Building a blog that earns passive income sounds simple in theory — write good content, rank on Google, and collect commissions.
But when you’re just starting out, the numbers can be humbling.
In this post, I’ll share my full Project 24 income report and website analytics for February, including traffic, revenue from Google AdSense and Amazon Affiliates, and lessons I’ve learned after publishing 60+ blog posts in my first 5 months.
If you’ve been following the Income School Project 24 plan or you’re just curious how long it actually takes to earn your first few dollars online, this breakdown will give you a realistic view of what to expect — the good, the bad, and the painfully slow.
🧭 Quick Recap: What Is Project 24?
Project 24, created by Income School, is a 24-month plan designed to help you replace your full-time income with online income. The strategy focuses on building niche websites through SEO, helpful content, and organic traffic rather than relying on paid ads or social media.
The “24” refers to the goal of reaching a full-time income within 24 months.
In my case, I started my Project 24 site on September 7th, with my first post published on September 9th. That makes the site roughly five to six months old at the time of this February report.
So how’s it going? Let’s dive into the numbers.
📊 February Website Analytics
Here’s a snapshot of my site’s performance for the month of February:
- Total Pageviews: 446
- Average Time on Page: 1 minute, 28 seconds
- Bounce Rate: 83%
- Exit Rate: 61%
While those numbers might look modest, they’re actually encouraging for a website that’s less than half a year old. Every visitor, every click, and every minute spent on-page represents early traction — the hardest part of any blog’s journey.
All of this data comes directly from Google Analytics, one of the first tools every new website owner should install. It’s essential for tracking user behavior, understanding where your traffic comes from, and spotting opportunities for growth.
🌐 Traffic Breakdown by Source
Let’s take a closer look at how people are finding my site.
- Direct Traffic: 49%
- Social Traffic: 37%
- Organic Search: 13%
- Referral Traffic: 1%
That means nearly half of my visitors are typing my URL directly into their browsers or clicking saved links. The rest are discovering me through social media and search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
Interestingly, Bing seems to like my content more than Google right now — a common pattern for newer sites. Bing tends to index and rank small blogs faster, while Google usually takes a few extra months to trust new domains.
📱 My Social Traffic Strategy (and the Plugin That Helped)
About 83 of my 222 users came from social platforms like YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
I’ve been experimenting with a WordPress plugin called Blog2Social, which automates social media posting. The plugin offers a free 30-day premium trial that lets you schedule blog post shares across multiple platforms.
Here’s how I use it:
- Schedule 15–20 posts per day to share automatically across Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
- Each post includes a featured image and short caption linking back to my blog.
- It creates consistent visibility without me having to manually post throughout the day.
Is it working? It’s hard to say for sure yet. But for a low-effort way to stay active on social, it’s been worth testing.
💡 Pro Tip:
When you’re starting out, automation tools like Blog2Social can keep your brand visible even when you’re not actively creating new content. Just don’t rely solely on social traffic — the long-term goal is to grow organic search through SEO.
🔍 Organic Search and SEO Progress
Organic traffic — people finding your site through search engines — made up about 13% of my visitors in February. That might sound small, but for a 5-month-old website, it’s perfectly normal.
Here’s the thing: SEO is slow.
Search engines don’t instantly trust new sites, even if your content is great.
According to Income School’s Project 24 timeline, it usually takes 8–12 months before you see significant rankings. So while my numbers are still low, I’m already seeing traction from Bing, Yahoo, and Google searches.
This is a positive sign that my posts are starting to index and build topical authority — something that compounds over time.
📈 User Behavior Insights
A deeper look into Google Analytics shows how visitors behave once they land on my site:
- Average Session Duration: 1m 28s
- Pages per Session: 1.2
- New Users: 222
These numbers tell me two things:
- Visitors are finding content relevant enough to stay for at least a minute (a good sign for a new site).
- Most users are new — which means my content is reaching fresh audiences each month.
My next goal is to improve pages per session by adding more internal links between articles and creating series-based content to encourage binge reading.
💸 Income Report: How Much I’ve Earned So Far
Let’s talk numbers — because that’s why you’re really here.
As of March 8th, here’s my total income from the site:
- Google AdSense: $2.57
- Amazon Affiliate Commission: $0.62
- Total Earnings: $3.19
That’s right — after 60 blog posts, I’ve officially earned $3.19 online.
It’s small, but it’s progress.
Someone clicked one of my affiliate links and bought the movie A Star Is Born instead of my niche product. I earned a commission of $0.62 from that single purchase.
It might sound funny, but that sale represented something important: proof of concept.
The system works. People click links, buy products, and commissions are paid.
⚙️ Why the Earnings Are So Low (and Why That’s Okay)
It’s easy to feel discouraged by small numbers, but this phase is part of the process.
A few factors are keeping income low right now:
- Site age: Only 5–6 months old; most posts aren’t ranking yet.
- Content gap: Half my 60 posts were written recently (January onward), so they haven’t had time to gain traction.
- Niche depth: I niched down, but not deeply enough to dominate a micro-topic.
If I could redo it, I’d go one level deeper in my niche — something that allows me to own a tiny corner of the internet before expanding outward.
💡 Want to fast-track your content monetization?
👉 Join the Platform-Proof Profits Membership — where I share my full systems for creating content, growing traffic, and monetizing with affiliate offers and digital products.
🧰 Hiring Writers and Testing AI Content
Before my knee surgery, I decided to outsource some blog content to speed up production.
Here’s what I tried:
- Human writer: Produces good-quality posts that require minimal editing.
- AI writer (via a content writing service): Mixed results.
I paid $66 for AI-generated posts, but the output needed heavy editing. It read like someone translated their native language into English, then ran it through a sentence spinner to make it “unique.”
Lesson learned: AI tools are great assistants, but not replacements. You still need a human touch for clarity, context, and SEO optimization.
🎯 My Goals Moving Forward
Here’s what’s next for my Project 24 journey:
- Reach 100 blog posts — consistency compounds.
- Continue testing AI-assisted writing (with strict editing).
- Improve on-page SEO with better internal linking and headings.
- Expand into YouTube content to diversify traffic sources.
I also started a second website in January, though it’s too new to analyze yet. The plan is to focus on my main site until I hit 100 posts, then shift partial attention to the new project.
🧩 Lessons Learned After 5 Months with Project 24
1. Don’t Judge Early Numbers
Low earnings don’t mean failure — they mean you’re still in the data-collection phase.
2. Publish Consistently
Momentum is everything. When I took two months off, my progress stalled.
3. Track Analytics Early
Google Analytics helps identify what’s working and what’s not.
4. Niche Down Deeper
Dominating a micro-topic accelerates traffic and authority.
5. Be Patient
SEO results follow the 6–12 month rule. You’ll earn small at first, but growth is exponential once posts mature.
🧠 Monetization Outlook
Even though my earnings are tiny right now, they’ll multiply as my content matures. Here’s why:
- Each post is a digital asset that can earn indefinitely.
- As my domain authority grows, each new post will rank faster.
- Once traffic increases, AdSense and affiliate clicks compound.
This is the foundation of make money online systems — building once, earning repeatedly.
🏁 Final Thoughts: The Slow Start That Builds Fast Later
Earning $3.19 after 60 blog posts might not sound impressive, but it’s a milestone every creator remembers. It proves the concept works — the system just needs time.
Every post I publish, every analytic I review, and every tiny commission earned brings me one step closer to long-term digital income.
If you’re in your first few months of blogging, don’t quit.
The traffic trickles before it floods.
🚀 Next Steps
✅ Join my free webclass to learn how to turn your content into cash—without going viral or chasing brand deals → https://www.platformproof.com/
✅ Subscribe on YouTube for transparent updates on my Project 24 journey, SEO experiments, and digital product strategies.
✅ Join the Platform-Proof Profits Membership to access templates, automations, and monetization systems that help you grow faster.