It’s time for last months income report: October 2012.

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.
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.

Remember: We started blogging in July of 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 October

This might be a first, but I’m actually getting the Income Report done before month end – Yipee!   It’s hard to believe the year is wrapping up.  So much to do, so little time!

One of the most exciting developments to occur last month was finally receiving my book contract from my publisher – yes, an actual publisher is going to print my book and pay me to do so – winning!  I have until December 3rd to get them the final manuscript so I’ve got a little bit of time.   Ha!  I’m such a procrastinator.  🙂

It’s already 95% done, just have to make a few tweaks so I’m not stressing all that much.  Well, kinda…..

I’ve also been working on my next major blog movement named The Debt Movement.  I’m working with the peeps over at ReadyForZero to get the site done so hopefully I’ll be able to share that soon.  Our goal is to help people pay off $10,000,000 of debt in 90 days and it’s all going down in January.  If you, or someone you know is struggling with debt I strongly encourage you to check it out.

Site for Sale?

Being a blog owner you occasionally get the unsolicited email asking if you’re interested in selling your site.  Most are pure crap and I just delete them.   Last month I got one that sparked my curiosity and I responded back.   Through numerous email exchanges, I quickly learned that the buyer was serious.  The most serious that any other suitor has been.   We scheduled a call so I can hear exactly what they had in mind.

I’d love to share all the details, but I will tell you that I did NOT sell my site.   What I will tease you with is the offer was 6 figures and that was without looking at any of my stats.  The offer could (and should have) been more if I allowed them access to my analytics.   At the end of the day, I wasn’t ready to sell….yet.   Expect more details in a future blog post.  🙂

The Niche Site Rages On

In between all that, my niche site continues to build up steam. In August I surpassed 10,000 visits for the first time and this month I cracked 15,000 visits.  Crazy!   I’ve really been working on driving some backlinks to the site so I think that was the trick.  I was on cloud 9, but the Big G (Google) did a minor algorithm update the middle of this month so I saw my traffic drop a bit.  🙁   Overall, I’m still very happy with the progress.   My new site redesign should be launching in the next week, so I’m excited to see the results.

Now let’s look at some numbers…..

Here’s a look at the numbers for October:

Income Breakdown

Good Financial Cents

• Adsense: $1,335.24
• Adspeed: $1,402.98
• Commission Junction: $1,255.50
• Flex Offers:$3,861.90
• Direct Advertising: $500.00
• Media Net:  $423.27
• Aweber: $78.00
• Consumer Track: $42.00
• Beta Test New Affiliate:  Done
• Clickbank: $154.24
  • Total: $9,053.13

Other Niche Sites

• Adsense: $159.95
• Flex Offers: $565.00
• Direct Advertising: $675.51
• Media Net:  $58.45
• Niche Site Conversion (new):$1,275.50
• • Total: $2,734.41

• BlogHer Ads: $608.94
• Direct Advertising: $145.00
  • Total $753.94

• Equifax: $200.00
  • Total: $200.00

Financial Planning

• Online Planning Fees: $750.00
  • Total: $750.00

 

Total Revenue for September: $13,491.48

• Revenue Last Month: $12,092.08
• Difference: +1,399.40
• Total for 2012: $83,264.11
  

What Happened in October

W.O.W.   Seriously wow.   Last month was a record month and this month we slaughtered it.   Freaking amazing!    Have I told you how much I love blogging?   Hehe….

Why the big jump?  Great question.

One word:  Affiliates.   To be exact:  Personal Capital.

What’s Personal Capital?  Glad you asked.  🙂  It’s a new affiliate relationship that’s perfect for my niche.  It allows people to have online access to all their investment accounts in one place.   So if you want to see your 401k, your spouse’s 401k, your kids 529 plan, your Roth IRA without having to login into multiple accounts, this is perfect.   I’ve been searching for something like this to offer my readers so it was a perfect fit.

The best part for my readers is that it’s completely free for them to sign up.   And the best part for me is that I get $120 for every signup so as long as the new signup has $100k of assets they link to the platform.

Another Case For Email Newsletters

I had a good majority of conversions the day my Personal Capital Review post went live, but how do you continuously promote it without being “too pushy” to your regular readers?   Enter email marketing.

If you recall in a previous post, one of the biggest mistakes I made when starting to blog was NOT setting up an email newsletter.  Now I’m a huge fan of Aweber (email newsletter provider) and how it allows me to constantly be engaged with my readers.

In the Personal Capital example above, I typed up a simple auto-responder email letting my newsletter readers know about the service.  Depending where my reader is in my auto-responder series (I currently have 25 auto-responders) I’ll have a fresh set of eyes taking a look at my Personal Capital Review post on a weekly basis.   Since my auto-responders go out every Thursday, I’ve been seeing a few conversions over the weekend.   That is passive income at it’s finest!

If you haven’t setup an account with Aweber yet, I strongly you encourage to give email marketing a try.

Until next month!