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.
What went down in September
I’m amazed at how fast a month passes by each time I write one of our income reports. Where has October gone? Wow!
Where do we even start?
First things first, you’ve probably already noticed that Dollars and Roses got a facelift – finally!
We’ve been wanting to move over to Genesis for quite some time, but I dreaded the process because I know it would take at least a full day to get it done, if not longer.
We already bought the premium theme pack from Genesis so we had plenty of options to choose from, now we needed to find somebody to help us out.
Through my blogging network I connected with Eric from NarrowBridge.net and for a modest fee he had us hooked up in literally a few days.
Thank you Eric! We’re loving the new site.
What do you think? Do you like the changes?
One more interesting fact that I learned about Eric that I had to share here is that he also owns a flash mob company based out of Denver.
I know…a what? I had to ask twice, too. 🙂
Yes, he runs a company that organizes flash mobs for any type of an event. In the case you’re in Denver and need a flash mob, you know where to go.
Here’s a sample I found online:
Financial Nerds Rise Up!
Every year one of the events I look forward to is the Financial Bloggers Conference. Okay, that’s a bit of a understatement and I’m sure the wife would call me out on it.
FinCon is my Comic-con, we just don’t get dressed up. We do cheese out talking about blogging and finance. Can it really get any better?
Awww……finance nerds. Got to love us. 🙂
For the second year, I had the opportunity to speak. Getting a chance to speak in front of my peers is something that I absolutely love!
Thankfully, my wife (as usual) was able to help me out with my talk. My talk was originally titled “Screw Google Panda: How to Get Tons of Traffic and Strategically Build Your Brand“.
When I started going through my talk I remember her response being something like, “Meh…..I don’t like it.”.
Got to love her honesty. Ahem.
After I went through my talk again she immediately heard what my talk should be called: “How I Got Dumped by Google and Still Got 5 Million Visitors to my Blog (and lived happily ever after).
And of course…..she was right. What does that always happen to me? 🙂
Anyway, the talk went really well and I’m looking forward to next year’s conference already. You can read Mandy’s recap here.
Podcast Keeps on Truckin’
We recently just published our 12th podcast. Today we just recorded our 25th podcast!
Needless to say, we ain’t go anywhere.
Thanks to everyone that has downloaded our podcast gave us a review! We’re at 51 reviews now and shooting for 100.
Have you left your review yet? 😉
Happy Moms Unite!
Mandy’s most recent venture is based around encouraging and inspiring moms around the globe. Her and her friend Natalie, The Busy Budgeting Mama, are working hard at their new found love of being entrepreneurs.
It’s funny to see my wife tackle huge projects like a BRAND NEW BUSINESS.
She’s pretty hardcore when it comes to determination. I like it.
They launched Happy Mommy Box on October 1st and sold out in 75 minutes. Craziness.
They just shipped out their very first box yesterday and are about to open up the subscription service to more people!
If you’re a mom…and you want a little monthly pick me up then make sure you get on the wait list so you can grab a box soon!
Niche Site Update
It’s been a while since I’ve updated on our niche site. Unfortunately, after much of my SEO efforts, it seems that Google Hummingbird’s algo update hurt me.
Earlier in the year I was easily getting over 10,000 visitors per month. Starting in July/August our traffic kept dropping and we’re now only getting around 6,000 visitors per month.
Insert unhappy face. 🙁
The income numbers still look good now, but I’m expecting things to drop in the coming months unless something changes.
Time will tell.
Here’s a look at the numbers for September….
Income Breakdown
Good Financial Cents
- Adsense: $1,041.89
- Adspeed: $1,338.01
- Commission Junction: $987.00
- Link Offers:$27.23
- Media Net: $138.03
- Personal Capital: $0
- Consumer Track: $144.00
- ClickBank: $118.46
- YNAB: $18.00
- Direct Advertising: $541.00
- Total: $4,353.62
Dollars and Roses
- GoDaddy: $38.85
- ShareASale (Thesis Theme and Genesis Theme): $83.92
- SEMRush: $55.96
- Blogging Your Passion: $18.50
- Total: $197.23
Other Niche Sites
- Adsense: $138.30
- Link Offers: $0
- Media Net: $8.20
- Main Niche Site Revenue: $9,311.95
- Total: $9,458.45
House of Rose Blog
- BlogHer Ads: $641.13
- Direct Advertising: $200
- Adsense: $147.05
- Lijit Media: $100.63
- BlueHost: $990.00
- Total: $2,078.81
- Equifax: $200.00
- Other: $300.00
- Total: $500.00
Book Advance
- Final Installment: $1,260.00
Total Revenue for September: $17,848.11
Revenue Last Month: $17,554.25
- Difference: +83.50
- August 2012: $12,092.08
- Total for 2012: $115,289.16
- Running Total 2013: $171,144.26
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: $225.00
- Unique Article Wizard: $67.00
- Virtual Assistant: $1,000.00
- SEMRush: $69.95
- Fiverr.com: $25.00
- Elance.com: $105.00
- Libsyn $15.00
- D&R Web Design: $300.00
- Total: $2,221.95
What Happened in September
First things first, you’ll probably notice that we did not include any income from Happy Mommy Box on our income report. We debated about this and for now have decided to not include it.
Bummer, I know. 🙁
Part of the issue is that Mandy is in partnership with Natalie and we felt that it wouldn’t be fair for her to share what is part of hers, too.
In the event things change, we will happily share some of the process.
I will say this, it’s been fun watching these ladies launch a business in literally just weeks. It hasn’t been pretty behind the scenes with all the techy stuff they’ve had to figure out. But in the true spirit of entrepreneurship, they have hustled their faces off getting the business going.
Overall, our income has been fairly steady for the past few months, but if our traffic on our niche site doesn’t start to come back, I’m expecting that to drop.
Income on GFC has been down for the past several months, too. Here’s what I contribute that to:
- My Book Launch: I’ve been so tied up with writing guest posts, conducting interviews, and promoting my book that I haven’t been as focused on the content on the blog.
- Google Hummingbird: Google released another algo update in mid-August and I saw about a 20% drop in traffic. Reduced traffic = drop in revenue.
- Affiliate Shuffle: I lost one of my best affiliates earlier this year (Scottrade), but they just recently came back. It’s good to finally see some conversions come back.
October is more of the same, but what I’m most excited about is that my new site will be launching sometime next month.
Insert teaser shot:
I’ve been working with Nate from Forty Seven Media to build the site of my dreams. Through some other online connections I found someone that is helping code the design into Genesis. Thus far it looks beautiful!
I can’t believe how I much I underestimated how long it takes to “re-brand” a site that has been live for 5 years, especially since Mandy just redesigned her site.
It’s been a long process, but I’m very excited of the final results. Can’t wait to share it soon. 🙂
Until next month….
Thanks again for all your support!
The rebrand looks awesome fuzzy, so I’m sure it will look amazing in color and in focus 🙂
I’ve had hummingbird issues myself. It isn’t fun, but if you figure anything out I’m all ears!
How such a little bird could do so much damage…
I really want to hate these income reports but it is awesome to see how you’re building your own little empire. And great job on your session at FinCon. You did a great job up there.
I like it, not sure about the mobile responsive though. Which child theme did you use?
@ Krisite We used the Education theme from Studiopress: http://my.studiopress.com/themes/education/
Sorry traffic is trending down. Are you concerned that since most of your income is in a “niche site” it’s at big risk of going away? What is your niche site so we can take a look? Seems strange that the biggest revenue generator is undisclosed. Makes it seem like you have something to hide.
$4,300 for GFC is not bad. It seems like other websites with your GFC traffic and authority make much more though. Thoughts on making your main real site do better?
@ Jackie
I’m not overly concerned about the niche site. I think it will always be relevant. Why does it seem strange that I would want to protect our site that anyone could essentially copycat? I’ve seen other bloggers share their niche sites only to see clones popup all over the place.
So I do “have something to hide“? I guess I do. One day I’ll share what it is. Just not today.
Regarding my main site: Many sites in my niche kill it with credit card conversions. We tried it on my site for a bit, but it didn’t click my readers. With the new site design coming out I’m focusing more on building a community and providing more value for the readers that I already have. I’m hopeful that these changes will also increase revenues with the site. In the beginning revenue will drop because I’m reducing the number of ads you see on the site. But in the long run I think it will be much better.
Thanks for another detailed income report. I found this shared on Kingged.com and had to “king” it and leave my comment and question:
Both of you are really inspiring a lot of people, especially couples who might be thinking it’s difficult to not only make money online but to do it TOGETHER. Not only is it possible, you are living proof of that, and you do it so positively and happily that it makes me smile anytime I read your reports, 🙂
Question about UniqueArticleWizard, I wonder what you guys are using it for. I used it long ago but no longer, what with all the Google updates and smacks from it’s “animals”, does it still work?
Link to where I found this and asked this question on Kingged: http://www.kingged.com/september-2013-income-report/
@ Sunny
I have been using UAW for the past year but it’s funny you ask about it. I’ve just decided to cancel it this week as I’m not sure I’m still getting results that I once was. I’ll be sure make sure our next income report reflects that.
Good decision. I don’t think it’s still relevant in this “incessant Google updates and smacks from it’s animals” world, unless they have come up with much better improvements to make it worth using.
Wow! That’s definitely something to look forward to 🙂 It’s nice to see that it’s possible, although I’m sure it took a long time and a lot of hustle to get there.
Another awesome, inspiring income report! I hope to be where you guys are one day! I’m currently diving into Market Samurai (do you still use it?) and slowly learning, but excited every step of the way!
Question for Mandy: Do you think you could share the process of starting a box-subscription service? Or maybe I could send an email. I’ve had an idea for a box-subscription service, but just have no idea where to start!
Thanks so much!
@ Melissa I don’t use MS like I used to but it’s definitely still a great tool.
I’m planning on interviewing Mandy and her business partner, Natalie, on a future podcast that talks about Happy Mommy Box. Stay tuned!
OK I was starting to feel like I was the problem… but I’m pretty sure I was abused by hummingbird as well. 🙁
Please consider a post about this! I’m not really sure how to deal or what I’m doing right/wrong at this point!
@ Holly
In many cases, the site owner isn’t doing anything wrong. It’s just “Google being Google” as many bloggers are becoming accustom to.
What I urge is to not be dependent solely on Google for traffic. That’s what we use social media, email marketing, our podcasts and other ways to get new eyeballs to our site.
That hummingbird update hit me pretty hard as well- I’m thinking about 30% drop in traffic. It’s upsetting because I’m running a legitimately valuable website and Google is punishing me. It seems like this latest update wasn’t very well thought out and some of the penalties are misdirected at quality websites.
@ Jessica
That’s exactly how I felt when my site got hit by Panda and I saw a 70% drop in traffic. Google says they are trying to improve search results but I still see countless examples of crappy/spammy sites outranking me for certain keywords.
From reading the income report, I can see the majority of the money coming from the Good Financial Cents site. However, there is only mention of 3 sites. The Good Financial Cents, Dollars and Roses and House of Roses. If you take out consideration for freelance writing and the book advance, that leaves the “Other Niche Sites.” What exactly is this? Is it one site, or is it many sites? What exactly is the “revenue” that nets 9K worth of money? I’d like to point out that as part of the beginning of every post, you like to put your 4 reminders as to why you put income reports on your page. The first is accountability…and that works great. However, I definitely see a problem with your truth and transparency when not even revealing what this niche or niche sites are that is netting more than 3 of your blogs you talk about. Please be transparent and truthful. Other than that, I view this as another scammy way to get people to merely sign up for Bluehost, etc.
@ Phillip
I’m sorry you feel this way. We currently have several “niches sites”. A few that are semi-profitable, and one that has proven to be very profitable.
One day I’ll reveal what the site is, but for now because of it’s highly competitive niche, it makes smart business sense to not disclose it. I got greater confirmation of this when I saw other bloggers reveal their niche sites only to see blatant rip off sites pop up.
Either way, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!
Sort of a catch-22 isn’t it? Trying to build a following showing people how to make money blogging and profiting from doing so, but yet, you’re afraid to show everything you’re doing for fear of someone copying your efforts and taking money away from your niche sites, right?
I would imagine you’re going to continue to have people asking questions about the information you’re not sharing, and you’re probably going to struggle to grow your following in this niche unless you do a full disclosure about all your other niche sites, like Pat Flynn does. It’s one of the reasons I wouldn’t really want to attempt a “how to make money online” blog. To build the level of trust Pat has, you’d have to be willing to take that risk.
Maybe you can at least break down your niche site income without specifying their domain names or their exact niche? Call them Niche Site 1, 2, 3, etc. Share the revenue break downs for each? Or would you consider that to be too risky? I think that would at least help show people more examples on how to monetize a niche, how many niche sites you’re attempting to grow, etc.
The problem is, when people read blogs like this and start feeling good about the idea of pursuing what you’re preaching, they tend to look for examples of what niches actually make money. When you don’t share that you leave a big part of the formula out.
@ Chris R. All true stuff. I’ve decided that in the beginning of 2015 that I’ll share what the main niche site is. That will give me some time to get more articles indexed and more backlinks to the site. And who knows, by then I could have moved on to another niche. 🙂
Thanks for the mention!