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Blogging

Income Report December 2019

by Alan Young January 8, 2020

The income earned every month is deposited at different times depending on holding delays for each income source. The below earnings do not reflect the exact amount of income earned, but it does represent it as close as possible for the month shown.

Hey what’s going on! Welcome to Decembers income report!

The festive period is over. Now it's back to work with a fresh year to start!

December has been HARD with a capital H to stay focused.

So many things going on and not to mention my son was on School holiday so I was having fun with him as well.

That's a great benefit of working from home, YOU can set your OWN schedule.

No need to ask the boss because YOU ARE THE BOSS!

It's also a pain when you want to actually work but hey ho take the good with the bad.

But seriously I wouldn't change a thing.

I feel truly blessed to be in the position I am in, and that's what keeps me motivated to keep going and hopefully help some others along the way too.

So, let’s get into it.

I have a few blogs to go through with you (some a bit neglected), but I will let you know about them all.

Just so you know, I don’t give away my blog names and the affiliate products I promote as I want to limit the competition as I have worked hard to find some good products to promote which are not overly saturated.

However,

I will let you know what niche each site is in, and the type of products I promote.

Ok with that said let’s get into this!

How Much Money My Blogs Made In December 2019

Let it rain money! 😀

Site 1: Earnings December 2019 – $1309.13

Niche: Metaphysical/spiritual

The earnings from this site came from 2 sources. Ad revenue and affiliate revenue.

My ad revenue was $995.15 and my affiliate revenue was $313.98.

I am with Mediavine and this month was my best month yet.

I nearly hit $1000 just from ads.

This really got me excited. My mission is now to triple my traffic in the next year.

Ads are so passive which is why I love them soooo much.

My RPM was still up this month due to it being the Christmas period. I do expect it to drop significantly next month but it's still great.

The affiliate earnings are from one product I promote via some banners that I’ve added to the site.

I've got a few simple banners in the posts and one in the header and that is all.

I'm going to change the affiliate program as I have to wait 60 days for commissions to be approved which I don't like, plus I don't think the product is converting as much as I'd like.

I'll be trying a new affiliate product in January and will keep you updated.

Getting affiliate earnings to $750 per month on this site and doing it as PASSIVE as possible is the next goal.

I know if I built a list and THEN promote that affiliate product I would earn more, as I would earn commissions AND build a list that I can promote other products with.

I'll try get round to it one day but I prefer to keep things as passive as possible. Email marketing gives me a headache lol.

Site 2: Earnings December 2019 – $217.99

Niche: Health Related

The earnings from this site came from 1 source. Affiliate revenue.

The revenue was £166.72 which is roughly $217.99 with today's current exchange rate.

This site took quite a dip in commissions this month and I think that is mainly due to the fact most people are focused on buying Christmas presents and not buying health supplements.

Also, I've added 2 new posts to this site in December which isn't a lot, but I will start adding more to build traffic and revenue.

I'm going to add some best x products type posts over the coming months and I'm sure that will help build the revenue.

I will also be adding info posts as well.

Once the traffic is high enough I will place ads on the site ad as they are so passive.

Just so you know, what I’ve done on this site is created some info articles on a specific topic then linked to an article on my site that offers a discount code to a product which ties in perfectly to the information they were looking for.

For example, if I was promoting a health supplement that helps with say arthritis, then I would create info articles around that topic then in those articles I would say…

“hey if you looking for a product which helps with arthritis then check out this product which I love and you can get a discount code as well.”

Obviously, it’s done better than that but you can see how I do it. And just so you know the product I promote isn’t for arthritis 🙂

Lesson from this site: If you can find a good product in which the vendor can give you a discount code to offer your readers, and the commissions are still good, then you don’t necessarily need tons of content or traffic.

Discount code articles work great!

Also, the product I promote is a physical product with a 15% commission.

Site 3: Earnings December 2019 – $1213

Niche: Make Money Online

The earnings for this site came from affiliate revenue.

Revenue is up quite a bit this month compared to last month ($690.10) which is great.

On this site, I promote a few products via reviews and discount code articles. I also have info articles that I link to related articles that promote various products.

Overall it’s 2 key products that made the bulk of that affiliate commission. Then there are a couple products that give me a little commission as well.

Both the products that make the bulk of the earnings are for online software.

This month I still haven't added any content to this site. I did make a few changes to the CTA on the affiliate links but that's it.

I also added Google Adsense to this site as my traffic was up to 23'963, so I thought I'd see if I could squeeze some additional revenue out of the pages without affiliate promotions.

It prob won't be a lot as Adsense doesn't pay a lot compared to premium ad networks such as Mediavine.

Even if it's an extra $100 I'll be happy.

Site 4: – Earnings December 2019 – $6.35

Niche: Home And Garden

The earnings from this site came from 1 source. Affiliate revenue.

I know, I'm BIG In the game! $6.35!

I'll be living like the Kardashians next month at this rate.

Last month this site made $0.12 so it’s gone up this month.

The affiliate earnings from this site are from the Amazon affiliate program.

This site has so much potential but I can only put so much attention on one thing without it affecting the focus on another thing.

In 3 months' time when I've added a bunch of new content to site one and site two then I will focus on churning out some great new content for this site.

One thing at a time though.

Other Revenue Dec 2019 – $433.51

This isn't quite blogging revenue but it’s still online income.

I have a Youtube channel in which I promote some products and I get commissions from that.

There’s also Youtube ad revenue which helps.

It works out as $285.01 from Youtube ad revenue and $148.50 from affiliate products that I link to from my channel.

Some of my videos I put in my blog posts so I could say it is somewhat blogging revenue but I do track sales from YT by using tracking links so it is still separate.

It's still online income so it's still worth adding here.

Wanna See Some Proof?

Here are some screenshots of the bigger payments from my blog earnings.

Sometimes it helps to see a bit of proof.

This image is the earnings from Mediavine on site one for the month of December.

These earnings are from the affiliate product I promote on site one.

The earnings from the image below are from the affiliate product I promote on site two.

It shows the payments were in January but they were earnings from December just paid a few days into January.

This next screenshot is of one of the earnings for software I promote on site three.

Again, the payment is on January 7th but it was from the commissions earned in Dec.

This payment is also from site three.

Earnings from Dec paid on Jan 2nd.

There are more products that I get paid commissions for, but you can see the bulk of it.

I don’t want to slow down the page speed with too many images.

Hopefully, that’s enough proof for now.

Anyway, so now we’ve covered earnings,

Let’s talk expenses!

Expenses December 2019 – $684.37

Here is a list of expenses form Dec 2019.

Hosting With WPX: $59.99

Fiver Gigs: $68

Hello Bar: $29

Writers on Upwork: $75.45

Canva Pro + Unlimted Images: $22.95

Clickfunnels: $99

Key Search: $17

Social Warfare Plugin: $29

Registered business address: $45

Training courses: $143

Domain renewals: $11.99

Noble Samurai (video software): $27

PLR Content: $47.00

Dropbox: $9.99

That’s my total expenses for this month.

A lot are for things most bloggers (especially beginner bloggers) wouldn't need for blogging, for example, Clickfunnels.

I signed up to Clickfunnels a few months back to host a blogging training course I created but I've now decided to shelf the product for now till I build an audience.

It was $299 a month for the premium account then in December I dropped it to the basic plan and now I'm going to drop it altogether for now.

Doing these income reports is so helpful as I can see how all these expenses add up and eat at the profits if I'm not careful.

Next month hopefully my expenses will be much lower as I am going to cut back on costs that I don't truly need so I can save the money and invest it back into the business for things that make a difference, such as content.

Most people running a blog will spend a lot less, but as I’m trying to grow my business so I am investing back into it.

By the end of 2020, I aim to get my blogs earning over $10k per month.

With hard work, focus and consistency and I know it's possible to get there.

It just about doing more of what’s working.

Anyway, here's the figures that matter:

Gross Income – $3179.98

What matters most though is the net income.

(Gross income $3179.98) – (Expenses $684.37) = Net Income $2495.61

It's funny because it's almost exactly the same as last month's net income!

Next month I hope to bring those expenses down to under $300 (unless I invest in content) and hopefully, that will leave me with more Net income!

Lessons Learned From December.

Something I feel I've had a bit of an epiphany in December is what I choose to spend my time working on.

I've realized I need to stop thinking of creating new things like products, new blogs, podcasts, creating email sequences and all the other stuff that can seem like a good idea and just focus 90% of my time on the high ROI actions, i.e. writing blog content!

It's so easy to think I need to do all these other things but in reality, it was creating blog content that's made me the money so I am now committed more than ever to creating content every day.

I want to add 90 articles to my sites in the next 90 days.

This is easily achievable if I stay focused and outsource some of it.

From 15 Failed Businesses to Success As A Blogger

by Alan Young December 19, 2019

If you're struggling with your blog and need some inspiration, then I wrote this post for YOU.

I want to share my story with you about how I went from 15 failed businesses to a successful blogger.

And by success, I mean having the freedom to live life on my terms!

Oh and seriously I'm not joking about the 15 failed businesses!

And just so you know, success for me is having the FREEDOM to being able to work from home and earn a FULL-TIME living which is where I'm at now.

Freedom is priceless.

And yes I've definitely got plans to take my blogging to the next level. It will come in time.

But I am also happy with where I am right now.

Things haven't always been that way though. It hasn't been smooth sailing that's for sure.

If you're not where you want to be right now with your blog, and you are in need of some inspiration then this post could help you out.

So to get this story started I want to take you back to a time where I was a struggling entrepreneur trying to make any money online.

And believe me, I was struggling.

I Had Over 15 Failed Businesses

That's right.

Over 15 failed businesses both offline and online.

Here's just some of them:

Mobile fun casinos
Fitness boot camps
Selling supplements on eBay
Selling T-Shirts On T-Spring
Selling Warranties
Dropshipping
Selling Stop Smoking Products
Selling Cars
Copywriting business <—- Da f*!k was I thinking. I had no idea about copy 🤷‍♂️
Plus lots of other things!

I had a little success in some businesses but it would never last long.

One of the main reasons I struggled with most businesses (mainly the offline ones) is because I hated selling to people.

Whether it was selling my ideas, products or services I just couldn't sell face to face or over the phone, and that always created a problem in my businesses.

Thankfully that problem got solved.

I came across the online world and I realized working online was what I wanted to do.

I just need to work out how to make money.

It always looks so easy when other people are selling their products. I mean how hard can it be?

Well hard enough for me to spend the best part of 9 years dabbling on all sorts of online business ideas.

I had some success with eCommerce doing dropshipping but I decided it wasn't what I wanted to do.

I Really Wanted To Create Blogs.

It's something I've always been interested in because it's passive, i.e no running ads or fulfilling orders etc.

The problem was I had started many blogs but never really understood how to get traffic.

And without traffic, I couldn't make money.

Damn!

One time I even spent TWO YEARS building a blog called Online Super Ninja that had over 100 posts that barely got any traffic.

When I say hardly any traffic I mean it.

The most I got in a month was like 3'000 visits. And a chunk of that traffic came from a post I boosted on Facebook.

Terrible I know!

Here's an old archive screenshot of that website.

I even had 3 people from the Philippines working for me.

One as a full-time VA
One doing full-time SEO
One part-time on graphics

Even with their help, I couldn't get this site off the ground.

To be honest, looking back I can see I didn't have a clue what I was doing.

Truth is,

I Wish I Had Investing In Learning More

It's funny because I spent all that time on that blog, and I don't think I even bought one course on SEO or anything to do with blogging.

If I had learned from some experts I probably would have learned what do right, rather than guess my way through.

The closest to SEO training I had was a course called Google Snipper that I bought a few years before which showed how to set up niche sites and make money with affiliate marketing.

I never made any money with that course and by the time I started Online Super Ninja the course was outdated.

So anyway, to cut a long story short.

I had to throw in the towel on that blog after 2 years and 111 posts as I was about to run out of money. Meaning I couldn't afford to pay my staff anymore.

That was one of the lowest points for me.

And to make things worse I felt terrible because my fiancé was supporting the family.

I felt like a failure to her as a partner but I also to myself as an entrepreneur.

Honestly, I was so close to just giving up on my dream of making money online.

All I wanted was to be able to earn enough money to be able to work from home, pay my way and be in control of my own life with no boss to answer to.

My life could of went a few directions at that point.

Luckily it went the right way because…

By Chance, Something Amazing Happened…

I got involved in a local mastermind group for online marketers that happened to have two members who were successful bloggers.

I told them about the blog I had just spent two years on.

After a quick inspection, they knew STRAIGHT AWAY what I had been doing wrong.

They told me I had been targeting the WRONG keywords when writing my content.

Hmm oh dear.

I had been writing content for keywords that were way too broad AND way too competitive. This meant I had no chance of being shown on the Google search engine.

I was literally trying to rank for keywords like make money online or online marketing tips.

I thought if I paid someone to do SEO then I would eventually rank for those keywords.

It seems pretty silly now but I didn't know how unrealistic that was.

Anyway, they then told me…

I Needed To Find LOW COMPETITION Keywords That I Could Actually Rank For.

They told me…

“If you do this right, your blog posts will actually show up on Google. This is because there won't be any super established powerhouse blogs already ranking for the keywords you are targeting”

That made sense.

Something they also showed me was how to structure articles THE RIGHT WAY so Google LOVED them and wanted to show them.

Before that, I honestly didn't understand how to use headings on my posts.

I know it's crazy right?

Something they also said was…

“You should learn PINTEREST as it will kick start your blog's initial traffic while you wait for Google to rank your articles”

I honestly thought Pinterest was for crafts and recipes.

How wrong I was.

It has now gone on to be one of my BEST sources of traffic.

The last thing they said was…

“if you can reach 25k monthly sessions then you can apply to a premium ad network such as Mediavine which would then make you passive income from putting premium rate ads on your site!”

That seemed that a super-easy way to monetize a blog.

Creating email lists and funnels and all that stuff seemed too complicated for me at the time.

I found out that premium ad networks pay wayyy more than regular google Adsense ads.

Up 10-25x more!!!

At That Moment I Knew What I Had To Do.

The path to MAKING MONEY became a lot clearer.

Getting traffic to my site QUICKLY without wasting years doing the wrong things like I was doing before seem really doable.

Being with those guys in the mastermind helped me as I could see first hand what was WORKING for them.

So that day I set a plan to start a new blog (in a niche I actually enjoyed) and hit the 25,000 monthly sessions threshold so I could apply to Mediavine and make passive income by putting premium ads on my site.

So, I started by writing content EVERY DAY.

I then started using Pinterest to promote that content.

It took me a month or so to learn the ropes. But it was so worth it.

Then I started to also focus on writing SEO content for Google.

Quick tip: If you can write an SEO friendly article that is ALSO Pinterest sharable then that's double good!

Within a quick amount of time, I started to gain some traction.

Much more than with my Online Super Ninja blog.

But let me just cut to the best bit…

I Reached 25k Monthly Sessions In Just 4 Months!

Yep!

I was able to hit the 25k monthly session threshold and apply to Mediavine and I got accepted in just 4 months!

Just a few months later my monthly sessions doubled to 50k!

Finally, my blog started making money!

In the first month that I monetized my blog I earned $531.23 from the ads I put on my site.

Plus another $677.99 that month by simply linking to an affiliate offer.

That revenue has continued to grow since.

I also now have a few blogs that give me a few sources of income which is now over $3k a month.

I just did my first income report in which I've hit $3253.74 in income, obviously, there are expenses but it's still a massive achievement considering I spent years without making a penny online.

If you want to read that income report you can here: Income Report November 2019

So that's my journey from 15 failed businesses to finally making money as a blogger.

There's obviously more to this story but that's the simplified short version.

Just remember, plenty of people have struggled to make money with their blogs, and eventually, they made a success of it.

YOU can do the same!

If you want to learn more key strategies that allowed me to take my blog from just a FEW HUNDRED visitors to 25’000 monthly visitors in just FOUR months then join the Freedom Though Blogging Facebook group here.

Anyway, that's it for this post, feel free to share your story in the comments.

Thanks and speak soon.

December 19, 2019 0 comment

Blogging

Lessons From Spending 2 Years On A Failed Blog

by Alan Young December 6, 2019

Believe it or not, I once spent 2 years building a blog called Online Super Ninja that had roughly 111 articles that only managed to get at it's best 3000 visitors in a month.

And that was because I boosted some posts on Facebook.

Organic traffic was under 2000 monthly visitors which is TERRIBLE!

I also had three staff working for me to help build that site.

Yep that's right, three other people helping me on that site for two years and it STILL FAILED!

I remember the day I had to let them go as I couldn't afford to pay them anymore. That's a day I want to forget.

I just felt so bad, I just couldn't see what I was doing wrong.

I mean, I spent two years on this blog doing everything I thought I should be doing and I just wasn't getting any traffic.

Persistence is a good trait, but I should have stopped doing what I was doing a long time before I did eventually throw in the towel on that site.

So,

I've written this post to help other bloggers like you from making the same mistakes as I did.

The good news is, I now have a few successful blogs that I finally make a full time living from.

So thankfully it worked out alright in the end!

Knowing what I know now after building a few successful blogs and being able to look back on that failed blog I can see what I did wrong and share that with you.

So you ready?

Good, let's go…

5 Key Things I Did Wrong Which Lead To My Blog Failing.

1. Doing Keyword Research Worse Than A Noob

This one of the biggest things I probably did wrong.

I would use the Google keyword planner and find keywords there (this was when people used it for keyword research). I would simply find keywords to target based on search volume.

The higher the better I thought!

Then I would try to rank for those keywords by using hiring an SEO guy. As that's what they're for, right?

I would never think of targeting a keyword if it said only 50 searches per month.

NOPE, it had to be much higher.

How wrong I was, at least I've learned from my keyword research sins!

Nowadays I do actually target keywords that might only say 50 searches per month but in reality, they still get thousands of visitors each month.

I now know, just because a keyword tool says a low number for a specific search phrase, there are still tons of different ways to ask the same question.

….meaning you can still get all the traffic from all those search phrases combined as well.

So going back to the SEO guy, that's the next mistake I made.

2. Throwing Money At SEO

So like I said, back then my mentality was if I just pay an SEO guy (or gal) to do some SEO magic then they will be able to rank me for any keyword I want.

Just throw some money at it and hey I'll eventually rank.

Er no! DON'T DO THAT!

I was trying to rank for keywords like “make money online”.

Da f**k was I thinking!

I had NO CHANCE of ranking for a keyword like that.

I was a new blog with no authority and I thought I could just pay someone to do some SEO and I could rank for one of the most competitive keywords for making money online.

When I think about it, the person I hired to do the SEO should have told me not to even waste my time.

Anyway, my mistake for even trying to rank for keywords like that.

You're better saving your money and just doing better keyword research and finding low competition you can easily rank for.

Believe me, it all adds up in the end.

3. Not Doing Competitor Research

So the next mistake I did was to not evaluate the competition.

I don't even think I would check the top ten results.

I think I may have checked the article length for the top 3 or 4 articles just so I could write a longer article but that was about as good as it gets.

It just shows how little I knew back then.

Nowadays the biggest factor I check when doing competition analysis is how well the search query is being answered in the search results.

Domain strength and backlinks don't matter to me if the search query isn't being answered well.

I only care about domain strength or backlinks if the answer is being answered well.

Think about this, you may search “Best Vegan Keto Diet” and all the answers that come back are for “vegetarian keto diets”.

That might be because there are not any articles that specifically answer that question for a Vegan.

A keyword tool might tell you that it's a super hard keyword to rank for because all the top 10 domains are strong domains, but in reality, you could easily rank because you would write an article that would cover the topic as it was meant…as a “Vegan” keto diet.

See what I mean?

Anyway, I'll cover that more in another article.

4. Acting Like Mr. Know It All

I think in the whole two years on that blog I didn't invest in one blog training or SEO course.

I had bought plenty of making money online courses over the years but nothing truly on what I was doing which was blogging and SEO.

I did buy a course once called Google Snipper that did cover SEO but it was outdated by the time I was on my probably tenth blog (the one I spent two years on).

I really should have invested in up to date SEO/Blog training or coaching.

It would have saved me two years of doing the wrong things and also it would have saved me a ton of money.

Now I always stay up to date by investing in training because it saves me time and money in the long run.

Sometimes I may only learn one new thing, but that one thing is usually worth the investment.

It's funny to think I spent all that time on that blog without ever really learning from people who had achieved what I wanted (having a successful blog).

Next is,

5. Worrying Too Much About Logos And Stuff

Man I worried too much on the small stuff.

I had a part-time graphic designer making me all these fancy graphics for logos, post thumbnails, facebook images, and infographics etc.

I changed the logos and header multiple times.

I even got a caricature image of myself made as well 🤷‍♂️

You can see it in this old web archive image of my blog home page.

I really didn't need to do all that.

Here's a couple of old thumbnails from that blog that I found.

Yeah, they look alright but it's not needed.

Having nice graphics doesn't mean anything if no one is seeing it.

All that stuff was distracting me from working on what matters. Creating content.

All my blogs now have graphics that I make for free on Canva (including my logos 😀), I've now realized to worry about that stuff later when there's enough traffic to make money.

Till then, keep it simple.

A logo and free images from Canva or a royalty-free image site such as Unsplash is all you need in terms of website graphics, you can add a better logo later when you're getting traffic.

Don't get me wrong, you don't want cheap graphics that look like they were made with 90's clip art, but it's not as important as you think.

Work on content then improve the look of your site later.

I just use simple clean layout sites like this one now and I prefer it.

Now for that last point.

6. I Should Have Used Pinterest!

When I look back, this could have been the game-changer for that site.

One thing I know is, the content would have been perfect for Pinterest.

If I had of used Pinterest with the 111 articles that site had, there's no doubt I could have got hundreds on thousands of monthly visitors.

I just didn't understand Pinterest back then.

I thought it was just for people who like crafts etc.

That was a missed opportunity for sure.

Nevermind, lesson learned as I use Pinterest today and it's a fantastic source of traffic.

Well, that's it, I hope you don't make any of those mistakes I made as it will save you a ton of time and money.

Create Your Own Freedom Through Blogging

If you want to start your own freedom creating blog and avoid all the beginner mistakes most people make when setting up a blog then get my jam-packed FREE eCourse where I take you step by step to creating your own blog even if you don't know what you want to blog about.

December 6, 2019 0 comment