Good morning! Today we continue with our series about making money online. You can check the previous posts about. Choosing a name, domain and hosting. Starting your own website. My failed attempts at making money online I failed at making money online, then succeeded, with freelancing and starting my own website.
Welcome to the first blog income and stats recap of MMYW! While I hadn’t disclosed income from Reach Financial Independence so far, I will also add it here since the whole blogging thing is considered one endeavor. For example, my new VA has been working on both sites for the past months. As MMYW is celebrating one month, I also added the start up fees.
Expenses
MMYW
Domain registration: $10.4 on GoDaddy . I paid $156 for 9 years of RFI domain plus 6x 1 year registrations for other domains.
Hosting: I bought a 3 year hosting package at a 75% off Hostgator sale last December, the cost is $45 for the remaining 2 1/2 years.
Theme: $0 I had bought Genesis and the Prose child theme for $89.95 last year, you can have several sites on the same theme so we are piggybacking :).
New logo: $5
Virtual assistant and staff writing: $317. This is the first month I have a VA, she works 20 hours per week. I wouldn’t have hired her just to take care of RFI but that is a welcome help with the extra work on MMYW, which is why all her salary goes to MMYW.
Total $377.4
RFI
Domain registration: $93.6. 9 years at $10.4. After a successful first year, I bought 9 years straight!
Server migration: $5. That was in June too, but needed for RFI’s second year. I did it with a Fiverr gig instead of trying to figure out FTP.
Hosting: Same as MMYW, RFI had a 2 1/2 years package waiting since December, for a cost of $45
Total $133.6
EXPENSES TOTAL $511 including 2 1/2 year hosting for each site and 5 year domain registration on average, it is the most expensive month so far.
Income
RFI
$4,042. This is a mix of Adsense, affiliate sales, and direct advertising, plus a little income I got from my ad referral network’s commissions. Contact me if you are interested in joining the ad network! I have never had to chase payments but some people have a 28 day payment policy, I add the deals that were executed in July (you can close a deal and the person disappears but I never had someone disappear after they are due to pay), independently of having been paid or not.
All in all it was a great month, and the last Penguin update in early June brought more search engine traffic to the site, which helped too.
MMYW
$0. One month old, people! I didn’t expect anything and have been procrastinating on the Adsense install so there were only a few pennies from there and not much else. I still have to check Adsense to see if the income will be split from the two sites as well.
After Costs Total
$3,531. I was happy to still come over $3,500 considering I bought hosting for 2 1/2 years, domains for 10 years between the two, and those expenses will not be needed for another 30 months. From next month on, it should be only the VA, staff writer, and the odd Fiverr gig if needed.
10% of blogging income will go to sponsor young girls’ education in my village, I realize I didn’t mention in my pledge yesterday if that would be the gross or the net income, and I choose gross, so my education fund now has $404! I am waiting to hear back from my neighbor about a date to go tell the students and am really excited about that project.
Blog stats for RFI
It was a great month for RFI, thanks to an increase in search engine traffic. All the procrastinators who hadn’t switched to another RSS reader than Google Reader also helped increase the number of RSS subscribers. And the traffic was more important than June in spite of the posting schedule being reduced to 3 posts plus carnival (from 5 posts plus carnival). I also broke 50K in Alexa 🙂
July 1st | July 31st | |
PageRank | 3 | 3 |
MozRank | 5.38 | 5.4 |
Domain Authority | 48 | 48 |
Alexa Rank | 56,321 | 47,984 |
Twitter Followers | 3,271 | 3,319 |
RSS subscribers | 1,198 | 675 (RIP G reader) |
FB fans | 1,484 | 1,481 |
Pageviews | 52,807 | 54,485 |
Unique | 24,229 | 26,977 |
SEO traffic % | 31% | 48.5% |
Blog stats for MMYW
Because MMYW started one year after RFI, I will compare the stats I can find. Back in July 2012, I was blogging in a cave, waiting for the world to come and find me. I had a Twitter account I rarely used, read a ton of PF sites but seldom said hi or left a comment, and didn’t network a bit. It lasted until mid September 2012. So for the first two months, I am pretty sure MMYW will crush RFI’s stats.
July 1st | July 31st | RFI July 31st 2012 | |
PageRank | 0 | 0 | 0 |
MozRank | N/A | ? | |
Domain Authority | 1 (!) | ? | |
Alexa Rank | 4,221,928 | 228,440 | A few millions |
Twitter Followers | 777 | 1,285 | 25 |
RSS subscribers | 5 | 65 | 10 |
FB fans | 0 | 7 | 15 |
Pageviews | N/A | 6,295 | under 500 |
Unique | N/A | 2,074 | under 100 |
SEO traffic % | N/A | 4% | ? |
Sorry about the lack of information on RFI, I installed Analytics in September when the blog was 2 months old. Even in September, a 100 unique day was considered a good day. I installed MMYW’s Analytics on July 1st and it hasn’t had a day under 100 visitors! Pretty good considering there are only 3 new posts a week. I was posting 6-7 times on RFI!
On July 1st, MMYW had over 750 Twitter followers thanks to a lot of RFI followers showing their support to my new site. The FB page launched later in July and hasn’t benefited from a SHAMELESS PLUG, LIKE MMYW ON FB!! hehe.
I am very happy about being under 250K on Alexa too, you guys rock, thank you!
How did your blog grow in the past month? Happy with the results?
This post was featured on the Gaming your Finances, Planting Our Pennies, thank you!
Can’t believe how fast that month went by. This is really cool that you’re sharing those impressive numbers 🙂 Gives other bloggers an idea of what can be accomplished with hard work and the right attitude. I have a feeling next month’s stats will be even better for MMYW 😀 My blog didn’t grow much over the last month but I’m content with the progress so far.
Liquid recently posted…Multiple Incomes – 2013 Update
Having RFI to promote MMYW has helped quite a bit, but I hope both keep growing.
I just recently found your blogs and I’m loving this recap. It’s fun to look back each month + see how things are growing. I just started this new blog of mine (I’ve had a personal one for 5 years!) a few days ago, so no I don’t have anything to refer to as far as progress. Next month I will, though! 🙂
I’ll definitely be following along!
Hi Miss E thanks for stopping by! Best of luck with your new site too 🙂
Dang girl, you are rockin’ it! I envy you and can only aspire to your greatness 🙂 Congrats on managing two successful blogs. I look forward to hearing more! Now that I have my own site (!) I am hoping things will grow more and more.
Dear Debt recently posted…My First Credit Card
Congrats on going self hosted! I am sure it will be a hit.
That’s a really good amount of income! It’s always interesting how much traffic comes from Google on an established site versus a new site. Hope you have a great weekend!
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted…The Weekly Quick Hits Roundup
Thanks! SEO traffic has improved quite a bit with a few tweaks and I guess the last penguin, the more the better imo.
Nice work Pauline. Having a well established site does make it easier to start a second one. Great job on the income! How did you find you VA and are you having to do a lot of training or did you already have the skills you needed. The $400 will be great for the kids in the community! I like that you are paying for things in advance. Gets rid of having to worry about monthly payments.
Thomas | Your Daily Finance recently posted…July Stats, Updates, Goals, and Future Plans
Thanks Thomas. Is your site down today? I tried to get in with no luck.
The VA came from staff.com, she has basic WP skills and is learning the rest, doing a great job so far.
I am not sure whats going on today. I tried visiting RFI, FrugalRules and several other sites but they weren’t loading. My site is now working ok. Congrats on the VA. With all the things I have coming up I will probably need to hire one soon as well.
Maybe you can put a post and ask around. mine is already working full time but you can hire 20 hours a week like I did, and if already split with a PF blogger, the VA will be ready sooner.
Great job Pauline! I had a pretty good month of July as well!
I am jealous of your Hostgator fees. I must’ve missed that sale!
Holly@ClubThrifty recently posted…Kiplinger and Lifehacker Japan, Say What? (and Link Love)
it was the “end of the world” on december 21st haha 75% off.
Great job with the blog income and the stats on both of your sites! You are doing awesome!
thanks!
Pauline, You have all my respect. Despite all the struggle with council you are managing your blog with mental peace. Congrats for the earnings and inspiring others like us. Do visit carnival at our blog for your mention. Regards, Rita
Rita P @ Digital Spikes recently posted…Monthly carnival, goals and recap of july
Thank you Rita for the good wishes and the blog mention, hope you have a great weekend.
Awesome job, Pauline! Your new site is definitely benefitting from everything you learned with your first one. =)
thanks! I see your site is down too today 🙁
June was very rough because my host was under attack and I had days when there was no access to my blog. Bounced back over the 5,000 views mark in July but didn’t post very often so I need to post more during August.
I have not been able to view RFI and Save, Spend, Splurge the last 2 days. Google keeps telling me “This page can’t be displayed”. Am I the only person having this problem?
Jane Savers @ Solving The Money Puzzle recently posted…Are All Of Your Financial Eggs In One Basket?
I just heard that Bluehost and Hostgator are both having some serious problem.
I hope it isn’t as serious as what happened to me in June. My host shut down because they could not get out from under the attacks.
Jane Savers @ Solving The Money Puzzle recently posted…Are All Of Your Financial Eggs In One Basket?
RFI is down today, I haven’t checked what is wrong, MMYW is with hostgator too and works fine, go figure.
I don’t know about yesterday, I was offline from about 10 am but today it hasn’t worked and so have many sites.
I was reading about it on Twitter. People are very angry and Bluehost is doing a good job of updating but Hostgator is not. People are threatening to change hosts but apparently Blue and Gator are owned by the same company (according to Tweeters) so there isn’t really anywhere to go.
Jane Savers @ Solving The Money Puzzle recently posted…Are All Of Your Financial Eggs In One Basket?
That’s awesome Pauline but man all the number just absolutely baffle me. No clue how it all works. I mean I have a PR of 4 and yours is 3, but your pageviews are a million times better and I don’t even know how to check to see how many subscribes I have exactly. If it’s what is on the WP dashboard then I hardly have any. It’s all so confusing! 🙂
Budget and the Beach recently posted…Are We Seeing a Societal Shift in Needs Vs. Wants?
I check subscribers here http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/myfeeds you log in like when you created your feed for people to subscribe. You will notice a big drop in July, that is because the google reader shutdown canceled a good number of subscribers.
PR is how google judges your links and pageviews is how real people visit your site. I know a 65 year old lady who blogs and she has only non blogging fans so she has a big following, tons of views but a PR2 and an Alexa in the millions. All those metrics combined give you an idea of how you do.
RFI is doing amazing and MMYW is off to a great start. I wish my numbers were as good. We keep growing, but not as quickly as like. I am very impatient. 🙂 I had a very slow start because I really didn’t know what I was doing and wasn’t putting in the time to market myself and network. I lost several months but at least I learned my lesson! Have a great weekend, Pauline.
Shannon @ The Heavy Purse recently posted…Disney Cruise Review and Vacation Money Lessons
me too! lost the first 3 months but hey, you learned. And then built on strong foundations so it should all accelerate now.
Wow that’s awesome Pauline. $4000 in earning is awesome. I’m definitely interested in how you make that much money each month. In my case I’m making a few hundred from adsense, a little from affiliate sales, and as of lately most of my earning though direct ad sales.
It is about the same here, most is direct, trying to balance that with more affiliate but I don’t want to push products in every other post either.
Love this post – thanks for breaking everything down. It will be interesting to see the comparisons at the end of this month. It’s so great you are donating some of your blog income to the community! I really like that idea.
My blog is growing bit by bit. I have to admit I am not marketing it as much as I could (no guest posting and I should use Twitter more!) but it is a work in progress. I’m still trying to get into the groove of writing posts.
E.M. recently posted…Favorite Free Activity: Walking
I am terrible at Twitter too but have worked out a system to limit the time on it and still be a bit effective. Post coming soon!
This is fantastic, Pauline. You are definitely rocking it out. So excited for you!
Cat Alford (@BudgetBlonde) recently posted…A $900 Giveaway + Our Cheap Backpacking Adventure
Thank you so much Cat, looks like you are doing really awesome for yourself too 🙂
Great stats! I think you’re doing a fantastic job on your 2 sites. Congratulation Pauline! 🙂
Mark Ross recently posted…How Safe Is Online Banking And The Things You Can Do To Feel Safer
Thank you very much Mark!
Wow My blog stats aren’t anywhere as impressive as yours.
Troy @ The Financial Economist recently posted…Is the Risk:Reward Ratio in Your Favor?
it took some time to get there!
I was slacking on regular posting for quite some time this summer, so getting back seriously to writing on topics and researching my keywords before I write is seeing me regain ground. I’m not yet at a point of being ahead of where I was this time last year, but I’m moving in the right direction.
Alex @ Searching for Happy recently posted…Happiness Experiment 41: Should I Take Vitamins?
good for you Alex, keep it up!
Well done Pauline!! You are doing awesome. Keep up the great work.
canadianbudgetbinder recently posted…The Saturday Weekend Review #31: Homeless and living on $8.00 a day
thanks Mr CBB!
Another wow for your blog development and income as well. Congrats.
My Wealth Desire recently posted…Car Battery Problem and Without Car Life Experience
thanks Walt!
Wow your blog stats are impressive! You are making a great income too. I did not do as well in July as I have done the rest of the year but I took a week of holiday, which was great! I am hoping that August could make up for it though.
turn one pound into one million recently posted…Could this Book Save You Hundreds a Year?
I hope so for you too! July was a pretty good month for me, I was expecting it to be very slow but it was surprisingly good.
Girl you are on FIRE!!
Savvy Scot recently posted…How Can You Choose the Best Broadband Deal?
Yeaah!
Pauline,
I am as impressed as everybody else. I just wanted to say thank you for sharing this information. I probably don’t appreciate how much work it takes to do what you’ve done but I’m always inspired when I see this stuff.
Pat recently posted…What to do with Your 401(k) at Retirement
thanks Pat, it takes quite a bit of work and time, but worth it if you stick to it.
Very impressive stats! I’m not sure how you made $4K in revenue, but that’s quite an accomplishment. I’ll probably be sending you an email to opt in for you ad network if you’ll let me.
My Money Design recently posted…Niche Website Update 8 – NS2 on the First Page Search Results Already!
sure, happy to have you!
Very inspiring Pauline!
Nick (@ayoungpro) recently posted…My Six Month Blogiversary
I love that you started your second site exactly one year later. That was very clever for purposes of comparisons and tracking your progress. As I have a young site, it is really helpful information.
Michael | The Student Loan Sherpa recently posted…Student Loans: A Trillion Dollar Problem
It was almost a coincidence but then I waited a month and it is pretty easy to compare indeed.
Congrats on the great income this month! And thanks for teaching me a new term, I didn’t know what “Penguin update” meant, a google search led to some interesting reading. Thanks!
GamingYourFinances recently posted…Building Wealth: How to Become Wealthy
there was Panda before Penguin, it is how G decides how sites will rank on search engine results, it can make or break your site.
Wow – greater than $4,000 income with a one-year old blog. That is outstanding! Great work, hoping to see and learn much more from you over the next several years 🙂
MoneyAhoy recently posted…Give Yourself a Haircut
Hi, the whole thing is going sound here and ofcourse every one is sharing data, that’s actually
excellent, keep up writing.
stuff recently posted…stuff
From Last one year I am working on a Jobs portal blog, from last one week I saw that my alexa rank is improving now after installing alexa gadget, i think alexa gadget help my website to improve ranks.
Kamal Deka recently posted…Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal Recruitment, Assessor, Assistant Registrar, Court Master
I ought to do this too ( even just for myself to keep track) thanks for inspiring me!
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