This is the 56th income report as part of the zero backlink experiment.
Every month I will publish a post like this one that shows you how this blog is progressing and everything I have done across the month to get it there.
These reports will help me track my own progress while teaching you what to do and more importantly what not to do.
What I Have Done In May
May has been a very long and tiring month as Ironman training has stepped up significantly.
I’m spending around 70% of my day focused on training and nutrition which doesn’t leave time for much else.
But with that said, I also launched some amazing free SEO training videos this month that I have promoted hard and some amazing feedback so all is not lost!
Content Creation
This month I published 4 new posts, although 3 of them were to promote my new video training series.
We started out with this content optimization hack to double your search traffic.
Then I published 3 awesome SEO case studies along with some other promotional posts for my video series.
Crunching The Numbers
So let’s get our hands dirty and see how the blog has actually performed this month.
Visitor Statistics
Last month traffic dropped to 56,603 (1,886/day) but this month that has increased to 71,364 (2,302/day).
That is largely down to my efforts promoting my new video series so it will be interesting to see what level it drops back to next month.
Most Popular Content
My seo case studies post is stealing the show this month by far.
As usual the guide to making money with Fiverr holds its own in the top 10.
My Google Analytics hacks and Wkipedia link building guides also proved popular.
Top Traffic Sources
Not much has changed in traffic sources with a good mix of traffic coming from Google organic and social sources.
Search Engine Traffic
Last month search traffic dropped to 40,399 (1,346/day) which has made a small recovery this month to 43,981 (1,418/day)
YouTube Views
I lost all of my historical YouTube views because of changes I made to the branding – so I keep track of them separately.
YouTube views decreased from 16,466 to 15,254 this month.
That also had an impact on total minutes watched which decrease from 79,899 to 70,821 respectively.
Social Shares
This month the total social shares across Facebook and Google+ increased from 78,229 to 79,991.
Subscribers
The most important metric on the entire blog – earning a subscription from someone is the ultimate form of commitment and conversion.
There are now a total of 126,368 subscribers across all of the various channels compared to last months 117,187!
- E-mail – 6,259 (517 last month) / Total: 51,847
- Twitter – 416 (195 last month) / Total: 16,097
- YouTube – 431 (221 last month) / Total: 14,494
- Facebook – 2,001 (230 last month) / Total: 25,403
- Google+ – -32 (-1 last month) / Total: 17,850
- RSS – 106 (133 last month) / Total: 677
Unable to post graphs at the moment – will update asap
Income Report
Here are the numbers you really want to see-
Affiliate Earnings
Expenses
Consultation Earnings
I separate out the consultation earnings from the affiliate earnings. The blog drives affiliate sales directly and whilst it does generate consultation leads these are separate projects in their own right.
This month I didn’t taken on any consultation work so made a grand total of nothing!
Other Income
I’m working on another project right now that is part of the blog but not something I’m ready to talk about publicly yet or maybe ever.
I will declare the income here though as it wouldn’t be possible without the blog and ‘technically’ it is affiliate income.
Last month this was $19,135.45 which dropped heavily to $12,169.47 this month.
Earnings Total
- Affiliate Income – $12,164.54
- Consultation Income – $00.00
- Other Income – $12,169.47
- Expenses – $814.75
Grand Total: $23,519.26 / £18,250.95 ($27,371.68 / £21,207.58 last month)
Unable to post graphs at the moment – will update asap
Signing Off
With less than 3 weeks to Ironman on the 18th of June, my time is at a premium! Training is going to get significantly harder before it gets easier.
As soon as it is over, I plan to take 2 weeks off work and exercise to regenerate before re-taking the reigns.
I’ll also be releasing the 3rd of my free SEO training video series tomorrow.
So with that said, it’s time to step away from the computer to go and train in 35 degree celsius heat in the direct sun.
Urgh
Thank you to everyone that has helped me reach my goals – I couldn’t do it without you, the reader!