Seems like I just hit the publish button on my July 2014 Side Income Report, and here it is September already! The months are flying by this year.
This is the report I’ve been wanting to share with you all year long. The report where I finally met my goal of earning $1000.00/month in passive income!
I had reported that July was the biggest month of the year for passive income, and August nearly doubled that! Here’s a sneak peek too, my September report is going to be be nearly double of this report!!
My income continues to be primarily from two different niche sites out of the six sites I’m currently running (not counting PBN sites). That makes me a little nervous, especially since I saw a primary selling keyword for one of those niche sites suddenly drop off of page 1 on Google here in the past week.
One of my newer niche sites is ranking (the niche site duel site), but not climbing as fast as I had hoped, and I’m still waiting for my latest eBay based niche site to start ranking for my primary target search terms. The new Google Sandbox does exist, and let me tell ya, it’s making creating new sites difficult or at the very least a long term venture.
I am seeing revenue from both of these new sites though, which is hopeful.
August Progress and Updates
The majority of my time in August was spent on building out content. I used iWriter for 7 different review articles, and I wrote the remaining content myself.
In the past I was really against using services like iWriter to outsource content, but I’ve found I can really scale my business much better by outsourcing. There is no way I could keep 6 different sites active and updated without hiring writers. Next I’ll be looking at getting a Virtual Assistant. My income level, assuming it stays fairly consistent, is definitely at the level now where I can afford that.
I also continued to develop and grow my Facebook pages. I’ll be honest though, Facebook has really made some drastic changes over the past few months, and page reach is really down. Growing new pages is very difficult unless you have other large pages you can leverage for growth or unless you’re willing to pay for likes and reach. I’m going to start playing around this month with paid promotions and see how it goes. The trick is going to be insuring I can offset that cost with additional income.
I have continued to use FPTraffic to automate my content and monetization posts on my various Facebook pages, and I’ve still found this tool to be well worth the minimal monthly fee in time savings alone. One key advantage, is that FPTraffic offers a link masking option. I didn’t have to use this initially, but started using it here in the past week. Why? Facebook as started to block teespring links in some cases, flagging them as spam. The only way to avoid this is to mask your links. I’m seeing bit.ly and goo.gl links work, but have noticed that users tend to not click on these as much.
But enough babble, on with the numbers!
August Income and Expense Numbers
Income:
- Adsense: $208.71 (up $31.70)
- Amazon.com: $857.16 (up $279.46)
- ShareASale: $214.82 (up $214.82)
- Mr. Rebates: $49.02
- Side Income Blogging Services: $130.00
Total Income for August 2014: $1,459.71 (BOOM!)
Expenses:
- Hosting: $60.00
- FPTraffic: $10.00
- iWriter: $98.00
- Fiverr: $5.00 (teespring shirt design)
- BackupBuddy: $60.00
Total Expenses for August 2014: $237.38
Net Income for August 2014: $1,222.33 (+$546.35 from July)
To tell you that I am excited would be an understatement. Setting goals, working hard day after day and finally achieving and surpassing those goals is so rewarding and energizing. I honestly thought reaching $1000/month in passive income this year was a stretch goal, and I exceeded it by the 8th month!
Thank you for all of your support and encouragement, it definitely has been a huge part of my success, along with my great friends in the Mastermind group I’m part of and to Charles Keys who runs Back Roads Living, who is just a great friend and accountability partner. Mostly though, I thank God, who has given me far more than I deserve.
Next stop? $5000.00/month in Passive Income. Think I can do it? I know I can, and it’s the goal staring me in the face on my wall at Side Income Blogging headquarters (aka my office).
How was your month? Have an income report you publish? Share it below in the comments.
Congrats on reaching $1k! What’s funny is I just reached that milestone in August too. I think back to school shopping had something to do with it. In any case, it IS exciting, and like you mentioned, I realize that I need to add more sites to my portfolio to continue growth.
Sounds like you have a good plan in place. Good luck, and see you at the next milestone!
Very nice Larry. Well done. I gotta tell ya – I’m a little bit jealous of the simplicity of your income reports. A handful of income items and just a few expenses… I only wish mine were that simple. 🙂
Looking forward to watching your business grow over the coming months and years. Hoping I can keep pace or even outpace you and your goals. Time frame for the $5k?
Also cool to see you giving thanks to God for all he has given you. Not a lot of internet marketers mention or talk about their spiritual journey as it pertains to business.
Nice! You’re crushing it and happy to hear you’re on the path for an even bigger September!
Awesome! Great to see you moving past the $1000 barrier.
Your a great example of just putting one foot in front of the other and keeping going. Keep up the good work!
Nice month! Reading all these income reports month after month, i really need to get focused on my niche sites.
Hey larry –
Congrats on crossing the big 4 figure mark – it’s something that I hope to hit sometime in the next 6-8 months (sandbox pending). Great income report, and nice to see the expenses so low. Got to stay lean and mean in this business.
Im interested in hearing more about your outsourcing – were you outsourcing $ site articles or just PBN Articles? I have been doing both lately, and it’s been helping my productivity a ton. I can see why lots of marketers build a few sites at once then flip one or two of them – always have something to work on, and a fair amount of cash to get things done with.
Great job as usual!
Here is my report. Finally got off my ass to do one.
http://earlyretirementdiary.com/august-income-report/
This is really inspirational. I’m thrilled to have found your website, and I love your transparency. I will definitely be modelling off you! Nice job. Thanks for making it look so achievable.
Hey Larry,
Nice job!
I always enjoy and learn a lot from your reports. Thanks for sharing!
When are we going to see the video of you dancing?
God bless, Brad
Congratulations! August was a sweet month for sure … keep up the great work. Hope to be following you to that first goal!
Thank you, Larry, for all of your helpful information. Congratulations on meeting your goals. Much success to you and your future! Nancy 🙂
Thanks Tom, and congrats on meeting your milestone too!
Thanks Matthew, to be honest though, it’s simple my intent. Timeframe on the 5k is by end of next year, I think that is very doable. God and my faith is a significant part of what I do and who I am. I try not to be overly “preachy”, but am not ashamed to call out that He is the real reason for my success. He has blessed me beyond measure. Thanks for the comments.
Thanks Nick!
Thank you Neal, it’s definitely all about keeping focused on the goal, and not being side tracked by the little things that cause you stumble a bit.
No time like the present Cornell, sounds like it’s time for you to pull the trigger on an idea. Thanks for commenting!
Hey Jeff – my apologize for not responding sooner. I could have sworn I did, but not seeing any of the replies :-/ I am outsouncing $ site articles, but not for all of my sites. Mostly just reviews and topics I’m not super interested in. I’ve found PBN articles to be really easy to write, so not worth paying for. I still write for this site, and another site I run. I was really hesitant to outsource my writing, but now that I’ve done it, I can see it’s really the only way to scale up your business.
Nice report Aaron, and surprised to see how high your media.net earnings are. Nicely done. Look forward to seeing your September report.
Hi Sandi, glad you found me as well! It doesn’t just look achievable, it IS achievable. Trust me, if I can do it, anyone can do it. Thank you for following along.
Thanks Brad – Always great to have your support. Uh dancing … yea….uh … I’m working on that … 😉
Thanks Zachery, keep us posted and hope you reach it soon!
Hi Nancy, thank you for your comment and for following along!