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:
- 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.
- Progress. Now that we have it documented, we’ll be be able to chart our progress as our income increases. (thankfully it has)
- Truth. To show people that you really can make money online and in a non-scammy way.
- 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 June
Hi, Dollars and Roses readers. It’s Mandy this time. Jeff claims he’s too busy finalizing the marketing plan for his book release which will happen in less than 6 weeks.
Who do these authors think they are? Becoming “too busy” to write the good ole’ monthly income report and all. Geez.
It’s not like he spent four years writing the book and didn’t have time to think up his marketing plan. Haha!
I kid, I kid. He’s a hustler and truly is justified in his time constraints this month.
I happily obliged to write the income report this month.
Especially because, if you have been following along, then you know that we have a traffic showdown going on. And this month…House of Rose takes the cake. By five slices I might add.
Ahem.
Traffic Showdown
Each month we thought it would be fun to show each other’s traffic and see who can come out on top.
Last month I took the hubby down. Can I repeat? Let’s see…
In June, my site had 140,926 visitors and 235,454 pageviews. Not my best month ever, but I’ll take it.
Thanks for everyone that visits my site! 🙂
Now let’s look at the hubby….
Uh oh. Looks like he only had 106,743 visitors and 179,347 pageviews.
What does that mean? That means I’ve won this showdown 2 months in a row! Hehe….
New Site Design
I rolled out my new site design last month and have been in the process of tweaking it over the last 30 days. I think I can finally say I am thrilled with the outcome.
Just like with any change…people were a little hesitant at first, but overall, I think the layout, ability to navigate and appearance is 100 times improved.
I switched out my newsletter subscribe box a few weeks ago and I’m much happier with how it makes the site feel and look.
My friend Natalie, The Busy Budgeting Mama, helped me create something that “fit” me.
So far I have seen almost a 40% increase in email subscribers since I added the custom subscribe box to the top of my site. Not bad.
I moved to the Genesis Framework and I have been surprised at how similar it is to Thesis.
One thing I am realizing, with Genesis or Thesis, I am no web coder. I have messed up my site more than a gazillion times because of wrong placement of <div> tags. Good times.
HUGE thanks to Jenn from Munchkin-Land Designs and Larry from Side Income Blogging…without these two…my site would be nothing. Seriously. I’m pretty sure both of them may have wanted to fire me as a client no less than 15 times over the last 3 months. I’m picky, I admit it. But I”m so thankful that they were SOOOO easy to work with and willing to get my site just how I want it.
Since we are on the topic of new site design, did I mention that Good Financial Cents and Soldier of Finance are currently in the process of a complete redesign. All to be done before the book release. Pssst, he has no reason to think he’s busy. 😉
Here’s a look at the numbers for June….
Income Breakdown
Good Financial Cents
- Adsense: $1,190.90
- Adspeed: $1,631.57
- Commission Junction: $629.98
- Flex Offers:$80.35
- Direct Advertising: $0
- Media Net: $213.09
- Personal Capital: $450.00
- Consumer Track: $168.00
- You Need A Budget: $6.00
- Google Affiliate Network: Discontinued
- Total: $4,369.89
Dollars and Roses
- GoDaddy: $28.98
- ShareASale (Thesis Theme and Genesis Theme): $259.80
- TweetAdder: $27.50
- Total: $316.28
Other Niche Sites
- Adsense: $91.14
- Flex Offers: $0
- Direct Advertising: $1,027.00
- Media Net: $20.04
- Main Niche Site Revenue: $14,738.40
- Total: $15,876.58
- BlogHer Ads: $916.17
- BlogHer Sponsored Posts/Touts: $100.00
- Direct Advertising: $o
- Adsense: $302.17
- Lijit Media: $96.27
- Content Ads: $116.38
- BlueHost: $1,579.75
- Skimlinks: $0
- Total: $3,110.74
- Equifax: $200.00
- Total: $200.00
Total Revenue for May: $23,873.49
Revenue Last Month: $16,617.85
- Difference: + 7,255.64
- June 2012: $7,001.66
- Total for 2012: $115,289.16
- Running Total 2013: $117,977.29
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: $1,430.00
- 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 June
It’s not been our best month, but definitely not our worst month. I know one thing is for sure…the numbers for House of Rose will be way down for next month because my ads were not working correctly for over 13 days. Oops!
It was the last thing on my mind when I was in the midst of tweaking things on my new site. Hindsight is 20/20 because clearly…it should have been one of the first things on my mind.
Losing half a months income was not what I had in mind when I launched the new site. I’ll know better next time.
Dollars and Roses Podcast
We have 7 interviews under our belt. Yep, that’s right….seven. And hubby still hasn’t got us set up on iTunes. It’s on his to-do list for this month…along with promoting his new book. 🙂
Speaking of book…
Soldier of Finance Comes To Life
I am so thrilled that all of my hubby’s hard work is finally going to pay off and his book will be available starting September 9th. In Barnes & Noble and many more places. I told him I think it will be so cool to walk in to B&N and see his book on their shelves. WOW!
So proud of him! Especially because this book is designed to help people. It’s probably one of my favorite things about the work my husband does…his desire to help the masses when it comes to personal finance. I really think this book will do that.
Just last week we filmed the preliminary trailer video for the book. It was an all day affair and there may or may not have been some arguing going on. Ha! Anytime you work with your spouse…prepare to argue.
He tells a pretty impactful story about his dad and his struggle with debt. I can’t wait to share it.
Until next month….
Thanks again for all your support!
What is your main niche site and what kind of revenue is that? Consulting? Ads?
Congrats on your month!
Congrats again! I noticed that Dollars and Roses made $28 from GoDaddy and Mandy made over $1,500 from Blue Host. How do you make money from your hosting company? That may be a silly question, but I’m still new at all this!
Thanks for the update! I love reading income reports and seeing how everyone is doing each month! Loving the new design over House of Rose and the 40% increase of subscribers once you added the box is GREAT. Definitely something to think about for my own blogs. Right now my subscribe box is above the fold, but kind of just blending in there.
You guys are doing great + I can’t wait to read more!
@Katie – You can make money with Blue Host thru their affiliate program. I do SEO and web design so when clients need a hosting company I recommend Blue Host (or Rackspace for larger clients). Blue Host gives me a little commission for the sale. I also disclose this to my clients as well.
Jeff and Mandy also use pages like “How to Start a Blog” to put in affiliate links. ( http://dollarsandroses.com/how-to-start-a-blog/ )
Hope that helps!
-Lisa
Thanks, Lisa, for answering Katie’s question. 🙂
Thanks for the info Lisa!!
You guys are doing great! I plan on making the self-employment switch soon, and I really want to diversify more. I mainly want to get more into affiliate income and niche sites. I’m a little afraid of niche sites though as I have no idea what I’m doing!
@Michelle
Knowing your blog, I would focus on affiliate revenue before the niche sites. I think you’re building a nice community with your site and it would be easier (and probably faster) to see results with that approach.
I love your income reports!! I’m very new at this too and I just love seeing the nuts and bolts of online business! I’m also curious about the “main niche site”. Will you be sharing any of those successful tips, looks like its creating great income for you?? Would love to know more. Thanks for great info.
@ Crystal
I’m glad you like our site and the info we put out!
One day I may reveal the main niche site, just not today. 🙂
In all seriousness, it’s a fairly competitive niche and I would rather protect it for now.
Hi Jeff – I gotcha! Thanks for the reply! Looking forward to your future posts.
Jeff,
Thanks for sharing, I totally understand protecting the niche…any chance you could talk about it in general terms? It’s a big line item and we’re all interested how to apply it to our sites in our own niches. Is it e-commerce, affiliate, ads, something unknown and awesome that others would want to know about? 😉
Fantastic jobs with the income!
Angela
guys…. congrats 😀
I second and third the comments about your main niche site. Will you be sharing more about it? You know we’re all curious since it’s the lion’s share of your revenue.
It’s great to see what you guys are doing. Thanks so much for sharing. Good luck with the book, Jeff.
Very impressive!!!
As a very new blogger, I got excited when I saw $1.72 in my adsense account. I’m not even fully sure what that means, but it was still very cool to see.
@ Sarah I can remember the first time I saw a $1 in my adsense account and I was super excited, too. 🙂
Oh my goodness!!
Congratulations!
On your month, and on the book, and even on the oops! part. Because you found out what not to do next time, right? It’s kinda sucky to have to learn that way but, what do you do?
I am with the other ones who ask…what exactly do you do to earn the income?! I’m kind of confused on that part. Is it your blog that earns the income? Or…?
Also-I can’t wait until the book comes out!! I’m wondering what date is it to be actually on the Barnes & Noble shelves? I really want to make sure I can go buy one right away.
Thank you so much for being you!
i definitely want to know at least the general genre of this main niche site but i can understand not disclosing it. i think it would be more transparent to break down the sources of that income for sure.
i stumbled on house of roses, and then here, and found about niches etc. and larry! what a great resource he is. i don’t have any up at all, but have been applying what i’ve learned through the niche site community to my own blog. fingers crossed.
@ Brandy
See my previous comments above regarding the niche site. One day….. 🙂
Love what you guys do, but have a question…If you guys are making so much money using BlueHost from HouseOfRoseBlog, why don’t you use it as a source of income for your other sites? Just curious why you don’t leverage the same strategies that are working for one site across all of your sites. Thanks for being an inspiration!!
@ Hardy
Great question!
It wouldn’t make much sense for our niche sites to use Bluehost but I have been working on a post for my blog that could incorporate it.
Only problem is that post has been a draft for a LONG time. TOO LONG! Haha…
I’ve just been too busy getting my book done to get it complete, but one day I will and hopefully be able to add Bluehost to my blog earnings.
Great job on the traffic and income. That niche site is really kicking butt! I don’t blame you for keeping it hidden and safe.
Nice work, once again. I just joined the niche site duel, but haven’t picked anything yet, so I’m probably a little too late. I have some ideas though….
Cool to see yours generating a CRAP-LOAD of cash money! Obviously, you’ve figured out the “secret” forumla 🙂
This kind of income is light years away for me. But great job guys!
Thanks Dionne! Trust me, it felt like years for us 5 years ago. Actually, it was unimaginable at that point. A lot of hard work and continued blessings is what got us here today.
Hi Guys,
New reader here. Found you by way of the “internet rabbit trail” through Pinch of Yum. My question is this:
If you’re making the majority of your income from your main niche site, why not just focus on niche sites instead of both blogs and your niche site?
Are they both about the same amount of work, or does blogging require more hours?
All the best!
@ Carrie
Glad you found us! 🙂
Regarding your question, I do focus on those site, but like anything with Google, you never know when you can lose your traffic. Consider are other sites diversification, plus they both help build our brand and our community.
But yes, the niche sites do require a similar amount of work, mostly because of Google’s constant change in their search algorithms.
Wow – you guys are doing great, especially with the niche site. Congratulations.
I am also new to your site. My daughter send me your link and I have enjoyed reading about your journey. I was wondering about the process of how you get advertising? I didn’t notice where that was addressed.
Cheering you on from Texas!
@ Beth Ann We’ll definitely tackle that in a future podcast.
Start off with Google Ads. As your traffic grows, many advertisers will reach out to you.