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 November, 2016

23,808 website page views (-7,333 from October)

38,802 Youtube channel views (-4,379 from October)

239,889 Youtube minutes watched (-22,045 from October)

Facebook group members: 1,296 members (+153 from October)

Email subscribers: 22,402 (+24 subscribers from October)

Expenses

iPhone 7 and Case: $1,447.69

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

Group Traffic Profits sales page graphics: $712.83

Group Traffic Profits sales copy: $450

Aweber: $323.80 – This is my list building software that allows me to email everyone when there’s a new interview or review

Extra bonus for graphics: $250

GoToWebinar: $199 – I use this for live webinars and training

Paypal fees: $118.03

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

Monthly phone fees: $30

Food Blogger Pro: $29 – A course I purchased on setting up a food blog, something that I’m interested in

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

Click Magick: $17 – This is one of my FAVORITE tools for tracking links.

Amazon S3: $15.41 – I use this to host images and videos

Audible: $14.95 – Business books to further my education

Jvzoo seller fees: $14.30

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

Total expenses: $4,566.94 (+$1,132.78 spent compared to October)

Revenue

Rapid Traffic Masterclass: $3,393.05 from review and interview with Stefan Ciancio

Penny Clicks Academy: $2,008.15 from review and interview with Stephen Gilbert

Sellosity: $1,830.80 from review and interview with Sean Donahoe

Evergreen Income Machines: $1,678.30 from review and interview with Andy Brocklehurst

Adsvisor 2.0: $1,627.62 from review and interview with Abhi Dwivedi

Instastore: $1,575.88 from review and interview with Neil Napier

WP Theme Ultima: $1,505.47 from review and interview with Ben Murray

IM Newbie: $1,296.77 from review and interview with Kevin Fahey

Instant Spokesperson: $944.75 from review

Prospectrr: $908 from review and interview with Jamie Garside

Viral Loop: $720.83 from review and interview with Cindy Donovan

X Ranker 360: $706.49 from review and interview with Joshua Zamora

WP Video Profits: $705 from review and interview with Ankur Shukla

InstaEasy: $452.50 from review and interview with Luke Maguire

Viddyoze 2.0: $284.50 from review and interview with Viddyoze team

Thrive Leads: $220.25 from review and interview with Shane Melaugh

Optin X: $210.20 from review and interview with Radu Hahaianu

PinDrill: $100.50 from review and interview with Maddy Dutta

EZ Video Creator: $110.30 from review and interview with Matt Bush

Commission Cartel: $101.40 from review and interview with Michael Cheney

OctoSuite: $75 from review and interview with Luke Maguire

Zapable: $68.60 from review and interview with Chris Fox

Video Jeet 2.0: $68.50 from review and interview with Cyril “Jeet” Gupta

Repwarn reseller (CLOSED): $67 from review and interview with Walt Bayliss

Mail X: $59.88 from review and interview with Han Fan

Video Agent X: $58.80 from review and interview with Peter Beattie

OneSoci 2.0: $55.70 from review and interview with Lee Pennington

Convertri: $55.50 from review and interview with Andy Fletcher

Revamply: $55.50 from review and interview with Sam Bakker

Video Traffic X (CLOSED): $47 from review and interview with Walt Bayliss

Drop Mock Video: $46.10 from review and interview with Lee Pennington

Email Click Magnet 2.0: $43.50 from review

Vidgeos: $40.50 from review and interview with Josh Ratta

The Wise Old Email Gorilla: $34 from interview with Jimmy Wrex

Bolt Publisher: $33.50 from review and interview with Justin Burns

eCom Pages: $32.90 from review and interview with Mo Aguel

3K Challenge: $27.63 from interview with Emka

Social Kickstart: $25.50 from customers being cookied from buying previous products

Azon Retail Profits: $24.57 from review and interview with Paul James

Niche Reaper: $24.46 from review and interview with Matt Garret

Video Spin Blaster Pro: $23.23 from review and interview with Ali G

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

Easy VSL 2.0: $20 from review and interview with Mark Thompson

Brand Builders Academy: $18.50 from being cookied in on Jvzoo

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

Operation Solo: $17.97 from interview with Anthony Tilley

Flipp Me: $17.38 from review and interview with Art Flair

Webinar Fusion Pro: $14.80 from review and interview with Dwayne Golden

eCom Edge: $13.50 from review and interview with Joshua Zamora

Youtube Ad Vantage:$13.50 from review and interview with Robert Phillips

Buzzinar: $13.50 from review and interview with Omar Martin

Webinar X: $11.98 from review and interview with Neil Napier

HydraVid: $9.98 from review and interview with Walt Bayliss

Push Connect Notify: $9.50 from review and interview with Jimmy Kim

Explaindio: $8.50 from review and interview with Nick LaPolla

Visibily: $8.50 from review and interview with Neil Napier

Viral Video Stores: $8.50 from review and interview with Neil Napier

Voice Stak: $8.50 from review and interview with Mark Thompson

200 Dollars Blueprint 2.0: $7.79 from review and interview with Henry Gold

Chat Response: $7.48 from review and interview with Sam Bakker

InstaHook Video Backgrounds: $6.80 from review and interview with Brad Scott

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

Total revenue from interviews and reviews: $21,608.27 (-$3,155.48 from October)

Profit Canvas Unlimited: $2,512.78  – My commission from a private webinar Brett Rutecky and I did

Social Robot JV commission: $1,624.65 – This my cut from a launch I did with Joshua Zamora in early 2015

Mail It: $415.67 – My earnings from a launch I did in August, 2016 with Brett Rutecky

Affiliate Income Secrets: $363.50 – My product teaching how I make money from affiliate marketing

Resell Rights Weekly: $153.67 – This is a website that has a ton of products that you can use as your own

Google Adsense: $110.63 – Earnings from Youtube Adsense

SociSpot JV commission: $79.36 – This is my cut from a launch I did with Lee Pennington in November, 2015

Keyword Suggestions JV commission: $63.11 – This is my cut from a launch I did with Radu in September, 2015

Affiliate Trax: $30.66 – This is my cut from a launch I did with Brett in May, 2016

Profit Canvas Pro: $9.18 from a product Brett Rutecky and I launched in 2015

Total from OTHER streams of income: $5,363.21 (+$1,852.79  from October)

Total Revenue: $26,971.48 (-$1,302.69 from October)

Here’s my results for December, 2016

No page view data this month because of Google Analytics error (NA from November)

33,957 Youtube channel views (-4,845 from November)

202,012 Youtube minutes watched (-37,877 from November)

Facebook group members: 1,350 members (+54 from November)

Email subscribers: 23,885 (+1,483 subscribers from November)

Expenses

New MacBook Pro and electronics: $7,824.03 – I purchased multiple electronic tools for my business

JV prizes: $4,000 – Prizes paid to affiliates for our Group Traffic Profits launch

GoToWebinar: $199 – I use this for live webinars and training

Aweber: $189 – This is my list building software that allows me to email everyone when there’s a new interview or review

Godday: $136.53 – I renewed MikeFromMaine.com until 2025

Paypal fees: $135.57

Zapier: $70.37 – An amazing tool for automating your business

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

Jvzoo seller fees: $31.75

Monthly phone fees: $30

Food Blogger Pro: $29 – A course I purchased on setting up a food blog, something that I’m interested in

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

Click Magick: $17 – This is one of my FAVORITE tools for tracking links.

Amazon S3: $15.41 – I use this to host images and videos

Audible: $14.95 – Business books to further my education

Evernote: $10

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

Total expenses: $12,847.54 (+$8,280.60 spent compared to November)

Revenue

Credi Response: $3,329.77 from review and interview with Cryil “Jeet” Gupta

WP Tweet Machine 2.0: $2,975.14 from review and interview with Ankur Shukla

WP Site Guardian 2.0: $2,595.05 from review and interview with Chris Hitman

Exact Model: $2,078.50 from review and interview with Jimmy Kim

Auto Webinar Profits: $1,491.50 from review and interview with Mario Brown

Flick Graph: $1,452.34 from review and interview with Andrew Darius

EZ Spokesperson Creator: $1,321.62 from review and interview with Matt Bush

WP Contentio: $630.40 from review and interview with Neil Napier

InstaEasy: $518 from review and interview with Luke Maguire

Evergreen Income Machines: $276.47 from review and interview with Andy Brocklehurst

Viral Loop: $256.98 from review and interview with Cindy Donovan

Prospectrr: $249.50 from review and interview with Jamie Garside

Social Optimizer: $247 from review and interview with Sam Bakker

Adsvisor 2.0: $238.38 from review and interview with Abhi Dwivedi

Viddyoze 2.0: $193.12 from review and interview with Viddyoze team

Video Spin Blaster Pro: $146.75 from review and interview with Ali G

Zapable: $138.25 from review and interview with Chris Fox

Rapid Traffic Masterclass: $123.76 from review and interview with Stefan Ciancio

Mail X: $105.34 from review and interview with Han Fan

Own The Web: $98.50 from review and interview with Jeff Hunt

Vidicle: $94.10 from review and interview with Andy Brocklehurst

Video Agent X: $80.30 from review and interview with Peter Beattie

IM Newbie: $75.60 from review and interview with Kevin Fahey

Social Kickstart: $74 from customers being cookied from buying previous products

Member Pal: $72 from review and interview with Dan Green

Convertri: $70.50 from review and interview with Andy Fletcher

Sellosity: $69.09 from review and interview with Sean Donahoe

Repwarn reseller (CLOSED): $67 from review and interview with Walt Bayliss

Penny Clicks Academy: $62 from review and interview with Stephen Gilbert

Squeeze Funnels: $57.20 from review and interview with Jian Bacallan

Commission Cartel: $52.50 from review and interview with Michael Cheney

AmaSuite 4.0: $52 from review and interview with Chris Guthrie

5 Day Profits: $51.45 from review and interview with Mark Barrett

Vid Curator FX: $50.50 from review and interview with Ben Murray

Video Traffic X (CLOSED): $47 from review and interview with Walt Bayliss

Drop Mock Video: $46.10 from review and interview with Lee Pennington

Instastore: $42.50 from review and interview with Neil Napier

Video Maker FX: $42 from review and interview with Peter Roszak

OneSoci 2.0: $37.90 from review and interview with Lee Pennington

Vidgeos: $37.50 from review and interview with Josh Ratta

Profit Renegade: $35.25 from review and interview with Joshua Zamora

eCom Pages: $32.90 from review and interview with Mo Aguel

Web Detective: $32.90 from review and interview with Joshua Zamora

Thrive Leads: $30 from review and interview with Shane Melaugh

Poolside Profits: $21.59 from review and interview with Bill Hugall

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

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

Revamply: $18.50 from review and interview with Sam Bakker

Easy VSL 2.0: $15 from review and interview with Mark Thompson

Webinar Fusion Pro: $14.80 from review and interview with Dwayne Golden

Youtube Ad Vantage:$13.50 from review and interview with Robert Phillips

Buzzinar: $13.50 from review and interview with Omar Martin

Video Traffic Genie: $12.95 from review and interview with Paul Venables

HydraVid: $9.98 from review and interview with Walt Bayliss

Push Connect Notify: $9.50 from review and interview with Jimmy Kim

Keywords Studio Pro: $9.22 from review and interview with Rahil Ahmed

3K Challenge: $9.21 from interview with Emka

Voice Stak: $8.50 from review and interview with Mark Thompson

Visibily: $8.50 from review and interview with Neil Napier

Viral Video Stores: $8.50 from review and interview with Neil Napier

Explaindio: $8.50 from review and interview with Nick LaPolla

Chat Response: $7.48 from review and interview with Sam Bakker

InstaHook Video Backgrounds: $6.80 from review and interview with Brad Scott

Arbitrage Sugardaddy: $6.45 from review and interview with Tom E.

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: $20,030.59 (-$1,577.68 from November)

Group Traffic Profits: $24,016.07 – My earnings from a launch I did in December, 2016 with Brett Rutecky

Profit Canvas Unlimited: $2,738.45  – My commission from a private webinar Brett Rutecky and I did

Launch expenses: $2,460 – Brett’s share of launch expenses

Group Traffic Profits: $1,520.82

Affiliate Income Secrets: $645.50 – My product teaching how I make money from affiliate marketing

Mail It: $248.46 – My earnings from a launch I did in August, 2016 with Brett Rutecky

Resell Rights Weekly: $153.67 – This is a website that has a ton of products that you can use as your own

Google Adsense: $116.72 – Earnings from Youtube Adsense

Social Robot JV commission: $81.35 – This my cut from a launch I did with Joshua Zamora in early 2015

Keyword Suggestions JV commission: $70.18 – This is my cut from a launch I did with Radu in September, 2015

Affiliate Trax: $29.82 – This is my cut from a launch I did with Brett in May, 2016

Video Course Cash Kit: $16.28 – My earnings from a launch I did with Brett Rutecky and John Shea in June, 2016

Profit Canvas Pro: $9.18 from a product Brett Rutecky and I launched in 2015

SociSpot JV commission: $5.45 – This is my cut from a launch I did with Lee Pennington in November, 2015

Total from OTHER streams of income: $32,111.95 (+$26,748.74 from November)

Total Revenue: $52,142.54 (+$25,171.06 from November)

Wow, that was quite a year.

Here are the final stats for 2016:

Total Revenue: $557,174.45

Total Expenses: $71,429.17

Total Profit (before taxes):

$485,745

I increased my income by about $70k from 2015…which is better than decreasing, but not as much as I would have liked it to have been.

What happened in 2016?

When I first started MikeFromMaine.com I had a ton more time to sit around and reflect about “what” I was doing. Now, instead of thinking about it, I’m actually doing it. Now because of this “taking action” I make a lot more money, but unfortunately I’ve slacked off a bit on my income reports. I feel like I haven’t been able to be as reflective this year as I have in the past and I want to change this in 2017.

That being said, this year I was both able to make a lot of money AND spend quite a bit of time traveling with my wife, going to events, spending time with family, and not just “working” the whole time. I even took most of September off and a good part of December for wife/family time. Sure I could have made more money, but honestly I don’t regret it one bit.

So let’s look at a timeline for 2016:

January: In January my wife and I decided to take a trip to Barcelona to celebrate the New Year. Income-wise, the month started slowly, but I still ended up making $19,425.79 by the end of the month. This was my lowest income month for the year.

February: In February I got back into my groove again and was able to get all my promos planned out before taking a 3-day trip to Paris. By planning ahead, I was able to keep my business running and travel at the same time. Simply by doing regular affiliate promos I was able to make $27,052.76.

March: In March Brett Rutecky and I had our first product launch of the year, a software called Video Takeover which did $156,000 in total sales. We definitely started a bit lit late since it takes at least a month to recruit affiliates for a launch, and it’s a mistake that we learned from, as this year we’ll be launching a month earlier in February. After launching, my wife and I took a quick weekend trip to Berlin. I was able to have a record-breaking month, earning $73,687.94 and defeating my previous record from October, 2015 of $58,774.03.

April: In April, my wife and I went to Amsterdam for a couple days, and then to Rome at the end of the month.  I simply continued doing promos while traveling and was able to make $31,489.90 by the end of the month.

May: In May we launched our next product, Affiliate Trax which did $117,000 in total sales. At the same time that my launch was going on, a close family member had major surgery to remove a brain tumor. Thankfully everything went well, but it was definitely our most stressful month as a family in a long time. I was able to bring in $67,787.92, making it my second most successful month at the time.

June: In June I went to my first Internet marketing event in Dublin, Ireland. I was a bit nervous about going, but I had a great time meeting and hanging out with some people that I had only known from interviews and Skype conversations. We also helped a friend of mine, John Shea, launch a high-quality course along with agency resell rights called Video Course Cash Kit which did $67,000 in sales. That was our lowest grossing launch ever, and it reinforced the idea that launching software is MUCH more profitable than info products. Even with the smaller launch I was still able to make $43,874.73.

July: In July we took a road trip to the Halkidiki, Greece with a couple friends of ours. I was our first “beach” time of the summer, and I definitely got a bit burned 🙂 Even with traveling, I was able to bring in $30,403.43.

August: In August Brett Rutecky and I had our biggest product launch of the year with the release of Mail It to the public. We did a total of $203,287 in sales, making it out 3rd biggest launch ever. This successful launch, along with with a decent month of affiliate, promos, and a backend webinar after the launch resulted in me having my most profitable month ever with $77,536.87 in total profit. And I even got to go to our beach house  for the last week of August 🙂

September: I took almost the whole month of August off. My wife and I went to Maine for a week to see my family, spent 4 days in New York, and then 6 days in Portofino, Italy. And then at the end of the month I flew back to the States to go to an Internet marketing event in Las Vegas. Even with all that traveling, I was still able to make $27,946.39.

October: I started October off a bit late after getting back from the marketing event in Las Vegas. It wasn’t my best month, but even after completing a few promos I was still able to bring in $24,840.01.

November: In November I mostly did promos and got ready for our launch in December. We went to Paris for a couple days to celebrate my wife’s birthday, but other than that it was business as usual. I was able to make $22,404.54.

December: In December we launched Group Traffic Profits and did $99,853.60 in total sales. It was a good way to end December, especially since the holiday season usually makes it a slow month at the end with people taking time off. We were able to go to Germany for a few days, and take the last week off and spend time with family in Maine, and spend a couple days in New York before flying back to Turkey. At the end of the month I made at total of $39,295.

What WERE my goals for 2016?

1. Be easily making $50,000 per month by December, 2016 DIDN’T ACHIEVE

I’ve been trying to hit this goal for two years now. I achieved it 3 out of 12 months this year, but on average I made $40,000 per month, missing my goal by $10k per month

2. Build my email list to 50,000 active subscribers DIDN’T ACHIEVE

My email list only increased by 3,666 subscribers this year. I wish it was closer to 30,000 by now, but I removed some inactive subscribers.

3. Have at least $500,000 in liquid assets (savings) by December, 2016 DIDN’T ACHIEVE

I missed this goal by about $120k, but I plan to hit it in the next two years.

4. Invest 10% of my income BACK into my business every single month ACHIEVED

I ended up spending approximately 13% of my income on business expenses throughout the year.

5. Launch at least 6 software and training products DIDN’T ACHIEVE

In 2016 Brett Rutecky and I launched 5 software and training products, missing my goal by 1 product. I can deal with that 🙂

6. Create a REVAMPED high ticket coaching program DIDN’T ACHIEVE

This is something that I toyed with doing this year, but I think we’re going to do a different version of this instead focused more on having a done-for-you product.

7. Get my weight down to 175 lbs (currently 186 lbs) and my body fat to 20% (currently 24.6%) DIDN’T ACHIEVE

As of writing this, my weight is currently 184.5 lbs and my body fat is 22.8%. So I didn’t reach my goal, but I reduced my weight by 1.5 lbs and my body fat by 1.8%.

8. Read or listen to 2 business books per month DIDN’T ACHIEVE

I failed on this one miserably. I probably only listen to 2 books the entire year. This is something I definitely need to work on.

9. Read or listen to 2 fiction books per month DIDN’T ACHIEVE

I’ve been reading the same book for the last six months…so I need to work on this goal.

So that’s ONE achievement and EIGHT that I DIDN’T ACHIEVE. I could look at this and say that I failed this year, or I could see it as I gave myself some pretty tough goals and haven’t been able to hit them yet.

So what ARE my goals for 2017?

Business goals

1. Be easily making $50,000 per month by December, 2017

I’ve tried to hit this goal for 2 years now, but I think that I could finally hit it in 2017.

2. Build my email list to 30,000 active subscribers

I brought this goal down a bit to be a bit more realistic. I currently have 23,725 active subscribers, and I increased my subscriber count by 3,666 in 2016, so I still think this is an aggressive, yet realistic goal.

3. Invest in another property

I currently own my apartment, but I’d like to own another one and keep my current apartment as an investment property.

4. Launch at least 7 software and training products

Last year I had a goal of launching 6 products and I launched 5. This year I’d like to increase that goal by one and reach it.

5. Read or listen to 2 business books per month

This is a goal I didn’t reach in 2016, but I’d like to hit it in 2017.

Personal Goals

6. Get my weight down to 175 lbs (currently 184.5 lbs) and my body fat to 20% (currently 22.8%)

In 2016 I learned that I had high blood pressure and cholesterol, so I’d like to get healthier by reducing my fat and increasing muscle.

7. Read or listen to 2 fiction books per month

This is a goal I didn’t reach in 2016, but I’d like to hit it in 2017.

8. Start a cooking show as a hobby on Youtube and create at least 100 videos

This one may surprise you, but I also really enjoy cooking. I’m not a professional, but I love making new food and experimenting. The nice thing about starting a project like this is that I don’t need it to make money, but it would be a fun side project.

So that’s what happened in 2016 and my plans for 2017.

Obviously what I’ve been doing works, so I’ll keep doing it as long as I keep getting similar results.

Thanks you so much for reading this, for watching, and for any support. I appreciate it!

Let me know in the comments below what YOUR plans are for 2017 and how you’re going to achieve them.