Well, frankly…….May was a month I look forward to forgetting.  I had professional issues, personal issues, and really it was the old saying “when it rains, it pours” really made sense. 

• The recent Google Algorithm update shows that one of my sites I’m very much actively working on lost 80% of its traffic (I’d love to hear if you are impacted by the Google algorithm update in the comments at the end of this post as well.)
• All sites but one lost at least 10% of their traffic due to the Google Algo update.
• My family and I dealt with COVID and I had a weird illness afterwards.
• I’m dealing with creative and professional burnout.

Frankly put, this month absolutely sucked from a business standpoint and wasn’t too great from a personal standpoint either. 

I’ll dive into the details within the report, but this one is definitely one of those “down” months for me.  Things are starting to get better in June, but it was a rough one.

This month my total income after expenses was $20,723, which comes out to $668 in profit per day.

Obviously, that’s not bad and my income wasn’t too negatively impacted, but recent developments will definitely impact revenue in the future.

I should mention before we begin, if you’re looking to start your own blog, make sure you check out my free IGNITION course today.

It was a crappy month from a personal level. 

My family and I finally got Covid, and it wasn’t pretty.

Basically, what happened is a friend of mine was visiting Vegas on a work trip and he stayed five days over at her house.  While he was here, him and I went out quite a few times to gamble and eat and do other things you’d do when someone visits Vegas.

We had a great time and I have no regrets on that.

However, Covid is still painfully real, and it was something that caught me by surprise and really knocked me on my butt.

Long story short, the day that my friend was leaving I started to feel pretty crappy and told my wife to stay away from me just in case it was Covid.  Frankly, I didn’t think it would be, but I figured it was a good idea to do this as a precaution.

Fast forward 24 hours and I felt like death.  I didn’t go to the hospital or anything like that, but Covid really knocked me on my butt for a couple of days.

I was extremely tired and every time I got up, I felt like fainting.  I barely ate and didn’t want to leave the room that I was in for fear of infecting my wife, baby Saara, and her visiting mother.

But none of that mattered.

I showed Covid symptoms first, Saara ran a slight fever for two days, and then my wife and her mom got Covid as well.

This sucked.  I was extremely stressed out because I felt terrible for not only bringing this home, but also introducing it to our newborn baby.  I can’t imagine how guilty I would have felt if she had to go to the hospital or something.

Beyond that, I had to cancel my mother-in-law’s trip home and cancel trips for my dad and my own mom to visit because of this Covid situation.

I’m happy to say that although Covid wasn’t pleasant, we were all able to get over it within 10 days and we’re all feeling better now.

After I got done with my bout of Covid I ended up in the emergency room for Epiploic Appendagitis.  This is an extremely rare health condition that is similar to diverticulitis, but instead impacts the sacks on the outside of the colon and not the inside.

While going through it, it felt like someone was jamming a knife into my stomach repeatedly and wasn’t letting up.  They gave me medication to handle it and thankfully I’m feeling better.  I’m back to working out and it feels good to have a sense of normally in life again.

For what it’s worth, I have no idea what I would’ve done if I was working for a traditional employer and had all of these health issues.  Sure, employers offer sick time, but passive income was an absolute necessity in order to survive this month.

That’s all for the personal update.

In terms of the Google algorithm update, I’m seeing a 13% traffic loss on the site which isn’t terrible but I’m not thrilled about it.

The numbers for OHP were good this month but slightly lower than last month.  I don’t think this is enough of a dip to be concerned about, but obviously, I’m not thrilled to see any downturn in the site, considering how actively I’m working on it.

• Pageviews increased MoM by 4% to 69k.
• This month I earned: $12,322. Earnings decreased MoM by 4%. 
• EPM decreased MoM to $177

PLAN:  In the month of June, I plan on continuing to publish new content, but I’m going to start adding more informational content to the site as well.  For months I’ve been having my team focused primarily on transactional content like reviews and software roundups which is lucrative but doesn’t give a ton of value or create dedicated followers.

I’m going to start assigning both informational and transactional posts to my team in an effort to split the content up a little bit further.  At the end of the day, I want my site to be informational for newbies, but also helpful for those looking to purchase different types of business software.

It’s a balance that I’ve lost in the last few months, but I’m looking to improve on that.

In addition, I’m doing my absolute best to get more involved with my email list. 

At this point, I have over 5,000 subscribers and each of these people has gone through one of my mini-courses.  Previously, once someone finished my mini-course, they sat on my email list and did nothing.  Now, I’m working to publish additional insights and tips/tricks each week to give them even more value for things that readers won’t find on the blog.

So far it’s going pretty well, but this eventually all has to translate into course sales, and I haven’t made that leap yet. 

In terms of the Google algorithm update, I’m seeing a 28% traffic increase on the site which is good, but kind of silly considering I haven’t worked on the site much at all for years.

I have done nothing on this site for at least 12 months except add Ezoic and it continues to print money for me.

• Pageviews increased MoM by 14% to 200k.
• This month I earned: $4,992. Earnings increased MoM by 15%. 
• EPM decreased MoM to $24.85

PLAN:  I’m going to keep publishing one blog post per week for the site and let this one run passively with my team.   

In terms of the Google algorithm update, I’m seeing a 1% traffic loss on the site which is negligible. 

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 let it sit as I work on my other projects.

• Pageviews decreased MoM by 10% to 52k.
• This month I earned: $775. Earnings decreased MoM by 34%. 
• EPM decreased MoM to $14.93

PLAN:  This site is currently 100% passive and I do not work on it.  I’ve noticed a downward trend the last few months and I’m hoping that Google reverses this in the site starts to get more traffic again.

In terms of the Google algorithm update, I’m seeing a 58% traffic loss on the site which is catastrophic.  I’m extremely frustrated by this and it’s pushed me into a state of frustration that I’ve never experienced before with my online business.

I know that my content is as good or better than all of my competitors.  I started to slowly build some links to the site but never went overboard and most of it was HARO link building or featuring my own work within guest posts. 

I’ve never once in my career had a site impacted so heavily by Google algorithm update and now, I know what it feels like to have a site that you work so hard on completely decimated. 

It’s a very weird feeling to deal with this and I’m really not sure exactly how to react.  I have a plan moving forward that I’ll get into, but I have absolutely no idea if anything’s going to work.  I think this is the most frustrating thing.

While I understand Google wants to make their search better, the fact that they give absolutely no insight for those impacted by a core algorithm update on a way to fix what happened is extremely frustrating. 

How can I fix something if I have no idea what’s wrong? 

I ask these questions, but I also know that Google just doesn’t care.  My measly little site means nothing to their search engine ecosystem and I just have to adapt.

• This month I earned: $991. Earnings decreased MoM by 18% but this is going to crater in July by at least 70%.
• EPM decreased MoM to $19.81
• How Much Have I Invested in This Website: $8,636 ($800 Content budget each month)
• How Much Money Has This Website Made? $8,400
• Total ROI: -$236 (If I were to sell the website today, I have no idea what it would sell for as I’m dealing with the impact of the algo update)
• How Much Content is on the Website? 270 informational blog posts

My link building for this site is definitely going to slow down a lot. 

In the past few months I’ve been building links from reputable sites primarily pointing to the homepage in an effort to build up the domain reputation, but it seems like this may have backfired on me.

Of course I’m not sure of this….

But this is the only thing that I’ve done that I think might not be okay with Google.  The content is good, the site structure is good, the interlinking is good, but the backlinks are coming from irrelevant sources.

PLAN: My plan for this site moving forward is to focus on guest posting on reputable niche websites related to this niche.  I’m no longer going to focus on HARO link building or including any links in my own guest posts I write otherwise.

I really have no idea why the site was hit so hard, but the only thing that I can think of is not having relevant backlinks.  I looked at some of my competitors and they did this to, but they have more backlinks from sites that are closely related to the niche so that’s what I’m going to take action on.

I looked over the content extensively to make sure that I wasn’t posting things that could be considered AI or that my writer was writing things that weren’t of high quality, but I just can’t find it.

I think that’s what’s so disheartening about the site. 

When I look at everything from a bird’s eye view it all looks okay, but obviously something’s going on and I need to figure out how to fix it to reverse the current traffic trend. 

In terms of the Google algorithm update, I’m seeing a 22% traffic loss on the site which is very frustrating as well.  Again, because Google gives no insight whatsoever, I’m not sure what to make of it.

Another month down and yet another decrease in traffic to the site.  While it’s only 4%, this is a trend that has continued for four months in a row and I’m not exactly sure why. 

The content that we’re creating is just as good as ever and the site is focusing on a lot of underserved topics so I would think that things would be going positively.

But they are not.

• Pageviews decreased MoM by 4% to 142k.
• This month I earned: $5,733. Earnings decreased MoM by 10%. 
• EPM declined MoM to $40.40
• How Much Have I Invested in This Website: $46,760 ($1800 Content budget each month)
• How Much Money Has This Website Made? $90,874
• Total ROI: $44,114 (If I were to sell the website today, I can assume I’d sell for an estimated $229,000. Which means a net gain of about $273,000)
• How Much Content is on the Website: Keep in mind that this is an informational type of website, not affiliate related at all.
  • 1837 Informational pages on the website
  • 175 Informational Blog Posts

PLAN: For now, content needs to continue to move forward, but I’m looking at potentially reducing the content output for this site soon.  It was easy to invest heavily into the site as it was continually growing and making more money, but now that I’m seeing a downward trend that was exasperated by the Google algorithm update, I’m debating if a pullback is necessary. 

Not taking any action yet but we’ll see how the month of June ends up before making that decision.

In terms of the Google algorithm update, I’m seeing an 8% traffic loss on the site which isn’t terrible, but I’m annoyed by it, of course.

There wasn’t much to be happy about this month with website 8.  While it had quite a jump in April, May definitely was a different story and both earnings and traffic fell for the month. 

In addition, my writer for the site decided to quit in May because she wanted to move on to bigger and better things in her career. Considering the site hasn’t been making much money, I haven’t taken the time to try to hire anybody new at this moment.

• Pageviews decreased MoM by 11% to 10k.
• This month I earned: $187. Earnings decreased MoM by 44%. 
• EPM decreased MoM to $18.68
• How Much Have I Invested in This Website: $10,164 (No content production at the moment)
• How Much Money Has This Website Made? $2,309
• Total ROI: -$7,855 (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 $800)
• How Much Content is on the Website? Keep in mind this website is mostly focused on affiliate content with some informational content. 
  • 319 Informational Blog Posts

PLAN:  For now, this site is going to sit, and we’ll see how it does.  From a general standpoint, I would think that this site will increase in traffic quite a bit because we’ve gone after so many long-tail terms with content, but that just hasn’t been the result so far.

I may do some link building here and there with the site, but it’s going to be very few and far between, and I don’t see a need to push too hard here as I’d rather just see how search engines handle the site itself.

In terms of the Google algorithm update, I’m seeing a 20% traffic loss on the site.  Not a huge deal because it’s a small site, but it’s not a good thing.

• Pageviews increased MoM by 1% to 801.
• This month I earned: $26. Earnings increased MoM by 136%. 
• EPM increased MoM to $32.46
• How Much Content is on the Website?
  • 25 Informational Blog Posts
• PLAN: This site is currently 100% passive and I do not work on it. 

In terms of the Google algorithm update, I’m seeing a 19% traffic loss on the site.  Another loser and frankly, almost all of my sites lost traffic on this algo update. 

I really don’t have much to report on this site in the month of April.  I’ve done nothing for it and it really hasn’t done anything for me either.  My hope is that it will continue to age well with time.

• Pageviews increased MoM by 38% to 2.6k.
• This month I earned: $0. This site is not yet monetized. 
• EPM remained at $0.
• How Much Content is on the Website?
  • 33 Informational Blog Posts

PLAN:  As of this point, I am having this site sit, and we’ll see how it grows over time.  There’s been nothing produced on the site for a while in terms of content and I’m continuing to build links to it when I get the opportunities.

Views maintained for the OneHourProfessor YouTube channel this month.  As of now, I have no plans to return but that may change in the future.

• Views decreased MoM by 8% to 14.8k.
• This month I earned: $349. Earnings decreased MoM by 13%. 
• Subscriber growth decreased MoM by 2%
• How Much Have I Invested in This YouTube Channel: $3,927
• How Much Money Has This YouTube Channel Made? $15,061
• Total ROI: $11,134 (If I were to sell the channel today, I can assume I’d sell for an estimated $10k. Which means a net gain of about $21k)

PLAN: At this point, I must stay away from publishing new content on my channel.  My sites take a ton of my mental capacity, and history has shown I’m more skilled in this area.

This channel continues to perform poorly, and we’re just letting it sit.  There is no reason to focus on it; the earnings and views aren’t close to making this a sustainable or profitable channel.  If you’re interested in building an outsourced YouTube channel like this (I’d advise that you be careful on the niche selection), I recommend you check out this webinar.

• Views decreased MoM by 25% to 7.4k.
• This month I earned: $12. Earnings remained the same MoM. 
• Subscriber growth decreased MoM by 4%
• How Much Have We Invested in This YouTube Channel: $4,100 (We’ve stopped investing here)
• How Much Money Has This YouTube Channel Made? $81
• Total ROI: -$4,019 (If I were to sell the channel today, I can assume I’d sell for an estimated $400. Which means a net loss of about $3,600)

PLAN:  For now, this channel is simply going to sit.  I’d love to continue to work on it, but the channel itself appears to be flawed.  Even if we’re able to get a significant number of views on the channel, the earnings per thousand views are in the range of $2 to $3, which just isn’t enough.

Lessons Learned

Every month, I will reflect back and tell you a few lessons 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.

• Algorithm Updates Can Destroy People and Businesses: To say that I didn’t get upset/depressed by the recent algorithm update is a lie.  Nearly all of my sites are on a downward trend and it’s making me doubt everything I’ve worked for since 2014.  While I understand Google needs to improve results, I find it very odd that this update hit every site but one of them negatively, and that’s the site I haven’t touched in years. 
  
  I’m seeing similar sentiment from most people and it really seems like Google did a major shakeup here where most of the smaller sites got hit. 
  
  And the worst part? 
  
  I have no recourse and no idea how to fix it.  This was a very rough month to and I’ve been doing the “bare minimum” the last few weeks to stay away from the negativity created by my current business situation. 
  
  I know I’ll bounce back, but a part of me almost said F*** it and put all of my sites up for sale this month instead of trying to find a way back. 
  
  I’m not going to of course, but it absolutely crossed my mind.  Instead, I’m going to work less, spend more time with my daughter, and focus on getting perspective.
  
  
• Online Businesses Have Downturns: Just like physical businesses, online businesses have downturns, and we have to be prepared for them.  While I’m sickened by the current results of my online business portfolio, I just have to take a few deep breathes and let some time pass to make me feel better.
  
  Thankfully I have quite a bit of money saved for times like this, but it hasn’t been easy as of late.  If you’re struggling as well, tell me what’s going on in the comments.  I won’t have a ton of advice on how to make things better, but at least I know I’m not alone with my suffering. 
    
• Even Diversification Can be Threatened: I’ve always been a huge fan of diversifying my online business.  Not just having various sites in different niches, but also having a presence on Google and YouTube. 
  
  However, as you’ve seen in my reports over the last few months and with this algorithm, you can’t always plan for the downturns like this. 
  
  That said, I’m absolutely thrilled I wasn’t only working on Website 6 at this time.  I can’t imagine how defeating it would feel to be working your butt off on a project and Google comes along and decimates the entire project with an algorithm update and you have no recourse.