It is time for another income report. As you all know, my income reports detail how much I earn through this blog and through the freelance services I promote through this blog.
January was certainly a month of ups and downs. The low point occurred on 26 January when this blog received a DDoS attack. The following day, Rise Forums was taken down too.
Due to this, my websites were offline for a couple of days and I had to spend a long time securing my servers. However, if I look at this incident positively, I am more knowledgeable about protecting my websites and my websites should be more secure in the future.
I do know who performed this attack. A part of me wants to publicly share all the information I have about the guy, however I do not want to get involved in a tit for tat fight. Especially when this person has nothing to lose.
I will, however, be contacting the authorities with all the information I have about the attack.
Without further ado, let us take a closer look at how this blog performed in January 2015.
Traffic Statistics
In December 2014, I published 34 blog posts and back in November I published 39. However, in January 2015 I only published 22 blog posts.
This included a detailed review of Nelio A/B Testing and an overview of how to make money with an online arcade.
Publishing less content was a conscious decision. I noticed that publishing more blog posts was costing me more money and taking up more of my time. Yet my traffic levels have not changed since July. I was effectively making less money through this blog as a result of this.
In my blog post “It’s Time to Focus on High Quality Content“, I spoke in detail of the need to reduce my posting frequency and publish longer more in-depth articles. This is something I hope to implement over the coming months.
Despite publishing 35% less content and experiencing an attack that put my websites offline for a few days, my traffic increased in January. This is partly due to the fact that people are usually busy spending time with family and friends in December.
- Sessions (Visits) – 26,351 (+1,230)
- Users (Unique Visits) – 22,765 (+1,306)
- Pageviews – 36,888 (+1,089)
Readership & Social Media
I have seen a lot of blogs removing their Facebook page since Facebook has become such a poor way to connect with readers.
The Blog Tyrant, Ramsay, recently advised keeping your Facebook page, however the idea of removing my page from Facebook appeals to me. Particularly since Facebook sends no traffic and is very problematic (post updates are frequently missed due to the Facebook API not working correctly).
Another issue I may have stumbled upon relates to my newsletter. I noticed recently that my subscription widget was not working. I was then informed that subscribers were not being accepted since GetResponse requires permission to use single opt-in in non-official solutions. What this means is that all of the subscribers that I have gathered via pop ups over the years have been lost.
I hope that is not the case, but if it is, my email list could be thousands of subscribers lower than it should be as a result of this. I am annoyed that I did not realise this sooner.
- Email Newsletter = 2,735 Subscribers (+105 subscribers)
- Facebook = 1,246 Followers (+28 Followers)
- Twitter = 2,279 Followers (+43 Followers)
- Google+ = 1,261 Followers (+24 Followers)
- YouTube = 45 Subscribers (-3 Subscribers)
Income & Expenses Details
In total, I earned $2,004.23 and my expenses were only $219. Therefore, my total profit was $1,785.23, which is $866.99 higher than December 2014.
Am I happy with this amount? No. My income is way too low. My aim is to be making several thousand dollars per month. I should not be scraping by with such little income.
Moving forward, I need to make a lot of changes to this blog and to how I approach freelancing. I am tempted to stop writing for others altogether and write for my own blog 100% of the time.
I need to review whether that is the best use of my time in the short term so that my income does not drop too much. However, without doubt, I will be much happier writing for myself.
Income
- Freelance Blogging = $550.00 (-$471.6)
- My Books – $62.15 (-$1.58). This includes digital and printed book sales.
- Affiliate Income = $492.08 (+$209.17)
- Advertising & Sponsored Posts = $800 (+$600)
Expenditure
- Writing Expenses (Guest Posts) = 200 (-$450.00)
- WordPress Plugin = $19 (+$19)
* Difference in income and expenditure from previous month shown in brackets.
Final Thoughts
January 2015 was a difficult month for me due to problems in my personal life. It is not something I want to discuss on this blog, however the problem did affect my work greatly as I lost all motivation to work. Thankfully, things are looking a little better now.
You all know that I am striving to make this blog more profitable and more popular. My other labour of love is Rise Forums. The forum is growing every week and I am excited by the high quality of internet marketers who have been signing up recently. If you have not already signed up, I encourage you to drop by, sign up, and introduce yourself.
A big thank you to Kris Hoja and Boris Beo who went out of their way to help me when my servers were attacked. I cannot thank you enough for the way you supported me through that ordeal.
As always, if you have any questions about this month’s report, please leave a comment below.
Thanks,
Kevin
awesome article!!
Hey Joe.
I appreciate your comment. I do understand that many people enjoyed the reports, but they had became such a chore. Perhaps I could do a review every month in which I look back at how things have developed.
Kevin
I was just looking back through the archives for your latest report only to find this comment.
I understand why you stopped doing them. I did enjoy reading them, but if you didn’t enjoy writing them, then fair enough!
Maybe you could do a quarterly update post where you outline what’s working for you and what isn’t, things you’ve learned from doing the blog, freelancing, and now doing the videos. Doesn’t have to include income details but maybe things you did that did generate revenue, or drive more traffic, subscribers, etc.
Cheers,
Joe
Hi Jason.
You are actually the first person to ask me about this :)
Yeah I stopped doing them. The main reason being that they became a chore. Every month it became a task that I did not want to do. It was boring curating all the figures and from a content point of view I felt that I was not helping anyone. Every month I was simply sharing how much I made and was not really giving any advice.
I realise that many readers enjoyed it, but the whole thing had become a pain for me. It is important for me to enjoy what I do with this blog. Otherwise I would lose interest. So I made the decision to devote my time to other things :)
Hi Kevin,
It’s so encouraging for us to see such income results. I am eventually seeing there is no income reports for feb and march?
have you stopped posting reports?
Thanks for the kind words Eric.
I have been trying to learn more about video and get more involved with that in the future. It’s an interesting medium and something which I am keen to do more of :)
Hi Kevin,
Just wanted to say that your decision is great, at least in the long run and it will benefit your readers.
I love reading your blog, always have.
I hope that you will quickly recover financially.
I hope that nothing major happened in personal life.
Keep up the good work mate!
Erik
Yes a lot of people found my blog in that way. It helps bring in visitors that are not aware of my work.
Hi Kevin, I just wanted to chip in about not blogging for other sites anymore, by observing that I first “found” you from the time you were providing quality content on the Elegant Themes blog. I then read some of your stuff on other blogs before following through and looking up your own site…
Hi Shahil,
If your blog will be updated by many different writers, it is better to use a brandable domain. And if anonymity is important to you, it is worth using an pseudonym/alias so that you can protect your real identity.
However, there are benefits to using your real name. For one, people will be more likely to trust you if you use your real name. Additionally, if you ever plan on launching a business or want to start networking with people, you will need to use your real name. I think people/companies are more likely to do business with David Smith than Jake123.
Best of luck with your blog. Be sure to drop by Rise Forums and say hello :)
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
I recently started following your blog and I must say that it has inspired me to start my own blog and to write great content, following the tips you share with your readers.
I do have a question for you though. I was wondering as you have made this self named blog with using your own name, so I wanted to ask whether is it a good idea for the people who are new to blogging to name the blog with thier own name or would it be better to pick a domain with a keyword?
I am a seller on Flippa (named genius327) and I plan to share my insights and business strategy on my blog. I also plan to share income reports like you as well.
Thanks.
Thanks for the kind words Warren.
My drop in income has come from me dropping freelancing gigs. In the short term, this will result in a drop in income, however my hope is that in the long term my income will increase by spending more time on my own blog.
Obviously, it can be a little frustrating to publish income reports when my income is lower. However, as you rightly say, I just need to ride through the storm. Plus I think my income reports will carry more weight in the future when my income does increase.
:)
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
I’m sorry to hear about the hardships you went through; but I want you to know, how much you and your blog has inspired me to further improve my own blog.
As the saying goes: “We will rise through the storm.” This setback will only make you stronger and more knowledgeable and experienced to further improve your business — which I think is leaps and bounds from other bloggers who would had easily given-up otherwise.
Perhaps one tip about your income…I’ve noticed in your past reports that your biggest earner comes from your freelance writing gigs. If I was observing that correctly, maybe you should consider focusing on that some more?
Your income has significantly dropped in that area. Was that due to not taking on more gigs?
Keep doing what you do man and as always…
Keep inspiring,
Warren