It’s always hard to know what to work on next isn’t it?
Do you work on fixing up the site that’s suffered a big traffic drop?
Or do more of what’s working with the one Google loves?
Do you write more articles like your best ones?
Or start a whole new channel like YouTube, social media or email?
Below, I’ll share my January income report, as well as my plans for this month…
Site 1: Travel Blog
Pageviews: 978,000 (up 75% on December)
This is the usual seasonal trend in the travel niche. As soon as Christmas is done, people start planning their trips.
I had wanted to hit a million page views, but just missed it this month. Close enough! I’m happy.
Income: $40,191 (up 30% on December)
The income didn’t rise in line with traffic as ad rates are always lowest in January, that’s normal.
Expenses: $2,621
Almost all of that went on content.
Articles: 464 (31 added in January)
On average I pay $100-$150 per article. They’re not always uploaded in the same month that I pay for them.
Site 2: Gaming Niche
Pageviews: 160,000 (down 27% on December)
This site always has a peak in the holidays, as people get new games consoles and spend more time playing.
Aside from that spike, the traffic is fairly flat.
Income: $1,712 ( down 53% on December)
The lower ad rates and lower traffic was a double whammy for this site.
Expenses: $281
I paid for a couple of new articles that are yet to be uploaded, but didn’t really work on the site at all.
Articles: 160 (0 added in January)
Site 3: Environment Niche
Pageviews: 43,000 (up 20% on December)
This site is growing steadly and I’m pleased with where the traffic is at as it reached its first birthday in January.
Income: $691 ( down 17% on December)
The increase in traffic wasn’t enough to compensate for the drop in ad rates that we all see as we move from Q4 to Q1.
Expenses: $347
I paid for a handful of new articles.
Articles: 93 (6 added in January)
I try to add 1 to 2 articles per week. I think that’s a good amount for a side hustle.
Site 4: Leisure Niche
Pageviews: 22,000 (up 16% on December)
This site saw a seasonal increase over the holiday period as people had more leisure time.
Income: $610 ( up 33% on December)
This site is 50/50 ads and affiliate. The ad income was flat month on month but we had a few big sales that pushed up the income from Amazon.
Expenses: $415
I paid for a handful of new articles.
Articles: 75 (5 added in January)
Again, I try to add 1 to 2 articles per week to this site to grow it slowly.
My plans for February:
As usual, my focus is on the travel niche as that’s my biggest passion and it’s what brings in over 90% of my income.
Really, the other sites are just there to keep me in touch with what it’s like to be a beginner.
And to generate a future income with as little effort as possible on my part.
Travel site:
From now on, every Tuesday is YouTube Day for me!
I want to create 1 to 2 travel videos each week.
Currently, these are taking me 8 hours each, so I definitely need to get faster at that.
They’re also pretty bad!
But I get a little better at this I’ll begin to share them with my audience over there which should give the channel the boost it needs to get monetised quickly.
I’m spending all of my evenings watching YouTube videos about how to make YouTube videos.
Gaming site:
I know I said I’d leave it alone after the big drop since the Google update…
But it’s like an itch you can’t scratch!
A lot of the content hasn’t ever been updated since I wrote it almost 2 years ago.
And I’ve gotten a lot better since then!
So I updated 10 articles and made a Loom video to show one of my writers how to do the same with the remaining 150.
Key things we’re improving are:
- Adding unique images to every post (no stock photos)
- Improving skimmability for better UX
- Adding personal experiences
- Using Query Hunter to add more keywords and FAQs
- Checking all Amazon links
- Improving internal linking
- Tightening up the intros
- Adding feature boxes
The two smaller sites
I’ll continue to add 1 or 2 articles per week to these. The plan is to let them grow slowly with minimal work from myself.
I had been hoping to sell them for six figures each in 12 to 24 months’ time.
But honestly, the way that search is changing so quickly right now,
Who knows what will happen?
Not me, that’s for sure.
That’s all for now folks, see you next week.
– NSL