Case Study & Income Report #26 [February/March 2022 edition]

So, it appears that I forgot to even write up my February report, so this will be a two-month update as a result of that.

I’ll try to keep things as brief as possible though so that this update isn’t a novel.

But maybe get a cup of coffee before you read, just in case?

Remember, the sites in this report are only a portion of my portfolio and not the only sites that bring in revenue.

**And as always, I’m an affiliate marketer and this post contains affiliate links, meaning I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my link.

What Happened In February & March

As I just told someone in an email earlier today, these last three months have been a hell of a year!

Fortunately, most of the drama in my life has been from family members and nothing personal going on with me (except for getting sick the last week of March).

But even dealing with other people’s shit takes up a lot of your mental resources and your time.

That’s my way of saying that I didn’t get much done on any of my sites during these two months.

However, the good news is that all of that nonsense seems to be behind me now and going forward things should get back to normal.

The Sites – February & March Update

Site #1

It’s gone from my portfolio.

So, no more updates on this one.

Site #2

This site continues to blow any expectations that I had in terms of its potential.

Traffic for this site continues to rise as a slow and steady pace, which is great since work on it has been minimal.

From February to March, traffic increased by around 6,000 sessions.

I still have not had the chance to hire a dedicated writer for this site, but that remains something that definitely needs to be done.

Realistically, I think if I could beef up content production each month that this site could be at $5,000/mo by December.

(Hopefully typing that out will motivate my ass to hire someone ASAP.)

But this site has one really big, massive problem for the future – there is no moat.

So, I really need to be thinking about what I can do about that before the year’s end.

New posts for this site: 6 (not outsourced)

New links for this site: zero

Total income for this site last month: $987.73 (February), $1,282.44 (March)

Last month’s income is a mix of AdSense, premium display ads, Amazon affiliate, and other affiliates. I use the AAWP plugin on this site.

Summary for site #2: A good rise income and nice boost in traffic. Overall things are looking good with this site. Also note that this site has reached (and passed) the original income goal.

Site #3

Put in a good amount of work on this site after starting a new topic cluster that I’m excited about.

Should be pretty easy to rank for this one and I think I’m already seeing the results of that with the boost in traffic in March from February’s efforts.

That’s around a 10% increase in sessions for March compared to February.

But what’s really bumming me out about this site is that the RPM is not as high as it should be.

Why? Because my old top post is no longer my top post because a bunch of assholes copied it and one of them took the featured snippet from me.

I’ve filed a total of three DMCA requests so far, with Google denying them all with the reason that they cannot determine who the copyright holder is.

You won’t believe how furious I am about this whole thing with Google.

It’s not like Google doesn’t know which post/site they indexed first, right?

New posts for this site: 25 (not outsourced)

New links for this site: none

Total income for this site last month: $2,348.82 (Feb), $2,704.14 (March)

Last month’s income is a mix of premium display ads, Amazon affiliate, and other affiliates. I use the AAWP plugin on this site as well.

Summary for site #3: Traffic increased as expected and income went up, butlower RPMs than I’d like to see. Overall a great month for the site.

Site #4

So, traffic for this site was on an upward trend, but it appears to have gotten some referral spam that spiked the traffic in late March.

I always hate when that happens since it messes up data and forecasting.

Content that was published in the previous update has been doing well and sailing up the SERPs.

I’m really happy about that since there hasn’t been any real link building done for this site.

Though I do think it is getting a topical authority boost right now.

New posts for this site: three

New links for this site: zero

Total income for this site last month: $16.39 (Feb), $31.13 (March)

Only has one post live with an affiliate link, and AdSense is bringing in the monies.

Summary for site #4: Things with this site are moving along exactly as expected.

New Expenses for February & March 2022

If you want to know about any recurring expenses or previous expenses, then refer to February 2020’s report in this section.

Here’s new expenses for the sites for February and March 2022:

Site #2

• $6.50 Vultr server at Cloudways (two sites on this server, so I split out the cost for just this site)

Site #3

• $22.45 hosting with BigScoots (this account is split with another site)

Site #4

• $6.50 Vultr server at Cloudways (two sites on this server, so I split out the cost for just this site)

Final Thoughts & Summary

Overall, things are pretty much going as I expected with these sites.

You know, expect for the lack of time that I’ve had to properly dedicate to growing them.

Fortunately, I think I can get things back on track for April and start making some meaningful moves with these sites.

Shawna Newman

Hey, I’m Shawna. I make a living working from my laptop in places like London, Sydney, Dubai, Rome, Oslo, Bangkok, Las Vegas, Barcelona, and Amsterdam. I share how I do some of that on this website.