Month 6 Update – Baby Boy – $1000 Per Month – 90hr Work Weeks
My wife gave birth at the start of March to a healthy baby boy and I couldn’t be more excited. As I write this update I am at the hospital with a 36hr old baby on my lap sleeping away.
Providing financial freedom and security beyond any career can provide is one of my strongest motivators for the online business I run.
The most significant impact on my business and case study website this month was the turn my “day job” took with unscheduled maintenance at the plant i am at which requires me to work 90hr weeks for 7weeks.
Since I had very little time to work on my online business I did not get the opportunity to kick of many new initiatives on (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden) or here at websiteincome.com.
However, it was a record month for income over $1000 for (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden)
Key Successes:
1. Monetization – after months of measuring and testing I have seen a huge increase in value per visitor and my first month making over $1,000!!
2. Outsourcing – at the start of February I implemented an editorial calendar, a VA to manage it, hired a part time social media / outreach worker and blog roll submissions. Even when I didn’t touch my personal computer for a week things kept moving at 3-4 posts per week.
Key Failures:
1.Twitter for traffic purposes – I have hired an experienced assistant to help me with my outreach activities. It has worked great for outreach and traffic through value added blog comments but even though she has been doing a lot of great work I have only received a handful of visits from twitter. The connections she is making for me is worth it though especially when I am unable to due to time.
2. My ability to grow the website when I am not actively involved was not good – I have set up great systems t be able to maintain the business and execute the strategies already developed but when I get pulled away for my day job or life
Authority Website Stats for February
Total Income = $1,126.55
My best month yet for monetization, I am very happy to see the main affiliate offer finally starting to pay off well!
CPA Offer #1 = $234 (-$33)
This offer continues to perform strongly and I will continue promoting it.
CPA Offer #2 =892.55 (+707.42)
I have been patient with this offer and this month it is finally paying off. By setting up tracking and split testing my ads I have been able to measure and increase my click-through rate and ultimately the income I have earned.
To learn about how to track outbound clicks and improve conversions Click Here
Costs = 169.23
Again the majority of my costs associated with my website is content creation using my method I talk about here.
I expanded my team at the start of the month based on some new initiatives, mainly around social media. By bringing in a social media manager and having her handle my Twitter account and blogging outreach it allowed me to continue building my online presence even when I had no time to devote to it.
- VA – Social Media Manager @ ODesk = 3hrs/week = $48
- VA – Content Publisher @ ODesk = 5hrs/week = $33.33
- VA – General/Research @ ODesk = as required = $13.44
- VA – Backlink Creation @ ODesk = 5hrs/week = $22.86
- Content Creation @ ODesk = 10 articles = $44.44
- Hosting = $7.16 @ HostGator
Running Net Income/Loss
The website has now made over $1200 cumulative profit with most of that coming in February!
Traffic =4,373 Unique Visitors
Somewhat as expected there was a drop in traffic in February due to no longer ranking for some high level irrelevant keywords such as “teacher”.
Traffic continued to be strong but I was unable to see a real increase even with the effort that was being put into twitter and other strategies.
Here are the traffic stats for February…
Email Opt Ins – Still a failure!
Total sign up = 11! (3 in the month of February)
Content, Promotion and Backlinks
In this section I will show exactly what I have done over the last month to get to 300 visitors a day.
On Page Content = 22 Posts (11 more than last month)
By establishing an editorial calander and empowering a VA to become my content manager making sure my content machine is providing him with enough content takes a lot of administrative responsibility off of my plate.
- Monday – Product Review
- Tuesday – Blog Style Post (list etc)
- Wed – Occasional Epic Post (100+ lists)
- Thursday – SEO Post – Targetting a low competition keyword
- Friday – Roundup/News Post
Outreach – Blog Commenting & Social Media – 3-8hrs per week
I hired a social media manager to take over this part of my business. It was becoming too time consuming and I wanted to try to see how it would work if I outsourced it.
So far she has been doing great work but the results are not as quantifiable as I would like!
I plan to stick with this approach for at least 3 more months to see if I can measure an impact with it.
Guest Posts = 2 Posts on Quality Sites
Guest posting continues to be where I personally spend the majority of my effort by reaching out to the blog owners and writing the articles myself.
- GP 1 – Feb 1 – PR 4 – Alexa 808k
- GP 2 – Feb 12 – PR 3 – Alexa 45.8k
- GP 3 – Feb 21 – PR 3 – Alexa 1,329k
- GP 4 – Feb 26 – PR 3 – Alexa 1,355k
All of these guest posts were achieved using the method I talk about here.
The number of guest posts were down but the quality from a PR perspective was up while the average Alexa ranking was lower.
- Average PR and Alexa Rank for November guest posts = PR 2.2 & Alexa 577k
- Average PR and Alexa Rank for December guest posts = PR 2.2 & Alexa 592k
- Average PR and Alexa Rank for January guest posts = PR 2.83 & Alexa 876k
- Average PR and Alexa Rank for February guest posts = PR 3.25 & Alexa 884.5k
Backlink Stats
I use majestic SEO (free) to track my link profile and help estimate how my link building efforts are being viewed by Google.
- Referring Domains = 133 (+57)
- Backlinks = 4,919 (+3676)
- Citation Flow 36 (+5)
- Trust Flow 21 (+1)
I was happy to see my trust flow stay above 20 even though many of the backlinks that were created over the month were due to blog commenting and social media efforts which are lower quality.
Last Month’s Goals
- Continue Guest Posting – (guest post on 5 high-quality sites) – Failed only 4
- Continue Content Creation at 10 posts/month – Achieved (10 created 22 published)
- Develop Editorial Calendar – Achieved
- Outsource 2 Activities – Carnival Submission & Blog Commenting – Achieved
- Monetize –Earn over $500 – Achieved (over $1k!)
Next Month’s Goals
Because of the new baby in my life and the 90hr weeks I am expected to work at my day job I will struggle to execute new strategies so for March I am only looking to maintain – earn passive income!
- Continue Guest Posting – (guest post on 0 high quality sites)
- Continue Content Creation at 10 posts/month
- Publish Posts per Editorial Calendar – 16 posts
- Continue Blog Commenting and Social Media Manager & monitor progress – 200 visitors
- Monetize – Earn over $1000 on almost complete Autopilot!
2013 Website Goal
My website case study (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden) will earn more per month than Pat Flynn’s case study site SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com for at least 3 months of the year
• So far in 2013 I am 0 for 1
• I will update this when Pat’s income report comes out for February
This is CRAZY!!! I’m more impressed by the traffic than the income. WOW!! I have been using VAs to do some backlinking creation and social bookmarking stuff. Do you limit VAs how many backlinks to create per day? or do you just have them create as many backlinks as possible?
Thanks, yah the numbers are pretty great! The income definitely has me excited about the potential for this site. Regarding the backlinks I have each VA that is doing any backlinks for me doing several very specific activities so that they limit the number of backlinks and only generate high quality links. The activities I have outsourced for backlinking purposes are…
1. Carnival submission
2. Blog Commenting (english speaker only leaving high quality, relevant comments on relevant sites)
3. Social Media – Again following a value-added rule
4. Web 2.0 site creation and article submission (I dont do much of this as I feel its fairly low value)
Thanks for stopping by!
BTW, congrats on your baby boy.
I actually started doing guest posting and so far couldn’t find any luck. Most places charge (up to $150) for guest posts. Do you see the value in paid guest posting?
Thanks, regarding paid guest posting in my mind it is not worth it and can get you in trouble with Google. I have not done it or accept them on my sites. If you are not having luck with guest posting then it is likely due to these potential problems…
1. Your site appears too commercial – other sites dont like to link to sites whose only purpose of existance is to make money for the site owner – By having your site appear more “bloggy” it can turn down the commercial look of the site and potentially make other website owners more willing to accept guest posts.
2. You haven’t built enough of a relationship with the target. Make sure to comment on their site, tweet their articles, retweet their tweets and then after some time approach them. This takes longer and is harder to outsource but is the best way to get people to say yes.
Hope this helps!
Jon
What is “Carnival Submission”?
Awesome Jon – Congratulations on the baby boy! Sort of feel like I should end it there – new borns have a way of putting everything in perspective. So great to see everything else on track as well – I find it to be excellent but not surprising given the professional approach you are taking. Well done on many accounts.
Thanks Quinn, I find the methodical approach although not overly exciting to be very effective if you can stick with it.
Bravo ones again Jon,
I’ve been waiting to read your next update which is finally here. I’m very happy for your stat man. Its really encouraging.
I’m also working on a new niche site based on weight loss. Right now, I’m still conducting some k.w research and will most likely register the domain on monday.
I’ve come to realize that the major difference between the pro bloggers and the non-pros is that they outsource most of the job just like you’re doing now.
Please, i will really need your assistance on so many things ones i start my niche site. Can you give me a link to that post you wrote about getting cheap articles? I don’t have money to outsource now, but i will be doing it small small with the little i have.
Do you conduct K.W research and then give them the ones they should target while writing your post, or do they do all?
Thanks for your level of transparency man.
Wishing you more this March and always.
Hi Theodore, good luck with your new site – that is exciting. Yes outsourcing is definitely key! Without outsourcing my site would have suffered since I have not been able to pay any attention to it in the last few weeks.
Regarding the “cheap” articles here is the link to the strategy I have been using to get quality articles created on the cheap…https://websiteincome.com/cheap-article-writing/
Love this update Jon! It’s so awesome to see how you were able to grow almost totally passively. It’s a good thing you have your outsourcing machine set up… Because you’re about to find out how much time a baby consumes! You’re gonna love it though. Wishing you all the best and looking forward to watching your success going forward.
Its a great feeling when you dont touch anything to do with your website and then when you look you see it was making money even when you were doing nothing. Although I don’t believe I could set the site on 100% autopilot and earn passive income it has gotten to a stage where it is relatively easy to maintain.
Wow, these are great results! Congras on the new baby too. Those 90 hour weeks are going to be hard with a new born around I’m sure!
$1000 a month is excellent in such a short space of time. I’m as impressed that you were able to find someone to write quality content for your site at $4 an article. I’ve never managed to find such a writer on Odesk.
Good luck for next month!
Joe, Thanks for the congrats, definitely an exciting/busy time for me. The quality articles take a lot of work but it is definitely possible.
Amazing report Jon!
You really blown me away with this report. I like the point that you built a team to manage your website.
Really great! I will apply this killer tip to my niche site project (I’m doing a case study as well)
Thank you very much and Good luck for next month~
Tung
Hi Tung, best of luck with your case study and thanks for stopping bye!
Congrats on the baby boy! You really work 90 hours a week at a day job on top of this? Wow! Other than outsourcing, how do you manage the time?
90hrs a week was what I worked 1 month every year before baby…now I am cutting my hrs to spend time with family. The only way for me to keep my online business moving is through outsourcing and building out a lot of posts that are scheduled into the future.
Hi Jon! first of all congrats on the baby boy! second, great job on breaking the 1k barrier with this project. Hard work does pay off and you are doing a great job with it. Keep it up!
Thanks Miki, hope things are going well with you!
Hi Jon,
Congratulations on your boy you must be so happy! I wish your family all the best on this joyful occasion 🙂 And well done on your site, your results are as impressive as ever!
So cool. Congrats on the beautiful baby and all your website success.
Thanks Paula!
Glitch in aweber? I received an email with link to this post today.
Jon, I can see from this report your VAs are not full time. Do you mind sharing their oDesk profiles? I’m struggling to find someone decent.
Also, found this expired domain today – no use for me. May be you will find it useful (even just for redirect): http://www.college-knowledge.us
I am going to hire a VA from Odesk to do social media and commenting for me. Just cannot seem to find the time for it.
Greetings from Middle East, congratulations on your baby. And thanks for sharing your experience.
Congrats for the new baby Jon! An awesome income report.
Thanks for the update Jon & congrat’s on the birth of your son!!!
All the best,Congratulations on arrival of your new and healthy baby.Good luck for New income Project.