Disclosure: OneHourProfessor is reader-supported. When you buy through links on my site, I may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

May was the bounce back month that I was hoping for and, needless to say, it was refreshing to see things end up the way they did.  No, my online business isn’t where it was pre-pandemic, but it’s doing significantly better than last month and I anticipate additional growth in June. 

While none of my websites really knocked it out of the park in May, but most of them are showing signs of increasing website traffic and earnings. 

Notice I said “most”.  That’s because my two primarily Amazon affiliate websites are down in both traffic and earnings compared to all others.  It’s kind of crazy really.  First, we had a pandemic, then Amazon reduced commissions, then Google had an algorithm update and these two websites got hit.  That said, my display ad websites are still doing fine and continue to grow. 

I’ve also put a significant focus on the OneHourProfessor website and YouTube channel as I continue to try to grow my personal brand.  More on that in the report.

***The income numbers for February-June of 2020 are not accurate due to an "invalid click" issue I had with Google Adsense.  Revising the entire report is not realistic, so you can see the actual income numbers updated here***

You can watch the YouTube Video Here:

Personal Life Update

  • My nephew visited us near the end of the month and is staying for a couple weeks.  Good to have a change of pace and hang out with him a little bit.
  • Still not impacted by COVID-19.  My wife and I are planning a trip to Puerto Rico from July 1st to July 7th to take a little vacation.  It’s been awhile, but we’re very excited to relax.
  • All house projects are done for now.  We’re still considering a move to Puerto Rico so we’re hesitant to invest in additional housing project. 

That’s all for the personal update.

If you’re looking to create your own blog/online business and want to get started quickly, I created a guide to make it super easy.  Click right here to begin.

Before I begin the actual report, If you’d like to begin a similar journey as myself and try to create a passive income online business, I recommend you read this write-up I did.

It explains the truth about online business and should help educate you before you move forward with anything.

If this is your first time on my website let me explain a few things about my detailed income reports each month that outlines the money I made (or lost) each month.

I’m doing this for a number of reasons:

1) I strive to be transparent about what it takes to make money online.

2) These reports help me keep track of my own progress.

3) These reports hold me accountable.

Keep in mind, I don’t create these to gloat about my earnings. I create them to help you understand the true “earning curve” of online business.

On a side note, I don’t disclose my actual website URL’s on my reports because I’ve had bad experiences with copycats in the past. 

So, in my income reports, you’ll see website generalizations like Website 1, Website 3, Website 5 Website 4, etc.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s dive into the report.

How did the Income Report Turn Out This Month?

PRODUCT OR SERVICEREVENUEEXPENSESNET INCOME
Thrive Themes$114.00$114.00
OHP Course Sales$147.00$147.00
Consulting$2000.00$2000.00
Partners and Affiliates Revenue
Website 2 Partners and Affiliates$0$0
Website 8 Partners and Affiliates$5.78$5.78
Website 5 Partners and Affiliates$15.99$15.99
Website 6 Partners and Affiliates$28.50$28.50
Website 3 Partners and Affiliates$96.38$96.38
Website 4 Partners and Affiliates$180.60$180.60
OHP Partners and Affiliates$315.57$315.57
Website 1 Partners and Affiliates$3,651.91$3,651.91
YouTube Revenue
YT Channel - Website 8 Compliment$4.70$4.70
OHP YT Channel$484.61$484.61
Media.net
Website 4 Media.net Ad Revenue$0.67$0.67
Website 3 Media.net Ad Revenue$23.18$23.18
Website 1 Media.net Ad Revenue$59.07$59.07
Ezoic Revenue
Website 4 Ezoic Revenue$9.23$9.23
Website 5 Ezoic Revenue$19.12$19.12
Website 7 Ezoic Revenue$177.08$177.08
Google Adsense Revenue
OHP Adsense Revenue$0.82$0.82
Website 6 Adsense Revenue$2.45$2.45
Website 9 Adsense Revenue$5.83$5.83
Website 2 Adsense Revenue$11.89$11.89
Website 4 Adsense Revenue$108.00$108.00
Website 7 Adsense Revenue$206.25$206.25
Website 5 Adsense Revenue$372.75$372.75
Website 3 Adsense Revenue$1,508.83$1,508.83
Website 1 Adsense Revenue$10,416.27$10,416.27
Software Expenses
Adobe Photoshop Account$10.61-$10.61
Manage WP$15.30-$15.30
Tailwind Pinterest Marketing App$29.98-$29.98
Epidemic Sound$30.00-$30.00
Namecheap$33.96-$33.96
Deadline Funnel$37.00-$37.00
Google Business Drive Storage and Apps$48.12-$48.12
Upwork Premium Employer Plan$49.00-$49.00
Vid IQ YouTube Software$49.00-$49.00
Intuit Quick Books$85.00-$85.00
Shutterstock Monthly Subscription$125.00-$125.00
Thrive Themes Renewal$147.00$147.00
Siteground Hosting$169.50-$169.50
Ahrefs SEO Software$179.00-$179.00
Active Campaign$225.00-$225.00
Kinsta Hosting$300.00-$300.00
Advertising Expenses
Google/Facebook Ads$30.57-$30.57
Software and Courses Misc.$506.94-$506.94
Freelance Labor Expenses
Freelance Research, Editing, Video Production, and Misc. Labor$1,817.17
-$1,817.17
Freelance Writing$3,092.31
-$3,092.31
TOTALS$20,226.66
$6,980.46$13,246.20
Revenue By ChannelWebsite 1Website 3OHP WebsiteWebsite 4Website 2Website 5Website 6Website 7Website 8Website 9ConsultingUdemyYouTube
May 2020$14,388.25 $1,628.39 $576.57 $298.50 $11.89 $407.86 $30.95 $383.33 $5.78 $5.83 $2,000.00$0.00$489.31
April 2020$9,868.73$1,268.24$311.09$628.28$24.59$499.28$21.63$488.53$4.80$1.16$2,000.00$0.00$723.35
March 2020$15,729.25$1,244.49$401.28$629.15$20.26$599.43$24.68$482.14$61.30$2.37$2,000.00$0.00$324.14
February 2020$22,548.73$2,139.96$261.22$435.32$36.03$543.09$49.32$467.75$0$3.05$2,000.00$0.00$340.49
January 2020$20,512.80$2,646.41$1,334.33$1045.23$12.35$541.68$9.13$382.79$0$2.35$3,240.00$0.00$264.30
December 2019$19,383.27
$2,026.21
$934.81
$1,864.92
$9.36
$694.61
$78.56
$304.53
$2,575.00
$17.69
$202.66
November 2019$21,920.53 $2,173.90 $602.88$1,338.93 $15.77 $617.31 $182.80
$196.02
$0$21.59 $358.91
October 2019$23,620.75$2,546.04$1,073.56$711.71$72.89$230.27$84.62$58.41$300.00$30.00$202.14
September 2019$21,006.31 $2,627.86 $335.35 $585.93 $14.72 $170.04 $50.33 $17.80 $0$35.00 $177.05
August 2019$17,817.28 $2,590.92 $414.58 $553.82 $23.67 $133.92 $97.26
$2.57
$275.00
$40.00
$156.00
July 2019$16,855.42$3,652.24$427.66$574.78$17.16$74.26$76.00$2.10$0$35$130.26
June 2019$15,402.28$5,561.07$709.07$562.63$30.74$46.29$100.19$0$0$141.46
May 2019$17,578.97 $4,900.70 $1,062.34 $749.14 $22.25 $61.17 $35.71$0
$0$116.02
April 2019$16,273.68$4,078.83$239.73$700.42$9.53$46.05$0$0$76.86
March 2019$17,006.79$3,620.30 $439.88$931.22 $19.98$152.99 $0$20.24$76.24
February 2019$15,656.00$2,799.98$551.53$647.94$15.68$291.72$0$28.75$65.63
January 2019$16,483.03 $3,280.64 $469.30$1,009.83$10.41$401.91$600.00$45.75$76.52
December 2018$11,776.03$2,488.53$483.96$2,078.19$20.16$487.37$0$98.43$73.60
November 2018$12,886.78$2,324.75$657.86$789.26$10.67$386.31$0$205.87$79.91
October 2018$13,246.69$3,135.04
$369.22$747.29$15.46$306.89$150$93.27$83.86
September 2018$11,784.71$3,853.20$321.67$628.97$0.00$210.72$175$14.94$82.99
August 2018$11,556.29$3,266.47$512.72$980.89$5.31$39.81$0$97.18$93.63
July 2018$12,864.08$4,991.15$722.76$707.66$8.05$26.84$0$91.48$84.33
June 2018$11138.00$6,858.01$432.01$797.02$11.06$52.42$0$50.92$95.96
May 2018$9152.94$4,288.26$391.63$699.19$6.96$40.23$0$44.40$100.82
April 2018$9637.30$2,028.65$545.01$804.71$11.74$236.23$0$24.90$85.48
March 2018$14236.64$778.01$380.29$1362.83$13.78$224.68$0$80.61$94.79
February 2018$10918.94$382.03 $644.36 $838.51 $22.27 $454.08 $0$23.90$86.86
January 2018$7993.31
$467.71
$757.59
$718.04
$14.26
$486.99
$0$113.95
$67.06
December 2017$6707.43$432.22$785.74$555.72$28.50$114.05$0$59.21$96.12
November 2017$7545.13$574.91$480.41$479.34$17.70$4.31$0$187.01$90.40
October 2017$6859.17$617.67$265.38$319.02$13.06$0$135.59$66.71
September 2017$6781.51$348.16$673.87$223.95$11.31$0$81.39$58.13
August 2017$7429.92$391.68$945.04$181.93$16.36$0$133.91$63.57
July 2017$5658.64$344.91$1055.57$85.84$58.55$1,496.38$41.80$94.84
June 2017$5924.41$423.04$403.84$31.71$11.87$600.00$148.88$79.81
May 2017$6805.18$214.18$79.00$9.67$8.71$51.50$76.08$82.58
April 2017$8175.11$116.65$106.71$3.57$0$80.25$57.76
March 2017$9527.42$224.16$355.12$6.43$0$137.29$59.11
February 2017$3726.98$160.48$438.54$32.99$125$165.43$52.40
January 2017$4005.52$104.19$267.33$0$222.20$41.60
December 2016$3553.43$52.63$384.57$125.00$138.07$41.32
November 2016$3778.45$22.10$357.77$125.00$259.26$48.13
October 2016$3841.36$1.37$213.88$126.00$238.90$48.92
September 2016$3102.56$402.32$112.01$271.02$57.14
August 2016$3318.70$44.72$731.05$423.49$55.08
July 2016$3353.06$347.47$135.19$186.34$52.12
June 2016$3219.41$132.77$330.00$397.55$72.22
May 2016$4677.02$253.67$206.25$135.25$75.89
April 2016$5008.23$286.38$497.50$353.02$62.52
March 2016$2311.67$265.29$556.75$301.06$60.14
February 2016$2760.21$250.70$431.25$324.58$62.00
January 2016$233.00$117.58$1140.00$400.97$46.19
December 2015$121.30$76.00$1163.75$17.15$38.83
November 2015$138.11$39.00$1150.25$245.68$36.78
October 2015$107.72$89.54$760.50$49.50$40.65
September 2015$102.95$113.10$1112.32$17.49$27.46
August 2015$39.68$51.75$1463.75$12.05$25.09

Project Updates

Website 1 Update

  • Earnings increased 45% MoM, traffic only increased 3%.  Strange to see those numbers, but hopefully this is a new EPM for with this website.  I’m hoping that traffic continues piling back into the website and the EPM remains the same.  Only time will tell.
  • PLAN: Continue revising content to make the content better.  Three articles a week. 

Graph of the last 13 months of progress:

Month

Pageviews

Referring Domains

Total Earnings

May-20

176,089

643

$14,388.25

Apr-20

170,513

663

$9,868.73

Mar-20

227,545

752

$15,729.25

Feb-20

435,145

781

$22,548.73

Jan-20

320,773

759

$20,512.80

Dec-19

246,409

746

$19,383.27

Nov-19

269,639

718

$21,920.53

Oct-19

323,681

669

$23,620.75

Sep-19

309,050

651

$21,006.31

Aug-19

296,076

659

$17,817.28

Jul-19

302,646

623

$16,855.42

Jun-19

270,447

602

$15,402.28

May-19

296,686

594

$17,578.97

Apr-19

270,983

638

$16,273.68

Udemy Update

I don’t focus on Udemy any longer. They sell my courses for too cheap.

OHP Website Update

  • Big changes on the OneHourProfessor website this month.
  • Added 30 blog articles. All transcribed/edited version of the YouTube videos.
    • These are very-well edited and read like blog posts.
    • The idea is that the website continues growing in the Google search engine while the YouTube videos grow on the YouTube platform.
  • One course sale for month. I’m not going to focus on courses until 10,000 subscribers. 
  • Have begun focusing on guest posting for the OneHourProfessor website
    • Focused exclusively on high GA websites
    • Secured 8 guest posts with an average DA of 75
    • Still need to write them, but focused on providing amazing content in an effort to get residual link juice from others people linking to these platforms.

Website 3 Update

  • Website has no new content published and no revisions underway.
  • PLAN: Going to review when things are over to see if I can find more topics to have written. Not doing this now as capital is being used elsewhere. 

Graph of the last 13 months of progress:

Month

Pageviews

Referring Domains

Total Earnings

May-20

166903

462

$1,628.39

Apr-20

123512

481

$1,268.24

Mar-20

136593

576

$1,244.49

Feb-20

144411

575

$2,139.96

Jan-20

184147

571

$2,646.41

Dec-19

125286

556

$2,026.21

Nov-19

125330

535

$2,173.90

Oct-19

138041

494

$2,546.04

Sep-19

143883

417

$2,627.86

Aug-19

152799

424

$2,590.92

Jul-19

191629

432

$3,652.24

Jun-19

256176

427

$5,561.07

May-19

257171

421

$4,900.70

Apr-19

194433

482

$4,078.83



Website 4 Update

  • Website was hit by Amazon associate commission reduction
  • Website was ALSO hit by Google algo update
  • PLAN: Nothing for now, need to focus on bigger projects.

Graph of the last 13 months of progress:

Month

Pageviews

Referring Domains

Total Earnings

May-20

39,582

235

$298.50

Apr-20

65,070

246

$628.28

Mar-20

42,865

302

$629.15

Feb-20

39,358

304

$435.32

Jan-20

45,034

316

$1,045.23

Dec-19

39,787

311

$1,864.92

Nov-19

45,328

305

$1,338.93

Oct-19

54243

273

$711.71

Sep-19

52337

248

$585.93

Aug-19

52905

244

$553.82

Jul-19

50016

266

$574.78

Jun-19

47102

269

$562.63

May-19

51419

260

$749.14

Apr-19

51688

286

$700.42



Website 5 Update

  • Website was hit by Amazon associate commission reduction
  • Website was ALSO hit by Google algo update
  • PLAN: Nothing for now, need to focus on bigger projects.

Graph of the last 13 months of progress:

Month

Pageviews

Referring Domains

Total Earnings

May-20

75237

391

$407.86

Apr-20

94605

388

$499.28

Mar-20

58922

428

$599.43

Feb-20

63597

412

$543.09

Jan-20

70411

412

$541.68

Dec-19

72621

416

$694.61

Nov-19

61908

412

$617.31

Oct-19

51442

379

$230.27

Sep-19

41366

357

$170.04

Aug-19

31226

350

$133.92

Jul-19

4171

328

$74.26

Jun-19

5443

311

$46.29

May-19

6847

318

$61.17

Apr-19

14922

346

$46.05



Website 6 Update

  • Earnings increase MoM of 43%
  • Traffic increased 18% MoM.
  • How Much Have I Invested in This Website: $5,718
  • How Much Money Has This Website Made? $816
  • Total ROI: -$4,902
  • How Much Content is on the Website? Keep in mind this website is mostly focused on affiliate content with some informational content.
    • 222 Blog posts
  • PLAN: Production has been paused.  This website is sitting and I’ll let it sit until I decide the right move.

Below is a summary of the website so far:

Month

Pageviews

Referring Domains

Total Earnings

May-20

4557

173

$30.95

Apr-20

3841

187

$21.63

Mar-20

5278

269

$24.68

Feb-20

6244

275

$49.32

Jan-20

7884

272

$9.13

Dec-19

7287

257

$78.56

Nov-19

7681

235

$182.80

Oct-19

5184

191

$84.62

Sep-19

4915

148

$50.33

Aug-19

4591

136

$97.26

Jul-19

6432

92

$76.00

Jun-19

7914

87

$100.19

May-19

5989

73

$35.71

Website 7 Update

  • MoM traffic dropped 12% and earnings dropped 22%. I think this is due to pandemic, will see how things go in June.
  • Ezoic earnings were underwhelming at first but are climbing after 30 days.
    • Makes sense, the system uses AI to figure out best ad placements and needs time to test layouts.
  • How Much Have I Invested in This Website: $20,687
  • How Much Money Has This Website Made? $2,302
  • Total ROI: $-18,385
  • How Much Content is on the Website: Keep in mind that this is an informational type of website, not affiliate related at all.
    • 865 Informational pages on the website
    • 87 Informational Blog Posts
  • PLAN
    • Continue to invest in content.
    • Earnings dropped but so many things are uncertain right now. Going to just let things continue. 
    • Contemplating another link building campaign in an effort to increase DA of the website.
    • Continue to let Ezoic run through June and report back on earnings. Towards the end of the month, Ezoic was beating Adsense.

Below is a summary of the website so far:

Month

Pageviews

Referring Domains

Total Earnings

May-20

38358

113

$383.33

Apr-20

43953

105

$488.53

Mar-20

28642

125

$482.14

Feb-20

36935

122

$467.75

Jan-20

33069

114

$382.79

Dec-19

23112

109

$304.53

Nov-19

18308

97

$196.02

Oct-19

9118

67

$58.41

Sep-19

5185

46

$17.80

Aug-19

3163

40

$2.57

Jul-19

2464

22

$2.10

Jun-19

1618

10

$0.00

May-19

2393

7

$0.00

Apr-19

2045

2

$0.00



Website 8 Update 

  • This website is focus for the rest of 2020.
  • Website starting to see some Google SEO traffic, has a very high ceiling.
  • Original idea was to focus on Amazon associates, now looking into pairing that with other large industry websites for affiliate income.
  • Website was built with multiple income streams in mind, so there are a lot of possibilities.
  • Will be focused on a link building campaign after developer finalizes some edits on the website. Link building tactic sounds amazing in theory, we will see how well it executes.
  • How Much Have I Invested in This Website: $2,077
  • How Much Money Has This Website Made? $72
  • Total ROI: -$2,005
  • How Much Content is on the Website? Keep in mind this website is mostly focused on affiliate content with some informational content. 
    • 78 Informational Blog Posts
  • PLAN: Continue content production of 5 articles a week.  Work hard on link building to increase website authority.

Month

Pageviews

Referring Domains

Total Earnings

May-20

1535

17

$5.78

Apr-20

1951

5

$5.33

Mar-20

1187

1

$61.30

Feb-20

398

1

$0.00

Jan-20

514

1

$0.00

Dec-19

528

1

$0.00

Nov-19

2

0

$0.00

Oct-19

0

0

$0.00



Website 8 Complimentary YouTube Channel

  • Pivoted wife’s old channel to be this instead. General topic, lots of reach potential.  Still losing subs, but we pivoted so this will continue for some time.
  • Two types of videos for this channel. One is a voiceover-type video and the other is a compilation.  We are ranking for a lot of videos that we post, so there is some serious potential with this one over time.
  • How Much Did We Invest in This YouTube Channel: $0
  • How Much Money Has This YouTube Channel Made? $9.58
  • Total ROI: $1.94
  • PLAN: Continue publishing videos of various types.

Month

Views

Monthly Subscribers

Earnings

May-20

795

-92

$4.34

Apr-20

7,479

-72

$4.70

Mar-20

558

-121

$0.54



OneHourProfessor YouTube Channel

  • Very good month for the channel. YouTube adsense earnings increase by about 8% but there was no sponsorship this month.  There was an opportunity for one but I turned it down as it didn’t match my audience as well as I had hoped.
  • How Much Have I Invested in This YouTube Channel: $1,620
  • How Much Money Has This YouTube Channel Made? $2,568
  • Total ROI: $948
  • How Much Content is on the YouTube Channel?
    • 117 Videos
  • Subscriber Updates
    • Subs this month: 523
    • Total Subscribers: 7,233

Below are the metrics of the YouTube channel so far:

Month

Views

Total Subscribers

Earnings

May-20

21,526

523

$475.67

Apr-20

18,111

415

$722.82

Mar-20

16,663

257

$322.79

Feb-20

15,838

261

$343.06

Jan-20

15,625

419

$235.19

Dec-19

12,164

162

$165.18

Nov-19

11,104

129

$154.62

Oct-19

10,897

148

$149.41



DM YouTube Channel

  • Channel continues to grow. One video has gone viral in Brazil and continues bringing in new subscribers and views. 
  • Still too early to monetize, but should be able to by the end of this month.
  • How Much Have I Invested in This YouTube Channel: $0 (Thalita is editing all videos)
  • How Much Money Has This YouTube Channel Made? $0
  • Total ROI: $0 (Still no ROI because it can’t be moetized…yet)
  • How Much Content is on the YouTube Channel?
    • 54 Videos
  • Subscriber Updates
    • Subs this month: 219
    • Total Subscribers: 366

Below are the metrics of the YouTube channel so far:

Month

Views

Total Subscribers

Earnings

May-19

22,684

219

$0.00

Apr-19

10,831

65

$0.00

Mar-20

859

14

$0.00

Feb-20

339

23

$0.00

Jan-20

218

18

$0.00



Lessons Learned

Every month, I’m going to reflect back and tell you a few different lessons that I’ve learned. My hope is that the lessons each month will be a cautionary tale for you that makes it so that you don’t make the dumb mistakes that I do along the way.

  1. Economy is starting to come back
  2. Personal branding can be fun and you can get killer backlinks
  3. YouTube can be a super passive business model.
  4. Managing a team can be hard, different markup tools are helping me collaborate better.

Did I Meet my Goals for May?

Website 8 Custom Programming Project:  FAIL.  We are almost done with this but still have a few tweaks needed.  Waiting on developer response. 

Website 8 Train Writers Better and Hire Editor:  FAIL.  Writers have been trained well, but the editor has yet to be hired.

Website 8 YT Channel:  SUCCESS.  My wife is handling this and it’s showing promising results.

What Are my Goals for June?

Website 8 Custom Programming Project:  Complete this in the next month and launch it. 

Website 8 Hire Editor:  I have someone helping with the content on the OneHourProfessor website and I’m confident she will be good to help me on website 8 as well with editing.  She’s going to focus on adjusting OHP videos and be the editor here as well. 

Website 8 Link Building:  My wife and I have a campaign we are going to run to 100 total contacts.  It is our hope to get 5-10 backlinks from this. 

More Guest Posts for OneHourProfessor:  I’m working really hard to start building this brand and a huge part of that is link building.  I have an editor to help finalize this content, but I’m putting my writing hat back on to make sure brands get my absolute best effort.  Definitely time intensive, but worth it. 

What are your goals for the month?  What questions do you have?  Let me know in the comments below!

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}
>