When I started my online entrepreneurship journey I took a lot of inspiration from others that were sharing everything they did online.

Any month we are able to hit our targets is a good month.

July was a month where it felt like a couple businesses plateaued and a couple were able to break free from previous plateaus to new heights.

Summer is in full swing and I was able to get away a couple times for 2 canoe trips in July. On a conference call while in the middle of the woods was a fun time.

It was also the first time I was able to take my 4yr old son on a Canoe Trip and he had a blast!

I am in a constant battle for balancing speed and control… for some projects, I like to step on the gas while others need a little more infrastructure built up to handle the growth.

Thoughts on Team Building:

A VERY large amount of my time in July and Aug has been on thinking about building my team and when to hire locally or remotely.

One critical thing I have decided is…

Hire in house for culture fit / ambition / work ethic / raw intelligence AND pay for skill sets on the open marketplace. What I mean is I would rather have a hard working ambitious, intelligent great cultural fit who never heard of SEO then a poor fit that has all the skills. All the “skills” in this space can be purchased on UpWork.

Below is my income and business report for July…

Hopefully, this post will shed some light on how I build/operate my online business and gives you some useful insights. There are plenty of areas for improvement in my business and I try to highlight these as well!

Hope your summer is going well and your business is growing J

The Business “Divisions” For My Online Business:

1. Money Site Portfolio
2. AuthorityWebsiteIncome Blog
3. Services – Web Development, Content Marketing & Link Building:
   • 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!)
   • Brand Builders (FBA Branded Site Creation & Affiliate Site Creation)
   • Content Refined (Your in house content marketing team)
4. Amazon FBA Business
   • Brands 1-6 – All have specific targets for 2017
   • ListingEagle – Amazon FBA Hijacking and Suppression Monitoring
5. Put Outside Capital to Work Efficiently in the Online Asset Space

Key Successes

1. Portfolio Earnings – There were a handful of sites that really showed substantial improvement in $/visitor.
2. BrandBuilders – Continued product/market fit is evident and we are having a lot of fun helping the team Andrew has built grow the business.
3. Content Plan – It has been too long but I finally have a solid content plan/schedule for AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com.

Key Failures

1. High Potential Low Probability – There were a couple projects/deals I put some effort into that had great potential but ultimately nothing came of them.
2. Facebook Ads – Similar to last month I had another failure trying to get some paid traffic working to one of my services. My thinking has shifted that I now just need to hire an agency or specialist to handle this for me. If you know anyone that is a killer with paid traffic please have them email me.

2017 Business Goals

Below is my businesses main goals for 2017…

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

3 Goals in 2016 for my Website Portfolio Business

1. Everyone Win at the Mortgage Crushing Competition

July Update – It is tough to understand the performance of this site right now with the number of 301 building blocks I have applied to it plus some spikey articles.

• Traffic = 15,071
• Earnings = $97.53

2. Buy 1 Site Per Month

July Update – One little AdSense site purchased and one small productized service business purchased. I will be talking more about the one soon enough (some people may have already received an email about that story).

• GOAL = 1 New Website Purchased
• ACTUAL = 2 New Website Purchased

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…

• Desire a simple/efficient/non-invasive sales process (no option is easier to sell to)
• 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)
• SEO done to the site can be questionable and that increased risk will be reflected in the sales price
• Understand that the benefits of the bullet points above means the sales multiple will be lower than if you went a more traditional route

If you have a profitable website you are looking to sell fast please let me know

3. Scalable New Site Creation Strategy adds $5k to Portfolio

July Update – Although it doesn’t really show it there has been some good progress on increasing the earnings per visitor on several properties associated with this scalable new site creation effort for the year. Traffic continues to move in the right direction and I need to still substantially improve the earnings for several more properties.

• Traffic – 53,202
• Earnings – $276.52

PRIMARY GOAL – OVERALL INCOME FOR WEBSITE PORTFOLIO GROW TO $15k/MONTH CONSISTENTLY

July Update – The portfolio performance doesn’t look way better then other months but for the first time in about 6 months we had a month I was satisfied with in terms of our efforts showing clear results. Looking forward to continuing to improve the performance here!

Part 2 – Authority Website Income Blog Profit/Loss

3 Goals in 2015 for AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com

1. Post Once Per Week

July Update – A “perfect” month… no missed posts and me and my team put a lot of effort into trying to provide as valuable posts as possible!

• Plan = 5
• Actual = 5

2. Systematic Promotion of my Content and Building of my List

July Update – No Progress

3. Increased Intelligence with Email Automation

July Update – No Progress

PRIMARY GOAL – GROW TO 30k VISITORS PER MONTH

May Update – 12,456 which is lower than I would like to see! Need to continue to push

Part 3 – Services Business Profit/Loss

1. Systems First Focus

July Update – Seeing the team come up with procedures without me prompting them and it being fundamental in everything we do is starting to pay off. We are seeing a new problem where the rate of procedure creation and the organization of those SOPs is not where we need it to be.

2. LightningRank.com – Quality and Efficiency Improvements

July Update – This is moving into becoming a new offering that will open up natural link building to even more people! We are continuing to see great results for clients on both the Done For You PBN and UseMyPBN service.

Visit LightningRank.com for Link Building Services!

3. ContentRefined.com – 20k MRR by June & 40k MRR by End of Year

June Update – A weird billing nuance where anyone who signed up on the 31^st got billed on the first showing up in July vs June has this number a few thousand less. CHURN is the enemy of any growing recurring subscription business! For us we were experiencing some awesome growth numbers but with a big push last month and then some normal/happy customer churn we have seen this growth slow.

• Planned MRR = $23,313
• Actual MRR = $27,919

Visit ContentRefined.com for Content Marketing Services!

4. BrandBuilders.io Structurally Well Setup & New Offering Launched

June Update – Achieved – The TurnKey affiliate sites ready in 24hrs are selling out in a handful of hours every time we launch!

PRIMARY GOAL – SYSTEMATIC GROWTH!

Part 4 – Amazon FBA Business

• Brand #1 – HG – Running Lean and Spinning off Cash
  • July Update – Distribution received – always a good month when we can do that!
• Brand #2 – CF – Quarterly Dividends Ahead of Baseline
  • July Update – Continuing to perform well and need to setup for SOLID Q4!
• Brand #3 – NT – Path To Strong Market Position and Successful Pillar Product
  • July Update – Waiting to sell out of stock and then kill entity (first failed FBA project)
• Brand #4 – CK – Systematic Growth to $20k/month Profit
  • July Update – Performing okay… not where we want it!
• Brand #5 – PC – Successful launch and $5k/month Business
  • July Update – Despite pushing heavy on this business and great reviews it seems to be SLOW to move!
• Brand #6 – SE – 4X Value Expansion with Dream Team!
  • July Update – One more hail-marry attempt here coming up!
• ListingEagle.com – Hijack and Listing Suppression Monitoring Service
  • July Update – Steady/boring SAAS business

Part 5 – Put Outside Capital to Work Efficiently

July Update – We are working on another larger deal at a discount. The Due Diligence for this one has a little more “hair” on it then we would like!

Overall Income Update

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

• Target Net Income = $11,450
• Actual Net Income = $53,983
• 2017 Average Net Income = $47,109

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

Final Comments

July was a solid month… there continues to be a LOT of opportunities on the go and I am continuing to try to best balance everything that is in front of us.

The extra help from the co-ops this summer has been great and their contributions will be missed!

July was my first full month as a full time online entrepreneur! It was a lot of fun!

I am not sure if it will ever wear off but the lifestyle change has certainly had me smiling/pinching myself a few times in July…

• Taking my 3 year old son “camping” in the backyard mid-week
• Biking home from work to jump in the pool with the family (and a cold beer) mid-afternoon mid-week
• Having some of my biggest revenue number days while on a canoe trip

In this income post I will try to share what I have learned and failed at over the month and the performance of the businesses!

My Business Focus Points:

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)
   • LightningRank (get access to the most powerful PBN available!)
   • Brand Builders (FBA Branded Site Creation & Affiliate Site Creation)
4. Amazon FBA Business
   • Brand #1
   • Brand #2
   • Brand #3
   • New Web App Project

Key Successes

1. FBA Brand #1 – After June where the FBA business I sold but still own one third of struggled due to the associate account getting suspended it was great to see a very solid bounce back for the business.
2. Partnerships – With the added time I have had there have been several interesting partnership opportunities that have come up while I have been in discussions with people. The challenge is to ensure I do not take on more than I can handle and continue to build my teams capacity at handling projects.
3. Backlink Analysis & Discussions with Clients – After talking to over 50 readers of AuthorityWebsiteIncome last month it became clear there was a need for a couple things one of which was more help to answer the question of “how many backlinks do I need to rank on the first page”. Because of those discussions and how my team already does this analysis I created a very simple little offer that provides a lot of value to people with a website.
   • Check It Out Here – Analysis Plus One on One Consultation With Me

4. Training – While I had the day job one of the areas that I was definitely not spending enough time on was education and training. My information “diet” had been very very lean and I read very few websites/took no training. With the added time I have scheduled some time each week to spend time completing high quality training and focusing on deliberate training/practise. Here are a few of the great training programs I am taking right now (in addition to listening to about 1 book/week while I bike to/from work)…
   1. AuthorityMachine + Internship – The training created by Hayden and Spencer is great and I have heard awesome feedback about the internship from some individuals who have gone through it. Highly recommended!
      • Apply for internship here
   2. Investing in Website (Free Udemy Course) – This course is for people looking at how to invest in websites. It is created by Eric from DigiStrats who I have worked with and also take some of his training before. Great information + right now the course is free!
      • Get Free Udemy Website Investing Course (While it is still free)
   3. AMZ Affiliate Bootcamp – This course is created by Tung Tran and provides a lot of information on how to make money with Amazon Affiliate sites. Lots of great information for a beginner wanting to make money with an Amazon Affiliate site.
      • Signup here.
   4. New LinkBuilding Strategy – More to come on this but as we test out different strategies we are finding a lot of success with one particular strategy to get the worlds best links.

Key Failures

1. Productivity Increase Not 1:1 With Increased Hours – With the added hours my productivity has not increased 1:1. I don’t find this too surprising and will continue to work on being more effective and productive. Listening to a great book right now bye a fellow Canadian Chris Bailey The Productivity Project and I am liking how actionable it is!

1. Realizing Several Teams are Not Setup for Success! – After I did an analysis on a few of my businesses I realized that several of my teams are not setup for success. The main reason is that I have deviated from my favourite business book (E-Myth Revisited) and don’t have the Entrepreneur / Manager / Technician clearly defined. I wrote more details about this failure here.

2016 Business Goals

Below is my businesses main goals for 2016

Download This Easy to Edit and Printable Goals Template – FREE

(Note – FBA Brand #2 Has Been Replaced With my SAAS Business)

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

July Update – I have plans in motion to grow my team and this one may come down to the wire but will have a new project manager to help me with managing my passive income portfolio.

2. Buy 1 Site Per Month

July Update – A great website purchase was made in July. It was a good deal for both the seller and myself, with only a couple months of earnings history it would have been tough for him to sell anywhere else while we were able to combine a purchase price, earnout and services from LightningRank.com to come up with a deal that has everyone happy.

• GOAL = 1 Website
• ACTUAL = 1 Great Website Purchased

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)
• High quality sites making over $500/month often make sense to sell via other channels (EmpireFlippers or FEInternational are great places)
• SEO done to the site can be questionable and that increased risk will be reflected in the sales price
• Understand that the benefits of the bullet points above means the sales multiple will be lower

If you have a website you are looking to sell fast please let me know

3. Sell Websites Strategically for $100k Total

July Update – The website sale is still on track with the group that has taken over the site still doing a great job.

PRIMARY GOAL – OVERALL INCOME FOR WEBSITE PORTFOLIO ABOVE $10k/MONTH

July Update – The ongoing issue with the partnerships associate account at Amazon is still holding this number down lower than I would like.

Part 2 – Authority Website Income Blog Profit/Loss

3 Goals in 2015 for AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com

1. Post Once Per Week

July Update – Now that I am working full time I should have no excuses to not hit this goal. There are plenty of topics I want to talk about that I believe would add value so it is good to see me back to hitting my target numbers with my first full month working online.

• Plan = 4
• Actual = 4

2. 10x my Outreach

July Update – Continued success on this front with a lot of effort spent performing podcasts in July. The story/strategy of turning an Amazon Affiliate site into an FBA business and then selling it continues to be a story/business model that resonates with people as it connects a lot of dots in the online business space.

3. Site Redesign – Completed!

July Update – Already Completed

PRIMARY GOAL – GROW TO 30k VISITORS PER MONTH

July Update – 16,364 uniques’ which represents a +66% year over year increase. I believe if I can achieve my weekly posting plus my 10x outreach I can achieve this goal by the end of the year!

Part 3 – Services Business Profit/Loss

1. Systems Overhaul/Refresh

July Update – Kelley the project manager for the services business has joined me full time in the office and we will be undertaking this large review over the coming months.

2. Improve email marking and sales automation

July Update – I am continuing to do some small tests to collect data before a larger overhaul. I need to get this done soon.

3. BrandBuilders.io Becomes The Go-To Resource for Done 4 You Amazon FBA Private Label Websites and Done 4 You Amazon Affiliate Sites

July Update – Continues to be a clear winner when it comes to product/market fit with steady demand for the services offered.

PRIMARY GOAL – STAND ALONE SYSTEMATIZED SERVICES BUSINESS IN 2016

Part 4 – Amazon FBA Business

1. Sell FBA Business for 30x with 3+ Solid Months

July Update – SUCCESS

2. Launch Brand #2 – Personal

July Update – After additional due diligence it turns out the business model for this affiliate site to FBA migration would not work with only $12 profit margin on a $120 product. In addition there are some interesting partnership opportunities I am exploring and will be moving quickly on.

3. Launch Brand #3 – Investors

July Update – Sold out of most sizes of our initial order (no profit on initial order as all units were flown in) and now the first sea shipment has arrived in the US.

4. ListingEagle.com – Hijack Monitoring Service

July Update – Similar update for June with GREAT metrics and user feedback but our ability to accelerate our customer acquisition has been tricky!

Overall Income Update

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

• Target Net Income = $9,350
• Actual net Income = $31,869.24
• 2016 Average Monthly Net Income = $30,296 (stretch goal is 30k average for the year)

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

(note Amazon FBA Income May Be Off By A Little Here – FBA Affiliate Site Income Counted in Passive Income Portfolio – Total FBA Business Income ~$10k)

Final Comments

July was a good month to see that my increased effort on all fronts have resulted in growth on all fronts. Having sold off 2/3^rd of my FBA business which had first helped push my business over the $30k threshold and to have now bounced back to it in what is often one of the slower seasons for online business it is great to see.

Right now I have reason to be excited about the next phase of the business with lots of growth projects on the go, a growing/awesome team, more hours for me to devote to the business and plenty of room for improvement for the steady divisions of the business I am excited for Q4! Even with all the good news there is still plenty of projects which are not yet on the trajectory I want them on!

I hope these income reports provide an insight into how I organize my various projects and include actionable details for others…most importantly I hope the historical nature of these reports show to people at the stage I was at a few years ago that it is possible to build up an online business that can fund your desired life.

Better late than never!

In this months income post I will share the results of my business for the last full month of day job I had! As of June 10th I am now working on my online business full time!

May had a big change to the business with my first substantial sale of 66% of my FBA and affiliate site business.

The result has been a drop in income due to the sale of the business but my plan is to try and hold to my stretch goal of $30k/month in 2016 even though I have sold off 66% of a big part of my business.

My Business Projects:

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)
   • LightningRank(get access to the most powerful PBN available!)
   • Brand Builders(FBA Branded Site Creation & Affiliate Site Creation)
4. Amazon FBA Business
   • Brand #1
   • Brand #2
   • Brand #3
   • ListingEagle.com

Key Successes

1. Sale of FBA Business Finalized – It took awhile but the sale of the FBA business was finalized in May.
2. ListingEagle.com – The team has been working very well on this business and it is quickly becoming the default tool for Amazon FBA sellers looking to monitor their listings.
3. New Authority Site – I have partnered with my business team lead to do the leg work of building out a new authority site and so far it is performing well.

Key Failures

1. 2nd FBA Business – The second FBA business has had a slower start than I would have liked. Multiple challenges have popped up and I am continuing to grind away at them until we have success.

2016 Business Goals

Below is my businesses main goals for 2016

Download This Easy to Edit and Printable Goals Template – FREE

(Note – FBA Brand #2 Has Been Replaced With my SAAS Business)

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

May Update – The framework for the changes I will be making to better systematize the management of these sites beyond simply adding content is taking shape. The foundation for the changes will be the work that is being done to build up our latest authority site!

2. Buy 1 Site Per Month

May Update – No websites purchased in May.

• GOAL = 1 Website
• ACTUAL = 0

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!!

1. Sell Websites Strategically for $100k Total

May Update – This goal was achieved in Feb with the sale of a six figure option (see details here – creative structure here). Right now the deal continues to be going well but the option has not been exercised.

PRIMARY GOAL – OVERALL INCOME FOR WEBSITE PORTFOLIO ABOVE $10k/MONTH

May Update – Although the graph above doesn’t show it this is a great month since I sold off a decent sized portion of my portfolio but the income remained solid!

Part 2 – Authority Website Income Blog Profit/Loss

3 Goals in 2015 for AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com

1. Post Once Per Week

May Update – Still struggling to publish consistently!

• Plan = 5
• Actual = 3

2. 10x my Outreach

May Update – With the transition out of the day job I hope to be able to recover this over the coming months. So far my outreach and networking in this space has been weak!

3. Site Redesign – Completed!

May Update – Continuing to tweak but I can call this one complete!

PRIMARY GOAL – GROW TO 30k VISITORS PER MONTH

May Update – +79.3% year over year increase. I believe if I can achieve my weekly posting plus my 10x outreach I can achieve the goal of 30k per month! What is also interesting to note is that last year in May I was extremely busy with my day job and did not get many posts out. The graph below shows the benefit of me publishing regularly.

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 and I am looking forward to July/Aug to be able to focus on this effort.
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 (this is at the top of my list for my effort in July/Aug)
3. BrandBuilders.io Becomes The Go-To Resource for Done 4 You Amazon FBA Private Label Websites – Awesome results for customers to date! We are growing in staff now as well to meet demand.

PRIMARY GOAL – STAND ALONE SYSTEMATIZED SERVICES BUSINESS IN 2016

Part 4 – Amazon FBA Business

1. Sell FBA Business for 30x with 3+ Solid Months – Success – closed the FBA business sale in May!
2. Launch Brand #2 – With my other projects on the go this one has slipped off the priority list. I am re-establishing my expectations for this business as I prioritize it below a few other projects still in development. I will potentially launch this effort in Aug (but to be determined)
3. Launch Brand #3 – This project with investors has gone slower than I would like. We have run into issues I certainly plan to share on this site for its learning’s. I will be putting more focus on it over the coming months to ensure it is successful!

Part 5 – Web App Business – ListingEagle.com

May Update – Product was launched on TheAmazingSeller podcast on May 10th. Although we had some extremely lofty goals we did not hit in the first month I am very happy with the project & teams performance. For the sake of this income post I am not including income numbers for at least a couple months.

Overall Income Update

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

• Target Net Income = $9,000
• Actual Net Income = $26,910
• 2016 Average Monthly Net Income = $30,980 (stretch goal is 30k average for the year)

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

NOTES:

• FBA Business sold in May so only 1/3rd of the businesses earnings are counted
• Revenue/Costs associated with ListingEagle.com are not counted here (yet)

Final Comments

May and the start of June was certainly a huge time for my business with…

• Sale of FBA Business
• Quitting My Day Job

The overall income took an obvious dip with the sale of the FBA business and that income no longer being counted.

Overall I am happy with the direction of most of the projects I have on the go with a couple that need to be fixed badly!

I am also very excited that I am now full time working on my online business moving into my new office today and ready to grind away at the backlog of work I have to do to push my businesses forward!

With this added time I am very much looking forward to connecting with more of you and producing the type of content we all get the most from!