Every month I publish an income report…why? Good question 🙂

1. Accountability

With all the shiny objects out there it’s easy to spend WAY more than you’re earning. Luckily I realized this early on and I’ve kept detailed records of my expenses ever since. That being said, I know that there are certain expenses that are NECESSARY when running a business. As much as I don’t want to pay for them, I need to pay for my email autoresponder, website hosting, and video hosting every month. It’s just a part of doing business. There are other things that I buy as well, but I try my best to keep my expenses SIGNIFICANTLY LESS than my revenue. If I can do that then I’m ahead of the game.

2. Integrity

On my show I ask my guests a lot of personal questions. One that frequently comes up is “How much do you make?”. I feel like I need to reveal my own income if I’m going to be asking others the same question. It only seems right.

3. Perspective

There are a lot of online marketers out there who fake-it-till-they-make-it. In other words, they fudge their numbers and exaggerate their earnings in order to establish false authority in their niche. My goal is that by watching my income grow slowly over time you’ll realize that there is no get-rich-quick button.

Here’s my results for August, 2017

22,535 page views (-1,138  from July)

38,130  Youtube channel views (+4,848 from July)

169,432 Youtube minutes watched (-4,317 from July)

Email subscribers: 23,398 (-312 subscribers from July)

Expenses

Virtual assistant: $800 – I have an assistant help with all my promotions, including copywriting, scheduling, and posting.

Sales page design: $688.33 – This is the total cost for the FE and OTO sales pages for Social Traffic System

Facebook ads: $388.54 – I’ve been experimenting with FB ads on my JV promos, doing giveaways of IM products, and testing other niches

Copywriting: $450 – We had a copywriter do our sales copy for the September launch of Social Traffic System

Aweber: $197 – This is my list building software that allows me to email everyone when there’s a new interview or review

Zapier: $103.60 – A tool I use to automate my business

Screencast: $99 – I use this to host little videos and images for communicating with partners and my VA

Paypal fees: $78.62

Prizes from Autonars launch: $75 – A late prize

ZenDesk: $50 – Brett and I use this for our helpdesk for our launches

Internet: $50 – This is what I pay for my fiber Internet in Turkey

Gusto: $45 – This is the company I use for my SCORP payroll

Monthly phone fees: $30

ManyChat: $30 – A service that I use to build a Facebook messenger list

Amazon S3: $27.93 – I use this to host images and videos

Jvzoo seller fees: $24.30

Resell Rights Weekly: $19.95 – Reoccurring membership fee for the bonuses I add from my interviews and reviews

Godaddy: $16.27 – Domain name registrations for Profit Canvas

Audible: $15.77 – Business books to further my education

iCloud: $9.99 – I use this to store my documents online

Skype: $9.99 for premium – I do all my interviews with Skype and Ecamm call recorder on a Mac.

Vault Press: $5 – A quick and easy tool that I use to backup my website

Google Chrome Store: $5 – The cost to register to add an app to the Google Chrome store

Total expenses: $3,219.29 (+$1,751.64 spent compared to July)

Revenue

Quick Start Challenge: $3,017.50 from review and interview with Dean Holland

OmniEngine: $2,520.66 from review and interview with Seun Ogundele

Affiliate Rebirth: $1,058.43 from review and interview with Greg Kononenko

Vizully: $1,030.90 from review and interview with Brett Ingram

Chrome Engage: $993.76 from review and interview with Shane Brooks

AdReel: $930 from review and interview with Ryan Phillips

SerpScribe: $887.78 from review and interview with Ben Murray

Optin Chat: $698.04 from review and interview with Gaurav Madaan

Viddictive: $681 from review and interview with Mario Brown

WP Content Guard: $637.43 from review

WP Suite: $626.74 from review

Promoyze: $573.50 from review and interview with Andrew Darius

vRankerPro: $570.84 from review and interview with Andy Black

Product Dyno: $510.60 from review and interview with Phil Benham

SpeakEZ: $469.40 from review and interview with Declan Mc

Consistent Sales System: $454.97 from review and interview with Kevin Fahey

Outgrow: $452.27 from review and interview with Pratham Mittal

Animatio: $427.40 from review and interview with Mark Bishop

PBN Builder: $303.94 from review and interview with Joshua Zamora

Ascend Pages: $295.50 from review and interview with Andrew Darius

Social Traffic Jacker: $272.50 from review and interview with Tony Hayes

Viddyoze 2.0: $140.60 from review and interview with Viddyoze team

Backlink Machine: $140.25 from review and interview with Ankur Shukla

Easy VSL 2.0: $115 from review and interview with Mark Thompson

InstaEasy: $105 from review and interview with Luke Maguire

Fan Marketer: $103 from review and interview with Dan Green

Commissionology: $102.57 from review and interview with Michael Cheney

Arbitrage Underdog 5.0: $93.44 from review and interview with Tom E.

Growii: $80.94 from review and interview with Stefan Ciancio

Video Spin Blaster Pro: $80.50 from review and interview with Ali G

Video Chief: $76.86 from review and interview with Joshua Zamora

Fan Contact: $58.70 from review and interview with Andrew Darius

Social Kickstart: $49 from review and interview with Mark Thompson

Viral Video Stores: $48.50 from review and interview with Neil Napier

Instant Spokesperson: $48 from review

Drop Mock Video: $46.11 from review and interview with Lee Pennington

Simply Viral: $45 from review and interview with Abhi Dwivedi

Auto Emulate: $42.50 from review and interview with Paul Lynch

Viral Loop: $37 from review and interview with Cindy Donovan

Instamate 2.0: $37 from review and interview with Luke Maguire

InstaSuite (CLOSED): $37 from webinar with Neil Napier

Jvzoo Academy: $35.70 from review and interview with Sam Bakker

UltraVid: $35.44 from review and interview with Radu Hahaianu

Sellosity: $35.25 from review and interview with Sean Donahoe

Tuberank Jeet 3: $33.58 from review

Thrive Leads: $33.50 from review and interview with Shane Melaugh

Repwarn reseller $33.50 from review and interview with Walt Bayliss

Flipp Me: $32.88 from review and interview with Art Flair

Mail X: $29.94 from review and interview with Han Fan

Flick GIF:  $27.42 from review and interview with Andrew Darius

Vidgeos: $27 from review and interview with Josh Ratta

200 Dollars Blueprint 2.0: $25.52 from review and interview with Henry Gold

Local Lead Drop: $24.25 from review and interview with Neil Macpherson

Video Traffic X (CLOSED): $23.50 from review and interview with Walt Bayliss

Video Agent X: $23.50 from review and interview with Peter Beattie

Viral Autobots: $23.50 from review and interview with Luke Maguire

Fast Cash Website Audits: $23.50 from review and interview with Tom Gaddis

Azon Profit Builder: $23.50 from review and interview with Ankur Shukla

Ad Respark (CLOSED): $20 from review and interview with Devin Zander

Adsvisor 2.0 $19 from review and interview with Abhi Dwivedi

IM Newbie: $18.90 from review and interview with Kevin Fahey

WP Proficom: $18.50 from review and interview with Cyril “Jeet” Gupta

Fresh Member: $18.50 from review and interview with Mark Thompson

Video Builder: $18.48 from review and interview with Todd Gross

Pimpr: $17.16 from review and interview with Mark Bishop

Designo Pro: $17 from review and interview with Todd Gross

WP Fan Machine 2.0: $16.98 from review and interview with Ankur Shukla

eCom Pages: $16.45 from review and interview with Mo Aguel

WP Coursify: $13.50 from review and interview with Ankur Shukla

Press Play 2.0: $13.50 from review and interview with Mark Thompson

Your Profit Store: $11.98 from review and interview with Radu

OneSoci 2.0: $11.10 from review and interview with Lee Pennington

HydraVid: $9.98 from review and interview with Walt Bayliss

OmniXPress: $9.98 from review and interview with Radu

Credi Response: $9.96 from review and interview with Cryil “Jeet” Gupta

Live Caster: $9.96 from review and interview with Cyril Gupta

Absolute Jacker : $9.51 from review and interview with Ariel Sanders

Explaindio: $8.50 from review and interview with Nick LaPolla

Visibily: $8.50 from review and interview with Neil Napier

Script Engage 2.0: $8.50 from review and interview with Sam Bakker

Webinar X: $5.99 from review and interview with Neil Napier

2016 Traffic and Conversion Summit Notes: $4.96 from review and interview with Tim Castleman

Total revenue from interviews and reviews: $19,708.50  (-$6,469.70 from July)

Webinar: $933 – Manual payment from Brett for webinar we did

Autonars: $621.63 – My earnings from a launch I did with Brett Rutecky in June, 2017

Affiliate Income Secrets: $469 – My product teaching how I make money from affiliate marketing

Review Wizard: $208.72 – My earnings from a launch Brett and I did in February, 2017

Mail It: $151.49 – My earnings from a launch I did in August, 2016 with Brett Rutecky

Google Adsense: $71.15 – Earnings from Youtube and Adsense

Re-Engager: $66.87 – My earnings from a launch I did with Brett Rutecky and Tim Verdouw

Profit Canvas Unlimited: $64.50  – My commission from a private webinar Brett Rutecky and I did

Social Robot JV commission: $36.26 – This my cut from a launch I did with Joshua Zamora in early 2015

Keyword Suggestions JV commission: $33.15 – This is my cut from a launch I did with Radu in September, 2015

Group Traffic Profits: $30.71 – My earnings from a launch I did in December, 2016 with Brett Rutecky

Resell Rights Weekly: $27.94 – This is a website that has a ton of products that you can use as your own

Profit Canvas Pro: $9.21 from a product Brett Rutecky and I launched in 2015

SociSpot JV commission: $9.06 – This is my cut from a launch I did with Lee Pennington in November, 2015

Udemy: $4.50 – Earnings from a course I have on Udemy

Total from OTHER streams of income:   $2,737.19 (+$1,543.29 from July)

Total Revenue:   $22,445.69 (-$4,926.41 from July)

Here’s my results for September, 2017

20,030 page views (-2,505 from August)

30,838  Youtube channel views (-7,292 from August)

168,012 Youtube minutes watched (-1,420 from August)

Email subscribers: 23,462 (+64 subscribers from August)

Expenses

Social Traffic System prizes: $3,875 – Prizes we paid to affiliates for promoting our launch

Hotel accommodation at event: $625.52

Electronics: $591.67 – I bought some bluetooth ear buds and an iWatch for interviews and webinars

Food and beverages at event: $446.89

Plane ticket to Orlando: $317.40 – I flew from New York to Orlando for the Marketing Summit event

Taxis on business trip: $239.33

Paypal fees: $229.02

Aweber: $205 – This is my list building software that allows me to email everyone when there’s a new interview or review

Marketing Summit ticket: $204.97

Universal Studios ticket: $117.15 – I did a team building outing with my business partners

Internet: $50 – This is what I pay for my fiber Internet in Turkey

ZenDesk: $50 – Brett and I use this for our helpdesk for our launches

Facebook ads: $93.21 – I’ve been experimenting with FB ads on my JV promos, doing giveaways of IM products, and testing other niches

Gusto: $45 – This is the company I use for my SCORP payroll

Monthly phone fees: $30

ManyChat: $30 – A service that I use to build a Facebook messenger list

Amazon S3: $29.84 – I use this to host images, bonuses, and videos

Resell Rights Weekly: $19.95 – Reoccurring membership fee for the bonuses I add from my interviews and reviews

Audible: $15.77 – Business books to further my education

Internet on plane: $10.99

iCloud: $9.99 – I use this to store my documents online

Skype: $9.99 for premium – I do all my interviews with Skype and Ecamm call recorder on a Mac.

Vault Press: $5 – A quick and easy tool that I use to backup my website

Jvzoo seller fees: $3.20

Total expenses: $7,254.89 (+$4,035.60 spent compared to August)

Revenue

WP 1-Click Traffic: $1,725.37 from review and interview with Ankur Shukla

Laptop Legacy: $1,300.36 from review and interview with Bill Hugall

Passive Profit Builder: $1,183.50 from review and interview with Mosh Bari

Send Engine: $1,168.08 from review and interview with Petru Iacob

XLeads360: $1,104.27 from review and interview with Adrian Isfan

Video Reel: $904.93 from review and interview with Abhi Dwivedi

EZ Review Videos: $768.48 from review and interview with Matt Bush

InstaGenius: $751.23 from review and interview with Cindy Donovan

SociCore: $623.25 from review and interview with Greg Kononenko

Ad Quiz Video: $552.50 from review and interview with Mario Brown

Engagr: $465.50 from review and interview with Karthik Ramani

Funnel Secrets: $403.95 from review

Viddictive: $374 from review and interview with Mario Brown

Outgrow: $337 from review and interview with Pratham Mittal

OmniEngine: $336 from review and interview with Seun Ogundele

Repwarn reseller : $282 from review and interview with Walt Bayliss

Ascend Pages: $244 from review and interview with Andrew Darius

Convert Proof: $208.04 from review and interview with Cyril Gupta

Optin Chat: $207.22 from review and interview with Gaurav Madaan

Viddyoze 2.0: $155.60 from review and interview with Viddyoze team

Vizully: $155.02 from review and interview with Brett Ingram

AdReel: $144.50 from review and interview with Ryan Phillips

WP Suite: $131 from review

Easy VSL 2.0: $95 from review and interview with Mark Thompson

Social Traffic Jacker: $92.50 from review and interview with Tony Hayes

InstaEasy: $64.50 from review and interview with Luke Maguire

OneSoci 2.0: $64.20 from review and interview with Lee Pennington

vRankerPro: $56.40 from review and interview with Andy Black

Promoyze: $55.50 from review and interview with Andrew Darius

Backlink Machine: $53.90 from review and interview with Ankur Shukla

Video Vibe Pro: $51.43 from review and interview with Joshua Zamora

Mail X: $49.90 from review and interview with Han Fan

Product Dyno: $49.50 from review and interview with Phil Benham

Commissionology: $49 from review and interview with Michael Cheney

WP Profit Builder: $48.84 from review and interview with Sean Donahoe

Video Chief: $48.60 from review and interview with Joshua Zamora

Flipside Profits: $48.46 from review and interview with Phil Blackwell

Instant Spokesperson: $48 from review

Azon Profit Builder: $47.51 from review and interview with Ankur Shukla

Thrive Leads: $47.50 from review and interview with Shane Melaugh

Drop Mock Video: $46.11 from review and interview with Lee Pennington

Instamate 2.0: $37 from review and interview with Luke Maguire

InstaSuite (CLOSED): $37 from webinar with Neil Napier

AmaSuite 4.0: $33.50 from review and interview with Chris Guthrie

Live Caster: $33.46 from review and interview with Cyril Gupta

Video Traffic Genie: $31.15 from review and interview with Paul Venables

Profit Sorcery: $30.80 from review and interview with Ed Brooks

WP Commission Machine: $27 from review and interview with Ankur Shukla

Vidgeos: $27 from review and interview with Josh Ratta

Vid Engage: $26.37 from review and interview with Ankur Shukla

How To Build Your First List: $24.57 from review and interview with Reed Floren

OctoSuite: $23.50 from review and interview with Luke Maguire

Sellosity: $23.50 from review and interview with Sean Donahoe

Video Traffic X (CLOSED): $23.50 from review and interview with Walt Bayliss

Video Agent X: $23.50 from review and interview with Peter Beattie

Auto Emulate: $23.50 from review and interview with Paul Lynch

Rank Cipher: $21 from review and interview with Muhammad Azhar

Ad Respark (CLOSED): $20 from review and interview with Devin Zander

Flick GIF:  $19.94 from review and interview with Andrew Darius

Adsvisor 2.0 $19 from review and interview with Abhi Dwivedi

IM Newbie: $18.90 from review and interview with Kevin Fahey

Viral Loop: $18.50 from review and interview with Cindy Donovan

Email Click Magnet 2.0: $18.50 from review

Pimpr: $17.16 from review and interview with Mark Bishop

Designo Pro: $17 from review and interview with Todd Gross

eCom Pages: $16.45 from review and interview with Mo Aguel

Fan Contact: $15.99 from review and interview with Andrew Darius

200 Dollars Blueprint 2.0: $15.58 from review and interview with Henry Gold

Press Play 2.0: $13.50 from review and interview with Mark Thompson

CPA List Loophole: $11.03 from review and interview with Greg Konenenko

HydraVid: $9.98 from review and interview with Walt Bayliss

OmniXPress: $9.98 from review and interview with Radu

Credi Response: $9.96 from review and interview with Cryil “Jeet” Gupta

Fan Marketer: $9 from review and interview with Dan Green

Explaindio: $8.50 from review and interview with Nick LaPolla

Visibily: $8.50 from review and interview with Neil Napier

Script Engage 2.0: $8.50 from review and interview with Sam Bakker

Social Kickstart: $8.50 from review and interview with Mark Thompson

UltraVid: $8.47 from review and interview with Radu Hahaianu

Webinar X: $5.99 from review and interview with Neil Napier

2016 Traffic and Conversion Summit Notes: $4.96 from review and interview with Tim Castleman

Total revenue from interviews and reviews: $15,302.89 (-$4,405.61 from August)

Social Traffic System: $15,201.30 – My earnings from a launch I did with Brett Rutecky in September, 2017

InstaFunnel agency: $3,650.44 – My earnings from a webinar Brett and I did after the Social Traffic System launch

Launch costs: $2,531 – Payment from Brett Rutecky for Social Traffic System launch costs

Group Traffic Profits: $92.13 – My earnings from a launch I did in December, 2016 with Brett Rutecky

Google Adsense: $91.60 – Earnings from Youtube and Adsense

Autonars: $91.37 – My earnings from a launch I did with Brett Rutecky in June, 2017

Review Wizard: $79.81 – My earnings from a launch Brett and I did in February, 2017

Affiliate Income Secrets: $64 – My product teaching how I make money from affiliate marketing

Profit Canvas Unlimited: $43  – My commission from a private webinar Brett Rutecky and I did

Keyword Suggestions JV commission: $32.87 – This is my cut from a launch I did with Radu in September, 2015

Mail It: $30.71 – My earnings from a launch I did in August, 2016 with Brett Rutecky

Resell Rights Weekly: $27.94 – This is a website that has a ton of products that you can use as your own

Social Robot JV commission: $18.12 – This my cut from a launch I did with Joshua Zamora in early 2015

Re-Engager: $16.51 – My earnings from a launch I did with Brett Rutecky and Tim Verdouw

Profit Canvas Pro: $9.21 from a product Brett Rutecky and I launched in 2015

Total from OTHER streams of income: $21,980.01 (+$19,242.82 from August)

Total Revenue:   $37,282.90 (+$14,837.21 from August)

I’m writing this income report near the end of October…and it’s looking to be one of my worst months in a long time.

But I’ve been earning less money…somewhat…on purpose 🙂

At the beginning of the Summer I told myself that I deserve to actually have a relaxing Summer. I purposefully didn’t schedule any product launches for July and August as I didn’t want to deal with the stress involved with running a successful product launch. Instead I wanted to focus on enjoying our new apartment, spending time with friends and family, and simply enjoying the lifestyle that running an online business provides.

Now I’m not going to say it’s been “easy” letting go of potential income that I could have made these past few months if I had worked like crazy, but I’m sure that years from now I’ll be grateful for the extra time I spent taking overnight boat trips or just lying on the beach with my wife.

My personal income goal each month is to make at least $20k in profit. It doesn’t look like I’m going to hit that in October. It’s been a slow month so far. But I should also mention that I pretty much took the last two weeks in July off and didn’t get started working again until the 2nd week of August. Plus I took a trip to Orlando and New York in September. So it makes sense that my numbers might take a hit. Again, I’m ok with that, but my inner pressure that I put on myself sometimes gets in the way 🙂

Everything Has A Price

Whatever we decide to do in life, whether it’s to work our butts off building a business, or read a book a day, or learning how to do something new, or even playing video games….each of these things has a price. There is an opportunity cost meaning that you could have been spending your time doing something else. Time is the most valuable resource that we have, and we should use it wisely, but at the same time I see too many people bragging online about how they are “hustling” and working nonstop. For me that’s not my goal. I enjoy my free time. I’m willing to “miss out” on extra income so that I can have more free time to do what I want.

How Much Is Enough?

When I started the Mike From Maine Show, my goal was to make $3,000 per month. At the time that was more than enough to live a comfortable life here in Istanbul. According to this website the average salary in Istanbul is 2,539.47 Turkish Lira, or $715 per month. So my goal of $3,000 3.5 times the average salary here. It provides a very comfortable lifestyle.

But of course, for the last 12 months, my income has averaged $43,652 per month. That’s $40,000 more than my initial goal of $3,000. If you had told me 4 years ago that I’d be making this kind of money I would have laughed in your face. In fact, 4 years ago, in 2013, I made a total of $16,739…in the entire year.

But of course let’s look at this from another perspective. There are people out there (many of them) who make much much much more than $40,000 per month. For them those kinds of numbers would mean absolute failure and would be utterly devastating. However we can only compare and compete with ourselves.

Don’t Compare Yourself With Others

It’s common on social media for people to post their accomplishments. And we celebrate along with them. But it can sometimes be frustrating to see others “win” all the time. They seem to only turn everything they touch into gold. However we need to remember that people are selective about what they share. Perhaps they share how they just made $10,000 in one day, but they don’t talk about the $8,000 they spent making that money, or the long hours and late nights, or the marriage that is struggling due to poor work-life balance, or their high blood pressure…and so on and so on. When I got my blood results back a few months ago you didn’t see me sharing on Facebook how I have a thyroid problem and high cholesterol. These are the “hidden” blemishes behind success that most people never see…because they are rarely shared.

Take A Deep Breath

We should all have goals. We should all push ourselves to be better. But at the same time, we need to forgive ourselves when we don’t hit our goals. Trust me, once you reach your goals it’s not the end. You haven’t won. You just keep adding on top of your goals. And the pressure builds. And sometimes it can be even more difficult. Just don’t forget to step back once in a while and take a long hard look at where you were before and how far you’ve come.

And when no ones looking it’s ok to give yourself a firm pat on the back 🙂

Here are some pictures from August and September: