Site Net Worth - March 2021

Way late to the game this month, AGAIN! 2021 is not the red hot start to blogging I wanted, but we will get there in the end. If you want these updates to hit your inbox as they are published, click here to join our mailing list. I promise to only send one email per week!

Welcome readers to our monthly Net Worth Statement! I plan to include a monthly net worth statement for a variety of reasons. First, most of the other blogs I read and follow have started out supplying income statements (we focus on net worth here so that's what I'll provide). They are a good read and give you a sense of where their focus is from a site monetization perspective. Second, because I intend to try and monetize this site I think it will be a good tool to help me track progress and share with my audience how that part of this project is going. Third/last, I think, is transparency and accountability for both myself and anyone who follows the blog.

The more transparent I can be about the progress I'm making them better I can focus my attention on the efforts that are moving the needle. In addition, if I know I need to write this article once a month I better have something to add!

Before we get too deep into the nitty-gritty let me add some context around how The Saving Dude came to be and a little about the Why behind the site. A few years ago my wife and I launched a blog that mainly focused on taking care of our amazing English Bulldog, Daisy. Shortly after we launched the blog I took a job in a new city, we moved three times in 18-months and the blog writing got away from us. I did, however, get a taste for what building a blog can be like and I loved it. I really enjoy writing, I enjoy building things, and I really like the challenge of trying to build a business online. Writing a blog provides me with an opportunity to exercise all those mental muscles in one place.

If you want to start your own money-making blog take a look at my step-by-step instructions.

So in late July 2020, The Saving Dude was launched with the intent of showing our readers how to increase their net worth by tracking basic information month over month. In addition, we have and will talk about easy ways to save money, easy ways to make money, and a few other random topics that I might stumble upon that seem cool and relevant to talk about. I'll also reflect on some of the things that my wife and I have done to save money over the last few years. Some of these efforts have been difficult and not all saving is easy. The results of our efforts have added up to an additional $250,000 added to our net worth in the last 3 years. We have also paid down nearly $100,000 in debt during that time! So I'd say it was all totally worth it.

March 2021 was a super exciting month! We converted our first official affiliate sale! While the amount wasn't huge $2.20, the fact that we did it is really what matters here.

The Details:

Net Worth - $2.21

Just a great feeling, knowing that we are still heading in the right direction.

Total Hours Spent: 8 hours

March was not better from a "time spent writing" perspective. We did spend more time developing a strategy for connecting with readers via email, Facebook, and Instagram (in short, email them and post to FB and Insta).

Articles Written: 6 vs 2 in February

We switched to writing more about daily/weekly ways to save money vs "how-to" guides and software product reviews. We will get a better mix of article types moving forward.

Income Breakdown:

$0.01 - Google Adsense

$2.20 - Affiliate Income

Alexa Site Ranking: 2,886,927 - Way better and the 5M number we hit in February. Some of our SEO efforts are paying off.

Here is a quick list of what we are worked on in Feb with updates:

1. Nothing!

Here is a quick list of what we are worked on in March with updates:

1. Write at least 7 articles - almost, we wrote 6

2. Update more articles for SEO - trending in the right direction

3. Send weekly emails, click here to sign up - we missed a few weeks, but again, trending in the right direction

Here is a quick list of what we plan to work on in April:

1. Continue sending weekly emails

2. Mix up our content types

2021 Goals:

1. Get the site Alexa score down below 500k - doing okay here

2. Have one month where I write over 15 articles - not there yet

3. Make more than $50/month from affiliate partners - not there yet, but trending

Expenses:

$0

Now go out, set up your own blog, and try to turn it into a side hustle just like me!