March Income Report – Record Numbers and New Opportunities
March was a month where I continued to try and push myself to do better and more work. Overall it was a success both in terms of the work completed and the results achieved…
Right now my online projects are at a lot of fun stages with some promising projects at very early stages with others maturing nicely.
I continue to struggle with the question of is my divided focus right for me/my business but in terms of building a diversified “anti-fragile” online business I am happy with it.
Plus building new projects/businesses/systems with a great team is simply a lot of FUN!
My hope with these income posts is that I can show you that making money online with a busy schedule (day job + family) is not a mystery and is possible. My hope is that these posts inspire some of you and that the behind the scenes look into my business both the successes and failures will help someone with their business.
My Focuses:
- Passive Income Website Portfolio
- AuthorityWebsiteIncome Blog
- 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)
- Amazon FBA Business
- New Web App Project
Key Successes
- FBA Business Sale Progress– Great progress with a great partner on this front. The sale which is still being finalized will be a great fit including some weekly coaching while the business transitions to the new owner including 1/3rd ownership staying with me. It is still being closed but I am looking forward to growing this business with a great partner.
- New Web App Project – I am working with a great developer and have an outstanding business team lead along with the partnership of some of the biggest players in the space for the creation of a new web app. The entire team is pushing hard and will be getting ready to have this very cool service ready in under 1 month!
- Record Numbers! These results are encouraging to validate the work I am doing is generating the results I am after!
Key Failures
- Purchase Site Performing Below Expectation– One project I am working on brings some select investors money together with my own to purchase a site and convert it into an FBA business. The pace of acquiring the site along with the site having challenges with getting its affiliate links up and running has put us a little behind schedule. Not a failure and a great group of knowledgeable investors but certainly a challenge.
- One Small Mistake & Amazon Withholds $20k – Amazon closed down my affiliate account for sending emails with my affiliate ID in it (stupid mistake on my part that I was unaware of being in violation of their terms – made an extra $10 and lost $20k+). This has resulted in $24k being held by Amazon not to be dispersed. Frustrating! BUT this online business will throw punches and we need to as quickly as possible move past. I am spending my time as efficiently as possible to appeal but I AM NOT dwelling on it. I am back up and running and focusing most on continuing to grow and learn from my mistakes small or big.
- Learning New Skills – After a little self-reflection I am continuing to build upon what I am having success with and even though my businesses are diversified I have not developed and successfully applied any new skill set to any business. This is something that I need to be aware of and look to pick a topic and develop a detailed plan for me to become a world-class expert at it over time. Website monetization and paid traffic are two skill sets not developed enough in my business/toolkit that could really help my business!
2016 Business Goals
Below is my businesses main goals for 2016
Download This Easy to Edit and Printable Goals Template – FREE
Part 1 – Passive Authority & Niche Website Income Profit/Loss
3 Goals in 2016 for my Website Portfolio Business
- Systematize Top 20 Sites in Portfolio
Mar Update – Not a lot of progress on this front. I have a solid system built for continuing to publish quality content and generate some real and some high quality PBN links but in general I am leaving a TON of money on the table when it comes to monetizing the traffic!
- Buy 1 Site Per Month
Mar Update – One site purchased at a decent multiple and another very small site purchased.
- GOAL = 1 Website
- ACTUAL = 1 decent website purchased and 1 very inexpensive 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)
- 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!!
- Sell Websites Strategically for $100k Total
Mar 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 with the site performing well under the control of the new team.
PRIMARY GOAL – OVERALL INCOME FOR WEBSITE PORTFOLIO
Mar Update – A $10k/month passive income portfolio is ideal! I am a little behind that and once the sales go through this number will drop. Note that I have not “corrected” my previous earnings for what is being held due to my Amazon affiliate account closure.
Part 2 – Authority Website Income Blog Profit/Loss
3 Goals in 2015 for AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com
- Post Once Per Week
Mar Update – I missed one week in March…need to catch up now!
- Plan = 4
- Actual = 3
- 10x my Outreach
Mar Update – Several email interviews and 1 podcast but not the 10x effort I need to put in here.
- Site Redesign – Completed!
Mar Update – Continuing to tweak but I can call this one complete!
PRIMARY GOAL – GROW TO 30k VISITORS PER MONTH
Mar Update – 28% year over year increase. I believe if I can achieve my weekly posting plus my 10x outreach I can achieve this goal!
Part 3 – Services Business Profit/Loss
- Systems Overhaul/Refresh– This one hasn’t started yet but I have a plan for it mapped out.
- 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!
- BrandBuilders.io Becomes The Go-To Resource for Done 4 You Amazon FBA Private Label Websites – Great progress with some VERY VERY happy customers. Always growing pains but Andrew is doing an awesome job here! The next steps with this business are setting it up to be a long term sustainable success so it will be around in 10 years!
PRIMARY GOAL – STAND ALONE SYSTEMATIZED SERVICES BUSINESS IN 2016
Part 4 – Amazon FBA Business
- Sell FBA Business for 30x with 3+ Solid Months – Great progress on this front in March with the terms of a creative deal being fleshed out and in the hands of the lawyers to finalize the paperwork. It is a great combination that again makes the pie bigger with me staying on to help train up a highly skilled/motivated individual moving from the boardroom to the online business world.
- Launch Brand #2 – BAD month on this front with the samples SUCKING. It is a seasonal business with the spring being the busy period and time is slipping away. A small pivot on the product we will focus on and I am hoping to still capture the season.
- Launch Brand #3 – There were challenges with Brand #3’s affiliate site but I hope it is resolved now and need to be hitting brand #3 hard in March.
FBA Business Results
2 new products with bigger promotions at the end of March resulted in about a $750 decrease in net income.
Part 4 – Web App Business – Coming May 2016
Stay tuned…the solution, team and plan is all coming together!
Overall Income Update
Original Monthly Net Income Target (original goal $15k/month reliable income by age 35)
- Target Net Income = $8,650
- Actual net Income = $34,766.57
- 2016 Average Monthly Net Income = $30,764.69 (stretch goal is 30k average for the year)
Gross revenue is a vanity number for my business and not shared
(note Amazon FBA Income May Be Off By A Little Here – FBA Affiliate Site Income Counted in Passive Income Portfolio)
Final Comments
March was by the numbers another great month. My increase in effort I believe is paying off and I will look to continue pushing hard over the coming months to see several substantial opportunities fully realized.
Why Don’t I Share Revenue Numbers? Revenue numbers are a vanity number for a business whose primary purpose is to provide income to support a lifestyle/family! I would encourage anyone who is building a business whose primary purpose is to provide profit to support their family/lifestyle to focus your attention on profit and not revenue! A great book to focus on profit is Profit First!
Why do I still have a Day Job? When I share these reports the most common question I get is why do I still have a day job or some variation of that question. The answer is that…
- I enjoy my day job… it is challenging and I am learning a lot at it as well as online that makes me better at both. Me increasing my abilities will have a bigger long term benefit to whatever I put my efforts towards than any immediate income.
- The second reason is that I have set a very strict set of guidelines for me to prove that my online business meets the “reliable” criteria I have set.
This is obviously a question that I consider with my family frequently and I am very fortunate to be in a position where we have choices.
Hope you had a killer month and if you are just getting started don’t let larger numbers and multiple projects scare you… start small and work everyday.
