Project 24 Income School 15 Month Update of 4 Sites

Fifteen months into Project 24 by Income School and four active niche sites later, here is a real look at what the numbers actually say. No cherry-picked screenshots. No “I’m making $10,000 a month” headline designed to get clicks. Just four sites at different stages, different niches, different themes, and very different results, laid out one by one so you can see what actually moved the needle and what did not.

The creator behind this update joined Project 24 on September 7, 2018, after watching Income School’s YouTube channel and deciding that Jim and Ricky were teaching blogging the right way. No black-hat SEO. No backlink schemes. Just creating content that answers real questions, letting Google find it, and building passive income that compounds over time. Fifteen months in, the results are a study in what happens when you run four experiments at the same time with the same methodology but different execution.

What You’ll Walk Out With

A clear picture of what 15 months of Project 24 actually looks like across four real sites
Why keyword research quality is the single biggest gap between Site 1 and Site 4
How a seasonal niche quietly tanks your traffic six months a year even when you are doing everything else right
What the Avocado WordPress theme does to bounce rate compared to X Theme (the real numbers)
Why 10 well-researched posts can outperform 45 rushed ones
The Blog to Social plugin strategy that got Facebook and LinkedIn sending referral traffic without a single paid ad
How to know whether the online income path you are on is actually suited to your skills and schedule, using finder.platformproof.com

What Is Project 24 by Income School?

Project 24 is a course, or more accurately a collection of courses, created by Jim Harmer and Ricky Kesler under the Income School brand. The name comes from the core promise: build a blog to the point that it replaces your full-time income within 24 months. When this creator joined in September 2018, there were 60 steps in the blogging roadmap. Since then, Income School has expanded the curriculum to include a YouTube mini-course, a Pinterest course, early access to their podcast before it goes public, and the free Avocado WordPress theme, which turns out to matter more than you might think.

The core methodology is straightforward: find low-competition search queries, write thorough content that genuinely answers them, publish consistently, and let Google reward you with organic traffic over time. No link building. No keyword stuffing. No gaming the algorithm. That simplicity is exactly what attracted this creator to Project 24 over other courses that were teaching tactics Google would eventually punish anyway.

Site 1: The Largest Site (100 Posts, Seasonal Niche)

Site 1 is the oldest and most built-out of the four. It has roughly 100 blog posts and around 30 YouTube videos feeding it traffic from a second channel. Over the 15-month reporting period it logged more than 13,000 to 14,000 total pageviews with 9,000 unique visitors, an average time on page of 53 seconds, a bounce rate of 49.86 percent, and an exit rate of 55.25 percent. Those bounce and exit numbers are notably good compared to the other three sites, and the reason comes down almost entirely to the WordPress theme.

This site runs the Avocado theme, the free WordPress theme Income School built specifically for Project 24 members. If you are a member it costs nothing. If you are not, it runs around $100. The difference between Avocado and the X Theme used on Sites 2 and 4 shows up in the bounce rate data in a way that is hard to ignore: Avocado sites in this update sit around 49 to 55 percent bounce rate while X Theme sites are running 86 to 90 percent. That is not a small difference. It suggests the Avocado theme keeps readers on the page long enough to find a second article, which is exactly what you need for ad revenue and affiliate conversions.

The traffic picture on Site 1 has an important warning built into it: the niche is seasonal. Traffic and commissions drop noticeably from roughly February through June each year, then recover as the buying season opens. This creator picked the niche after doing research in summer, when traffic was naturally high, and did not realize how much it would slow in the off-months. If you are choosing a niche right now, this is a real consideration. An evergreen niche will not give you this problem. A seasonal one might leave you wondering why your traffic disappeared in March when the answer is simply the calendar.

The keyword research quality also improved visibly over time. Looking at the traffic graph, there is a clear uptick around the January to August window that corresponds with the creator getting more disciplined about choosing keywords. The early posts were written fast, chasing volume, without enough attention to competition level. The later posts targeted more carefully and the traffic data reflects it. Yahoo was the top organic search source for a period, which is a red flag: it means the content was not yet ranking where Google could see it, and Google is the engine that actually delivers buyers at scale.

Site 2: The Broader Niche Site (45 Posts)

Site 2 launched October 24, 2018, just weeks after Site 1. The first 30 posts were not completed until January 5, 2019, which is why the traffic graph shows almost no activity in the first few months. Once the content was in place, traffic began climbing in a way that is meaningful: 5,673 unique visitors and 5,318 pageviews over the measurement period, with an average time on page of 3 minutes and 8 to 11 seconds. That time-on-page number is five times higher than Site 1, which tells you the audience for this niche is engaged and reading thoroughly rather than scanning and bouncing.

The downside is that Site 2 uses X Theme, and the bounce rate shows it: 90.87 percent bounce and 88.22 percent exit rate. Readers are finding what they came for and leaving. That is not necessarily a disaster for affiliate income if the page they land on converts, but it does limit the passive income potential that comes from readers exploring multiple articles per session. The plan is to migrate this site to the Avocado theme, which should bring those numbers down significantly based on what Site 1 demonstrates.

The good news is that this niche is broader and less seasonal than Site 1. It covers something that a larger audience needs year-round, and the commission data over the reporting period reflects that. Google organic traffic is in the top position for this site, which is exactly the goal. The traffic source breakdown shows Google leading, followed by direct visits, then Facebook from the Blog to Social plugin, then Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo. YouTube also sends a small amount of traffic even though the YouTube presence for this site is minimal, only around 10 videos that have not been updated in over a year.

Site 3: The Local Listing Experiment (Learn Kenosha)

Site 3 is the most different of the four because it started with a completely different business model. Called Learn Kenosha, it began as a local listing directory: the creator drove around Kenosha, photographed nearly every restaurant in the city, and imported business data from a library database that covers restaurants across the United States. The original plan was to sell monthly directory listings or ad space to local businesses at around $100 per month per listing. The problem was the classic chicken-and-egg situation: it is hard to sell a local business on paying for visibility when you cannot yet prove the traffic exists.

Starting in January, blog posts were added to build organic content alongside the directory, but fewer than 20 posts were created before momentum slowed. This site uses the ListingPro WordPress theme, which is purpose-built for directory sites but comes with a higher bounce rate than Avocado. Traffic sources include a healthy mix of direct, organic search, social, and referral, and the Blog to Social plugin is running on a 3 to 4 times per week posting schedule to Facebook and LinkedIn, which is why both of those platforms show up in the referral data.

For a local site, almost all traffic that matters comes from the United States, specifically from the Kenosha area. International traffic on a site like this is mostly noise and does not convert into directory inquiries or local business leads. The lesson from Site 3 is that pivoting a listing site into a content site mid-flight is harder than it looks, and maintaining a publishing schedule across four sites simultaneously when you work a full-time day job is genuinely difficult. Something has to give, and for this site it was post frequency.

Site 4: The Pound-for-Pound Best Performer (10 Posts)

Site 4 is the most instructive data point in the entire update, and the creator knows it. This site has only 10 blog posts. It has no images beyond a basic black-and-white logo. There are no ads on it. No active marketing of any kind has been done for it. And it is outperforming Site 1 on a per-post basis by a wide margin. Over the reporting period it has nearly 6,000 pageviews, 5,300 unique visitors, an average time on page of around 3 minutes, a bounce rate of 88.24 percent, and an exit rate of 86.67 percent.

The traffic sources for Site 4 are almost entirely Google organic, with a large lead over everything else. Direct traffic is second. Then Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and a tiny amount of Facebook from readers who independently shared the content, not from any active social distribution. The creator has done nothing to drive traffic here, yet Google is sending visitors consistently. That is the Project 24 methodology working exactly as described: write content that answers real search queries well, and the search engines will find it.

The reason Site 4 performs this well with so few posts is keyword research quality. By the time this site was being built, the creator had gone through the same process on three previous sites, made the mistakes, and learned from them. The posts on Site 4 were written with better targeting, lower competition, and clearer search intent than the early posts on Site 1. The data is direct evidence of the learning curve: more experience produces better keyword decisions, which produces better organic results, which produces more traffic per post.

The site also uses the X Theme, which is why the bounce rate is in the high 80s rather than the low 50s you see on Site 1 with Avocado. That is one more reason to migrate this site to Avocado: if the content is already working well enough to attract Google traffic on its own, fixing the theme could meaningfully improve time on site and the number of pages visitors read per session.

The Blog to Social Plugin: Automating Social Distribution

One tactic that shows up across multiple sites in this update is the Blog to Social WordPress plugin. The setup is simple: connect your social media accounts once, and every time you publish a new post it gets automatically distributed to all of them. For Sites 1 and 3, the creator also configured Blog to Social to send repeat posts to Facebook and LinkedIn on a schedule of 3 to 4 times per week, which is why both platforms appear consistently in the referral traffic data across multiple sites.

The result is a passive social media presence that requires no manual work after the initial setup. You publish a post, the plugin handles syndication. Old posts cycle back through Facebook and LinkedIn on a schedule. For a single creator managing four sites while working full time, this kind of automation is not optional, it is required. The YouTube channels attached to two of these sites also drive referral traffic, even small channels with infrequent uploads, which confirms that a multi-channel presence compounds over time in ways that are hard to see in month one but show up clearly at the 15-month mark.

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Honest Drawbacks of the Project 24 Approach at 15 Months

Project 24 is not a fast path to income, and the data in this update makes that clear. Fifteen months in, Site 1 is showing an uptick in traffic and commissions. The others are still building. If you need to replace your income in 90 days, this is not the model for you. The promise in the name refers to 24 months for a reason, and even that is an optimistic target for someone managing four sites at once while working full time.

Keyword research is harder than the course makes it sound in the beginning. Every one of these four sites shows a clear before-and-after in the traffic data that corresponds with when the creator started taking keyword research more seriously. The early posts on Site 1 targeted keywords that were either too competitive or too low in search volume to move the needle. That does not mean the work was wasted, but it does mean months of effort produced less traffic than it should have. Getting this right from post one matters enormously over a 24-month timeline.

Seasonal niches are a hidden trap. You can pick a niche that seems evergreen when you research it during peak season and not realize until February that you have built something that is quiet for half the year. The creator here discovered this with Site 1 only after months of posting. It is not a fatal flaw, but it does mean lower income during off months and a more volatile traffic pattern than a true evergreen niche would produce.

Managing four sites simultaneously is the kind of ambition that sounds strategic and ends up spreading effort too thin. Site 3 has fewer than 20 posts after more than a year because maintaining publishing momentum across multiple properties at once is genuinely hard. In hindsight, one or two well-executed sites might have produced more total traffic than four partially built ones. If you are just starting, there is a strong argument for going deep on one site before starting a second.

What the 15-Month Data Actually Proves

Taken together, these four sites prove several things that the Project 24 course teaches but that you can only really believe after seeing in your own analytics. First, keyword research quality has a direct and measurable impact on organic traffic per post. Site 4 has 10 posts and nearly as much traffic as Site 2 with 45, because the 10 were chosen better. Second, the WordPress theme you use affects whether readers stay long enough to find a second article, and that matters for ad revenue in a real way. Third, Google organic traffic is the goal, and when you have it, you can see it clearly as a dominant source in your analytics, not buried behind Yahoo and direct visits.

The geography of traffic also confirms what the course teaches: US, UK, Canada, India, and Australia are the markets that convert. Every site in this update shows those five countries at the top of its traffic breakdown, and that is not an accident. The content was created in English, targeting search queries that people in those markets use, and the result is an audience that is both engaged and willing to spend money to solve problems.

Find Your X

The question this 15-month update raises for anyone watching is not whether Project 24 works. It does, and the data is real. The question is whether it is the right model for your specific situation, your schedule, your patience for slow compounding results, and your ability to do keyword research consistently over 24-plus months without giving up. If you want a clear answer on whether blogging, affiliate income, YouTube, or something else altogether fits how you actually want to work, take five minutes at finder.platformproof.com and let the quiz match you to the right path based on your real answers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Project 24 and who created it?

Project 24 is a course and community created by Jim Harmer and Ricky Kesler of Income School. The name refers to the goal of replacing your full-time income within 24 months through blogging and content creation focused on organic search traffic. The curriculum includes a step-by-step blogging roadmap, a YouTube mini-course, a Pinterest course, the free Avocado WordPress theme for members, and a podcast that gives members early access to episodes before public release.

How long does it realistically take to see traffic with Project 24?

The data in this 15-month update shows that meaningful organic traffic takes time to build. Site 2 showed almost no traffic for its first several months because the first 30 posts were not published until January 2019, several months after launch. Site 4, which was built with better keyword research from the start, saw Google organic traffic become the clear leader relatively quickly despite having only 10 posts. Most Project 24 members report seeing real movement between months 6 and 12 when they are publishing consistently and targeting low-competition keywords correctly.

Is the Avocado WordPress theme worth using?

Based on the data in this update, yes. Site 1 using Avocado has a bounce rate of 49.86 percent and an exit rate of 55.25 percent. Sites 2 and 4 using X Theme have bounce rates of 88 to 90 percent and exit rates in the same range. That difference is significant for ad revenue (which depends on pageviews, not just sessions) and for internal linking strategies that move readers through your site. For Project 24 members the theme is free. For non-members it runs around $100.

Should you build one blog or multiple blogs at the same time?

The experience documented in this update suggests starting with one and going deep before adding a second. Managing four sites simultaneously while working full time meant Site 3 had fewer than 20 posts after over a year, and Site 4 was started with strong keyword research but then largely left alone. The sites that got the most attention produced the most results. Spreading effort across four properties is viable but slows each one down in ways that compound over a 24-month timeline.

What happens if you pick a seasonal niche for your blog?

A seasonal niche will deliver uneven traffic and income throughout the year. Site 1 in this update is a seasonal niche, and the traffic graph shows clear dips during the February through June window each year. The creator picked the niche after researching during the summer peak and did not realize the off-season effect until later. This does not make the site unviable, but it does mean planning around lower income months and not interpreting a seasonal dip as a sign that your strategy is broken.

What is the Blog to Social plugin and how does it help?

Blog to Social is a WordPress plugin that automatically distributes your published posts to connected social media accounts. In this update, it is used across multiple sites to send new and scheduled existing posts to Facebook and LinkedIn. The result is consistent social referral traffic that requires no manual posting after the initial setup. For Site 3, posts were going out 3 to 4 times per week automatically, which is why Facebook and LinkedIn appear regularly in the referral breakdown despite no active social media management.

Which countries should you target for affiliate blog traffic?

All four sites in this update show the same top countries: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, and Australia. These are English-speaking or English-comfortable markets where readers are willing to spend money to solve problems, which is exactly what affiliate marketing requires. Traffic from outside these markets tends to be lower-converting regardless of volume. If your analytics show strong traffic from markets where purchasing power is low or where the products you promote are not easily accessible, that traffic will not translate into commissions at the same rate.

Do you need a YouTube channel alongside your blog for Project 24 to work?

No, but it helps. Site 4 in this update has no active YouTube presence and is still the strongest organic performer pound-for-pound. Sites 1 and 2 have YouTube channels feeding them additional traffic, and YouTube appears in their referral source data even for a channel with no face on camera. Income School added a YouTube mini-course to Project 24 because video content creates a second organic discovery channel that compounds with your blog content. It is not required to make the blogging side work, but adding it creates another compounding asset over the same timeline.

Sources

Income School YouTube channel – Project 24 overview and methodology
Income School / Project 24 – incomeschool.com (course platform)
Avocado WordPress theme – free for Project 24 members, approximately $100 for non-members
Blog to Social WordPress plugin – automated social syndication
Google Analytics – traffic and engagement data referenced in the video
Google Search Console – organic click data referenced in the video