Ezoic Earnings: September 2023 Niche Site Income Report

Last month of Q3 is in the books and now it’s time for some hopefully good Q4 numbers.

With these sites, I’m not sure what to expect for Q4 with a new-to-me niche and the aftermath of the recent Google updates.

But let’s focus on September for now!

As mentioned when I started these monthly updates, I’m publishing these new income reports on the last day of each month to get fresh data your way.

Plus, it helps keep me accountable to you…because we all know that I will procrastinate on getting these written up.

Also, I want to remind you that these Ezoic sites of mine are smaller sites, which means these monthly updates should be easier for new site builders to follow along with (as well as those of you who are building sites with limited time).

With these being my lower earning sites, they never really get the priority that they deserve.

But still, small amounts of work compound over time.

Note: 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.

Site 1: Food/Drink Niche

If you recall, this is the site where I changed the domain and then hammered it with 301 aged domain redirects….only to see it suffer a fiery death.

As a result, I’ve not been really publishing new content.

But…these recent Google updates may actually have given this site a rebirth.

Google Analytics is showing an increase of 9.8% – I think? GA4 is so terrible to use.

Anyways, traffic seems to be up from the Core Update, but then on Sep 18/19th it went down a bit from HCU.

So, who knows that October will look like!

But the real star of the month here is the EPMV for this site – it has reached almost $8.00! That’s around $1.30 or so for the increase.

Love to see that, but no idea why it happened other than being the last month of Q3.

And quick reminder, I enabled Humix on this site earlier in the year but didn’t upload any videos – instead I’m only earning from other people’s videos that show up on my site.

Here’s how much this site earned via Humix for the month –

That essentially double from last month, which is a nice increase for doing absolutely nothing.

And the video plays more than doubled, obviously this is thanks to the traffic increase the site has seen.

Here’s another little nifty screenshot showing the progress of monthly Humix earnings for this site –

Now here’s where things get a bit odd though – the most played video for my site visitors is completely irrelevant and in a totally unrelated niche.

Remember, my site is in the food/drink niche….not sewing. As a site owner, this is concerning because I don’t want to turn off visitors due to videos autoplaying that are irrelevant.

But at the same time, I also wanna know what percentage of my earnings are from this video….but also, is there a way to block irrelevant videos?

I’ve asked about this and will update you on it in next month’s update.

Anyways, here’s what the overall income for the last 30 days looks like for this site in Big Data Analytics:

• Ezoic: $32.21
• Amazon: $94.92

The affiliate content on this site is using high converting Lasso product boxes.

And I’ve been using Scalenut (use code FOREVER20 to save 20% after the free trial!) to optimize these articles. You can also use something like Frase for this.

Do note that we have one additional day left in the month, so these numbers are almost complete.

Site 2: Religion/Spirituality Niche

Due to me focusing a lot on the soft launch of Growth Cupid (save 10% with code SKIPBLAST), I didn’t get up as many posts as I would have liked – just 23 of them.

Despite that, I’m still happy with how this site is growing.

According to Google Analytics, traffic seems to be down around 10%, possibly from HCU.

So, that’s not cool but I do know that I’ve done zero link building for this site so I’m not too worried.

EPMV for the month seems to have dropped a few cents, so not ideal.

I also still (…noticing a trend?) didn’t get around to making any new videos for this site’s YouTube channel or Humix.

Here’s how much this site earned from Humix with the two videos that I uploaded a earlier in the year –

Well, well, how about them apples? Almost double what this site made from Humix last month.

Though seeing that the plays are ALSO almost double, that earnings increase mystery is quickly solved.

Here’s what the progress looks like for the year –

And here’s the breakdown by type of play –

I think the interesting thing here is that the number of ads for the network videos dropped from 245 to 70, while the watch time for those really went up a lot.

No idea why that happened, but the money increase looks nice.

Here’s what the income for the last 30 days looks like for this site:

• Ezoic: $24.01
• Amazon: $0.00

Yes, that is a small drop in earnings.

Still not really gotten any affiliate content up on this site cause it’s just a tricky one with things to promote.

And I used Scalenut (use code FOREVER20 to save 20% after the free trial!) to optimize these articles. You can also use something like Frase for this.

Do note that we have one additional day left in the month, so these numbers are almost complete.

Plus, Ezoic balances are not finalized for ending month until the 4th of the following month. Just an FYI.

Site 3: Food/Drink Niche #2

Prepare to have your mind blown with how much content I got up on this site in September.

One post. That’s right, one new informational post.

Better than none though….I guess?

Yup, that’s a slight traffic drop.

GA4 is showing around a 5% drop, though I think maybe it started with the Core Update? Honestly, it could be a freshness issue since I’ve not been good abount regular content publishing.

Also note this site has an EPMV drop….again!

Here’s what the income for the last 30 days looks like for this site:

• Ezoic: $9.34
• Amazon: $13.35

So, drop in ad revenue and a bump in affiliate revenue for the month.

The affiliate content is using high converting Lasso product boxes.

And I used Scalenut (use code FOREVER20 to save 20% after the free trial!) to optimize these articles. You can also use something like Frase for this.

Do note that we have one additional day left in the month, so these numbers are almost complete.

Plus, Ezoic balances are not finalized for ending month until the 4th of the following month. Just an FYI.

Site 4: Tech/Gaming Niche

This site is no longer on Ezoic.

Site 5: Outdoors Niche

Managed to get up three new posts on this site. Honestly, I need to prioritize this one with a lot of outdoorsy stuff peaking in the fall.

You can likely tell from the screenshot that this site has a traffic drop, but it happened before HCU.

GA4 is showing an almost 27% traffic drop. Thanks algo update!

I already knew this site needs links…now it’s confirmed.

This site also experienced a drop in EPMV. ::sad trombone::

Here’s what the income for the last 30 days looks like for this site:

• Ezoic: $10.20
• Amazon: $5.40

Ouch. Almost cut in half there.

The affiliate content on this site is using high converting Lasso product boxes.

And I used Scalenut (use code FOREVER20 to save 20% after the free trial!) to optimize these articles. You can also use something like Frase for this.

Do note that we have one additional day left in the month, so these numbers are almost complete.

Plus, Ezoic balances are not finalized for ending month until the 4th of the following month. Just an FYI.

Site 6: Gardening Niche

Of the 50+ articles that were sitting in draft status, I got up 45 of them. Not too bad.

I mentioned last month that traffic was starting to dip for this site, but not sure if it was seasonality or the algo update.

That drop has continued.

Looking at this screenshot, there appears to be a big drop after Sept 17th, so looks like maybe HCU here.

GA4 confirms this drop, with a total of 19% drop compared to last month.

I think this is a mix of seasonality and Google updates. But, I need to dig deeper and investigate.

Here’s what the income for the last 30 days looks like for this site:

• Ezoic: $173.15
• Amazon: $190.66

Not much of an EPMV drop, but that still hurts. Ad revenue down around $50, with a similar drop in affiliate revenue.

The affiliate content is using high converting Lasso product boxes.

And I used Scalenut (use code FOREVER20 to save 20% after the free trial!) to optimize these articles. You can also use something like Frase for this.

Do note that we have one additional day left in the month, so these numbers are almost complete.

Plus, Ezoic balances are not finalized for ending month until the 4th of the following month. Just an FYI.

Looking Ahead

That traffic number goal of 30,000 pageviews to get some of these sites as secondary sites on Raptive (AdThrive) is only getting further away with these algo hits and traffic drops.

While I’ll still be focused on content, I really need to get some of my Growth Cupid team on building quality backlinks for these sites.

And, I still need to work on a disavow file for site #3.

And, I still need to get back to making videos for site #2.

Yes, I’m always behind on what needs done.

If you want more details on how I use Ezoic’s Big Data Analytics to form my content strategies, check out this three-part case study.

Questions? Let me know in the comments!

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.