Income Report for January, 2015 – $30,000 WITHOUT launching a product!

64,262 page views (+20,578 from December)

24,263 Youtube channel views (+5,253 from December)

181,882 minutes watched (+45,718 from December)

Aweber subscribers: 6,472 (+110 subscribers from December)

GetResponse subscribers: 5,155 (+339 subscriber from December)

Total email list subscribers: 11,627

Expenses

GoToWebinar: $150

GetResponse: $125.50 – This is the autoresponder I use for my buyer’s list and solo ads

Aweber: $69 – This is my list building software that allows me to email everyone when there’s a new interview

Bing Ads: $56.65

TimerLay: $39.95 – A fantastic tool for adding scarcity to your sales pages

oDesk Virtual Assistants: $33.67 – I have some workers helping me with daily tasks that don’t need me. I’m trying to outsource more and more daily.

Improvely: $29

Wistia: $25

Traffic Planet Hosting: $24.99 – The hosting account that I recently switched to. It’s super fast and I’m very happy with it.

Skype: $19.99 for premium

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

Schedule Once: $19

WuFoo: $14.95

Amazon S3: $12.82

Facebook ads: $11.51 – Ad money spent for FB list building

Total expenses: $651.98 (-$318.09 compared to December)

Revenue

Easy VSL: $3,472.50 from review and interview with Mark Thompson

Super Affiliate Machine (CLOSED): $2,752.30 from review and interview with Austin Anthony

WP Freshstart: $2,237.31 from review and preview video

Vidlify (CLOSED): $1,796.13 from review and interview with Radu Hahaianu

Viral Content Profits: $1,703.50 from review and interview with Ricky Mataka

Product Launch Incubator (CLOSED): $1,598.86 from review and interview with Emilis “Emka” Strimaitis

How to Get Your Product and Website Online: $1,360.81 from review and interview with Reed Floren

Easy Webinar 4.0: $1,350 from review and interview with Casey Zeman

Ultimate Traffic Monster (CLOSED): $1,342.42 from review and interview with Naidy Phoon

Vidneos: $1,133.74 from review and interview with Ben Murray

The Cashbox Blueprint (CLOSED): $1,124 from review and interview with Alex Jeffreys

Hydro Funnels: $1,006.05 from review and interview with Mike Buontempo

Video Auto Click (CLOSED): $962.53 from review and interview with Brett Rutecky

Smart Fiverr Profits (CLOSED): $917.94 from review and interview with Art Wojciechowski

Part Time Auction Income System: $842.77 from review and interview with Paul Counts

Click Multiplier: $661.50 from review and interview with Chris Blair

Social Spy Agent (CLOSED): $565.63 from review and interview with Sam Bakker

Perfect Affiliate Storm (CLOSED): $525.11 from review and interview with Chris Cole

HydraVid: $412.37 from review and interview with Walt Bayliss

The Magic Email (CLOSED): $336.60 from review and interview with Nathan Zadworny

Online Wealth Academy (CLOSED): $321.05 from reviewinterview, and webinar with Mikael Dia

Crowd Search Me (CLOSED): $296.50 from review and interview with Daniel Anton

Smart Blog Networks (CLOSED): $283.22 from review and interview with Simon Warner

Bing Brings You The Bling: $97.03 from review and interview with Rob Stafford

InstaHook Video Backgrounds: $95 from review and interview with Brad Scott

Video Maker FX: $85 from review and interview with Peter Roszak

Explaindio: $72.98 from review and interview with Nick LaPolla

Local Reputation Hero: $72 from review and interview with Matthew Ianotti

The Fiverr Handover (CLOSED): $66.88 from review and interview with Fergal Downes

Mobile Lead Monster: $66 from review and interview with Kevin Zichermann

Thrive Landing Pages: $60 from review and interview with Shane Melaugh

Arbitrage Underdog RELOADED: $57 from review and interview with Tom E

How to Create Information Products that SELL: $55.58 from review and interview with Reed Floren

Absolute Jacker (CLOSED): $50.50 from review and interview with Ariel Sanders

IMNow Webinar (CLOSED): $48.50 from review and interview with Keith Lynch

Covert Store Builder: $46.70 from interview with Cindy Battye

Socialite Pro: $44.40 from review and interview with Luke Maguire

The Lazy Affiliate 2.0: $42.46 from review and interview with Mark Bishop

Arbitrage Autopilot Profits (CLOSED): $43.89 from review and interview with Zak Loveday

Tee Blueprint (CLOSED): $37 from review and interview with Manny Hanif

Kindle Money Mastery: $30.46 from review and interview with Stefan Pylarinos

Fresh Store Builder (CLOSED): $28.50 from review and interview with Carey Baird

iPocket Video: $28.20 from review and interview with Joey Xoto

Tee Cash Boot Camp: $25.90 from review and interview with Andy Berard

Emergency Christmas Cash 2.0 (CLOSED): $24.14 from review and interview with Kristie Chiles

Azon Video Vault (CLOSED): $23.50 from review and interview with M. Bari

Call To Action Pro (CLOSED): $23.50 from review and interview with Alexander Sebastian

Laptop List Pro: $23.23 from review and interview with Bill Hugall

Solo Ad Business Blueprint (CLOSED): $22.94 from interview with Kate Rosenberg

Link Indexr: $20 from review and interview with Joshua Zamora

Funnel Vision (CLOSED): $19.96 from review and interview with Dr. Ben Adkins

Fiverr Untapped: $19.59 from review and interview with John Shea

Inner Circle Solo Ads 3.0 (CLOSED): $19.13 from interview with Rob Stafford

Operation Solo: $17.97 from interview with Anthony Tilley

FB Empire Builders (CLOSED): $17.56 from review and interview with Aravindh Sridhar

Under the Radar Profits (CLOSED): $13.50 from review and interview with James Canzanella

Kindle Marketing Magic: $13.27 from review and interview with Mike Balmaceda

Kindle Assembly Line: $11.45 from review and interview with Saeed Rajan

The Death of Solo Ads: $10 from review and interview with David Eisner

Ad Factory (CLOSED): $8.10 from review and interview with Russ Schneider

How to Create a $7 product: $7.68 from interview with Trevor Dumbleton

Long Tail Pro: $7.60 from interview with Spencer Haws

TreasureCoach Linkedin (CLOSED): $7.50 from review and interview with Maksym V.

Solo Ad Escape: $7.48 from review and interview with Kevin Fahey

Geo Target (CLOSED): $6 from review and interview with Neil Napier

Going Viral on Facebook: $4.87 from interview with Yoel Cohen

Simple JV Cash (CLOSED): $1.39 from review and interview with AJ Montoya

Total revenue from interviews: $28,487.18 (+$12,122.61 from December)

Affiliate Income Secrets: $1,672.98 – My product teaching how I make money from affiliate marketing

Domain sale: $900 – I sold a domain name that I bought for $100 in 2006

Resell Rights Weekly: $57.28 – This is a website that has a ton of products that you can use as your own

Misc income: $44.14

Kindle earnings: $31.05

Total from OTHER streams of income: $2,705.45 (+$1,188.97 from December)

Total Revenue: $31,192.63 (+$13,311.58 from December)

Total Profit: $30,540.65 (+$13,629.67 from December)

The first month of 2015 went extremely well. It was my second best month ever, but that’s compared to November when I did a product launch. So, as far as “business as usual” with my income primarily coming from affiliate commissions, it was VERY good 🙂

However, I’m writing this from the end of February (which was also a good month) so I won’t pretend as if we’re just entering the new year. We’re already two months in, and I’m on course to do $240-$300,000 this year in profits…which is pretty amazing.

You’re In A Race With YOURSELF…not OTHERS

In a recent interview with Tim Castleman, we discussed how you shouldn’t compare yourself to other people in your niche, as there is ALWAYS someone doing better than you. Plus, you don’t really know what kind of business they’re running, what kind of expenses they have, and the lifestyle that their business gives them. Sure, you could have a huge team working for you, but is that something that you REALLY want? If it is, fantastic, but you should consider the lifestyle you want first.

The best way to measure yourself is to compare your profits to the previous year. Looking back to January 2014, at the time that was my BEST month in over a year…and I made $4,641.10 …this month I made $30,540.65, therefore I increased my income from last January by 558%. I’d say that’s pretty good.

Update On My Goals for 2015

Last month I wrote out my goals for this year. Here’s an update on how they’re going:

1. Be easily making $50,000 per month by December, 2015.

I’m closer to that goal. I hit $30,000 for the first time WITHOUT doing a product launch. I still feel like hitting $30,000 isn’t easy, so hopefully by the end of July I’ll EASILY be in the late $30,000s to early $40,000s per month.

I say “hopefully”, but I know it’s going to take a lot of work to get there. I’m willing to take some hits on income in early 2015 to test out paid traffic with solo ads and Facebook in order to hit my goals at the end of the year.

2. Build my email list to 100,000 subscribers.

The only way I’ll be able to do this is by using paid traffic. My total subscribers increased by 449 in January, so it’s going to take more than what I’m currently doing to hit that number. But I’m GOING to hit it. I’ve found a guy who specializes in building lists on Facebook. He charges $1 per lead plus ad spend, so if I want to add 90,000 subscribers it’s going to cost from $135,000 to $180,000. My plan is to test him out and see what results he can get…if he does well I’ll share him with you.

I know that it might sound like a lot to spend, but if I make $300,000 this year, I’ll be paying $80,000-$150,000 just in taxes…so why not spend it instead on building my business?

3. Buy an apartment and pay it off in full.

This is something that we’ve been looking into…but still haven’t bought it yet. The problem with buying a house is that you lose your liquid assets. It’s a scary step, but I’m ready for it.

4. Have at least $100,000 in liquid assets (savings) by December, 2015.

I currently have this in the bank, however my goal is to have both goal #3 AND #4.

5. Write and publish a Kindle book in my name

This is one of those things that I’m planning on doing as a lead generator. I’ll most likely do this towards the end of the year when I have more time to write.

6. Outsource and publish 100 Kindle books as an alternative income source

I’m not sure if this is actually going to happen. I don’t want to just put out a bunch of crappy books. I’d like to outsource the whole thing and create a factory of Kindle books.

7. Spend $10,000 on solo ads, document the results, and launch it as a product (would you buy it?)

I would be doing this now if I wasn’t saving to pay for my first apartment. It’s looking like I won’t be able to do this until mid to late 2015.

8. Set up an auto-webinar sequence to funnel in leads from Facebook

I purchased Easy Webinar so I can set this up. In order to really do this I’ll need to have an ad budget to spend from Facebook…and again, finances are holding me back.

You Have to SPEND Money to Make Money

I love free traffic, and I’ve gotten a ton of it from Youtube videos, natural SEO traffic, Facebook, affiliates, and backend bonuses. However, I know the REAL magic will happen once I start putting money back into my business.

I’m currently all set to use a tool called Improvely that will track the sources of ad traffic for affiliate commissions and my own products…but I can’t test it yet because I don’t have the budget to go all in. I’m at a point where my PERSONAL budget is holding back my PROFESSIONAL one.

———————————————————————————-

So that’s it for January. I’m headed in the right direction, and if I can just get a little bit of money to “play” with so I can test different lead generation methods out I think I’ll really be able to ramp up my business by the end of 2015.

Don’t tell my wife this, but I’m even considering spending a whole month’s income on PURPOSE just to see how it affects my following months. Now I know THAT would be interesting to watch 🙂

Here are a couple pictures from January:

 

Saying goodbye to my mom in Maine :-(
Saying goodbye to my mom in Maine through the security window

 

Hard at work in "business casual" attire :-)
Hard at work in “business casual” attire 🙂
    1. You’ll probably end up sending over rubber chickens like you did when I won your affiliate contest 😉

      1. Yeah… I didn’t see the chicken mentioned in this article anywhere… Is it just that you didn’t want the tax man finding out about it?

  1. Congratulation Mike! I am following you for a couple of months now (not in a creepy way 😀 ) and I must say that you are an inspiration for me.

    Keep the good work and hope you will do more that this set goals!

    Regards,
    Miso

  2. Hey Mike,
    Just read your email, you are doing absolutely great!
    Great reviews and interviews by the way, keep up the good work 🙂
    – Carl

  3. Mike,.

    Thanks for posting this breakdown and for your transparency. This really helps put things in perspective and see the whole picture

    1. Don,

      That’s why I do it. I feel like in the IM niche transparency is desperately needed.

      1. Thanks Mike, you are right…it is often hard to find true genuine information separated from the hype…

        Your examples of goals is helpful as well: specific, time based.

  4. Great job, Mike. Really enjoying these income reports lately. I’m confident you’ll hit your goals, but am I curious/interested about the Kindle books. 🙂

    1. Hey Jeff,

      Glad to see you here (one of my previous interviewees).

      I’m also curious about the kindle books…not sure when that will happen, but it’s an interest of mine.

  5. Wow, terrific results Mike! Congratulations!! Thanks for sharing and giving many of us still struggling some “hope” that living the IM dream is still possible. Great to see that “nice guys” (like you) can do so very well online. Keep up the great product interviews in 2015 as I am learning lots since joining your list recently. Thank you! 🙂
    Cheers,
    Barry
    PS: You need some big fluffy slippers to go along with your “business attire”!

  6. Nice business plan mike.
    I’ve mentioned this to you before, but I do appreciate your transparency as you build your business.
    It gives a real perspective on building a marketing business as opposed to those who try to make people think they can just push a button and become an instant millionaire.
    Thanks again.

    1. Yeah, Tim. You can make great money as an affiliate…but it takes time.

      Thanks for watching!

  7. I remember when I first found this site years ago you were clearing $1000/month… nice job on these huge months. I always look forward to reading those income reports…

    1. Drew,

      It all started somewhere. I’m even surprised at these big months.

  8. Mike,

    Turning your whole experience in IM into a case study of sorts is a brilliant move. Having had the benefit of meeting you early on (I’m either interview #2 or #3), I’ve got the “long view” of where you came from and where you are.

    More exciting is where you’re headed.

    Folks, if you’re not dialed into Mike from Maine, you’re missing something special.

    Off to buy some plaid pants (now I know your secret to success).

    Best,

    Jerry

      1. And by the way…I made a grand total of $8.65 from this promotion.

        We’ve come a long way, folks.

  9. Mike, with revenue like you’re getting, you can bail out the Turkish economy all by yourself! Best. Tom

    1. Haha…this was a great month…we’ll see if it’s my best for 2015 or not 🙂

Comments are closed.

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