December 2018 Income Report - 540% increase in revenue
Happy New Year and welcome to my second income report!
Last month I made a grand total of $180.45 in income.... however I had $304 in expenses, meaning that I had a loss of $133.55.
This past month looked very different... both on the amount of money made and where it came from. Let's take a look!
Income
In December, I started offering services related to my niche website and, to be honest, my affiliate activity dropped a bit. I still published a few articles for my site, however, I also attracted some new clientele to some of the services I am now offering.
My total affiliate income for December 2018 was a earth-shattering $4.95... simply amazing ;)
My total online services income for December was $1,149.95.
This bring my total income to $1,154.90, which is a 540% increase on my previous months income.
Expenses
I get really annoyed when I see people talk about the topline revenue but don't disclose the expense to get there. If you're wondering why, let me ask you a question:
If you could choose between a $1,000,000 business that costs $999,999 to run or a $100,000 business that costs $20,000 to run, which would you choose?
Assuming that the million dollar business' expenses does not include a salary or any other type of payment for you as the business owner, then the smaller revenue business actually has a higher economic benefit for you.
For me, I will always either disclose my expenses or talk in net figures... which leads me to this months expenses. A grand total of $724.97 of expenses for me this month - a 130% increase.
My expenses this month were higher because I have built a team to deliver my online services :) I also invested in a seperate CRM and marketing automation tool for the online services business.
Profit
Ahhh profit... one of my most favourite words. Every business owner should remember the saying:
Revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity. Cash flow is reality.
My profit this month was $429.93. Considering that last month was negative, this is definitely a step in the right direction.
My Thoughts On December...
Across my sites, I published 6 articles in December plus released 3 Youtube videos. I won't be able to attribute any results to these activities just yet, however it will definitely help over the long term. I have pretty much formulated a content syndication strategy where I get the most return on time... which is super important to me as I have a 14 month old son who I would rather be spending time with, rather than creating content upon content. I will actually create some training around my content syndication strategy soon...
In December, I didn't do much SiteComments... just coming back to what I mentioned before... I am super-conscious of how I spent my time and it is very time-consuming to read an article and craft a thoughtful response for $0.50 every second article. I figured out that selling my online service provided a much higher ROI in both time and money.
I definitely hit my goal of increasing my revenue by 25% and my profit margin is looking healthier. I'm feeling a bit of New Year ambition so I'm going to try to double my revenue next month while slightly increasing my profit margin.
Oh, I forgot to mention that the bulk of my online service income is recurring... meaning that next month I'll be paid a similar amount by those clients plus whatever new business I pick up. My strategy is to use the service to generate cash flow that I can reinvest back into other revenue sources (e.g. affiliate marketing, paid advertising & subscriptions/memberships). If I can slowly build my affiliate income whilst supplementing it with my online services, then I think I can have a fairly robust online business over the long term.
Well, I think that just about wraps up my December. If I remember anything else, I'll come back and edit this post.
How did you finish 2018? Was December a great month for you?
Recent Comments
24
Financially December was a negative month for me. In terms of site development it was excellent. Now I simply look forward to 2019.
Having studied accountancy in my youth, and used it in my banking career, I totally understand your comments on costs. But costs with affiliate marketing will depend on the methods you utilise to make an income. I know of a number of people here at WA that have earned a good income with little costs. This is especially the case if you use content writing and social media to gain organic traffic.
However, Should you use other means such as Advertising etc. It can become quite costly. This is when understanding marketing and advertising helps.
Another large cost can occur if you have others write articles for you.
What ever method people use, as you state, it's cash flow , and ultimately profit, that matters.
I hope 2019 is a fantastic year for you
Jim
Cheers Jim!
I think it’s detrimental to focus on keeping costs low though because eventually we all run out of time. Most of my costs above are for the services I offer.
Cheers,
Shane
Midhun,
ClickBank has many programs that you can promote
which have recurring commissions you may want to
check them for these type of programs.
Susan
Appreciate your comment, Susan.
I know about ClickBank.But I think
the number of high-quality recurring
products in CB is less.
Hi Midhunvm,
The recurring service revenue are retainers that my clients pay for marketing implementation (automation, copywriting, SEO etc).
Cheers,
Shane
Hi, businesses that create a residue income will always come out ahead, ask yourself why businesses that operate subscription services are on the increase. Wishing you every success towards growing yours, and a successful 2019
Congrats man! I hope you see 500% increases in revenue every month for 2019 (or at least, 500% in Dec 2019 :)
Well done, Shane, that’s what it’s all about, generating an income from whatever fair means suits your business model.
I just found out that I had a successful December. 17 visitors to my blog, a 188.88% increase on the previous month and 17 more than I was expecting as I only have 10 posts up so far. Still, it’s made me think that as I add more posts it’s time to promote something. By coincidence I was researching a suitable product last night.
Anyway, I wish you further success in 2019.
Steve.
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Great article! I love the "blow by blow" lay out of your income/expenses. Thanks for that. I have a couple questions for you, when you have time to answer please do:
1. How many sites do you run?
2. How often do you post(promote) each site?
3. What's your average monthly earnings(roughly)?
4. How long have you been doing this?
hey hi Larry!
Just for your information:
.... with your use of the question mark "?" your questions have landed in the awesome WA community for response and here we are ...
.... please kindly remember to click the 'yes' OR 'no' before hitting the Reply button....
.... it looks like Shane may be quite busy so he'll likely reply to you in due time ....
keep well, keep happy! ... all the best .... :)
G'day Larry,
It's been a while since I updated my earnings reports, but to answer your questions:
1. I currently have 3 active sites (2 x content sites and 1 x services site - I have quite a few other inactive sites)
2. Varies, but I aim for 4 posts per month on each site. I've just started ramping up one of my content sites and will post 20 blogs this month. I have a few writers to help and I also have staff that handle SEO.
3. I average a couple of hundred for each content site and my services site is several thousand ($15k+).
4. I've been a member of WA since May last year and started straight away with affiliate & content sites but I have had service-based business websites since 2015.
I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Cheers,
Shane
Amazing Shane, do you share what niche(s) your sites are in?
Hi Mike,
No worries at all:
1) Digital marketing/fractional CMO (services site)
2) Marketing automation (content site)
3) Australian financial services news (content site)
All very tough niches to crack haha.
I'd encourage anyone to go after niches that they can consistently produce content for :)
Hope that helps Mike!
Cheers,
Shane