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 April, 2015.

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42,440 page views (-7,856 from March)

26,391 Youtube channel views (-2,893 from March)

183,210 minutes watched (-13,293 from March)

Aweber subscribers: 6,375 (-224 subscribers from March)

GetResponse subscribers: 7,250 (+829 subscribers from March)

Total email list subscribers: 13,625

Expenses

oDesk Virtual Assistants: $235.52 – I have some workers helping me with daily tasks that don’t need me. I’m trying to outsource more and more daily.

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

Wistia: $95.62 – This is how I host my sales videos and course content.

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

GetResponse: $65 – This is the autoresponder I use for my buyer’s list

Sendgrid: $57.28 – I tried using Sendgrid for my mailing list, but they banned my account and told me they don’t support affiliate marketing

Traffic Planet Hosting: $50 – The hosting account that I recently switched to. It’s super fast and I’m very happy with it.

Improvely: $29 – This is a tool that I’m using to track the lifetime value of leads

Elastic Email: $20 – I bought some credits here to try out this email service, but I never used them.

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

Schedule Once: $19 – A tool I use for scheduling coaching calls

Facebook ads: $15 – Ad money spent for misc. FB ads

WuFoo: $14.95 – A tool that allows me to take applications for my coaching program

HideMyAss: $12.95 – I used this as a way to use Youtube when it got blocked for a day in Turkey

Skype: $10 for premium – I do all my interviews with Skype and Ecamm call recorder on a Mac.

Droplr Pro: $4.95 – I tried this out for a month, but I cancelled and still prefer Jing for taking screenshots and recording quick videos

Amazon S3: $2.38 – I use this to host images and videos

Total expenses: $919.60 (-$896.23 compared to March)

Revenue

The Super Funnel (CLOSED): $4,626.88 from review and interview with Alex Jeffreys

Easiest 5rr Cash Ever : $2,453.73 from review and interview with Bamdad Sky

CPA Giveaway Frenzy (CLOSED): $2,360.28 from review and interview with Hooda Kismet

Click Back Rewards: $1,284.11 from review and interview with Brett Rutecky

Azon Authority: $1,168.28 from review and interview with Sean Donahoe

Video Pages (CLOSED): $1,045.46 from review and interview with Joshua Zamora

Keywords Studio Pro: $869.63 from review and interview with Rahil Ahmed

The Singing Guru: $845.05 from review and interview with Jamie Lewis

Zapable (CLOSED): $833.45 from review and interview with Chris Fox

Video Motion Pro (CLOSED): $794 from review and interview with Josh Ratta

IntelliPlayer: $708.54 from review and interview with Bill Guthrie

Commission Juggernaut (CLOSED): $645.13 from review and interview with James Canzanella

Mobile Optimize Pro (CLOSED): $608.97 from review and interview with Brett Rutecky

CPA List Loophole: $460.11 from review and interview with Greg Konenenko

Social Video Magic: $310.50 from interview with Jeff Long

Easy Web Video Lead Generator: $256.06 from review and interview with Shawn Pringle

Little Guy Big Profits (CLOSED): $230.17 from review and interview with Eric Larson

Thrive Leads: $178.75 from review and interview with Shane Melaugh

Easy VSL: $167.50 from review and interview with Mark Thompson

The Fiverr Handover (CLOSED): $162.15 from review and interview with Fergal Downes

Targeting Inspector 2.0 (CLOSED): $148.90 from review and interview with Aravindh Sridhar

Tee Profits Recipe (CLOSED): $147 from review and interview with Demian Caceres

CPA Niche Jacker (CLOSED): $146.01 from review and interview with Jon Smith

Online Wealth Academy (CLOSED): $145.50 from review, interview, and webinar with Mikael Dia

Simple CPA Siphon (CLOSED): $139.88 from review and interview with Stephen Gilbert

Solo Ad Arbitrage 2.0 (CLOSED): $132.28 from review and interview with Andrea Fulton

Arbitrage Underdog RELOADED: $121.01 from review and interview with Tom E

How to Get Your Product and Website Online: $104.21 from review and interview with Reed Floren

Video Maker FX: $98.50 from review and interview with Peter Roszak

Ultimate Traffic Monster (CLOSED): $84.85 from review and interview with Naidy Phoon

Tee Cash Boot Camp: $77.70 from review and interview with Andy Berard

Weird Niche Content: $71.92 from review and interview with Mark Bishop

Vidlify (CLOSED): $71.64 from review and interview with Radu Hahaianu

Explaindio: $68.50 from review and interview with Nick LaPolla

Video Ad Rival: $60.50 from review and interview with Peter Beattie

Digital Software Lab (CLOSED): $50.50 from review and interview with Josh Ratta

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

Viral Content Profits: $48.50 from review and interview with Ricky Mataka

Tube Sniper Pro 3.0 (CLOSED): $48.50 from review and interview with Joshua Zamora

InstaHook Video Backgrounds: $47.60 from review and interview with Brad Scott

How To Get Free Traffic From Affiliates and JVs: $44.87 from review and interview with Reed Floren

HydraVid: $39.92 from review and interview with Walt Bayliss

Operation Solo: $32.36 from interview with Anthony Tilley

Crowd Search Me (CLOSED): $32 from review and interview with Daniel Anton

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

List Building for 2015 (CLOSED): $28.63 from review and interview with Fergal Downes

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

Kindle Marketing Magic: $26.65 from review and interview with Mike Balmaceda

Video Rizer: $25.65 from review and interview with Aaron Wolfe

Tee Blueprint (CLOSED): $25.50 from review and interview with Manny Hanif

How to Create Information Products that SELL: $24.57 from review and interview with Reed Floren

How To Get Traffic From Facebook Ads: $24.57 from review and interview with Reed Floren

Solo Ad Business Blueprint (CLOSED): $23.47 from interview with Kate Rosenberg

Kindle Assembly Line: $20.04 from review and interview with Saeed Rajan

Absolute Jacker (CLOSED): $16.50 from review and interview with Ariel Sanders

Timeline Optins (CLOSED): $15.26 from review and interview with Brett Rutecky

Webinar Fusion Pro: $15.20 from review and interview with Dwayne Golden

Funnel Vision (CLOSED): $14.97 from review and interview with Dr. Ben Adkins

Smart Blog Networks (CLOSED): $13.62 from review and interview with Simon Warner

WP Solo Tracker: $13.50 from interview with Steve Fleming

Screencast Pro: $13.50 from review and interview with Joey Xoto

Positive Thinking Success PLR (CLOSED): $11.93 from interview with Justin Popovic

Five Figure Secret (CLOSED): $11.91 from review and interview with Bill Hugall

Mobile Lead Monster: $10.80 from review and interview with Kevin Zichermann

Spy Perfection (CLOSED): $10.63 from review and interview with Sam Bakker

Five Minute Sales Letters (CLOSED): $8.76 from review and interview with Matt Cook

Instant CPA Cash (CLOSED): $8.76 from review and interview with James Knight

Elite Video Evolution 2.0: $8.76 from review and interview with Ryan Phillips

Smart Fiverr Profits (CLOSED): $7.88 from review and interview with Art Wojciechowski

Long Tail Pro: $7.60 from interview with Spencer Haws

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

CPA Vid Krakken (CLOSED): $6.18 from review and interview with Saul Maraney

Bing Brings You The Bling: $5.93 from review and interview with Rob Stafford

Inner Circle Solo Ads 3.0 (CLOSED): $4.50 from interview with Rob Stafford

Total revenue from interviews and reviews: $22,491.61 (+$287.12 from March)

Private Coaching students: $4,827.61 – In this program I teach how to make money from affiliate marketing, list building, and product creation. If you’re interested in joining you can APPLY HERE.

Affiliate Income Secrets: $1,563.69 – My product teaching how I make money from affiliate marketing

Resell Rights Weekly: $112.46 – This is a website that has a ton of products that you can use as your own

Kindle earnings: $10.21

Total from OTHER streams of income: $6,513.97 (+$690.17 from March)

Total Revenue: $29,005.58 (+$977.29 from March)

Total Profit: $28,085.98 (+$1,873.52 from March)

This month I want to talk about something different. Instead of talking about ME, I want to highlight the success of one of my students who has taken MASSIVE action.

His name is Bamdad Sky.

When I first met him he was struggling to make money online. He approached me and was desperate to figure this whole thing out. He bought a little course of mine called Fiverr Secrets where I teach how I made $484 on Fiverr. He immediately dove into that course, and then messaged me with his results that he’d made $1,264 in just 40 days using the methods I had taught.

I was THRILLED for him! It’s one thing to make money for yourself, but it’s a completely different feeling when you can teach someone something and they actually APPLY it and get results. I was very proud 🙂

After getting results with my Fiverr course, he started asking me about coaching so he could learn how to make money as an affiliate marketer and product creator. I told him it wasn’t some “get rich quick” program, but a proven method that I’ve learned over the last 2.5 years.

He was a bit hesitant to join. He had joined some other coaching programs before mine and hadn’t achieved any results. When I sent him over the application form he was a bit scared.
Also, there was pressure from his fiancee. They were preparing to get married, and of course she didn’t want him to waste his money on another coaching program that wasn’t going to deliver real results. Luckily, he was able to convince her that I’m actually doing what I teach after showing her my website and income report proof.

In the end he joined my program and got straight to work. He set up his website, MarketingWithSky.com and wrote his first post. He was definitely a little slow-moving in the beginning, as he was learning new stuff and also running his Fiverr business, but I convinced him to start talking about his Fiverr business on his blog. He made this post in August, 2014 talking about his success.

After that he went to work in the background. Following my instruction, he created his first course while working on his business at the same time. I tried to convince him to start doing reviews of affiliate products, but he was a bit stubborn about it. He wanted results NOW, and he wanted to get some instant cash coming in from releasing his first product. I was happy to see his enthusiasm, but I warned him multiple times that he should learn to be an affiliate marketer FIRST and a product creator SECOND. I see WAY too many people put out products and then have a difficult time launching them because they haven’t put in their time as an affiliate helping others sell their products. Plus, as an affiliate you can learn which products sell, which don’t, how sales funnels work, and most importantly, you make RELATIONSHIPS with people BEFORE ever asking them to promote for you. Plus, once you have built an email list from a product launch, you immediately know how to monetize it

At the end of October, 2014 months had passed since Bamdad joined my program. I was a little frustrated that he was taking so long to do the tasks I assigned to him. Instead of just doing everything once he’d do them over and over again and try to make them perfect.

He kept working on his product, but I warned him again about being an affiliate first:

In January, 2015 he started taking my advice and reaching out to potential affiliates for his upcoming product launch. He bought some of Fergal Downes‘ Fiverr products, went through them, applied them, and got results. And this was a PERFECT way to establish a connection with him, which impressed Fergal so much that he posted about it on Facebook:

And after that he started networking with OTHER big affiliate marketers:

In February, 2015 he finished his lead magnet to help build his list on his website and through other free methods:

Bamdad continued to work hard on his product. In mid-March he reached out to Gaurab Borah, a successful and prolific product launcher,  to see if he’d be interested in doing a product launch together:

At the end of March he set up his JV page announcing the launch of his FIRST product called Easiest 5rr Cash Ever! He was even able to get Gaurab to JV partner with him on the launch.

Then things started to get really exciting. As part of my coaching program, if my students follow my method for creating a quality product (they can’t just rewrite a PLR article), I offer to bring them on my show and interview them for a promotion to my email list of almost 15,000 subscribers. This guarantees them sales and exposure to a large audience. Bamdad was SUPER excited to come on my show:

I think I was even more excited than him when I sent over the link to his interview 🙂

You can check out his interview below…or check out his interview post HERE.

Bamdad launched his product on April 9th, and had his FIRST $1,000 dollar day!

And he and his partner, Gaurab, got WSO of the Day!

Of course, a good product attracts GREAT affiliates…and he had some amazing support:

Now I wish I could say that I ended up #1 on his leaderboard for his launch…but I missed it to Fergal Downes by a few sales (congrats Fergal!). However, I was able to send him 1,500 clicks and make 259 sales.

It was a PLEASURE supporting him. Plus, I was able to make almost $2,500 total as an affiliate. That’s the amazing thing about affiliate marketing. If you create a quality product then you make money AND your affiliates as well. It’s a win-win situation.

When the launch was finished, Bamdad posted his results on his blog in an income report. In total, he was able to make almost $5,000 in revenue from his product launch and add approximately 1,500 subscribers to his email list. Now it was time to go from being a product creator to becoming an affiliate.

However, he had a problem. You might recall that he had skipped being an affiliate FIRST. He wanted to skip right to the product creation aspect of it. Now he had an email list to mail to, but he had no idea how to monetize it. I got a panicky message from him on Skype and responded below:

So he want back to the beginning of my training and started again, focusing on how to promote offers as an affiliate. And, of course, he started getting results like this:

And his name started showing up on the leaderboards for launches…right near mine 🙂

He even started winning prizes from these launches:

And being mentioned in JV emails by people like Alex Jeffreys and Simon Harries:

Now that Bamdad has learned the “secret” to making money online, he’s doing things on his own now. He does a few reviews per week on his website, and is making a living as an affiliate marketer. Even though he’s “made it”, he still hasn’t forgotten me or his fellow students. He is still an active member in my coaching program, and pops in quite often to help out the other students still learning this whole system.

I want to say that I by no means take credit for Bamdad’s success. I showed him a proven method that works for me, and he took massive action and applied it. By using these methods he was able to create relationships with some important JV partners like Gaurab Borah and Fergal Downes, thus helping to give him a push in the right direction.

No success story is ever the same. Everyone has a different path to success. Some take longer than others. Some get distracted along the way and then come back. Some are given the keys to the kingdom, but instead decide to walk away. There’s an old saying “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”. So true…so true.

Bamdad’s story is truly a special one. He’s come a long way from when I first met him, and I’m proud to say that I at least had a small part in his transition from feeling lost and confused, to now having the ability to create an income for himself and his family whenever he needs it…with the push of an “email” button 😉

But his journey isn’t over, as the learning process continues to go on. He’s now taking his success and learning other ways of building his business. He’s investing in courses on paid traffic and applying the methods. Of course, once he’s learned them AND applied them, I’m sure he’ll release a course about what he’s learned. You know, the whole “Learn. Apply. Teach” method of creating products. I’m even excited to learn from HIM in the future.

I hope you enjoyed this little case study. Please feel free to congratulate Bamdad below, and to add him on Facebook. He’d love to hear from you.