November Income and Traffic Report
November was a head down nose to the grindstone kind of month for me and my online business. My team has been busy building my sites and client sites for the done for you private blog network service. I was also deep diving into my standard operating documents to tweak my processes and resolve some problems.
No earth shattering revelations in November just more feedback that working my *** off on the hard/important work is the only reliable strategy for online success. Plus one of the best successes was hitting a groove with my work/work/life balance.
Below is a summary of what has happened in my online business in November and some learning’s that will hopefully be beneficial to you and your business…
Key Successes:
Work Life Balance – For a month all about doing the hard work it seems like a weird success but for all the work I put in almost none of it was while my little guy was awake.
Building an online business after the little guy falls asleep at night and during nap time on weekends seriously limits the number of projects I can take on but allows me to spend lots of time with him and my wife.
For other parents out there what schedule seems to work best for you? Early morning work?Late night work?
Guest Posts Systematized – It has been a long and hard struggle to build a system which runs with minimal involvement that can generate quality guest posts. These are quality articles being published on quality niche specific blogs. It took a combination of the right person (native English speaking outreach VA, content manager and quality article writers) plus a few systems (comment & outreach, content management and article writing SOP) all bolted together to work. This system is highly dependent on 1 person so if she were to leave it would take some time to restart.
Done for You Private Blog Network Success – Initial results from group 2 are promising with over ½ seeing a noticeable increase in their rankings already.
Key Failures:
There are always challenges and in November I had a few…
Time to Grow Base Business – With the ongoing support and growth of my service I have had little time to invest in my base business. Luckily all my sites run on almost autopilot or I can systematize the rest. But not getting involved to trigger some higher level promotion means they are slowing going down in traffic.
CPA Variance – With advertising networks the number of small transactions(clicks) means statistical variance is not a big deal for higher traffic sites. More traffic typically equals more money in a proportional amount. However, for my student loan site only a handful of conversions make up the bulk of my income for the site each month. Even though all other numbers remain equal the changes in a couple conversion numbers results in large income swings. The problem with this is it takes longer to spot trends and statistically significant changes in the quality of the traffic to the site.
Unable to Recover from Penguin for Purchased Website (so far) – As I talked about a couple weeks ago I purchased a site that was making $0 money, made a number of conversion changes and started generating $1k/month from it then got hit by penguin. So far I have been unable to recover from it or put in the work needed to help it recover.
Blog Posts on AuthortityWebsiteIncome.com
In October I wrote 5 posts…
- How to Purchase a Website
- From $10k success to failure in 30 days!
- October Income Report
- How to Get More Social Shares
- Case study results for using WPSharely
- 7 Ways to Make an Ass of Yourself Online
- Top 10 Black Friday Hosting Deals
Authority Website (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden) Stats for November
AuthorityWebsiteIncome was started to document the creation of one website and has now grown to document my entire online business. But this section will remain showcasing the success (if everything continues) of the site.
It was a noticeable drop in earnings this month for the site, however like I mentioned above the number of leads initiated remained unchanged from the previous months so I don’t want to worry too much. The difference from what I made this month to last month is almost exclusively due to the size of the loans that were generated from the site not the number of loans. I have very little control over this so I am hesitant to make any drastic changes.
Income = $1,338.43
- CPA #1 (loan consolidation) = $81.5
- CPA #2 (loan and loan consolidation) = $1,132.10
- CPA #4 (loan consolidation) = $24
Costs = 138.22
The site was mostly on autopilot with some blog commenting, guest posting and carnival submission occurring without my involvement.
All my team members are hired through ODesk
- VA #1 – Content Publisher = 0hrs (posting/scheduling of created articles per my content calendar)
- VA # 2 – Backlink/General = $10.55 (blog carnival submission, Friday post creation)
- VA #3 – Website Manager = $0 (occupied in other projects)
- VA #4 – Social Media Manager = $0 (not going to use on this project)
- VA #5 – Blog Commenting/Outreach/Guest Post – $27.72 (native English commenting)
- Content Creation = $0 (0 articles created)
- Hosting = $80/month @ WPEngine (can host 10 sites)
- LeadPages = $0 one time fee already paid
- AWeber = $19.95 (for the size of list my student loan site has)
Running Net Income/Loss
Unfortunately this month size a drop in income for the 3rd straight month. If I am going to maintain/grow this site I need to begin investing my time in it again.
November net income = $1,200.21
3rd Month of Income Drop
Traffic =8,034 Unique Visitors
Steady traffic this month. I was hopeful the dip would stop in November and turn around but that looks like it won’t be the case!
Email Opt Ins – 50% Conversion on Landing Page Continues
Both landing pages were created quickly with Lead Pages.
- Consolidation list = 644 subscribed (+62)
- Private loan list = 754 subscribed (+49)
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 = 416(-42)
- Backlinks = 12,574 (-2,037)
- Citation Flow 32(-)
- Trust Flow 19 (-)
Looks like a slight drop in links…I don’t like seeing my Citation Flow and Trust Flow being that far away from each other…it means it is time to attract some strong .edu links.(like I said last month)
Last Month’s Goals
- 2 Epic/Resource Posts with Manual Outreach & generate natural .edu/.gov links (fail)
- Continue with blog commenting (success)
- $2k net profit from the site (fail)
Next Month’s Goals
- 2 Epic/Resource Posts with Manual Outreach & generate natural .edu/.gov links
- Continue with blog commenting/guest posting (4 guest posts)
- $2k net profit from the site
2013 Website Goal Progress: (66% of the way there!)
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 – 2/3 of the way there!
- January (-$2,796.18)
- $452.13 for (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden)
- $3248.31 for SecurityGuardHQ.com – Report
- February (-$1,675.35)
- $1126.55 for (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden)
- $2,801.90 for SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com – Report
- March (-$2,076.94)
- 759.63 for (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden)
- $2,836.57 for SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com – Report
- April (-$1,581.86)
- $1,127.1 for (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden)
- $2,708.96 for SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com – Report
- May (-$367.55)
- $2,341.41 for (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden)
- $2,610.62 for SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com – Report
- June (+1,622.01)
- $3,114.90 for (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden)
- $1,492.89 for SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com – Report
- July (-1,013.61)
- $1,540 for (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden)
- $2,553.61 for SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com – Report
- Aug ($-12.10 – SO CLOSE!)
- $2,383.41 for (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden)
- $2,395.51 for SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com – Report
- Sep(+$339.14)
- $2,288.71 for (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden)
- $1,949.57 for SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com – Report
- Oct
- $2,064.62 for (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden)
- $2,380.57 for SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com – Report
- Nov
- $1,200.21 for (My Case Study Website URL is Now Hidden)
- tbd for SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com – Report
Me vs. Pat Case Study Site
My Overall Online Income Goal Progress
As discussed in my long post about my online income history and my overall business strategy post here my goal is to be making $15k/month reliably by my 35th birthday and move my family back to our hometown to raise our kids(currently only one kid) there (if we choose to).
I am going to add a section to my monthly reports showing my overall online income and progress towards $15k/month.
This month even with the drop in my one niche site my service and other projects picked up the slack and I had a record month!
This Month:
- Actual = $11,069 net income
- Planned = $3,750 net income
Obviously an awesome milestone – my first month above $10k in net income. However a portion of this is initialsign ups for my monthly service and the month of December will be all about building out those sites so my expenses will be high with no additional income from that stream.
So I do expect next month’s numbers to be lower…this is the drawback to monthly tracking instead of quarterly
Jon, Congratulations on the $10k milestone! That’s fantastic and really inspirational. Keep it up!
Doug
Thanks Doug, yah it is great. I fully expect a dip next month as my costs will be high in December fulfilling everything but it is great regardless!
Great stuff Jon. Awesome to see the success! Funny you talk / ask for thoughts on work/life balance. I have a 3/4 completed post strictly on the topic ready to be finished and posted on my site. To sum it up. It’s HARD. I have three kids – none sleep at the same time. With a 9-5 + side clients + niche projects its hard to get as much family time in as we all would like. work/life is a constant struggle for me but is something I am putting a priority on in 2014.
Hey Nick, looking forward to reading your post. Sounds like you have a lot of things in the air. Good luck finding the right balance for you/your family in 14.
Ah! The Work/Life balance. It doesn’t get any easier when you quit the day job, either.
Especially when they out-grow naptime. dagnabbit.
I’m curious about the income dip? Does it seem to be from lost rankings, or from people more interested in spending money for Christmas instead of being frugal? Just wondering if its a normal trend for this time of year, maybe?
Thanks for the report. Always look forward to these!
Hey Quinton, interesting to hear forsure. Without the naptime and with more than 1 it would be tough!
The income drop this month on my case study site is due to the loans I generated from my site be of a lower size than the previous month. The number of leads remained the same…so I have to chalk it up to statistical variance.
Hey Jon,
congrats for another great month! I’m sure you can bring back PMSL back to life soon and beat Pat’s niche site 🙂
Cheers
Phil
Thanks Phil…not much time left in December…but I will see what I can do 🙂
Good info. I would love to be able to be at your level. Still so much overwhelming.
Hey Mike, it can definitely be overwhelming…stick with it and focus on one thing at a time…the rest will all come eventually.
Thanks Jon for your report. And congrats on your $10k milestone.
Thanks Leo!
Hey, great job at breaking the 5 figure mark, Jon! It’s an awesome achievement. Maybe you’ll break that 15k mark next month!
You know, as a parent to be, i’m a bit worried about how much time i’ll be able to spend on building a business. Maybe we can share strategies later on about how we both manage to squeeze in the time 🙂
Thanks Josh, next month will be lower since costs will be high building out sites I got money for in November but I am definitely happy with the direction things are going.
Love the work life balance bit and the the fact that you are crushing it! At 12pm on Sat I walk away from my email, social media and usually computers (unless its for fun) until Monday and I really appreciate the time out. So close to your goal in terms of execution, I wonder if you have considered changing the time horizon?
Thanks Quinn, sounds like a good set up for you. Reliable is a key so until it can be demonstrated to be reliable the time horizon remains unchanged…but it sure it tempting 🙂
Jon,
I always look forward to receiving your email and reading through your posts. I find them to be honest, thoughtful and helpful.
Finding the life/work/work balance continues to be my biggest challenge. It is one that needs constant monitoring and balance as priorities shift constantly. I think its great that you continue to keep whats important in the forefront of you mind and your planning.
Congratulations on the continued success and for showing that “passive income” is directly related to the number of hours put into the process on the front end.
Thanks Allen…seems like most people struggle with it and there is no question it has become even more important to me once my little guy has come along!
Over $10K this month? Not too many people could beat that! You’ve done very impressive work here with your overall model and efforts.
Even though my kids are now a little older and more self-sufficient, I still try to reserve my online projects for either early morning when they are still in bed or late evenings / nights when they are about to or have already gone to sleep. That way I have plenty of time to listen to their stories, help them with homework, take them to sports practice, etc. The last thing I want to do is make them think that whatever was on the computer was more important than them. I’ve done a fairly good job separating my normal job duties from spending time with them. Now I’m trying to partition my online ambitions so that I don’t inadvertently make the same mistake I was trying to avoid.
Hey MMD…that is a good set up you have. Taking out the late night TV is definitely an easy place for people to find some extra time that doesn’t impact family time! Average of 34hrs/week of TV watching…if I could put that many hrs into my online business I would be happy! Good luck continuing to find your balance!
This is awesome, Jon. Good work on the record month!
Right down to the wire for your 2013 goal – I’m sure if you dedicate the time to it and hit your monthly goals, you’ll have an excellent December.
Really interested to see the success of your guest posting system.
Yah it will be close on the one 2013 Goal. I have achieved some of my more significant ones but never want to fail…so hope December is a banner month!
Jon, great job on the 5 figure month. You’re branching out into other projects and services and it’s really paying off for you.
Thanks Ryan, yes it definitely is. Especially since the projects are reasonably balanced right now so when one month one project has a down month the others can cover for it. Definitely not probably the highest growth option (I should be focusing on 1 thing that is working the best) but my focus is on reliable online income.
Nice to see success & that is inspiring for newbie bloggers like us.
By the way what jr Jon Gillham name?
Hi Nani, thanks for the compliment. I promised my wife no revealing the little mans name or pictures.
I always love reading about how you are doing Jon. You are very inspirational and maybe one day I will venture into niche sites. Keep up the hard work and I look forward to reading your continued success.
Thanks, I hope to continue being able to share it!
Hi John
Congratulation on first 10k/month! Your projects seem going so well. I’m on the way building some online income stream as well. Your site is also inspired me to do niche site project. I’ll be back again when you update your blog.
Thanks
Hi Raweewan, I hope things are going well with your projects. Keep us posted on your progress.
Congrats Jon! Glad to hear about your success. You have defiantly been an inspiration for me.
Just curious about your portfolio, since you netted over $10k in Nov., and only $1200 of that came from the Student Loan site, is the rest of your net income coming from other niche sites, authority sites, consulting, PBN project, or other projects??
Basically I am wondering if niche sites are still the most profitable way to go.
Hi Josh, my sites outside of this one and the PBN/domain service makes up about 50% of my profit. This site and my PBN service makes up the other 1/2.
Hey Jon,
Congrats on the successful month. Any chance you’ll share the SOPs for article writing, comment and outreach and content management?
Article writting details are shared here – https://websiteincome.com/cheap-article-writing/
Comment and outreach is here – https://websiteincome.com/traffic-diversion-technique/
I will be sharing more SOPs in the future.
Looks like you are doing great Jon! Making some decent monthly income with a little guy at home. I have the same thing at my house. My son in a few months old and I find the best time to work on my business is at night time while he is sleeping and before I go to sleep. In the morning I am too busy getting him ready for the day and going to work so its always a rush. At night time I have a couple hours (minus time spent with the wife) to get some work done.
Keep up the great work online!
Hi James, it sounds like with one or two younger kids the morning is a right off and the night is the way to go. That is what most people are saying and sounds like you are doing the same. Sounds like we are on pretty much the same work schedule! It is tough to build an online empire during nap time!
Haha yes nap time really isn’t long enough!
Luckily for me a lot of my online work works on auto-pilot so it makes money while I’m busy with my son. That’s the great thing about building an online empire! Got to love the residual income. Waking up and seeing more money in your account then when you went to bed is amazing!
I love Affiliate Marketing! Such a HUGE challenge but very rewarding.
Great post Jon – that blue line is really inspiring. if I could be a small critic though I think your expectations shouldn’t have been so linear, don’t you think (and now you are seeing) that income growth is a bit more exponential. Once you learn more skills, meet more people, have more capital it compounds – no?