It’s April 9 as I write this. February was another age when restaurants and bars were crowded, kids were in school and unemployment was very, very low.
Ad revenue was climbing nicely after the January doldrums.
Then Coronavirus hit. Within weeks thousands more people got sick, the economy cratered bludgeoning ad budgets and wiping out millions of jobs.
My oldest attends class via iPad.
I can now navigate Doordash blindfolded.
It looks like I’ll be working until I’m 90 based on recent stock market losses. I suppose if I work until I’m 90 that’s a good thing because I’ll still be alive.
I’m bracing for yet lower ad revenue.
On the BIG plus side I still have substantial revenue along with a very flexible cost structure that I can reduce instantly. Many people have no income.
As for February publishing developments, I don’t recall. I guess not much happened. It’s a good reminder that I should punch these reports out sooner.
Here are the numbers.
The Usual Disclaimer
This income report only reports revenue and expenses for my niche sites. It does NOT include any financial information from fatstacksblog.com.
Let’s dive in.
Revenue for 7 niche sites I own (February)
Click here to learn more about each niche site featured in my income reports.
All figures are in USD.
- Niche Site 1 Revenue: $39,794 (mostly display ad revenue, some affiliate revenue)
- Niche Site 2 Revenue: $5,355 (mostly affiliate commission revenue)
- Niche Site 3 Revenue: $1,694 (mostly display ad revenue, some affiliate revenue)
- Niche Site 4 Revenue: $954 (mostly display ad revenue, some affiliate revenue)
- Niche Site 5 Revenue: $41 (display ad revenue only)
- Niche Site 6 Revenue: $42 (display ad revenue only)
- Niche Site 7 Revenue: $90 (display ad revenue only)
Total Revenue all 7 sites: $47,970 (January revenue was: $40,061)
Expenses for all niche sites
I lump together all expenses for all 7 niche sites because it’s difficult, impractical and unhelpful to spend the time allocating each expense to each site.
- Ezoic Premium Ad Program Fees: $575
- Kinsta hosting: $1,200
- Amazon AWS (still host some images on this): $51
- VAs: $3,350
- Cloudflare: $23
- Techsmith (Jing storage): $8
- Loom: $10
- Ahrefs: $179
- Shutterstock photos: $800
- Quickbooks: $10
- Jotform: $40
- Tailwind: $84
- MeetEdgar: $50
- Elink.io: $15
- Grammarly: $45
- LeadPages: $79
- OptinMonster: $99
- Mailchimp: $178
- NitroPack: $49
- Buzzsprout: $12 (this is the podcast hosting platform I use for niche site 1 podcast).
Total expenses for 7 niche sites: $6,857
Net Income: $41,113 (January was $32,700)
Content investment in February 2020
I continue to pour money into content, including products for product reviews as well as podcast content for niche site 1:
- WriterAccess: $10,000
- In-House writers: $3500
- Podcast content: $750
Total content investment for February 2020: $14,250
Net income after content investment: $26,863 USD
I explain here why I extract content costs from expenses.
Proof-is-in-the-pudding screenshots
AdThrive (Site 1)
Ezoic
Jon runs the place around here. He pontificates about launching and growing online publishing businesses, aka blogs that make a few bucks. His pride and joy is the email newsletter he publishes that’s “the best blogging email newsletter around.”
Hyperbole? Maybe, but go check it out to see what some readers say.
In all seriousness, Jon is the founder and owner of a digital media company that publishes a variety of web properties visited and beloved by millions of readers monthly. Fatstacks is where he shares a glimpse into his digital publishing business.
Really great motivational numbers Jon. Keep it up! Just had a question in mind about your sites (5,6,7). How much time, work, money or content you pour into those sites as they are earning negligibly low as compared to others?
I too have few of such sites where I do not earn much so what should be the strategy for these kind of sites in the complete portfolio?
Hey Prav,
Sites 5 through 7 are difficult in that I really don’t have the time or resources to pour the gas on them. I add a bit of content here and there but for now I hang onto them, let them age, and maybe one day I’ll be able to tackle them in earnest. In fact, ironically, I’m launching several more this month for that very purposes. I want a good batch of aged sites. I’ll publish one or two articles per month and leave it at that for now.
Hey Jon first of all I hope you’re all right and save from the virus. Now I have a difficult question to ask, and since you’re a Wikipedia to bloggers I thought you’ll be able to help.
1) I have a client who’s getting 1lakh page views, but when he applies to monumetric he discovers that google adx has blocked his sites url, and what’s weird is that his adsense is working perfectly fine.
2) After lots of research I found out for him that he could try video ad networks, but all good ones require 5 lakh monthly page views, and he believes he can get it but he’s scared too. What if those video ad networks ask google adx permission and it again says blocked, all the hardwork will go in vain.
3) I can’t reveal site name but majority traffic is from US and organic, niche is quizzes so what would you advise drop this site, and start afresh? Because all ad platforms use google adx.
Or do you know any ad network that’ll not require google adx to accept his site, his aim is to earn from display ads and video ads only
I know this is a long read, but I do hope you’ll give us your help
Hey Vish, I really can’t advise here. I’d look into why there’s an issue with Google ADX which seems to be a big problem.