May Monthly Report + Profit First. $1,612.50 in 2 months

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To make this simpler I am only going to report from my Make Time Online website (I will ignore our health and wellness website Well Fit Fam).

As usual the stats first...

  • SEO traffic- 26,897 (up from 17,129... 60% increase)
  • Pageviews- 42,526 (up from 26,835... 60% increase)
  • New posts- 26 (21 reviews- 14 written by Jomar my amazing new writer I hired using Jerry's amazing training https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/hiring-writer-like-a-pro-even-if-youve-never-hired-before)
  • Podcasts- 5
  • Total posts- 279
  • Words written on site this month- 52,153
  • Refs- 93 (60 last month)
  • Upgrade- 10 (13 last month)
  • Recurring- 11 (14 last month)
  • * Annual upgrades- 8 (to be paid next month all with the May sale- 1 last month)

April & May- Income breakdown

  • Wealthy Affiliate: $1,612.5
  • Pinterest book: $8.10

April & May revenue: $1,620.25

*note the Pinterest course I used to recommend is now a free course... but I still recommend it more than others, so I don't receive the affiliate commissions I used to!

April & May- Expenses Breakdown

  • Writer: $898.40
  • WA (hosting and Jaaxy Keyword research tool)- paid annually: $49.83
  • ConvertKit (autoresponder)- paid annually: $50
  • Thrive- paid annually: $38
  • Random video/ audio: $62

April & May expenses: $1,098.63

April and May Profit = $521.62

Lessons

A couple of things first... I am trying to create an online business. I want to set things up to actually grow, help other people and share everything I do. There are plenty of times I could have offered certain products/ done more freelance work to make extra income. But I want to only offer things I truly believe in and use.

For example, I could produce these kinds of reports on my website, put affiliate links to all the resources I use and tell everyone that they should defo buy them as they will help with their business! But I want these to actually help people and not just sell things. You can 100% make income without purchasing anything else other than the WA membership.

This month I want to focus on the actual income and some inspiration I've took from the book "Profit First", which I just read (I highly recommend this btw!)

The idea is simple...

PROFIT FIRST.

It's kind of like "budgeting" or paying yourself first in real life, but for business. And I think this is crucial for start ups and especially online business.

Here's an example allocation in order of what to pay first (these per centages can change):

  • 10% profit first
  • 15% tax
  • 25% Owners comp
  • 50% expenses

Here's an example using my revenue over the past 2 months:

  • Revenue = $1,620
  • 10% profit first = $162
  • 15% tax = $243
  • 25% Owners comp = $405
  • 50% expenses = $810

So how did I do?

I spent more than 50% on expenses (doh!) You may think "ah but you only spent $1,100 instead of $800, so what!"

It's a valid point that these numbers are still small.

But this is the lesson I learnt from the book...

It's the habit that you are putting in place that is important.

The numbers are irrelevant.

If we can get into the habit of receiving income and putting some into a "profit account" first that you don't touch, then the business can always be profitable.

Common questions about Profit First

  • How many bank accounts do you need?

The author Mike Michalowizc recommends like 5. I say 3 is fine. 1 for profit (that you don't touch), 1 for tax (that you don't touch... until tax time) 1 for revenue (that you pay your expenses from).

  • What do you do with the profit?

Every 6 months pay yourself a bonus of half of the profit account. That way the profit account keeps growing and you always have a buffer.

  • Why only 15% tax?

Because even though you may pay 35%+ on tax not all of your revenue will be taxed (your expenses come out first). 15% is more than enough to cover your tax costs (according to Mike M)

  • What is owners comp?

The amount you pay to the owners (probably just you atm)... you are the most important "employee" of your whole business so you should get paid before expenses.

  • Why even bother with profit?

Because you are the one creating a business. You should profit, not struggle.

How was your May? Let me know in the comments below and feel free to ask any questions!

P.S. Update on the health and fitness account WFF...

MTO has applied for Mediavine (a good ad network that requires 25,000 sessions per month).

Once I hear back I will also apply for WFF and it sounds like you can expect around $10-15 per thousand sessions from ads...

That would be around $500 a month revenue for each website... remember online businesses do not grow linearly... they can grow exponentially at different times. In shallah, it's around that time!

P.P.S. I know how much anger and uncertainty there is in the world right now. But I truly believe people sharing their message and continuing to do what they feel is right and help others is what will bring the world to a better place. Stay safe everyone.

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Recent Comments

75

Congrats Mike on your success, The main takeaway for me was this. The biggest influence for your results is your high frequency of posts. Of course, there are others too. But that to me is the main reason for your growing and impressive traffic after a relatively short time in the business.

Would you agree?

Keep up the great work.

Cheers.

Edwin

Hi Edwin, it’s a tricky one. It certainly helps. But the quality is far more important IMO. If you can combine quality with quantity then you’re onto a winner!

Creating templates systems and eventually teaching others to do this for you are all contributing factors.

Personally I would say this...

Try out a few templates and really spend a LOT of time on a few articles. Find what gets traction on Google then figure out why that one works and create more content like that.

If you can safely say your article is better than anything else on Google (and matches the search intent) then that’s a high quality article.

Writing hundreds of average articles with 1000 words prob won’t help your website get seen at all.

Then you can up the quantity using this template and process.

Really inspiring.I`m sure it can only get better.
I hope your Mediavine application gets approved as they changed the numbers last weekhttps://www.mediavine.com/new-mediavine-requirements/ ( someone show me where the tears emoji is in WA)
I was always close, was just missing very few hundreds and one month I was about 50 sessions short. By the time someone encouraged me to just apply it might be accepted, someone had messed up my Pinterest traffic so it was again "start from scratch".
What`s WFF?

Yeah mental right!!! Make Time Online didn’t get accepted but I did apply with Well Fit Fam (WFF) before the changes happened

Fingers crossed on that one! Either way I’ll just get it to 50k sessions 😜

I am in my 6th month of my online business , my focus was mainly in making it worthwhile to read, creating lead magnet to build an email list. Now I am at the stage of how to make money. So did not really make any money besides some Adsense income.
Thanks for sharing your progress and tips to get there,Mike :-)

Great to hear Luc. What niche are you in? Are you following the WA training?

Yes, I am following the training, I recently finished the OEC training to refresh my knowledge (and learn some new things too:-)) and now following Bootcamp as I am in the making money online niche.

Congratulations on the revenue Mike and thank you for the priceless information! I'm aware that I need to be thinking about how I handle my revenue, taxes, and all that stuff but I've been so busy that I haven't had the time to sort that out. But I know it's better done as early on as possible. Your tips will come in handy! My May has been a disappointment, to be honest. My day job has been so busy that I haven't really been able to hit my weekly content goals and I'm really running low on energy. For the first time in six months, I've found myself completely unable to write. But that's just an obstacle, giving up is not an option!

Hey Jukkah, it's a weird time in life so don't be hard on yourself.

I've had so many times exactly like this!

The best thing I find helps me is to get back into good habits... reading, meditating, yoga, grateful lists, writing small easy to achieve goals for the upcoming week (and day)

It's amazing how important our mindset is and our energy levels. It's defo not something to be ignored

Do some things that you enjoy doing and don't worry about taking some time off. Like you imply it's a long game... giving up never helps

Thanks for the encouragement man, I really appreciate it! I couldn't agree with you more, mindset is everything and I've been in a bad place due to stress.

I have decided to take a bit of time off from writing as I reached a point where I just couldn't force myself to write. I think I've written 100+ reviews so far this year. I was aiming for one per day, but it's pointless if it's going to cost my sanity and well being, lol!

Your post actually made me think. It's time to take this "online business" thing more seriously. I've decided to form a company and setup my accounting, taxes and all that stuff I've been putting off.

I'll have a three to four month hiatus from my day job in a month or so. We originally planned to move to the Mediterranean but due to the pandemic it just doesn't seem feasible. But I know what I'll be using that time for! After a bit of R&R while the summer lasts of course.

Congratulations on moving forward so well and on having a great business plan. We all know very well that none of us plan to fail we just fail to plan.

You, on the other hand will NOT fail in anything you do because we can see how focused and dedicated you ate to your business.

Thank you for a great lesson.

Thanks Richard, I appreciate that

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