The Project 24 Timeline
We’re really careful to not be overly rosy in our expectations, but we’re also not overly pessimistic. These are the actions we have taken on our own sites when building them ourselves and the outcomes we’ve seen for our sites and those of many others who have been through this process.
In the early days, don’t worry about income. Don’t even worry too much about how closely your outcomes match the ones here. These are a guideline, an average. That means that about half of sites will be a little below the number, and half will be a little above. Some will underperform and others will outperform significantly.
The primary things you should concern yourself with right now are the action steps! This timeline assumes that you’ve completed all the actions listed in the timeframe given. If you were slower to complete some actions, you’ll be slower to see the outcomes and that’s okay!
If you’re 6-12 months in and you’ve kept up on the actions and you’re not seeing the outcomes here, then it’s probably time to post in the community asking for some feedback. You’ll get all sorts of help identifying what’s holding you back, and have all the tools you’ll need to get back on track!
IMPORTANT LEGAL DISCLAIMER: Income School LLC does not promise or guarantee your results. “Outcomes” listed on this page are merely goals. This timeline should be used only as a way to benchmark and set goals rather than an expectation of success. It is literally impossible to know how your business will perform. We provide information on what has worked for us in the past, and what has worked for other members of Project 24, but your business will only succeed by your hard work and skill. No business is guaranteed to succeed. Not all who start this journey will succeed, but ONLY those who put in the hard work and effort stand a chance at receiving one of the most valuable rewards of their lives. So let’s do this thing!
Month 1
Action to take
Start your website.
What you’ll have done
- Website topic
chosen and site set up - 25 response posts written
- Legal content on your site
- Images added to posts
- Site design
done
Outcomes
Traffic: 0 pageviews
You’ll probably see a few
Income: $0
Month 2
Action to take
Most people will keep up on month #1 fairly easily, but many fall behind in month two as distractions from PUBLISHING CONTENT become more enticing. This is a critical month for getting content published. Don’t let yourself fall behind. There’s a lot of writing to be done this month.
What you’ll have done by the end of the month
- A fully set up website
- Write an additional 25 response posts
- Amazon affiliate links on your site
Outcomes
Traffic: 0 pageviews
You’ll probably start to see a few more visits trickling in and some might be real people, but
Income: $0
Month 3
Action to take
Look through The Blogging System. Make sure you followed the recipe COMPLETELY.
Then, set a publishing routine. We like to keep up what we call publishing hour where we work on content for an hour every weekday. That content can be written, video, podcast, etc.
Continue to add content following your brand plan to fill in your site. 30 articles
What you’ll have done by the end of the month
- A complete seed of a website (completed at the end of last month
- Another 7 pieces of content—Content is still the most important task at this point. Nothing you do will be anywhere near as important as producing helpful blog posts and videos.
Outcomes
Traffic: 50 pageviews
Income: $0
Month 4
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine. It’s the most important thing at this point. You should be publishing at least 7 pieces of content per month.
It’s also time to start thinking about monetization. You’ll probably start getting some traffic at this point, so it’s worth taking some time to monetize that traffic.
Place Google ads on your site following the steps in the Ads Course.
Also, it’s time to start looking for good affiliate products outside of Amazon. Scour through Clickbank, Share a Sale, CJ, and other affiliate networks looking for products you’d recommend to your audience.
What you’ll have done by the end of the month
- 57 pieces of content published
- Ads and Affiliate monetization throughout your site
Outcomes
Traffic: 50 pageviews
Income: $1.50
This income is based on an EPMP (Earnings per Thousand Pageviews) of $15. This is a reasonable average EPMP for sites in these very early stages.
Month 5
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine. You should publish at least 7 pieces of content each month. In your content, give people a reason to visit your more monetized pages—your resources pages and any sales pages for affiliate products.
What you’ll have done
- Around 64 pieces of content on your site
- Ads and Affiliate monetization throughout your site
Outcomes
Traffic: 100 pageviews
Income: $1.50
Month 6
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine. You should publish 7 pieces of content per month. The more content the better, as long as the content is helpful and it’s the stuff people are likely to be searching for online.
What you’ll have done
- Curry Day! At this
point you’re probably earned a total of $5 or more, which is when we celebrate our first milestone—Curry Day! - A well-monetized site with around 71 pieces of content
Outcomes
Traffic: 150 pageviews
Income: $2
Month 7
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine. You should be publishing at least 7 pieces of content per month. Consider hiring freelance writers or otherwise outsourcing some writing. Just make sure YOU do your own search analysis.
Use the course on hiring and training writers in Project 24 if you choose to start outsourcing.
What you’ll have done
- 78 pieces of content on your site
- Ads and Affiliate monetization throughout your site
- A plan for ongoing content creation, whether you do it yourself or manage other writers
Outcomes
Traffic: 375 pageviews
Income: $8
We’ve increased our anticipated EPMP from $15 per 1,000 pageviews, to $22 EPMP as you’ve had some time to figure out better monetization.
Month 8
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine. You should produce at least 7 pieces of content per month.
At this point, it’s worthwhile to start building an email list in preparation for launching an info product.
Follow the email marketing 101 course in Project 24 to set up your first email list and make a lead magnet to attract users to your list.
What you’ll have done
- Lots of content! Depending on whether or not you started outsourcing writing, you should have 85 total pieces of content published
- A well-monetized site
- An email list set up with a basic drip campaign
- A lead magnet to attract users to your email list
Outcomes
Traffic: 625 pageviews
At this point, you’ll start to see real traffic growth. Your first 30 articles are 5-7 months old.
Income: $15
Month 9
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine. You should produce at least 7 pieces of content per month. Every new piece of content is another opportunity to attract visitors to your site.
Use your email drip campaign to boost your income. You could sell people on an affiliate product you recommend on your site. Direct them to a sales page for that product.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Ad and Affiliate Monetization
- A growing email list
- 92 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 1500 pageviews
Income: $33
You may start to see your EPMP rise as your email drip campaign directs people to well-monetized pages on your site.
Month 10
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine. You should publish at least 7 pieces of content per month.
This month, go sign up for Ezoic ads. Follow the steps in the Ads Course. Ezoic officially requires 10,000 pageviews, but approves some sites with as few as 3,000 pageviews.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Affiliate Monetization throughout your site
- Improved ad monetization with Ezoic
- A growing email list with a great lead magnet and basic drip campaign
- 99 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 2500 pageviews
At this point, you’ll start to see real traffic growth. Your first 30 articles are 5-7 months old.
Income: $55
Month 11
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine.
Fine tune your email lead magnet and drip campaign. At this point, you may start to figure out which emails in your drip campaign work best. Use that to tweak the rest of your drip campaign.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Optimized Ad and Affiliate Monetization
- A growing email list directing users to well-monetized pages on your site
- 106 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 4500 pageviews
Income: $99
Your EPMP should go up again this month since you replaced Google Adsense with Ezoic.
Month 12
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine.
More and more articles will be hitting their traffic stride. We usually find that it takes approximately 8 months after an article is published for it to reach 90% of its max height in the search engine rankings, so most of the content you wrote in the beginning should be hitting now.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Optimized Ad and Affiliate Monetization
- A growing email list directing users to well-monetized pages on your site
- 113 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 6,000 pageviews
Income: $132
Month 13
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Optimized Ad and Affiliate Monetization
- A growing email list directing users to well-monetized pages on your site
- 120 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 9,000 pageviews
Income: $140
If you feel that you’re falling behind on the outcomes, look to the center column. Did you put in the work consistently over time in order to get the outcome desired? If you haven’t, then adjust your expectations. If you have and you’re just not seeing the result, consider posting your site in the community and ask for feedback.
Month 14
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine. We can lower our publishing rate to 5 pieces of content this month as you focus on a product.
Start working on a course or info product that you could launch using your site, email list, and YouTube channel.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Optimized Ad and Affiliate Monetization
- A growing email list directing users to well-monetized pages on your site
- 127 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 13,000 pageviews
Income: $300
If you feel that you’re falling behind on the outcomes, look to the center column. Did you put in the work consistently over time in order to get the outcome desired? If you haven’t, then adjust your expectations. If you have and you’re just not seeing the result, consider posting your site in the community and ask for feedback.
Month 15
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine. We can lower our publishing rate to 5 pieces of content this month as you focus on monetization.
Continue to work on a course or info product that you could launch using your site, email list, and YouTube channel.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Optimized Ad and Affiliate Monetization
- A growing email list directing users to well-monetized pages on your site
- 134 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 16,000 pageviews
Income: $600
If you feel that you’re falling behind on the outcomes, look to the center column. Did you put in the work consistently over time in order to get the outcome desired? If you haven’t, then adjust your expectations. If you have and you’re just not seeing the result, consider posting your site in the community and ask for feedback.
Month 16
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine. We’re only anticipating 5 pieces of content being published this month as you focus on your launch.
Launch your course or info product once you hit 50,000 pageviews per month on your site.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Optimized Ad and Affiliate Monetization
- A growing email list directing users to well-monetized pages on your site
- A course or info product ready to launch to boost your EPMP
- 141 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 20,000 pageviews
Income: $900
Your EPMP will rise again once you launch your course or info product.
If you feel that you’re falling behind on the outcomes, look to the center column. Did you put in the work consistently over time in order to get the outcome desired? If you haven’t, then adjust your expectations. If you have and you’re just not seeing the result, consider posting your site in the community and ask for feedback.
Month 17
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine.
Optimize your sales funnel for your info product or course. Pay attention to what is working best and use that to improve sales conversion.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Optimized Ad and Affiliate Monetization
- A growing email list directing users to well-monetized pages on your site, including your course or info product
- 148 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 24,000 pageviews
Income: $1,200
If you feel that you’re falling behind on the outcomes, look to the center column. Did you put in the work consistently over time in order to get the outcome desired? If you haven’t, then adjust your expectations. If you have and you’re just not seeing the result, consider posting your site in the community and ask for feedback.
Month 18
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine.
Work on your course or info product as needed.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Optimized Ad and Affiliate Monetization
- A growing email list directing users to well-monetized pages on your site, especially your course or info product
- A course or info product launched and boosting your EPMP
- 155 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 29,000 pageviews
Income: $1,500
If you feel that you’re falling behind on the outcomes, look to the center column. Did you put in the work consistently over time in order to get the outcome desired? If you haven’t, then adjust your expectations. If you have and you’re just not seeing the result, consider posting your site in the community and ask for feedback.
Month 19
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine.
Work on your course or info product as needed.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Optimized Ad and Affiliate Monetization
- A growing email list directing users to well-monetized pages on your site, especially your course or info product
- A course or info product launched and boosting your EPMP
- 162 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 35,000 pageviews
Income: $1,800
If you feel that you’re falling behind on the outcomes, look to the center column. Did you put in the work consistently over time in order to get the outcome desired? If you haven’t, then adjust your expectations. If you have and you’re just not seeing the result, consider posting your site in the community and ask for feedback.
Month 20
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine.
Work on your course or info product as needed.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Optimized Ad and Affiliate Monetization
- Registered for ads on AdThrive
- A growing email list directing users to well-monetized pages on your site, especially your course or info product
- A course or info product launched and boosting your EPMP
- 169 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 40,000 pageviews
Income: $2,100.00
We may see a slight boost in EPMP again with the change to AdThrive. At very least, you’ll get a much better ad experience on your site.
If you feel that you’re falling behind on the outcomes, look to the center column. Did you put in the work consistently over time in order to get the outcome desired? If you haven’t, then adjust your expectations. If you have and you’re just not seeing the result, consider posting your site in the community and ask for feedback.
Month 21
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine.
Work on your course or info product as needed.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Optimized Ad and Affiliate Monetization
- A growing email list directing users to well-monetized pages on your site, especially your course or info product
- A course or info product launched and boosting your EPMP
- 176 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 45,000 pageviews
Income: $2,400.00
If you feel that you’re falling behind on the outcomes, look to the center column. Did you put in the work consistently over time in order to get the outcome desired? If you haven’t, then adjust your expectations. If you have and you’re just not seeing the result, consider posting your site in the community and ask for feedback.
Month 22
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine.
Work on your course or info product as needed.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Optimized Ad and Affiliate Monetization
- A growing email list directing users to well-monetized pages on your site, especially your course or info product
- A course or info product launched and boosting your EPMP
- 183 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 50,000 pageviews
Income: $2,700
If you feel that you’re falling behind on the outcomes, look to the center column. Did you put in the work consistently over time in order to get the outcome desired? If you haven’t, then adjust your expectations. If you have and you’re just not seeing the result, consider posting your site in the community and ask for feedback.
Month 23
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine.
Work on your course or info product as needed.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Optimized Ad and Affiliate Monetization
- A growing email list directing users to well-monetized pages on your site, especially your course or info product
- A course or info product launched and boosting your EPMP
- 190 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 76,000
Income: $3,000.00
As your site grows in authority, you’ll likely continue to see EPMP improvements.
If you feel that you’re falling behind on the outcomes, look to the center column. Did you put in the work consistently over time in order to get the outcome desired? If you haven’t, then adjust your expectations. If you have and you’re just not seeing the result, consider posting your site in the community and ask for feedback.
Month 24
Action to take
Continue your publishing routine.
Work on your course or info product as needed.
What you’ll have done
- An ongoing publishing routine on your website
- Optimized Ad and Affiliate Monetization
- A growing email list directing users to well-monetized pages on your site, especially your course or info product
- A course or info product launched and boosting your EPMP
- 197 pieces of content published
Outcomes
Traffic: 109,290
Your traffic will likely continue to rise as more of the content you’ve been creating gets traffic.
Your YouTube channel and email list should be growing. This will likely continue for years if you keep adding content.
Income: $3,300
As you establish more authority on your site and channel, your EPMP will also likely continue to rise.