This will be my first, in a hopeful, long series of posts regarding income reports for ApexThis.
With my foray back into blogging, I decided that I wanted to make this my business or better yet, one aspect of my business. ApexThis is about taking that challenge and I’ve decided that I will do what I’ve wanted to do for the longest time and make a business from my writing.
Why Am I Publishing This?
Why not? My goal is to create something of my own and create a passive income stream in the process. This also allows me to continue writing and more importantly, reflect back on the month to see what I did or didn’t do so well. Lastly, I have read other income reports such as SmartPassiveIncome, amongst others, and I like to see what they have tried. It is a form of motivation for me and I hope that this can be one for someone else.
About ApexThis
I’ve had ApexThis domain for a number of years now. Originally as a car forum for a group of friends until it went dormant. I have resurrected this domain this year as I found a new focus in life. Jan 28, 2015 my Welcome post went live.
The focus of this blog is about Life, Tech and Food. I share what has helped me and could help you. I share things that I do to help me be better as a person or to accomplish a task more efficiently.
ApexThis as a whole will serve as my media publishing arm for my creative writing in short stories, ebooks, music, apps, audio and video content. Some things may work and others may not, but I will give them all a try.
August 2015 Finance Report
Disclaimer: Any income reported will only be reported as “cash” in hand. If it did not deposit into my account, or if I didn’t cash a check, then it does not count as income. Additionally, income will only be reported for ApexThis business and not for personal income. I may discuss side hustles for additional side income, but only income in which I represent ApexThis will be counted. This August 2015 report will actually include everything up to this date since the launch in January 2015. Each report going forward will be for that reported month only.
Income Report
None – Despite having Adsense and affiliate sources, I have received no payment therefore, I have received no income. You may view my resources page to see the various affiliate and or advertising methods I am trying.
Expense Report
As stated, all expenses incurred since the site relaunch in Jan 2015 will be listed below and then normally going forward. That means that what you see below is the bulk of start-up costs.
- Mailbox 1yr – $140
- Facebook Advertising – $20
- Google Music Publishing – $25
- ASCAP Publishing – $50
- Various Domains – $55
- Nikon Camera w/ accessories – $557
- Blue USB Mic – $65
- Adobe Photoshop – $55
- Apex Pro Theme – $50
- Blubrry Hosting – $12/month
What Happened In August?
Google Analytics
Despite being almost useless with the constant need to block referral spam, I saw an increase of 110% for pageviews in comparison with July. This increase is attributed to various advertising methods as well as increase in content building and SEO. I’m hoping to get at least a 10% increase for the next month.
Alexa
Can’t say how useful this is but I had a nice jump in recorded traffic from 24,456,000 to 17,825,000 global rank. My initial goal was to make it to 19 million. Woot for the success of this!
Advertising
Facebook – I ran two ad campaigns on Facebook. The first for How To Be Successful At Work By Planning and the other for How To Create A Budget – Month 2. Combined there were 32 engagements with 16 following through to the website.
Google Adwords – I utilized a free $100 coupon that focused on my budget series and my work planning post. It was also great to learn how to use Adwords and eventually key word planning.
Bing Ads – Late August I utilized a free $100 coupon for Bing Ads. The first day I got 137 clicks. In reviewing the data, Bing had more clicks than Google. I attribute this to less competition on that platform. As will Adwords, I am continuing to learn about using these platforms for advertising.
Podcast
AoA – The Admins of Atlassian podcast launched. There were only 13 total lists to the “Welcome” episode. I have lots of content to add to this site and to talk about. It will take some time to build this site out with what I have planned, but I do hope to receive income from this and provide some potential services.
What’s Next?
More content. Write more. Share more. Grow more. I have goals set for the year, but they need a better breakdown so that they are measurable. Additionally, I have more content planned. I plan to publish at least 1 post a week with ApexThis. Sometimes there may be more if I feel they are shorter posts but there will always be at least one post a week as that is what I have scheduled.
Lastly, I will investigate other services to help me in ways that I need it. I have a nasty habit of wanting to do everything myself because I want to say “I did that” but sometimes I have to be realistic. I could build my very own custom WordPress theme, I’ve done it before, but do I have the time to? No. So, I want to look at my to-do’s, get them sorted, and determine which ones I think I can realistically do. It never hurts to hire out for help. Until next month.
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