Alright, we’re up and running with income reports again.
Last month’s report (the first in four months) showed that my income was at an all-time high. I had slashed my expenses and developed my freelance income substantially. And although Leaving Work Behind was just starting to offer up a little bit of what I currently consider “bonus” income, my internet marketing efforts (i.e. niche/authority sites) were still down in the doldrums.
I expected my freelancing income to drop a little in September (due to the considerable number of one-off projects I worked on in August), and didn’t expect anything else of note to occur. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what happened!
What Happened in September?
September was definitely a month for investing time in projects that I hope will pay off in the future.
Beyond my usual freelance writing work (which typically takes up around 3-4 hours of my working days), I was busy working on my one hour authority site project, my upcoming freelance writing guide, and of course this blog.
My authority site is progressing nicely in terms of the content I have published, but I am yet to see a noteworthy flow of traffic. I am definitely playing the waiting game with this site — patience is a virtue when it comes to working with Google.
As for my freelance writing guide, I did one very important thing in September — finalized a launch plan. I will be revealing all in an upcoming post, but if you are interested in the guide,ย click here to sign up to the pre-launch list. You will be able to get your hands on the guide (a) before anyone else, and (b) at a massively discounted price! Also, if you know people who would be interested in the guide, please click hereย to tweet out a link. Thanks!
As predicted, all of the above left me with little else to do. In fairness, I think those three projects in addition to my freelancing work would probably be enough to keep anyone busy ๐
Income & Expenditure — September 2012
- Freelance writing:
- Income: $4,079.10
- Expenditure: $20.51
- Profit: $4,058.59
- Websites:
- Income: $3.98
- Expenditure: $18.79
- Profit: -$14.81
- Leaving Work Behind:
- Income: $313.42
- Expenditure: $39.32
- Profit: $274.10
- Information Products:
- Income: $0
- Expenditure: $28.59
- Profit: -$28.59
Total profit for September 2012: $4,289.29
It was great to see my income stay above $4,000 for the third month in a row, which is just about where I need it to be to sustain my current living costs.
Within the next few months I hope to sustain my freelance writing income, whilst developing alternative income streams (most notably as a result of the launch of my freelance writing guide). Diversity of income is absolutely key, so if I can build up my information productย andย Leaving Work Behind income into four figures per month (each) within say the next six months (or sooner), I would be happy. I would also of course like to see my website income develop considerably during that time.
The Development of My Affiliate Marketing Income
Since I have begun earning a modest income from this blog, I thought now would be a good opportunity to cover my affiliate marketing strategy.
As I have said on multiple occasions before, my ultimate goal with this blog is to build up a picture of exactly what it takes to establish substantial income streams online, from the very first day. I have been publishing posts here since the very beginning of my “make money online” endeavors, which makes this blog quite unique. Most (if not all) popular bloggers in my niche launched their blogsย after they had started making money online, not before. Just check out my past income reports to see how my income has developed from day one.
With that in mind, my approach towards affiliate marketing is to never compromise the trust that I have built up with you, the reader. Everything I publish here must be an accurate reflection of exactly what I have gone through — my successes and my failures. Therefore, my affiliate marketing strategy is very much in the same vein as Pat Flynn’s.ย I will only promote products and services that I have used and love, and I will only promote them when it is natural to do so. I don’t spam my email list with affiliate promotions, and I don’t litter this blog with affiliate links.
This probably means that I make far less money than Iย could do, but you can’t put a price on integrity. The fact is, this blog wouldn’t be the same if I had a more aggressive approach to affiliate marketing. It would quickly become something I dislike, and then I wouldn’t want to do it anymore. So taking a considered and conservative approach to affiliate marketing is definitely in my best interests, as well as yours.
My affiliate marketing income in September came from five sources:
- Market Samurai: $262.56
- Tweet Adder: $27.50
- WooThemes: $17.50
- AWeber: $5.70
- Amazon: $0.16
The Market Samurai income mainly came about from an email I sent to my list. The software was going through a sale period, and whilst I have never emailed my list specifically about a product, I recognized that it was actually a great deal, and one that I would have wanted to know about (had I not already purchased the product).
The Tweet Adder income was as a result of last week’s post. To be honest, I was really disappointed with this outcome — I expected to make a healthy handful of affiliate sales. Given that two people explicitly told me that they had purchased Tweet Adder through my affiliate linkย after the one and only sale was confirmed, I am rather puzzled as to why only one was registered. Such are the trials and tribulations of affiliate marketing…
As you can no doubt gather from the breakdown above, very little income was produced via affiliate links in posts or my Resources page. Again, this comes as a disappointment, but I’m not interested in pushing things any further. I just hope that as I continue to add more affiliate links to posts (when it is relevant to do so), and attract more traffic to the site, my income will grow. I am a complete newbie to affiliate marketing, so the whole thing is a steep learning curve for me! But it is fair to say, given the huge amount of time I spend on this blog, that a better return on my time investment would be nice.
What’s in Store for October?
October is a big month for my freelance writing guide. The launch is set for early November, and I have a hell of a lot to do between now and then, as evidenced by this spreadsheet. I would have doubts as to whether or not I will get it all done if it weren’t for the fact that I have no choice. The launch date is set — there’s no turning back.
Other than that, the rest of my time will be spent on freelance writing, my authority site, and this blog. I don’t expect any movement of note on those fronts. I think October will be the calm before the storm — with the launch coming in November, it’s going to be an interesting month one way or another!
Creative Commons image courtesy ofย 401(K) 2012
Steve says
Great breakdown Tom (as always!) I agree 100% with your philosophy of taking care with the affiliate products you promote. My affiliate marketing income on SSS is pretty low – Simply because I don’t want to be that guy who promotes every single offer that comes along the pike.
Also, it’s interesting to hear about the Tweet Adder program and the lack of sales. I’ve promoted it a few times and thought it would do better. Maybe something is wrong with their tracking?
Tom Ewer says
I think it’s faulty tracking, a poor-converting sales page, or both. I sent over 100 leads to the page, and got just one conversion. Given the highly specific nature of the mention, that should have primed people to buy it. I am left seriously disappointed by what is currently a 0.98% conversion rate.
Steve says
Not sure if this helps… Last month, I had 161 unique visitors to a blog post that detailed my Twitter Strategy (like what you did.) From that, I had 4 sales with Tweet Adder. Unfortunately, I forgot to install a direct tracking link on who clicked over to the site.
I’m not sure if it’s bad luck or faulty tracking. But maybe this will help you create some sort of baseline metric.
Tom Ewer says
Hey Steve,
My 314 unique visitors have brought in 1 one sale…a conversion rate of 0.3% against 2.5%. I must suck at promoting products, or there’s something wrong with the tracking (or, again, both).
Cheers,
Tom
Financial Samurai says
This is good data to know for people with products who reach out to you to partner on their products.
Thanks for the transparency. I would try and shoot for at least 5%.
John Banks says
Hi Tom,
Still a great month! I try to do a similar thing with affiliate sales to my list (not quite a thousand yet!). I only promote stuff that I personally use or have used and got some benefit from. You still get the people who try to knock you down for doing so though and unsubscribe. Which baffles me – because if there was a great offer on I would want to know about it and I would not care who was getting paid for it!
I wrote an article the other day – very basic but it still made a few sales. Which I was pleased with.
Regards,
John
Tom Ewer says
Hey John,
A lot of bloggers will tell you that you can’t please everyone. Whilst we can all appreciate that, I think you have to go through the process of getting knocked in order to really understand it. At which point, you say screw it, I’ll just say what I want, and people will either like it or they won’t ๐
Cheers,
Tom
Travis says
Tom,
I’d definitely check on the TweetAdder affiliate commissions. I used the link in your post from last week to purchase the product. If need be, I can provide the time and all other necessary information regarding the purchase. I’d hate to see you not get any money for the sale, since I bought it specifically from your recommendation.
I’ve also had a few problems with my affiliate sales the last couple of weeks. People have specifically told me that they’ve purchased directly from my site, and yet nothing shows up. Trying to figure it out through Flexoffers is a disaster. Guess that is just even more motivation to diversify income! Relying solely on affiliates is a scary proposition!
Tom Ewer says
Hey Trav,
Yeah…I’ve personally always doubted the accuracy of affiliate links. I would appreciate you emailing me the details if you wouldn’t mind please mate!
Cheers,
Tom
Sophie Lizard says
Hey Tom, do you think your TweetAdder giveaway also had an effect on the conversion rate?
From my point of view, I didn’t buy it when I first read your post because I hoped I might win a free copy and save myself the cash. [And I did win, thanks for that!]
Maybe if you emailed the entrants who didn’t win, and gave them the affiliate link to TweetAdder again, you’d pick up some more conversions now that the giveaway’s over? At least you know they’re all interested in the product…
Tom Ewer says
Hey Sophie,
There’s no doubt that it did, but still, I expected to do better.
Your idea is good, but I wouldn’t want people to think that I was nudging them too hard to buy it. My post’s there for people to see, if it does a good enough job of convincing people that the product is worth buying, so be it! ๐
Cheers,
Tom
Andrew @ JRC Web Design & SEO says
Good to see the income staying at the right level Tom, good luck with the launch, hope all goes well ๐
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Andrew ๐
Tomoko says
Great job Tom! Another +$4K month? that’s AWESOME. Keep up the great work. You are slowly building your Internet empire and it’s always so motivating to see people succeeding in their web endeavors.
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Tomoko! ๐
Charley says
Congrats, Tom. Maintaining your income at that level is a feat achieved ๐
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Charley, appreciate the support ๐
Joe @ How I Got Rich says
Great stuff Tom!
ยฃ2,500 is a very nice amount to be earning.
I agree with you about needing to diversify. As writing is pay as you go something like affiliate marketing would give you a bit of a safety net as you can take a month off and still make money.
100% of my income comes from affiliate marketing but just this month I have decided to try my hand at writing after following your progress for a while. I’ve already got two jobs and its not as bad as I thought!
My goal is ยฃ1500 in ten months from affiliate marketing, writing and web design (and anything else online). Think I can do it?
Good luck with the product launch. Depending on the price I will be snapping it up.
Tom Ewer says
Hey Joe,
Obviously everyone does things differently, but ยฃ1,500 in 10 months seems totally viable to me. Best of luck — let me know if I can help!
Cheers,
Tom
Vishnu says
Hey Tom,
Great to see these statistics here. It really motivates people to take the leap and generate revenue for sustaining themselves!
Keep up the momentum!
Cheers!
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Vishnu ๐
Robert says
Wow, very impressive and inspirational figures ๐ Looking forward to see your freelance writing guide. I want to buy it for a friend of my who has very good writing skills, but he is stucked at finding works online
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Robert ๐ you’re obviously a good friend to have!
Dusan says
Tom, your posts are awesome!
Keep up the good work!
Tom Ewer says
Dusan — you are awesome! ๐
Thanks ๐
Cubicle Free Man says
Love the transparency.
Wow Damn! – From what I can see building niche sites are WAY more profitable then “make money online blogs” and less work too. I think you are going to find the same with your one hour niche authority project. It also makes a lot of sense that your freelance writing guide will do really well too, as this is clearly a big strength of yours. How do you get most of your freelance writing business?
Tom Ewer says
Hi Quinn,
I think that’s a bit of a sweeping statement — I don’t think you can say one is more profitable than the other (especially given that Google can kill your income from niche sites in the flick of a switch). And if my freelance writing guide does do well, a lot of its success will be due this blog, so it’s perhaps not as clear cut as you think ๐
As for your question, I’m afraid that I’m not quite sure what you mean…if you’re asking where I get my clients from, they approach me via this blog (another benefit).
Cheers,
Tom
Cubicle Free Man says
Hi Tom,
Thanks for answering my question, that is exactly what I was asking. From your answer, now it is clear that my statement was far too sweeping. I was really just referring to the Leaving Work Behind (Profit: $274.10) income and feeling frustrated for you with the Tweet Adder results after what I thought was an excellent post.
As for the niche sites, I think google is currently waging a war on thin sites that is hurting some good ones, but eventually this is leaving a very big opportunity open for those of us creating value AND working between the newly defined boundaries.
I am sure your freelance guide is going to do very well as you set a fine example.
Cheers,
Quinn
Fred says
Hey Tom. Great month for you I see. I just came back to freelance writing after a long hiatus, in which period I learned that if you forsake the art of writing, it will forsake thee as well. This post could not have come to me at a better time. I will stick around for a little bit longer, and check out your blog.
Ana Hoffman says
Very well done, Tom.
If I had more time and didn’t dislike writing as much as I do, I’d definitely start a freelance business.
My goal with TGC is to make it affiliate-income driven completely. Not exactly passive, but as passive as it gets I suppose.
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Ana! I was impressed by your latest income report — you’re making a lot more than me, visitor for visitor! I obviously need to take a leaf out of your book ๐
Ana Hoffman says
Nicely done, Tom.
Freelance writing has a lot of potential; however, it does involve trading time for money.
I suppose creating your own freelance product will help with that.
Btw, mentioned this report here: http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/make-money-chop-shop/
Tom Ewer says
It does, and it does! For me personally, it has been (and is) a means of halving my working hours (for the same income), affording me huge flexibility and freedom. So I’m pretty happy with it!
Thanks for the mention ๐
PrIyAnGsHu says
Nice work Tom. You are doing pretty well with your freelance writing business and affiliate marketing too. Great going man, it’s time to move on.
Tom Ewer says
Thanks, appreciate it ๐
Financial Samurai says
Howdy Tom,
How do you bake in other costs such as your time, health care, and taxes?
I’d be curious to know what is the actual dollar amount after everything per month.
Thanks,
Sam
Christina says
Hey Tom, how many writing gigs a month do you average for the freelance writing portion?