Here it is, finally! My shockingly late income and expenditure report. Apologies all, but the cruise was totally worth it (more on that on Friday – I’ve got quite the treat for you ;)).
At the beginning of November I said that I would be setting my date for leaving work behind. Well, that has been done. It is now just a few short days until I officially quit my job and take the somewhat terrifying leap into self-employment. I also hoped that my role at WPMU would continue to grow, and I felt somewhat optimistic about the growth of my three niche/authority sites. So how did it all go?
Freelance Writing
It’s been another good month on this front. Without much effort, I managed to score myself another client – ManageWP. These guys are great to work with – not only because they are easy-going and friendly people, but because they have a product that is just so damned good. It’s no challenge to promote this product. Seriously – if you have more than one WordPress site, you owe it to yourself to check the tool out. And no, I have not been paid for saying that. 😉
My recent holiday has been somewhat disruptive to my article writing, but I am happy with how my role is developing at WPMU. The guys and girls over there are an awesome bunch, and we’re really heading in the right direction in terms of growth plans. Whilst it is all well and good writing for a client, it is made all the more fun if you are actually working towards going somewhere.
Niche/Authority Sites
Progress hasn’t been quite as positive as I was hoping for on this front, but as is always the case when it comes to climbing the ranks in Google, persistence is the name of the game.
My new child modeling site is up and running and I have started to build links to it. Nothing major at this point, as my link-building efforts on all fronts has been somewhat stunted (due to my holiday), and that is reflected by no exciting rank placements at the moment.
Deal With Anxiety is progressing quite nicely, with some rankings approaching the top 10. Again, link building has been a bit sporadic.
Finally, my JV with Joseph Archibald seems to have stalled a bit. I know I haven’t been putting as much work into it as I could be. To be entirely honest, I’m not sure where the project is going – that will be a matter for me and Joseph to decide upon in the near future.
As always, I will have more comprehensive updates on the above sites, as and when they are warranted.
Income & Expenditure – November 2011
As you can see, there is still nothing in terms of Google AdSense income from my niche sites. To be perfectly honest with you, I doubt that this will change in December, as we are already half way through the month, and I have another holiday coming up just before Christmas (lucky me – I know!).
The writing income has continued to grow as I have established myself into a regular routine at WPMU. Although I did work billable hours for ManageWP in November, the invoice wasn’t sent out until December, so the income won’t show up until next month.
Article Roundup
November was definitely a month of major decisions, and my posts reflected that. If you are stepping closer and closer to taking the leap and quitting your job, you should definitely read How To Quit Your Job and Why You Can Quit Your Job Today. They might give you a different perspective on your position.
If you’re interested in generating income in the short term, you could do an awful lot worse than freelancing. Check out my tips for getting started in freelance writing, and How To Make Money Online Now (legitimately, I may add).
Finally, if you want to know the true value of your blog’s visitors, check this article out.
What’s In Store For December?
This month is definitely a case of the calm before the storm. I only got back from holiday yesterday (the 12th) and I am off again on holiday on the 23rd. That leaves very little time for me to make my mark on this month! It is when I am back from holiday on January 11th and raring to go that things will really start to happen.
So December will be very low key. My freelancing income will tick over, and I hope that my niche site rankings will perhaps grow modestly. I will also be on the lookout for new writing clients, although finding people who want to take someone on from mid-January may be tough. I may have to wait until I am ready to work before I can source additional clients. We shall see!
Creative Commons image courtesy of JD Hancock
Progress is the great key to life my friend, and it appears you’re making it happen.
Keep it up brother!
Marcus
Thanks Marcus – I really appreciate you stopping by and giving me encouragement! 🙂
Seeing the steady progression that you are going through is really encouraging. Keep up the good work :-). I’ve recently started as well and I am determined to leave work behind.
Determination is one of the most important things you need, so if you have that, you’re already half way there. I really do believe that.
This is good stuff, Tom! Looking forward to watching your progress in the coming months!
Cheers Jeff! The next few months should make for interesting posts 😉
Tom,
Great to see your online income increasing through your efforts. Good work.
Regarding your Anxiety niche site, what back-linking strategy have you been using?
I’ve been using Article Samurai (http://www.articlesamurai.com/) from the Noble guys and have seen good results for a niche site of mine and also for a local SEO client’s site (#3 and #1 listings respectively)
Looking forward to seeing your progress during 2012.
Cheers,
Adrian (WrightyMo)
Hey Adrian, how are you doing?
I have exclusively been using BMR, but that may be changing soon (more on that in a post soon). I don’t know a great deal about Article Samurai. I did read a post recently that ranked the three services in this order:
1. BMR
2. Unique Article Wizard
3. Article Samurai
If you’re seeing good results, then you should definitely stick with what is working for you! Having said that, I would recommend BMR.
Cheers,
Tom
Doing fine thanks…trying to find enough time to devote to my online efforts in between the day job 🙂
I can see 2012 being my make or break year online and I’ll checking in here regularly to read on your progress.
Adrian
Glad to hear it! It’s always good to put a bit of pressure on yourself…if 2012 is to be your “make or break” year, make sure you have some goals set for the first quarter!
This is inspiring. Thanks Tom!
I have the exact same goal in ,mind, and will persist until I see it through.
Congrats on your plan for 2012 and thank you for inspiring me!
No problem Martin – it’s great to share this journey with you since you on the same wavelength as me. Be sure to keep me updated on your progress!
It’s really inspiring to see you moving towards your goal 🙂 I am pumped up and taking action 🙂 Hope to reach there in some time.. Congrats and Happy Holidays 🙂
If you take action long enough, you will make progress, no doubt. Happy holidays to you too!
Glad to hear you are quitting your job.
I’ve done that twice with the plan of earning from the internet. First time didn’t work but I’m hoping the second time will be more permanent!
What backlinking are you doing? Are you listing it as an expenditure?
Hi Joe,
I am using BMR but I had a free month (long story), which is why it didn’t show up in the expenditure column.
I am actually testing out a couple of services over the next 2-3 months – more news on that soon!
Cheers,
Tom
That is amazing that you’ve taken the plunge! And it’s also great to see that you’ve made quite an inroads into building up your income from the previous income reports. It looks like you’re on the way to living the dream. If you can get your AdSense/Affiliate income up then happy days.
Couldn’t agree more Adem – a bit of passive income to supplement the freelance work is something I am really keen on building. Time (or lack thereof) is the issue at the moment – roll on January!
I wish you best of luck! Keep up the positive attitude and things will work out!
Thanks Adi – awesome of you to stop by and give me encouragement! 🙂
Loving this Tom, as you know I’m more into the full fledged blog project over niche sites, but I’ve just started another niche site because I’m loving the way you lay things out here.
As always, wishing you the best on these projects bud.
Thanks Greg, I really appreciate that! There’s plenty more to come 🙂
Tom
Your enthusiasm is sky high and your technique and tone is superb.
My only doubt about all this is were the money is coming in. Lets face it, £400 a month does not pay the bills, it hardly touches them in most cases.
I would love to have seen more effort from your adsense blogs to see what you could have come up with. I presume you have stopped your backlinks as you no longer pay for it.
It was interesting why it lasted. Thanks
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for your kind words. 🙂
I’ve obviously not made my intentions clear enough yet, for which I apologize. However, I certainly will be doing so at the start of January when I publish my detailed plans for the first quarter of 2012.
You’re absolutely right about £400 not paying the bills, but my earnings in December have been considerably higher, and you must remember this is all whilst I still have a full time job. I’m confident that I will be able to achieve a great deal more with an extra 8 working hours per day.
I am still actively working on two niche sites (check out the niche sites resources page for more on those). I don’t need to pay for backlinks at the moment as I was kindly offered free subscriptions from two private blog networks. I will be expanding my niche site project exponentially in the new year (more on that in the aforementioned post!).
It’ll get more interesting, I promise 😉
Cheers,
Tom
Tom
Nice to hear more will be coming next year. Looking forward to that.
Merry Xmas
Kevin