Here’s my results for June, 2016.
31,092 website page views (-1,104 from May)
35,791 Youtube channel views (-178 from May)
192,674 Youtube minutes watched (-1,132 from May)
Email subscribers: 19,199 (+1,802 subscribers from May)
Total expenses: $9,660.30 (-$1,030.90 spent compared to May) (Click here to see a detailed list)
Total revenue from interviews and reviews: $25,529.57 (-$3,610.94 from May) (Click here to see a detailed list)
Total from OTHER streams of income: $28,005.46 (-$21,333.15 from May) (Click here to see a detailed list)
Total Revenue: $53,535.03 (-$24,944.09 from May)
Total Profit: $43,874.73 (-$23,913.19 from May)
Ok, so now here's July
Here’s my results for July, 2016.
30,925 website page views (-167 from June)
34,327 Youtube channel views (-178 from June)
197,082 Youtube minutes watched (+4,408 from June)
Email subscribers: 19,703 (+504 subscribers from June)
Total expenses: $1,757.76 (-$7,902.54 spent compared to June) (Click here to see a detailed list)
Total revenue from interviews and reviews: $30,240.03 (+$4,710.46 from June) (Click here to see a detailed list)
Total from OTHER streams of income: $1,921.16 (-$26,084.30 from June) (Click here to see a detailed list)
Total Revenue: $32,161.19 (-$21,373.84 from June)
Total Profit: $30,403.43 (-$13,471.30 from June)
Ok, so now here's August
Here’s my results for August, 2016
30492 website page views (-433 from July)
35,332 Youtube channel views (+1,005 from July)
199,218 Youtube minutes watched (+2,136 from July)
Email subscribers: 20,070 (+367 subscribers from July)
Total expenses: $12,320.67 (+$10,562.91 spent compared to July) (Click here to see a detailed list)
Total revenue from interviews and reviews: $20,624.59 (-$9,615.44 from July) (Click here to see a detailed list)
Total from OTHER streams of income: $69,232.95 (+$67,311.79 from July) (Click here to see a detailed list)
Total Revenue: $89,857.54 (+$57,696.35 from July)
Total Profit: $77,536.87 (+$47,133.44 from July)
I’m writing this income report on a train from Portofino to Milan, Italy. My wife and I are finishing a 3 week vacation that quite honestly we didn’t want to take.
You might be surprised to hear that even though I make anywhere from $20k to $80k per month, my wife still chooses to work at a bank. I actually want her to quit so we can have more freedom to travel before we have children, but for the time being she still answers to a boss.
Why am I telling you this?
Well, the reason why we took a 3-week vacation is that her work made her take her vacation time all at once. Of course for me this is a foreign concept, having a boss telling you what to do, but since she still has a job we have to work around that schedule.
So anyway, we planned a vacation where we would spend a week at the beach in Bodrum, Turkey, visit my family in Maine for a week (I have to visit once a year to still be “Mike From Maine”, right? 🙂 ) , a long weekend in New York, and then the rest of the time in Portofino, Italy.
So here’s “why” I didn’t want to take this vacation
Running The Mike From Maine Show takes a few hours of work per day to run. At minimum I need to pick a product to promote, schedule an interview, do the interview, record an intro and outro, render it, and then record a review walk through video. I’m definitely not complaining as I get paid very well for my work, but there is “work” involved in my business. It’s not some 100% passive business machine.
So normally when I go on vacation for a week it’s quite easy to plan ahead and record everything before I go. I do my interviews in advance my reviews, my posts, and even schedule out my emails. All I need to do while on vacation is check on my phone to make sure everything is running smoothly and watch the commissions come in. It’s quite an amazing feeling to get paid $2,000 while you’re sightseeing in Prague or on a canal tour in Amsterdam.
But 3 weeks is a whole different story.
Most product creators are surprisingly big procrastinators. It’s quite common for a product not to be finished until a few days (or hours) before a launch, and the sales page is usually the last thing to be done. I can usually get enough info about a product a week before a launch, but 3 weeks is impossible.
So here comes the dilemma.
Do I take a real “vacation” and “lose” money from not working, or do I try to do promos throughout the whole time and perhaps miss out on some down time?
I chose to do a little of both.
I told myself that it’s ok to take a break…that in fact I NEEDED a rest after launching Mail It in August that did over $200k in sales in just 3 days.
So I decided to do just FOUR affiliate promos while I was on vacation…and here’s how it went:
Friday, August 26th- $91
Saturday, August 27th- $128
Sunday, August 28th- $85
Monday, August 29th- $207
Tuesday, August 30th- $148
Wednesday, August 31st- $1,915
Thursday, September 1st- $797
Friday, September 2nd- $529
Saturday, September 3rd- $187
Sunday, September 4th- $86
Monday, September 5th- $84
Tuesday, September 6th- $80
Wednesday, September 7th- $1,700
Thursday, September 8th- $419
Friday, September 9th- $388
Saturday, September 10th- $520
Sunday, September 11th- $227
Monday, September 12th- $2,183
Tuesday, September 13th- $712
Wednesday, September 14th- $273
Thursday, September 15th- $25
Friday, September 16th- $910
Saturday, September 17th- $137
Sunday, September 18th- $131
Plus $1,250 in prize money
That equals an approximate total of $13,210 in 24 days.
That’s $550.50 per day.
Not bad for being on vacation the whole time…and that doesn’t even count the other commissions I got from a back end webinar and other passive sources.
However of course there is an opportunity cost.
I probably would have made another $10k easily if I had been actively promoting the whole time.
But I don’t regret it one bit!
I’ve already made over $350k this year (before taxes) and that’s not counting September, October, November, and December. I should be able to easily make another $100k before the end of the year.
If I’m making all that money and not enjoying it then what’s the point? Sure, I need to be smart and not spend like a mad-man, but if I don’t take some time off I’ll get burned out.
Yes, it was an expensive vacation, but we had a lot of fun, and I’m sure that it was the right thing to do 🙂
Here are some pictures from our trip:
An octopus that we found in the Aegean sea in Bodrum, Turkey
My mom meeting us at the airport in Bangor, Maine
Last day in Central Park
Out to dinner on the Aegean sea in Bodrum, Turkey with my wife
Having my yearly Maine lobster 🙂
Trying to get in a little "work" in Portofino, Italy
In Cinque Terre, Italy
Eating my favorite meat with vegetables sandwich with a salty yogurt drink called "ayran"
Eating oysters at Grand Central Station in New York
View from our hotel room in Portofino, Italy
Thanks Mike! I got a lot out of your holiday routine! I think you are onto something enormous if you would just continue to work on “holiday” a lot of people like me would grab onto your promo! You see —–it is the lifestyle we are aimlessly pursuing and want as much encouragement to “make it” as possible. The work side doesn’t phaze me in the least! What you did was quite exceptional!! Pull down the shade a bit more on this! Great wife and mom too!
Tom
Thanks, Tom.
It’s definitely tough balancing work and vacation…but I could see us traveling a lot more in the near future 🙂
Hey that’s cool how you share your earning Mike, this is the first time I see a marketer do this, at least that I know of…VERY COOL!
Ronnie Rokk Smith ~ The Faceless Guru
Happy to share, Ronnie. I’ve been sharing my income from the very beginning when I made just $355 my first month. You can check out the previous income reports here https://mikefrommaine.com/income-updates/
Your sharing really makes me think “dreams can be reality” if internet marketing is well-managed. Your transparency is a major factor in continuing to read your emails. Much happiness to you & your lovely wife. Respectfully, NiKiMCC Whitesboro, TX. 9-25-2016
Yes, they can be a reality, but if you’ve been following me for a while you know that it hasn’t always been like this. It took hard work and determination to get where I am today. There’s no “push button” success 🙂
Happy for you Mike. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Nice looking family.
Thank for sharing.
Continued success to you and your wife.
Samuel Sacramento, CA 9-225-2016
Thank you so much, Sam.
Nice Mike.. nothing beats quality family time.
I couldn’t agree more 🙂
Awesome that gives budding marketers like me a boost to move against odds
Your expenses are also great info to know where to invest
One thing I’ve noticed that a lot of people leave out when they’re posting income screenshots on social media is the expenses behind the income. I’m glad you enjoy the transparency.
As said previously Mike, the whole idea of an internet marketing business is that lifestyle we all want.
If I made multiple 6-figures from IM, I personally would gladly give up 3 weeks worth of income for a 3 week vacation – in other words 0 income for 3 weeks (if my income was not passively made while on the trip.)
What many people that are NOT entrepreneurs don’t realize though – when you work for yourself and you take a vacation, unless you have a passive income business, you don’t get the same pay while on holiday. So, the vacation really costs you twice – the actual cost of the trip plus the lost income. This is just a fact of life for entrepreneurs.
I’ve worked for myself in some form or another for over 20 years, and this has been a common theme. Gotta live life while you can. Vacations are important too.
Yes, it costs twice as much, but the great part is that I’m able to make that decision and not get time off from a boss. Thanks for watching!
Hey Mike, I’ve been reading your income reports for years, when you were just trying to put together a mailing list. So glad it’s worked out well for you and may you inspire many others to do the same. There’s nothing like being your own boss!
Thanks for following along, Jeff.
It goes to show you just how important that email list is. I’ve got about 20,000 subscribers now, and that equals anywhere from $1 to $3 per subscriber per month. Build that list!
Mike,
I’ve been following you for a while and I’m really honored for that.
I’ve never seen an honest, transparent marketer like you and Brett. Internet marketing is not an easy mission, I have been struggling for a while building a responsive list. Can you please tell me which way I can go to do so.
All the Best
Sahbi Cherigui
Miami, FL
Thanks for sharing, Mike. Looked like an amazing trip! I’ve been following you since the Adsense website days, and like you have launched an IM affiliate review site. In the early days, with not much traffic or a “big list” were you able to schedule interviews with product creators?
Yeah, you’d be surprised how easy it is to get interviews with people. You just need to ask.
Mike,
I’ve been following you for a while and I’m really honored for that.
I’ve never seen an honest, transparent marketer like you and Brett. Internet marketing is not an easy mission, I have been struggling for a while building a responsive list. Can you please tell me which way I can go to do so.
All the Best
Sahbi Cherigui
Miami, FL
Thanks for the kind words.
The best way to create a responsive list is to launch quality products and then recommend quality products to them as an affiliate.