October was a month where I found myself splitting time into multiple projects with the launch of my Amazon FBA business and creation of my completely free guide to building your own PBN (here)
Many many problems popped up in October with most of them being relatively new. For me new problems usually represent progress on a project/business. The problems that are an indication of us not doing a good job are recurring problems…I had some of those this month as well!
In this report I will talk through my monthly results for…
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.
As I write this income report I have to appreciate the symbolism…
Several times I have stated that the reason why I work the hours I work is to provide financial security to my family and be able to provide the life we choose (in addition to the fact online business is simply a lot of fun!).
What we are working towards is $15k/month in reliable online income by the age of 35 to be in a position to move back to our hometown if we choose.
As of this writing I am sitting in my first hard asset purchased primarily with income earned online (a rental/vacation condo in my home-town) working at my childhood desk moved from my parents garage attic.
If I was a better writer I would talk about the symbolism of where I came from (childhood desk) what I am doing (working on my online business) to get to where we want to be (our hometown).
Alas a picture will have to do…
My Vacation Office – A Little Rustic!
June was a busy month again for my day job but as of this writing in July it is all wrapped up and I have a couple weeks to experience summer and dedicate more hours to my online business (expect a few overdue changes!).
In this report I will talk through my monthly results for…
LightningRank (get access to the most powerful PBN available!)
Key Successes
Systems – With my schedule and main project manager having gotten married in June the team is doing a fantastic job of continuing to provide the quality PBNs to our clients and also help to grow the website portfolio.
Website Purchases –Several purchases have performed well and I have set up a solid tracking system to be aware of how each investment has done. Overall the returns have been healthy but there are also several big losers in the group. For sellers I seem to be the sweet spot for some people…
With Lower earning sites who don’t want to give up a relatively high % of their sales to a brokerage site
Who don’t want to go through the long, time consuming sales process of other sites(Flippa)
Who have sites who may not qualify for the more premium brokerage sellers (Empire Flippers)
Who are looking to sell CRAZY FAST (money in PayPal accounts in 24hrs)
(If you have a site making money and are looking to sell please contact me at jon11 (at) gmail (dot) com
Recovered Earnings – I mentioned the loss of income from missing some affiliate sales and this month I was able to get them all back. A $3,500 cheque showed up which was fantastic!
Key Failures
Time – June was much like May when it comes to how many hours I was able to work on the business(way to few!).
My 2015 Goals – I spent a lot of time on building my plans for 2015 and clearly I messed up…WAY to many goals. Just look at my income reports and you can see how many times I have not been able to progress a goal. Having so many it has left me more than a little unfocused!
Part 1 – Passive Authority& Niche Website IncomeProfit/Loss
No matter where my future business direction I would have a very very hard time giving up the fun of building, buying and running profitable websites.
5 Goals in 2015 for my Website Portfolio Business
1. Build Six Figure Website
JUNEUPDATE – Week over week traffic growth continues. Income is not as strong as desired (over $100 again). My progress on publishing articles has slowed with the key PM stopping work during my busy period and me not being able to replace in time.
June Stats
Traffic =10,523
Income = $162
2. Continue Building Smaller Profitable “Niche” Sites
JUNE UPDATE – Several small successes but the project I was working on is now on hold for me to free up time to focus on growing the sites I have.
3. Systematize Top 20 Sites in Portfolio
JUNEUPDATE –No progress on this front (again!)
4. Buy 2 Sites Per Month
JUNEUPDATE: One website was purchased…right now it is looking like it was definitely not a good purchase but overall I am still happy with my portfolios performance (although the total dollars invested remain relatively low).
GOAL = 12 sites purchased by June 2015
ACTUAL = 18 sites (+1 in June)
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
JUNEUPDATE –GREAT NEWS…that $3,500 in missing commissions was realized in June. So a big uptick in income on my niche sites but controlling for the $3,500 I still had my second best month on my niche sites with $4k in net income. In July I expect to have a big effort to produce a detailed checklist and assign a team member to review all money sites each month to confirm this won’t be able to happen again.
PRIMARY GOAL – OVERALL INCOME FOR WEBSITE PORTFOLIO
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
JUNE UPDATE – As discussed last month I will be starting to slip on this front!
Plan = 4
Actual = 1
JUNE UPDATE – Very weak involvement from me here!
Interview = 0
Roundup = 0
Podcast = 0
2. 2 EPIC Posts Published
JUNEUPDATE –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
Part 3 – Services Business Profit/Loss
Create Stand Alone Business
JUNEUPDATE – No progress towards this, this will come after #2 below has more progress.
Rework and Customize Systems
JUNEUPDATE – Minimal progress but systems are holding!
Systematic Customer Acquisition
JUNEUPDATE – Soft launch of affiliate program was a success (with a lot of hiccups) a more robust system is needed and is a big project for July!
PRIMARY GOAL – STAND ALONE SYSTEMATIZED SERVICES BUSINESS
In my 2 weeks vacation I have now this is the key business goal!
Overall Income Update
Original Monthly Net Income Target (original – $15k/month reliable income by age 35)
Target Net Income = $7,075
Actual net Income = $14,993
2015 Average Monthly Net Income = $9,838
Red Line = Reliable Income Goal
Final Comments
Overall from an income standpoint I flirted with the $15k mark but just missed it. A big $3,500 cheque and overall $4k performance in my passive income portfolio was great to see and boosted my overall earnings.
If there was one upside to me not being as involved in my business as I would like is that it provides me with both a an opportunity for problems to be exposed and a fresh perspective to see those problems. Because of this my to-do list in July is VERY long but working hard to focus on 1 thing until it is crushed!
I am in the middle of several improvements and looking forward to sharing those learning’s with everyone in the hopes it can help you in your business!
Hope your businesses are going well through the summer!
To everyone who is lucky enough to have the competing time commitments of a family, day job and working to build financial freedom through an online business I hope this monthly income report helps you.
Right now I am in the middle of another very demanding(but also enjoyable) time at my day job where for ~50 days my hours are often 5am-9pm (not including commute).
Work Life Balance – The desire for balance with my current schedule is not reasonable.However I have started trying to think through the balance question a little differently…over what time period do we consider having balance? Balance every day is currently not possible….waiting until retirement for balance is stupidity. Finding the right time period to havebalance is important! After this busy period I will need to re-commit to what is important and make the sacrifices on the not as important things (TV, sleep, exercise, socializing/partying without my family) in order to spend as much time with my family as possible and continue to grow a solid online business.
In this report I will talk through my monthly results for…
LightningRank (get access to the most powerful PBN available!)
Hopefully this post will give you some ideas on how to grow your business!
Key Successes
Authority Site – Having the trust to stick with this project even though the traffic was not really knocking it out of the park has been tough but it is starting to see steady/solid growth.
Custom Done For You PBN Building – After the “sky is falling” fear Google spread last October many people have quietly been killing it with PBNs and there was a lot of returning customers in April.
Key Failures
Moving My Business Forward – Although it has been a good month many of my goals are continuing to slip this year.
Part 1 – Passive Authority& Niche Website IncomeProfit/Loss
No matter where my future business direction I would have a very very hard time giving up the fun of building, buying and running profitable websites.
5 Goals in 2015 for my Website Portfolio Business
1. Build Six Figure Website
APR UPDATE – Continued growth with organic search closing in on 100 visitors/day consistently.
Mar Stats
Traffic =3,307
Income = $107
2. Continue Building Smaller Profitable “Niche” Sites
APR UPDATE –Several of the sites have generated some income and the return on this project will be positive but it is not the reliable earner I was hoping to create.
3. Systematize Top 20 Sites in Portfolio
APR UPDATE –No progress on this front
4. Buy 2 Sites Per Month
APR UPDATE: I added a couple quickly built sites to my portfolio. These were from a reader who was looking end a project he had been working on. Neither are going to be great earners but the deal I thought made sense for all involved….
He was able to sell them quickly
Sold sites that were not making enough to justify listing at Empire Flippers or Flippa
GOAL = 8 sites purchased by Apr 2015
ACTUAL = 13 sites (+2 in Apr)
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 – Contact Me Here
5. Improve Monetization of Existing Sites
APR UPDATE – I find this work to be some of the best use of my time. Although it is sometimes not very exciting cross referencing stats to commissions or similar deep dive analysis it always pays off. In April I dug into the links on a couple of my sites and realized I was leaving a lot of money on the table. Sometimes I think I am a very slow learner…making similar mistakes over and over… “burning $1,800/month”
PRIMARY GOAL – OVERALL INCOME FOR WEBSITE PORTFOLIO
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
APR UPDATE – I will be starting to slip a little on this goal but I have a good head start to hit my annual target.
Plan = 4
Actual = 4
APR UPDATE – Very weak involvement from me here!
Interview = 0
Roundup = 0
Podcast = 0
2. 2 EPIC Posts Published
APR UPDATE –One mini-epic post has been published with me revealing the 301 building block strategy (Part 1, Part 2)
PRIMARY GOAL – GROW TO 30k VISITORS PER MONTH
Part 3 – Services Business Profit/Loss
Create Stand Alone Business
APR UPDATE – No progress towards this, this will come after #2 below has more progress.
Rework and Customize Systems
APR UPDATE – Some solid progress this month with 3 new procedures overhauled.
Systematic Customer Acquisition
APR UPDATE – Very slow progress but set up for a decent May
PRIMARY GOAL – STAND ALONE SYSTEMATIZED SERVICES BUSINESS
Overall Income Update
Original Monthly Net Income Target (original – $15k/month reliable income by age 35)
Target Net Income = $6,725
Actual net Income = $15,121.03
2015 Average Monthly Net Income = $9,313
Final Comments
In mid April my work schedule once again became very hectic with some added responsibility and VERY long days (5:00am to 10:00pm). Fitting in both family and time to grow the business is definitely a challenge but with a FANTASTIC team including a key Technical project manager and Business System project manager everything continues to move along well!
It is great to see the continued highly positive feedback from customers of the done for you PBN service.
