Every month, I reveal to my followers the spoils of my marketing assets.
This month featured a good bit of fun. And as such, the income numbers and progress has taken a bit of a hit. All should be back on track for November.
What I’ll be covering:
- What I Did this Month
- Traffic Stats
- Dealings with a Scam Artist
- How Much Money I Made
- What I’m Planning for the Future
What I Got Up to?
A HUGE part of my marketing strategy is freedom.
There are loads of other marketers that make more money online than me.
It’s not even close.
And while we all want the dollars and cents.
A priority for me is time. Without it – money becomes valueless.
Fortunately, this month focussed on the finer things in life.
Caitlyn and myself took a vacation to San Andres Islas
This Colombian island is in the south of the Bahamas.
Take a 2 min Look at our trip (if you wanna)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c0nnQo3D4Y
The bad (or good) news is that the internet sucked. I could barely salvage any connection at all.
I still managed to stay in contact with friends, and made a few emails here or there.
But I mainly soaked up the sun, and enjoyed a generous amount of cervezas. <— that’s beer 🙂
The island was small and beautiful. We drove around the perimeter many times in our rented golf cart. The drive takes a whole 50 minutes.
I spent around 10 minutes per day on emails.
Minus the week on San Andres Island
Other than that, I created part 1 of my new video series.
Which is … *DRUM ROLL*
Dum
da
da
Dum…
On Create Your Own Self Hosted Site from Scratch
Vid here:
Yeah, for some this may be basic. Other’s may prefer a free option.
And while free is okay for a hobby blog. There is a very obvious reason why you should set up your OWN hosting for a website.
Just take a look at the freebie site TOS, they usually state that you CANNOT make any money online or set up any ads. For most of us… that’s the whole point.
To actually make money online.
Whether or not you can find a way to salvage a little income from these free sites. I can positively say that I do not know of a SINGLE person that makes a full-time income with one of these free websites.
Your much better choice is to set up your own site.
Price-wise, it only costs about $5-6/month. Especially when you use the coupon code “get25offyourbill” on HostGator. That coupon will take 25% of your hosting order.
That means for about the price of a latte, you can have your very own website online. ANDDDDD… you can do whatever you want with it. Make money, swear profusely. It’s your space to do what you want!
An Insiders Look at the Traffic Numbers – Smooth Sailing
The blog traffic has been keeping pace.
I would like to grow my blog traffic faster. But with so many projects on the go, this blog is not my main priority.
The goal is to focus more on blogging further down the road.
Here’s the blog traffic stats:
A close deja vu from last month.
Not much has changed on the blogging front. It continues to supply me with some new leads and maybe a handful of sales.
I do enjoy my blog, though. More posts will continue to be published.
And now let’s switch over to my YouTube Channel.
This traffic source is considerably more lucrative for me.
In fact, growing a YouTube channel is a great opportunity.
Here’s the numbers:
In the month of October, people all over the world watched my videos for a total of 272 days.
If you can’t sell anything with that much time on your content, you don’t belong in this business.
Fortunately, my YouTube channel continues to be a good money source for me.
Not much change traffic-wise – I expect my YouTube traffic to explode with my next video series!
How’s Coaching Going So Far?
At first, I was skeptical about whether I’d enjoy this or not.
It’s been great.
So far, I’ve worked with 10 different students.
And here’s an example of the feedback I’ve received:
I expect November will feature many new students.
More than 80% of new students, end up buying a second session.
The feedback has been phenomenal.
And for the time being, this is something that I enjoy doing.
If you want to book a session, they’re available on a first come basis.
Contact me here: https://facebook.com/macevidz
That’s the best shortcut I can offer you.
The Income Numbers – What You Really Wanna See
Okay.
Here’s the section with the dollars and cents.
Let’s see how it went.
The #’s:
- JvZoo = $1,134.22
- WarriorPlus = $259.92
- ClickBank = $302.22
- HostGator Affiliate = $200
- ListSpark Earnings = $16.90
- Adsense = $800 approx. (not allowed to give specific numbers)
- Solo Ad Earnings = $160 (minus PayPal fees)
- Amazon Earnings = $414.19
- Coaching Sessions = $1,100
Total Gross Earnings = $4,387.45
Expenses:
- Aweber = $180
- ListSpak Pro = $18
- Domain Renewals = $9.27
- TrafficPlanetHosting = $50
- MagicPixlar = $37
Total Expenses = $294.27
Was it a good month?
Let’s do the final calculations. <– Nerd alert.
$4,387.45 – $274.93
Grand Total: $4,112.52
If you take a look at last month’s income report, I completely forgot about Amazon. This month has Amazon earnings included. You’ll notice Amazon is one of my lower earners. I used to do quite well with Amazon, but I’ve switched my focus to list building.
There’s a reason for that switch. Some of my lower quality sites got thrashed during the numerous Google updates over the years. What I’ve learned from the experience is that QUALITY is the way to go.
Your success in the future will be largely dependent on how much value you can provide.
I had to a make a judgment call about whether to focus my efforts on niche sites, building a YouTube channel or list building.
My passion is now on the latter two.
HOWEVER.
Multiple streams of income is always a good idea. I still recommend creating your own niche sites, because the income is passive. Which means you can get paid for years for something you created yesterday.
I expect my Amazon earnings to take a nice boost in November and December.
The holiday season is where these sites make the big money.
If niche sites are your jam, here’s the video to watch.
Overall
This was a bit of a low month for me. I’m still happy with the results, especially considering that I had barely any internet at all while on vacation in San Andres. That meant five days of almost no emails or anything marketing related.
It was beautiful. As much as I love marketing – it was a much needed detox.
I always recommend having a balance.
It’s a great feeling to make money online. It’s also important to have fun.
Future Plans and Loose Ends
I always try and keep my work down to 4 hours per week.
That’s becoming a bit more challenging with the introduction of coaching.
I also have a few projects that I really want to create in November.
So I expect next month to be busier than average.
What’s Gonna Happen on the Tube?
The video series I started in October will now continue.
Of course, I want to cover the basics of setting up a paid website.
… But I also want to cover some more advanced tricks, as well as giveaway some cool freebies.
The benefit of having a growing YouTube channel, is that new videos rank higher in YouTube search.
Which means that it’s really in my best interest to keep publishing.
Although I may slack in other areas, YouTube will be a focus for the remainder of 2015.
Blog Posts – What Are Your Thoughts?
I have a few ideas for what I want to accomplish in future blog posts.
… But I still need some inspiration.
These income reports really hold me accountable. And are pressuring me to keep posting.
To ensure that I keep adding value, I ask that you comment on what you’d like to see from future posts.
I owe everything I have to you, the reader.
Signing Off
About to head off and suck down a few margaritas at Ay Caramba.
That’s a chain of bars that’s very popular in Medellin, Colombia.
The beers here are delicious.
Thanks for reading this post, and continuing to support my journey.
If there’s any way I can help you, do not hesitate to contact me here, or on my FaceBook FanPage.
Till next month
Adios amigos!
Brendan
