Income Report for July, 2013 – I launched my first product AND went on my honeymoon

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 iTunes 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. A perfect example of this is Tyrone Shum who confessed to “stretching the truth” about his six-figure earnings. My goal is that by watching my income grow slowly over time you’ll realize that there is no get-rich-quick button.

Here are my results for July:

Traffic/Audience

10,209 page views (-3,540  from June)

2,148 (-1,555) iTunes downloads

6,597 (+458 ) Youtube channel views

45,727 (-525) minutes watched

Aweber subscribers: 4,491 (+1,468 subscribers)

Twitter followers:  5,405 (-4 followers)

Facebook Fans:  481 (+10)

Expenses

Aweber: $49 – This is my list building software that allows me to email everyone when there’s a new interview

Host Gator hosting: $10

Libsyn: $75 – I host my podcast with this so I can put it on iTunes

Hello Bar: $5

GoDaddy: $11.17

Skype: $40 for private number and calls

Storm on Demand Liquid Web Hosting: $100

Swipe copy for launch: $50

Product images: $15

Vimeo: $59.95

Safe Swaps: $29.99

LinkTrackr: $27 for 3 months

Jing: $9.95

Solo ads: $592

 

Total expenses: $1,074.06 (+$16.92 compared to June)

 

Revenue

Webinar Express: $297 from interview with Mark Thompson

LeadPlayer (CLOSED): $147 from interview with Clay Collins and links under interviews

The Money Tree (CLOSED): $120.87 from interview with Russ Ruffino

Video Curation Pro: $111.05 from interview with Peter Drew

List Frenzy (CLOSED): $72.28 from interview with Andre Stoelinga and Daryl Austman

List Generator System (CLOSED): $65.05 from interview with Jason Fulton and solo ads

Tube Backlink Commando (CLOSED): $60.41 from interview with Tony Hayes

Info Cash Blueprint (CLOSED): $60.35 from interview with Mike Marin

Rapid Content Wizard (CLOSED): $55.50 from interview with Sean Donahoe

Tube Takeover: $49.44 from interview with Josh Zamora

Inner Circle Solo Ads (CLOSED): $45.55 from interview with Rob Stafford and solo ads

Engage Rocket (CLOSED): $37 from interview with Paul Benham

Fast and Cheap Storybooks: $34.38 from interview with Deborah Drum and Amy Harrop

Fast Free Traffic Formula: $29.91 from interview with Gary Clucas

Secret Millionaires Traffic Source (CLOSED): $29.24 from interview with Dave Gruber and Matt Bacak

Covert Store Builder: $28.20 from interview with Cindy Battye

Amazon Treasure Hunter 2.0 (CLOSED): $28.20 from interview and review with Gaz Cooper

Page Speed Mechanics (CLOSED): $25.50 from interview with Lisa Allen

Retro Reppin: $18.98 from Interview with Mike Shreeve

Project X Tube (CLOSED): $17.92  from interview with Cliff Carrigan

Product Creation Master Class: $15.36 from interview with Trevor Dumbleton

Video Slayer (CLOSED): $13.50 from interview with Bertram Heath Sr.

Pulse Hover (CLOSED): $12.03 from interview with Leah Butler-Smith

Easy Funnel Maker (CLOSED): $11.18 from interview with Barry Rodgers

The Money Trigger (CLOSED): $9.95 from interview with Alex Jeffreys

Mini Affiliate Sites course (CLOSED): $6.75 from interview with David McGimpsey

 

Total revenue from interviews: $1,402.60 (-$1,202.49 from June)

 

Simple Profits Blueprint promotion for Joshua Zamora: $32.33

Kindle earnings: $40.79

Text link ads: $24– I make this income from an old website of mine.

Whoosh Traffic (CLOSED): $17.90 – A keyword tracker for monitoring multiple keyword rankings

Income Igniter (CLOSED): $9.23

SocialAdr: $5.60 – A hands-off way of getting more likes and tweets for your posts

Private Coaching: $727.95

Product Launch Confessions: $711.65

 

Total from OTHER streams of income: $1,569.45 (+$1,223.91 from June)

 

Total Revenue: $2,972.05 (+$21.42 from June)

 

Total Profit: $1,897.99 (+$4.50 from June)

 

July was quite possibly the MOST stressful month that I’ve experienced all year. Why? Well, I finally put out my first product: Product Launch Confessions.

How did the launch go?

I’m actually really happy with the results. In July I sold 237 copies for a total of $2,534.79 in sales. Of course, I didn’t get to keep all that, as most of it went to affiliates mailing out for me. As far as my take, I earned $711.65 from the first two days of the launch. Of course I would have liked to have sold more, but for my first launch I consider it a big success.

What else is going on?

My earnings have been fairly consistent for the last six months, but I don’t want to lull myself into false security. Because I’m public with my earnings reports I feel a pressure sometimes to keep my expenses low (which is a good thing), but I think I’ve been letting that pressure inhibit experimental spending. So what does this mean? It means that I’ll be spending more and experimenting with other methods of increasing my income streams. It means that I’ll be spending MUCH more than I’m used to spending for a few months. Of course my profits will take a hit, but I’m hoping that in the long run I’ll be able to leverage my current cash flow to increase long-term earnings.

Of course I will be smart about my spending, but don’t be surprised if you see some lower numbers profit-wise.

Plans for the future?

I’m currently planning out my next product. I’m thinking about doing a product like Product Launch Confessions, but instead about building your list with solo ads. I have lots of questions when it comes to that type of traffic, and I think, with the right guests, I could create a wealth of knowledge in an interview product.

 

And of course, thank you so much for watching my show, buying through my affiliate links, and reaching out to me. If there’s anyone you’d like me to interview please let me know in the show notes below and I’ll try to get them on the show.

 

Oh, and here are some pics from our honeymoon 🙂 We spent it in a beautiful boutique hotel in Alaçatı, Turkey called Kamihan

IMG_8411
My wife played with this pic a bit, but we look very happy

 

 

IMG_8510
This is where we had breakfast every day. The hotel was behind and above an antique shop…really nice and private.
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An AMAZING Turkish breakfast…the Turks know how to eat!
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We took a picture with the hotel owner…we DEFINITELY recommend Kamihan hotel in Alacati, Turkey to anyone who wants to stay in some place special

 

 

 

  1. Thanks for July’s report Mike,

    How many actual new people were you able to add to your list.
    I would think many of the sales were to people you already had on a list?

    Thanks, Jeff

    1. Jeff,

      I added around 150 buyers to my list in July. Yes, I had a decent amount of sales from my audience. THANK YOU!

  2. hi Mike

    is this income report a result of your MFM site alone, is it?

    do you also have other niche sites that you make money with but don’t reveal here?

    Cheers!

    1. John,

      Those are currently all my sites. I am very transparent about my results and show it all here.

  3. Hi.
    So obviously with that kind of profit, you are doing this part-time and have other sources of income.

    Are you totally online? I’m thinking of going into offline, but am not sure I will be able to handle the customers. Customers do my head in.

    Mike.

    1. Mike,

      Actually, this is my full-time job. I’m living in Istanbul, Turkey where the cost-of-living is less than in the States, so it affords me the luxury of more wiggle-room when it comes to a comfortable income.

      So yes, I’m “totally online”.

      Why wouldn’t you be able to handle customers? As long as you truly try to help them out then you should be fine.

  4. Hi Mike

    and congrats on your income report,+ going on your honeymoon too. You seem to be really busy, i found your WSO launch and Product a valuable one (i promoted it to my List) :).

    Keep up the good work will chat soon,

    Give me a heads up when you launch something new, will always be interested in it.

    Regards

    Tom

    1. Tom,

      Thanks, buddy. It was definitely a busy month. I’m actually excited for Summer to be over so I can get back to work 😉

      Yes, I’ll let you know when I launch again. Thanks for your support.

  5. Hey Mike,

    You have been spending so much time with solo ads lately. It’s great to hear that you are going the release a product on it with everything you have learned. Looking forward!

    1. Joseph,

      Yeah, it would be a shame to waste all the time, effort, and money I’ve put into solo ads without at least creating a valuable resource for you all.

      I’m on it!

Comments are closed.

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