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Why IncomeBully Will No Longer Post Income Reports

Something I’ve been doing since the beginning of this blog to track progress, gain links, traffic, and get involved in income round ups… is not going to happen anymore.

It’s actually something I’ve thought about for a while, but decided against because of what I just mentioned.

There are a lot of blogs that do income reports, and many that will include blogs in an “income round up”, like Matthew Woodward does each month.

Cashflowdiaries is another blog that has been sending me traffic for over a year now. That and Matthew Woodward’s round up is something that has allowed me to connect with other bloggers, and get a considerable amount of traffic.

I’ll definitely miss the traffic it provides.

Why Am I Doing This?

First off, I’m not doing away with the idea entirely, you’ll see my plan later in this post.

You might wonder, if it brings traffic, generates links, gets engagement, why on earth would I stop doing something that does that?

Believe me, I’ve battled back and forth with the same points.

Here are a few of the reasons I have for discontinuing the monthly income reports.

1.) The Blog Is a Business

There are plenty of blogs that generate more traffic and generate more income than this, but the truth is, if it isn’t generating any type of income then it is pointless. Even though financial growth is not the focus of this blog, it should be a metric I work hard to improve.

Treating this blog as a business, I think it would be counter-productive to post monthly income reports, when there isn’t enough time to make drastic changes that can impact growth. Growth, in income, engagement, social reach and visitors is not something that can really be seen on a monthly basis. Adjustments to marketing plans, content types, outreach, etc. is something that will need more time to see success or failure… not 1 month.

Major corporations don’t give out monthly reports to shareholders. They give quarterly reports, which is what I will start doing, as you’ll see later in this post.

2.) This Blog Is More About YOU Than Me

This kind of goes with point #1. The blog is a business, it should be its’ own separate entity, it shouldn’t be attached to me and I think the monthly income report makes it more about me as an individual instead of the blog as a brand. Also, the content is focused on you, the visitors.

Having monthly income reports, just takes away from the main point of the blog. Instead of a “look at me” style post, I’d rather focus on producing helpful, epic, and industry changing content.

And speaking of content, I think the lowest quality of content on this blog, is in the income reports.

Some people have said they really like seeing them, watching my analysis of how things are going and what I plan to do to change the trajectory of the blog… That’s fine, but many months of income reports are not impressive when it comes to self awareness and strategy. The new plan going forward will satisfy those of you that do enjoy the income reports, since it will allow for more analysis, in depth breakdowns and more complete strategy going forward…just less often.

Also… When a business is attached to one person instead of its’ own brand, it makes it difficult to scale.. and even more difficult to exit. Not that I would be trying to exit now, in the near future, or ever, but it just makes better business sense, don’t you think?

3.) Income Reports Hinder my Growth Plans

Once again, this is an expansion on a previous point.

When the blog is focused more on me as an individual instead of you as the visitor, or even as the brand itself, it makes growth more difficult.

I’m not talking about growth as in visitors or even income. I’m thinking of it in terms of scale, growth in content production, guest posters, new content types, community features, and the implementation of systems and strategies for the blog itself. Of course, all these things would directly and indirectly impact growth in terms of traffic and income.

So while I will be sacrificing some traffic and links in the short term, I believe that in the long term it will prove to be a good decision.

Another reason why it hinders growth, is that whatever goal(s) I set in the previous monthly income report, that’s what the main focus is, instead of addressing issues as they come up. A month isn’t a lot of time to make adjustments on the overall direction you’re heading, and when you’re just focusing on small goals on a monthly basis, it blinds you from seeing the bigger picture.

I don’t want to see a few pixels at a time… I want to see the entire picture, and make plans based on that.

4.) The Traffic Generated Is NOT My Target Audience

So like I said in the beginning… one of the reasons I didn’t want to discontinue the monthly income reports, is the traffic it generates.

I guess the truth is, the income round ups aren’t the type of traffic that converts. It’s only accounted for about 1,400 visitors since May of 2016. Out of those 1,400 visitors, 10 have become subscribers. That’s less than 1% of the traffic generated, converting into subscribers.

The on page metrics from them aren’t bad, it looks like they look around, but maybe they’re just going through other income reports. I haven’t dived that deep into the analytics.

If only 10 people subscribed, I’m not sure if they have purchased any affiliate products or if they have bought my ice cold email gold or ultimate agency blueprint courses.

It makes sense, because Matthew Woodward’s blog is more about making money online or making money blogging, whereas IncomeBully is more focused on SEO, Local SEO, Sales, and other things that help with clients or regular businesses.

I would like to have more content about blogging in general, but, other than business blogs for lead generation, I don’t feel qualified to really write on the topic. Until I’m at that point, that traffic is almost useless to me.

What Am I Doing Instead?

I do like the idea of income reports for blogs. I think they can be super engaging and fun to watch but for me, it isn’t helping.

Instead of doing a monthly income report, I will start doing a quarterly report. Just like businesses on Wall Street. It will have the same format as the monthly income reports but with more analysis, and planning.

To me, it seems much easier to make improvements when you have 3 months to implement a plan that can beat the previous 3 months! It’s more focused, and allows for an adequate amount of time, testing and implementation.

Monthly reports, discourage you (me) from doing things that are extremely important for growth, but aren’t exactly visible. Nobody wants to hear about the boring stuff on a monthly basis even though it could be the strongest contributing factor for growth.

So there you have it, monthly reports are no more. I’ve appreciated the links and traffic from different income round ups and lists of bloggers that do monthly income reports. Maybe they’ll keep me on there for quarterly reports, but if not, no biggie.

Final Thoughts

It’s been a tough decision but I’m curious to hear what you all think. Good idea? Bad idea? Let me know in the comments below.

The first quarterly report will be out in early April.

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