I thought it would be a good idea for both you and I if I were to recap 2009 on this blog. 2009 was a very crazy year for me… business model change, recession, coding, and stress are a few words that come up when I think of 2009.
Instead of writing a bunch of BS like “I had a great year because…” or “2009 was a bad year because..” I will post my company earnings for the year and then explain some big changes that happen during the year.
Overview of My Career
When I first started my company I made content based websites that used SEO to gain free traffic, and then I monetize the websites using advertising. As time went on content based websites started making me less and less money every month. In 2007 I launched by first real e-commerce site which was BuyBlogComments.com (I had other smaller sites, but I consider that one my first real one because the backend is custom coded.). Then during the years of 2007-2008 I slowly moved my business model from advertising revenues to e-commerce sales. In 2008 I got really focused and learned php along with making better business decisions. I focused my attention on 3 aspects of my business which are;
1. Backend Reporting: I created a backend that gives me up-to-date reporting on all of my main projects. It has been very very useful.
2. DeveloperHut: I focused a lot of my attention on building up DeveloperHut to make it so I can use my own services. I want to be able to use my own services to market my other e-commerce websites.
3. Network Of E-Commerce Websites: I found out that diversity is my safety net. Not only do I run DeveloperHut but I have my own network of e-commerce websites that make 50% of my revenues (or so… keep reading).
I really didn’t get to focused on those 3 aspects until August of 2008, since that time I have devoted 110% of my attention to those 3 aspects so I can build up a proper company.
Overview Of 2009
During the year of 2009 I got a few things done;
1. Changed Business Models: I dont make much money at all from YPN, Google Adsense, or anything else like that now. I now make my money from e-commerce stores.
2. DeveloperHut Completed: I still have a bunch of work left to do on this website, however I feel that I have developerhut right were I want it, all I need to do now is increase efficiency, increase marketing, increase quality on products, and add new products. In 2009 I build the whole backend from scratch, added like 10 new products, and got the current system down to a science… in other words I got the website infrastructure finished.
3. Network Of E-Com Sites Done: As of now I have a small network of online stores that are 100% done. It took me all of 2009 to get them set up and turning a profit. I still have lots of work to do, but now I get to focus my attention into marketing them and making more money from them.
The Chart
The chart below is the gross revenue for all of my projects combined. I started this February and some of the chart is wrong, but it is close enough for now (when I get some time I will update the bad code that produces the chart). So the chart below is the months February-December.
Small Recap Of 2009
March: From March – June it was rough. That was the time that rev was low because I was switching from content-based websites to e-commerce stores. March was the month that I first started setting up my network of e-commerce websites. At that time DeveloperHut was still a new company and the backend wasn’t that advanced at all. During that time I spent most of my days working my ass off on coding and building up products, along with diversifying ways that profit comes in.
May: If you haven’t noticed…May was my worst month! The reason is because I was having trouble with a merchant, which made earnings go way down. It took me 3 weeks to find a merchant and get business going again. I have learned a valuable lesson there and I now diversify my merchant accounts.
June – July: I got the merchant problem sorted and started using adwords and SEO to rank my e-commerce stores… thus traffic and sales go up.
August: This was one of my most stressful months, besides the first 5 months of 2009 haha. During this time I diversified my e-commerce stores and broken them down to smaller websites that focus on certain niches within the niche (if that makes sense). During this time I had a small problem with one of my adwords campaign which hurt sales for 2 weeks, which accounts for the slight downside, which also goes into Sept a little. Also during this time I launched most of the major products on DeveloperHut, which meant a LOT of coding.
October: October was a good month, I got everything sorted and sales were pretty steady. However I maxed out Adwords spending for ALL of my stores. I focus on small niches that dont get to much traffic, so its easy for me to max out the traffic I can get from adwords. I have had the same campaigns running since March, so during the time from March – October I was continuously editing my campaigns to increase traffic and decrease the costs, and at the same time making sure that I am profiting.
November – December: Both of these months were pretty good, however I would have liked to have a steady increase in revenue during that time… so I guess I failed there. During this time I was focused on finishing up the DeveloperHut backend so I can hire someone for customer support. I also started getting really heavily into the SEO work for all of my websites, I am guessing that it will take 2-3 months before that work starts to pay off, so sadly revenue didn’t go up that month from all of that work 
So looking at the chart you can say that I had a good year.. well I had a fine year, but I have a lot of work to do before I am happy with my online work. During the months of June – Now I would focus my attention on just one aspect of the business instead of all of the aspects, in other words I was spreading myself to thin. I worked my ass of during that time to automate as much as I can so I can focus on everything else. Because of that problem my revenues from each aspect would fluctuate each month. An example; lets say the DeveloperHut part makes $10,000 per month and the e-commerce stores make $10,000 per month which means that my company makes $20,000 per month. That means that each aspect was making 50% of the total revenue.
Right now each aspect fluctuates every month, I am currently spread to thin and I need to hire someone for customer support so I can focus on the big picture. If I can focus my attention to both aspect equally I know that my business will increase revenue by 40-50% this year. I know this because each aspect fluctuates so much each month. An example is instead of each aspect making $10,000 each which is 50% of the total revenue, but instead of each aspect making 50% of the total revenue every month, it is something like 70/30 one month, and then the very next month it would be like 40/60. The 70 part of the 70/30 of $20,000 is $14000… and the 60 part of the 40/60 is $12000.
So because of each aspect fluctuating (and developing a pattern) I can get a good idea of how much I can make on each aspect if I could focus my attention solely on marketing and building the business. From the above example we have 2 numbers, which are $14000 and $12000. Lets say that I am making $20,000 per month now, and if I max out the marketing for each aspect (and also focus my attention on them) I would be making $26000 per month, which is a 30% increase.
So as I move into the year 2010 I know that I can increase my revenues easily, but I have lots and lots of work to do before I get there. 2009 was a good year because I got my businesses infrastructure completed, now I get to focus my attention to the marketing aspect. However, 2009 was one of the most stressfully years of my life, I worked all the time and was always stressed about something. But as you can see I got everything going well…. now I can relax and have some fun by focusing my attention on the marketing part of the business… which is what I love to do.
So there you go, a recap of last year. Let me know your thoughts, I read all comments posted here 
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You forgot “I also played a shit ton of CoDMW2″
Yeah and COD5, gotta release that stress somehow. You guys arn’t to far behind me for cod6 tho (not you but the others).
Good to see you posting again. As long as you came out in the green or are prepared to go green this year, 2009 was a success.
Good to see you posting again
I think that it was hard year for many of us. Good thing that recessions is going to end soon and maybe we will face some better days this summer.
Sounds like you had a good year overall and you know exactly what needs doing for 2010.
Are you ecommerce sites selling digital products?
Also could you do a post on SEO for ecommerce sites without damaging the reputation of the site if you have time? If you don’t get what i mean ask lol.
Developer Hut looks visually stunning , great job on the website.
Hard work and patience really paid off. Making more improvements on your sites. You really know your way to a great leap on SEO