[Dumb] Passive Income Report for March 2014

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Passive Income Report March 2014

Welcome to my [Dumb] Passive Income Report! This blog is all about what I am doing to create several different passive income streams. This monthly income report details my results. I work very hard and dedicate many hours each week to working on my different online endeavors in an attempt to create passive income. So why do I consider it passive income then? Because I am not trading specified amounts of time for a predetermined amount of money like I do at my day job. Most of the income you will see in this report results from work I have done in the past. Why am I sharing my income publicly? Hopefully to gain credibility with you (the readers) and to maintain a certain degree of accountability for myself. I could blog all day long about what I am doing to create passive income online, including some of my unique strategies. But why would anybody trust me and believe that what I am doing works if I don’t prove it by sharing my results? This is what I mean by gaining credibility and this is one of the main purposes for sharing my income. I also share my failures on the blog, which holds me accountable. Knowing that I will be publishing a monthly income report will keep me motivated to keep pushing forward and plugging away on the things I need to do to create future passive income.

Happenings in March

Niche Sites

The most exciting happening in March was the continued success of one of my Adsense sites. As you’ll see in the numbers below, I earned a little over $800 in Adsense during the month of March, with over 95% of that income coming from my one superstar site. And it’s not a fluke! That site is on track to do quite a bit better during the month of April. Towards the end of March, I published a detailed post about exactly what I did to increase the Adsense income on that site, which was originally intended to be just a very small niche site. The post went a little long, and I still had more to say – so I called it Part 1 and wrote To be continued… at the bottom. The next post I write and publish on the blog will be Part 2 for that.

Since Google is obviously looking favorably upon this Adsense site, I decided to grow it even more. I put my other sites on hold and decided to add a ton more content to this site. It just so happens that the niche has some specific differences for each of the 50 states in the US, so I’m having my writer produce 50 separate articles for each and every state. I’m planning to use Pat Flynn’s Create a Clickable Map to do just that, which will provide a pretty sweet resource on this niche site. What started out as just a micro niche site with only 4 articles is quickly turning out to be an ultimate resource for the niche.

Keyword Research Packages

My keyword research sales have remained steady. You’ll notice in my expenses that I paid a pretty good chunk of change to my virtual contractor who is helping me find keywords. Without the help, I would not have the time or be able to find so many of these keywords and get nearly as many of these packages ready to sell. My contractor is literally doing half of the work, so I pay him well for it. I still bring in decent money from the venture, but only have to dedicate half of the time that I did when I was doing it all by myself. This frees up time for me to continue to grow the passive income streams that I am working on, which is my overall focus.

Reinvesting Profits

I’ve been using the proceeds from my keyword research sales to test different link building services. So far, I’m getting pretty good results! Without going into very much detail here (I’ll save that for an entire post – coming soon), I’ll just share with you the 3 services that I’ve tried and have been impressed with so far.

Other than paying for powerful links and using done-for-you services for link building, I am also actively working on hiring VA’s to help me with other areas of my internet business. This is something I’ve known would be necessary in order to grow my business and my income, and also something I’ve been wanting to do for quite awhile. Previously, my income levels were not at a point where I felt comfortable hiring somebody on a long term basis. My income levels are up, so I am taking the plunge – with a special thanks to the guys in my mastermind group who all but forced me to do so.

Finding, hiring and training VA’s via Odesk can be a little intimidating at first. I’ve found that you just need to jump in and DO IT. You’re going to make mistakes. I know I am. But that is the best way to learn. Fortunately for me (and you), a fantastic book just came out that speaks directly to my situation. Chris Ducker hit the podcast circuit hard during the week that his book launched. He was on almost literally every single internet marketing podcast that I listen to. And I told him so via Twitter…

I’m digging in to the content of the book and am loving what I am reading so far. Chris’s book is pretty much a bible for how to utilize virtual staff to create freedom in your life. He couldn’t have published it at a better time for me – as I am just starting my journey to hiring virtual assistants to free up time and help grow my business. Check out Chris’s book, Virtual Freedom and pick up your copy today. <— (cool text link, huh? I did that with EasyAzon Pro)

Website Services?

One other happening in March that I wanted to point out. I created a simple business website for a former co-worker of mine. Many of my family and friends are starting to get the word about what I do online. But most people don’t really understand the types of websites that I build (niche websites and blogs). I got to talking with this former co-worker one day and he expressed his possible need for a website for his side gig. I explained that this wasn’t typically the type of site that I build, but I would see if I could help him out. I spent 4 or 5 hours one Saturday afternoon and came up with this for him – http://grmobilewelding.com.

He paid me $100 plus did a welding job for me that he would normally charge $60 for. I know I probably WAY undercharged for this type of service. But it was my first time creating this type of site, plus I was just helping out a friend. This has really got me thinking though about how I could turn this into another branch of my business to create passive income. What if I created simple sites like this for small businesses and charged a recurring monthly fee to keep them maintained and up to date? Hmmmm…..

And now – what we’ve all been waiting for. My income breakdown for March!

Income and Expenses – March 2014

Passive Income

Affiliate Income from Dumb Passive Income

Other Passive Income from Niche Sites, etc…

  • $819.26 – Google Adsense (ad click revenue from niche sites)
  • $2.14 – Yahoo! Voices for articles I wrote a long time ago
  • $11.47 – Amazon Associates for sales on Amazon.com (explained in detail here)

Non-Passive Income

Services by Matthew Allen

Expenses

Hosting and Domains

Tools, Plugins and Themes

Outsourcing

  • $222.00 – to my private writer for article writing for niche sites
  • $34.87 – to oDesk for virtual assistant(s)
  • $490 – to a virtual contractor who is helping me find keywords for my keyword research service
  • $0 – to The HOTH for a link building package (planning to use again)
  • $0 – to Link Viking for a link building package (not an affiliate link – mention Dumb Passive Income as your referral source at checkout)
  • $75 – to LightningRank for a monthly link building package (very happy with results after the first month, planning to stick with it)

Miscellaneous

  • $42.49 – Paypal fees

Totals and Thoughts

Total income $2485.15 minus total expenses $1200.12 equals a net profit of $1285.03 for March 2014!

Passive Income and Expenses March 2014

I am loving the trajectory of my overall income! I admit, I sometimes wonder how long I can continue the uphill trend. It seems inevitable that I will one day see a dip, but I’ll take the growth for now and keep enjoying it for sure!

Note: My expenses have increased drastically over the past couple of months.  This is mainly due to the fact that I continue to reinvest much of my profits in order to grow my future passive income streams. Most of my expenses each month do not directly correlate to the amount of income that I brought in. This is what passive income is all about – working hard and spending money now in order to create streams of income for later that will last.

One other Note: One improvement I made to this blog recently. If you click the Income Reports menu item at the top of my page, it now leads to a really nice page with a table (my very first TablePress creation) which displays ALL of my income reports from the very beginning. You can easily take a look at my numbers and how they have progressed over time – plus, there is a link to each specific report right there in the table.

Thank You! Thank You for taking the time to read through my latest income report and Thank You for contributing  if you have previously purchased something through one of my affiliate links! If you wish to support this site, but don’t have a need for any of my affiliate products, you could simply do your regular Amazon shopping through any of the links on this site that lead to Amazon.com. You won’t pay any extra and I will receive a small commission. Thanks so much if you do so!

Many of the links within this income report are indeed affiliate links. I will receive a commission if you choose to purchase after clicking through via any of these links. Thank You if you do! To your success and mine – may we all be profitable online. Good Day!

Remember that there are several dumb ways to create passive income online, but only one site that is blogging about it! Dumb Passive Income… dot com.

-Matt

Photo Credits:

cohdra via MorgueFile

Picture of Matthew Allen
Matthew Allen
Matthew Allen is a full-time trucker, part-time blogger, and imaginary entrepreneur. He's probably not the only trucker who calls himself a dumbass. But, he is the only known trucker who is blogging about passive income."Might be crazy, but I ain't dumb!" ~ Crazy Cooter (also Matt's CB handle) 
Picture of Matthew Allen
Matthew Allen
Matthew Allen is a full-time trucker, part-time blogger, and imaginary entrepreneur. He's probably not the only trucker who calls himself a dumbass. But, he is the only known trucker who is blogging about passive income."Might be crazy, but I ain't dumb!" ~ Crazy Cooter (also Matt's CB handle) 
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33 thoughts on “[Dumb] Passive Income Report for March 2014”

  1. Looks like you had another great month matt – Kudos on your first website design and another successful round of keyword packages. Looks like your expenses were kind of high this month but seemed to be mostly one-off purchases. I’m trying to keep my expenses low as well, but even so I signed up for lightening rank just like you did and am looking forward to seeing how it works with one of my ecommerce sites (hopefully well).

    Keep up the good work, and thanks for the motivation!

  2. Hey Jeff – one of these months it would be interesting to see if I could really cut my expenses. But honestly, one of my favorite things about finally making some decent money online is that I am able to spend it on tools and whatnot that help me improve my business and create more future passive income.

  3. Great post Matt, outsourcing is the key to scale up the business. I’m in the phase of hiring article writer and I’ve read your post on outsourcing content for cheap https://dumbpassiveincome.com/outsourcing-content-for-cheap/ but as you stated you would only use that articles for low comp. keywords, so how many articles do you get for $222, these are probably better quality articles? Or how many per 100 words approximately? Also, do you use Niche Website theme on your best Adsense site? Sorry for so many questions.

    Keep it up! 🙂

  4. Hey Mate! Welcome and thanks for the questions. I pay my private writer approximately $1 per 100 words. The $222 I spent last month was for 16 articles (I think) plus a monthly bonus that I give her because she has stuck with me and has provided great articles for me for about a year now. And yes. Her articles are very high quality.

    I originally had the site on Niche Website Theme. I’ve since put a different theme on it, and plan to talk about this in detail within my next post.

  5. Matt –
    Cutting expenses is exactly like increasing income! What you may want to look at for your next breakdown for april is “expenses” such as staff writers, VA’s or what have you, and “re-investment”, such as link building/new domain name registration, etc.

  8. Yeah John – it was only about a year ago that you had me on your podcast when you were just starting out and you seemed impressed that I was bringing in a couple hundred bucks per month. Lol! I am absolutely loving this Internet Marketing side gig thing. Loving every bit of it! It’s been cool to watch you progress too. Proves to show that dedication and determination pay off eventually.

  9. Nice work Matt, another great month mate. I’m interested to know you Lightning Rank results. I’m on the edge of deciding to use Lightning Rank or Rank Hero. Both look similar, though have different price points and Lightning Rank creates the content where Rank Hero you needs to create it yourself.

  10. Thanks for reply Matt! 😉

    I hope I’m going to find quality writer too and can’t wait for your next post.

  11. Nice progress Matt. Congrats

    Would be interested to know how many hours you are putting in personally after your day job? I know my hours are starting to really add up.

    So funny what you said about Chris Ducker, i thought the same. I’m actually going to hear him speak in a couple of weeks in London. Any other London readers should check it out – http://www.meetup.com/The-Four-Hour-Work-Week-Meetup/events/175599252/ – its free – and come say hi to a fellow dummy.

  13. Who did you pay 222 to write the articles for your niche site? I’m curious about which service you used.

  14. Thanks Doug. I was in the same boat as far as Lightning Rank vs Rank Hero. Lightning Rank is brand new, so I decided to get in during beta testing to take advantage of lower prices. Plus – I really am looking for totally hands off link building services and didn’t want to mess with creating content for Rank Hero. I may try some Rank Hero in the future, but going with Lightning Rank for now.

    After one month, I had a link point to a secondary article on one of my sites that was at #21 or 22 in Google. The link shot it up to #16 for the targeted keyword, which is somewhat competitive (current KC of 36). I’m really happy with how the service is coming along and I just upgraded to the 5 posts per month package.

  15. Thanks Tom – I usually put in zero hours after my day job 😉 haha That is family time. But to really answer your question, I get up really early and do my work before my family awakes. I almost always get up at 5am, Monday thru Saturday and work until somewhere between 7am and 8am. So, minimum 2 hours per day and sometimes as much as 3. Not usually more than 3 though. Maybe once a week I jump on the computer for an hour or so after the kids are in bed at night – but only if I have something really important to do. That time is usually spent relaxing with my wife.

    The hours add up – for sure. And I’ve been doing this for nearly 3 years. I knew it would pay off someday, and it’s finally starting to happen! I’m very excited for the near future, because I can viably see my income shooting up more and more.

  16. Great question Chris! I’ve had it on my “to do” list for a VERY long time. I just don’t have as much time as I would like to blog here, as well as do everything else that I do to create income online. I think I even started a draft post for that reveiw! Lol.

    I guess one of the main reasons I haven’t reviewed EasyAzon yet is because I don’t make a lot of money with Amazon yet. When I have more credibility in the area, I think will be a better time to review it. I do have a really good site in the works though that will be earning good money from Amazon as soon as it starts ranking. Just starting to build backlinks to the site…

    Can’t wait to see what’s in the new version!

  17. Hey Mike – I have a writer who I work with privately. I originally found her on Odesk though, nearly a year ago. We worked together via Odesk for a few months. After trust was built up, we decided to work together privately and the relationship is working out wonderfully for both of us.

  18. cool – i appreciate the honesty.

    My hours are starting to wrack up too. i’m currently writing during my commute and on lunch breaks and like you trying to keep family time sacred.

    However thanks to you guys I’ve just registered a domain for my first niche/authority site other than my main blog so i’ll be around for a while and will need to find an extra hour or two from somewhere.

    keep up the good work

  19. Awesome Tom! That’s exciting that you’re starting a niche site thanks motivation from me and other niche siters. Let me know if you ever have any questions.

  20. Great job on the progress Matt. Nice to see that site of yours picking up on the earnings. You should breakdown which link strategy is working best for you. Personally I’m not a fan of the links being built by the Hoth and I think Link Viking is a little on the pricey side for what you get. Lightning Rank looks pretty solid and having the articles written for you is a plus if you don’t want to write them youself like on RankHero.
    I’ve been having some incredible successes myself. A lot of great things have happened this past month and I’m finishing the last week of my job and focusing full time on the biz… Finally 🙂

  21. Thanks Josh. Wow – quitting your day job already?! That was a really quick turn around. Looking forward to reading about it on your blog.

    A new “link building” post is on my mental to-do list. I want to monitor results from these services over time first though. Plus – I still have to write part 2 of the “increased Adsense income” post. I can’t wait to do that one because it just keeps getting better!

  23. Thanks Matt. I’m keen to know how your results are after a month of 5 posts with Lightning Rank.

  25. Oh cool Nathan. The site I used The Hoth for didn’t see a lot of movement – but it’s an older site that I have a few shady links pointing to. It might be slightly penalized or over-optimized or something. Great to hear that you got positive results. I’m a little leery about the spun content that The Hoth uses, but everything else about their service is spectacular. I definitely plan to use them again.

  29. Matthew, I am amazed at your earnings. I heard your interview with John Shea’s Voices of Marketing and I think that interview was about a year ago. It was nice to hear somebody just starting out for a change instead of people that are already wildly successful earning income online. I began a few years ago with niche sites and after a year of plugging away I gave up. I am giving it another go, and like you, I have a wife and kids so I have to stay up late and work when everybody is asleep. Thanks for the inspiration!

  30. Oh no – you listened to that interview!! haha John has come a long way with his show since then, and as you can see I’ve come a long way as well.

    That’s cool that you’re jumping back into niche sites Neil. Once you get bit by the bug, it’s hard to stay away for too long. Especially when you are following the success of others. I’m glad I could be one of your inspirations! Good luck with your ventures. I wish you the best.

  31. Pingback: How 9 Travel, Video Game Dev & Food Blogs Earnt $57,779.59

  33. Thanks John! Persistence was and continues to be the key in my case – along with dedication and devotion. So glad I stuck with it, because it’s really starting to get fun now!

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