It’s time for the monthly income report.

Each month “The Wife” crunches the numbers on our earnings while I, “The Husband”, puts together a recap of what happened in our online business. A dangerous combo!

As a reminder, this is why we do the income reports:

1. Accountability. These will allow us to finally keep track of our total online revenue – something that I’ve been horrible at but seeing improvement. You can go here for all of our previous blog income reports.
2. Progress. Now that we have it documented, we’ll be be able to chart our progress as our income increases. (thankfully it has)
3. Truth. To show people that you really can make money online and in a non-scammy way.
4. Transparency: We want others to see how we do it so that others can do it, too.

Remember: We both started blogging in 2008 so it’s taken us A LOT of time to figure this blogging thing out. And truthfully, we still have a lot to learn. Don’t get the impression that you can start a blog today and turn a profit tomorrow. I promise you, it ain’t going to happen.

What went down in July

It’s Mandy again. The hubs is too busy {AGAIN} to write this month’s income report. I think he likes pawning his duties off on me. Gah.

His motto is “Outsource, outsource, outsource!”

That’s great and all. Except when he outsources it all to ME.

Not cool, not cool.

Or maybe he’s too embarrassed to write this month’s income report since I won the traffic battle for the 3rd month in a row.

<<picture me secretly laughing>>

Traffic Showdown

This month was not even that good for me traffic wise. BUT, I beat the hubs so all is right in the world.

Ahem.

I had 133,696 unique visitors and almost 300,000 page views.

Again, not my best…but I’ll take it. I’ve realized that traffic is a lot like roller coasters. Up and down, up and down. I try not to get too caught up in the numbers.

Except for when I’m comparing myself to the husband. 🙂

Jeff was at 104,812 unique visitors and 150,000 page views.

 

Oh, bam! Defeated again.

How does that feel Jeff Rose?

Here’s a look at the numbers for July….

Income Breakdown

Good Financial Cents

• Adsense: $1,470.11
• Adspeed: $1,671.36
• Commission Junction: $1,179.75
• Link Offers:$142.39
• Media Net:  $228.15
• Personal Capital: $180.00
• Consumer Track: $42.00
• ClickBank: $197.82
• Profitable Online Store: $197.67
• Google Affiliate Network: Discontinued

• Total: $5,309.25

Dollars and Roses

• GoDaddy: $0
• ShareASale (Thesis Theme and Genesis Theme): $299.80
• TweetAdder:
• AWeber: $66.84
• SEMRush: $55.96

• Total: $422.60

Other Niche Sites

• Adsense: $80.34
• Flex Offers: $0
• Media Net:  $23.41
• Main Niche Site Revenue: $9,298.88

• Total: $9,402.63

• BlogHer Ads: $556.92
• Direct Advertising: $200.00
• Adsense: $257.07
• Lijit Media: $96.82
• Content Ads: $18.18
• BlueHost: $1,090.78
• Skimlinks: Not Currently Using

• Total: $2,219.77

• Equifax: $200.00

• Total: $200.00

Total Revenue for July: $17,554.25

Revenue Last Month: $23,873.49

• Difference: -$6,319.24
  
• July 2012: $8,747.11
• Total for 2012: $115,289.16
  
• Running Total 2013: $135,531.54

Monthly Fixed Expenses

Many of you have asked what our expenses are each month running our online business.

• Hosting Companies

• WPEngine:    $250.00
• Liquid Web:   $25.00
• Lunar Pages:  $5.00
• Bluehost:         $5.00

• AWeber:                        $130.00
• Article Writers:              $275.00
• Unique Article Wizard:  $67.00
• Virtual Assistant:            $1,000.00
• SEMRush:                         $69.95
• Fiverr.com:                       $20.00
• Elance.com:                      $105.00
• Web Design:                     $2,175.00 (SOLDIER OF FINANCE WEB DESIGN}
• HTML Design:                 $130.00 (SOCIAL MEDIA ICONS MANDY)
• Total:                              $3,381.95

This is a rough breakdown of our expenses that I’ll try to document each month as well as our gross income.  For a closer look at many of the tools we use to run our online business check out our monster post 24 Blogging Tools To Grow Your Blog.

What Happened in July

Lots of good things are on the horizon for us!

For starters, we had the opportunity to do a one-on-one call with Jon Acuff. Yes, Jon Acuff.

We had to sneak down to the basement for the call so that the kids wouldn’t interrupt us.

It’s not everyday that you get that opportunity. We felt so blessed that we had the chance to speak to him and hear his ideas and wisdom for our business.

He confirmed what most others are telling us which is this:

Your individual blogs are fabulous…but I think that you guys as a blogging couple is what makes you unique and that’s where it’s at for you.

Let me interpret that for you—> We need to spend more time on Dollars and Roses.

We have known that, but now it’s just a matter of finding the time to make it happen. But we are determined…

 Our Podcast

We finally got approved through iTunes {can I get an AMEN?}! That was 8 months in the making folks. Not the approval, but just getting our butts in gear.

Podcasting was not originally that exciting to me. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I almost cried during the first 4 interviews. Like the ugly cry.

It’s so out of my comfort zone to interview other successful people. People who are smarter than me and better than me. That is intimidating.

But…now that we have been at it for a few months…I kinda love it. A lot.

We would love for you to check it out HERE. If you download and leave a review it will help our show out immensely! Thank you to everyone who has already left a review and for those of you who have encouraged us through your kind words. That means a TON to both Jeff and I.

The Book

Oh, the book. The very reason that my husband is too busy to write this report. 🙂

Book marketing is a full time gig peeps. It’s craziness.

But we are BEYOND excited about the release of SOLDIER OF FINANCE!

There’s still time to enter the iPad Mini giveaway too. ORDER HERE!

Until next month….

Thanks again for all your support!