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 October
October sucked. My good Amazon site got hit by Penguin 3.0 through no fault of my own. The site was hit by negative SEO several months prior, but had not been affected by that negative SEO until the latest penguin update. I was on track to break $400 in affiliate sales from that one site, but sales dried up immediately as a result of losing most of the traffic and I rounded out the month at only $284.
October actually didn’t suck that bad – as me and My Lady started a new “make money online” business venture together. You won’t see it in these October numbers, because we barely got started during that month. But as of the time I am writing this (late November) things are going amazingly well. Keep up to date with the blog and check future income reports to see what I mean. 🙂
Income and Expenses – October 2014
Passive Income
Selling on Amazon
- $8.30 – bi-weekly payments from Amazon for sales (minus all Amazon fees) (This was our very first payment. Wait til you see next month!)
Affiliate Income from Dumb Passive Income
- $169.17 – Long Tail Pro sales via Clickbank (why it is better than the competition) (how to make LTP pay for itself)
- $20.10 – LeadPages sales for this awesome lead generation software (I EASILY created this squeeze page with LeadPages)
- $11.80 – SocialADR sales (go here to learn more and access my custom 20% off coupon code)
- $5.70- Aweber signups ($1 for your first month)
- $33.50 – AmaSuite sales via JVZoo (software demonstrated in video embedded here)
- $50.00 – oDesk signups via Commission Junction (how to outsource content for cheap explained here)
- $0 – Genesis framework and themes by Studiopress via ShareaSale (eleven40 Pro theme as seen on this site now)
- $21.24 – EasyAzon3 sales via Clickbank (I haven’t even reviewed this yet – but I would not build an Amazon site without it!)
- $0 – The HOTH sales (awesome link building service – they do everything for you!)
- $0 – WPEngine sales (my results after upgrading to the fastest hosting for WordPress on this blog)
- $0 – Bluehost (why I buy separate hosting accounts for new niche sites explained within this post)
- $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…
- $298.15 – Google Adsense (ad click revenue from niche sites)
- $284.94 – Amazon Associates for sales on Amazon.com (explained in detail here)
Non-Passive Income
Website Services by Matthew Allen
- $0 – Website services – build simple websites for private businesses (like this one grmobilewelding.com)
Expenses
Selling on Amazon
- $1132.72 – Inventory purchases (buying stuff for cheap to send to Amazon and sell for more – how we got started detailed here)
Hosting and Domains
- $29.00 – 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
- $9.95 – Hostgator – my original hosting provider – still keep for some sites
- $0 – GoDaddy for domain renewals and purchases
- $0 – NameCheap – domain purchases (expired domains)
Tools, Plugins and Themes
- $12.00 – Long Tail Platinum monthly fee (if you have Long Tail Pro – upgrade to Platinum here)
- $29.00 – Aweber monthly fee for e-mail list management (first month trial only $1)
- $4.90 – ManageWP monthly fee for WordPress multiple site management program
Outsourcing
- $222 – to my private writer for article writing for niche sites
- $63.83 – to oDesk for virtual assistant(s)
- $0 – to The HOTH for a link building package (comprehensive and completely done-for-you link building)
Miscellaneous
- $0- Paypal fees
- $5.00 – Google Apps for domain email
Totals and Thoughts
Total income $902.90 minus total expenses $1508.40 equals a net profit of $-605.50 for October 2014 – yikes!
I never thought I would see the day that my net income for one month actually dipped into the negative. But due to the nature of the Selling on Amazon business model – you have to spend money to make money. This is far different than the total bootstrap model I have been using with my internet marketing efforts for the past couple of years.
Not to worry at all though. Just wait until you see next months numbers! The stuff we are buying and sending to Amazon is actually selling and we are making thousands! See you in next months report.
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!
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:
Matthew Allen
ohhhh thats very sad … net profit of $-605.50 … how did it happened … you are good at blogging here, you sure can make more income from Amazon affiliate ..
It’s not that sad really John. It’s all due to the nature of selling actual physical products on Amazon. You have to stock inventory (buy products) before you can sell them. This is why the net for the month shows as negative. We spent over $1,000 in October on products to send to Amazon and they don’t all sell right away.
Any you are right. I should be making more money as an Amazon Affiliate. That income should easily be over $400/month right now – but my one site that was ranking well and selling products every day got hit with a Penguin 3.0 penalty and I’ve decided not to do anything to try and recover it.
ohhh your selling on amazon now.. thats new to me, nice to hear that.. sorry if i did not read it all.. i was just checking income reports … Penguin 3.0 penalty that hurts … my site is stuck on 200+ daily it did not move up, it even went to 180 when i accidentally update the theme… only my 8 year old site is still on page 3 since 2013 august… im tired of trying to recover it too..
any new plan for niche sites ? new linking strategies for 2015 ?
Quite honestly – I’m tired of “linking strategies” – I know PBN’s still work, but they’re SO much work to build and maintain. Right now, just continuing to add content to existing niche sites that are already ranking. I want to start a new niche site – but am a little apprehensive right now. Focusing most of my time right now on improving existing sites and the Selling on Amazon stuff…
i bought another 8 pbn but i did not develop them nor buy hosting for them.. im also thinking about expanding my one and only existing site but writers are hard to find (maybe i dont know how to manage them correctly the stop working after 1 month) ..
after the pbn attack, i see fewer income reports and no new back linking concepts.. its so silent dont know why… but i made a drastic move last september and october, spend some money, to my surprise all went stagnant or empty no result.. so im kind of standing by waiting for something new.. anyway hope to see your income increase by next year..
Hey Matt – It’s great to see the shift over selling on Amazon. I think that will serve you well and put you more in control.
What do you expect that $1100+ to profit in the end? And, over what time period?
You will make double on Nov!
Doug – we’re shooting for about 50% profit margins on average with most items that we buy & sell. Some items are a little lower and some a little higher – but we try to at least double our money (after fees) on most items that we buy. The time period is hard to say at this point – but I’ve been quite impressed at how quickly many of the items are selling. Planning a detailed write-up about our first full month (Nov) in this business after my next income report.
More than double! Working on that income report right now…