September 2013 Income Report

Another month has come and gone. That means it is time for me to reflect back on the previous month and see how things have improved since my August report.

The big news in September (for me anyway) was that I have started working full-time for a great company that runs many WordPress related blogs. It is a good position and I have enjoyed it so far. I mentioned my income reports to the owner and he has asked not to mention anything yet. This is understandable as the website I am currently working on for him has not been launched. I will hopefully let you guys know who I have started working for in the future :)

Traffic Statistics

My reduced posting frequency means that traffic has dropped for another month. I only published ten posts last month. Earlier this year I was publishing posts every day, so it is no surprise that traffic has dropped again. Most of the articles that were bringing in a lot of traffic just a few months ago have fallen out the rankings.

I am not too concerned about this as I know that if I resumed my old posting frequency, traffic would increase again. At the end of the day, you reap what you sow, and my attention has been on other things.

• Visits – 9,027 (-2,744)
• Unique Visits – 7,915 (-2,390)
• Pageviews – 25,961 (-7,177)

* Difference in traffic from previous month shown in brackets.

Last month my global Alexa rank was 88,105. It currently stands at 91,016.

Readership & Social Media

Due to the unreliability of Simple Feed Stats, I uninstalled the plugin. I’m keen to track RSS stats so I will look for another solution, though I am reluctant to use an external RSS service again after Feedburner.

The introduction of a newsletter pop up increased newsletter sign ups slightly, but not to the level I expected. I did, however, see an increase of Google+ followers despite using the service about twice a year.

• Email Newsletter = 1,892 Subscribers (+30 subscribers)
• Facebook = 320 Followers (+8 Followers)
• Twitter = 1,995 Followers (+9 Followers)
• Google+ = 505 Followers (+37 Followers)
• YouTube= 27 Subscribers (no change)

Income Details

The majority of my income still comes from freelance writing. Since I have taken up a full-time writing position, my income from freelance writing next month will be even higher. My total income for September was $2,779.85. This was an increase of $594.96 from August. Around two-thirds of this increase came from freelance writing. Despite traffic dropping, affiliate revenue was slightly higher, as was my income from books. Not by a huge margin, however any increase in revenue is a good thing; particularly when traffic dropped so much.

It was generated through:

• Freelance Blogging = $2,031.70 (+$379.60)
• Consultation = $150 (+$150)
• My Books – $207.57 (+$15.63). This includes digital and printed book sales.
• Affiliate Income = $290.58 (+$49.73)
• Advertising Revenue = $100 (no change)

* Difference in income from previous month show in brackets.

** Last month I noted banner sales. From now on, I will refer to this as “Advertising Revenue” incase I sell any other kinds of advertising on the site.

Overview

I have been enjoying my new position writing full-time for someone else. The articles focus on WordPress, which is a subject I still have a passion for. Last month, my plans were to finish a lot of quality guides on KevinMuldoon.com, finish my next book and improve the resources section. With my days spent writing for someone else, these plans have had to be put on the back burner, as most of my time is spent writing in my new position.

I will still take on some additional writing jobs from time to time, however I will need to complete any additional jobs at the weekend. I could try to work at night occasionally too (though this is less practical). When I do get free time, I will focus on my own projects. I was a little unclear what I should focus on first. I have since decided that improving the resources section here should be my first priority. More news on that later in the month :)

When I first started these income reports a few months ago, my hope was that they would document the development of this blog. At the time, most of my income was being made through freelance writing. My idea was that when revenue from this blog increased, I could decrease the time I spent writing for others. It has not happened that way. Instead, I am seeing the time I spend working on this blog reduce because I am spending most of my time writing for others.

Is this a such a bad thing? Yes and no. My aim remains to increase the revenue from this blog. I love updating this blog and I love connecting with readers, so I want to devote more time to it (I hope you all still find these income reports useful too). However, I cannot complain too much as my overall income has increased over the last few months. I am enjoying my new writing position too. So whilst I do still have ambitions for me and this blog, I am happy. Without being too cheesy, that is what’s most important :)

Long term, I do need to make much more money. I am currently earning around half of what I could be earning by working a 9-5 office job in financial services. Plus doing a job like that still leaves me time to do some work at nights or at the weekend; therefore my overall income could be three times as much. I do not work online because of the money, I work online because of the lifestyle it affords me. I can fit the work I need to do around my life and not the other way around. That being said, I still have bills to be pay and have plans for the rest of my life. I want to travel and I want to start a family; both of which are very costly. I do not want to be scraping by the rest of my life. In the next five years I should be making the kind of money that allows me to set up the future I want. The dream is to be making that kind of money doing something I love. Earning good money in a job means nothing if you are unhappy in the job. That is why I continue to follow my dream of working online.

If you have any questions regarding this income report, please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading,
Kevin