[Dumb] Passive Income Report for November 2015

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.

Temporarily Disabled/Unavailable

If you’ve been following my income reports for a period of time, you may have noticed that way back when, they started out fairly short and simple. Over time, they have gotten much longer and complicated as I’ve added lots of features and text – in addition to just my monthly numbers. Each income report has turned into an informational blog post, in and of itself!

As much as I enjoy writing these longer reports – I need to temporarily get back to the basics and report just my numbers each month. In an effort to vastly increase my income numbers – I’ve decided to completely drop everything and FOCUS on just ONE website until I reach satisfactory success. Feel free to read all about it in this (last) blog post that I wrote (for awhile).

– Follow One Course Until Success –

After I reach the success I am aiming for – my normal (longer) income reports will resume. But for now, the following features have been disabled…

Happenings in November

Some Personal Stuff

This Blog

Niche Sites

Weird Things Purchased from Amazon that I Didn’t Promote

Selling Stuff on Amazon

Motivation and Learning from Others

Income and Expenses – November 2015

Passive Income

Selling on Amazon

• $131.88 – Amazon Seller monthly sales (this is NOT net profit – see Amazon Seller Inventory Expenses and Seller Fees in expense section below)

Affiliate Income from Dumb Passive Income

• $279.37 – Long Tail Pro sales via Clickbank (why it is better than the competition) (how to make LTP pay for itself)
• $42.30 – LeadPages sales for this awesome lead generation software (I EASILY created this squeeze page with LeadPages)
• $3.99 – SocialADR sales (go here to learn more and access my custom 20% off coupon code)
• $5.70 – Aweber signups ($1 for your first month)
• $142.89 – Ultimate Azon Theme sales via Clickbank (read my full review here and see one of my niche sites revealed that uses this theme)
• $172.50 – AmaSuite sales via JVZoo (software demonstrated in video embedded here)
• $0 – RankXL Niche Site Course (mentioned at the end of this post)
• $89.00 – WP ComPear – sales via JVZoo (WordPress plugin that creates comparison tools just like available in Ultimate Azon Theme)
• $0 – Genesis framework and themes by Studiopress via ShareaSale (eleven40 Pro theme as seen on this site now)
• $135.50– EasyAzon4 sales via Clickbank (I haven’t even reviewed this yet – but I would not build an Amazon site without it!)
• $0 – Social Warfare sales (customizeable sharing buttons – as seen on this blog right now)
• $115.00 – The HOTH sales (awesome link building service – (read my full review with case study results)
• $0 – Human Proof Designs – ready made or custom website sales (as described by Dom at the end of this guest post he wrote)
• $0 – WPEngine sales (my results after upgrading to the fastest hosting for WordPress on this blog)
• $270.00 – Bluehost (why I recommend Bluehost if you are just getting started)
• $0 – Lending Club signup (I haven’t done anything with or written about my investments here in over a year)

Other Passive Income from Niche Sites, etc…

• $123.06 – Google Adsense (ad click revenue from niche sites)
• $60.55 – Amazon Associates for sales on Amazon.com (explained in detail here)
• $61.00 – affiliate commissions for undisclosed CPA advertiser on one of my niche sites
• $0 – Surveys for Cash – formerly promoted this on one of my niche sites – did not perform very well

Non-Passive Income

Website Services by Matthew Allen

• $0 – Website services – build simple websites for private businesses (like this one grmobilewelding.com)
  • this is not a service I actively promote or sell – just built a few sites for some friends of mine who own local businesses

Note: Bluehost banner above is an affiliate link

Expenses

Selling on Amazon

• $0 – Inventory Purchases (buying stuff for cheap to send to Amazon and sell for more – (how we got started detailed here)
• $132.53 – Amazon Seller Fees/Expenses (these include FBA selling fees, transaction fees, inventory & storage fees and service fees)

Hosting and Domains

• $104.00 – WPEngine (why I upgraded to the best and fastest hosting for WordPress)
• $0 – Bluehost – my new favorite hosting provider for niche sites – great price, ease of use, excellent service and overall experience
• $0 – GoDaddy for domain renewals and purchases
• $0 – NameCheap – domain purchases/renewals (expired domains)

Tools, Plugins and Themes

• $12.00 – Long Tail Platinum monthly fee (if you have Long Tail Pro – upgrade to Platinum here)
• $69.00  – Aweber monthly fee for e-mail list management (first month trial – FREE!)
• $14.70 – ManageWP monthly fee for WordPress multiple site management program
• $0 – LeadPages paid annually in March – probably the most powerful tool I pay for and use to grow my online businesses
• $13.50 – Pro Rank Tracker – previously free rank checker tool – they started charging and I couldn’t live without
• $19.00 – Ninja Outreach – monthly fee for outreach management software (makes outreach WAY easier and automates part of the process)

Outsourcing

• $555.00 – to my private writer for article writing for niche sites
• $115.31 – to UpWork (formerly oDesk) for virtual assistant(s)
• $25.00 – to UpWork for some graphic design work
• $0 – to The HOTH for link building packages (completely done-for-you link building service – my full updated review)

Miscellaneous

• $0 – Facebook Advertising
• $0- Paypal fees
• $10.00 – Google Apps for domain email

Totals and Thoughts

Total income $1,632.74 minus total expenses $1,070.04 equals a net profit of $562.70 for November 2015!

November turned out to be an okay month. Not great by any means. And it would have really sucked if I didn’t make up for it at the very end with all of the Black Friday to Cyber Monday affiliate sales.

Expenses were several hundred dollars more for the month. This is due mostly to paying my writer quite a bit more than a typical month. She worked extra hard and produced a 16,000+ word guide for my ONE Thing site that I am giving away as a lead magnet. I paid her double what I normally pay per word because she put so much extra effort into it and created something really awesome. That expense will WAY more than pay for itself in the long run because I plan on making lots of money with the email list that I am building for that site. 

What’s Happening with My ONE Thing Site?

I got several of the opt-in forms in place and I am starting to build the email list! So far, I am exclusively using LeadBoxes from LeadPages and they are already working! What are LeadBoxes? It’s a pop-up box that opens up ONLY after the visitor clicks on a link, image or button. For example, the button below opens a LeadBox for one of my giveaways on this site…

FREE Guide – Producing Content for Amazon Niche Sites

Buttons in my sidebar on this site do the same thing. Pop-ups appearing ONLY after the user/visitor takes action is key. That’s called the 2-step opt-in process and it works amazingly well. My plan is to use these throughout the ONE Thing site along with the content upgrade strategy for many of the posts on the site.

And that’s about where I’m at with the ONE Thing site. Email opt-in forms are in place and now it’s time to promote the site and get links. My plan is to use outreach for promotion and link building – 100%. No scammy or spammy link building strategies whatsoever. Outreach only to get links from real live sites that are current and being run by other people. And yes – I will be using a tool to make the outreach process much easier for me. Check out Ninja Outreach if you haven’t already.

Ninja Outreach - Free for 14 Days

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! 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!

Photo Credits:

Jeff Nelson via Flickr

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) 

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)