Welcome to the first ever Dollars and Roses income report!

This has been a long time coming and we’re finally excited to get this kicked off. The purpose of these income reports are as follows:

1. Accountability.  These will allow us to finally keep track of our total online revenue – something that I’ve been horrible at.
2. Progress.  Now that we have it documented,  we’ll be be able to chart our progress as our income increases (hopefully!)
3. Truth. To show people that you really can make money online
4. Transparency:  We want others to see how we do it so that others can do it, too.

2011 Comes to a Close

In regards to blogging, this year has been a roller coaster.  My main blog, Good Financial Cents, had a “stock market like” ride seeing my traffic soar to record numbers, only to get whacked by the dreaded Panda update in April.

Adsense for that site peaked and just over $5,000 in January, only to see my last check drop to $469 in December.

How’s that for a drop?

I was still averaging over $1000/mo with Adsense, but I decided to place the ad box within the posts to hopefully help with traffic numbers.   It’s hard to say if it’s really working.  All I know is that I miss the larger checks.  🙁

The same held true for my other niche sites.  They were doing really well up until the fall and then they also got hit with Panda.  Even though Adsense took a drastic hit, I was able to supplement some of the income loss with some direct marketing opportunities (text links, sponsored posts, etc).

Here’s a look at the numbers:

Good Financial Cents

• Adsense: $469.48
• nSphere (local): $164.89
• Commission Junction: $6.00
• Flex Offers:$367.00
• Direct Advertising: $190.00
• Total: $1,197.37

Other Niche Sites

• Adsense: $168.00
• Direct Advertising: $1533.64
• Total: $1701.64

House of Rose Blog

• Blog Her Ads: $114.14
• Total $114.14

Freelance Writing

• Equifax: $200.00
• Total: $200.00

Other Sources

• Aweber: $30.00
• Mobile Assistant: $55.00
• Total: $85.00

Financial Planning

• Online Planning Fees: $500.00
• Total: $500.00

Total Revenue for December 2011: $3798.15

Recap of progress

Overall, it was a pretty good month.  The loss of Adsense was definitely made up with the direct advertising efforts.  Hopefully, that will continue.  🙂

The one added amount of $500.00 for “Online Planning Fees” was something I tested for a “Cyber Monday Deal”.  I was curious to see if I could leverage my existing readers and actually turn them into paying customers.

I didn’t have as much success as I hoped, but I did get 2 people to sign up.  After receiving the second payment from them both, and that will close out the promotion with another $500 added to the income report.

Future Projects

The big push for this year will be the following:

• Creating a course for Good Financial Cents
• Driving life insurance leads to GFC as well as a new site I’m developing (more to come)
• Converting leads for another site I’m developing that deals with the Solo 401k
• Generating affiliate conversions for this site

There’s a lot in store for 2012.  Can’t wait to show you more!