Best month EVER.
One road closes, but leads to another.
This month was our last in Medellin, Colombia. For awhile anyways – we will be back!
The new adventure is in transit as we speak. Writing from the airport (more on this later…)
In this income report, I’ll be covering 6 things:
- January Traffic Stats
- Reason for my first $10k month
- What’s New in Jan?
- The Hot Income Digits — Sickest Month Yet
- Last hurrah in Colombia
- Future Plans + Adventures
An insiders look at the traffic numbers — Happy Growth
Two months ago, my YouTube channel got WHACKED for a big loss.
My highest traffic video — dumped.
Since then, I’ve published a handful of YouTube videos. Happy to say
that I’m getting back to old numbers. And that YouTube is more profitable
for me than ever (deets in the income section).
YouTube Traffic Stats
The blog is picking up some stragglers, too.
No offense intended. I love stragglers. Or anyone that joins my tribe.
As always, connect with me and take your biz to the next level.
Followers expect this stuff to be easy.
Some of it is — growing a blog is not.
After years of casually publishing posts, this blog is finally gaining some traction.
Take a look here:
Wouldn’t call it a breakthrough blog yet.
Pretty excited about the pick up.
What made the difference?
My assumption is the Google Bot is loving the long + unique posts.
I’ve been saying for three years, the best way to get traffic is by keeping visitors
engaged on the page, and hungry for more.
YouTube is not tracking visitor behaviour by accident.
Backlinks can be bought. Social signals can be blasted from any old piece of autobot trash.
Visitor engagement is not so easily cheated.
Stop wasting your time on tricking Google.
It doesn’t work anymore. Get real!
What traffic has to do with my BREAKTHROUGH income
Surprisingly, it has very little to do with money at all.
My income nearly doubled (shown later) this month. Yet my YouTube traffic is about 10,000 visitors shy from my best ever. My blog increased its traffic by less than 20%. That’s not enough to account for a $5,000 increase in earnings.
So why am I banking harder than ever?
Trust leads to sales.
Always remember that we buy things from people we know and trust.
My business is focussed on helping others. When you do that — money follows.
More than any other month, applications to my coaching program are through the roof.
While cranking out a few YouTube videos may have only marginally increased my traffic. It does seem to have radically boosted my applications into the program.
To top it all off, I spent more time this month than ever answering questions.
When a follower needs help with something, I am usually* a few clicks away to support them with my best advice.
There’s really only one exception to this.
*When a question is too vague.
I will not answer “how do I make money online?”
That’s a lazy question. And I have a coaching program that covers that. It takes 2+ hours to answer it in full.
I will, however, answer:
- “how do I set up a website?”
- “where do you get your emails from?”
- “what software do you use to create your videos?”
And much, much more.
If the question is specific, and has a specific answer, I will help as much as I can.
I try to answer everyone. Seriously!
The business of helping strangers — Stupidly Simple Reasoning
When you help someone, they remember.
Emails get seen more. They buy through your link more.
WHY??
Persuasion experts like to call this the reciprocity rule.
I call it good business.
The idea is that when you GIVE something of value away for free, most people feel a social pressure to return the favour.
You could consider this a “thank you economy” of sorts.
The more you give out, the more you get back.
Never underestimate the power of goodwill marketing.
It’s good to help people. And it’s LOADS more profitable, too.
New Stuff I Created in Jan
New Years was a party in Panama City.
You can hear about Panama in my last income report.
This section is for marketing, though.
So lets look at what I published this January.
THREE new YouTube videos
The first covered the topic “Is Tai Lopez a Scammer?”
You know who I’m talking about?
Tai does those ads all the time that start with “here in my garage.”
A watched a rather hilarious, yet unfair video that called him a scumbag.
From there, I managed to witness a gigantic following of haters that revelled in the opportunity to tear a marketer down.
It just rubbed me the wrong way.
The guy interviewed a billionaire. He either rents or owns mansions in Beverly Hills.
The implication that he’s pretending to be wealthy is seemingly jealous idiocy.
Anywho, I was compelled to make a video.
It also doesn’t hurt that Tai Lopez videos regularly get millions of views, and I was hoping for a nice snag of traffic in the suggested videos feed.
Alas, no such luck yet.
The next video was on the Top 10 Ways to Get Traffic.
A fun look at the my favourite traffic sources.
Check it out:
And finally, the last video is maybe the most transparent video I’ve ever created.
How I Make $2,000/Month on YouTube showed exactly that.
Without holding any punches.
From start to finish, I show pretty much everything I’ve learned about growing a YouTube channel past a million views.
The Finale Vid of the Month:
Busy month as far as videos go.
I’d like to say “I’ll be back” with more videos in February. Probably with a forced and predictable Arnold Schwarzeneger accent.
The reality is that we just moved to Thailand.
Right now, all I can think about is a beach.
My current sights are on Krabi.
Later we’ll be heading to Koh Tao. (more on this later…)
Two New Blog Posts
The first blog post of the month was almost like an income report.
The message was simple.
Passive income is awesome.
Over the last few months, I haven’t put much time into growing my business.
That’s a huge priority for me.
TIME… That is.
The repercussions have been rather backwards.
While I may have gained more money by investing more time, my business continues to grow despite a lack of effort.
Elimination is a tactful process.
I want to minimize my time on business, but I would never ignore my tribe.
The key is to prioritize the stuff that matters, and get rid of the stuff that doesn’t
The Four Hour Work Week is an inspiration.
- Step 1) Jot down all the tasks that you complete in your business on a weekly basis.
- Step 2) Predict how much you make from each task
- Step 3) Continue the Winners and Fire the Losers
You’ll be surprised at the wasteful inefficiency of certain behaviours.
Only a few tasks account for the larger part of your success.
The second blog post was an important look at using open loops.
If you haven’t heard of an open loop, you must read this.
And if you have read it, then you’d know I’ve been using one for the last couple sentences.
The Income Numbers — What You Really Want to See
Here goes…
The dollars and cents 🙂
The #’s
– JvZoo = $1,245.49
– WarriorPlus = $1,241.39
– ClickBank = $157.78
– HostGator Affiliate = $150
– ListSpark Earnings = $34
– Aweber = $69.72
– BuzzBundle Sales = $0
– StudioPress Affiliate = $66
– 7 Steps to Passive Income = $126
– Adsense = $1200 approx. (not allowed to give specific numbers)
– Solo Ad Earnings = $52
– My Services = $50
– Amazon Earnings = $421.41
– Coaching Sessions = $5,495
Total Gross Earnings = $10,308.70
Expenses:
– Aweber = $180
– ListSparkPro = $18
– Traffic Planet Hosting = $50
Total Expenses = $248
Expenses are same as last month.
Was it a Good Month?
Let’s do the final calculations.
$10,308.70 – $248
Grand Total = $10,060.79
If you take a look at last month’s income report, you’ll notice this month is three grand higher.
Plus, I hit the 10K/month mark.
YES! I’m a happy dude.
Building goodwill with my followers is clearly paying off.
If my marketing journey is testament to anything, it’s that going the extra mile to support your tribe is probably the easiest way to get results.
Not a Warren Buffet yet. Nor do I intend to be, but my time is my own.
I would not trade the life of a marketer for anything.
The End of an Era — Departure from Colombia
Leaving Medellin, Colombia is not easy.
The people are happy and the city is jam-packed with fun moments.
Take a lil’ taste here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJzXH5x4y_M
My favourite part of Medellin is the city draped in nature.
Never seen anything like it.
It’s a big city with skyscrapers + huge 4-story shopping centres.
Yet, it’s still sprinkled in green from one end to the other.
Here’s me and Caitlyn acting goofy in a park:
This park is famously located at the top of a mountain.
The easiest way to get here is by gondola.
Seriously… a FREAKING gondola.
Colombia is cool, man.
Next time we want the city life — We’ll be coming back to Medellin.
Chow for now!
Future GamePlan — Adventure + Growth
Leaving Medellin may seem shocking. Why the heck would we?
Don’t worry. Next month will be featuring more exotic.
We’re heading to Thailand in February.
Actually, we’re here already. I’m a little late getting this income report posted (for obvious reasons).
Pic from last night:
Our new stomping grounds.
Current sleeping pad is beachfront with a stunning view.
You may be thinking “woah Brendan, you made $10k in January — don’t blow it all in one place”
Our place costs 1,000 Baht per night. That’s roughly $35.
We could stay here for the rest of Feb, and we’d only be charged $840.
Food at the restaurants cost about $4/meal. And that’s expensive for Thailand eating.
I’m guessing you think moving to an exotic land is unrealistic in your life. I challenge you to do the numbers. In many cases, you will actually save money by living in paradise.
In other words, it’s a frugal business decision to take a vacation.
Why don’t you?
Coaching + Occasional Updates
While I’m here, I will be continuing my coaching applications (for now).
I enjoy working with my tribe, and meeting new future business partners.
If you want in on the program, you can still apply here.
Blog posts and YouTube videos may be more sparse than normal.
At least in the beginning.
My intention is to eventually run my business even more rapidly in the future.
It’s difficult to imagine, at this moment, doing anything but lay on the beach and revel in new adventures.
Which is my next thing “to do” after hitting the “publish” button.
Wrapping Up — Thank You
Please leave a comment below. I would love to hear from each and every one of you.
My goal continues to be two things:
1) Enjoy my personal life
2) Personally connect with as many followers as possible
Without you, the reader, I would not be doing this today.
I’ll always remember that my success comes from you guys.
Thank you!
