June was a solid month. Although the results did not hit the target we were still able to push forward a lot of larger initiatives.
In particular, the team has a few big projects that are on the go and we are pushing hard on some larger goals.
The results from this month were a little disappointing! Having been growing nicely and having a string of very solid months back-back it felt like a step backwards when the final results of this month came in. However, when I sit back and look at the overall/absolute results I really shouldn’t be disappointed… but alas human psychology is cruel and regardless of the size of the earnings one key to satisfaction is growth. (more…)
September was a fun month with a lot of work on growth projects, plenty of challenges and adapting to the impact of the loss of my Amazon associates account.
The loss of the associate account in Sep was largely offset by my sites in the education niche but I do expect there to be a more obvious impact in my money site portfolio performance next month.
Continued Definition of Focus – My why had been crystal clear for a long time with the obsessive focus on building up the business and exiting the day job. I have been doing some work over the last 2 months and I am starting to crystalize my businesses mission/vision/values etc that will all lead into an annual planning process.
Improving Systems – It was a good month on making progress towards having all parts of my money site management system fully systematized! The newest addition to my in-house team is working out well and helping to centralize the fragmented systems I currently have.
Key Failures
Amazon Associate Account Suspension – Just awesome! Here is the story, we are adapting and moving forward! But obviously hurts the bottom line when a profit center goes to zero while the expenses associated with that profit center stay the same. Part of the business and the reason for diversification. The irony is that we had just finished a very detailed process for completing Amazon Associate Compliance Audits.
Clear Impact with Spread-Out Focus – Many of my money sites do not get the attention they deserve! Sometimes it is pretty embarrassing to look at them… When I did a thorough review of all the money sites I saw a couple of my very weak performers with the title “Best product name 2014” yup I had 2 sites like that were stuck over 2 years ago when I reviewed my top 40 sites.
(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
Systematize Top 20 Sites in Portfolio
Sep Update – Ongoing effort on this front and I am looking forward to continue to share parts of the process as they get locked down (such as the Amazon Associate Compliance Audit – which didn’t get finished in time for me to benefit from).
Buy 1 Site Per Month
Sep Update – With my how to sell a website post there were 2 decent deals that came from that effort.
GOAL = 1 Website
ACTUAL = 2 Okay smaller websites 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 $500-1,000/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
Site being associated with a banned Amazon Associate is still possible to sell (but STEEP discount)
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
PRIMARY GOAL – OVERALL INCOME FOR WEBSITE PORTFOLIO ABOVE $10k/MONTH
Sep Update – Definitely a loss to the portfolio with the Amazon Associate account suspension. Sep should have been a great month otherwise due to some of my sites in the education space.
Part 2 – Authority Website Income Blog Profit/Loss
3 Goals in 2015 for AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com
Post Once Per Week
Sep Update – Achieved the target of once per week publishing but did not start catching up yet.
Plan = 4
Actual = 4
2. 10x my Outreach
Sep Update – Only one podcast interview in Sep.
3. Site Redesign – Completed!
Sep Update – Already Completed
PRIMARY GOAL – GROW TO 30k VISITORS PER MONTH
Sep Update – 17,434 users which represents a 71% 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
Systems Overhaul/Refresh
Sep Update – What can be measured can be improved… this is certainly showing to be the case with our COGS being much better defined now after our change from Aug/Sep. What we are now able to do is determine the costs for each part of our services and hold a team leader responsible for that teams quality, volume and cost.
Improve email marking and sales automation
Sep Update – I need to just carve out some time and make this happen… I am sick of making excuses on this monthly report that it is not done!
BrandBuilders.io Becomes The Go-To Resource for Done 4 You Amazon FBA Private Label Websites and Done 4 You Amazon Affiliate Sites
Sep Update – Great opportunities with Brand Builders continues.
PRIMARY GOAL – STAND ALONE SYSTEMATIZED SERVICES BUSINESS IN 2016
Sep Update – As I continue to explore how to best tackle Amazon FBA and build a business that has serious equity value this Brand has a defined mission and the product although in a small market will clearly be the worlds best!
Sep Update – Finally some success! We have successfully turned this business around after it went to 20% of baseline immediately after purchase! With inventory being received and validating the product gets good non-incentivized reviews we made decent sales and have placed a larger more aggressive order which should arrive end of Oct.
Sep Update – 1,300 units will be shipping mid-late October and we will be attempting to do a retail test with this product. With the issues
LE – Hijack and Listing Suppression Monitoring Service
Sep Update – SAAS can certainly be a tricky nut to crack! I was expecting great things in September for LE with the addition of the very very helpful Suppression Monitoring. However, our ability to get the word out about the solution to the pain point has been tricky. LE
What is a suppressed listing? Amazon will suppress a listing, meaning you make no sales while it is suppressed, and you will not be notified by them. People usually only notice when they notice a couple of days of down sales and then login to see what happened. LE will alert sellers via text and email as soon as your listing is suppressed!
Overall Income Update
Original Monthly Net Income Target (original goal $15k/month reliable income by age 35)
Target Net Income = $9,525
Actual net Income = $27,046.88
2016 Average Monthly Net Income = $29,635 (stretch goal is 30k average for the year)
Gross revenue is a vanity number for my business and I do not share it.
Final Comments
Sep was definitely a month full of challenges and I am very happy with the progress we made and the perseverance the team showed to still drive in the results that we did for clients.
With the substantial ranking jumps clients are seeing through LightningRank PBN services October will be another month of working to fulfill all customers expectations.
The first income post of a new year is my favourite as I get to share both my new goals for the year and the direction of my business.
NOTE – If you have an Amazon Affiliate site and are interested in selling please let me know ASAP as I could potentially pay competitively for it – Contact me at jonhaver11 (at) gmail (dot) com or here
2015 was a great year highlighted early on in January with the birth of my Daughter and overall a record-setting year for my business, in 2016 I will continue to grow my business to new levels.
My “why” for this business continues to be clearer and clearer and that is to provide financial security for my family, allow me to spend more time with them and give me an outlet for my need to build interesting/useful teams & systems.
The business ended the year strong with record months in Nov and Dec I was excited to try and keep the momentum going into the New Year.
My new monthly report format will focus on my 4 main business “divisions”…
Was I going to be able to continue with my record numbers or would I end up seeing a large dip in earnings this month…
September my Wife/kids spent a couple weeks visiting family and while I missed them it would have been foolish for me not to capitalize and throw more hours at my online business.
In this report I will talk through my monthly results for…
LightningRank (get access to the most powerful PBN available!)
New Business To Report Next Month
Key Successes
New Amazon FBA Strategy – Staying consistent with using my team, skills and resources with websites I have that are ranking I will be building an Amazon FBA business on the back of a couple of my sites. I talk more about the strategy here. Although I can’t call this a success yet I am happy that I am attacking this business with an advantage (sales from a couple of my sites).
Six Figure Challenge Site Starting to Make Money – Although this has been slower and less than I would like my income for the site is starting to pick up.
Improved Systems for Services Business – This is a never ending battle and one I know will never be over but on all fronts September saw upgrades to my procedures…
contently.com being used for improved content quality
Added additional management position which increased rate of site completion
Work Ethic – This was never usually a problem but I had a couple months where I was not throwing myself at the business the way I should (partly due to very demanding day job hours). But I am happy to report that for the second month in a row my total hrs of TV watched would be close to zero and the habit of working hard every night has been firmly reformed.
Key Failures
Cost Control – Although I don’t reveal my revenue and costs on this post I will say that my costs in September were the highest I have ever had! This is partially expected because the majority of my costs are variable and revenue is hitting new highs. However, all the cost increase is not efficient. I need to dig in and ensure no waste is creeping into my systems.
Email Opt Ins – Both on this site and others I am way under-optimized for email capture and this is hurting my business. This is not a failure just in September but worth mentioning as a key failure because it went another month un-addressed.
Part 1 – Passive Authority & Niche Website Income Profit/Loss
5 Goals in 2015 for my Website Portfolio Business
Build Six Figure Website
SEP UPDATE – I was expecting a dip in Sep for seasonal reasons but the traffic trend continued to rise! Right now I am keeping the content machine working with 2 great writers and so far that plus my 301 Building Block strategy seems to be enough to keep the website growing!
Sep Stats
Traffic = 28,976
Income = $453
2. Continue Building Smaller Profitable “Niche” Sites
SEP UPDATE – Not currently being worked
3. Systematize Top 20 Sites in Portfolio
SEP UPDATE – Progress!! Finally… I am getting both some content and link building moving again on my top sites. The systems around this activity are not enough for it to sustain without my direct involvement.
4. Buy 2 Sites Per Month
SEP UPDATE: 3 Websites purchased in September! 1 was a very weak site <$20/month with another in the $250/month range and finally one that I hope will push $750/month.
GOAL = 18 sites purchased by Aug 2015
ACTUAL = 22 sites (+3 in Sep)
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
SEP UPDATE – Progress (finally), for some of my older sites I took some time to make changes, get other affiliate CPA programs and looking forward to seeing the impact in October.
PRIMARY GOAL – OVERALL INCOME FOR WEBSITE PORTFOLIO
Having gotten through what should be a seasonal dip I believe I am on track for some solid months moving forward. 4 factors are moving in the right direction…
Adding new sites to my portfolio
Coming into the peak Amazon season
Changes made to a few of my bigger earning sites I hope we will see results in October
My six figure challenge site continuing to grow
With these 4 factors I am optimistic the slope of the trend-line over the last 3 months can continue.
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
Post 1-2 times per week
SEP UPDATE – I slipped one week in Sep…
Plan = 4
Actual = 3
2. 2 EPIC Posts Published
SEP UPDATE – 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
I have moved several posts to LightningRank.com which will put me a little behind on this goal…but no excuses I still want to hit this goal this year!
SEP UPDATE – Reviewing what the next steps need to be for phase 2 of the integration with Zaxaa.
Rework and Customize Systems
SEP UPDATE – Small tweaks continue. The only way I will be able to tackle this is with a week long vacation deep diving into my teams procedures.
Systematic Customer Acquisition
SEP UPDATE – No new streams for customer acquisition but affiliates, Market.Source-Wave.com and Perfect Audience PPC are still new channels for customer acquisition that are all working well.
PRIMARY GOAL – STAND ALONE SYSTEMATIZED SERVICES BUSINESS
This goal is within reach!
Overall Income Update
Original Monthly Net Income Target (original – $15k/month reliable income by age 35)
Target Net Income = $7,425
Actual net Income = $18,351
2015 Average Monthly Net Income = $12,976
Final Comments
After an amazing month by the metrics last month I am happy to report I was able to keep my income numbers up and record my 3rd highest income month online.
My final comment would be that there are an endless number of opportunities to build meaningful wealth online and the only thing between us and the opportunity is putting in the work.
