Just like every other year, I had my worries in 2021 with December approaching in terms of how my business would do.
In the past, my sites typically underperform due to the holidays and the new year.
That said, this year wasn’t all that different in terms of traffic. For the most part, my sites had less visits in December than usual.
But the interesting thing is that I made more revenue in December of 2021 than I did in any other month in the entire year.
I attribute this to the fact that I've got more of a focus on affiliate marketing and less only on display ads, which is what I had in years past.
This was a very pleasant surprise and I’m extremely excited about what’s coming in 2022.
This month my total income after expenses was $18,720 which comes out to $604 in profit per day.
This is slightly lower than last month from an income perspective, but the important thing here is that my revenue is the highest it's ever been aside from months when I sold websites.
2021 Recap
For the fiscal year, I was able to make an astonishing $452,186. While my monthly income helped with this, it was primarily due to selling my largest website in 2021.
If you would have told me in 2014 that this was possible, I would have laughed in your face. I really NEVER imagined that I'd reach this level of success and needless to say, I'm extremely excited about what the future holds.
Before I dive in deeper, if you're interested in creating your own blog I have a free course for you called IGNITION that you can get here.
I had some interesting milestones in 2021
- On one of the greatest days of my life, I sold my largest website for $500k. Then, it quickly became a pretty bad day as I had to settle for the sale of $263k instead. The reason? An affiliate of mine cancelled our partnership right as I transferred it. If you’re wondering, yes, that still stings a little bit and I still don’t think they were right for doing it, but it is what it is.
- Selling that website allowed myself and my wife to move from Illinois to Nevada. This means better weather and no more income tax. Needless to say, we regret nothing.
- My wife and I found out we had a little one on the way in June of 2021. While not born yet, our first baby will be arriving in April of 2022.
- My business hit revenue of just over $575,000 for the year, and a profit of $452,186. This makes the profit margin 78% for the year which is VERY good considering how much I invested in growth.
- I dove deeply into creating faceless YouTube channels as a business model and while we haven’t knocked it out of the park yet, I now earn around $1,100 from these types of channels. I love the business model and can’t wait to see how things play out. (Click here to learn more about the business model)
- I grew this blog from a readership of 188,000 pageviews in 2020 to 802,927 in 2021 which is a 327% increase. (Whoa.)
Want to Start a Blog?
If you’re looking to create your own blog/online business and want to get started quickly, I suggest you sign up for my FREE course, IGNITION.
Personal Life Update
My wife and I did a whole lot of nothing in December. It consisted of a whole lot of relaxing, downtime, and I even held off on guest posts and my regular work schedule to take some time to recharge.
We didn’t see any relatives and haven’t hung out with any friends mainly because Thalita is pregnant and we're being cautious due to the pandemic.
We still see friends here and there, but rarely go to the Las Vegas strip or go anywhere that has a lot of people as we're doing all we can to avoid her getting sick during pregnancy.
Every year around this time I like to reflect on how my business is doing and disconnect from work a little bit to get a fresh perspective for the new year.
This year was no different.
I mentioned in my last income report that I was selling a condo and would have an extra $100,000 to invest. I'm happy to report that the condo is now closed and I have around $100k sitting in my bank account waiting to invest.
We've made the decision to make a few investments with these funds.
1) We are going to purchase a Tesla Model Y to rent on Turo
I did some math around purchasing a Tesla Model Y for the sake of renting it out on Turo and it would make the $50,000 SUV end up costing about $35,000 after write-offs and depreciation.
While we'd love to make this a profitable business, even if it fails, I'm able to get a car for $15k less than the sticker price. Granted, we would have to recapture depreciation if we close the business and sell it back to us down the road, but hopefully that won't happen.
The plan now is to purchase a Tesla model Y and rent it out for 1 week of each month to either pay for or reduce the cost of the car by about 50%. Assuming the numbers work out, we should be able to get a Tesla model Y for about $17,500 or maybe less if we can rent it out more often.
2) Purchase one (or two) condos
We'd love to also purchase a home to rent on Air B&B, but the housing market in Nevada is absolutely crazy and it doesn’t look like this is going to be a realistic solution as the cost is too high.
So, instead we’re going to wait until after our baby has arrived (April 5th due date) and then speak to a realtor about potentially purchasing condos.
I don’t necessarily love paying the association fee that comes with a condo, but the thing that I do love is the low risk of condos and how someone else pays down your equity over time. So, if we can purchase a couple condos and have a good realtor to re-sign tenants when needed, it’ll be a hands-off approach to building wealth over time in a passive way.
If things change in the market by April and it looks like we might be able to purchase a rental property, we may do it.
We'll see what happens, but only time will tell.
That’s all for the personal update.
If this is your first time on my website let me explain a few things about my detailed income reports each month that outlines the money I made (or lost) each month.
I’m doing this for a number of reasons:
1) I strive to be transparent about what it takes to make money online.
2) These reports help me keep track of my own progress.
3) These reports hold me accountable.
Keep in mind, I don’t create these to gloat about my earnings. I create them to help you understand the true “earning curve” of online business.
On a side note, I don’t disclose my actual website URL’s on my reports because I’ve had bad experiences with copycats in the past.
So, in my income reports, you’ll see website generalizations like Website 1, Website 3, Website 5 Website 4, etc.
If you’re looking to create your own blog/online business and want to get started quickly, I suggest you sign up for my FREE course, IGNITION, by clicking here.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s dive into the report.
Monthly Income Graphs
| PRODUCT OR SERVICE | REVENUE | EXPENSES | NET INCOME |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consulting | $6,040 | $6,040 | |
| Udemy | $82 | $82 | |
| Partners and Affiliates Revenue | |||
| Website 5 Partners and Affiliates | $20 | $20 | |
| Website 8 Partners and Affiliates | $73 | $73 | |
| Website 6 Partners and Affiliates | $183 | $183 | |
| Website 3 Partners and Affiliates | $430 | $430 | |
| OHP Partners and Affiliates | $10,594 | $10,594 | |
| YouTube Revenue | |||
| Themed YouTube Channel 2 (Click for Webinar) | $21 | $21 | |
| Thalita YouTube Channel | $141 | $141 | |
| OHP YT Channel | $427 | $427 | |
| Website 8 Complimentary YouTube Channel (Click for Webinar) | $1,063 | $1,063 | |
| Ezoic Revenue | |||
| Website 6 Ezoic Revenue | $140 | $140 | |
| Website 8 Ezoic Revenue | $143 | $143 | |
| Website 5 Ezoic Revenue | $1,531 | $1,531 | |
| Website 3 Ezoic Revenue | $2,960 | $2,960 | |
| Website 7 Ezoic Revenue | $7,024 | $7,024 | |
| Google Adsense Revenue | |||
| Website 2 Adsense Revenue | $9 | $9 | |
| Website 5 Adsense Revenue | $20 | $20 | |
| OHP Adsense Revenue | $68 | $68 | |
| Website 9 Adsense Revenue | $75 | $75 | |
| Website 3 Adsense Revenue | $81 | $81 | |
| Website 7 Adsense Revenue | $531 | $531 | |
| OHP Course Sales | |||
| Keyword Research Made Easy | $0 | $0 | |
| Software Expenses | |||
| Adobe Photoshop Account | $10.61 | -$10.61 | |
| Manage WP | $11.20 | -$11.20 | |
| Mailshake App | $29.00 | -$29.00 | |
| Google Business Drive Storage and Apps | $51.97 | -$51.97 | |
| Cloudways Hosting | $53.47 | -$53.47 | |
| Namecheap.com | $77.10 | -$77.10 | |
| Upwork Premium Employer Plan | $49.99 | -$49.99 | |
| Epidemic Sound | $60.00 | -$60.00 | |
| Active Campaign | $70.00 | -$70.00 | |
| Intuit Quick Books | $80.00 | -$80.00 | |
| Ahrefs SEO Software | $99.00 | -$99.00 | |
| Thinkific Online Course Software | $99.00 | -$99.00 | |
| Surfer SEO Software | $119.00 | -$119.00 | |
| Internet Service | $150.00 | -$150.00 | |
| Siteground Hosting | $180.00 | -$180.00 | |
| Misc. Software and Products | $114.00 | $114.00 | |
| Advertising | $270.00 | -$270.00 | |
| Freelance Labor Expenses | |||
| Freelance Research, Editing, Video Production, and Misc. Labor | $4,048.86 | -$4,048.86 | |
| Freelance Writing | $7,362.53 | -$7,362.53 | |
| TOTALS | $31,656 | $12,936 | $18,720 |
| Revenue By Channel | Website 3 | Consulting | OHP Website | YouTube | Website 7 | Website 5 | Website 6 | Website 2 | Website 8 | Website 9 | Udemy | Website 1 | Website 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2021 | $3,471 | $6,040 | $10,662 | $1,652 | $7,555 | $1,571 | $323 | $9 | $216 | $75 | $82 | XSOLDX | XSOLDX |
| November 2021 | $3,950 | $6,780 | $7,329 | $1,836 | $6,954 | $1,655 | $551 | $2 | $188 | $19 | $27 | XSOLDX | XSOLDX |
| October 2021 | $3,057 | $6,112 | $8,258 | $1,706 | $5,580 | $1,609 | $512 | $3 | $93 | $12 | $217 | XSOLDX | XSOLDX |
| September 2021 | $2,939 | $4,323 | $5,640 | $1,711 | $5,023 | $2,114 | $408 | $7 | $18 | $22 | $36 | XSOLDX | XSOLDX |
| August 2021 | $3,163 | $5,841 | $9,204 | $1,718 | $4,753 | $1,656 | $315 | $2 | $50 | $15 | $19 | XSOLDX | XSOLDX |
| July 2021 | $4,805 | $6,700 | $7,465 | $1,758 | $5,611 | $1,932 | $269 | $10 | $76 | $21 | $73 | XSOLDX | XSOLDX |
| June 2021 | $5,749 | $5,820 | $8,573 | $1,470 | $5,320 | $1,596 | $258 | $6 | $42 | $18 | $82 | XSOLDX | XSOLDX |
| May 2021 | $4,466 | $6,288 | $7,183 | $1,530 | $4,135 | $1,277 | $94 | $5 | $39 | $19 | $76 | XSOLDX | XSOLDX |
| April 2021 | $3,750 | $3,975 | $6,925 | $1,472 | $2,738 | $1,417 | $148 | $1 | $60 | $12 | $90 | XSOLDX | XSOLDX |
| March 2021 | $3,086 | $3,950 | $6,662 | $1,807 | $3,183 | $1,704 | $102 | $4 | $36 | $30 | $86 | XSOLDX | XSOLDX |
| February 2021 | $1,901 | $3,700 | $4,234 | $1,833 | $1,663 | $1,366 | $130 | $14 | $18 | $45 | $50 | $277,583 | XSOLDX |
| January 2021 | $1,733 | $3,000 | $4,078 | $1,524 | $1,741 | $833 | $124 | $14 | $81 | $14 | $38 | $8,076 | XSOLDX |
| December 2020 | $2,356 | $2750 | $2,316 | $1,733 | $1,670 | $950 | $173 | $15 | $80 | $26 | $76 | $10,448 | XSOLDX |
| November 2020 | $2,045 | $2000 | $1,628 | $1,386 | $1,361 | $741 | $117 | $16 | $59 | $33 | $40.00 | $14,132 | XSOLDX |
| October 2020 | $1,815 | $2600 | $1,886 | $983 | $1,230 | $670 | $68 | $13 | $289 | $13 | $0 | $16,439 | XSOLDX |
| September 2020 | $1,958.93 | $2000.00 | $836.18 | $877.29 | $1,159.98 | $644.78 | $68.34 | $11.52 | $116.50 | $7.93 | $0 | $13,758.12 | XSOLDX |
| August 2020 | $1,829.59 | $2,339.50 | $685.48 | $790.50 | $969.42 | $709.66 | $35.15 | $14.56 | $97.13 | $14.09 | $75.00 | $14,356.31 | $15,345.21 |
| July 2020 | $1,390.39 | $2,250.00 | $545.96 | $682.49 | $773.31 | $473.26 | $76.03 | $15.52 | $34.04 | $4.29 | $72.74 | $10,146.39 | $39.01 |
| June 2020 | $2,100.43 | $2,000.00 | $664.08 | $457.43 | $612.44 | $397.93 | $2.82 | $5.22 | $0.45 | $4.72 | $0.00 | $18,386.69 | $201.03 |
| May 2020 | $1,628.39 | $2,000.00 | $576.57 | $489.31 | $383.33 | $407.86 | $30.95 | $11.89 | $5.78 | $5.83 | $0.00 | $14,388.25 | $298.50 |
| April 2020 | $1,268.24 | $2,000.00 | $311.09 | $723.35 | $488.53 | $499.28 | $21.63 | $24.59 | $4.80 | $1.16 | $0.00 | $9,868.73 | $628.28 |
| March 2020 | $1,244.49 | $2,000.00 | $401.28 | $324.14 | $482.14 | $599.43 | $24.68 | $20.26 | $61.30 | $2.37 | $0.00 | $15,729.25 | $629.15 |
| February 2020 | $2,139.96 | $2,000.00 | $261.22 | $340.49 | $467.75 | $543.09 | $49.32 | $36.03 | $0 | $3.05 | $0.00 | $22,548.73 | $435.32 |
| January 2020 | $2,646.41 | $3,240.00 | $1,334.33 | $264.30 | $382.79 | $541.68 | $9.13 | $12.35 | $0 | $2.35 | $0.00 | $20,512.80 | $1045.23 |
| December 2019 | $2,026.21 | $2,575.00 | $934.81 | $202.66 | $304.53 | $694.61 | $78.56 | $9.36 | $17.69 | $19,383.27 | $1,864.92 |
||
| November 2019 | $2,173.90 | $0 | $602.88 | $358.91 | $196.02 | $617.31 | $182.80 | $15.77 | $21.59 | $21,920.53 | $1,338.93 | ||
| October 2019 | $2,546.04 | $300.00 | $1,073.56 | $202.14 | $58.41 | $230.27 | $84.62 | $72.89 | $30.00 | $23,620.75 | $711.71 | ||
| September 2019 | $2,627.86 | $0 | $335.35 | $177.05 | $17.80 | $170.04 | $50.33 | $14.72 | $35.00 | $21,006.31 | $585.93 | ||
| August 2019 | $2,590.92 | $275.00 | $414.58 | $156.00 | $2.57 | $133.92 | $97.26 | $23.67 | $40.00 | $17,817.28 | $553.82 | ||
| July 2019 | $3,652.24 | $0 | $427.66 | $130.26 | $2.10 | $74.26 | $76.00 | $17.16 | $35 | $16,855.42 | $574.78 | ||
| June 2019 | $5,561.07 | $0 | $709.07 | $141.46 | $46.29 | $100.19 | $30.74 | $0 | $15,402.28 | $562.63 | |||
| May 2019 | $4,900.70 | $0 | $1,062.34 | $116.02 | $61.17 | $35.71 | $22.25 | $0 | $17,578.97 | $749.14 | |||
| April 2019 | $4,078.83 | $0 | $239.73 | $76.86 | $46.05 | $9.53 | $0 | $16,273.68 | $700.42 | ||||
| March 2019 | $3,620.30 | $0 | $439.88 | $76.24 | $152.99 | $19.98 | $20.24 | $17,006.79 | $931.22 | ||||
| February 2019 | $2,799.98 | $0 | $551.53 | $65.63 | $291.72 | $15.68 | $28.75 | $15,656.00 | $647.94 | ||||
| January 2019 | $3,280.64 | $600.00 | $469.30 | $76.52 | $401.91 | $10.41 | $45.75 | $16,483.03 | $1,009.83 | ||||
| December 2018 | $2,488.53 | $0 | $483.96 | $73.60 | $487.37 | $20.16 | $98.43 | $11,776.03 | $2,078.19 | ||||
| November 2018 | $2,324.75 | $0 | $657.86 | $79.91 | $386.31 | $10.67 | $205.87 | $12,886.78 | $789.26 | ||||
| October 2018 | $3,135.04 | $150 | $369.22 | $83.86 | $306.89 | $15.46 | $93.27 | $13,246.69 | $747.29 | ||||
| September 2018 | $3,853.20 | $175 | $321.67 | $82.99 | $210.72 | $0.00 | $14.94 | $11,784.71 | $628.97 | ||||
| August 2018 | $3,266.47 | $0 | $512.72 | $93.63 | $39.81 | $5.31 | $97.18 | $11,556.29 | $980.89 | ||||
| July 2018 | $4,991.15 | $0 | $722.76 | $84.33 | $26.84 | $8.05 | $91.48 | $12,864.08 | $707.66 | ||||
| June 2018 | $6,858.01 | $0 | $432.01 | $95.96 | $52.42 | $11.06 | $50.92 | $11138.00 | $797.02 | ||||
| May 2018 | $4,288.26 | $0 | $391.63 | $100.82 | $40.23 | $6.96 | $44.40 | $9152.94 | $699.19 | ||||
| April 2018 | $2,028.65 | $0 | $545.01 | $85.48 | $236.23 | $11.74 | $24.90 | $9637.30 | $804.71 | ||||
| March 2018 | $778.01 | $0 | $380.29 | $94.79 | $224.68 | $13.78 | $80.61 | $14236.64 | $1362.83 | ||||
| February 2018 | $382.03 | $0 | $644.36 | $86.86 | $454.08 | $22.27 | $23.90 | $10918.94 | $838.51 | ||||
| January 2018 | $467.71 | $0 | $757.59 | $67.06 | $486.99 | $14.26 | $113.95 | $7993.31 | $718.04 |
||||
| December 2017 | $432.22 | $0 | $785.74 | $96.12 | $114.05 | $28.50 | $59.21 | $6707.43 | $555.72 | ||||
| November 2017 | $574.91 | $0 | $480.41 | $90.40 | $4.31 | $17.70 | $187.01 | $7545.13 | $479.34 | ||||
| October 2017 | $617.67 | $0 | $265.38 | $66.71 | $13.06 | $135.59 | $6859.17 | $319.02 | |||||
| September 2017 | $348.16 | $0 | $673.87 | $58.13 | $11.31 | $81.39 | $6781.51 | $223.95 | |||||
| August 2017 | $391.68 | $0 | $945.04 | $63.57 | $16.36 | $133.91 | $7429.92 | $181.93 | |||||
| July 2017 | $344.91 | $1,496.38 | $1055.57 | $94.84 | $58.55 | $41.80 | $5658.64 | $85.84 | |||||
| June 2017 | $423.04 | $600.00 | $403.84 | $79.81 | $11.87 | $148.88 | $5924.41 | $31.71 | |||||
| May 2017 | $214.18 | $51.50 | $79.00 | $82.58 | $8.71 | $76.08 | $6805.18 | $9.67 | |||||
| April 2017 | $116.65 | $0 | $106.71 | $57.76 | $3.57 | $80.25 | $8175.11 | ||||||
| March 2017 | $224.16 | $0 | $355.12 | $59.11 | $6.43 | $137.29 | $9527.42 | ||||||
| February 2017 | $160.48 | $125 | $438.54 | $52.40 | $32.99 | $165.43 | $3726.98 | ||||||
| January 2017 | $104.19 | $0 | $267.33 | $41.60 | $222.20 | $4005.52 | |||||||
| December 2016 | $52.63 | $125.00 | $384.57 | $41.32 | $138.07 | $3553.43 | |||||||
| November 2016 | $22.10 | $125.00 | $357.77 | $48.13 | $259.26 | $3778.45 | |||||||
| October 2016 | $1.37 | $126.00 | $213.88 | $48.92 | $238.90 | $3841.36 | |||||||
| September 2016 | $112.01 | $402.32 | $57.14 | $271.02 | $3102.56 | ||||||||
| August 2016 | $731.05 | $44.72 | $55.08 | $423.49 | $3318.70 | ||||||||
| July 2016 | $135.19 | $347.47 | $52.12 | $186.34 | $3353.06 | ||||||||
| June 2016 | $330.00 | $132.77 | $72.22 | $397.55 | $3219.41 | ||||||||
| May 2016 | $206.25 | $253.67 | $75.89 | $135.25 | $4677.02 | ||||||||
| April 2016 | $497.50 | $286.38 | $62.52 | $353.02 | $5008.23 | ||||||||
| March 2016 | $556.75 | $265.29 | $60.14 | $301.06 | $2311.67 | ||||||||
| February 2016 | $431.25 | $250.70 | $62.00 | $324.58 | $2760.21 | ||||||||
| January 2016 | $1140.00 | $117.58 | $46.19 | $400.97 | $233.00 | ||||||||
| December 2015 | $1163.75 | $76.00 | $38.83 | $17.15 | $121.30 | ||||||||
| November 2015 | $1150.25 | $39.00 | $36.78 | $245.68 | $138.11 | ||||||||
| October 2015 | $760.50 | $89.54 | $40.65 | $49.50 | $107.72 | ||||||||
| September 2015 | $1112.32 | $113.10 | $27.46 | $17.49 | $102.95 | ||||||||
| August 2015 | $1463.75 | $51.75 | $25.09 | $12.05 | $39.68 |
Project Updates
Udemy Update
I don’t focus on Udemy any longer, but I have made money from them every month since I stopped.
OHP Website
December was the best month I’ve ever had with this website. I was able to make a significant amount of money due to affiliate commissions and this makes me feel like I really accomplished something. For me this is extra special because most of my time has been spent building sites and focusing on display ads to earn revenue. But this site has really been focused on affiliate marketing which is a nice change of pace. I’m happy to say that I’ve now hit five figures from affiliate marketing on this site and though I’ve got a lot more room to grow, I’m happy with how things are trending.
- Pageviews increased MoM to 53k this month.
- This month I earned: $10,662. This was a 50% increase in earnings MoM.
- EPM increased to $202, which is kind of crazy and we’ll see if I can keep pushing that number higher.
- PLAN: It took me a TON of work to get here, but I’m happy to report that most of the work on this website is now outsourced. It definitely hasn’t been easy. In fact, I’d say that this is the most challenging niche I’ve ever competed in. The cool thing about that? Many of the skills I earned from this site I can now take to less competitive niches which will lead to some big things in the future. My plan for this site is to continue doing exactly what I’ve been doing. Considering this last month was my best month ever, I see no reason to change my approach and I’m hoping that I’ll begin to see progressive growth, month over month, throughout the year.
Want to Start a Blog?
If you’re looking to create your own blog/online business and want to get started quickly, I suggest you sign up for my FREE course, IGNITION.
Website 3
I have done nothing on this site for at least 12 months except add Ezoic and it continues to print money for me. I have no intention of working on it and will just let this sit as I work on my other projects.
- Pageviews hit 123k this month, which is a 15% decrease MoM.
- This month I earned: $3,471. This was an decrease of 12% MoM.
- EPM increased to $27 from the prior month.
- PLAN: This site is currently 100% passive and I do not work on it. I intend on selling this site once I’m consistently making enough from other sites to justify it.
Website 5
I have done nothing on this site for at least 12 months except add Ezoic and it continues to print money for me. I have no intention of working on it and will just let this sit as I work on my other projects.
- Pageviews hit 70k this month, which is a 12% decrease
- This month I earned: $1,571 which is a decrease of 5% MoM.
- EPM increased to $60 from the prior month.
- PLAN: This site is currently 100% passive and I do not work on it. I intend on selling this site once I’m consistently making enough from other sites to justify it.
Website 6
I caused a whole lot of dysfunction for this website in December.
The reason?
I decided I needed to rebrand the URL to be broader. This is my first time ever going through this process and although it was quite a headache, I’m happy to report that things look to have been done correctly.
I did this mainly because the URL just wasn’t memorable and was difficult to spell, so I decided to revise it to something that was easy to remember instead. While this was a pain, I think it was a requirement to grow this site as large as I want to.
Keep in mind that the traffic and earnings numbers for this month are skewed.
There was a significant loss of traffic as I went through this migration and now that the redirect has been taken care of, I expect January to perform better than December.
That said, it probably won’t be fully fixed for another month or two as Google takes their time in sorting out a full site migration.
- Pageviews hit 4k this month, which is an 84% decrease
- This month I earned: $323 and earnings decreased by 41% MoM.
- EPM is at $82.02
- How Much Have I Invested in This Website: $5,718
- How Much Money Has This Website Made? $4,240
- Total ROI: -$1,478 (If I were to sell the website today, I can assume I’d sell for an estimated $17k. Which means a net gain of roughly $15,500)
- How Much Content is on the Website? Keep in mind this website is mostly focused on affiliate content with some informational content: 222 Blog posts
- PLAN: I mentioned last month how I could no longer ignore this site because of how much love the search engines were giving to it. Needless to say, I took action this month and I’m going to try to grow this website. While I haven’t assigned any content just yet, I’m excited to say that I found some massive keyword opportunities here with crazy traffic numbers. It’s very likely that I’ll be able to grow this site larger than any other site I’ve ever owned by the end of 2022. I already have a writer in place and I’m currently focused on keyword research, but once I get the content strategy figured out, I’m going to push really hard on this site to grow it exponentially. I don’t yet know how much content I want to have written each week, but the site makes around $500 a month which is a solid budget to offset my writing costs.
Website 7
I feel like this website is a proverbial unicorn. It has completely surpassed my expectations and continues to grow month after month. In addition to that, it’s been earning natural links for some time now and it’s become a beast that continues to feed itself. I don’t know where this site will max out, but it’s turned into an ultra-successful project pretty quickly.
- Pageviews reached 158k this month, a 5% increase MoM.
- This month I earned: $7,555. This was an increase of 9% MoM.
- EPM for the site this month is $81
- How Much Have I Invested in This Website: $39,560 ($900 Content budget each month)
- How Much Money Has This Website Made? $58,683
- Total ROI: $19,123 (If I were to sell the website today, I can assume I’d sell for an estimated $250,000. Which means a net gain of about $269,000)
- How Much Content is on the Website: Keep in mind that this is an informational type of website, not affiliate-related at all.
- 1655 Informational pages on the website
- 155 Informational Blog Posts
- PLAN: As of now, I intend to continue to publish 10 posts every week to the site. It’s grown exponentially as time has gone on and there’s no reason to think it should slow down now. I wish I had some fancy ideas here, but I really don’t need them at this point. The traffic continues to rise, earnings keep increasing, and it’s getting natural links.
Website 8
December was the best earnings month for this site to date and I’m happy to see that the earnings per thousand visitors have also increased to a respectable number. This site is one that has almost unlimited growth potential and while I’m not even close to where I need to be yet with it, this is going to be a site I’ll focus on in 2022 as well.
- Pageviews hit 2k this month, which is a 13% decrease MoM.
- This month I earned: $216, which is an increase of 14% MoM.
- EPM is now at $26.18
- How Much Have I Invested in This Website: $8,564 ($400 Content budget each month)
- How Much Money Has This Website Made? $1,321
- Total ROI: -$7,243 (If I were to sell the website today, I can assume I’d sell for an estimated $7k. Which means a net loss of about $243)
- How Much Content is on the Website? Keep in mind this website is mostly focused on affiliate content with some informational content.
- 278 Informational Blog Posts
- PLAN: This site continues to grow slowly but steadily. While I’m happy with the growth curve, I’m going to have to build some links in order for this site to really hit its stride. I’ve been struggling a little bit with thinking about how to build links for the site, but I do have some ideas and plan to implement them after I’ve taken action to grow Website 6. If I had to bet on two websites in the year 2022, it would be website 6 and website 8 (this one). The reason? I already know exactly what I need to do to grow both of these, it’s just a matter of doing the work.
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Website 9
- Pageviews are 1,180 this month, which is a 14% increase MoM.
- This month I earned: $75. This was an increase of 295% MoM.
- EPM is at $63.56
- How Much Content is on the Website?
- 25 Informational Blog Posts
- PLAN: This site continues to sit; I have done nothing on it for years. Production has been paused. This site is currently 100% passive and I do not work on it.
Website 10
This is month 10 of the (100% Outsourced Authority Website Built by BrandBuilders). This site slowed with traffic growth MoM, but I still expect some big things here. Remember, I haven’t had any new content written for the site since May of 2021 and I’ve essentially ignored it other than throwing backlinks towards it whenever an opportunity came up.
- Pageviews were 1,337 which was a decrease of 34% MoM
- This month I earned: $0 (Site not monetized yet)
- EPM is at $0
- How Much Content is on the Website?
- 33 Informational Blog Posts
- PLAN: I’m going to continue to build links to the site whenever I can to increase its authority. I’m also taking time this month to redesign the site to give it a look of its own. As of now, it looks pretty terrible and I know that it won’t be taken seriously by most visitors as it stands. Like websites 6 and 8, this site can be a monster if properly executed. The site already has a DR in Ahrefs of 45 and is a very broad niche, so it’ll be really cool to see what it can do.
Website 8 YouTube Channel
This YouTube channel performed slightly worse MoM, but is still growing well. We were a little surprised that December didn’t perform better for the channel, but we’re still happy with how this channel is doing. As a faceless YouTube channel, this one is still growing and doing well. If you’re interested in building an outsourced YouTube channel like this, I recommend that you check out this webinar.
- Views hit 201k this month, which is a decrease of 12% MoM.
- Gained 652 subscribers this month.
- Earnings increased to $1,063, which is a decrease of 15% MoM.
- How Much Did We Invest in This YouTube Channel: $3,570 (Estimate of $350/month in expenses)
- How Much Money Has This YouTube Channel Made? $10,520
- Total ROI: $6,950 (If I were to sell the channel today, I can assume I’d sell for an estimated $35k. Which means a net gain of about $42k)
- PLAN: The team that my wife and I (mostly my wife to be honest) have built continues to publish videos and we’ll continue with that as it’s working well.
OneHourProfessor YouTube Channel
While the OneHourProfessor YouTube channel doesn’t have as many views last month as it did in the past, it’s still doing reasonably well consider I’ve ignored it for some time.
- Views dropped to 18k, which was an 9% decrease MoM
- Gained 312 subscribers this month.
- Channel earned $427 this month. An earnings decrease of 10%
- How Much Have I Invested in This YouTube Channel: $3,927 (Estimate of $120/month in expenses)
- How Much Money Has This YouTube Channel Made? $13,523
- Total ROI: $9,596 (If I were to sell the channel today, I can assume I’d sell for an estimated $14k. Which means a net gain of about $28k)
- PLAN: I took some time this month to decide the future of this channel and I’ve decided that I’m going to focus purely on SEO content moving forward. Considering I spent hundreds of hours making videos in 2020 and the channel grew like I was hoping, it’s apparent that I can’t spend too much time here as it’s detrimental to my business overall. Frankly, I want to. but I know it’s a dumb business decision so I refuse to let myself do it. My biggest problem with my personal YouTube channel is that it’s really not passive. Unlike the websites that I build and outsource with a team, with a personal YouTube channel I have to record all of the videos myself and make sure that they get posted correctly.
The idea for the channel moving forward is to create the best SEO-focused videos related to my own courses or affiliate products that I’d like to promote. While I’m not going to have nearly as many subscribers or views this way, I will be attracting the right eyeballs to my channel which should lead to higher revenue numbers. The other cool thing? This allows me to make videos with few or no ads entirely, which is nice.
That said, you will see me on YouTube and I advise you to join my email list or follow me on social to stay in the know when I do.
Themed YouTube Channel 2
The good news with this faceless YouTube channel? We’re monetized!
The bad news? The results were underwhelming.
This is to be expected when launching a new channel and considering this particular YouTube channel is only four months old, I’m not shocked at the result. If you’re interested in building an outsourced YouTube channel like this, I recommend that you check out this webinar.
- 21.1k Views for the month. This was a 78% decrease MoM
- Gained 133 subscribers this month.
- Channel earned $21.00 this month.
- How Much Have We Invested in This YouTube Channel: $3,460 (Estimate of $640/month in expenses)
- How Much Money Has This YouTube Channel Made? $21
- Total ROI: -$3,439 (If I were to sell the channel today, I can assume I’d sell for an estimated $600. Which means a net loss of about $2,840)
- PLAN: Originally the idea with this channel was to post three videos per week. This has proven to be difficult because we’ve already had a turnover with some of the staff. Our researcher for the channel has already changed twice and the writer has changed once. This has been extremely annoying but I think that we finally have a team in place to consistently create content. As of now, we’re committing to two videos per week until we can grow this channel and feel comfortable with the team in place, and then we may increase output.
Thalita Vlog Channel
Thalita’s vlog channel continues to chug along. The problem with this channel is that it’s in Brazil and has a low ceiling on its potential earnings. So, as of now, Thalita may step back and only create one video per week.
- Views hit 73k this month, which is a increase of 34% MoM.
- Gained 916 subscribers this month.
- Earnings were $141, which is a increase of 38% MoM.
- How Much Did We Invest in This YouTube Channel: $1,650 (Estimate of $300/month in expenses)
- How Much Money Has This YouTube Channel Made? $602
- Total ROI: -$1,048
- PLAN: As of now Thalita will continue to publish one video per week.
*NEW* Family YouTube Channel
- Thalita and I have decided to create a YouTube channel focused on our family. This is one of the big reasons why she’s going to slow down her vlogging channel. We’re doing this primarily because I’d like to have a lot of memories for our children to look back on and while I do think this could eventually make money for us, it would be much cooler to have an archive of thousands of videos for children to one day look back on and learn more about their parents.
- PLAN: As of now we are focused 100% on YouTube shorts to see how it performs and if it can help us grow an audience prior to filming content. I’m really not sure how this will do, it’s more-less an experiment to see how YouTube shorts perform and if it can help us develop an audience prior to spending time and money creating videos. I’ll report back on this, but it should be an interesting project.
Lessons Learned
Every month, I’m going to reflect back and tell you a few different lessons that I’ve learned. My hope is that the lessons each month will be a cautionary tale for you that makes it so that you don’t make the dumb mistakes that I do along the way.
- Aging Websites Works: In 2021 I had three sites that just sat and aged. I added links to them when I could and did my best to have my team continue to create content. All three sites are gaining traction so if you have a website that’s your primary focus and can afford to have someone blog once a week for another site/idea you have, do it. It’s great to jump in on the project when you can focus on it.
- Affiliate Income is Great During Holidays: I knew this one, but didn’t focus much on affiliate income in the past. Basically, affiliatre income does reallyw ell during the holidays and even my site that’s more focused on software is a testament to that.
- YouTube is a Jerk: Though we’re very happy that themed YouTube channel 2 is able to be monetized, it was kind of annoying that we had a video go viral last month and made nothing off of it. I calculated it and based on our earnings per 1000 views, it would have been an addition $350 dollars if we were already monetized, which would have been nice.
What are your goals for the month? What questions do you have? Let me know in the comments below!
2022 Goals
Considering this is the final income report of 2021, I want to take the time to give myself goals for this year.
- Be present for my newborn baby. In April we are due to have our first child and I’ve never had to divide my time with a child before. 2022 is the first time I will do this and it’s a goal of mine to better manage my time so that I’m able to watch my baby grow.
- By year-end earn revenue of $50,000 in a single month from my online business. This does not include income from selling any sites if I decide to do so. I’d like to consistently make $50,000 per month by end of the year, but I’ll settle for a single month as my goal.
- Grow websites 6 and 8 to over 100,000 page views each month by the end of the year. Both of these sites can explode in growth if I put the time in, so I’ll make that a focus for 2022.
What are your goals for the month? What questions do you have? Let me know in the comments below!
Want to Start a Blog?
If you’re looking to create your own blog/online business and want to get started quickly, I suggest you sign up for my FREE course, IGNITION.