May Income Report – Record Income Achieved – Milestone Crushed
Well it has happened!
In this months report I get to share the great news that record earnings have pushed me well past my target net income goal of $15k.
However, I will also share why I am not popping the Champaign (or in my case cold domestic beer). The nature of the revenue this month has my team running FLAT OUT right now and May will be a very busy and expensive month!
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 (buy domains that meet my metrics)
- Done for Your Private Blog Network (let my team build you a personal PBN)
- LightningRank (get access to the most powerful PBN available!)
Key Successes
- Sold Out Fast – Didn’t get to open publicly again! – People have continued to be very happy with the quality of the done for you PBN service and as a result returning customers along with people who emailed me scooped up all the openings in May fast and I had to shutdown before I could fulfill all the people looking to buy. Once again I was not able to open the service up publicly. This is a good thing but I hate disappointing customers who wanted to purchase a PBN but I had to say no too. If you are potentially interested the only way to get my team to build you a PBN is to email me at jonhaver11 (at) gmail (dot) com requesting to be added to the early notification list. I doubt I will have capacity to open publicly for another couple of months but when I have capacity I will first give people who have expressed interest the opportunity to scoop up the spot.
- Larger Premium PBN Orders – Another month with growth in this part of my business using my infrastructure to build out premium PBNs for SEO firms or consultants for them to use to rank their clients. This definitely is an area with a lot of growth potential.
- Site Purchases – A reader approached me with 4 websites all with recent traffic growth, slightly spammy backlink profiles and decent but somewhat thin content. But with decent traffic, verifiable earnings and a good multiple I went ahead and picked up the sites. My current site purchasing success has NOT been good so far but I am still learning in this area and hope these 4 will make up for my earlier failures.
- Unique Niche Site Monetization Strategy Partnership – I have been working with someone to build out essentially niche lead gen sites that have been showing some really incredible promise. It is another example of a partnership that seems to be paying dividends for both myself and partner in this venture. No money yet but the progress, potential and smoothness of the partnership make it worthy of being a “key success”.
Key Failures
- Automating Parts of My Business – I pride myself on being a “systems” orientated guy when it comes to my business. Unfortunately I have been slow to adopt technology which could help me with automating parts of my business I or my team is now doing manually. So far slow incremental changes aren’t getting me the results I need…so it may be time for a bigger move towards automation (more to come on that).
- Spreading Too Thin – This is always a problem but I try not to start a project unless I know I can bring it to a point where my team can take it over and run with it. Unfortunately I have had a couple projects (slight twists on niche/authority websites) that are in various stages where I haven’t completed the work I need to. This creates a lot of waste and I should be more careful moving forward to not start things unless I can get them to a point where my team can go!
- Some Costs – There are a few parts of my business where my costs are getting a little beyond what I am looking for to maintain profit margins. I either need to cut costs, change the structure or exit these projects.
- Purchased Website Tanked – Not Again! The second substantial site I purchased has now tanked after my first purchase went down in flames several months ago. This is highly frustrating that I am yet to make a profitable site purchase. The good news is every time a purchased site tanks and the sites I built don’t it gives me confidence that my strategies are sound (small silver lining).
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
Improved conversions and a few sites coming on strong in the rankings have boosted my passive income by 20% this month. Hopefully this trend will continue as my student loan site traffic continues picking up.
But I am continuing to slip behind my goal. At least in May and June I believe I have plans in place for several sites that will bring in the extra income next month.
The addition of 4 sites through purchases with 1 making over $100 in May also helped add a little extra income into the passive portfolio.
If any readers are looking to sell their profitable site(s) 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.
- # of greater than $100/month Sites = 9 (added one and lost one)
- Sites:
- PMSL
- OIC
- ACLSR
- GFD (purchased)
- RBC
- RFNF
- BCR
- CCRB
- PFA (purchased) (NEW in May!)
- Revenue = $3,523.27
- Costs = -$720.18
- Net Income = $2803.09 J (+20%)
Sites that fell below the $100/month line = “IF” (purchased)
May Comment – This month one site I had purchased has now fallen below the line which is very unfortunate since I did not earn my money back on the site and it looks like it will take awhile to at the new traffic level. However the good news (I hope) is that I purchased a group of 4 sites from a reader part way through the month with 1 of them earning over $100 for the remainder of the month and 2 that look like they will earn over $100 in June if their numbers from May hold. Plus the exciting new monetization strategy is ideally going to pay out in June.
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 = $525 (+6%)
- Traffic = 13,635 (+36%)
- Citation Flow = 30 (-)
- Trust Flow = 17 (-3)
May Comment – I wanted to see a bounce back in terms of monetization this month after going through a couple months of affiliate changes but no luck! The lead funnel is full and fingers are crossed again that I will see a solid turnaround in June. Traffic is trending in the right direction and student loans are back in the news so hopefully all things are set up for success in June.
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:
May Comment – One step forward and one step backward. I added one site and then also lost another. Hopefully the 4 sites I purchased plus the unique monetization project I am working on will add more sites for June.
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 = 13,575 (-4%)
- Subscribers = 2,777 (+13%)
- # of Posts = 4
- Affiliate Income = $720 (+11%)
May Comment – Again a plateau of the traffic this month. Good growth on email subscribers and the % of returning visitors is amazing (50%+). So I believe what this plateau means is that I haven’t really done anything “special” in awhile so it is time (hence some of my June posts already). June and July I will continue to release some larger more impactful posts – stay tuned.
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! Finding the time is going to be a challenge.
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 = 79 (-7%) (doesn’t cover all sites)
- # of Domains Found = 89 (+59%) (doesn’t cover all sites)
- Net Income = $17,611 (+53%)*
- Refund Rate = 1.12% (last month = 0%)
*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(and June) 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).
May Comment: With the addition of some SEO consultant orders late in the month June will definitely be a busy month! Also interesting to note is that one of the service businesses LightningRank is actually just barely becoming profitable for me with the cost of building the kind of quality sites in the network are keeping pace with the limited number of customers we are letting in.
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 but I am coming to the realization that small incremental changes are not going to get me the results I need. Time for a bigger move! 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 = $4,800
- Actual net Income = $21,135
“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.
May Comment: May is the first month that I passed the $15k milestone I set for myself, crushing the milestone and earning a total net income of $21,134.71. These results are definitely exciting but like I have mentioned a couple times I fully expect June to be a lower month as I build out sites for clients from May. Also, it has made sense to make some changes where I pay my wife a salary for the work she does so to reach the money in the bank target it is going to be even harder!
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 = $13,135
- January = $11,141
- February = $12,193
- March = $6,719
- April = $14,484
- May = 21,135
Final Comments
A huge month for the income metrics! Here is the summary of this months results…
- Niche Websites – Healthy earnings increase and promising new projects through a unique monetization plan and 4 new website purchases. The good news was offset by a purchased website falling to 25% of the earnings it was at when I purchased it.
- AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com – Published 4 posts but the quality was not what I would like to see with no really substantial posts.
- Services Business – All PBN offers are going well with great results for many clients. Again some late month revenue has unintentionally manipulated the numbers higher then what I should consider reality. The cost of building the kind of quality sites within LightningRank.com has kept pace with the growth and is just now starting to turn the corner on profitability.
How was your month?
Congrats on the success Jon! You said you are now paying your wife a salary for the work she does – I would love to read a post more about this. How does she help with the business? What are her thoughts about it? How do you work together as a team?
My wife is a very helpful and a contributing member to my team.
She helps with processing the financial side of the business.
She also supports my business in indirect ways that allows me to pursue my passion.
Wow—- very nice income from the Services side of the business. I’m sure the site purchase side will start to pick up as you master that side of things. This is very inspirational for me just trying to break 100 on my first niche site.
The next step is investing in things that produce passive income. For example, my background is oil and gas, if I was generating $15K a month I would be participating in oil/gas drilling deals taking small pieces of developmental drilling deals through my network and building more passive income in a great asset class!
Passive income is what will help your business grow. It gives your SEO or primary PBN’s more of your time. If you know their going to produce income for you then your much more relaxed about expanding.
Congratulations Jon for such a successful month 🙂 Hope you’ll continue to grow your empire in coming months ! I have one question though. Do you use Hayden’s approach to find expired sites using Xenu? If so, what’s your success rate there? Which medium is more effective for you to find good quality domains?
Wow! Your totally crushing it! Nice job this past month.
Thanks
Congratulations for completing another successful month, Jon! Being inspired everyday! 🙂
Thanks
Always appreciate the encouragement.
LOL, You are on Jon’s site, not in NichePursuits 😉
Wow, man. Congrats on the new milestone!
Don’t tell my wife about paying your wife a salary… 🙂 That’ll force renegotiations around here.
Keep up the good work!
Wow congrats man. Those are some impressive numbers. I hope you can handle more business !!! 🙂
Awesome and inspirational stuff. Keep Rocking. Talk soon!
Scott
You’ve eclipsed me on the monthly income, dude! Congrats on the hustle!!!! (you’re still working a full time gig, no?)
Not only that, but you are creating jobs for others. Even better!
I just bought my first website this week. The profile was a little “dirtier” than I would like, but it has a huge social potential so I think I can still get it ranking. It got my blood racing, so I went for it.
Don’t hesitate to move the content from a trashed site to a new domain. Did that with one of mine that got hit by Penguin 2.1. Three months later I’m back on top. It’s a great way to recoup your investment with minimum work. Especially if you can talk that guy who owns lightning rank into sparing you a few links.
I hear you on getting spread too thin. I have 8 wonderful sites that I am 89% certain will make me $30k+/month if I could just get them finished. I’m seriously like a Jack Russell Terrier when it comes to completing anything.
arf.
Keep killing it, dude. Inspiring stuff!
Hey Jon
Your income report is always amazing for me. I’ll try my best to do something like this. I have one profitable niche site that made money for me every month. I’ll continue grow my business. Well, keep going!
Thanks
Good idea, let you niche thrive and bring in income, and then look to expand from there.
Fantastic news Jon! Breaking the $20k barrier is pretty amazing.
Not sure if you’ve mentioned this elsewhere but I wondered what software you use to produce your graphs?
All the best,
Darren
Nice work Jon! Totally crushing it. Thanks for the great content and services!
Thanks
Hope my content helps
Thanks hope it helps
Hey Jon,
Congratulations. Your epic video tutorial on finding expired domains helped me a lot. I’ve seen reliable ranking increases on my sites since then.
Cheers,
Julian
Thanks
Hope it helps and you find success in domain hunting
Great report. Service business looks like your most important income source right now. Perhaps you should focus more on building out a true SEO service business while increasing the passive income of the existing sites.
Your goals are clear and focused. I believe 100% that you will reach them. Good luck! Awesome stuff 🙂
Thanks
The plan is to build out.
Way to go Jon!
You are killing it! I am striving to be at your level. I have two successful and profitable websites already that started this year and I got a few more in the works, all while working a full-time job. Your content has kept me focused so please keep the information coming! You are helping many of us out there!
I am also a member of Lightning Rank and have nothing but great things to say about it! I hope to be using it soon with my new venture, PostandRank.com
As always Thanks!
Christopher
thanks
I have just made a big investment into Lightning Rank and hope to succeed even further.
What a great month! It is pretty obvious that offering services is way better for the big guys out there instead of focusing on affiliate and advertising income. They are good for passive income, but to make it really big, this seems to be the next big step to take. Great report and a great month! Congrats and keep it up!
Having tested out Lightning Rank for the first time last month I can also attest to just how powerful the service is – can’t wait to see what happens when my latest links get discovered by Big G 😉
Your report is wonderful. Details and emotions. It has inspired me. Thanks for sharing. Bless you.
Congrats on the milestone – it’s a really good thing to see for those starting out too!
On the subject of choosing expired domains, this guy has a good video about it:
http://www.sudorank.com/video-choose-good-expired-domain/
He approaches it from the angle of not getting burned (Which you could do with right now I guess!)
He has some pretty nifty ideas like qualifying potential domains in Google, it seems lie he uses very few tools too.
Anyway, congrats! You deserve it!
Thanks for the video.
I look into watching it, and i hope everyone else will get the chance to as well.