October was another solid month as I hit my third highest amount ever in revenue. The profit was only slightly more than last month, but that’s mainly because I had additional costs as I paid to have more calendars made for one of my niche websites.
This month my total income after expenses was $14,203.89 which comes out to $458.19 per day.
This month’s highlights included;
- I saw an increase in traffic to JFFH by about 13%. While that usually wouldn’t be something to get too excited about, the fact that I have over 300k pageviews each month makes that a big number.
- Pageviews for the CK website increased by roughly 32% and that’s a very big win considering how hard it’s been to get this website traction.
Personal Life Update
To be honest with you, it’s been a grueling month in terms of personal affairs to deal with along with my online business.
That said, it hasn’t necessarily been bad.
First off, my wife and I are at the end of the road to get her the green card that we’ve been waiting for.
While I won’t get into the difficulty of getting approved for temporary citizenship in the USA, just know that if you ever have to deal with it, it’ll take at least a year to figure it out.
In the last month, I’ve probably spent 10-20 hours filling out forms and scanning/mailing things into the system that handles this. Now we’re waiting for one more sheet from the Brazilian government and she has an interview to complete, but once that is done, we should be all set.
Secondly, and something we’re incredibly excited about, we’ve officially bought a house!
I made mention of this a few months back saying how we were shopping and considering buying something.
Well, that time is now and this month I’ve had to deal with all of the paperwork that needed to be collected in order to make that purchase. This also took about 10-20 hours and although there have been endless headaches, our closing is on 11/30 and once that’s done, we’ll finally have a place to make home base for many years to come.
I’m sure many of you will want to see pics of the house, so here it is.
There are a few things about this house that we absolutely love.
- You can’t tell from the pictures, but across the street from the house is a very large park so it helps us feel like we’re in the middle of nowhere, even though Walmart and Target are roughly 3 minutes away. (My wife is VERY excited about that, by the way).
- It has an unfinished basement which, for me, is amazing. I am planning a home gym, man cave, an additional bedroom, and full bath.
- As you can see from the second picture, the yard is pretty huge. It’s a corner lot and there is so much we can do in the future.
- It looks nice!
To think that WEBSITES are how we are paying for this puppy is a pretty amazing concept. Not only that, but the fact that I could sell a website to pay for this house in full is nothing short of amazing.
That all said, if you're looking to create a website that could (maybe) help you buy a house in the future, I suggest you read this story all the way through and put in your email for the free mini course at the end.
Full Portfolio Update: There wasn’t any crazy trends I saw this month that were surprising. I think the only thing I did across all of my websites is implement ManageWP.com. I did this for one simple reason, redundancy.
You see, ManageWP.com is a place where you can manage all of your WordPress websites from one dashboard. Plugin updates, theme updates, anything to manage your websites can happen in one interface. Beyond that though, and more importantly, this platform is now backing up my websites every single day.
My host already does this, so you may be wondering why I choose to get this service.
Simply put, it’s tough to trust ONE platform to manage your entire website portfolio safely. All it takes is one fire in a warehouse somewhere or an earthquake and then BAM, your entire server is gone and your business as well.
Most hosting providers have plans in place so that if this ever happens they can recover your website(s) and that’s great, but I feel much safer having a second provider backing them up….just in case. After all, if these servers got fried and the websites would be completely lost overnight which means everything I’ve worked for the last four years would be destroyed.
Plus, and something that’s very important, each website costs $1 per month so it’s hard not to be willing to “splurge” for that peace of mind.
One other thing which isn't technically part of my website, but is my wife's new website. She's working on a new project in the fashion/beauty industry over at HelloThalita.com. While it isn't my business, I'll definitely be guiding her in her strategy and (hopeful) success!
JFFH Update: There was a great 13% increase in traffic for the month of October and my earnings increased with it. For this website, things continue to steadily increase and it’s still my main income source. I’m really hoping that one day another website will overtake it’s earnings, but that wasn’t the case in October so I guess I’ll just have to wait.
Consulting Update: I had one consulting call this month and admittedly, thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s honestly less about the money at this point and more about talking to people who need the personal help. I love diving into people’s minds that are trying to make it online and discovering what they’ve tried and the issues they’re having. It’s a lot of fun for me and let’s me reflect on what I’ve been able to do and how hard it actually is.
Udemy Update: There was a solid increase in earnings here and while I have no idea why, I was happy to see it.
OHP Website Update: For now, no news here. My potential partner is still dealing with personal issues and also took on a new job, so I don’t know that the podcast will ever happen. If that’s the truth, I REALLY need to figure out what I can do with this website.
