Income Report for March 2017 – A Failed Product Launch

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.

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Here’s my results for March, 2016

32,954 page views (+4,233 from February)

40,568 Youtube channel views (+5,880 from February)

227,145 Youtube minutes watched (+34,557 from February)

Email subscribers: 23,169 (+46 subscribers from February)

Expenses

Re-Engager prizes: $2,750 – Prizes for affiliates who promoted our launch

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

Facebook ads: $318.02 – I’ve been experimenting with running ads to contests

50% of Re-Engager sales copy: $225

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

Lead Pages: $197 – I use Lead Pages every day in my business and I pay yearly.

Aweber: $181 – This is my list building software that allows me to email everyone when there’s a new interview or review

Paypal fees: $120.29

Design fees: $60 – Some graphics for a project

Zapier: $50 – 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

Gusto: $36 – This is the company I use for my SCORP payroll

Monthly phone fees: $30

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

Amazon S3: $20.22 – I use this to host images and videos

ManyChat: $20 – A service that I use to build a Facebook messenger list

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

Jvzoo seller fees: $19.70

Audible: $14.95 – Business books to further my education

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.

GoDaddy: $8.06 – I bought a domain name for a side project

Vault Press: $5 – A quick and easy tool that I use to backup my website

 

Total expenses: $5,223.17 (-$1,577.28 spent compared to February)

Revenue

Rank Cipher: $5,288.60 from review and interview with Muhammad Azhar

Feel Social: $3,741.68 from review and interview with Brad Stephens

Azon Profit Builder: $2,479.64 from review and interview with Ankur Shukla

Flick GIF:  $2,319.06 from review and interview with Andrew Darius

Blogashop: $2,279 from review and interview with Karl Schuckert

Pullii: $2,048.81 from review and interview with Stefan Ciancio

Instamate 2.0: $1,935 from review and interview with Luke Maguire

Traffic Trigger: $1,913.11 from review and interview with Art Flair

MultiStore Builder: $1,694.97 from review and interview with Ben Murray

Covert Social Press 2.0: $1,472.92 from review and interview with Soren Jordansen

Press Play 2.0: $1,216 from review and interview with Mark Thompson

Tuberank Jeet 3: $896.49 from review

VidiFire: $833.54 from review and interview with Peter Beattie

Pimpr: $624.06 from review and interview with Mark Bishop

Giph Player: $454.75 from review and interview with Andrew Darius

Viddyoze 2.0: $261.45 from review and interview with Viddyoze team

Adsvisor 2.0 $172.46 from review and interview with Abhi Dwivedi

Drop Mock Scene Creator: $167.70 from review and interview with Lee Pennington

Easy VSL 2.0: $164 from review and interview with Mark Thompson

Sharp Social: $157.38 from review and interview with Abhi Dwivedi

Sellosity: $156.40 from review and interview with Sean Donahoe

Growii: $153.73 from review and interview with Stefan Ciancio

InstaEasy: $141 from review and interview with Luke Maguire

Viral Loop: $120.99 from review and interview with Cindy Donovan

Mail X: $109.78 from review and interview with Han Fan

EZ Spokesperson Creator: $93.36 from review and interview with Matt Bush

Thrive Leads: $89.95 from review and interview with Shane Melaugh

Vindnimation: $87.20 from review and interview with Ray Lane

Brander (CLOSED): $72 from review and interview with Joey Xoto

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

Video Vibe Pro: $57.98 from review and interview with Joshua Zamora

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

Zapable: $51.45 from review and interview with Chris Fox

Azon Authority: $48.84 from review and interview with Sean Donahoe

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

Video Traffic Genie: $47 from review and interview with Paul Venables

eCom Pages: $39.95 from review and interview with Mo Aguel

OmniXPress: $39.92 from review and interview with Radu

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

Leadz: $37 from review and interview with Simon Harries

IM Newbie: $35.14 from review and interview with Kevin Fahey

Drop Mock Video: $35 from review and interview with Lee Pennington

Convertri: $33.50 from review and interview with Andy Fletcher

Video Agent X: $30.90 from review and interview with Peter Beattie

Click Back Rewards: $29.98 from review and interview with Brett Rutecky

Vidgeos: $27 from review and interview with Josh Ratta

Commission Cartel: $25.50 from review and interview with Michael Cheney

Instastore: $25.50 from review and interview with Neil Napier

Covert Gawkr: $23.50 from review and interview with Sorin Jordansen

WP Dollar 3.0: $23.50 from review and interview with Abhi Dwivedi

Script Doll: $20 from customer asking for a link

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

HydraVid: $19.96 from review and interview with Walt Bayliss

Revamply: $18.50 from review and interview with Sam Bakker

Profit Renegade: $18.50 from review and interview with Joshua Zamora

Ad Connect: $13.50 from review and interview with Neil Napier

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

Video Express: $9.98 from review and interview with Luan Henrique

Credi Response: $9.96 from review and interview with Cryil “Jeet” Gupta

3K Challenge: $9.21 from interview with Emka

Flipp Me: $8.69 from review and interview with Art Flair

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

Script Engage 2.0: $8.50 from review and interview with Sam Bakker

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

Arbitrage Sugardaddy: $6.66 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: $32,180.80 (+$13,363.25 from February)

Re-Engager: $5,927.04 – My earnings from a launch I did with Brett Rutecky and Tim Verdouw

Affiliate Trax special: $1,285.17 – My earnings from a private webinar I did with Brett

Re-Engager launch expenses: $1,442 – Brett’s share of Re-Engager launch expenses

Re-Engager launch expenses: $916 – Tim Verdouw’s shared expenses for our launch

Mail It: $909.36 – My earnings from a private webinar I did with Brett

Review Wizard: $565.87 – My earnings from a launch Brett and I did in February, 2017

Affiliate Income Secrets: $380.50 – My product teaching how I make money from affiliate marketing

Resell Rights Weekly: $140.40 – This is a website that has a ton of products that you can use as your own

Profit Canvas Unlimited: $128.70  – My commission from a private webinar Brett Rutecky and I did

Mail It: $123.17 – My earnings from a launch I did in August, 2016 with Brett Rutecky

Group Traffic Profits: $103.05 – My earnings from a launch I did in December, 2016 with Brett Rutecky

Google Adsense: $91.99 – Earnings from Youtube Adsense

Keyword Suggestions JV commission: $59.91 – This is my cut from a launch I did with Radu in September, 2015

Social Robot JV commission: $28.06 – This my cut from a launch I did with Joshua Zamora in early 2015

SociSpot JV commission: $27.58 – This is my cut from a launch I did with Lee Pennington in November, 2015

Profit Canvas Pro: $18.36 from a product Brett Rutecky and I launched in 2015

Affiliate Trax: $13.91 – This is my cut from a launch I did with Brett in May, 2016

Udemy: $11.42 – Earnings from a course I have on Udemy

 

Total from OTHER streams of income:  $12,172.49 (-$15,102.57 from February)

Total Revenue: $44,353.29 (-$1,739.32  from February)

Total Profit: $39,130.12 (-$162.04 from February)

This is a LONG DUE full income report.

In 2017 I’ve been so busy with business and personal stuff that I’ve just fallen behind. Every time I think to do a report, something else comes up that is more time sensitive, or I don’t feel in the “mood” to write a report. I’m sure you can understand that 🙂

But the longer I wait the harder it will become, so I’m just going to get right into it.

A “Failed” Launch

Last month Brett Rutecky and I partnered up with Tim Verdouw to help him launch his Re-Engager software. He actually brought this to us to promote as affiliates, and we both liked the product so much that we asked him if he’d like some help bringing it to market. He had some things set up correctly, but the sales funnel needed to be tweaked a bit and the general offer made a bit more exciting.

Brett and I had both promoted a similar product called Profit Tab, and done fairly well with our promo, so we figured this would do well also. However, what we failed to look at was its general sales of the Profit Tab launch. Profit Tab did approximately 500 front end sales, which in our launch space is not a spectacular launch. If we had seen that we  probably wouldn’t have launched Re-Engager.

But we did launch it.

And it didn’t sell very well at all.

We ended up doing about $37,000 in total sales. For us, this was our WORST launch ever. And it definitely was a slap in the face that we needed to rethink our launch offers.

Why did it fail?

There are a few reasons:

  1. The offer wasn’t SEXY enough – The unfortunate truth with the Internet marketing community is that people want products that get INSTANT results and require little work. They want a push-button solution. Our job as ethical marketers is to sell them something that will actually help them, but “sexy” it up so that they’ll see the value in it. Customers vote with their wallets, and over and over again the “hypey” products sell better than the “boring-you-have-to-do-some-work” products. Re-Engager was actually too useful a product, and not sexy enough for our audience. It required that people have a website, which is a big objection for a lot of our customers because it requires having a domain name and hosting. The product also required that people have traffic in order to use it. Unfortunately most people in our market place have little or no traffic, so how were they going to multiply the traffic that they didn’t already have? Zero times 1,000 is still zero.
  2. We were CHEAP with the prizes – We decided to only give away $2,750 in total prizes. This isn’t much. And it doesn’t get affiliates excited. I’ve found that the best way to keep a launch alive and affiliates promoting is to give decent daily prizes so that one affiliate doesn’t run away with all the prize money on the first day.
  3. We launched on a Saturday – In my experience as an affiliate, Saturday is the SLOWEST day of the week for sales. A lot of affiliate marketers also take this day off…including their customers. I’m not saying that having a successful launch on this day is impossible as I’ve seen it done, but it definitely didn’t help our launch.

I also want to make it clear that the product was excellent. And we got support from our affiliate partners. And conversions were good…people were buying it. However the INTEREST in the product was low. When the interest is low, it means that affiliates get less clicks on their email links because people aren’t even interested enough to take a look at the sales page. When that happens, it’s an uphill battle.

A Public Apology

So this launch definitely didn’t go the way we wanted it to go, so we had to fix it. We decided that the best thing to do would be to offer affiliates 100% instead of 50% on the front end offer as a way of assuring them that we will always do our best to make them money. If your affiliates don’t make money then YOU don’t make money.

Below is a video apology I put on Facebook:

But one comment under that apology really caught my attention. Tiffany Rae Lambert said the following:

 

 

 

I mean it’s a good sign when a $38k launch is a failure. That means that we have high standards and won’t settle for mediocrity. However, if we repeat the same mistakes in our future launches then this lesson will be for nothing.

Learning From Mistakes

As I’m writing this it’s the middle of April. We are in the second day of our launch of a software called Board Commander, and so far it’s going MUCH better than the Re-Engager launch. I’ll give you a full report on it in the next income report.

A New Apartment

So we decided to buy a much nicer apartment in a nicer neighborhood. It was a bit more expensive than I would have wanted, but our quality of life will be much better. Currently we’re living in a decent apartment, but it’s far away from the city center. If we want to go out for a walk or go to a restaurant it means that we need to drive. However with our new apartment we’ll be a minute’s walk from downtown, and just 5 minutes from the shore.

Unfortunately we haven’t moved in yet. In Turkey when a foreigner buys an apartment the sale needs to be approved by the ministry of defense to make sure that the land isn’t in a strategically military area. This process can take up to 2 months, and it’s been a month so far, so I’m hoping that in my next income report I’ll be able to post some pictures 🙂

 

 

 

I also cooked some meat “Turkish style” 🙂

 

Thank you so much for reading and following along. Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll be back soon with my income report for April.

 

      1. Agreed Mike. So many ways and it does take a while. I’m currently building up my blog myself, following and modeling, hoping to one day get to your level. It may take a while but all I got is time and I won’t give up. Thanks for all the great content. Keep up the great work! 🙂

  5. I have bought quite a few products from Brett. I like the way he explains his products. This is the first time I seen anyone tell about their financial history. It was very interesting. Will save so when I get to do something like that I will be as on my way to earn a good income.Had not realized you lived in Turkey.

    1. I’m happy to share my numbers with you. It’s important to understand the financials behind a successful business.

  6. Why there are not expressed the taxes in your expenses?
    There is a special reason for you to operate from Turkey?

    1. Good question.

      Taxes are going to be different for each person. For example, I get a Foreign Earned Income Exclusion tax credit because I live abroad.

      Special reason I operate from Turkey? Well, my wife is Turkish 🙂

  7. Congrats on your ongoing success, Mike! Enjoy reading your financial reports as they are inspiring to me and show that some “good guys” (like you) out there in the IM world are doing very well. Encourages a struggling online marketer like myself to keep on plugging away with the hope that one day I may become successful too. Hopefully before I hit age “99”!
    Cheers,
    Barry From Canada

    1. Thanks for the kind words. Keep at it! There’s no magic button, but if you keep working consistently there is light at the end of the tunnel.

  9. Hi Mike, Thanks for giving a detailed report on your operations like you did. There are not many people out there that would do something like this.

    1. I’ve been doing it from the beginning and it’s been a great way of keeping myself on track.

  11. Mike, thank you for sharing the truth about your business. It is refreshing and inspiring. I’m sure Board Commander was more successful! Good luck with the move. Gail

  12. I love the report and the lesson Mike…

    I would like to know the scope of things/duties you delegate to your VA.

    Keep making more moolah!

  13. Well done Mike!

    Kicking some great goals over the past few years! 🙂

    Cheers,

    Ralph

  14. What a useful, candid report, Mike. Thanks for the insights.

    Do your expenses include affiliate commissions as well as prizes?

    I’m delighted to hear about your new apartment!

    Mary

Comments are closed.

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