This post may contain affiliate links for more info visit my disclosure page.
Hello my friends, another month has gone by and I hope everyone had a nice holiday and a very Happy New Year!
There’s been some good news and some bad news regarding my business but that’s all relative really. Good news is I’ve made more money than the other three months, the bad news is that I’ve lost my first Premium referral at Wealthy Affiliate!
This just goes to show that you need to have more than one income stream for your website to earn from so you don’t get stuck if something goes wrong with the one source.
Here’s how I will break down my December analysis:
- What’s happening?
- Revenue Sources
- Social Media
- YouTube Channel
- More Learning
- Site Stats
- Did I make money online? (Kind of answered up there, rats!)
WHAT’S HAPPENING?
REVENUE SOURCES:
I have added three new revenue sources in December:
#1) Google Adsense – which didn’t amount to much at all but this can add up over time and I’ve added this to this site and my Disney niche site.
#2) Adsense on new YouTube videos – I’ve added a new YouTube account in December for this site which I’ll speak more about below, but I’ve also monetized the two videos I’ve uploaded. Although not enough to mention earnings yet on this account, but the potential is huge as I add more and more videos to my channel.
#3) Consulting for Mass Planner – I was able to do some consulting in my fourth month regarding how to set up the tools within this software to automate my clients’ social media accounts.
As mentioned in a few posts before, mainly on this one HERE, Mass Planner is an automation software to grow my social media accounts, read my full review HERE. There are settings for each platform that must be implemented carefully, or else you can risk being banned from the social media platforms. I was helping my clients with these settings and if you want to know more about my Mass Planner consulting services, see this page HERE.
Then I lost one revenue source:
Wealthy Affiliate – I’ve been having a few referrals every month since October but the free Starter memberships don’t earn me any money unless they upgrade to be a Premium membership. This one referral upgraded in October and only stayed for another month after that. I didn’t know why she left, not sure if it’s her financial situation or if she didn’t like something. I was not informed of her departure.
My lesson here is that I know if I can get that first referral, I know I will get others. I’m seeing an increased amount of referrals coming in more frequently just this week so I’m hoping that means my site is starting to rank better and I’ll get more Premium referrals soon.
Also, what’s great about their affiliate program is that if she ever comes back and resubscribe, she’ll be referral for life! The owner, Kyle, told me they usually do come back when they’re more ready for it. You also don’t have to be a Premium member to earn money in their affiliate program, you just earn half of what a Premium member would earn.
SOCIAL MEDIA:
I’ve stressed last month the importance of social media and how they can give me more reach (not necessary rank) for a newer site like mine, this is proven in the Site Stats below as social media traffic takes over the direct channel as my #1 source of traffic in December.
At the end of November, I had 3 social media accounts, Twitter, Facebook Page, and Google+. This month, I added a fourth one, Instagram. I won’t be adding anymore for now and see how these will work out for me.
Let’s look at their growth:
- Instagram – started from an old account I had that had 134 followers, in the two weeks I implemented the methods HERE, I grew it to 648 followers.
- Twitter – Followers: 2,500 last month to 4,085 this month.
- Facebook Page – Page Likes: 67 last month to 88 this month – I use Mass Planner to share the posts on the page to Facebook groups in my niche, it’s slow, but I have no other way to get Page Likes as I can’t advertise on there with my niche.
- Google+ – Followers: 12 last month to 84 this month – I got banned quickly on Google+ in Dec as I tried to implement the strategies I’ve been using for the other platforms. I’ve never used Google+ before and so I learned they are super sensitive to any software tactics. I won’t be using Mass Planner on here to grow the account but just use it to post to my profile.
YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
Yay! I started a new YouTube Channel for this site in December; so far I have 2 videos up and 19 Subscribers at the end of December. The two videos were for posts in December, one was about QSR and the other about adding the Underline and Justify Buttons Back on WordPress.
I’m definitely adding more in January, but not sure how many and inspiration needs to come first before I can do it. As well, I haven’t shown my face yet, just recording my voice and screen so I’m hoping to also record myself this month. 🙂 If you’re curious, I use screencast-o-matic to record and I upgraded to Pro which is only $15/year.
My views aren’t that exciting for December:
MORE LEARNING:
The course I’m taking at Wealthy Affiliate, to learn how to build this website and make money from affiliate marketing, gets better and better. In December, I ended at Affiliate Bootcamp Course 4, Lesson 1 (still in progress), for Nov month I ended at Course 3, Lesson 3. Course 4 is more about design on my site and branding , so I hope I’ll make everything even better looking by the end of this level.
If you were wondering, I’m still a Premium member because you need to be a Premium member to continue this awesome training after the first level of either courses available, see HERE for more details. I also mentioned I paid in November for a whole year, so I’ll be there for awhile. 🙂
SITE STATS
Here are my site stats at the end of December:
- Posts – 24 (8 new)
- Pages – 10 (0 new)
- Comments – 522 (155 new)
- Subscribers – 19 (6 new)
The content production remained the same as Oct & Nov, total of 8 new posts/pages. I’m hoping in January I can improve this to 12 new posts/pages a month! I actually asked the community at Wealthy Affiliate about how many posts they write a month and I’m actually in the middle I think, some did less and some did way more, you can view their comments HERE.
I love that my comments continue to do well thanks to the community at Wealthy Affiliate again, but I’m excited to start getting a little bit of organic comments from visitors outside of the community!
I’m pretty happy about the 6 new subscribers! I’m actually finally have an idea in my head to really ramp up this subscription list and hope to implement it soon this month or next.
Now for my Google Analytics:
For December, I received 745 sessions vs November’s 768, down 3%, I’m hoping it’s because of the holidays as you see a dip during Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. I also think November was inflated by more spam sessions and December had a lot less. My lowest day keeps crawling higher, this month to 4 sessions from 2! 🙂
Here’s the cumulative graph for the 4 months:
I hope to see a better trend upwards in January but looks like more blue still in December so that’s a good sign. My highest day is 46 session, I hope to see my site break 50 sessions/day soon.
Hey, I know some of you are laughing at my stats right now, but guess what? I’m laughing right with you! I know this is not the best stats but depending on your skills, knowledge, and niche, I think sites will differ in traffic for sure. I’m in for the long haul, this is no get-rich-quick scheme, and I know from the training from Wealthy Affiliate, the techniques I’m learning, my site stats will go up much higher as my site ages and keeps ranking in search engines.
My new visitors increased from 57% to 63%, so I’m happy to see more new visitors again… which could be accounted for with the new social media traffic.
As mentioned above, my Social traffic became my #1 source of traffic in December, surpassing my Direct traffic for the first time! Social traffic increased by 59%, while Direct traffic decreased by almost 30%. Twitter remains my #1 social media traffic! It’ll be interesting to see how the Instagram and Google+ catches up in future months as these are the newest accounts.
Organic Search traffic also increased in Dec from 59 sessions to 107 sessions, or increased by 81%! I’m very happy that this is surely crawling upwards!
So glad my Referral traffic is decreased, this was where spam sessions were reported most last month.
DID I MAKE MONEY ONLINE?
Yes, I did, the most I’ve made so far because of my consulting fees for Mass Planner!! Not sure if that will continue in future months, so we shall see. Because there are several sources of income this time, I’ll list them here:
- Adsense (Site & YouTube) – $1
- Commission Junction – $1
- Mass Planner – $5
- Sponsored Post – $50 (My Mickey Life Instagram account)
- Consulting – $237
Expenses for December (Includes for both this site and the mymickeylife.com site):
- Aweber – $19
- GoDaddy – $2
- HostGator – $4
- Mass Planner – $4
- Screencast-o-matic – $1
- Wealthy Affiliate – $25
Total expenses for December is $55, giving me a Net INCOME of $239.
Yay! My first net income month, I hope it stays in the green in the future!! 🙂
SUMMARY
I don’t think I can cry over the loss of the one lost revenue stream for now since the rest of the month did really well! I know I’ll get more Premium referrals soon and I just have to keep writing more posts and keep learning at Wealthy Affiliate.
If you are interested in building an online business like me and learn the techniques, please join me HERE! I’m Ranked Top 50 there which means I’m there everyday, so I’ll be able to help you out anytime you need me. 🙂
For January, I need to continue with lots of content and video creation and hope to see more organic traffic rising as we move into the new year! I wish you all a very prosperous 2017 and I hope you will continue to follow my journey!!
Please do not hesitate to ask me anything about this 4th income report and website in the comments below!! I will answer your questions and would love to hear your thoughts on how you’re doing and what you have been up to! Thanks for visiting!!
Let’s make money online!
I really enjoy following your journey and reading your post. It is good to know that techniques learned from Wealthy affiliates is working. This is really putting it into practice and making it work. I have not considered much of the social media in terms of pulling more traffic, this is by choice to see how much traffic can be generated by contents and keyword. You are doing an amazing Job and wishing you more success
Thank you Jonathan for following my journey!! If you have not considered much of social media, that’s really okay!! You don’t need it but it’s nice to have in the beginning when you don’t have much organic traffic for your site.
See this post HERE, you will read that a Wealthy Affiliate member makes almost $9K in Dec 2016 just from SEO content, all from the training in the Wealthy Affiliate Platform! So if you’re a member, just keep going with the training and you’ll get there.
However, if you do want to start with social media, I would start with Twitter as it’s been the best response so far! 🙂
Thanks so much for your loyal following! Happy 2017 and may you have an awesome year!
Grace
Wow, how did you grow you Twitter followers so fast? I didn’t even start on Instagram! But I’m also a member of Wealthy Affiliate, and I can relate to that feeling of premium members canceling their membership. According the Wealthy Affiliate’s data, most members stay on for an average of four months, and each premium referral has an average worth of $70 — on the low end. Sometimes my referrals cancel after their first month — I never had a referral that hasn’t canceled, but the fact that each referral is worth $70 according to WA’s statistics makes me feel better!
Hi Ben, The method I use on Twitter is the same I use on Instagram, see this post. Yeah, I’m pretty happy with its growth, I have another account on there and doesn’t grow as fast but still grows.
That’s great to know about your Premium referrals!! So basically get used it and just get a whole bunch so I don’t notice how many people stay or leave! 😉 Appreciate you letting all of us know about the average stats for a Premium referral. I do have faith this is one of many I’ll get, it’s really quite young still my site, so I can’t wait to see how it goes in the next few months!
Thanks for your thoughts here Ben,
Grace
Congratulations Grace. I follow you since your early beginning and I´m also a starter, but in Brazil. But the chalenges and techniques are the same. I´m not laughing about your numbers 😉 Believe me1
I´m very proud of you, because I know how it works. You have and incredible and sucessul way ahead of you. Have a great 2017.
Happy New Year Raquel!! Thanks so much for following my progress! I’m so glad you can appreciate my numbers too! 🙂
I hope we both are on our way to success!! I wish you a very prosperous 2017 and hope you will see successes in your business as well!!
Best to you,
Grace
You’re an inspiration, Grace! I love reading your reports. I’m just heading into my own 5th month of my website, and I find it fascinating to read how things are going with others.
You sure are rocking the social media platforms! Way to go! I’m a bit nervous to get too deep into social media as I have limited enough time to spend writing new posts and building comments… I’m afraid that if I add too much to my plate I won’t end up getting much of anything done. So I do Pinterest (my niche is one that it really suits) but no others at this point.
What’s your own opinion? Should I be writing less and spending more time on social media, or focus on building my site with quality content? Just picking your brain as a fellow “let’s figure this out” affiliate marketer in the “early stages of a long haul”. 🙂
Have a good day!
Hi Marlaine,
Happy New Year to you! Thanks for reading my income reports, I also love reading about others as well as we all journey together! This is so awesome. 🙂
If you can do Pinterest, that’s great because I can’t! LOL I have a Pinterest account for my handmade doll business, but I don’t get much traffic from it. If that works for you, then keep it going!
Really, you don’t NEED social media, as proof here from a fellow Wealthy Affiliate member who’s making almost $9K/month with JUST content (with techniques learned in WA).
I think social media is nice to have if you want to learn it and do it but yes it does take time. You can check out my post here about my Instagram success and tips on how I grew those accounts. The same techniques can apply to Pinterest and Twitter, but not Google+ or Facebook Pages.
I hope I have helped you a bit here, if not, please ask more!! 🙂
Wish you a big 2017!
Grace
Thanks Grace. I do use Pinterest, but I don’t get a lot of traffic from it yet, really. And those that do tend to bounce quickly. I may need to look into Instagram some time.
Thanks for replying!
Anytime Marlaine! If you pin/like others posts, and follow others, you’ll find that they’ll do the same with you. Being on social media, you need to interact with others to get results on your feed. You can look into others if you still don’t get results with Pinterest, so you could find one that fits you better.
Best of luck,
Grace
I love your post and am so happy and glad that you are doing so well. I will also say you keep meticulous records. I love your blog and especially your header.
I have been doing WA for going on 5 months now. I was surprised that I made a good chunk of cash after only 3 months. That was my match. The fire is burning and I am thriving and flourishing in this environment. I love the writing and learning not just on web stuff but what I learn from the posts I have been commenting on and finally reading posts like these.
I am so happy for you and yours and I hope to read more of your accomplishments in the near future, which I am sure I will.
Hi Brent, thank you so much for your kind words! I’m actually an accountant by trade long ago before having babies, so it’s easy to keep good records for my business. 🙂
That’s so great you had such a success in 3 months! I’ve always said before that there could be better results elsewhere and this is only one small example of what can be done. I love hearing about others succeed as this just proves that the training at Wealthy Affiliate Works! I’m glad you’re a member too and has taken advantage of the great training. 🙂
From what you’re saying, this business totally suits you and what is better than doing something you love! I’m very happy for you too and thanks for visiting!
Wishing you more successes!!
Grace
Hello Grace!
This is the first report I have read so far. Most of it is over my head simply because I am not involved at your level. However, I do grasp the overall gist of your graphs and figures.
I would say, you are doing well. I am proud of your progress. You ‘loosing’ your affiliate premium member may seem ‘bad’ but if you only had one then it is early days yet. What if you had 200 and 5 left, it would not seem ‘that bad’ at all. You are learning and you are making progress.It is just a matter of perspective. You are balancing several different, (even if connected) things all at the same time and yet you are moving forward. You can be proud of your performance as you are heading in the right direction.
May 2017 take you higher than you were last year. Much success to you Grace, you deserve it! Well done!
Thank you EJ for your wonderful comment! You are very encouraging and yes, it’s all about perspective. I’ve had some time since then to think of it as a learning lesson. What you said is exactly what I’ve concluded. I just need to get to that level where losing premium members is not even noticeable because I have so many new ones coming in and the ones continue on.
I have so much faith in the training at Wealthy Affiliate that I know I will attract the right audience who will also see the same value I do in their platform. They really have so much to offer, and it’s really people’s loss if they leave. Sometimes they realize this kind of business is not for them, or maybe they need to wait a bit before finding the right inspiration. Either way, I know there will be many more who will find it valuable to be at Wealthy Affiliate.
I wish you much success too in 2017! Thanks so much for your kind thoughts!
Grace
Grace,
I was a CPA for almost 20 years and I’m amazed at how detailed your anaylysis is. I strongly suspect that your Wealthy Affiliate referrals will be increasing from all off the work that you have done on social media.
I am not laughing at any of your stats. I’m learning it takes a while to create an attractive website like yours. It takes time to write the posts and build the business. However, like you say is Wealthy Affiliate program is not a get rich quick scheme. Your stats and this report do show that you are very serious about your business and putting the training to good use.
Congratulations on your success and even more the next four months.
Thanks for your kind words Sondra! My analysis is detailed like this probably because I’m also a CPA for years ago!! LOL I’ve stopped accounting ever since I became a mom but my attention to detail and the love of numbers remain strong in my blood! 🙂
I so appreciate your take on my stats! Yes it does take time to rank on search engines and the social media accounts help me get reach in the meantime. I’m definitely putting the training I’m receiving to good use and want this site to reach a level where my goals can finally be achieved! I need to keep at it and give myself at least a year to see how it all works out.
Thanks for your well wishes! I wish you much success as well!
Grace