2020 was an amazing year for me. It was the start of a brand new business online and new passive income.

In 2020 I learned a lot and I mean a lot!!!

In this article, I am going to outline my income report and tell you about some things I have accomplished as well as some insight on my future plans for 2021.

Back Story

So, I started blogging when I was about 20 years old. I am 33 in literally 6 days from the start of this blog post and that means I have been working online for about 13 years.

A lot has changed from the day I started to now and honestly, I like how it has changed. The barrier to entry into this industry is not as difficult and the possibilities are endless for what you can do online to make a name for yourself.

After a few years of working online launching various products, websites, businesses, etc I took a break from the online world. I wasn't making huge amounts of money but I was profitable. Honestly, my income was good enough to never work for anyone else ever again but I got bored and burnt out.

Later I came back and started a few blogs which I later sold for several thousands of dollars. After selling out I decided I wanted to start a brick and mortar business. A local business that I could work on and I did just that. In my first year, I sold over 1 million dollars and my business was the top-rated granite countertop provider in my area.

After two years I took a buy-out. I was always exhausted and I never had time for the people who matter most to me and that was the main reason behind my decision to sell.

After selling I started a website about countertops. I knew so much about countertops and I knew a lot of the misinformation that other countertop providers were giving to customers and I wanted to change that...and I did just that.

Fast forward just over a year later my website now earns a decent amount of money and is growing more and more every day. I started other websites in various niches that are doing just as good so I now focus all my time and energy on my own work rather than working for someone else.

The 2020 Income And Traffic Report

I purchased my domain on 06/24/2019 and launched the website on 10/23/2019.

I hired several agencies to write content and I wrote content myself. In the early days, I was just getting back to this type of work so I wasn't that great at writing anymore so I relied on my practice and testing to see what Google liked.

Website Stats And Information

So it did take me a bit to even get started with this website. I was busy with the sale of my business among other things of life so from domain registration to the launch I did nothing to the website aside from choosing a theme and maybe a few small details.

By December 2020 I had 99 articles published and 130 pages live on the website. This was a great start for year one and I plan to more than double that for 2021.

Website Traffic

In 2020 alone I saw 137,225 pageviews to my website and that is a great start for a new website in the first year.

In the image above you can see my traffic stats day by day and the upward trend in traffic all the way to the end of 2020.

Here is another view of 2020 pageviews month to month. I see consistent growth each month with the exception of November 2020. In November I saw less traffic than October but that was a dry time for the website. I wasn't publishing content and took a break for a couple of months.

In December of 2020, I had 27,689 pageviews to my website which was double the two previous months of October and November. That I attribute to the December 3rd Google core update.

As my website has aged I have noticed that Google is slowly starting to trust my website and has ranked me higher and higher in the SERPs.

I remember in March thinking this is awesome I am getting 50 pageviews daily to my website but now today January 17th I am getting over 1500 daily pageviews. Isn't it amazing how 50 was awesome and now nearly 2,000 page views per day are so cool? The feelings are similar but I am at two different stages in the growth of my website.

Just yesterday I had a record day of 1,623 pageviews and a week prior was another record-setting day at 1,596 pageviews on January 10th.

To think that 50 page views per day were enough to make me happy feels great especially now that I am where I am today.

As you can see in the above image most of my traffic came from organic search. 73.1% of it to be exact. Other traffic sources were direct 22.3% and referral and social 4.6% together for 2020.

Simply put my website has grown in organic traffic and it is the bulk of my traffic. The best part is that most of that was USA traffic which is the highest paying traffic.

Website Income

My main website did very well in 2020 as far as income. No, it wasn't a life-changing income but it was profitable and took care of my truck payment or whatever I wanted to use the funds for. Mostly, I just reinvested the earnings into this website and other websites.

Total Earnings For 2020

In 2020 my website earned $3,016.07 which is a great number for a one-year-old website. This number will grow and it already has so watch out for my monthly income report for January. It should be jaw-dropping.

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Now, let's break down my earnings and see how I did with each source of income.

Ezoic Earnings 2020

From Ezoic alone I earned $1,629.00 in 2020. This is pretty awesome for a website that is only a year old. That is my opinion but look at that growth. My income grew month after month. In September through November, I took a little break. I was definitely doing some work but not very much.

^{Pro Tip: Stay consistent so that your traffic and earnings continue to climb. If you have to take a break then by all means do that as your health and wellbeing are most important. Just know that if you aren't contributing as much as you can the first year of your website then it's likely to get a bit stagnant and the growth trend may level out rather than go further up.}

Amazon Associates Earnings 2020

In 2020 I made $1285.97 from Amazon. I am very proud of that number and excited to see that grow in 2020.

My earnings in January should be about $300 to $400 which is almost a third of my earnings for an entire year last year. That tells me that my earnings should significantly increase for 2021 and I am hoping that it averages out to about $1,000 per month give or take from Amazon Associates alone.

As you can see from the screenshot above my earnings grew month after month. That is simply amazing and it will continue to grow.

Other Website Earnings 2020

I did earn from another affiliate program which was so insignificant that I decided to remove it from my website. I may try it again later when traffic increases even more but I need to figure out a better way to implement it.

As of right now, it was degrading user experience in my opinion just by being there.

It was a form people filled out to receive a quote for countertops and if they filled it out I would earn $ depending on their location and the need in that area.

Essentially it was a lead generation offer for countertop providers. The network I was using was Networx.com. I am signed up with Home Advisor but I have not yet implemented their forms on my website yet. I want to think about it and be as creative as possible with implementation.

If you care to see the little earnings there it is above. Summer months are seemingly the best for this type of niche.

What I Have Learned In 2020

2020 was a big year for me and I learned so much about myself and my business. I figured out the direction I want to take with all of this and in 2021 I am going to focus really hard and create everything I have planned this year.

Create Content Consistent

This is something that I learned to do after 2020. I knew it was important to create content consistently but I wasn't really doing that to the best of my ability.

I had a lot going on and toward the end of 2020, I learned to simplify my life and get in a routine which has really done wonders for my productivity and helped me stay more consistent.

I don't have a publishing schedule but I do make it a goal to write about 500 words per day no questions asked. I typically do this 5 days per week which has helped me finish blog posts that have been sitting in draft for months.

I plan to outsource more content this year instead of writing most of it myself as I have been doing the last few months.

At the beginning of 2020, I had some bad content sent to me from various writing services, and about November I had enough and started writing myself. It is therapeutic for me but a little tedious and something I want to get away from this year in 2021.

I did find a couple of writing services that I am testing out this year and have so far seen positive results. I will make a video on this soon as I start to see rankings on these articles.

Google loves consistent content and that is why they did the caffeine update. The more quality content you can post the more they like you.

Also, by posting more content you are planting more SERP seeds which will add to your monthly traffic and increase your earnings. Keep on writing or outsourcing.

Video Is The New Normal

In 2021 I am going to try to do more video content for my websites and for this website you are currently on. I want to help people achieve success in this industry and make a full time living.

I also want to increase my traffic for my site so I am going to start making videos for the YouTube channel I started for the site. This should help add to my earnings when I am monetized and offer more traffic to my website.

The WiFi Affiliate YouTube channel will start to see weekly videos and I am hoping to get it monetized so I can add to my monthly income.

Passive Income Rocks

I love that I can continue to earn money and literally do nothing. I am sure that over time it may decrease but I have created passive income for myself and I doubt that it will ever go away.

I think my website is evergreen so I am sure that when I reach 100k pageviews it should stay pretty consistent if I leave it alone. I may test that out one day but for now, I am in the growth phase so I need to keep it growing.

My 2021 Goals Overall

This past year has taught me a lot and has also shown me where to focus my efforts. I am going to share my plans for 2021 and feel free to reach out to me if you see me slipping.

More Video

I am going to do more videos this year. I know I already touched on this topic but I plan to update my website stats and earnings every month in 2021 so that you can follow along and see my growth.

I will be recording videos with tips and tricks as well as information on how to get started doing what I do. I also need to help people with things I have found working for me so that you can copy and paste my success in your own niche.

Course Launch

Of course, I am going to launch a course. I already have actually I just haven't started promoting it because I need to polish it up and update it for 2021.

I know everyone and their mom launches a course. I am only doing this to offer more value and lock away my other niches to paid members only. I plan to reveal more projects I am working on and to be honest, I want to limit the view of these from people who want to steal my efforts.

I will be different in my course. I am sure that we all see things and do things differently and can offer insights that other course owners haven't.

Another reason I want to launch a course is that most of the courses out there are super expensive. I want to help people get access to this information much easier and to me, that means lowering the price.

Outsourcing More Content

I am working with a couple of writing agencies to get more content out each month and I will be hiring my own team using the ProBlogger tool to find writers. My ultimate goal is to hire a team of writers and create software to manage them.

I want a great team behind me and I want everyone to work as much or as little as they want. I plan to pay really well and offer more incentives for my best writers such as earnings bonuses for the content they write. I can pay less upfront but as the article takes off and gets more traffic they will earn consistently based on pageviews to their article. I know a guy who does this and he is doing very well for himself.

I do have a writer that I have worked with all of 2020 and she has been instrumental to my success. She keeps sending content my way and helps me with editing.

Conclusion

2020 was an epic year and I am excited for 2021 and beyond for this website. What did you learn this past year 2020? What were your achievements? Let me know in the comments below.