Starting with this report I want to change a little bit the format. I’m trying to reach out more folks working on online businesses and doing similar things as I do, so I’ll try to add more\u00a0value for them. Every report will include a ‘Tool of the Month’ section, about\u00a0a software or service that I use and I’m satisfied with<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Let me say it straight: I hear everyday about new fantastic tools. I don’t even have time to try them all. Furthermore, it takes a while to figure out if a tool is really worth using it. The goal of this section is not<\/strong> to review new stuff, but rather to give earnest recommendations<\/strong> of\u00a0what I works well for me.<\/p>\n The report format will be:<\/p>\n OK this has been the longest introduction in a long time, let’s move to the report!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Last month I reap what I sow in June: the articles published picked up considerable organic\u00a0traffic.<\/p>\n This is an example, and the number of visitors is still growing in August:<\/p>\n Having say that, I also worked on new content and optimized the pages for conversion.<\/p>\n The result is a nice increase in the CTR (click-through-rate) of the page, meaning that more people are clicking in the affiliate links (that are the links that eventually bring in the cash!):<\/p>\n This compensate the\u00a0shitty<\/strong> news that my main keywords dropped down of several positions (from 6 to 9), meaning less traffic on the homepage.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Too many people having an online business spend\u00a0hours and days\u00a0<\/strong>after the technicality of their\u00a0WordPress site\u00a0instead of focusing on the business and marketing aspects.<\/p>\n Or worse, they risk their business<\/strong> running old versions of WordPress and plugins that can cause all sort of security issues. And when a problem happen, it’s too late to discover that the hosting doesn’t have a proper backup to go back.<\/p>\n I’ve seen these situations repeating over and over in the years and that’s why I built my maintenance & support service<\/strong> that takes the pain away\u00a0for a fixed monthly price. It’s a win-win situation because I get a steady income to run the service and the customer gets lots of value.<\/p>\n With WP-OK<\/strong>, I want to propose this service in the Italian market<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In May I prepared the landing page and started an AdWords campaign to attract potential customers. In July I saw some results, with two customers<\/strong>. Actually they didn’t sign up for the monthly service, but asked for a one-time help with specific issues.<\/p>\n In September I’ll have a marketing action to promote WP-OK in the Italian market… let’s see how it goes!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At the beginning of June Site5<\/a> told me that my account was using too many\u00a0resources, and they even called me to discuss the options. I was already thinking that was time to upgrade my sites to a VPS solution, so I gave them the OK to start the migration.<\/p>\n Well, the migration wasn’t as smooth as anticipated and I already reported last month about the struggles. Well, in July the struggles continued since I had too often errors on my pages.<\/p>\n At the end of the month I decided that I wasted\u00a0enough time on this, so I upgraded the service from VPS2 to VPS4. The VPS4 is a virtual server with\u00a0twice<\/strong> the power and capacity of the previous one (well, also twice the monthly price!) and after that change the problems are gone (knocking wood, it’s 2 weeks now).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Let’s get down with the numbers!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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<\/strong> to operate my websites.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The tool of the month is the fantastic\u00a0SEMrush<\/a>!<\/p>\n I’ve been using this tool from over a year and it’s great<\/strong>\u00a0for:<\/p>\n To better present this tool, surprise surprise<\/strong>, I recorded a 10 minutes video:<\/p>\n\n
What’s Going On<\/h2>\n
Update on QuadHangar<\/h3>\n
![\"QuadHangar](\"https:\/\/www.danielebesana.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/quadhangar-page.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"QuadHangar](\"https:\/\/www.danielebesana.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/quadhangar-july-cr.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFirst Earnings from WP-OK!<\/h3>\n
![\"WP-OK](\"https:\/\/www.danielebesana.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/wpok-logo.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/a>In May\u00a0I secretly started testing a new idea: WP-OK<\/a>. WP-OK is a way to market the WordPress maintenance and support service that I’m already<\/strong> providing to my freelance customers.<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
Hosting mishap: Site5 VPS4<\/h3>\n
The Numbers<\/h2>\n
Income Breakdown<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Total Gross: \u20ac\u00a02,208.92 (last month \u20ac 2,642.82)<\/span><\/h4>\n
Expenses Breakdown<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Total\u00a0Expenses: \u20ac 496.03 (was \u20ac536.49)<\/span><\/h4>\n
Net Total July\u00a02015: \u20ac 1,712.89 (last month 2,106.33)<\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/h3>\nTool of the Month<\/h2>\n
\n