White Hat Blogging is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, in addition, I am an independent Jasper Affiliate, not an employee. I receive referral payments from Jasper and possibly other affiliates.
Well the new year is always an interesting gauge on performance, since ads drop off dramatically many see a huge drop off in their income with the new year. I wasn’t sure where I would fall but I had continued to build content through Q4 aimed at helping gain more page views.
The story is in and I managed to make it basically the same as last month with much more pageviews so I consider that a win. With ads looking to possibly already start gaining again as we move forward in the quarter this is a nice sign of things to come.
My focus this year is to scale all my sites to a minimum of 100 posts and focus on building the sites with good returns, not on ads alone but overall EPMP or earnings per mille pageviews. EPMP is just a measure of ALL income for a site divided by 1000 pageviews and my goal is to aim to continue growing sites that show a $40 EPMP or greater.
For me currently, this appears to be three sites, this may change as sites get to 100 posts and maybe find some bigger growth but for now, those three are my 2022 end-year goal of 100k pageviews per month on each.
With that being said, Welcome to my January 2022 Income Report!
January 2022 At a Glance
January moved fast and furious for me, I started working hard on a site that will become my decade project with a fully laid out strategy and build focused on providing everything someone in the hobby would need to know.
In addition, I found some writers to scale out the sites that don’t have 100 posts out as fast as I can, for example on the backyard site I was able to get over 10 posts out with only some minor editing and image work.
Managing these other more passive niche sites this way will help me to focus on where I want to have my own personal time go and less on trying to write everything myself across the board.
My January went well, though I have decided to minimize YouTube for the foreseeable future minus live streams or something without editing as I don’t get paid but YouTube is showing ads and taking the income themselves, so taking time and losing money is a deal-breaker for me.
Why Create Income Reports?
I can say that I don’t necessarily “enjoy” making these as they take a solid chunk of the day to gather and align but they are very nice when I go look back historically and can see where I was along with my thoughts back at that point.
I started doing these income reports to show month-on-month growth and to provide some motivation to show that websites can be a solid income over time but that it isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme by any means.
Should you choose that you want to make websites for a living to earn the income you need to be realistic that the work you do now will have a CHANCE to pay off in a year or more.
That being said there is no other way to build an income that allows you the freedom with the time that a blogger can achieve, this is my why and it is the reason I work continually to improve my skills and my niche sites.
If you are an absolute beginner I would suggest joining the Income School Project 24, it can help you when you have no clue to get solid footing for a really good cost.
If you aren’t sold on them then you can look at another well-detailed affiliate marketing class and many others which are available from MoneyLab.co which I am a member of as there is high value in the users within.
Overall Content Generation Breakdown
Building content against a vast array of sites can be intimidating, I write what I can, I work with Jasper when it makes sense, and then I outsource whatever I can afford to help keep the gas pedal pressed down hard.
- Fitness – 0 posts
- Garden 1 – 1 posts
- Garden 2 – 1 posts
- Outdoor 1 – 0 post
- Outdoor 3 – 10 posts (P24 Method Case Study and YouTube Series)
- Outdoor 4 – 13 posts (Part of Emilia’s Project Icarus)
- Electronics 1 – 10 posts
- Backyard – 14 posts
- White Hat Blogging (This Site) – 1 post
- Hobby – 0 posts (On Ice as just a 30 post incubator)
- Travel – 0 posts
- Business – 3 posts
- Popcorn Site – 0 posts
- Elite Content Publishers – Merging into WHB
- Finance – 0 posts
- WHB YouTube – 0 Videos
Total Posts for the month: 53
Monthly Income Breakdown
| Income Source | Income Amount |
|---|---|
| Ads (Ezoic) | 765.30 |
| Amazon Affiliate | 244.82 |
| Avantlink | 102.21 |
| ButcherBox | 70 |
| Other Niche Affiliate Programs | 45 |
| Blogging Affiliate Programs - BigScoots | 0 |
| Blogging Affiliate Programs - Jasper.ai | 65.40 |
| Blogging Affiliate Programs - Cloudways | 5.08 |
| Blogging Affiliate Programs - Project 24 | 0 |
| Blogging Affiliate Programs - SurferSEO | 0 |
| Blogging Affiliate Programs - Ezoic | 156.97 |
| Blogging Affiliate Programs - Fiverr | 0 |
| Blogging Affiliate Programs - Passion Posts | 0 |
| Blogging Affiliate Programs - Amalinks Pro | 268 |
Monthly Expense Breakdown
| Expense Source | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| Hosting - Cloudways | 52 |
| Amalinks Pro | 14 |
| Link Whisper | 10 |
| Outsourced Content - Fiverr | 250 |
| Ezoic Premium | 110 |
| Canva - Images | 10 |
| Dreamstime Images | 25 |
| Project 24 Subscription | 10 |
| Frase.io | 115 |
| Jasper.ai (Formerly Conversion.ai) | 100 |
| Trellis | 30 |
| Ahrefs | 99 |
My Niche Site Updates
Let’s dive into the site stats and details to help lend so usefulness to an income report. I am always interested in adding more details should anyone be interested but this helps keep me motivated and growing.
The benefit to this is people get to see where I feel like I have gone right or totally wrong and hopefully help some people skip these from occurring to themselves.
Site – Fitness
I love this domain, I put a lot into it when I don’t think I was skilled enough to take on something of this competition that has hamstrung it. I would move on but I think it can be a magnificent site once some real full-on effort can be applied to it, even with less than stellar stats it has one of the largest EPMPs of all my sites.
Monthly Traffic
Considering this has been idle the greater part of a year continued growth is a happy thing, this hopefully leads to more chances to make purchases. 20% growth for me over Christmas may be a new year new you thing so we can see if it continues to grow at all over the first 6 months of the year.
SERP Rankings
I am amazed that things are still continuing to finally rank years after publishing, there is something to be said about fitness and competitive niches where you just need a much longer timeframe and patience level.
Search Console
Overall as expected really with a new year there is traffic and the rest of the stats basically are unchanged, with no higher CTR or position changes, only monthly variability in impressions (which I suppose is new year related).
Plan For Next Month
I am just going to let this idle for now until some inspiration hits, it makes consistent income though too little for the costs that I spent to build it. If only I knew then what I know now I wouldn’t have wasted a year on this project.
Site – Garden 1
I continue to feel like this could be a solid niche but finding cracks that yield actual traffic appears to argue against this point, it has yielded no amazing leaps nor income so it is one of my real backburner sites and not part of the vital 2022 plan, could possibly be a good starter for someone else though.
Monthly Traffic
Yeah, I keep breaking GA on this site, I have fixed it but it broke the graph but it wasn’t going o be more than a flat or slight growth curve anyway.
SERP Rankings
Near everything I posted has reached to top 100, over half in the top 10 which still yields low volume which is key to me that this may never reach where I had hoped it would.
Search Console
I did gather nearly 30% more clicks from Google versus last month, since this site is costing me very little to run I’m happy to let it idle.
Plan For Next Month
Maybe add one post to just heartbeat the site, no volume means no attention as I have limited availability for something that can’t pay for itself many times over.
Site – Garden 2
I love this site, there is competition but most of them are on Mediavine or AdThrive, this means I know there are at minimum 30k pageviews to hundreds of thousands of pageviews per month. All I need to do is grab some of it and I can easily have a $1000 website.
Monthly Traffic
50% growth is amazing, maybe I am finally getting some ramp in traffic that I have been waiting for, definitely is longer than 8 months to get moving nowadays versus in years past.
SERP Rankings
Everything I have written has reached the top 100, all but 3 in the top 30, and like 90% in the top 10 is an amazing performance but makes me worry I niched the topics for the posts too far. May be time to open up to those shorter-tailed keywords and get some real volume.
Search Console
The 50% shows here in the 60k more impressions, near a position increase, and the 1/5th percent CTR is all movement in the right direction!
Additionally with the second image the site is beginning to get featured on Google Discover which is the homepage of Google when you don’t open up a URL which is a way you can get 1000s in high-quality direct traffic to your site.
Plan For Next Month
I want to continue posting, I have outsourced 10 posts for this site to help press the gas pedal down and this is very close to hitting the 100 posts level I want to get a base performance level for a niche.
Site – Outdoor 1
This was one of my more favorite sites that I started first, the issue is I can’t seem to rank anything as all topics are up against big sites with big budgets, I am considering selling this site off but waiting to see if the traffic begins to grow.
Monthly Traffic
While I haven’t posted to this site for nearly 4 months it is still steadily rising and growing which gives me hope that maybe it is just stuck at a plateau and may bust out at anytime.
SERP Rankings
A large chunk of my posts and primary keywords are on page one in the top 10, to me this shows I need to get down to very precise topics to really grow this further which will require a lot more time and dedication to it alone.
Search Console
More impressions, more clicks, increase in average position in the SERP but a slight drop in CTR. I will take a 3.5% CTR on older content that I didn’t title or organize optimally!
Plan For Next Month
I need to start outsourcing more posts to grow this site to 200 posts, once the other main sites get to 100 posts the work to grow this site will commence to add the 35 posts to hit the 200 mark and then see if that resparks more growth.
Site – Outdoor 3
The P24 case study is moving well and growing as it is nearing the actual season instead of being the slow offseason that it was built on. The issue with this is I don’t know how on point I am with search and writing and may need to re-evaluate after the season.
Meanwhile, sticking to the P24 public timeline means no posts for February as it is 110 posts for 2 months straight, so I get a break on working on this site while I watch to see the seasonal launch occur!?
Monthly Traffic
I am hoping this is part growth and end of the ghost town time and maybe the start of the season and the initial interest and search related to it. I would love to have continued 50% growth month over month as that would give you the huge explosion and “hockey stick”.
SERP Rankings
Things are finally starting to move into the SERP and this is nice as GSC and indexing hasn’t been the best for the site, I am hoping to get more and more ranking as this season goes as I want to get all content performance in GA for things like time on page.
Search Console
Over 50% growth in direct Google clicks, increase in CTR and 9 places moved up in the SERP is a nice month for a newer site with no backlinks and no aged domain BS.
Plan For Next Month
Thankfully to maintain the timeline there is no posts added this month which means I can dig into some search evaluation and maybe find some solid winter options to start looking to outsource and rank before the end of the season hits and to keep a level of traffic going.
Site – Outdoor 4
My “decade niche”, this is the site I want to build all myself and write all the content for and have each post be the hands down best post on the content on the web. I have had a lucky explosion in discover traffic which makes the graphs just explosive in traffic, but organic is growing as expected on a young domain.
Monthly Traffic
I broke into 12k pageviews this month largely on the back of Google Discover, I was exceedingly happy to produce content that was added for weeks to the service as it brought in an amazing amount of volume, but also little money from purchases.
SERP Rankings
I write content that ranges from 1200 words to 10k+ words to be the hands down best content on the web for the search term, for this I am happy with the green numbers as it shows this approach works equally to the current spam content approach.
Additionally from a “buyers guide” perspective I am ranking completely blank buyers guides that I published to get the framework in place many moving into the top 30 some almost breaking the top 10 which may make this the best method for buyer content.
Search Console
I have both graphs below for organic search and discover traffic, I am very pleased with the pure organic growth over the month as it tripled from 313 to 993, a huge growth like that gives me hope that when discover slows again that I won’t just fully collapse!
Plan For Next Month
I am setting myself a hard goal of at least 12 posts per month for all of 2022 with at least 2000 words per post, unlike many other sites I am targeting long and short tailed keywords and not just the lowest and smallest searches to ensure I get quality traffic levels.
Site – Electronics 1
This site exploded into life and has been holding strong at about 20k pageviews, the next step will be to work on adding more content and target longer and more thorough cotent with shorter keywords as that could amplify the volume and break that 50k sessions mark for Mediavine possibly.
Monthly Traffic
The growth is near 13% which for most would be an excellent month but after the 3-4 months leading to here being 50%+ its not as much growth as I had hoped for but I am continuing to add content to move this towards 200 posts and the hope of reaching 100k pageviews before the end of the year.
SERP Rankings
Nearly everything I have targeted I have won a spot in the top 10 for, thats pretty awesome and they have brought solid traffic numbers with them.
Search Console
Nearing 600k impressions and a near half point increase in CTR is a nice blend to hopefully continue to grow, sometimes Google is fickle sometimes but higher CTR and higher impressions is a perfect mix to get more clicks!
Additionally I appear to finally have been graced with the Google Discover traffic starting, this will be interesting to watch and see how it can help me grow or if it doesn’t amount to much change.
Plan For Next Month
Continue to outsource posts that are shorter form content to aim for 5-10 posts this next month to help continue growth on the site on the march to 100k pageviews!
Site – Backyard
This site is one I love but man it is amazingly seasonal, like spring to fall it is typically pretty strong and makes a decent amount but when the rug is pulled for end of fall to spring again it is basically a non-performer.
Monthly Traffic
As traffic goes the 25% is nice and to me is pretty close to the line from last year when the ramp up of traffic started to begin, this would be nice to get a super rocket again.
SERP Rankings
The content I have written that is newer hasn’t ranked yet but the older content is pretty solid in the top 30, the hope is this year to move much more into the top 10 and hopefully get some scaling traffic and watch the ad revenue scale back up.
Search Console
Overall the site is moving in the direction I want heading into the season, I lost some position but I have nearly double the content in the last 2 months which leads to lots of content and lower search spots in the short term.
Plan For Next Month
I am trying to hit 28 posts in 28 days on the site as a fun February challenge which would take the site to over 100 posts and be in excellent position for a run at a nice high income summer which can then lead to building more for next year or possibly into sale, we will see.
Site – WHB
This is my site here, all about the blogging journey and things I learn or think are worth sharing. I will continue this for as long as I have the time and ability to as it is a nice way to track progress and show others where it starts and goes.
Monthly Traffic
I am not sure if there is a niche harder to get pageviews from without YouTube than blogging and affiliate marketing, almost to 1000PVs, lol.
SERP Rankings
Nothing much ranks, basically it is luck of the draw to get traffic, meh, this isnt surprising though.
Search Console
Basically flat, not exciting.
Plan For Next Month
The process of merging Elite Content Publishers into White Hat Blogging will help this site and stop me from diverting effort across too many things, also the transition to Carbonate will help me simplify management of the front side and keep this growing.
Site – Hobby
I do want to continue building onto this site but it needs to come after I get the others up to 100 posts first, then this will be on the next fast train to 100 posts as I think there is some solid value to be had from ads and affiliate offers once the content exists to showcase it.
Monthly Traffic
While nearly nothing has been posted for 6+ months the traffic is growing and with not much traffic nor TLC this brought in money over Christmas within the niche content itself. I’m interested to see where this can grow to.
SERP Rankings
Nearly everything in the top 100 is nice and over 50% in the top 10 is a nice start for a sub 30 post site.
Search Console
Basically flat, but since that was coming from Christmas and the holidays thats a nice flat as I would have expected it to possibly drop off more.
Plan For Next Month
Currently hold in place while I get sites up to 100 posts, then phase 2 will be to move these other aged sites to 100 posts also so assuming movement stays close this could be by June/July.
Site – Travel
As always this site is to prove to my wife she can work on a site and get results as she doesn’t believe in this internet jargon and thinks its like an MLM or cult. The initial content was done to get the ball rolling and to allow it to age and gain some legs to start pouring more soul into it, I’ve stressed working on it less due to pandemic killing travel so not much lost I feel.
Monthly Traffic
This site grew by 50% which is nice when I haven’t added new content in quite a while, hoping this will continue as I tried to keep things pretty tightly written to a specific area except where bigger cracks looked like they were worth the flier.
SERP Rankings
Lost a few, this site like hobby just needs more content and the proper TLC and time and can become a good income earner if travel gets back to normal sometime soon.
Search Console
Up 800 clicks in Google, increase in CTR and 12k more impressions, nice month!
Plan For Next Month
As withg hobby this needs content but that will need to waita few months and then the big guns can be turned here to grow out and hopefully scale up fast and easy.
Site – Business
This site needs to be a lead gen site, the real ground work is still being done to grow and get the organic search and visits with the hope that lead gen can start making some serious money and then I would more than likely aim to sell it off as I prefer passive income sources versus active needy sites.
Monthly Traffic
I added 3 more posts and we grew 34%, very happy and I have a plan to add 10 more posts next month and this site will start its progression towards 100 posts.
SERP Rankings
All in the top 100, love this, most moving into top 10 and then top 3 means that I am getting the eyeballs on the content and hopefully getting more authority as there is a huge gap here.
Search Console
Massive boost in impressions, movement up in overall rank and clicks with small amount of posts gives me hope this can be huge with some more posting.
Plan For Next Month
Continue to post, 10 more should be coming this month which will help me begin moving this forward, and if as open as I feel it is maybe I can start learning some lead gen skills to start converting some of them into actual leads.
Site – Popcorn
Sitting idle currently is not a priority as just not enough time.
Monthly Traffic
Still moved up 15%, not bad for a mostly forgotten site due to sheer lack of time.
SERP Rankings
one day
Search Console
aging in
Plan For Next Month
Forget about it for a few more months, lol.
Site – ECP
The site is merging into White at Blogging
Monthly Traffic
SERP Rankings
Search Console
Plan For Next Month
Site – Finance
I think this site has some tremendous potential, just like some of the above it will need time and content and once others get to 100 this one will have its shot to get to 50 to 100 posts.
Monthly Traffic
Only 5 posts and a growth rate of over 300% is pretty amazing.
SERP Rankings
Nothing in Google, go figure! All Bing ftw.
Search Console
Grow and grow
Plan For Next Month
Try to write a few more posts myself to see if this is growable as the income on finance for ads is amazing.
Overall Lessons from January
As long as I am not trying to make every post the most perfect piece of content out there scaling isn’t an issue, it’s the path to perfection that stops many from ever building websites that make them money and I have had that issue where I continue to edit posts.
This year the focus is to move sites forward, find the ones I want to be my core business and then look to sell off the sites that don’t hit my personal requirements. For many the goal is a money value, for mine, the goal is more time freedom so I need to pay off debts and then build at least a 6-month savings, and once there I can evaluate freedom.
Learning to accept something that I don’t think is the pinnacle of writing should help me get content up and instead focus on revisions on a content audit in 2023 after you can see performance instead of hours editing and re-editing messing up the ranking system.
Did I Meet my January Goals?
For myself I feel that I am well on my real goal of 100 posts as the starting point on my new sites once I get through these older sites, that will give me the chance to evaluate them and see if they need more content and what I want to do with them grow or sell.
What Are my Goals for February?
As is my story for this entire year, moving towards 100k pageviews on 3 sites and continuing the other main focus is to push sites to 100 posts.
The 2 currently growing are the backyard site, garden 2 site, and then I am writing Outdoor 4 to 100+ posts this year.
My Recommended Tools For Results
From there, here’s a quick recap on some of the most valuable resources and things I recommend you check out. They’ve helped me in my journey and I think they’ll be valuable in yours.
- Jasper.AI – This is your personal writing assistant, offering you more information and helping prompt you in writing make magical and informative content.
- Frase.io – I use this to build out my outlines for posts and then once done writing to check how my content aligns to the Top10 and Top20 SERP results to make sure I cover all the key terms other sites do.
- Project 24 – A welcome change from the competition, focused for all with a purely content first approach, hands-down an awesome course for building a niche site or an online business that focuses on content.
- Ezoic – Once you’ve got your website and some content, think about these guys. They’re doing some amazing things – and have helped me earn several thousand dollars (in ad revenue) that I’d not have earned otherwise.
- LinkWhisper – Honestly without this plugin managing links within my content would be incredibly difficult, honestly one of the easiest things to re-up each year and highly suggest it.
- Cloudways – As hosting goes choosing Cloudways with a VULTR HF server is the fastest you will ever see a backend run, no more waiting for the new post to load it is as close to desktop speeds as you can probably find.
