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This is the 55th income report as part of the zero backlink experiment.
Every month I will publish a post like this one that shows you how this blog is progressing and everything I have done across the month to get it there.
These reports will help me track my own progress while teaching you what to do and more importantly what not to do.
What I Have Done In April
With 2 months until my first ever Ironman triathlon (and first ever anything like that) I have really stepped up training 2 discipline per day.
That is having a huge impact on my overall energy so I’m spending more time refining everything from nutrition to technique.
At the moment the data says I am going to die but with 2 more months of hard training anything is possible!
Content Creation
With my Ironman prepeartion taking my energies, content was limited to 4 posts this month including last months income report.
We started out with an update to my Wikipedia link building tutorial that adds a great twist.
Then we looked at how to use Google Alerts to generate traffic, build links and spy on your competitors.
And let’s not forget these 10 Google Analyitcs SEO hacks that you cannot afford to miss.
Crunching The Numbers
So let’s get our hands dirty and see how the blog has actually performed this month.
Visitor Statistics
Last month traffic increased to 60,453 (1,950/day) but this has dropped to 56,603 (1,886/day).
Unfortunately that means I dropped below my comfort level of 60,000 visitors per month so it’s time to up my game next month to recover that.
Most Popular Content
The Wikipedia link building guide stole that show this month.
That was closely followed by the ever popular how to make money on Fiverr guide.
We also saw the Web 2.0 PBN tutorial & expired domains tutorial hold positions.
Top Traffic Sources
Not much has changed in traffic sources with a good mix of traffic coming from Google organic and social sources.
Search Engine Traffic
Last month search traffic dropped to 45,175 (1,457/day) which has dropped off slightly more to 40,399 (1,346/day) this month.
YouTube Views
I lost all of my historical YouTube views because of changes I made to the branding – so I keep track of them separately.
YouTube views decreased from 19,146 to 16,466 this month.
That also had an impact on total minutes watched which decrease from 93,165 to 79,899 respectively.
Social Shares
This month the total social shares across Facebook and Google+ increased from 77,484 to 78,229.
Subscribers
The most important metric on the entire blog – earning a subscription from someone is the ultimate form of commitment and conversion.
There are now a total of 117,187 subscribers across all of the various channels compared to last months 116,158!
- E-mail – 517 (-42,918 last month) / Total: 45,588
- Twitter – 195 (418 last month) / Total: 15,681
- YouTube – 221 (439 last month) / Total: 14,063
- Facebook – 230 (299 last month) / Total: 23,402
- Google+ – -1 (-20 last month) / Total: 17,882
- RSS – -133 (62 last month) / Total: 571
Unable to post graphs at the moment – will update asap
Income Report
Here are the numbers you really want to see-
Affiliate Earnings
- ActiveCampaign – $2.60
- Ahrefs – $298.68 (my Ahrefs review)
- Aweber – $152.60 (tutorial)
- Blog Advertising – $540.78 (Advertise)
- Blue Chip Backlinks – $100.00
- Bluehost – $65.00 (discount coupon)
- BrightSpark – $15.60
- BuyProxies – $17.00
- CashCrate – $14.32 (best survey sites)
- CheapWindowsVPS – $7.50
- CMS Commander – $9.60
- ConvertKit – $34.80
- Domain Hunter Gatherer – $442.37 (expired domains tutorial & Domain Hunter Gatherer review)
- Drip – $3.00
- Drip Revolution – $274.88 (discount coupon)
- FCS Networker – $269.99 (discount coupon)
- FreshDrop – $8.98
- GetResponse – $16.17 (review)
- GSA Captcha Breaker – $336.44 (review / discount coupon)
- GSA Search Engine Ranker – $379.48 (review / discount coupon)
- IPVanish – $239.64
- JustHost – $240.00 (start a blog / discount coupon)
- Kontent Machine – $296.00 (review)
- LeadPages – $40.20
- LinkEmperor – $190.65
- LongTailPro – $907.16 (my Long Tail Pro review / discount coupon)
- MintVine – $6.13
- MyThemeShop – $77.70
- OneHourIndexing – $324.20 (case study)
- PandaBot – $150.90 (case study)
- PowerupHosting – $20.57 (discount coupon)
- PrivateInternetAccess – $28.00
- PrizeRebel – $3.26 (best survey sites)
- Product Launch Formula – $158.80
- ProxyHub – $1.70 (discount coupon)
- Raven Tools – $49.94 (best backlink checker case study)
- S2Member – $35.60
- SEMRush – $752.20 (my SEMRush review)
- SENuke – $44.10 (tutorial)
- SEO Clerks – $6.50
- SEO Content Machine – $44.63 (discount coupon)
- SEO Powersuite – $49.66 (see my SEO Powersuite review)
- SEO Monitor – $81.50
- SERocket – $183.30 (tutorial / discount coupon)
- SERP Book – $7.01
- SERPed – $2,644.32 (review)
- SiteGround – $50.00
- SwagBucks – $0.33 (best survey sites)
- TheBestSpinner – $126.00 (The Best Spinner review / discount coupon)
- Themify – $16.59
- ThirstyAffiliates – $12.55 (discount coupon)
- Thrive Themes – $57.00
- TrafficPlanetHosting – $430.00
- TweetAttacksPro – $61.64 (discount coupon)
- Ultimate Demon – $23.50 (review / discount coupon)
- URLProfiler – $82.77 (discount coupon)
- VideoMakerFX – $60.50 (how to make money on Fiverr case study)
- WordAI – $59.94
Expenses
- Kinsta Hosting – $100.00 (See my Kinsta review)
- Drip – $295.50
- Facebook Advertising – $1,939.63 (Case Study)
Consultation Earnings
I separate out my SEO consultant earnings from the affiliate earnings. The blog drives affiliate sales directly and whilst it does generate SEO consultation leads these are separate projects in their own right.
This month I didn’t taken on any consultation work so made a grand total of nothing!
Other Income
I’m working on another project right now that is part of the blog but not something I’m ready to talk about publicly yet or maybe ever.
I will declare the income here though as it wouldn’t be possible without the blog and ‘technically’ it is affiliate income.
Last month this was $11,507.85 which increased to $19,135.45 this month.
Earnings Total
- Affiliate Income – $10,571.36
- Consultation Income – $00.00
- Other Income – $19,135.45
- Expenses – $2,335.13
Grand Total: $27,371.68 / £21,207.58 ($21,992.83 / £17,629.45 last month)
Unable to post graphs at the moment – will update asap
Signing Off
Overall a lot of the statistics have been down, from traffic to new subscribers and more.
Over the next month I am purely going to focus on building that traffic back up to the 60,000 mark.
Juggling Ironman training and work is a huge challenge at the moment but I think things will get easier once a rhythm is established.
Until then, I’ve got to grind it out!
Thank you to everyone that has helped me reach my goals – I couldn’t do it without you, the reader!
61 Responses
Interesting and quite educating – Matthew, your blog income has inspired me to grow a profitable blog from scratch. Thank you
Great news
Hello Sir, this report is very impressive and motivating me to do hard work. Thanks for sharing your monthly report.
No problem Jenny
very inspiring for new bloggers like me…
Just work hard and you’ll make it
Impressive as ever Matt.
Thanks Sher
Muy bueno gracias.
No problemo amigo
Wow, this is awesome, recently stumbled on Affiliate marketing, going through your blog has beeeeen really eye opening. Congratulations on your success, i hope to be able to achieve this much.
Looking to start a tutorial blog, 2 authourity site on two Niches.
Any advise will be most welcomed.
Warm Regards from Nigeria
Focus on 1 site, make it a success and THEN start to think about a 2nd site. Do not dilute your efforts.
Thanks for the Advice, to keep myself committed, i have opened a new task sheet with tasks (Content, Navigation, Plugins etc ) to accomplish in the next 30 days, will be starting on June 1st.
Can i keep you updated on Progress on a weekly basis when i start?
Thanks
“At the moment the data says I am going to die but with 2 more months of hard training anything is possible!”
This made me chuckle!
Date doesnt lie!
Hello Sir, Your Income Report Always Motivate Me. Thank You For Sharing All.
Thanks Sunny :)
it`s really help for me and my website thanks
No problem Jagannath!
Compelling read Mr Woodward,
I tried searching your site for “conversion” and “funnel”, in essence I am looking for tips and advice on how to best to create leads from my visitors
I’m pretty lite on content for those topics sorry
Wow, That’s huge. ( Talking about income ). I have a doubt though there was a dip in traffic still you earned more what’s your analysis on this ?
Well just because income arrives this month, doesn’t mean it was actually generated in that same month.
Hey Matt, l missed some of your monthly income update, good to see you are working hard to earn more from your blog. Looking forward to reading good update from your SEO tips
Thanks Klea, working hard as always :)
Increase in income, perhaps, decrease in traffic, work on that sir. *huh*. Thus, thats a perfect motivation. Thanks!
Yeah it swings in roundabouts sometimes!
Cool, despite less traffic this month , you earned well as compared to last month. Thanks for sharing n inspiring us.
No problem, thanks for reading :)
I guess what you are trying to show is your conversion has increased though there was a dip in traffic. impressive!
Yeah in a roundabout kind of way!
your income always motivate me and thanks for sharing.
No problem, glad to be of service :)
Getting inspiration from you. Your other income is $19,135.45 interested to know about this.
I’m sure you are :)
Hey Matthew
It’s so inspiring for new bloggers.
I have started reading your blog from last month.
Thanks
Lokender
Happy to have you here Lokender :)
Hey Matthew,
Its really amazing. I am having one very high traffic blog and have more than 1.5Lac unique visits every month but I don’t make more than $1000 :( and 100% income from Adsense only.
I really don’t know how you are making $25k+ every month from 60k unique visits.
I have huge traffic but not much $. Can you please suggest how can I grow ? My entire traffic is from google only (organic 98%).
I tried for direct advertisement also as you suggest in your some other article but I could get any one.
Please advice. I am really happy and get inspired after seeing your income report.
Here you go https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/blogging/make-money/monetizing/
Hi matthew,
This is love man, I mean I am trying hard and its not enough. but I will follow you and Generate income like this one day :)
Just work hard and stay consistent :)
Wow! This is very impressive! How hard is it to repeat your success now?
If you are willing to put 80-90 hours of hard work in per week like I did in the first year, it’s easy.
What is the Other Income for?
Would like to see the source list for Other Income as well. :)
Anyways, keep grinding it out. :)
The source is this blog
More grease to your elbow
Haha thanks!
This is impressive and motivating Matthew, thanks for sharing.
cheers
No problem :)
Great job. It’s a dream for most of the bloggers like us to even touch 5 digit figure. Congratulations :)
I have one question. I saw that you have moved to Kinsta on $100 plan. This plan offers only 50 GB bandwidth. I believe your site must be consuming more than this. So, how do you manage to offset the bandwidth. I know you are using CloudFlare too. Is CloudFlare enough or you are using some other services too.
The reason I am asking this because my site is consuming enormous amount of bandwidth everyday and I just don’t know how to bring that down.
Thanks,
Rinkesh
Because I negotiated a deal with them :)
Send them a message, they are very helpful!
Congrats for the good work. i keep reading and re-reading your in depth content.Kindly write something on backlinking using wikihow.
Thanks for the suggestion Phila :)
Inspiring :-) Thanks, Matthew.
-Ravijit Chavda
To your success!
Waoo this is great
Thanks :)
Smashing it as ever! Any tips on how to get people with higher authority than me to do a guest post on my business?
You want them to do a guest post on your website?
Ideally yes, it’s a new site/business aimed at SME’s getting an online presence. But as it’s new, it’s not exactly getting visitors flooding through the doors. Would you suggest another tactic regarding this?
Ha, re-read the original, and yes, a guest post on my site.