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.
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 October
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 – October 2015
Passive Income
Selling on Amazon
- $110.33 – 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
- $319.08 – 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)
- $99.66 – Ultimate Azon Theme sales via Clickbank (read my full review here and see one of my niche sites revealed that uses this theme)
- $286.00 – AmaSuite sales via JVZoo (software demonstrated in video embedded here)
- $242.50 – RankXL Niche Site Course (mentioned at the end of this post)
- $43.50 – 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)
- $0– 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)
- $353.75 – The HOTH sales (awesome link building service – (read my full review with case study results)
- $247.38 – 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)
- $180.00 – Bluehost (why I recommend Bluehost if you are just getting started)
- $12.00 – 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…
- $164.12 – Google Adsense (ad click revenue from niche sites)
- $307.55 – Amazon Associates for sales on Amazon.com (explained in detail here)
- $69.00 – 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
- $138.83 – Inventory Purchases (buying stuff for cheap to send to Amazon and sell for more – (how we got started detailed here)
- $87.41 – 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
Outsourcing
- $131.00 – to my private writer for article writing for niche sites
- $106.42 – to UpWork (formerly oDesk) for virtual assistant(s)
- $100.00 – 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
- $47.10 – Facebook Advertising
- $0- Paypal fees
- $10.00 – Google Apps for domain email
Totals and Thoughts
Total income $2,486.86 minus total expenses $833.96 equals a net profit of $1,652.90 for October 2015!
October was a very good month indeed! I spent most of my [internet] time working on my ONE thing website. And that site is earning VERY little at this point. But the passive income continued to roll in. In fact, most of October’s income I would consider passive. It all resulted from work that I have done in the past.
Traffic on Dumb Passive Income continues to increase. People are still finding and reading posts that I wrote months and even years ago – and they are purchasing products that I’ve recommended through affiliate links. Passive income baby! Woot woot! That’s what I’m talkin’ about… And my niche sites did okay in October too.
This is how one DUMB truck driver creates PASSIVE INCOME online! Read Matt's income report here...Click To TweetWhat’s Happening with My ONE Thing Site?
Much of my time has been spent working on tweaking design and layout. I hired a graphic designer on UpWork to create a professional-looking header logo for the site. He did such a great job that I decided to have him create some other graphics for and related to the site as well. Things like a nice looking favicon and an eBook cover which will be used for the giveaway that I am created as a lead magnet for the site.
That’s right. I will be growing an email list for my ONE thing niche website. It is an Amazon affiliate site. But it will totally make sense to have an email list for the site and be able to stay in contact with subscribers in this niche. Many of the products I promote on the site are things that get used up and will need to be purchased over and over again. I will be able to regularly email my subscribers and get them back onto my site, which will ensure that they re-purchase items through my Amazon affiliate links. Making money with email lists – that’s what it’s all about!
So – much of my time these past few weeks has been getting some of the back end stuff ready before I put all of the email opt in forms up on the site. Specifically, I’ve been working with my writer and VA to put together the opt in bribe (or lead magnet) – which is a 16,000+ word guide which I will be giving away for free. I’m very excited about the possibilities and potential that there are in this niche and what I’ll be able to do with this email list. It’s going to be huge!
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:
“Homeless/hungry…” by Ed Yourdon via Flickr
“Close Up 2 – Explored” by Hamish Irvine via Flickr
“Bill – DSCN5137…” by Eric Parker via Flickr
Happy to contribute to your passive income man!
Thanks Dom! Happy to be affiliated with you.
Thank you for the report, Matt! it is always interesting and inspiring to read your posts 🙂
Seems like the streamlined, singular focus is going well for you. It’s great to see your past work paying off now in the form of truly passive income, something you can leave alone and it still pays you. Testament to all that work. Good luck keeping up the focus.
No problem Nadya. Happy to at least keep up with these reports until I resume blogging here.
Thanks Brian. Yeah, the passive income is great. But the thing is – it’s so unpredictable. It does feel good though when it pays off!
Hi Matthew,
Would you mind sharing your ‘One Thing Site’s URL ? Just being curious as I am closely following live case studies of similar nature by someother bloggers viz Neil Patel (@ Quicksprout), Tung Tran (@ Cloudliving) and a few others. All of them are sharing their URL with their visitors. I know that there are risks involved but perhaps it may turn out to be a huge learning experience.
Regards,
Eklavya
Eklavya – the risks are too great at this point for me to be able to share the URL. There is a good chance I will share the URL at some point – once I am comfortable with the fact that my site doesn’t rely totally on Google traffic. But until then – I can’t risk opening myself up to negative SEO attacks. It’s happened to me before and it’s not fun…
Hello Matthew,
I always like your income reports. I am amazed about the big increase of income of October compared with September, well done! However I miss some of the sections that you are not working on right now (like the one with weird products bought from Amazon), I hope these will come back at some point.
In another matter, I wanted to tell you that I’ve been really inspired by you to that point that I created my own blog. I hope you don’t mind that in my first post I mention you as one of the people who motivated me to do it. You can check my post here http://passiveincomewise.com/passive-income-report-october-2015-with-traffic-and-metrics/
I am feeling very thankful for of your work done with this blog. Keep up the good work!
Regards,
Francisco