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 September
As I reflect on September and everything that happened as far as my internet marketing ventures, two major things come to mind.
1. Family life got crazy
Life got back to normal in my household at the very end of August. And, of course, school started up for my kids at the beginning of September. To top it off, I bid on an earlier start time at my day job. Add all of this together and it equals me having less time to commit to my internet ventures. I still get up at 5am every day – but I have to be done on my computer by 6:30 (or 6:45 if I really stretch it) to wake up the family and start getting everybody ready for work and school.
It’s not easy to get much done with such a short span of time to work with each day. I don’t know if it is a direct result – but my income numbers for September seem to somewhat reflect the time that I put into it. Regardless, I continue to work hard as much as I can.
2. The great PBN de-indexing by Google
Not long after it happened last month, I wrote an extensive article which highlighted my take on the whole ordeal and how it didn’t really affect my sites. Although only 2 of my PBN sites were de-indexed, and none of my money sites got penalized by Google – the entire escapade did have an affect on my sites. It took a couple of weeks, but I did lose a few ranking positions for several of my target keywords on both of my sites that were earning decent money. Nothing drastic – just a few positions for each keyword. But there was a noticeable drop in traffic as a result. I attribute this to losing the links from my PBN sites that were de-indexed and also losing a few of the Lightning Rank links that I had purchased.
But the statistical and mechanical aspects of the de-indexing don’t bother me at all. That was all to be expected and part of the risk/reward equation. What has been eating at me about the whole Google de-indexing of PBN’s debacle is what it has done psychologically. Google really messed with the heads of a lot of SEO’s. They caused paranoia, denial, anger, regret and [fill in your emotion here]. It caused me to take a serious look at what I am trying to accomplish online. It caused me to make a decision. And I’ve done just that and that’s all I’m going to say about it for now. Stay tuned to my blog. I’ve got a detailed post brewing in my head that details everything I’ve been thinking about lately….
Income and Expenses – September 2014
Passive Income
Affiliate Income from Dumb Passive Income
- $149.65 – 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)
- $0 – SocialADR sales (go here to learn more and access my custom 20% off coupon code)
- $5.70- Aweber signups ($1 for your first month)
- $0 – Niche Website Theme sales via JVZoo (reviewed in detail here)
- $23.50 – AmaSuite sales via JVZoo (software demonstrated in video embedded here)
- $0 – 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)
- $0 – EasyAzon3 sales via Clickbank (I haven’t even reviewed this yet – but I would not build an Amazon site without it!)
- $0 – Long Tail Classroom via JVZoo (I don’t even promote this! Must be an upsell for something else in JVZoo)
- $70.00 – 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…
- $302.56 – Google Adsense (ad click revenue from niche sites)
- $337.34 – 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
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 – IXWebHosting – domain renewal with privacy
- $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
- $38.00 – SocialADR monthly fee for social bookmarking for my niche sites (proven results within this post!)
Outsourcing
- $242 – to my private writer for article writing for niche sites
- $87.64 – 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 $908.85 minus total expenses $457.49 equals a net profit of $451.36 for September 2014!
Wow! I didn’t even break 4-figures this month! And I’m really not that concerned about it. Yeah, my figures are down. But it was pretty much completely passive income. I didn’t produce any income from services in September – which was a part of the business I wanted to phase out anyway. My time is better spent working on things that will create future income.
My 12 month chart actually looks a little disheartening. But when I look at it and see all those months in the middle that exceeded $1500 in income – I see a bunch of time that was spent making the quick buck and not working on future passive income streams. To me, the chart tells a story. The story of how I spent my time over the last year -and apparently it wasn’t spent building something that will last and continue to grow. Luckily, I continue to write my own story and this writer has seen the light. Stay tuned…
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
That might not feel like a huge profit, but you could live on that amount alone where I’ve been living the past 2 years, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Obviously with a family it’s different – you’d need more – but my point is that you’re not a million miles away from a full-time income from online activities, so long as you keep on keepin’ on. The first few hundred are harder to come by than the next few hundred, so it’s clear to me that you’re on track to make more.
Jack – http://nicheblogger.com
Matt, your thoughts on Google (maybe?) echo mine of many months ago. From the moment that I was nixed from AdSense with no transparency or possibility for genuine appeal, I’ve thought that building a business model on the back of Google was not for me. That said, if you’re willing to endure the omnipresent madness of Google, you’ve proven that there is money to be made! As I build out my future, it will involve, as much as possible, things that are within my control– Google is just too unpredictable. As always, I enjoy your posts and love to see your successes!
I can completely sympathize with sending the kids back to school. I was hardly able to get anything done in September!
Despite making less money, that’s still not bad. I’d love to have +$300 in Amazon revenue right now!
Really, for me, it’s not the sending kids to school part that is costing me as much time. The real difference for me is the earlier start time I took at my day job. I’m getting more hours and making more money at the day job – so the online stuff suffers a bit. I just have to try to focus on only doing the things online that will actually lead to income.
I know exactly what you mean Mike. Google can serve a real ass-kicking sometimes – but the traffic their search engine sends to sites can be so lucrative. You found that out first hand when you were ranking for dollar shave club. It’s all a matter of finding out what Google wants and producing those types of sites without breaking any rules. More transparency by Google would be really nice – but we’re obviously not getting that anytime soon.
I have absolutely no desire to move to the other side of the planet just for lower cost of living. But I see your point. Also, making a full-time living online has never been a goal of mine. If I get to that point someday, I may have to consider it – but this is very much just a side hustle deal for me right now – as I enjoy my day job very much (most days).
Yeah, transparency will only come if a competitor can mount a serious challenge to AdSense, or to the ubiquity of Google search as our first turn, which doesn’t seem to be in the cards.
Passive income is always harder but they provide sweeter rewards. $900 is still something to be proud of. Glad your sites are not too affected by these updated.
Passive income is always harder but they provide sweeter rewards. $900
is still something to be proud of. Glad your sites are not too affected
by these updated.
You’re right Aaron – passive income is much sweeter. Looking back even just one year ago, I would have been extremely thrilled to be bringing in $900 passively. Now I’m doing it, but it seems disappointing because I was making more in previous months (non-passively).
hi Aaron,
How are you? do you still remember me? im john, i emailed you before about long tail buying keywords, im glad i found you here… i remember reading your blog back when i was focused on adsense…. now im into amazon too…
you’re not making much money but it still good to see you able to have multiple resource income from blog and yet you still manage to have positive cash flow. Its good
You’re right Juan – I’m not exactly getting super rich quite yet. But, considering the little amount of time that I spend on this stuff – I think I’m doing okay.