Category: Income Reports

  • September Income Report & October Goals

    September Income Report & October Goals

    september-income-reportComing at mid October, Procrastination won!

    I meant to write this post earlier but, you know, life happens. Enough with the excuses, let’s jump in.

    September’s gone and it’s that time again when I need to recap what happened with my online businesses and chart the way forward.  I am going to be as precise and concise as possible. Welcome to my income report for the month.

    In case you missed other income reports, you can find them here.

    September Traffic

    Last month, I resolved to take an active role in driving traffic to my website. All that I did last month was share the blog on StumbleUpon. I couldn’t find time to do blog comments or drive traffic through Facebook.

    All in all, the blog recorded an increase in the number of visitors. Here’s my Statcounter traffic snapshot.

    september-traffic

    I got a whopping 599 unique visitors and 946 page views. You can see from the graphic that there were 74 returning visits to the blog. I know the numbers are not anything to brag about but it’s an improvement on my end. And the best way to judge your progress is to compete against yourself. So, cheers to me.

    To get a perspective of the impact that StumbleUpon has had on the blog, check August’s traffic report below:

    august-traffic

    You can see I got 19 more visitors, ha! ha!. From the traffic logs, I can see most of the visitors were also coming to my website by typing keywords on Google. The top posts on the blog last month were:

    How to Withdraw PayPal from a Non-US Country

    Viral Nova WordPress themes

    I also posted two articles last month and though I did not promote them to my email list (had some hiccups changing from GetResponse to MailerLite), but they still got some traffic. So, I guess blogging on a regular also contributed to the traffic. 

    September Income

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    Below are my September earnings from some online ventures I’m involved in:

    Google Adsense: $79 (My Viral Nova Clone Website)

    DonModekali (SociallyViral Theme– $131.50 )

    Niche Site 1: (Niche Site Experiment – $238 (CPA)

    Niche Site 2: $944.88 (Amazon)

    TOTAL: 1393.38

    Costs: The amount indicated above is the net amount after deducting my costs. I do a poor job of keeping costs but I will be sure to include them in my next reports.

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    October Goals

    With October already in, I plan to cut down on my writing projects and concentrate more on my passive income sites. I have set some goals for all the online properties I have. One of the major goals is to get all properties on Instagram and use the channel for traffic generation.

    Other goals include setting up email capture forms and starting to capture leads, focus on traffic generation through specific tactics like forum marketing and blog commenting, get more traffic from social media sites, especially Facebook groups.

    DonModekali.com

    Here are the specifics I have for October for this blog:

    • Post four blog posts
    • Change my blog picture and expand the content on the About Me section
    • Start my YouTube Channel
    • Get more active on Instagram (Follow me @modekali). Double followers to about 500.
    • Double blog traffic to 2000
    • Double email subscriptions (At the moment, I have just about 120 subscribers)
    • Expand other content on my blog

    This seems like quite a lot of tasks but I believe I can accomplish them. I am aiming for the sky and in case I miss it, I might as well land on the stars!

    That’s my September Recap/Income report.

    How’s you doing on your end? Send me a link to your blog recap so that I check it out.

    Adios!

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  • April Traffic & Income Report

    April Traffic & Income Report

    april-traffic-incomeHi everyone,

    If you stumbling onto this post, you may be wondering what’s gotten into me. It’s been 3 months since my last post on January, and damn, how time flies.

    I’ve been trying to blog and honestly, this must be one of the toughest challenges when you are building your online business. I mean, sometimes I’m like, why blog when blogging is not my main business?

    Anyway, today I’ve decided to resurrect the monthly income reports, and hopefully this trend will stay on for some time.

    In this report, I will show my traffic stats and also where my online income came from. I will also outline my business expenses and my net earnings.

    Without further ado, let’s dive in.

    April Traffic Report

    One thing that I will confidently say is that I’ve never made any effort to get traffic to my blog since January. In fact, the last effort I made was in January when I sent my subscribers a ping on the 2015 goals post.

    In April, things were bland on the blog. Here’s what Google Analytics shows of traffic stats:

    april-trafficBasically, 337 visitors stopped by the blog and they viewed a total of 574 pages. Looking at visitor flow, I can more people were interested in the content I created on the Viral Nova Clone experiment. Apart from that, visitors also checked my posts on evergreen niches and how to withdraw PayPal from a non-US country.

    May Plans & Goals

    Content

    I’ve gotten some clarity in my business and life and I’ll be putting more effort in this blog. This month, I am planning to write content on the following:

    i) How to find content for your viral site. (This question was asked by a reader some time ago and unfortunately, I never got to address it. If you are the reader, sorry for taking long with this. But believe me, I’m writing a post on it.)

    ii) Update my niche website experiment. It’s been a while since I update my niche website experiment posts. I am hoping this month I will get to address something.

    Marketing

    Here is my marketing plan for this blog in May:

    i) Share the blog on social media sites (I will look at sites like Alltop, Techocrati, et al.)

    ii) Get over 1000 visitors by the end of the month. It’s already the 8th day of the month so I have something like 22 days to accomplish this.

    April Income

    In May, I made my online income through freelance writing and affiliate marketing. Here is a breakdown of my earnings:

    April Expenses

    Just Host hosting renewal (6 months) $125.70

    Bought 3 domain names ($26.97)

    Long Tail Pro (Premium) recurring $17

    April Net Earnings

    Revenue (1095) -Expenses (169.67) = $975.43

    There we go. My net revenue in April was $975

    Looking forward to a great month in May! My specific goal is to hit $1500 in profits. We’ll see how that goes.

    How much did you earn in April, 2015? Let me know in the comments below and link to your website if you’ve put a post.

    Adios!

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  • August Recap & Traffic Report

    August Recap & Traffic Report

    traffic-report

    We… we… we gat a game plan. But unfortunately it’s not a game to us cause we ain’t gat the luxury of losing”  Lyrics from  Once Again (AZ, Aziatic Album)”

    September is here and damn, how time flies. I just wanted to post a quick update on what happened in August, some of the projects I have and some plans for September and the coming months.

    Without all the sugar coating and stuff, let’s get to business.

    August Recap – The Low Down

    DonModekali.com

    This is a new update I have opted to include in my monthly recap series. The last time I tried including stats of my blog was way last year and honestly, I was just disappointed as I did not have any shiny numbers. Nevertheless, I have decided I will be providing a recap of my blog  every month, regardless of the numbers.

    Here’s what went down.

    Blog Posts

    In August, I tried providing updates on my blog. I wrote one article: NSD Episode 2: Setting Up My Niche WebsiteLOL, trust me. Writing one article is really an achievement, given that I didn’t post anything in July.

    One thing that I am confirming about myself is that I am really lazy when it comes to blogging. I usually have a couple of posts lined up for the month but somewhere, somehow, life happens. Client works, unplanned excursions and the creepy fat man called Laziness.

    I have to do better than this.

    Traffic Report

    I finally decided to install Google Analytics instead of Statcounter to keep track of my traffic and other metrics. I wanted to use Clicky but at this time, I don’t feel the investment is worth it. Plus the free version is just…huh, I don’t know. Let’s just say I prefer GA for now. Here are my GA stats for August:

    august-traffic

    Damn, this is a bad and dangerous curve.

    As you can see, nothing fancy to brag about. I still consider myself a loner blogger. No hardcore readers yet. If you like my posts, sign up for my newsletter here:

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    Niche Site 1

    This is the niche site I am documenting in my Niche Site Case study. You can follow the study here.

    Easy Azon Plugin

    My niche site content has been growing fast and one problem that I had was finding the product URLs from Amazon and inserting them. If you have an Amazon site, you probably know how finding product URLs can be time-consuming. After scouring the web for some plugins that can help me install Amazon links on the site, I finally settled on EasyAzon plugin.

    Easy Azon has made my life easier. I am planning to write a review or perhaps create a video on how to use EasyAzon for Amazon affiliate sites.

    Theme Change

    Another change with my niche site is  with regards to the theme. I changed the WordPress theme I was using. For some reason, the products being pulled by EasyAzon were coming out blurred. So I decided to change the Gonzo theme I was using. Right now, I am using the Genesis Lifestyle Theme

    Keywords

    Last month I bought a HOTH package to build web 2.0 backlinks to the website. If you do not know what HOTH is, it’s basically a link building company that offers different links such wordpress.com, blogspot.com and the like. I bought the medium package for $ 200.

    I will follow up with a review of the HOTH later this month when I have some concrete stats on my site.

    Here are the stats and ranking for my 5 target keywords. The KW monthly searches are for US only since that is where majority of my target market is.. The Global searchers are about double that of the US.

    KW 1: 2400 

    KW 2: 1300   

    KW 3: 1300                          

    KW 4: 1000                         

    KW 5: 720

    I have  only been tracking  the position of the first KW that gets 2400  US searches. In July, my website peaked at No. 78 on Google for KW1. In August, I had some improvement, with the site peaking at No. 33.

    Here is a screen shot of the 5 keywords I am tracking:

    niche-keywords

    Good going here. I hope to break to the first page of G by the end of September.

    This month, I’ll be adding more content to the site and building some more backlinks. I’m also debating whether I should write and eBook and build an email list for the site. I’m more likely not to do this. Blame it on the lazy me.

    New Projects

    And alas, the part that gets me excited. Of late, I’ve been feeling energetic like Kenyan runners on meth! So, I have two projects lined up for the month.

    Project 1

    I’ve already started one. And here it is (drum rolls)…create a Viral Nova–like site.

    Yep, you heard. I’m going after VN. I’m always a late action taker and I should have dived into this sooner. But alas, better late than never. If you want to know why I’m doing this, check this post by Glen of Viperchill.

    Perhaps you can also join me in the experiment.

    Many people have already made such sites but I haven’t seen any public case studies yet. I will be doing a public case study of the experiment. Anyone interested in this we go head to head? Holla.

    Project 2

    If you noticed the banner on my sidebar, I have a link to Rank Heat. Well, that is my new premium domain brokerage/PBN services site.

    At the site, I am selling high quality expired domain names that you can use for your own PBN (Private Blog Network). If you don’t have a PBN, it’s probably time for you to start investing in one.

    Go ahead and check Rank Heat when you have some time.

    September Goals

    Goals are made to be broken. I must’ve heard that somewhere. Anyway, here are my goals for September:

    i)        Write 4 posts for this blog (A Gargantuan task for me!)

    ii)       Add 2 pieces of content for my niche site

    iii)      Build high PR links to the niche site

    iv)      Create two pieces of content for Rank Heat

    There we go, an overview of what I intend to do in September.

    Cheers to the new freaking month!

    PS: Let’s connect on Facebook and Twitter!

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  • December 2013 Traffic & Income Report

    December 2013 Traffic & Income Report

    traffic-reportHi Guys,

    First off, Happy New Year! I hope you have great plans for your online business like I have.

    In this post, I will outline what I did in December for my blog as well as crunch the traffic numbers.

    December was a lazy month for me. I still don’t have the discipline to commit entirely on my online ventures. I find myself having too much too do. I nearly missed writing this post due to commitments from other ventures I have.

    I only managed to create one post in December. The post is on how to profit with evergreen niches. I also provided an eBook with 99 niches at the end of the post.

    I also did some little modification on the website. As you can see, this blog is far from being set up.

    My traffic in December slightly improved but is nothing close to where I can start boasting. I did some Facebook promotion in December and this may be the reason for the spike in visitors. As you can see from my Statcounter dashboard below, I had a total of 425 page views, with 219 being first-time visitors.

     december-traffic-report

    The Facebook promotion simply involved joining a number of internet marketing related groups and sharing my website from there.

    Income

    I am yet to see any income from the blog. I am not really worried because I know I still have a lot of work to do getting visitors on the website.

    Income for December on this blog is $0.00

    January Traffic Goals

    My traffic goal for January is to get more than 1000 page views. To do this, I will promote the website in two ways:

    a)      Share my posts on FB groups

    b)      Participate in internet marketing forums

    These are the strategies I will put to work this month. From this month, I will also be tracking visitors on my site using Clicky (Thanks to Lewis Ogden for his post)

    Website Content

    I also intend to add more content on the website. I am looking to make at least one comprehensive post on a topic I am yet to determine.

    I will also post updates on my Niche Site Experiment.

    That’s it folks.

    If you are running a niche site experiment, I would love to hear from you. Comment below and let me visit your blog.

    PS: Follow me on Twitter 🙂

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  • November Income Report

    November Income Report

    nov-traffic-reportHey everyone!

    December is here -Tis the season to be jolly, falalalala lalalala!

    Welcome to my first income report! In this post, I will give a recap of how my blog has fared on so far. I started posting barely a month ago in a bid to keep track of a Niche Site Experiment I am doing. Today, I am introducing my “income reports” section on my website.

    On the “income reports” section, I will be providing an overview of my traffic stats both to this blog and the experiments I will be doing. Particularly, I will be covering three things:

    1. Overview of the things I did on my blog
    2. Traffic numbers
    3. Strategies I used to drive traffic (as well as my sources)
    4. Income generated
    5. Expected plans for the next month

    Let’s get started with my Niche Site Experiment website.

    Niche Site Experiment  Website

    My current income experiment is on building a niche site. (Read about it here). Honestly, I have been moving very slow with my niche site. At least not at the speed I wished. But the important thing is that I have been making progress.

    In a nutshell, here are the activities I’ve done so far on my Niche Site experiment:

    • I made a bold move to start a case study (Trust me, this is really important)
    • I researched the niche/market I wanted to target
    • I bought the site’s domain name (using NameCheap.com) and Hosting (Using JustHost.com)
    • I’ve installed a WordPress theme (Gonzo from Themeforest)
    • I’ve customized the WordPress theme I’ve installed to suit the kind of site I have in mind.

    That is all I have done on my Niche Site.

    Results so far:

    So, like you should expect, traffic to the site is zero. And so are my earnings.

    NS Experiment December Goals:

    • Set up the basic pages of the website (contact us, about, privacy, etc.)
    • Create a content strategy for the site.
    • Create 4 in-depth reviews of the products I am targeting.
    • Create a Facebook and Twitter account for the Niche Site.
    • Find a list of traffic sources and link building opportunities for the site.

    I am keeping my goals small because I am not doing this Niche Site Experiment as my full-time job. I am a freelance writer and my freelance work takes most of my time. So, I prefer to set goals that I will be able to achieve.

    And this wraps up our discussion for the Niche Site.

    DonModekali.com Website

    I started this blog last month. While I had purchased the domain name in the second half of September, I made my first post in first week of November.

    I introduced myself to the blogosphere by deciding to start a Niche Site Experiment. Here is an overview of what I have done on the site:

    i) I took the decision and decided to start blogging.

    ii) I set up my website using Thesis (Marketers Delight Theme) instead of Genesis. I’ve heard good things about Genesis but I just liked Thesis better.

    iii) I made 4 posts on this blog. Below are the posts I made in November:

    iv) Building my email list

    I signed up for a FREE 60 Day Trial with Constant Contact. However, I had some problems getting their email form code to work on Thesis. I sent some tweets asking questions and  their support team jumped in. They were extremely helpful.

    constant contact support

    Finally, I realized I couldn’t get their code to work on Thesis without a lot of customization. So, I decided to go with Get Response.

    I would have gone with Aweber, given that most of my favorite marketers use it. However, I stumbled across a discussion at QuickSprout forum about Aweber vs. GetResponse. Someone asked Neil Patel the following question:

    aweber vs get response

    And Neil recommended Get Response with his reply…and this is why I’ve gone with it.aweber vs get response1

    I know many people will come in defense of Aweber but I urge you to do the research for yourself. You can test Aweber at $1 for 30 days and see if it will be good for you. Alternatively, you can test GetResponse for free (NO Credit Card Required) for 30 days and see which one will be good for you.

    v) Social media

    Other than the above, I have decided to become more active on Twitter (Follow me:D) and I also opened a Facebook Page for the Blog (http://www.facebook.com/donmodekali)

    Traffic Statistics

    I did not do any promotion of my posts in November (which I know is suicidal). I only tweeted the posts after I had made them. Most of the traffic came from Twitter, although a few came from some blogs I had commented on like CloudIncome.com

    This month, I will increase my promotional efforts.

    In particular, I will focus on driving traffic through social media (Facebook and Twitter) and blog commenting. (I may stop by your blog to give you my 2 cents!)

    Here are the traffic stats for November from my Statcounter Dashboard:

    statcounter

    The Numbers:

    December Goals

    My goals for December include:

    • Publish 4 posts (at least a post per week)
    • Set up an email auto responder
    • Focus more on content promotion
    • Finish setting up the blog design (you can see the blog is pretty raw)

    That’s a recap of what went down in November. Clearly, not a lot. I’m hoping December things will be much more exciting.

    Until then, I’ll keep experimenting.

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