So, I Hear You Like Case Studies & Income Reports

In recent months, I’ve gotten a few emails from people asking when I’m doing a new case study. But here’s the thing with case studies – they can be hella boring in the beginning when nothing is going on and you’re waiting to get some traction in the SERPs.

Yeah, I know that people like to read them – even I read other people’s case studies! But I was still struggling to decide if I really wanna commit to a new case study.

Then, someone asked me to consider doing income reports.

I admit it, I’m also a sucker for income reports. Back when I first got started in the whole making money online lifestyle, I was all about devouring every income report that I could find. Hell, I still eat that shit up.

But at the same time, I think that people who share their full income with all you randos on the internet are looney tunes.

No way in hell do I want to lay out for anyone how much I’m making from each of my sites.

So, I think I’ve come up with something that satisfies the need for a non-boring case study + an income report.

What You Can Expect

I’m taking a hybrid case study + income report approach here. You’re going to get income from multiple sites that I have in my 18-site portfolio – but not all of my sites. Just four of them.

And the sites that I’m using for the income reports are also the case study sites.

Here’s the basics:

• No URLs will be revealed here*.
• I’m taking precautions to safeguard my sites by giving you the broadest top-level niche possible.
• I’m probably not doing screenshots of income cause that shit can be Photoshopped, so it’s a waste of time.
• I will share screenshots of other things, like maybe traffic
• I may add more sites to the report in the future (if I start a new one that might be interesting for you)
• Some of this will be a slow build – consider yourself warned.
• I’ll do updates monthly (though some may be late…you should really expect this from me though, right?)
• I’m trying to keep it lean, so I’ll be doing a lot of the work for these sites all on my own.

*one site is talked about in my premium Facebook group.

The Sites

I could give you data on each site starting with January 2020 so that I’d have a full year of data once we reach the year’s end. But I’m not doing that because I’m lazy.

Instead, I’ll tell you about each site and the income/case study data will start to be reported with the close of February (though I’m traveling through March 3rd…so it will be late!).

And future reports will give you more details on what I’m doing on each site, my expenses, etc.

Site #1

This site is 100% new. I haven’t even started it yet. Seriously – no WordPress install, nothing.

Here’s what you should know about this site:

• Niche: Professional services
• Monetization: display ads + info product
• Income Goal: I’ll be happy with $500/mo but I think it has the potential for low to mid four figures monthly.
• Growth Plan: I’m not sure yet. I could focus on HARO links + guest posting and maybe FB ads, but I need to do more research in this niche first. Also, I expect this will be a small site in terms of how much content needs created for it.
• The case study angle: building a successful non-affiliate site

Eh, look at that – not an affiliate site! Bet you didn’t expect that, huh?

I hope I’m right in that this will be a small site because then it means that I can sort of set it and forget it.

Here’s an interesting fact about this site — I found this niche when I was looking to see what keywords Reddit ranks for on page one. And I’ve never worked in this niche before.

Site #2

This is an existing site that I started more than a year ago. I’m not giving an exact date or time frame – you just need to know that it’s an aged site.

Here’s what you should know about this site:

• Niche: Transportation
• Monetization: affiliate (Amazon + others) + display ads
• Income Goal: I’ll be happy with $1000/mo but I think it has the potential for mid four figures monthly based on a conversation I had with someone in this niche.
• History: Site has been earning steadily and is profitable. It was sitting, neglected, when I decided to pick it back up this year.
• Growth Plan: hit it with lots of informational articles to optimize content for ad money (first goal = Ezoic and eventually Mediavine). I also need to update old content & utilize more non-Amazon affiliates with longer cookies. I may end up testing Pinterest on this site to see how it performs.
• The case study angle: prioritizing links over content + expanding beyond Amazon + beyond Google traffic

I’ve used this site to test a lot of link building services, so it has a good amount of links pointing at it. And most of them are super niche relevant.

I may continue to use links like this since there aren’t many HARO opportunities in this niche. Buying PBN links is another option.

Though I’d rather not use the PBN links since the intent is to flip this site (and the rest of these).

I intend to prioritize links over content for this site.

Site #3

This is an existing site that I started more than a year ago. I’m not giving an exact date or time frame – you just need to know that it’s an aged site.

Here’s what you should know about this site:

• Niche: Health/Fitness
• Monetization: affiliate (Amazon + others) + display ads (and maybe products?)
• Income Goal: I haven’t decided what I’ll be happy with yet for this one – maybe $5000? But I do know this site has five-figure potential.
• History: Site has been earning steadily and is profitable. It is somewhat seasonal, though the niche is evergreen.
• Growth Plan: Hit it with lots of informational articles to optimize content for ad money. This site has enough traffic for Ezoic, but I’m holding out to qualify for Mediavine. I also need to update old content & utilize more non-Amazon affiliates with longer cookies/higher paying offers. HARO is the only link building that I currently have planned for this site.
• The case study angle: prioritizing content over links + building a mailing list + monetization diversification + alternative traffic growth

Here’s a fun fact about this site – I almost sold it once….and wish I had because the niche has only gotten more competitive.

Anyways, I intend to prioritize content over links for this site. Cause someone told me that I do too much link building. Well, let’s just see how that works out for me, eh?

Site #4

This site is new. I started it in January 2020.

Here’s what you should know about this site:

• Niche: Lifestyle
• Monetization: display ads + affiliates + products + info products (+ possibility for real world business offshoot)
• Income Goal: I think I’ll be happy with $2500/mo but I know of a few people in this niche making $20K+/month.
• Growth Plan: Right now I’m all about content creation. Next up is traffic diversification and this niche does well on Pinterest. For link building, I haven’t decided yet. There are a lot of guest posting opportunities in this niche though.
• The case study angle: mega authority site from day one to mega status –> building a brand from the beginning with long term growth focus on diversifying traffic + monetization

This right here is going to be the really boring site. It’s going to likely be a slow build before anything interesting happens with it.

It’s a super competitive niche because it’s so lucrative. And I’m making display ads and info content my top priority for it in the short term.

My initial content is all about the low hanging fruit so that I can get some early traction in the SERPs.

There’s a lot of room for multiple monetization streams, which I’m really excited about for it. And based on some of the ideas that I have so far, I think traffic diversification is going to be a big focus for me as this site grows.

The tl;dr

I’m doing some new case studies and sharing some income for income reports purposes. The data starts flowing once February ends.

It might be really interesting. Or it might be super boring. I can’t wait to find out.

Got something you want to see shared that I didn’t mention? Just let me know and I’ll consider adding it in the mix.

Shawna Newman

Hey, I’m Shawna. I make a living working from my laptop in places like London, Sydney, Dubai, Rome, Oslo, Bangkok, Las Vegas, Barcelona, and Amsterdam. I share how I do some of that on this website.