My Monthly Report – January 2012

The timing of the update was absolutely planned, but unfortunately we got the update out on December 27th when it would have been more beneficial to have released it on Christmas Day.

It was a decision that was made to ensure some bugs would be fixed when the update went live.

Unfortunately, some users are still experiencing errors and crashes, and a new update should be out in the next week or so.

Such is the life of a software developer.

Overall, we’re extremely with how things went.

SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com

Out of the 31 days in January, 12 of them generated Adsense earnings above $100 for this niche site, which led to another record month of earnings!

(You can read more about SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com and exactly how it got started, from the idea to implementation to climbing to #1 in Google for free on the Niche Site Duel Hub.)

Additional Adsense testing is still proving to be useful, so the mantra “you can never test too much” totally holds true here, especially when you think about how one little tweak can improve a metric a fraction of a percentage, but over tens of thousands of impressions, can make a huge difference over time in earnings.

It adds up.

The job board on the site is also alive and kickin’ – which makes sense since it’s a job oriented site and people are back in work-mode after the holidays. Even though the job board (from Indeed.com) doesn’t make a significant amount of money, the fact that several people are using it to actually find jobs and start their careers is an amazing feeling.

And from a niche site, no less!

I also just started a private advertising experiment to help diversify the income stream coming from the site. I’ll be reporting my results from the experiment every so often during the next few months, but I can tell you that 2 days after adding the software I selected to automate the advertising process I already have one company that is paying a recurring monthly fee to advertise on the site, and two more are already lined up – they’re just finishing the graphics for their banner ads.

Create a Clickable Map

Mid-month I decided to find a web developer to design a tool that would help people create a clickable map of the U.S., similar to the one I have on the homepage of SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com.

Four days later, Create a Clickable Map was born and already over a hundred people have created maps for their own websites, for free.

Why free?

Well, it’s funny because a few people emailed me asking what the “real purpose” of the web app was, or what my true intentions were behind it.

A few people thought I was eventually going to start charging for it and one person even suggested that I was going to somehow put secret links into the map which, when embedded on people’s sites would send link juice to some of my own niche sites and help them rank higher in Google.

LOL – really?

Can’t a person do something nice for his community without there being some ill-intention behind it?

If anything, it’s free because it’s for karma, and as I’ve mentioned before, the more I give away, the more the Universe seems to pay me back in return.

Plus, it makes it so much easier to answer the emails I get from people asking me how to create a map like the one I have on my niche site

A New Web App

I had SO much fun with the map app that I immediately re-hired the same developer from ODesk to create another application for me, one that I believe is much more universal and could potentially go much bigger than the SPI audience.

Unfortunately, I’m going to be a little rude here and not tell you exactly what it is until it’s completed, although if you’re a fan on my Facebook Page you may have seen me post about it a couple of days ago.

The general consensus from those who commented is that it will extremely useful and save a lot of people time and money, but only if it’s designed correctly.

Challenge accepted!

The Smart Passive Income PODCAST

I’ll be writing a more detailed post about this soon, but in January the SPI Podcast just surpassed 1,000,000 downloads!

Thank you all for your wonderful support!

To celebrate, I bought myself this mic flag from the kind folks at ImpactPBS.com:

Sweet!

And look out for a new episode coming later next week.

I have a few other businesses and potential income streams in the works, but nothing noteworthy to report about them this month – so let’s get to the numbers.

Income Breakdown

Disclosure: many of the links below are affiliate links that will earn me a commission if you purchase through them. If you do, I absolutely appreciate it and if you have any questions about any of the products or services please contact me!

Also, please note that a lot of these are figures from reports from each individual company for the previous month. It does not necessarily reflect the actual payment which, for some of the companies listed below, come 30 to 60 days later and may change because of potential refunds.

• GreenExamAcademy.com Product Sales:
  • Total: $2,749.52
    • Last Month: $4,134.97
      
    • Difference: -$1,385.45
      

• SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com:
  • Adsense: $2,801.06
  • Job Board: $19.01
  • Private Advertising: $56.25
  • Total: $2,876.32
    • Last Month: $1,580.71
    • Difference: +$1,295.61
      

• Other Google Adsense (includes other niche sites):
  • Total: $175.31
    • Last Month: $225.56
    • Difference: -$50.25

• Affiliate Earnings (includes other niche sites):
  • Market Samurai: $5,621.28
  • Instant Article Factory: $46.00
  • The Best Spinner: $2,244.12
  • Article Builder (by Jonathan Leger): $294.00
  • Blog Blueprint: $181.02
  • Unique Article Wizard: $3,383.50
    
  • Bluehost.com: $18,450.00
  • iPhone Apps w/o Experience eBook: $176.40
  • Chris Guthrie’s Amazon Niche Profit Course: $114.20
  • EasyAzon Plugin: $63.48
  • WP-Wishlist Plugin: $188.40
  • Affiliate Marketing for Beginners by Corbett Barr: $414.63
  • Joseph Archibald’s 40 Day Challenge: $18.70
  • Thesis Theme for WordPress: $1,042.50
  • Subscriber’s Magnet Plugin: $73.86
  • Long Tail Pro: $88.72
  • Aweber: $690.18
  • Elance.com: $313.00
  • Odesk.com: $150.00
  • GoToWebinar: $150.00
  • 99Designs.com: $77.00
  • Clicky: $208.08
  • EasyPLR: $14.50
  • Woothemes.com: $28.00
  • Screenflow: $59.40
  • BuildMyRank: $959.55
  • E-Junkie.com: $67.60
  • Virtual Staff Finder: $462.00
  • Build a Blog That Matters Course: $2,128.05
  • Zen to Done eBook (Leo Baubauta): $4.75
  • Amazon.com: $295.65
  • Beachbody Products: $29.90
  • Total: $38,038.47
    • Last Month:$28,193.87
      
    • Difference: +$9,844.60

• iPhone Applications:
  • Paid Apps: $5,697.00
  • Free Apps: $535.60
    
  • Total: $6,232.60
    • Last Month: $4,254.48
    • Difference: +$1,978.12

• Payment from Client / Consultation (1 client):
  • Total: $12,500

• Gross Total in January: $62,572.22
  • Last Month: $38.485.59
  • Difference: +$24,086.63

• Expenses: ~$5,182.13
  • Major expenses this month include virtual assistants (one full-time, one part-time), hosting account for SPI (dedicated server), recurring payments for various tools, attorney and CPA (Certified Public Accountant) fees.

• Net Total in January: $57,390.09

(Click here to read a typical monthly expense report which breaks down how my time and money is spent)

Un..be..lieve..a..ble!

This shatters my previous record, however the numbers are skewed a bit because I did include a $12,500 check from a client that was a scheduled payment for my services, which aren’t entirely passive – but not entirely active either. I decided to include it here because I’ve included one-time payments from clients before in my reports, and this one in particular, which I talked about in SPI Podcast Session #31, is from a relationship that came about because of my podcast, which I’m quite proud of.

The affiliate earnings (most of which come from SPI, but some come from specialized niche sites as well), are through the roof, but what I like the most is that my non-SPI earnings total over $13,000 (not including the client check), which is up from about $10k last month.

One of my goals in 2012 is to increase the non-SPI related income that I’m generating, so this is a great start.

As I always make sure to mention in each of my income reports, I’ll be the first to admit that a significant portion of my income comes as a result of blogging here on The Smart Passive Income Blog – mostly from the products that I recommend as an affiliate, which are products I’ve used or am extremely familiar with and have helped me in one way, shape or form.

I’m so fortunate to have the support of an amazing community here who sometimes makes purchases through my affiliate links (some people going way out of their way to make sure they do that). With this comes a responsibility to the community that I know I have and will never take for granted – and as such I never promote just for the potential income that can come from an offer, even though those opportunities are definitely there.

I’m incredibly grateful for everything, and I will continue to give back with valuable content and my experience in return.

Side note: if you’re interested in learning exactly where my Bluehost affiliate earnings come from and convert, check out this article here:

An Insider Look: My Affiliate Links and Exactly Where They Convert

Things I Learned in January

Over the past few months I’ve been putting together the content for an upcoming product and I noticed that after I took time off and finally got well again, it was really difficult for me to get back into hardcore product creation mode.

It takes a lot of energy and focus to create something amazing, but it doesn’t take much to distract and pull focus away from where it should be in order to make that happen.

I think that’s one of the many challenges that come along with being an online entrepreneur – especially with all of the bright and shiny lights out there, all within an arm’s reach.

I started to “put things off for later” and made up excuses that other things were more important or urgent.

One thing, fortunately, got me back on track: remembering exactly why I was creating the product in the first place.

I took so much time off that when it was time to get back into it, I was only thinking about how behind I was, like I needed to “catch up”. So instead of doing what I needed to do, I did stuff that seemed more fulfilling to me at the time – stuff that was important too, but stuff that just became an excuse to put things off for later.

Sometimes it’s good to step back and think about the big picture and remember the WHY behind what we do.

Never forget your purpose – your end goal.

If you find yourself working without one, then why are you working at all?

Thanks again for your incredible and undying support. I feel so fortunate to be where I’m at today and to see numbers like I did in this record-breaking report. I owe the SPI community everything and will continue to give back as much as humanly possible.

Cheers, and all the best to you!