Happy new 2016!
The slogan for this year is: enjoy your lifestyle, whatever you choose to do everyday. I realized that my location independent lifestyle isn’t any better that any other. It just works for me. And would be silly trying to convince others doing the same. So I wish you to have a lifestyle that works for you, and enjoy the ride.
After the Xmas time in Italy, I’m now in Amsterdam planning my next moves and… working hard.
What’s Going On
Automation Tools
I worked to improve the way I work. There were some very inefficient areas I wanted to fix.
Invoicing
The first one to tackle was how I manage the invoicing. I used to do everything manually using Google Drive. That took me a couple of hours a month, and it’s not just the time. It was the constant thinking about the invoicing that bothered me.
So I went online shopping for a good solution.
I opted for Q-Invoice, reasons being:
- It’s Dutch company, so the product is made thinking about the Dutch tax system and I oblige;
- They have an English version, even if their .com site is half-translated;
- They integrate with WordPress Woocommerce!! VERY USEFUL for my WP-OK service: when a customer buys online I have the invoice automatically sent and recorded my administration;
- It supports recurring invoices, so I don’t have to copy-paste-adjust-download-attach-email them every month;
- Good support: in a call I could speak directly to a developer. It’s a small company and I like that;
- Reasonable priced at 9.5€/month.
Disadvantages:
- There’s no mobile App to scan the receipts.
- The interface is a bit old-style, sometime not super-intuitive.
Scheduling Appointments
While I luckily don’t have to manage a lot of appointments, I (finally?) started using a tool that greatly simplifies scheduling them.
If someone asks for an appointment, or if I want an appointment with someone, I just ask him/her to book an available slot here.
Youcanbook.me is a simple tool, free in its basic version, that provides a calendar with bookable time slots. I synced it with Google Calendar, so that it knows when I’m available or not.
Instead of sending emails back-and-forward to find the right date & time, I just send the link and I let the other person to the work.
Feel free to book a skype call if you like: book me 😉
The Numbers
Income Breakdown
Let’s get down with the numbers!
- Advertising
- Adsense: €425.98 (was €491.40)
- Feedblitz: €3.35 (was €4.75) – the ‘trick’ I use to monetize newsletters is almost over!
- Direct Ads: €108.04 (was €111.75) – directly negotiated advertising campaigns
- Sponsored posts: €1465 (was 0) – great month for sponsored reviews
- BuySellAds: 0 (was €4.62)
- Job Board Services
- Job posting: 0 (was 0) – Premium job posting on AidBoard
- Affiliate Programs
- Lead generation: 0
- Product affiliation: €113.42 (was €192.53) – Clickbank, SEMrush, DPD and others affiliate programs
- Amazon program: €1181.36 (was €570.37) – best month thanks to Xmas shopping!
- Sales:
- ComoHacer ebook: €32.96 (was €33.08) – slowly but steady, this eBook is contributing as passive income
- RouterFreak eBook: €83.32 (was €43.64)
- WP Tube theme: €214.26 (was €107.50) – my WordPress theme, running on auto-pilot
- Website sale: 0 – Nothing to sell at the moment!
- WP-OK services: €311 (was €217) – my WordPress management service for Italian market
Total Gross: € 3,938.69 (previous month 1,776.64)
Expenses Breakdown
Note: some links to products and services may have affiliation. This means that if you’ll buy I’ll get a commission. Never the less, I’m only mentioning services that I use myself to operate my websites.
- Hosting
- Site5: €126.59
- This is the hosting I’m using and happy with. I recently switched to a VPS4 solution. They have servers in Amsterdam too, perfect for my websites with European audience.
- HostGator: €18
- This is a popular cheap hosting provider with servers in US. I still use it for some websites with majority of traffic from Americas, but their support is getting worse and worse!
- Site5: €126.59
- Mailing List services
- Outsourcing
- Articles: €36.99 (was €37.56)
- Partnerships: €153.97 (was €189,20) – sharing of profits when I operate with a partner
- Memberships
- The Dynamite Circle: 0 – great community of online entrepreneurs, already paid this quarter
- SEMrush: €29.5 (was €59) – PRO membership of this excellent tool to analyze search engine results and competition
- Ahrefs: €18.68 – This is a great tool for backlink analysis
- Boomerang for Gmail: €13.47 – Excellent tool for email management
- Website acquisition: 0
- Domain renewal: €27.26 (was 0) – expenses related to domains registered at Godaddy
- Advertising
- Adwords: €2.24 (was €18.85)
- Facebook Ads: €183.67 (was 0) – I run a remarketing ad for the drone site
Total Expenses: € 680.57 (was 586.98)
Net Total November 2015: € 3,258.12 (last month € 1,189.66)
Conclusion
December was the best month ever for my online businesses!!
In May 2015 I started my first mastermind with some guys from the DC Community, and we had to set goals for the end of the year. This was mine:
Hit €3000/month net profit from my websites.
And here I am, hitting my first above-3K month right on the last chance of 2015 🙂
Of course… there are a few of courses.
Of course Christmas time helped a lot, with the drone site generating twice as much affiliate income than normal.
Of course I got the biggest sponsored review to date.
Of course I’ll have to share some profits in January with my partner, and that will be based on December numbers.
But they aren’t good excuses not to celebrate the 3K mark!
As usual, I hope to read a comment or two here below.
I am considering adding Sponsored posts as a standard advertising option for new sites built, because as you reach 100+ articles on an authority website, advertisers show some interest in their product or shop being reviewed or mentioned.
Hi Samm,
Thanks for the comment!
I think is a great thing to have and also a media kit to explain potential advertisers about the audience and potential reach.
Cheers
Hi Daniele!
Thanks for sharing your income reports, they are very interesting!
The Income is for all your sites together, right? Is there anywhere a full list of them? PageView numbers would also be interesting btw. 😉
Best wishes from Austria,
Christoph
Hey Christoph,
Interesting niche site you have there! 🙂
Thanks for your comment.
The income is from all my sites together, yes.
I’m providing a list of the sites/projects I’m working on in the next income report that I’m writing right now… stay tuned 🙂
Greetings to Austria!