Blogging Summary – My Year in Review

This is about the time I typically post my monthly earnings from the past month, instead I include a quick summary of my earnings from December along with a full summary of how blogging panned out for me in 2015. I also want to take a moment to discuss my intentions and expectations for the coming year!

In short, December was my best month ever! This was actually quite unexpected since I just came off a record setting November that I thought I would never get anywhere close to again. I ended up netting roughly $27,000 in income for the month of December alone! I’m not sure that this income is sustainable every month going forward as some of my newer and larger clients are in the retail industry and were ramping up SEO services for the holiday season. Regardless, I have built some new relationships with some very prominent companies and I think I will continue to benefit from that in the coming months.

2015 overall was my best year blogging. I actually thought this would be the first time I would have a decline in year-over-year earnings, and instead it increased significantly. My annual blog income came out to roughly $150,000 for 2015. This was about a 30% increase over last year! Remember, earnings are the important number as that is the amount of money I actually net (minus taxes of course). Though I did some looking back on my records to see what my revenue has been in the 5 years since I started this business. I have sold over $750,000 worth of advertising to thousands of clients in the past 5 years! I only keep a small portion of that revenue, but I still thought it was a very significant number, as I expect to hit the $1 million mark this year with relative ease!

Blogging was definitely becoming secondary to my day job at the beginning of this year as I was simply working too many hours. However, I switched day jobs mid-year and found a more balanced work and home life. This has helped me to put additional focus on building out my sites and ramping up my SEO services. I have spent a lot of time building relationships with bloggers and media agencies alike. Building trust and relationships is key to growing a business and bringing back repeat customers and earning good referral business.

Another key achievement this year was taking on a partner with some of my sites, who is slowly ramping up on the business overall. This is great as I expect to need to additional help going forward if I want to continue to grow my company. I simply can’t do it all myself, and this year finally made me realize that more than ever! This is what allowed me to get back to buying more websites! This year saw the addition of 6 websites purchased! I actually opened up the ole purse strings and focused on buying higher quality sites for larger sums of money. Previously I had looked for dilapidated and broken sites long abandoned by their owners. I would then pick them up for a song and restore them to the best of my ability. This time I focused on current blogs with quality content and a steady stream of earnings. I then put my money where my mouth was and snapped them up. I would say that with the exception of 1 site I purchased, I have succeeded greatly in buying up these sites!

Looking forward to 2016 I have a few major goals on the horizon:

• First, I’d like buy additional sites. The problem is researching and finding quality sites for a reasonable price. I could spend every day in an entire month just to find one that I will negotiate and make an offer. Still, I see this a very important part of growing my business. I want to own as many quality sites as possible in order to achieve the highest passive income possible. Quality sites are key to increasing passive income from Adsense, affiliate, and other click-through type earnings.

• Second, I’d like to establish a partnerships with another blogger and/or media/SEO agency. I have a good business sense, good customer base, and a great overall clientele I deal with. What I lack are additional ideas on how to expand my business further, and unfortunately, the technical expertise required to act on the ideas I do have! I need a mutually beneficial relationship that will help grow earnings on both our ends.

• I’d like to get my partner further involved with more aspects of the business, and perhaps my wife as well. Like I said, in order to achieve growth I need help, plain and simple.

In conclusion, I have no complaints! This has been a great year for me and brought some renewed energy into nurturing, growing, and expanding my business. This is all a part of my master plan to retire early. I don’t want to be handcuffed to an employer, a corporation, or anyone else until I’m 65 years old. I know what it’s like to worry about layoffs, to lose a job, and to be up to your eyeballs in debt. I refuse to ever go back to those worries again. The only way to sleep soundly at night is to control your own destiny, and I believe that has to do with financial independence. If I save and invest enough of my money wisely, I won’t ever have to rely on anyone else again, except for myself…and I like that just fine!

Happy New Year to You All!