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 first quarter of 2021 has now officially closed out and it was a nice ride, ad revenue was pretty high for this last week as ad spend grew to be used prior to the end of the quarter. This means that ad income will more than likely be smaller next month with a fresh quarter in most cases.
As to content this may have been my best month at spreading content around to grow all the sites without getting too hyper-focused on one at the detriment of the others, much of the content itself was done by writers from Fiverr. I am cautiously optimistic as there have been a few blips where my sites are getting some love from the Googles.
March 2021 At a Glance
This month I stopped to take a real look at my sites, see what has been stuck in mud due to the niche and domain being far too narrow and built plans to start moving things around. The Electronics 1 site was hamstrung by my old domain choice so I have a new, far more open domain I moved everything to over this last week of March.
I have also decided to jump on the Conversion.io hype bandwagon for unlimited content generation, but where everyone else is making videos with no clue how to use it, and most certainly to abandon it without shame, I am learning to use it to build out content for my sites to enhance the outsourced and manual content.
Why Create Income Reports?
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 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 not another way to build an income that allows you the freedom with 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 good detailed affiliate marketing class and many others which are available from MoneyLab.co.
Overall Content Generation Breakdown
I definitely spread the love around and this helps to make sure everything continues to grow and have more rank, I am working on possibly selling off one site while one isn’t getting an ounce of love from the Google.
Trying to convince the wife to blog so I am working on building a travel site that will one day become hers once she can see the value and the income that could come from applying herself to it.
- Site 1 – Fitness – 6 posts
- Site 2 – Diet – 0 posts (Possibly Up For Sale)
Site 3 – Gardening 1 – 0 posts [ Technically DOA, new G2 below already has more daily pageviews ]- Site 4 – Gardening 2 – 0 posts
- Site 5 – Outdoor 1 – 4 posts
- Site 6 – Outdoor 2 – 0 posts
- Site 7 – Electronics 1 – 4 posts
- Site 8 – Electronics 2 – 0 posts [ Just not interested, now aged may give another go in a few months ]
Site 9 – Public Niche Site – Retired- Site 10 – Backyard – 3 posts
- Site 11 – White Hat Blogging (This Site) – 19 posts [ 3 fresh, 16 migrated ]
- Not as many as I folded in some from PBI and the other Online Store to centralize and help me cut down on misc work, looks like I can learn a limit!
- Site 12 – Hobby – 11 posts
- Site 13 – Travel – 16 posts
- AI Site – More of a side project to write an entire site through Frase.io and Conversion.ai, follow the progress here.
Total Posts for the month: 47
Monthly Income Breakdown
| Income Source | Income Amount |
|---|---|
| Ads (Ezoic) | $347.67 |
| Amazon Affiliate | $227.33 |
| Other Niche Affiliate Programs | $35.13 |
| Blogging Affiliate Programs | $481.15 |
Monthly Expense Breakdown
| Expense Source | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| Hosting | Cloudways - $26 / Month WPX - $25 Month Bluehost - $1.33 Month |
| Amalinks Pro | $14 - Month |
| LinkWhisper | $10 - Month |
| Outsource Writing - Fiverr | $500 - Month |
| Ezoic Premium | $44 - Month |
| WP Rocket (Non Ezoic Sites) | $7.50 - Month |
| Carbonate Theme | $3 - Month |
| Dreamstime Images | $25 - Month |
| Project 24 Sub | $10 - Month |
| Piotnet Forms | $6.50 - Month |
| Frase.io | $114.99 - Month (Unlimited Docs) |
| Conversion.ai | $99.99 - Month (Unlimited Words) |
My Niche Site Updates
Fitness Niche Site
I knew that this was going to be a long road to movement just due to the competition but along with bordering on YMYL topics all around with weight loss and similar topics.
That being said we started to move up again after the big hits taken in the November/December timeframe when we were closing in on 2.5k pageviews and got knocked all the way back down to about 1k.
This was never about a rabbit race but more the slow turtle crawl to build this site up, with the domain name and the credibility this site could make a huge amount of money once it hits.
Monthly Traffic
SERP Rankings
Search Console
Definitely saw some growth in clicks moving from the 30’s in the start of the month moving towards more consistently high 40’s into the 50’s. That is the movement in a month that helps keep me going!
Plan For Next Month
My goal this month is to get 4-6 more posts done but to heavily focus on generating multiple pins per post, then post them every other day since Pinterest is a long game too this would get me about 1000 pins if I create 6-8 pins per post topic.
Diet Niche Site
I am working to see if I can liquidate this site, it could make money but I am just not interested in writing on the topic and it was more built to take on a FB challenge without a specific plan to manage afterwards. The site has no new content and everything on it is at least 6 months in age.
I wasn’t going to add content on a site I was planning to sell since only the purchaser would see the gains from the extra investment, should that fall through then I will double down to ratchet this site up more to make the next sale attempt smooth.
Monthly Traffic
SERP Rankings
As you would expect without adding fresh content you have a slow bleed which results in slowly losing rankings.
Search Console
Plan For Next Month
Working on listing process for MotionInvest as I need funds to work on other projects which have taken up most of my time and this could become large for someone else if they applied themselves.
Gardening Niche Site 1
This site is just not going anywhere but I haven’t decided to move it from the domain yet, though I have bought a new name to move it to that has a clean history just incase.
This site still has never shown more than 3 clicks from Google over the last 12 months regardless of adding content, the last move is a final content push to push it to 50 posts total, when that invariably fails I will begin to move to a new domain instead.
Monthly Traffic
SERP Rankings
Search Console
Plan For Next Month
Start using Conversion.ai to build out some content while also cleaning up existing content to find a way to move the needle on this site. I see no real history on the existing domain but feel there is something I can’t see that really stops this site from growth.
Toss up, who the heck knows!
Gardening Niche Site 2
I like this site and the niche looks to have traffic when you look at things like the Traffic Estimation Study, focusing on sites that are “niche” sites and using advertising partners gives you a good understanding of the minimum monthly traffic that exists for a site, the more sites with ads the better.
This topic has multiple sites which run AdThrive, this means I know that at least hundreds of thousands of people are clicking to their site monthly, I really think this is a solid way to understand your possible volume without tools.
Monthly Traffic
SERP Rankings
Search Console
Plan For Next Month
My goals are to get at least 4-6 posts added onto the site for this month, then continue to move this forward at this pace as it is showing you can build a site without having to add vast content quickly as that is what most people are told.
This site is really just to show that consistency matters and growing a site as you can have and make time, that posting as frequently as you can can get you to the promised land. (Trying to show 1-2 posts per week at most)
Outdoor Niche Site 1
I love the outdoors, this is a niche that is hard to crack though as there is big blogs all over the place. I am growing but it is more of a long haul, I am about to start a YouTube which should help gain more user traction from people who also love the outdoors and suggest it for others, there is a smart YouTube course from Matt G over here on Money Lab.
Monthly Traffic
SERP Rankings
I would say I love that my top 3 keeps growing month over month, I am going to have to do a thorough content audit after a year to understand why the Top100 is not closer to 140/140.
Search Console
Plan For Next Month
I am continuing to work on posts in the cracks I see, it just appears the sites I am competing with in many cases tend to be shorter but have more links, I do slowly tend to take over spaces with user experience and metrics over time but this does need to get more #1 ranks to get more links.
Add 4-8 posts and continue the growth is my plan to just not quit the grind, all the effort is worth it but you have to be able to keep pushing even when not getting as big as fast as you would like it to grow!
Outdoor Niche Site 2
Out of all the sites I have this one has the widest ability to become a “mega” site, it can be as big as I choose to take it but for now I have just been trying to ad content to existing categories and this month I may try to expand into some new sides to gain more traffic.
Monthly Traffic
SERP Rankings
Search Console
Plan For Next Month
Time to really expand on this site as it is over a year old and starting to show that maybe the growth phase is really going to begin in earnest with this upcoming non-pandemic locked down summer, I am going to open floodgates and try to get at least 10 more posts added into the mix.
Electronics Niche Site 1
For this site I had bought a far too niched down domain name that had really locked me down as to content I could write on and grow any further, so this month I did the crazy thing and converted it over to a new domain and did a 301 redirect.
This opens up a larger content range that will take me years to possibly run out of topics along with hit a wider group of visitors where the old domain was capping out in visitors at never more than about 80 in a day.
This breathes life into a stagnant site that was consistently producing income but not anything that could be considered “life changing” now it has a chance to become a stronger, more viable, niche site.
Monthly Traffic
SERP Rankings
Search Console
Plan For Next Month
Just continue the push of content on the new areas the domain has opened up, I have 20 posts lined up that I am trying to finish up this month at a minimum as I want to diversify the topics on the site now that it is opened.
Electronics Niche Site 2
This site was super exciting at first but I really just don’t care to write non-evergreen content constantly to stay relevant, is been slowing passing away as I neglect it but I will let it keep going in hope that I find something I like and can write on.
Monthly Traffic
SERP Rankings
Search Console
Plan For Next Month
To let it sit and rot in the pits of hell…
Backyard Niche Site
I continue to create content around the backyard as it can be highly profitable, we are moving into the time of year that tends to escalate and provide results for this so I am excited to see where it goes this month and into the summer!
Monthly Traffic
SERP Rankings
Search Console
Plan For Next Month
Just continue to hit the publish button and grow the site, my goal is to just hit 3-5 posts per month, really striving to hit 1 post per week of excellent content instead of just pure volume but we will see where this one goes.
White Hat Blogging – This Site
I love the idea of blogging for an income, while many are focused on methods that are definitely questionable I focus hard on repeatable manners to get results. This blog is a place where I can drop these ideas off to hopefully help the next person get faster results than I did, check out my blog here!
Monthly Traffic
SERP Rankings
Search Console
Plan For Next Month
I have post ideas that I will continue to work on, I am focusing on building out the current Pro Blogger Income YouTube to become the White Hat Blogging YouTube channel and it is nearing 1000 subscribers so I am on the boat to maybe monetization this year.
Hobby Niche Site
This site was full of cracks and it looked to be vulnerable when you look at the competition I couldn’t help myself but to start a site that I can get to 100 posts and then let it sit to grow and either sell or continue to build.
Monthly Traffic
SERP Rankings
Search Console
Plan For Next Month
Just continue to hit the gas pedal on the new site and get to 30 posts, I am already monetizing with Amazon Affiliate and hope to see traffic pick up and then clicks. Have 100 post ideas already outlined now to fill in headings and begin to build the content and post it as fast as I can to get to the 100 posts line.
Travel Niche Site
This site is actually really fun to write about since we travelled there in 2014 it has been a family fantasy to be able to travel back again, unfortunately it comes at quite an expense that I am unwilling to go into debt to accomplish.
The entire goal here is to convince my wife she can write on this and that it is viable to make money from writing well for others online about your experiences or your want to experience.
Monthly Traffic
SERP Rankings
Search Console
Plan For Next Month
Just continue to hit the gas pedal on the new site and get to 30 posts, then just continue to layer on levels of interesting content as well as adding on some layers of affiliate offers once you can see and evaluate traffic coming in.
Overall Lessons from March
Managing content may be at my limit at around 40-50 posts per month, as to my sites I am working to sell off one which will allow me to more focus on the existing sites that I am building that are far more personally interesting.
That is a key for all you new niche site builders out there, I know there is niches that pay “amazing” but instead focus on what you love, I promise you can almost always find a way to additionally monetize that kind of site and this approach will make it not feel like a “job”.
I am able to push like this because I find it fun and far more interesting than wasting the same time watching television or playing video games, if this is your approach you will be successful eventually.
Did I Meet my March Goals?
Personally I do feel like I had an absolutely positive March, I was able to qualify to move up a tier in Ezoics Premium service to the 3 Star which for one day added nearly double the income from the premium side on a partial day.
If I can maintain on this growth I will easily hit my hope of $2000 a month by the end of the year, I continue to put my head down and post daily because this is the only way to honestly move the needle, I have adopted a policy of using a Carbonate theme based framework on any new site to allow my to jump into content writing within hours.
The key to all new sites is to get content on them, honestly the faster the better, if you can get 30 posts per month up on a site then do it and you will be amazed how that 360 posts is acting by the end of the year.
I am very happy with how this month turned out and I am hoping to pour more gas on the fire and next month to move even more!
What Are my Goals for April?
As income continues to grow over this year I have some business plans I need to clean up like a business account, LLC, and the workings to become a more legit business.
I plan to continue outsourcing and writing content to build up these sites, my final goal on a site is probably around 100-200 posts which lends itself to some solid authority to help ranking new content and then audit and master it.
This year is already more profitable to me than my entire year of work last year, this is my goal for this year is to just continue building up the sites and then reinforce that content to take all the #1 ranks possible and keep scaling content.
Without focusing on Amazon has allowed me to find far more topics and worry less about product links dying, I can focus on writing and letting ads and very targeted affiliate offers.
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.
- 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.
