising Marketplace!)
In this report I will talk through my monthly results for…
- Passive Income Website Portfolio
- AuthorityWebsiteIncome Blog
- 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)
- Use My Premium PBN (get access to the most powerful PBN available!)
Key Successes
- I Got Back to the Grind – It can be hard to get back to grinding away at my business when I come off a busy period at work but this time I had a quick canoe trip and then 2 weeks vacation and was back into the swing of things during my vacation. My workweek schedule is now back to normal… typically wake at 6:00am, leave for work 6:15am, home at 6:00pm(20 min commute) play with kids, have family dinner and put them to bed then work online from 8-11pm. After a long day it can be hard to be motivated to do the HARD work (not just floating around email & analytics) needed from 8-11. I find every time I push through the resistance and don’t sit my ass on the couch at 8:00 it makes it easier the next day to push through and get good work done.
- Balance – Having a 2 week vacation which included a 3 day Canoe trip and a Bachelor Party while getting to spend a ton of time with my wife/kids/other family and work on my online business was fantastic. Summer can be short and it is good to enjoy it!
- US – Canada Exchange Rate – This sounds like a strange one but with the decline in the price of oil, decline in the Canadian dollar every US$ I earn online is now worth 25% more. Putting national pride aside this is good for my online business.
Key Failures
- Website Purchase Failure – One of my recent purchases turned into a complete flop…I thought it would make $200/month and in fact it is making $20! OUCH! Overall website buying has still had a much better return on my investment than any offline alternative but losses always hurt.
2015 Business Goals
Download This Easy to Edit and Printable Goals Template – FREE
Part 1 – Passive Authority & Niche Website Income Profit/Loss
5 Goals in 2015 for my Website Portfolio Business
1. Build Six Figure Website
JULY UPDATE – Right now I am keeping the content machine working with 2 great writers and so far that plus my 301 Building Block strategy seems to be enough to keep the website growing!
June Stats
- Traffic = 16,606
- Income = $142
2. Continue Building Smaller Profitable “Niche” Sites
JULY UPDATE – Experiment did not work reliably enough (will share the details in a future post) and now focusing on higher return options.
3. Systematize Top 20 Sites in Portfolio
JULY UPDATE – My wife is starting to dig into this project and I am excited to see what her barely controlled competitive, detail oriented nature can do once she gets trained up. We are looking to find a place in the online business that suits her skill set and I think her tackling many of my sites which haven’t been looked at in years but still make money is a great opportunity.
If anyone works with their spouse on their online business I would be interested to hear how it works for you. http://mywifequitherjob.com/ is a great story about a husband/wife team building a successful online business.
Luckily for us I believe our skill sets offset each other (I am better at thinking of and building new systems) while she can be a completely obsessed task driven overly competitive maniac about following a process (if this is my last post I write you know what happened to me 😉 ).
4. Buy 2 Sites Per Month
JULY UPDATE: One website purchase for July right at the end of the month, I hope it is a solid one earnings $400/month…but time will tell.
- GOAL = 14 sites purchased by June 2015
- ACTUAL = 19 sites (+1 in July)
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
5. Improve Monetization of Existing Sites
JULY UPDATE – Similar to the systematize goal my wife will be looking to take on the improving earnings scope for my existing sites. Definitely a job that can have an immediate impact to the bottom line and should make for some interesting posts in the future either way.
PRIMARY GOAL – OVERALL INCOME FOR WEBSITE PORTFOLIO
The appearance of a steep decline is misleading since last month involved a LARGE payment of $3,500 in missing commissions.
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.
3 Goals in 2015 for AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com
1. Post 1-2 times per week
JULY UPDATE – Started to get back on track at the end of the month…
- Plan = 4
- Actual = 2
JULY UPDATE – Marginally better involvement
- Interview = 0
- Roundup = 2
- Podcast = 0
2. 2 EPIC Posts Published
JULY UPDATE – One mini-epic post has been published with me revealing the 301 building block strategy (Part 1, Part 2)
3. PRIMARY GOAL – GROW TO 30k VISITORS PER MONTH
I have moved several posts to LightningRank.com which will put me a little behind on this goal…but no excuses I still want to hit this goal this year!
Part 3 – Services Business Profit/Loss
- Create Stand Alone Business
JULY UPDATE – Great progress on this front! FINALLY! After much analysis I decided on going with the solution Zaxaa which offers many great features including Affiliate Program, Up Sells, OTO and a basic CRM. The big kicker for me with Zaxaa was that it did not take a % of sales like most or cost $2k/month.
Ultimately I have pulled all my offerings under one roof LightningRank.com and will be continuing to improve my systems to continue to improve the products we offer.
- Rework and Customize Systems
JULY UPDATE – Some solid progress and it can now continue with the step above 90% complete.
- Systematic Customer Acquisition
JULY UPDATE – With the Zaxaa step complete I could start 2 key programs to get this working…
- Affiliates – Zaxaa allows me to setup a great affiliate program – http://www.lightningrank.com/affiliate-program/ (earn 20% recurring commission!)
- Retargeting PPC – I am testing out my first step in PPC and using Perfect Audience to setup retargeting campaigns for people who visit Lightning Rank.
PRIMARY GOAL – STAND ALONE SYSTEMATIZED SERVICES BUSINESS
Well underway!
Overall Income Update
Original Monthly Net Income Target (original – $15k/month reliable income by age 35)
- Target Net Income = $7,250
- Actual net Income = $12,019
- 2015 Average Monthly Net Income = $10,150
Final Comments
Overall a great month moving some of my key goals along and as is usually the case with a lot of action comes a lot of opportunities.
My key takeaway for this month is that it will never become EASY and that the only way for me to hit my goals for my family or I would guess you to hit your online business goals is to dig in and work through the resistance…turn off the TV, sacrifice everything that isn’t critical to you and put in the work. Maybe someone smarter has a better approach but this is what seems to work for me…when I am putting in the work and fighting through the desire to sit my ass on a couch opportunties come.
Looking forward to the rest of the year and excited to hear about anyone who has worked with their spouse and how they split up duties to keep a happy home!
You get up and leave the house in just 15 minutes in the morning?! Wow – you must have some system in place there 😉
Glad to see you’re managing to get back to the grind. I’m in the process of trying to move house and am really struggling to stay focused. Hopefully when (if?) we get everything sorted out I’ll be in more of a “work” frame of mind – the last few weeks there just always seems to be some paperwork to do or some planning to arrange.
I’m almost looking forward to fall now, where I can hole myself up at home on the weekends and really start to make an impact on my ever-growing list of ideas to implement!
Looking forward to seeing how you do this month with your new levels of productivity 🙂
It is tough when life throws us off our routines! Yah my 15min out the door routine is pretty slick…I am not fully functional in the morning so I like to cut that time down as much as possible.
Good luck with the move and tackling your list once you are settled!
Inspiring post Jon. Congrats on your success, and congrats on working with the Becker character 😉
I agree: The harder we work – the luckier we get. No such thing as luck really but you know what I mean 🙂
Cheers,
Konrad
Hi Konrad, definitely know what you mean. Thanks for the comment.
Your income reports are inspiring… I’ve been trying to document my own online income for a couple of months as a way to motivate myself, but I’m bogged down by the paperwork involved.
Just wanted to know how you’ve been tracking your income? Do you use some fancy software, or just calculate it in a spreadsheet, do you outsource it, etc?
My accounting software only keeps of total business income and expenses – it doesn’t give me any easy way to break it down by project. It also only tracks cash in/cash out (as opposed to accrual system income/expense). So I’ve been trying to split up my income in an increasingly large and clumsy spreadsheet, which takes forever to update and is prone to error. There has to be a better way – short of paying an accountant lots of $$$ to do it for me!
PS to answer your email question, yes I’d love to see a gross income vs profit breakdown, and a list of expenses too if possible. Seeing how much you earn for each dollar you invest gives the report some perspective.
Hi Mez
Thanks for the comment, your question is a common one.
The way I track my income is by having my wife spend a 1/2hr per day entering the days income and expenses in different columns based on the source of the funds.
It is not perfect and I don’t try and make it perfect…my accountant needs to be precise for tax purposes while my tracking needs to be fast/flexible and accurate enough to make quick business decisions based on the data. Dip in sales, rise in costs etc need to be apparent quickly the exact amount 20% vs 22.5% doesn’t matter in a meaningful way.
I will consider including the gross revenue in the future…I find it just a vanity number but I see your point that it can give some idea of scale/expenses.
This is a great lesson for me.
If at any time I succeed with online marketing
This article may be one of the causes
Thank you friend
Hands down, this has been a killer year for you. Impressed with your drive to get after it every night. You’ll be retired before you know it!
No way I could juggle everything as well as you do!
Quite excited about the PBNs I got from you. I hope more people take you up on your market.source-wave.com gig as it is absolutely stellar.
August’s income is gonna be OFF THE HOOK!
Hey Quinton… thanks for the comment…really looking forward to the rest of Aug and the year. Just need to keep the momentum moving in the right direction!
You work for your online business for only 2 to 3 hours per day? WOW! Keep going Jon!
Yes, my average is 2-3hrs/day but then the occasional day I will put in a a long 16hr day when I have the time.
Well done on your processes you implement!
I am an engineer myself and recently started my journey of ” the online entrepreneur”. I have found your guides on implementing processes refreshing and expiring.
It really does take some time and effort to get the wheels turning, but reading your income reports shows hard work pay’s off!
Congrats Jon!
These are some great earnings! Hope to pass that mark sooner or later!
Keep up the good work.
Cheers,
Yordi
Happy to hear you that you only work 2/3 hours in every day.It’s not bad work.Keep it up!