This is the 39th 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 December
Honestly this month, I have tried my hardest to do as little as possible.
After a crazy couple of months of solid work I decided to take my foot off the gas and take some time to enjoy life rather than sitting in front of the computer.
That means that I have a bunch of things to catch up on in the next week but I will worry about that next week.
I have also had a lot of spare time to ponder what direction I want to take things in over the next year. There is huge room for improvement across all areas of the blog and I will send out a short survey next week to gather some reader feedback.
Until then though, I am going to keep this income report short and sweet because no one likes working on the 1st of January right?
Help Me, Help You!
As we move into the New Year I can’t help but wonder which direction to take the blog in this year.
I have a lot of conflicting thoughts and ideas, so I decided to ask you – the reader!
So I have put together a short survey which will ultimately decide what will happen to the blog over the next 12 months.
This is the first time I have ever created an audience survey for the blog and I expect the results will be very interesting.
I will also be jumping on the phone with some of the people that complete the survey to learn a little more and give some free advice to help you out at the same time.
Please click here to take the survey now.
Content Creation
Last month I published a total of 4 posts which has remained steady this month.
I kicked the month off by showing best settings for gsa search engine ranker.
Then we took a look at how to write a cold call email that ALWAYS get a response.
If you want to learn how to start a blog then this 8 point authority blog creation checklist should help you out!
Other than those we just had the regular income report roundup post and I didn’t get round to writing the best of internet marketing feature this month.
Crunching The Numbers
So let’s get our hands dirty and take a look at what my lack of attention to the blog has done to the important metrics.
Visitor Statistics
Traffic dropped from 47,319 (1,577/day) last month to 46,223 (1,491/day) this month which is an expected seasonal drop off.
Most Popular Content
The GSA Search Engine Ranker optimisation tutorial stole the show this month in terms of traffic.
Not far behind it was a tutorial on how to make money on Fiverr and the 8 point blog checklist.
Top Traffic Sources
Like last month Not much has changed really in terms of the top traffic sources this month.
Search Engine Traffic
Traffic from Google saw a small drop off this month from 37,603 (1,253/day) compared to 34,652 (1,117/day) last 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 grew took a small hit this month from 21,918 to 20,731 which also had an impact on total minutes watched dropping from 110,532 to 101,250.
Social Shares
Important Note: This month Twitter stopped showing the actual share count which makes reporting on social shares from Twitter impossible.
This month the total social shares across Facebook and Google+ increased from 47,303 to 47,660.
Subscribers
The most important metric on the entire blog – earning a subscription from someone is the ultimate form of commitment and conversion.
This month brought 1,490 new subscribers which is a sharp drop from last months 2,181.
There are now a total of 127,880 subscribers across all of the various channels!
- E-mail – 919 (956 last month) / Total: 69,483
- Twitter – 205 (303 last month) / Total: 10,708
- YouTube – 265 (295 last month) / Total: 9,991
- Facebook – 218 (520 last month) / Total: 19,446
- Google+ – 1 (10 last month) / Total: 17,890
- RSS – -118 (97 last month) / Total: 362
Unable to post graphs at the moment – will update asap
Income Report
Here are the numbers you really want to see-
Affiliate Earnings
- 48HoursLogo – $10.00 (case study)
- 99CentArticles – $121.92
- Ahrefs – $371.16 (my Ahrefs review)
- Aweber – $132.90 (my Aweber review)
- Blog Advertising – $1,066.82 (Advertise)
- BlueHost – $130.00 (discount coupon)
- BuyProxies – $38.40
- BuzzBundle – $61.62 (review)
- BuzzStream – $4.80
- CheapWindowsVPS – $10.70 (discount coupon)
- CMS Commander – $4.84
- Drip Revolution – $93.60 (discount coupon)
- FCS Networker – $315.79 (discount coupon)
- FreshDrop – $97.90
- GSA Captcha Breaker – $692.17 (review / discount coupon)
- GSA Search Engine Ranker – $231.29 (review / discount coupon)
- HQ Biz In A Box – $13.50
- JustHost – $640.00 (start a blog / discount coupon)
- Kontent Machine – $723.98 (review)
- LeadPages – $195.30
- LinkEmperor – $175.59 (review)
- Loganix – $32.62 (my link building services post)
- LongTailPro – $496.76 (my Long Tail Pro review / discount coupon)
- MarketSamurai – $118.08 (tutorial)
- Ninja Outreach – $73.00
- OIO Publisher – $23.50 (case study / discount coupon)
- OneHourIndexing – $988.64 (case study)
- OptimizePress – $6.80
- OptinMonster – $25.87 (my Optinmonster review)
- PandaBot – $120.00 (case study)
- PowerupHosting – $46.49 (discount coupon)
- Private Internet Access – $16.00
- ProxyHub – $6.65 (discount coupon)
- PRPowerShot – $13.50
- Raven Tools – $0.09 (best backlink checker case study)
- S2Member – $137.90 (case study / discount coupon)
- SEMRush – $711.72 (my SEMRush review)
- SEO Content Machine – $163.15 (discount coupon)
- SEO Dominators Club – $202.39 (discount coupon)
- SEO Powersuite – $2,802.10 (see my SEO Powersuite review)
- SERocket – $200.70 (tutorial / discount coupon)
- SERP Book – $9.96
- SERP Cloud – $0.59
- SERPed – $2,121.44 (review)
- SociSynd – $92.54
- SpyderSpanker – $56.50
- SumoMe – $7,000.00 (case study)
- TheBestSpinner – $349.50 (The Best Spinner review / discount coupon)
- Themify – $31.86
- ThirstyAffiliates – $8.22 (discount coupon)
- Traffic Planet Hosting (now called WPX Hosting) – $790.00 (Case Study / WPX Hosting review)
- Tweet Attacks Pro – $68.95 (discount coupon)
- Ultimate Demon – $93.88 (review / discount coupon)
- URLProfiler – $151.26 (my URL Profiler review)
- VideoMakerFX – $13.50 (how to make money on Fiverr case study)
- WordAI – $127.33
Expenses
- Traffic Planet Hosting (now called WPX Hosting) – $49.99 (Case Study / WPX Hosting review)
- Facebook Ads – $520.96 (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.
I didn’t take on any consultation work this month which results in zero consultation earnings.
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.
This month that income has dropped from $12,127.43 last month to $9,395.17 this month.
Earnings Total
- Affiliate Income – $22,461.79
- Consultation Income – $00.00
- Other Income – $9,395.17
- Expenses – $570.95
Grand Total: $31,286.01 / £21,225.97 ($27,552.76 / £18,444.37 last month)
Unable to post graphs at the moment – will update asap
Signing Off
One of the most weird trends I consistently see on the blog is when I take a large period of time off, earnings increase.
I don’t know why it happens but it happens every single time!
As we move into 2016 I have a huge list of improvements and changes I want to make to the blog which all starts with this survey.
Once I have your feedback and followed up with you on the phone, I’m going to turn that into my master plan for the year with my immediate focus on improving the overall user experience.
I have also come to realise that I need to hire a full time blog manager and perhaps even a full time SEO assistant to help support growth over the next 12 months.
I’m going to take the rest of the month to collect all of my thoughts and your feedback into an awesome plan of attack before releasing the hounds!
Thank you to everyone that has helped me reach my goals – I couldn’t do it without you, the reader!
59 Responses
Nice article, it helped me a lot.
I would like to recommend this article for readers.
Thanks very much! Most appreciated.
OH GREAT ,thanks for sharing analyis
no problem
I never read such a long detailed article on types of blog posts. All of yours blog posts ideas are great I liked the case study idea.
Thanks for taking the time to read them
Wow Its Really Really Inspirational For me I’m New to blogging an i really want to make huge income like you.
Then you just need to work harder than you have ever worked ever
very inspirational
Thanks Himanshu!
really impressive and inspirable to me. Hats off.
Thanks =D
Hello Matthew,
Congrats on your success, that’s a massive monthly income.
Can you tell me how you applied for the SumoMe affiliate program, I cannot seem to find it anywhere?
Cheers,
Aden Clark.
Hey Aden,
Thanks very much, with regards to the SumoMe affiliate program – you don’t contact them, they contact you :)
Great Matthew, You always do an inspiring job.
Reaching $30K+/Per month is not an easy task but you are greatly doing it.
My best wishes are with you for your future success.
Thanks for your kind words Ali!
Congratulations Matthew! This month you made more than 30k and that’s amazing!
I’m impatient to know what is your “other income” and I’m waiting for you to reveal us one day.
You’re very motivational and I’ve learned a lot about affiliate marketing. Now I’m even thinking in starting with Fiverr =)
On the mean time I keep your income updated in the list of Best Bloggers Income Reports. You are on the third position fighting with Michelle and Pat.
Keep up the good job!
Awesome thanks for the share :)
BTW my host is TrafficPlanetHosting ;)
Thank you! I already modified it =)
You are awesome!
Always inspiring your results, I hope soon reach the same with my projects.
Thanks Hector :)
But…
There is no such thing as hope, you are in control of your success – no one else.
Your earning is very aswome! there are little people could do it as you
Everyone can do it, it’s just that not everyone is willing to work hard for it.
Thanks for sharing this!
I’ve noticed that you were promoting SumoMe Affiliate links (Without driving traffic to your site and sending clicks to the affiliate link). I was just wondering if you managed to get any success through that strategy?
Would be great if you can share your thoughts or experience about promoting affiliate links.
All of that is explained in my income reports from day 0 available here https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/blogging/income-reports/
Hey,
Your figures are always excellent and motivational.
Thanks for publishing them again this month and good luck.
No problem Vinod :)
Hi Matthew, I have one offtopic question and dont known on which post should I ask about this, so decided to pick a newest one :)
Could you please explain why do you make all of your external links go first through your internal link. Is this for tracking, is this better for SEO, or what? And what plugin do you use for this?
Tracking and management, eg if I need to update an affiliate link – I just update it in one place.
I use ThirstyAffiliates which also adds code to track affiliate clicks in Google Analytics
Great work Matt. It really inspires me to achieve the same.
I hope you do :)
Hey Matthew Just few words for You, Keep going. :)
Haha thanks, very hard to get back into the swing of things after a break haha
Great Work Matt on being transparent.
No problemo =D
Matt, Its getting better and better every day.
Cheers!
Well its smooth at the moment, but there is always rough to take with the smooth :)
Hello Matthew,
I got your website last week and it’s my new year inspiration website. Thanks for your great content. Hope I will make one day like yours :)
No such thing as hope, just hard work :)
Wow…..congrats man!!! I love this blog, really good simple no fluff content.
But is it possible for a newbie to have a successful blog making money (I don’t think 5-6 figures will be possible, because of lack of experience) What you think?
I think everyone was a newbie once
Your blog has helped a lot, thanks wholeheartedly. It is great that you are sharing your income report, it works well as a goal for your followers.
No problem Jack, glad to be of service :)
great :!!
I want to ask what kind of revenue collection ???
Did you read the report?
What’s the deal with sumome? They have an aff program?
Not exactly, they have a closed invite only program of which I cannot disclose the full details of =/
Nice way to end the year!
Yeah not bad at all =D
Great work Matt
Thanks Adnan :)
All I can say is wow.
Everytime I read one of your monthly income reports I’m impressed and then wonder to myself if I will ever have the same type of success with my blog. Keep up the great work!
Well, only you are in control of that :)
Great! Wish you the best luck and income ever! Doing great and hard job. Aand, can i ask you some questions about IM? Can I email you?
Thanks James :) Feel free to ask any questions here
I have started to earn some subscribers via email. BUT i don’t know what to do with them.
here you go https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/blogging/email/email-marketing-part-1/ :)
Great report Mathew! I experieced the same thing – when I take a few weeks off of working on my online income – it goes way up! If only I could take off a whole year and watch it skyrocket (I have a strange feeling that won’t quite work.
Thanks for your years of running a great blog – I’ve learned a ton form you and continue to do so.
Here’s to a great 2016 for all of us!
Cheers,
Dave Nicosia
Hahaha probably not but I would be willing to give that a try :P