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March was a bloodbath.  

Like many of you, my websites were impacted by the virus that's going around and unfortunately, there's no end in sight at this point in time.  

Simply put, it sucks.  But I also realize that I'm in a much better place than most people who have completely lost their jobs, so I am going to refrain from complaining too much.

As a whole, my revenue was down 26.17% month over month and I think April will bring that number closer to 50%.  

But it's not all doom and gloom.

My two newest websites (Sites 7 and 8) had their best months yet and website 5 had it's third best month ever. 

The problem really is that my biggest website got hammered due to the virus and this is exactly why I've been working hard to diversify, especially in 2020.  

***The income numbers for February-June of 2020 are not accurate due to an "invalid click" issue I had with Google Adsense.  Revising the entire report is not realistic, so you can see the actual income numbers updated here***

You can watch the YouTube Video Here:

Personal Life Update

  • Myself and my wife have been bored, but safe during the lock-down.  Our home remodeling ended last month and though we have some touch ups to do, we've spent most of our time working or relaxing.
  • Had my accountant finish my taxes in March, that also sucked and was very expensive.
  • Cooking more and eating at home quite a bit more than usual.
  • Mentioned how we were considering a second house, that's on hold right now until we see how the economy does and business rebounds.

Before I begin the actual report, If you’d like to begin a similar journey as myself and try to create a passive income online business, I recommend you read this write-up I did.

It explains the truth about online business and should help educate you before you move forward with anything.

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.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s dive into the report.

How did the Income Report Turn Out This Month?

PRODUCT OR SERVICEREVENUEEXPENSESNET INCOME
Aweber Email Platform$15.00$15.00
Website 4 Amazon FBA Sales$90.84$90.84
Thrive Themes$207.50$207.50
Consulting$2,000.00$2000.00
Partners and Affiliates Revenue
Website 6 Partners and Affiliates$24.68$24.68
Website 8 Partners and Affiliates$61.30$61.30
Website 5 Partners and Affiliates$152.14$152.14
OHP Partners and Affiliates$171.40$171.40
Website 3 Partners and Affiliates$177.60$177.60
Website 4 Partners and Affiliates$405.45$405.45
Website 1 Partners and Affiliates$7,251.15$7,251.15
YouTube Revenue
YT Channel - Thalita$1.35 $1.35
OHP YouTube Channel$322.79$322.79
Media.net Revenue
Website 4 Media.net Ad Revenue$3.02$3.02
Website 3 Media.net Ad Revenue$10.74$10.74
Website 1 Media.net Ad Revenue$87.50$87.50
Google Adsense Revenue
Website 8 Adsense Revenue$0$0
Website 6 Adsense Revenue$0$0
Website 9 Adsense Revenue$2.37$2.37
OHP Adsense Revenue$7.38$7.38
Website 2 Adsense Revenue$20.26$20.26
Website 4 Adsense Revenue$129.84$129.84
Website 5 Adsense Revenue$447.29$447.29
Website 7 Adsense Revenue$482.14$482.14
Website 3 Adsense Revenue$1,056.15$1,056.15
Website 1 Adsense Revenue$8,390.60$13,638.48
Software Expenses
Adobe Photoshop Account$10.61-$10.61
Mailshake Email Software$12.00-$12.00
Tailwind Pinterest Marketing App$14.99-$14.99
Manage WP$15.30-$15.30
Epidemic Sound$30.00-$30.00
Deadline Funnel$37.00-$37.00
Upwork Premium Employer Plan$49.00-$49.00
Vid IQ YouTube Software$49.00-$49.00
Google Business Drive Storage and Apps$60.10-$60.10
Intuit Quick Books$85.00-$85.00
Shutterstock Monthly Subscription$125.00-$125.00
Siteground Hosting$155.00-$155.00
Active Campaign$225.00-$225.00
Kinsta Hosting$300.00-$300.00
Advertising Expenses
Facebook Ads$44.27-$44.27
Freelance Labor Expenses
Freelance Research, Editing, Video Production, and Misc. Labor$690.50-$690.50
Freelance Writing$4,073.83-$4,073.83
TOTALS$21,518.49$5,976.60$15,541.89
Revenue By ChannelWebsite 1Website 3OHP WebsiteWebsite 4Website 2Website 5Website 6Website 7Website 8Website 9ConsultingUdemyYouTube
March 2020$15,729.25$1,244.49$401.28$629.15$20.26$599.43$24.68$482.14$61.30$2.37$2,000.000$324.14
February 2020$22,548.73$2,139.96$261.22$435.32$36.03$543.09$49.32$467.75$0$3.05$2,000.00$0.00$340.49
January 2020$20,512.80$2,646.41$1,334.33$1045.23$12.35$541.68$9.13$382.79$0$2.35$3,240.00$0.00$264.30
December 2019$19,383.27
$2,026.21
$934.81
$1,864.92
$9.36
$694.61
$78.56
$304.53
$2,575.00
$17.69
$202.66
November 2019$21,920.53 $2,173.90 $602.88$1,338.93 $15.77 $617.31 $182.80
$196.02
$0$21.59 $358.91
October 2019$23,620.75$2,546.04$1,073.56$711.71$72.89$230.27$84.62$58.41$300.00$30.00$202.14
September 2019$21,006.31 $2,627.86 $335.35 $585.93 $14.72 $170.04 $50.33 $17.80 $0$35.00 $177.05
August 2019$17,817.28 $2,590.92 $414.58 $553.82 $23.67 $133.92 $97.26
$2.57
$275.00
$40.00
$156.00
July 2019$16,855.42$3,652.24$427.66$574.78$17.16$74.26$76.00$2.10$0$35$130.26
June 2019$15,402.28$5,561.07$709.07$562.63$30.74$46.29$100.19$0$0$141.46
May 2019$17,578.97 $4,900.70 $1,062.34 $749.14 $22.25 $61.17 $35.71$0
$0$116.02
April 2019$16,273.68$4,078.83$239.73$700.42$9.53$46.05$0$0$76.86
March 2019$17,006.79$3,620.30 $439.88$931.22 $19.98$152.99 $0$20.24$76.24
February 2019$15,656.00$2,799.98$551.53$647.94$15.68$291.72$0$28.75$65.63
January 2019$16,483.03 $3,280.64 $469.30$1,009.83$10.41$401.91$600.00$45.75$76.52
December 2018$11,776.03$2,488.53$483.96$2,078.19$20.16$487.37$0$98.43$73.60
November 2018$12,886.78$2,324.75$657.86$789.26$10.67$386.31$0$205.87$79.91
October 2018$13,246.69$3,135.04
$369.22$747.29$15.46$306.89$150$93.27$83.86
September 2018$11,784.71$3,853.20$321.67$628.97$0.00$210.72$175$14.94$82.99
August 2018$11,556.29$3,266.47$512.72$980.89$5.31$39.81$0$97.18$93.63
July 2018$12,864.08$4,991.15$722.76$707.66$8.05$26.84$0$91.48$84.33
June 2018$11138.00$6,858.01$432.01$797.02$11.06$52.42$0$50.92$95.96
May 2018$9152.94$4,288.26$391.63$699.19$6.96$40.23$0$44.40$100.82
April 2018$9637.30$2,028.65$545.01$804.71$11.74$236.23$0$24.90$85.48
March 2018$14236.64$778.01$380.29$1362.83$13.78$224.68$0$80.61$94.79
February 2018$10918.94$382.03 $644.36 $838.51 $22.27 $454.08 $0$23.90$86.86
January 2018$7993.31
$467.71
$757.59
$718.04
$14.26
$486.99
$0$113.95
$67.06
December 2017$6707.43$432.22$785.74$555.72$28.50$114.05$0$59.21$96.12
November 2017$7545.13$574.91$480.41$479.34$17.70$4.31$0$187.01$90.40
October 2017$6859.17$617.67$265.38$319.02$13.06$0$135.59$66.71
September 2017$6781.51$348.16$673.87$223.95$11.31$0$81.39$58.13
August 2017$7429.92$391.68$945.04$181.93$16.36$0$133.91$63.57
July 2017$5658.64$344.91$1055.57$85.84$58.55$1,496.38$41.80$94.84
June 2017$5924.41$423.04$403.84$31.71$11.87$600.00$148.88$79.81
May 2017$6805.18$214.18$79.00$9.67$8.71$51.50$76.08$82.58
April 2017$8175.11$116.65$106.71$3.57$0$80.25$57.76
March 2017$9527.42$224.16$355.12$6.43$0$137.29$59.11
February 2017$3726.98$160.48$438.54$32.99$125$165.43$52.40
January 2017$4005.52$104.19$267.33$0$222.20$41.60
December 2016$3553.43$52.63$384.57$125.00$138.07$41.32
November 2016$3778.45$22.10$357.77$125.00$259.26$48.13
October 2016$3841.36$1.37$213.88$126.00$238.90$48.92
September 2016$3102.56$402.32$112.01$271.02$57.14
August 2016$3318.70$44.72$731.05$423.49$55.08
July 2016$3353.06$347.47$135.19$186.34$52.12
June 2016$3219.41$132.77$330.00$397.55$72.22
May 2016$4677.02$253.67$206.25$135.25$75.89
April 2016$5008.23$286.38$497.50$353.02$62.52
March 2016$2311.67$265.29$556.75$301.06$60.14
February 2016$2760.21$250.70$431.25$324.58$62.00
January 2016$233.00$117.58$1140.00$400.97$46.19
December 2015$121.30$76.00$1163.75$17.15$38.83
November 2015$138.11$39.00$1150.25$245.68$36.78
October 2015$107.72$89.54$760.50$49.50$40.65
September 2015$102.95$113.10$1112.32$17.49$27.46
August 2015$39.68$51.75$1463.75$12.05$25.09

Project Updates

Website 1 Update

  • Website had 47% less traffic MoM and will likely fall even more this month.  Think this is due to the fact that it's in the employment niche.
  • Supposed to be recession proof, interestingly enough it hasn't mattered with current circumstances.
  • Have also seen a loss in some rankings from SEO perspective.  Oddly, two of my worst competitors are ahead of me as of this moment.  
  • PLAN: Continue revising content to make the content better.  Wait things out and hope things get better.

Table of last 13 months of progress:

MonthPageviewsReferring DomainsTotal Earnings
Mar-20227,545752$15,729.25
Feb-20435,145781$22,548.73
Jan-20320,773759$20,512.80
Dec-19246,409746$19,383.27
Nov-19269,639718$21,920.53
Oct-19323,681669$23,620.75
Sep-19309,050651$21,006.31
Aug-19296,076659$17,817.28
Jul-19302,646623$16,855.42
Jun-19270,447602$15,402.28
May-19296,686594$17,578.97
Apr-19270,983638$16,273.68
Mar-19257,616639$17,006.79
Feb-19254,351604$15,656.00

Udemy Update

I don’t focus on Udemy any longer. They sell my courses for too cheap.

OneHourProfessor Website Update

Website 3 Update

  • Monumetric was a monumetric failure.  Couldn’t stay on par with Adsense, think it may have been the niche.
  • 41% decrease in earnings I think due to ad rates as traffic was only a drop of 6%.
  • PLAN: Continue to publish new content once a week.

Graph of the last 13 months of progress:

MonthPageviewsReferring DomainsTotal Earnings
Mar-20136593576$1,244.49
Feb-20144411575$2,139.96
Jan-20184147571$2,646.41
Dec-19125286556$2,026.21
Nov-19125330535$2,173.90
Oct-19138041494$2,546.04
Sep-19143883417$2,627.86
Aug-19152799424$2,590.92
Jul-19191629432$3,652.24
Jun-19256176427$5,561.07
May-19257171421$4,900.70
Apr-19194433482$4,078.83
Mar-19174087473$3,620.30
Feb-19141825405$2,799.98

Website 4 Update

  • Earnings rose 44% and traffic increased 9%.  
  • Seems that affiliate websites (for now) are positively impacted.  Depends solely on content of website and could fluctuate as Amazon adjusts strategy
  • PLAN: Nothing for now, need to focus on bigger projects.

Graph of the last 13 months of progress:

MonthPageviewsReferring DomainsTotal Earnings
Mar-2042,865302$629.15
Feb-2039,358304$435.32
Jan-2045,034316$1,045.23
Dec-1939,787311$1,864.92
Nov-1945,328305$1,338.93
Oct-1954243273$711.71
Sep-1952337248$585.93
Aug-1952905244$553.82
Jul-1950016266$574.78
Jun-1947102269$562.63
May-1951419260$749.14
Apr-1951688286$700.42
Mar-1956758283$931.22
Feb-1955893250$647.94

Website 5 Update

  • Earnings rose 10% while traffic fell 7%.
  • New writer and editor are doing very well.  Writer is most expensive I’ve had and costs around $100/article, but seems to be working out well thus far.
  • Third best revenue month on record for website and best amazon affiliate commissions ever.
  • PLAN: Will continue to monitor to see if new content is performing.  Will be the first thing to cut if I need to reduce expenses. 

Graph of the last 13 months of progress:

MonthPageviewsReferring DomainsTotal Earnings
Mar-2058922428$599.43
Feb-2063597412$543.09
Jan-2070411412$541.68
Dec-1972621416$694.61
Nov-1961908412$617.31
Oct-1951442379$230.27
Sep-1941366357$170.04
Aug-1931226350$133.92
Jul-194171328$74.26
Jun-195443311$46.29
May-196847318$61.17
Apr-1914922346$46.05
Mar-1941295372$152.99
Feb-1972698379$291.72

Website 6 Update

  • Earnings dropped 50%, traffic dropped 16%.
  • This website is still very confusing.  Jumps all over the place.
  • Took action to adjust many affiliate links to Amazon.  Previously was using RewardsStyle (fashion) network, decided to try this new strategy.
  • How Much Have I Invested in This Website: $5,986
  • How Much Money Has This Website Made? $788
  • Total ROI: -$5,198
  • How Much Content is on the Website? Keep in mind this website is mostly focused on affiliate content with some informational content.
    • 216 Blog posts
  • PLAN: Continue to invest in content.  Watching to see if Amazon Associates performs better than RewardStyle.  If it does, will adjust all links.  Also considering strategy change to beauty projects, want to see if Amazon performs first.

Below is a summary of the website so far:

MonthPageviewsReferring DomainsTotal Earnings
Mar-205278269$24.68
Feb-206244275$49.32
Jan-207884272$9.13
Dec-197287257$78.56
Nov-197681235$182.80
Oct-195184191$84.62
Sep-194915148$50.33
Aug-194591136$97.26
Jul-19643292$76.00
Jun-19791487$100.19
May-19598973$35.71

Website 7 Update

  • Best month yet for the second month in a row.
  • Traffic down 22% but earnings up 3%.  Traffic has bounced back and should continue to climb.
  • Create a potentially viral piece of content related to Coronavirus.  Will be sharing on social media and reaching out to news outlets in an effort of syndication.
  • How Much Have I Invested in This Website: $19,804
  • How Much Money Has This Website Made? $1,913
  • Total ROI: $-17,891
  • How Much Content is on the Website: Keep in mind that this is an informational type of website, not affiliate related at all.
    • 746 Informational pages on the website
    • 77 Informational Blog Posts
  • PLAN
    • Continue to invest in content.  Could cut back a bit on this if needed, but for now will keep pushing as it is making more money each month.  

Below is a summary of the website so far:

MonthPageviewsReferring DomainsTotal Earnings
Mar-2028642125$482.14
Feb-2036935122$467.75
Jan-2033069114$382.79
Dec-1923112109$304.53
Nov-191830897$196.02
Oct-19911867$58.41
Sep-19518546$17.80
Aug-19316340$2.57
Jul-19246422$2.10
Jun-19161810$0.00
May-1923937$0.00
Apr-1920452$0.00

Website 8 Update 

  • New writer doing well with content.  Pushing out 4 articles a week at this point.  Have editor to help monitor content prior to publishing.
  • Six months into the website and I’ve started (slowly) doing some link building.  
  • Had a shockingly high amount of revenue based on content of website (all informational) and website age.  Very encouraged to see this trend. Not a ton of revenue, but this early?  That has me very excited.
  • All affiliate commissions have come from Bing/Yahoo.  Still not in Google’s good graces, but positive early signs.
  • How Much Have I Invested in This Website: $1,979
  • How Much Money Has This Website Made? $61
  • Total ROI: -$1,918
  • How Much Content is on the Website? Keep in mind this website is mostly focused on affiliate content with some informational content. 
    • 48 Informational Blog Posts
  • PLAN: Continue pushing content.  My hope is that this last month wasn’t an outlier and if I see consistent growth month over month, I will spend thousands of dollars monthly on content for this website.  It’s a MASSIVE niche with a LOT of room to grow.
MonthPageviewsReferring DomainsTotal Earnings
Mar-2011871$61.30
Feb-203981$0.00
Jan-205141$0.00
Dec-195281$0.00
Nov-1920$0.00
Oct-1900$0.00

Thalita YouTube Channel

If you’re wondering why my wife’s YouTube Channel is included in my income reports, it’s because it’s all part of the same business.  For more details, look at the Thalita YouTube Channel update on this income report when I introduced it. 

  • Total ROI: -$9,157
  • PLAN: Stopping the focus on the channel and moving to other projects.

OneHourProfessor YouTube Channel

  • Subscribers decreased slightly MoM by 1.5%
  • Earnings decreased by 6%, but views increased by 5%
  • How Much Have I Invested in This YouTube Channel: $1096
  • How Much Money Has This YouTube Channel Made? $1370
  • Total ROI: $274
  • How Much Content is on the YouTube Channel?
    • 88 Videos
  • Subscriber Updates
    • Subs this month: 257
    • Total Subscribers: 6,283

Below are the metrics of the YouTube channel so far:

MonthViewsTotal SubscribersEarnings
Mar-2016,663257$322.79
Feb-2015,838261$343.06
Jan-2015,625419$235.19
Dec-1912,164162$165.18
Nov-1911,104129$154.62
Oct-1910,897148$149.41

DM YouTube Channel

  • This channel is no longer a focus.  Thalita is focusing on Tiktok now and I am going to pull this off of income reports.

 

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.

  • “Recession Proof” websites…aren’t actually recession proof.
  • The United States is woefully unprepared when it comes to pandemics.
  • Websites are incredibly valuable in bad economic times.

Did I Meet my Goals for March?

Create content calendar:  SUCCESS

Outsource video publishing on YouTube:  SUCCESS – though not perfect.  Still training, but much better than doing it all myself.

Finalize article revisions process workflow:  SUCCESS.  Freelancer is doing mini article briefs prior to writing to research correctly.

What Are my Goals for April?

Revise Website 7 Core Functionality:  Want to change main data gathering function from users.

Heavily Monitor Income:  With current situation, need to pay special attention to revenue to make sure I’m Profitable.

Make Sure Freelancers are Doing Well:  This was a surprise even to me, but my biggest worry about my business during all of this hasn’t been my drop in income.  Instead, it’s been on making sure my freelancers are okay.  

What are your goals for the month?  What questions do you have?  Let me know in the comments below!

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