$6.2K Month - October Monthly Update!

Another month has just passed by and we're approaching the end of 2018!😊
Here's my October report...
Take note! To be successful, focus on the lessons and learning points that other people shared. Not just being jealous at other people's results but never put into any real actions for yourself!
October Report
I had another record breaking month in October despite my website got hit severely by Google's algorithm update in late September and early October😢
I'll share more about that in a sec.
Here's my Oct performance:
- New WA Sales: 65
- Recurring WA Sales: 151
- Free Starter Referrals: 464 (Suffered quite a lot due to Google's update)
- WA Commissions: $5,383
- Thrive Themes Commissions: $756
- Other Commissions/Sales: $128
So these add up to about $6.2K
Here's the growth since Jan 2018:
(P.S. I'm not showing these because I want to brag or anything like that. I'm doing this because I want to be transparent and prove to beginners that everything is possible as long as you're willing to work for it with persistence and patience! Transparency is what I learnt from one of my affiliate marketing idols, Pat Flynn. He's super transparent about his work and I love that.)
Severely Hit By Google Update :(
So, back to the topic on Google Update. I'm sure many of you have experienced that as well.
This is my website traffic over the past 90 days:
As you can see, my traffic was constantly growing until end of September when it started going down.
I had some days with over 2K traffic per day but the entire October my daily traffic just hovered around 1K only.
Right now, there's no signs of recovering despite my writer is still constantly producing new posts.
If your website also experienced the same thing, I understand your feeling. (I know there are quite a number of people having this problem as well.)
Yes, I did complain and whine about Google.
But for those of you who experienced this, we need to focus on thinking what we should do instead of complaining.
So, here's what I learnt...
Moral of the Story - Diversification!
What happened has already happened and we can't control Google.
So there's no point complaining and whining, make sense?
The first thing we should think of is how to improve our content quality, content engagement, website authority, etc. and try to "please" Google as much as possible through legitimate and whitehat SEO strategies.
(Some people may tell you that Blackhat SEO strategies work but I don't believe that's the best long term strategy.)
As long as you're doing your best to provide the best content for your readers and apply the right SEO techniques, there's no point to complain anything anymore. You're already doing your best and you should be proud of that.
(But one important factor is to keep learning and constantly upgrade your own skills & knowledge so that what you're applying are what's working now.)
After that, the rest is all up to Google.
What we can do from there on is to DIVERSIFY!
There are 2 main ways to diversify:
- Diversify your traffic source
- Diversify your income source
The main concept here is to stop putting all your eggs in one basket which is Google.
To diversify traffic, there are many things you can do, such as:
- Starting a YouTube Channel and doing video marketing
- Getting traffic from social media by learning and building your social media followings (The beauty of this is that you don't have to master ALL the platforms. You can get lots of high quality traffic as long as you can successfully build just one of the platforms, be it Facebook, Instagram, etc.)
- If you have the budget, you can adopt paid traffic methods like PPC, Facebook Ads, YouTube Ads, etc.
I'm not saying any of these will be easy. Everything has a learning curve that you have the go through.
That's why I always say Persistence, Consistency and Patience are the keys to success in anything.
As for diversifying income source, there are many things you can do.
Let me just share with you what I am doing to give you some ideas...
#1 Mediavine Ads
Since my site has enough traffic, I'm able to adopt display Ads as another income source.
For the past 2 months, I got about $600+ each month from display Ads. (I didn't include those in my income report because they haven't been paid out yet.)
Again, my October earnings are supposed to increase but it didn't due to the drop in traffic.
The good side is that it's another income source anyway!
#2 Website Offers
On my website, I started offering some service-based offers like buying Guest Posts and Done-For-You Website service.
Once you have gained some experience in literally anything, you should think of...
How you can monetize your strengths!
Offering products, services or even your own course are just some ideas for you.
#3 My Own Course
Talking about course, I'm also preparing my own course for sale for another passive income source.
Anyway, I'm just giving you some ideas on how to diversify your income source.
Many of these require you to have enough traffic. That's why for beginners, you should start by working on ONE traffic source and then diversify it. After that, you can diversify your income source.
So, diversification is the key to long term success. Never put all your eggs in one basket.
But for people who are just starting out, please focus on just ONE THING at a time. DO NOT overwhelm yourself by having multiple projects at the same time.
Diversification cannot be done in a short period of time. It takes a lot of time. That's why this is a long term battle. DO NOT RUSH or be IMPATIENT.
Even if you want to diversify, everything must be done one step at a time!
Rome wasn't built in a day!
Hiring a Writer Course Update
For those of you who have been following me, you'll know that I'm preparing a course for all the Premium Members here in WA to help you hire a writer for your website.
If you suck at writing or you don't have time to write, hiring a writer is an option for you.
If you want to scale your business, hiring a writer is a way for you to free your time and work on other projects simultaneously.
This will be made available for all the Premium Members. This is not the course for sale I was talking about.
Anyway, all the contents for the course are almost done. Give me another week or two before I publish it for you guys :)
So, if this is the first time you're hearing this, follow me on WA and you'll get notified when this course is LIVE.
WA Black Friday Offer!!
Finally, November is an exciting month because Wealthy Affiliate's Black Friday Offer is coming!!!
WA Black Friday Offer will be from 23 Nov to 26 Nov 2018. You'll be able to enjoy WA's Premium Membership at just $299/year, which is equivalent to only $25/month and $0.82/DAY!
Personally, my WA Premium Membership is grandfathered to this Black Friday pricing because I grabbed this opportunity 2 years ago.
There are 2 ways you can benefit from this Black Friday Offer:
- Grab this offer if you haven't already to cut down your business expenditure here at WA.
- Promote this opportunity to get paid affiliate commissions. (You'll earn $130 per Black Friday Sale.)
So, this is just an early notification. I believe Kyle has send PM to you as well to inform you about the upcoming Black Friday Promotion.
I'm sure there will also be some official update soon.
So, stay tuned and mark your calendar!
(P.S. If you're already on the Premium Yearly Membership, don't worry! Grabbing this Black Friday Offer will simply extend another year of your membership from your current expiry date.)
That's all for this month's update. I hope you enjoy it and most importantly learnt something new :)
Remember! It's NOT about what others have accomplished. It's about what YOU CAN accomplish. I hope I've given you enough motivation and inspiration to pressure forward regardless what obstacle lies ahead!💪
Great work on your commissions, really well done!
When building content that is helpful, truthful, and engaging, you are doing exactly what Google wants. Even if your site does get hit by an update, it'll likely recover. The "Google Dance" happens all the time where Google mixes up the search results and allows new algorithms to re-rank sites. Keep doing what got you here. You cannot write for Google, you need to write for your audience.
Also, keep in mind that the September time frame is a lower traffic time with Back to School, NFL / College Football taking up Sat/sun/Monday. MILLIONS of people are watching football when they would normally be online, this happens every year and as we move into December and January, traffic will pick up again. So, your traffic fluctuation may not be 100% related to Google (we'll discuss this in Vegas).
Keep pushing,
Carson
What I am reading a lot as per google updates and being on the wrong side of that a 4 or 5 times this year is not just multiple traffic sources but truly owning your traffic.
Push notifications, and principally a huge email list, Podcast and referral traffic from other sites.
Our efforts on social media and YouTube can also be hit by algorithm updates. PPC we truly don't own but rather rent/buy said traffic.
Inspirational and motivating!!
It is a shame that some will read this and become jealous of your success, that is not necessarily a bad thing though!
Jealousy can destroy a person internally, but it can also strive them to do better., to learn what you are ding that they are not, and what they need to start doing or change to achieve the same accomplishment.
So saying hat yes I am jealous of your success with your affiliate websites, not in a way that I would ever dislike you for it, but in a way that it makes me want to learn more so I too can have the same success with my affiliate websites in the near future as well.
WE can not change the way people think or how they interrupt what we say or write, so we just keep moving forward and hope for the best.
Remember:
"You can take a horse to water but you can not make he drink".
The same applies with people and knowledge we can share the knowledge but that does not mean they will learn the lesson or heed the advice in the knowledge being shared!!
AND A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS on your success and on your steady increase of building your business. I for one love that fact that you are willing to share your success and the progress that got you to the point you are currently at.
Tome there is a difference between bragging and modestly sharing your results, and you definitely are sharing.
Jealous yes, hateful not a chance! :-)
Can wait to see that "hiring a writer" training,
Calvin
Google has hit me too. I had great traffic, and suddenly, Google took off my rich snippet ratings, and my traffic dropped drastically since September. I hope it will get better soon!
Thank you for sharing this great post!
Thanks
Damo
Best thing anyone can do is not worry what someone else is doing they need to focus on your own efforts
I think some people are only seeing the results of your work and not the hard work it took to get where you are.
[Quote]
-Medical information;
-Financial advice;
-Advice or information pages on any topic that can have a potential negative impact on a person’s health, happiness or wealth;
-High-quality hobby pages.
[/Quote]
Furthermore, Google looks at sites that deal with the following niches, and if the content isn't of great quality and could lead to a significant negative impact on a person's life - they will penalise it:
[Quote]
-Shopping or financial transaction pages;
-Pages that offer financial information, for example, investment or tax information;
-Pages that offer medical information about specific diseases or conditions or mental health;
-Pages that offer legal information about topics like child support, divorce, creating a will, becoming a citizen, etc.
-Any page that has the potential to be dangerous or detrimental if it possessed low levels of E-A-T (car repair and maintenance, for example).
[/Quote]
Apparently, Google has incredibly high expectations of the quality of content in the above niches.
I'm in the 'make money online' niche, so I'd expect that counts.
I've looked at your content and it's good - so not really sure what else you could do?
In fact, I have been hectic and stressful for years and I rarely have time to spare on the training in WA. Now I have decided to dedicate more time in WA for the long term future.
Looking forward towards your trainings and guudance.
God bless,
Agnes
Great update. I am looking to your course on hiring writers as I am one of those who are always don't have much time to constantly producing content. I have been using iwriter but there are still a lot of revision to be made especially when you are hiring premium writers and below.
Thanks for sharing.
:)Joe
I'm sorry that you have been hit by the Google update, but I also think that is great that you are diversifying and finding other ways to find traffic. Google is someone that we can't control and I know of quite a few full-time Internet marketers who almost don't really bother with Google, they just find other ways to generate traffic to their website.
It's interesting to hear about hiring a writer, this is something that I would like to do as my off-line business keeps me fairly busy and pays reasonably well, so a quality writer could be a great asset for my online businesses.
It's great to see your growth chart since January 2018, it is amazing what happens when we take action, well done to you Jerry!
Enjoy your weekend and thank you for sharing.
Roy
You are the proof that success is within the reach of everyone, and thank you so much for the tips.
I look forward to your course.
All the best
Chrissie :)
Thank you for such a wonderful post! I am still a little new at this, I am starting to feel like I am knowing what I am doing versus guessing lol.
If this post doesn't inspire one, nothing will!! This is proof that we can do this if we TRY. No effort means no return, plain and simple.
Just out of curiousity, how much does it cost to hire a writer? I cannot afford this right now, but in the future this could come in very handy for sure.
Thanks again for the super great post!
Stacie Fortson
Congratulations! Another huge achievement for you. I always enjoy reading your updates. Very inspiring.
Please dont stop posting your income updates and progress because you inspire a lot of members here.
Thank you for your generosity of sharing your experience and advice.
Looking forward to the free course for the premium members here in WA.
More blessings to you.
God bless,
Che
I can't wait for your Hiring a writer course.
I didn't know existing members would do the Black Friday deal! That's a no-brainer for me coz I reckon it'll take me that long to get enough Posts up :-)
Brillian, thanks, Jerry,
Ian
Debbie
I also notice in spite of some setback with Google, you are solving the problem with a positive altitude. That is very impressive indeed.
I look forward one day, when I learn this well, to make my first dollar on WA.
Once again, Congratulations for your success in the October month!.