This is the 40th 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 January
It’s been a slow start to the New Year as I have spent time looking back at the previous year and looking ahead to this year.
It’s interesting just how many things you forget have happened throughout the year and how many things you forgot to action or follow up on!
So this month was all about planning for the year ahead.
First Course Update Released
At the start of November I opened and closed enrollment for my premium private blog network specialist training program.
It has been a great success so far and it’s great to see students progressing and having their first successes.
However during that time and based on student feedback I identified a number of areas that could be improved, so this month I released the first update to the course.
I published 14 updates in total including 3 all new never seen before video tutorials which ensures students keep growing and stay on the cutting edge of things.
When Will Enrollment Be Open Again?
Now that the first batch of students have completed the program and I have just released an update, I am going to open enrollment this week again for 48 hours.
If you would like to be notified of when that happens, please sign up here.
That also means I will make the amazing free training videos available again for 48 hours if you missed them the first time around!
I’m A Savvy Business Woman
Make no mistake about it, I’m officially a savvy business woman!
It’s not every day you get an email like that and naturally I jumped on the opportunity comedy aside =D
Annual Reader Survey Results
Last month I put a short survey together to find out more about you guys and what you want from the blog.
Thank you to everyone that took part, with nearly 500 people completing the survey I was completely overwhelmed.
It took a long time to go through all of the answers especially when 7 of the questions were open ended but it was totally worth it.
Each and every response I received has been fundamental to my planning for this year and radically changed my views on various aspects of the blog.
Thank you again to everyone that took part, your responses will help me to improve on how I help you.
Content Creation
Last month I published a total of 4 posts which has remained steady this month.
I kicked the month off with these time management strategies for marketers.
Then we took a look at how to hire a virtual assistant to help grow your business.
Other than those we just had the regular income report roundup post and 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 increased from 46,223 (1,491/day) last month to 49,696 (1,603/day) this month which is a welcomed increase!
Most Popular Content
It’s great to see one of the older articles focused on how to make money with Fiverr jump to the top spot this month!
That was followed closely by the time hacking for marketers post.
Top Traffic Sources
Like last month Not much has changed really in terms of the top traffic sources this month except a bit of refer spam showing up which I have blocked with this free plugin.
Search Engine Traffic
Traffic from Google saw a small increase this month from 37,824 (1,220/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 also grew this month from 20,731 last month to a total of 23,053 this month.
That also saw total minutes watched for the month jump from 101,250 to 108,334!
Social Shares
This month the total social shares across Facebook and Google+ increased from 47,660 to 48,486.
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 1,421 which is roughly inline with last months 1,490 new subscribers.
There are now a total of 129,301 subscribers across all of the various channels!
- E-mail – 919 (919 last month) / Total: 70,402
- Twitter – 234 (205 last month) / Total: 10,942
- YouTube – 249 (265 last month) / Total: 10,240
- Facebook – 90 (218 last month) / Total: 19,536
- Google+ – 14 (1 last month) / Total: 17,876
- RSS – -57 (-118 last month) / Total: 305
Unable to post graphs at the moment – will update asap
Income Report
Here are the numbers you really want to see-
Affiliate Earnings
- 48HoursLogo – $40.00 (case study)
- 99CentArticles – $33.02
- Active Campaign – $1.80
- Ahrefs – $83.88 (my Ahrefs review)
- Aweber – $224.00 (my Aweber review)
- Blog Advertising – $944.54 (Advertise)
- BlueHost – $130.00 (discount coupon)
- BuyProxies – $103.40
- BuzzBundle – $11.20 (review)
- CheapWindowsVPS – $0.85
- CMS Commander – $9.63
- Drip Revolution – $75.02 (discount coupon)
- FCS Networker – $322.36
- FreshDrop – $105.54
- GSA Captcha Breaker – $667.96 (review / discount coupon)
- GSA Search Engine Ranker – $200.70 (review / discount coupon)
- GSA SEO Indexer – $42.73 (case study)
- HQ Biz In A Box – $13.50
- Indexification – $2.48 (case study)
- Juicy WSO Graphics – $7.24
- JustHost – $320.00 (start a blog)
- Kontent Machine – $412.56 (review)
- LeadPages – $249.30
- LinkEmperor – $140.10 (review)
- LongTailPro – $541.96 (my Long Tail Pro review / discount coupon)
- Magic Submitter – $1.78
- Ninja Outreach – $34.00
- OneHourIndexing – $442.46 (case study)
- OptimizePress – $6.80
- PandaBot – $165.00 (case study)
- PowerupHosting – $34.50
- ProxyHub – $2.32
- RankTracker – $143.00
- Raven Tools – $0.13 (best backlink checker case study)
- SEMRush – $171.90 (my SEMRush review)
- SEO Content Machine – $16.88
- SEO Dominators Club – $172.41
- SEO Powersuite – $342.92 (see my SEO Powersuite review)
- SERocket – $189.00 (tutorial)
- SERP Book – $12.45
- SERPed – $2,069.69 (review)
- SE Slingshot – $50.00 (review)
- SociSynd – $118.00
- SpyderSpanker – $67.50
- SumoMe – $880.00 (case study)
- TheBestSpinner – $336.00 (The Best Spinner review)
- Themify – $10.53
- ThirstyAffiliates – $47.66 (discount coupon)
- Traffic Planet Hosting (now called WPX Hosting) – $280.00 (Case Study / WPX Hosting review)
- Tweet Attacks Pro – $81.10 (discount coupon)
- Ultimate Demon – $514.67 (review / discount coupon)
- URLProfiler – $243.93 (my URL Profiler review)
- VideoMakerFX – $53.70 (how to make money on Fiverr case study)
- View2Be – $5.50
- Website Auditor – $60.79
- WordAI – $127.33
Expenses
- Traffic Planet Hosting (now called WPX Hosting) – $49.99 (Case Study / WPX Hosting review)
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 took on one consultation project for a cost of $2,497.
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 increased slightly from $9,395.17 last month to $10,534.96 this month.
Earnings Total
- Affiliate Income – $11,316.30
- Consultation Income – $2,497.00
- Other Income – $10,534.96
- Expenses – $49.99
Grand Total: $24,298.27 / £16,919.03 ($31,286.01 / £21,225.97 last month)
Unable to post graphs at the moment – will update asap
Signing Off
Income took a relatively heavy hit this month as we entered the New Year although I am still very happy with current income levels.
Interestingly affiliate income took a near 50% hit this month across the board which leads me to believe that people are spending less as they recover from the festive season.
It could also be the fact that I’ve stepped a little while conducting my plan of attack for the year.
Either way, it’s a great start to the New Year and I’ll be growing right along with you!
Thank you to everyone that has helped me reach my goals – I couldn’t do it without you, the reader!
