Growth Trifecta Case Study (June 2022)

Welcome to June’s update! This month’s earnings and traffic ticked up a bit compared to last month. Though June was still down $1,000 year-over-year, it was the first time I’ve crossed $6,000 in earnings in 2022. Hopefully the upward trend will continue—and accelerate—through the summer.

Read on to learn how I’m working through my 2022 Growth Trifecta Plan. It combines a big content sprint, improving existing articles, and boosting revenue from my own products.

Let’s get into it!

The Site in a Nutshell

Whether you’ve been following along since the beginning, or are new to this case study, here are some key stats for my site.

Lifetime site earnings

Earnings

• This Month: $6,209.02 (site) + $3,400 (writing retainer*) = $9,609.02
• This Year: $32,905.63 (site) + $20,400 (writing retainer*) = $53,305.63
• Lifetime: $156,186.61 (site) + $20,400 (writing retainer*) = $176,586.61

Traffic

• This Month: 116,124
• This Year: 635,745
• Lifetime: 2,759,207

Expenses

• This Month: $2,474.00
• This Year: $28,651.06
• Lifetime: $65,405.06

Note: Here were my biggest investments this month.

• $1,000 went to my Content Manager for 20 hours of work.
• $1,200 went to Upwork writers.
• $200 went to upgrading my MailerLite email plan.

*Amended: A major apparel brand within my niche discovered my site and reached out in late 2021 about collaborating. We ended up developing a relationship that became a 2022 monthly copywriting retainer. Since this income is directly the result of my site, I’m including a variation of income including it.

June Updates

Where did I spend my time (and money) for June? Let’s take a look.

(Ongoing) Affiliate Programs & Ads

In addition to the three-phase growth plan activities, I keep a close eye on affiliate and ad earnings, my primary income drivers.

I’m happy to report Amazon earnings and ad income increased from May.

Ads earnings increased ~$500, but was down ~$250 from June 2021. Amazon was up ~$120 this month, and down ~$700 from 2021.

Focus Area: New Content

The main growth strategy for this year is new content generation (i.e. publishing new articles). My original 2022 goal was to tackle the following:

• 400 new articles published by the end of June (155 published so far)
• 25 guest posts published this year (2 published so far)
• 50 new articles published for Q3 holiday sprint (now incorporating this into the 400 article goal)

Though new content was written in June, I didn’t end catch up on publishing until the first week of July. Several other team members took summer vacations this month, too.

Given that traffic increased ~10K for June, I’d hoped to see more of a boost in earnings—especially given a good chunk of my new content has been live since March. But, as things stand, new content hasn’t seemed to have much impact. Darn!

Me waiting for Google to care about new content…

Focus Area: Existing Content

My site has 635 pieces of content, which means there’s probably a LOT of untapped potential—for attracting more traffic and more earnings. That’s why one of my growth tactics for 2022 is improving existing content.

My goal is to put 100 existing articles through a consistent improvement process this year. 

As a reminder, my approach includes:

1. Add 2-4 new FAQs to each post (source from “People Also Ask”).
2. Refresh (or tighten up) the article intro and/or product review content.
3. Add images to keep people on the page longer and boost ad revenue .

Want more ideas for how to improve ad revenue on existing content? Check out this helpful guide from my ad provider Mediavine.

During June, I input two new FAQs for another batch of 50 high-potential posts. That means I’ve now crossed off item #1 for 100 posts, so it’s time to go back and revisit introductions and images.

I’m evening considering assigning one of my Upwork writers to exclusively refresh and upgrade existing content moving forward.

Focus Area: Selling Products

The second course is *finally* done. Heavy exhale. June was spent wrapping up Teachable tasks, QAing the course, and creating sales funnel emails. It launches over a period of 10 days starting July 6.

I sold 2 digital guides in June, but there were no sales from our Knowledge Directory. Sales from my own products totaled $17.98, which is 0.28% of monthly revenue.

My goal for 2022 is to reach 10% from my own products, and I’m sitting at 2.8% as of June.

Me finally finishing the course that took for-freakin-ever.

Other Activities

What else was I up to this month?

• Free E-Courses: This month, my second mini e-course got done—I’ll be adding the CTAs to blog posts the first week of July. The goal is to build the main email list, and the final email in this new series also directs folks to the new paid course. So far, 15 people signed up for the first free e-course. But overall, the list grew by 307 people in June, topping 5,000 total!
• Google Analytics Reports: My developer set up some custom reports to track 2022 content sprint articles and existing content improvements. He also setup GA4 as a second property so I’ll be ready when Google transitions.
• SERP Robot: This keyword tracker is now up and running, so I’m getting notifications when keywords I’m target drop out of the top 10 or enter the top 10.
• Team Reorg: I have a few people moving onto other endeavors, so I’m working on a revised org chart to best use our resources. Stay tuned for where we land!

Parting Thoughts

Overall, I’m continuing on with my 2022 growth plan—though I’ll need to reassess investments this Fall if traffic and earnings hasn’t meaningfully improved by then.

With more than 150 new blogs live now, but earnings still down from last year, those dollars may be better spent trying to improve the rankings of existing content.

The good news is that the site is back to earning over $6,000 per month—and that’s meaningful income.

Have thoughts about what results I may see later this year? Other ideas for things I should be working on? Comment below!