How I made half a million dollars in 2022 (part-time from home)

Hey hey!

I'm back from my month-long trip around Europe and I'm super excited to be back on Twitter with you.

I missed you guys - *group hug*

Thanks for continuing to read my emails.

The first thing that I'd like to share with you is my lastest income report.

But instead of making it about December

I thought I'd show you the whole of 2022.

Because sometimes, you just gotta zoom out to see how far you've come, right?

Here's goes...

1. Travel blog

2021 income: $82,068

2022 income: $308,847

I'm a little bit amazed by how much my travel blog has grown in a year.

In December it had 557,000 page views, which is up from 205,000 in the previous December.

In August, it had almost 900,000 page views.

The seasonality is strong in this niche, but I'm hoping to reach close to a million in January *crosses fingers*.

(People research and book a lot of travel in Jan)

This site makes 80% of its income from ads.

I use Adthrive and the RPM has actually increased from around $34 last December to $44 this year, so I'm happy with that.

I know that many niches have seen the opposite with lower RPMs due to the recession,

But there were still some travel restrictions in place in the previous year, so travel brands wouldn't have been spending as much on ads back then.

My plans for the travel site for 2023 (as well as creating more articles and updating old content) are:

• Create a YouTube channel (any advice is welcome!)
• Grow my email list and create better newsletters
• Increase affiliate revenue

2. Gaming site

2021 income: $11,561

2022 income: $58,135

On the face of it, this site looks like it did really well in 2022.

It had 3,400,000 page views in 2022, compared to only 652,000 in 2021.

However, the site is not only super seasonal, but it has massive spikes when new games are released.

In December 2022, the site only made $3,664.

This is a bit shit because it made $5,822 in December 2021 and $12,038 in September 2022!

The site was hit by a Google update just before Christmas.

It was tracking flat year on year, but is now about 30% down. 

I'm not actually upset by this.

This is kinda weird that I'm not fazed - because this site made me way more in a year than I've ever made in a year from employment!

But now, it's small fry compared to the travel blog, so I'm just going to let it sit.

Google is going to do what it's going to do.

I know the content is good so I'm not going to change it.

My writers like playing and reviewing the games so I'll let them keep doing that,

But I'm not focussing on this site right now.

At least until the next big game is announced, anyway!

3. Environment site

2021 income: $0

2022 income: $1,752

(Dec 2022 earnings): $829

I started this site on a fresh domain in Jan 2022 so it's celebrating its first birthday!

The site had 36,000 pageviews in December, which I'm pretty pleased with, especially as it still has under 100 posts. 

I built a handful of links to it from newspapers and high-authority sites by outsourcing HARO link building.

This seems to have worked wonders, as you can see by the graph!

I'll probably keep growing this site slowly for another year and then sell it.

I like having a few sites at the moment, 

Having new-ish sites like this keeps me in the same boat as many of the people I help on Twitter and in these emails.

It would be hard for a one-hit wonder with a single aged site to be taken seriously when it comes to commenting on what works for new, small sites, right?

But, I do want to spend less time working and more time travelling - so this one isn't a keeper for me.

4. Leisure site

2021 earnings: $0

2022 earnings: $1,350

(Dec 2022 earnings): $460

I bought this site in June 2022.

It was about 18 months old and was making only a few dollars per month.

I got giddy with the delete button and the site has fewer posts now that when I bought it - currently around 70.

This one is super-seasonal, as you can see from the Halloween and Christmas spikes on the graph!

I really don't mind a seasonal niche.

While others might be put off Halloween content as it's only one day - it can be a very lucrative day!

This site also isn't a keeper for me. 

I'll probably keep it for another year or so and then flip it.

It still has no backlinks so I've just signed up to build some HARO links.

I'll be sure to let you know how that goes!

Total

My total income from these four sites in 2022 was $370,085.

Including the site that I sold in June, my total income for the year was $556,486.

My expenses for the year were $47,306.

So my profit was $509,180.

Not bad for someone who essentially works part-time from home!

I don't have much of a team, just myself, a handful of writers who also have other jobs and a couple of VAs who do a few hours when they can.

Expenses

If you're interested, here's what I spent the money on...

• Writers: $36,500 (in-house and a few agencies such as ContentPit which is now my go-to)
• Virtual assistants: $1,100 (I found these on OnlineJobs.ph)
• Link building: $6,400 (Linkifi)
• Email: $1,500 (MailerLite)
• Hosting: $1,000 (BigScoots)
• Theme: $200 (GeneratePress, I've recently bought the lifetime deal so I won't have to pay again)
• Link cloaking: $150 (Geniuslink)
• Speed: $150 (WP Rocket)
• Domains: $100 (NameCheap)

(These figures are approximate)

I hope you've found that interesting.

One thing that I've noticed is how everybody has such different methods in this game.

This way works for me,

Some other tactics may work better for you.

But, whether you like to work alone and write everything yourself, manage a team of 100 people or even let a robot take care of the bulk, we can all succeed in 2023, if we just keep learning, testing and working hard.

Love,

NSL

Affiliate disclaimer: To cover the cost of my email software and the time I spend writing these emails, I do sometimes link to products. Please assume these links are affiliate links. If you choose to buy through my links then THANK YOU - it will make it possible for me to keep doing this.