Let’s start off the New Year with a bang…
Welcome to my January 2012 Monthly Income Report!
Each month I share an extremely detailed report about what I’ve been up to, the income I’ve earned online and the lessons I’ve learned during the past 31 Days.
Why?
For several reasons:
- To keep me headed in the right direction. Sure, I could keep this all to myself but sharing this information publicly helps to hold me accountable and continue to try and outdo myself.
- I want to be honest and transparent. If anyone talks about making money online, I think that’s really the only way it should be. Wins, losses, successes and failures – the whole deal.
- I know it inspires a lot of people to take action.
Before I get into this month’s report I just wanted to mention one quick thing: if you’re just starting out online, please understand that making money via the Internet is definitely not an overnight thing.
Time, hard work, dedication, a lot of failures, constant learning and a passion to help other people are all things that I’ve found to be part of the recipe for success.
And lastly – it takes belief. If you don’t believe you can succeed, then there’s absolutely no chance that you will.
“My inner world creates my outer world.” - T. Harv Eker, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
Let’s get to it…
Important Going-Ons in January
The start of the New Year was rough – mostly because I was sick.
Being sick = no energy = no work, which is unfortunate because after writing my 2012 Goal Post, I really wanted to take massive action.
But, on the bright side, I was reaping the benefits of passive income and I knew after a week off from work that this could be a record breaking month.
One of the key indicators came from my iPhone app business.
iPhone Applications
Right after Christmas my partner and I released a new update to one of our most successful iPhone applications, Baby Maker.
Before the update it was averaging about $50 per day and entering in and out of the top 200 apps in the photo/video category in the app store.
Over the past 31 days it has averaged $156 per day and has been bouncing around the 100 to 120 mark in the same category.
There are a few reasons why our earnings jumped by 212%:
- The update itself. There are websites, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages with thousands of followers that post when old apps are updated. Beyond that, the update definitely helped because one of the prior updates to iOS crashed some parts of the app.
- It was right after Christmas, which is one of the many times during the year when there’s a boom in the number of iPhone and iPod Touch users who are all looking for apps to fill their brand new devices. The other boom times of the year are Father’s Day and whenever a new version of the iPhone comes out.
- Our other apps, both paid and free, which also saw more downloads as a result of the season pushed sales for BabyMaker, not only because there were more people on our brand, but because within 90% of our applications we have a more apps page that showcases some of our more popular (and profitable) applications.
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
- Last Month: $4,134.97
- Total: $2,749.52
- 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
- Total: $175.31
- 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
- Last Month:$28,193.87
- 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!
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Newer Comments →
Wow, amazing month! Congrats Pat!
Thank you Sune!
Hey Pat,
I see you make a niche chunk of change from your Market Samurai aff link, they are having major issues at the moment and it looks as though things are about to change over there.
What are your thoughts?
If you plan on changing software what are you considering?
Thanks
Andy
whoops, it seems you have a blog post dedicated to this (should have checked that 1st
)
Hehe – it’s all good Andy! All answers to your questions are in that post – thought it was only right of me to share what happened and my thoughts since I am an affiliate for the product. I appreciate the heads up though!
Wow what a great month!
Wow, Pat. You really outdid yourself this month. Awesome job. The sky seems to be the limit!
BlueHost should probably send a thank you basket your way, heh.
Nice job Pat, keep killing it!
They did for Christmas already
They do send a thank you basket… in the form of a check for almost 20k…
Terrific month Pat! Very inspiring, thank you for all your transparency and hard work that you share.
Congratulations Pat on a great month!
Indeed it’s a great start when it comes to increasing the non-SPI related income that you’re generating. To keep up the momentum, here’s some advice.
We all know that affiliate marketing can be very powerful and a great help to a business. Because of this it might be a good idea for you to start an affiliate program for GreenExamAcademy.com. If you’re not yet an expert at starting and growing affiliate programs perhaps you can hire a professional affiliate manager and learn from him.
In addition to possibly increasing net income you get, you can share with us here on this blog all the secrets to how to build a great affiliate program like you did with SEO advertising methods.when you wrote “THE Backlinking Strategy That Works” post. I think if you do this we’ll all be winners.
Hey Mark – there is an internal invite only affiliate program for GreenExamAcademy.com already. Thing is, there aren’t that many other publishers online who have an audience to promote my eBook to, and the ones that do are already signed up
It’s an affiliate program through E-Junkie.com, just FYI, which is automatically setup when you sell something through them.
Cheers!
It’s a hard life
Heh, congrats man. I know you’ve worked for it!
Very inspiring…
Thanks Glen, and you’ve definitely helped me along the way – thank you!
Wow! At this rate your little Hello name tag will have to say, “Yes I am a millionaire, and I made it from passive income.” Congrats!
Still from from it though – hehe. Uncle Sam wants me to keep that nametag there a little longer.
:O
Wow, very inspiring indeed!
That’s a little under what I hope to be pulling per month by the end of this year!
Pat, I am truly amazed by these reports each and every month!! Thanks for sharing, this keeps me motivated!
Dave
Wow, incredible Pat! You are truly an inspiration for us IM’ers. Thanks for all you do.
Amazing …can’t believe….ur simply amazing…Congrats..for achieving new heights..
Pat: brilliant…..no more words needed!
Congrats!
Great Pats
BTW : you said CPA expenses ???
isn’t CPA for MAKING money ??
Oh yeah – lol. You’re totally right, my mistake. I’ve changed it to CFP (certified financial planner). LOL! Thanks!
I thought CPA meant Certified Public Accountant. In other words your accounting business expense.
Mark, you’re right. LOL – I keep getting confused by the different acronyms. It IS CPA – certified public accountant.
Brain fart
Thanks!
Pat, I am just blown away every month from your income and specifically what you are making only with Bluehost. It is amazing to see how many people are getting started with something online every month due to your blog inspiration (I assume that is the reason).
Unbelievable indeed
Great stuff Pat. It’s always very inspiring to read these monthly reports. No doubt, they inspire massive action for many of your readers (at least here!). Cool.
Nice work Pat!
I wonder if the security guard niche is doing so much better than your other niche sites because of the public accountability behind it. I assume you spend more time on that bad boy!
I can’t wait to hear more about your private advertising experiment on it!
Ramy
I would not disagree with that Ramy. Private advertisement experiment post #2 coming soon, I promise!
Congratulations Pat! It’s always inspiring to see your income reports. You definitely deserve every penny. You’re one of the few people I go out of my way to support and I actually get excited to see you improve from month-to-month. Im looking forward to eventually being SPI worthy sometime soon!
Thank you Andrew – that means a LOT to me
Impressive! One again. Congrats!
Congrad Pat,
You always seem to amaze me at how you do things and your right helping other people is the way to go. I always look at what you do for inspire and motivation. I know now I just need to give it a try and see what happens. Helping other people is the clue so I will just give and give an help others.
Wish you the best of luck this year
Wow. This is really inspiring! These numbers are just mind-boggling to me. It’s great that you’ve broken it down into all the different elements too…
I just found your blog recently and love your attitude, your honesty, and how you aren’t afraid to share everything with your readers. You have so much information on here, I’m not even sure where to start!
I’m looking forward to working my way through it all.
P.S. I didn’t insert my real name as we haven’t “come out” on our blog yet. It’s a tough thing to do when you have so much personal information out there on the web. But, I can assure you that I’m not a spammer!
Omg Pat, congratulations!! Amazing month indeed! Your podcast numbers are insane! I’m hoping to get to that level one day but wow.
Great to see the apps doing so well too.
Keep it up Pat, you are my #1 inspiration!
Marty
That is absolutely amazing Pat! Only shows what hard work and dedication will do for you. I hope to have a fraction of your success one day.
Also, thank you for all the helpful information you post. I am excited to find out more about your advertising experiment. I have a site that I am gettting ready to launch and think it has great advertising potential.
That is diversification at its best.
IN-CRE-I-BLE !
I was just commenting this with my wife, she says you probably earn more than most CEOs in many companies (including mine
Way to go man, congrats, you are a total motivation (and a cool guy also! haha)
cheers
Congrats on the sick month Pat!
Awesome Pat. I stumbled across your site recently, having read some glowing reports of your work. It shows that you’re the real thing with real quality content and products on offer.
Pat Flynn, Inspiring people to earn passive income legitimately since….
In the words of big Arnie Schwarzenegger… I’ll be back!!!
What a way to start off the new year, way to go, Pat!
Can’t wait to hear more about your new product. Oh, and will you be doing an update post on your backlinking strategy?
Fantastic result Pat! I am your constant reader and also I’ve read almost all posts here at SPI. If I wouldn’t observe your online entrepreneur evolution since October 2008 I wouldn’t believe this report. Congratulations!
Congratulations on your AMAZING progress on everything, Pat!
You’ve shown us how to spawn good seeds everywhere and harvest them all together one day.
However the main problem with most part-time “online gardeners” is not having enough time to spread the seeds, or to water them afterwards. They may just have enough time to keep up with their content updates and site maitainence, not much more than that …
I’m one of “them”. Three hours commuting to work each day and two young kids. I’d be on cloud nine if I can earn $1000 monthly from my blog two years from it’s birth.
Thanks for being the inspiration for all of us part-time “online gardeners”…
Grace
I am always amazed by your income reports. Thank you so much for sharing. You deserve every penny you make from the SPI blog. You’ve inspired me to get the ball rolling with some niche sites and I hope that I’ll have even a quarter of the success that you’ve had with SGTHQ. I was curious, how much of an impact do you think sharing SGTHQ on your site has had on the earnings? It seems to really outpreform your other niche sites (per our report). For example, in one post you linked to a UAW article you had posted about SGTHQ and that article has a few thousand views while the other article you have posted on there only had a few hundred. I’m just curious if you think that your SPI audience has an impact on the success of SGTHQ. In contrast, I know sharing the niche site started a number of copycat sites so it could have negatively effected the site too. Regardless, the numbers are always impressive. Keep sharing and teaching.
It’s hard for me to see you gain so much money.
$57.000.00 …..
I know you worked hard, but I worked hard too, and had win nothing in 7 month of hard work.
But congratulation. That’s the game.
I hope I could win at least 1000 euros by the end of the year !
Hey Justin – when I first started, nothing came from my being on the internet for over a year and half (when I built greenexamacademy.com). It’s all about working hard, like you said, but also working hard on the right things and giving it time.
Thank you for your answer. I don’t want to give up !
Again congratulations.
Nuts, man. Off the hook.
You rock!
Much man love,
Mark
I am getting too used to seeing these high five figure reports – it’s getting old lol. Mix it up for us with some six figure reports soon Pat
Congratulations!
Astounding as always Pat!
Keep up the awesome work.
-Austin
Pat.. very kewl!!!! So far advanced from the old eHow writing days. I wish I had continued on in my blog. Although I make good money on Examiner.com very little is residual. You have done great. Keep up the good stuff and thanks for continuing to update your info!!!!
I want to be Pat Flynn when I grow up…in my next life anyway
In need of a minion?
Outstanding month.
Killer month Pat!! Not bad for a stay at home dad!!! Big ups to you again
Hi Pat,
Thanks for this monthly update. It sounds like you still are doing well despite the down time for being sick. I really need a way to get on track. I have had so many drawbacks already in January, and this week alone I have been out with doctor appointments and will be the again the next two weeks. It really puts a damper on my motivation to jump right on things when I am so set back already. I dont give up easily but am very stressed with not being able to follow through my own rules because of family obligations which cannot be ignored. Guess thats all part of being a mommy;) . Well your time and thoughts do keep me encouraged, so keep them coming. Thanks so much.
Hey Aleshia. I totally understand your frustration. (I know Pat does too). Nothing wrong with putting family first. I congratulate you for that. Just make sure your expectations are aligned with your reality, take consistent actions (even if they are small), and dream big. Small actions will add up over time…
Peace,
Mark
Incredible as always. Following your advice, I now have a small trickle comming in every month, that gets just a little bigger..
thanks again
Woo hoo! This is fantastic, and the perfect way to start off 2012! I can’t wait to see how the year ends. I’m sure you have amazing things ahead of you. You’re an inspiration.
Hey Pat! 57k WOW!!! Thanks again for giving me motivation to keep up with what i’m doing. Last month (my first month) I made a whopping 42 cents! LOL. So I clearly need to work a little harder to get to your level. Haha. Your site is great! Pretty much the reason i started my site was because of your Niche Site Duel page. Thanks!
Email me if you ever want any of your apps reviewed on my site. I’m always looking for new apps to review.
Hi Pat, I’d love to see how you automated the job board posting process!
Hey Neil! If you go to indeed.com and click on “publishers at the bottom”, they allow you, for free, to embed a job board which uses their database onto your site. it’s pretty cool!
Indeed.com has been very useful to me as well. The earnings are inconsequential, but the job board draws thousands of visitors per month to a site that is ‘semi’ job oriented. Can’t beat the price, and every once in a while I like to think that someone in need of a job will find one.
Wow, 1/3 of your income is coming from Bluehost — are the referrals still mainly coming from the homepage and resource section like you outlined in this post last summer?
http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/affiliate-link-conversion/
Yes, almost exactly the same numbers as far as ratio, just more quantity.
Congratulations on a great month.
Also thank you for the map tool. I used it last night. A map has been on my list for months.
I owe you, call for a favor any time.
Pat, your earrings are ridiculous!! It’s enough to inspire anyone to make a start in the internet marketing and blogging world!!
Keep up the good work and being ill is only a minor setback in the grand scheme of things, so keep going!
I love reading these income statements!
Usually I’m head to head with you but you beat me this month. By quit a lot.
WAY TO START THE YEAR Pat, All I can say is Awesome! Pat you give all of us the motivation and inspiration to continue even when things are not going the way we want them to. We simple come to your blog, read a post and we a pumped to work again.
Good job and I hope it only gets better for 2012.
…..
Casey Gentles
I don’t earn that amount in one full year of work! I guess your laid off is just a vague souvenir now right. Nice reading you.
HOLLY DAMN! A NEW WHOLE RECORD HERE!!! Congrats Pat, I see you started this year kicking some ass, I hope everything will go better this year, I hope to be like you when I grow up hahahahahah
Anyways we will be cheering you grom here
Holy smokes Pat! Congrats!
Funny thing with your income reports after following you for over a year is that at first, those income reports were motivators for a guy like myself. Privately wishing and hoping to make even a fraction of what you’re making (still do actually) during the first 4-6 months of reading them.
Then a year later, I find myself eagerly awaiting your report like a stat sheet for fantasy sports, rooting for record month after record month for a guy I’ve never met hehe.
You’re truly a rarity in the IM field because you’re making a serious amount of income from a business model that almost nobody in the IM field uses – honesty.
I’ve subscribed to tons of other folks you’ve interviewed in your podcast and while they do inspire and give your readers tremendous value, many of them don’t go beyond their blog posts and start spamming your mailboxes with offers after offers and it’s disappointing somewhat because SPI readers never get any blatant pitches from you.
Your business model makes us, the readers – out of reciprocity, come back to your site and use your affiliate links for purchases and we feel like we’re part of your monthly reports because we were your customers in the first place!
Anyway, keep up the good job Pat, stay safe and have a great 2012!
Dave
Its great to see that your adsense income has increased a lot for the Security Guard niche.
That is totally awesome. You rock. Thanks for sharing this info. So many wouldn’t. It is a real eye opener and motivation for all out there who are trying to create something special, but not even certain that it would or could ever pay off. With role models like you available in the blogging world, future blogging for income bloggers, should be very excited about their future prospects.
Wow, Totally amazing Pat. I’m your number fan here.
Another great month Pat! I look forward to seeing that private advertising go big for Security Guard Training HQ.
Pat- You’ve got to start laughing sometimes when you write these out… Freakin awesome.
The part I like best is your niche site- you’re really approaching an authority site with that, and that’s a huge distinction to all these people being taught to build 100 5-page Adsense sites.
Very very few people out there have an Adsense site making $3K a month.
Speaking as someone who has built a good number of 5-page adsense sites, I think that model will almost certainly die for good eventually.
Awesome earnings with Bluehost and SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com!
Hey, Pat!
AMAZING month, man…you absolutely killed it! What a great way to start off the year, eh? What I love about your income report is the diversification. Much of your income comes from the SPI blog, but that’s a direct result of your traffic…something that won’t be declining anytime soon due to your great content and regular updates.
I have to tell you that you’ve had a major impact on our business and we owe you more than you know. Your open approach is an idea we’ve borrowed that has changed the way we do business overall and we gobble up all of your content that describes your strategies, especially as it comes to reach and providing value.
We’ve viewed you for months as are target as “THE guy to beat” when it comes to monthly income. As a friendly competition or goal (as viewed on our end) this has provided us the opportunity to increase our income by an incredible amount with our business. We continue to fall short of your monthly revenue targets, but the fact that we’re even in the ballpark some months is a direct result of the impact you’ve had on our way of thinking and applying strategies we’ve learned from you. (Open income reports, “be everywhere” strategy, FREE value, etc.)
Thank you so much, man…
Thanks Justin, I appreciate the kind words and I’m extremely happy that what I teach has been able to help you and Joe in your business! I have noticed it taking off and I love seeing similar tactics that I use being put to good use, and in a good way that can change people’s lives.
I do hope you surpass me eventually, and go way above and beyond and then I’ll make sure to try and catch up to you at that point
Thanks again (and thanks for your attention to responding to the comment below about podcasting mics. Your mics sounds great on your show, so the Blue Yeti definitely sounds like a winner).
Excellent Pat! Your monthly report and journey is truly inspirational each month! You niche site (Security Guard) is really developing very well. Great Adsense revenue. Keep up the great work in February! Greg
I noticed you are now a youtube partner, so you are now making money from youtube as well right?
Good stuff Pat. Based on your Bluehost earnings, it looks like start an online business is right up there with weight loss as the top New Year’s resolution.
Every single time I read your reports, it absolutely amazes me. I would be ecstatic to hit that amount for the entire YEAR, let alone just one month!
I know you hustle your tail off and work hard for what you do. No one out there deserves it more than you do, that’s for sure! You’re one of the GOOD guys out there who I have followed for a couple years now, inspiring me to continue on my path towards earning a full-time living online.
I am always surprised by your humbleness, and that is a quality that you can’t seem to find these days. Congrats on such a breakthrough month and I am really looking forward to what you will do with the entire year ahead of us.
Keep it rockin’ man!
Bryan
Congratulations Pat. I am proud of you and your dedication to your work!
Pat, in the past, I was reading just your numbers. Recently, I am trying to do reverse engineering why you are rocking.. I am happy to see your growth these 3 years. A lot of times, people just love to come back and buy through your aff links although most of your followers promote the same products like UAW, Best Spinner, M.S, bluehost etc.
I am revisiting your past income reports and read/understand your learned lessons. At least they have saved my time.
Again, thank you for all your inspiration. SPI is what I admire as a IM brand.
Yeah a lot of times people email me or let me know on FB and Twitter that they just make sure to go through my affiliate link. It’s incredibly awesome how generous people are in making sure that happens, and like I said in the report I’m extremely fortunate to have a community like one here on SPI.
If you have any questions so I can speed up your reverse engineering process and help you out, please let me know.
Cheers!
Pat, thanks for your offer. I will ping you and get your help in your bonus webinar. Awesome to see you help others succeed and contribute back!
Amazing!!! Congrats Pat!!!
Funny story, after I read about the niche site duel challenge I kept thinking of what niche was still out there ripe for the picking. I told my fiance about your site, and she gave me her elevator pitch. Today we got the ball rolling, and are basically putting the pieces together looking for a mid-month launch. She has great contacts, we feel it is an untapped market, and we couldn’t have done it without seeing you succeed first. Thanks for all you do.
Congrats Pat! I am so happy to have come across your blog, the podcast and your unique insight into what you earn. It is my goal to be as influential and positive as you are online, I know God will continue to bless you!
You Rock!
-Dave
Hey Pat,
congrats to THIS record month!
One question here:
You’ve got a picture of your mic above. What mic do you recommend for a podcast?
I’m thinking about doing a podcast for my blog but I do not want to use my headset because you can hear my breath to much in it…
Any recommendations for a great podcast microphone?
Thanks and keep on the good work you are doing!
Regards
Gordon
Hey Gordon! Thanks!
I use a Heil PR40, which is a professional podcasting mic. It’s a bit pricey and you need a mixer (it doesn’t plug directly into a computer audio input jack), but it definitely makes me sound a lot better on the podcast than I do in real life, lol.
There are some good decent USB mics that do an okay job of clearing background noise and breath (by the way, a pop filter or foam cover for a mic can get rid of that breathing sound easy), but unfortunately I don’t know a specific brand.
Hope this helps!
Jep, thanks a lot for your fast respond!
Hey Gordon,
We started a podcast a few months ago and didn’t want to get TOO crazy on expenses before we figured out whether it was something we wanted to continue with.
We ended up purchasing a “Blue Yeti” based on the recommendations of other podcasters and have found it met our needs fantastically. I think we purchased ours for just under $100 or so brand new. Take a look on Amazon and see if you think it would meet your needs.
Hey Pat, congrats on your new earning record
I always wait for your monthly reports because they are amazing and inspire me a lots. I also noticed that your adsense earning made by SecurityGuardTrainingHQ has skyrocketed. Congrats again hehe! You are truly a big brand in IM!
INCREDIBLE Pat! Is there any limits on what you can do? You have really done something amazing here..
Keep up the great work and thanks for all the great content.
Take care in Sunny San Diego!
Hey Pat,
I think what you have accomplished is amazing. You might have surpassed Chow Baby as I like to call him ( John Chow ) in monthly earnings. I know for a fact Google considers your blog an authority for passive income so your pages will get high rankings and searches. Was wondering if you ever drove paid traffic to your pages that have your affiliate links on them? Or is all from organic search?
Never paid for traffic to SPI – all natural search. Thing is, search traffic is just a tiny portion of my overall traffic.
Hey Pat,
It’s amazing to see the results you have achieved and the progress you have made over the past few years. I am happy to have found your blog in Sally Neill’s Blog Hopping Queen report as I am in the beginning stages of building my online business and love to see successful marketers who are so open and willing to help others out. I plan on visiting your site regularly.
Do you attribute a large portion of your traffic to your blog hopping efforts as outlined by the blog hopping queen?
Talk soon,
~Jeremy Ruggles
Pat, you are my inspiration in online business, every month I see your monthly income and asked when it could be like that. And I would like to ask how you can get a great affiliate sales from bluehost? Thank you
Didn’t know people like you exist until I stumbled upon this blog.
Transparency and honesty is much appreciated, thnx!
Absolutly insperational, shows what hard work and your personal accountability can achive.
Excellent post, I am keen to learn more about the private advertising you get going on the Security Guard website, particularly the software you are using. It looks very interesting and may just suit one of my websites.
Also the clickable map is great just wish you had a UK one (that would be extremely useful for me)! May have to bite the bullet and get one made.
Well done Pat! its truly inspiring
Hi Pat, with all the news about Facebook going public, the cash they will have to do what they want, etc, how do think this will impact your income, or say it on a different manner, do you think facebook will become the internet and the internet will become facebook?
Hi Pat
Believable
Your everywhere 
Shame about the health issues. A number of people i know were sick post christmas myself included. Its really messed up the 2012 objectives. Will have to work to catch up
And your paying back. Good thinks follow.
Hey Pat,
As with everyone else, I’m totally moved by what you’ve been able to accomplish. I’m curious to know more about your non-SGTHQ niche sites. How many of these sites do you have? Are you investing any real energy into them over the month?
Thanks so much for all you do,
Pat
It is great to see you kicking 2012 by smashing the amount of your earnt in December, I keep reading your blog Pat because it always offers me the incentive to keep going with my online dealings.
Very inspiratonal and transparent post-
And the bottom line is you are helping people along the way which is what IM should be all about-help and be helped. Congrats on you hard work and success and helping others succeed along the way. This is the same value structure that I empoly not only in my SBI website but in the game of life as well.
I am not quite to your level of success though and only earned close to $500.00 US all of 2011, but my 171 page content nich informational goal setting website only went online June 2009 (2.5 years ago). But it was the first time that I have earned passive income-any income at all with a home business, and my earnings between advertising and earnings as a paid author more than offset the cost of my $299.00 yearly webhosting-etools support fee, so that in itself is a powerful motivator that I actually earned money-not lost money….
Already for 2012, I have already been paid $125.00 for one advertiser for running a one year ad on my site and fully expect several others to follow as part of additional monetization plan for my site. I fully expect to double if not triple my earnings for 2012, with my first published book to be released Spring 2012 and my first ebook that is in the works for one of my most frequently visited pages.
The sky is the limit if you have faith and belief in yourself and in your God given abilities. If you can believe it you can achieve it still holds true today; conversely, if you don’t believe you WILLl, more likley than not-you WON’T…
The one thing that you have already touched upon is that you really must diserfy your monetization model, something I am already doing on my SBU website, just as you would not put all of your investment dollars into one investment vehicle (stocks, bonds, CDs, precious metals, etc), so too should one not rely on one particular monetization methodology for their site-DIVERSIFY BABY….
Remember: Your Ability is only limited by your inability to take Action…
Best-
Wayne
Pat, this is simply the most amazing and inspiring report I’ve ever seen. You are clearly an expert in what you do. I just got started and followed your 4-min video and insights on getting my blog up and running. Invaluable! Quick question…I wonder. Do you think you would have achieve this level of success by now had you never been laid off? I think adversity brings out the best in us.
I guarantee that if I wasn’t laid off I would not get to this level, or even have started at all. It was the best thing that happened to me when I look back at it
Outrageous Pat! I love your Karma Philosophy of giving away. You are sure blessed out of pure caring and charity to the rest of us.
Great work and thank you for all of your contribution and motivation!
Pat,
Another amazing and ionspirational month. Crazy thing is that your income will only continue to increase and the pieces you have put into play will only pay bigger dividends in the future.
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