My Monthly Report – June 2009

Ok, this income report is a little late, but it is for good reason – I had a lot of work to do this past week. It’s kind of funny how making a living online works sometimes, especially if it’s through the means of passive income. For days, weeks, or even months, you may only need to work a few hours a week. However, in most cases that never lasts forever. So, you’ll need to spend a day, a week or even a month working hard once again before you can get back to just a few hours a week.

The difficult part, that I’m just learning about, is trying to get back into “hardcore work mode.” It’s like going back to school after a long summer vacation. You don’t want to do it, but you have to – and eventually you get back into the groove, which is where I was last week.

Anyways, here’s my June 2009 monthly income report.

Important Going-Ons in June

Intheleed.com

The most significant thing that has happened that will have an impact on my earnings is the fact that the exam I wrote my original study guide eBook and Audio Guide for expired on July 1st. This has a two fold effect. One, my June earnings were much higher than normal because there were so many people taking the exam last-minute. I had actually sold an eBook and Audio guide the same day that the exam expired! I couldn’t believe it! You’ll see the earnings below.

Secondly, I’m sure I’m going to take a HUGE hit in my earnings report for July. The new exam is now live, and although I did create a new study guide, there will not be quite an urge for people to take this exam because it does not expire for another 2 years. I have made a few sales in July, but I can already tell that it won’t even be close.

I did spend the last week finalizing the update to intheleed.com. I have to pat myself on the back because I think I planned it out really well. I hired a team of designers from BlazerSix.com a month ago, and the timing couldn’t be more pefect. The new site laucnehd a day after the old exam expired, and was ready with new material and products for sale.

About the website design by BlazerSix (Austin, TX): I have to say it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had with a virtual assistant. I found the two man team through a link at the bottom of a website I just randomly came across while looking for features to implement on this Blog (back when it was redesigned a couple months ago). I loved the overall website design, so I had to contact the designers.

Brody (the design doctor), and Brady (codeslinger) knew exactly what they were doing, and I basically gave Brody a sketch of what I wanted, and he took it to a whole new level. It went from a cluttered and dull, free wordpress themed beginner’s website to a high-quality, customized slice of heaven. Feel free to check out my new design and let me know what you think! Note that there are still a few pieces left to finish.

A couple of things about the new design that will have an effect on my future income:

• I’ve gotten rid of all advertisements – both private and Google Adsense generated. My goal is to keep more people on my website and focus on my own products, rather than draw people away and possibly buy competitor products from other websites. It’s definitely a risk because my A earnings were looking really good, but now that the traffic is dying down due to the timing of the new exam, and because I rank high in most of the relevant keywords, I think this is a good move. It will definitely take some time to see how it all works out. After a year…I’ll let you know.
• I’ve become an affiliate for some additional products relevant to the industry that I don’t directly compete with. I can’t really disclose much information about it because of our contractual agreements, but it’s kind of cool to do business with others in hopes of making both businesses grow.

The total cost for this redesign was $1800, which to me was definitely worth it. I did think about outsourcing this work overseas for a LOT cheaper, but as you can see, I’m really satisfied and don’t think anyone else could have done a better job for me and my online business.

My Internet Business Mastery Academy Review Website

As you probably know, I’m a member of the Internet Business Mastery Academy (IBMA), and I attibute much of my online success to being a part of its coursework. Anyways, they do run an affiliate program, so I’m kind of running an experiment.

I created a website with a single webpage that tells my story and how the IBMA helped me get to where I’m at. At the bottom, there’s an affiliate link to their program.

Just so it’s made clear, I really do believe in the IBMA because it has obviously worked for me. If I was running this experiment JUST for the affiliate commissions, I probably wouldn’t tell you about it in this way =P Anyways, I’m using my story as leverage to hopefully help some others gain success too, and earn a little commission for doing so.

Creating a review website of a product is a very common method to earn affiliate commissions. You may notice a lot of them advertised on some of your Google searches for well-known money-making products. Just try it out. Type in “Commission Blueprint” in Google and look at the sidebar results. Most are review sites offering a bonus. Sometimes they even say “WARNING” or “BEWARE of”, just to draw your attention, when in fact they actually do give a good review of the product and have an affiliate link at the bottom. Tricky!

With my website, I’m not trying to be tricky here, I’m just being honest. So, I may try some Adwords PPC marketing and some twittering of the website to get some leads. Again, we’ll see how this goes. It’s kind of fun actually…

To create this experiment, I spent a total of about 1 hour on it. I hired a professional to write up the ad copy on the website, and another one to implement it on the domain. It’s as easy as that. Check it out here and let me know what you think. I think you’ll agree the ad copy is very compelling. A couple of my friends were thinking about joining the IBMA because of it.

Baby Maker iPhone Application

I had written a couple posts about this before so I won’t go into much detail, but our launch of our new iPhone application, Baby Maker, was relatively successful. Here are those two posts below:

1. Our Second iPhone Application Went on Sale Today!
2. Baby Maker iPhone Application – One Week Later

Ok, time for the breakdown:

Income Breakdown

• Intheleed.com Product Sales:
  • Ebook Only: 197 sold – $5,690.35
  • New Ebook Only: 123 sold – $3589.01
    
  • Audio Only: 81 sold – $2,366.15
  • Ebook + Audio Package: 215 sold – $9,579.30
  • Total: $21,224.81
    • Last Month: $16,965.90
    • Difference: $4,285.91

• Google Adsense:
  • Total: $3,600.14
    • Last Month: $2,811.54
    • Difference: $788.60

• Private Advertising:
  • Total: $1,250.00
    • Last Month: $1,250.00
    • Difference: $0.00

• eHow Earnings:
  • Total: $148.28
    • Last Month: $151.50
    • Difference: -$3.22

• Affiliate Earnings:
  • Total: $365.15
    • Last Month: $180.75
    • Difference: $184.40

• Gross Total in May: $26,558.38
  • Last Month: $21,359.69
  • Difference: $5,228.69

My second best month ever, only to the month right before exam registration expired (March). But, as I mentioned before, I expect a HUGE drop for the next couple of months.

Important Things I Learned in June

I think the toughest thing I learned was how to get back into “hardcore work mode”. The first few days while I was creating new eBook material for intheleed.com, I was only writing a few pages a day. After I got into the groove of things (and turned off the television!), I ended up finishing the project in less than a week. I think if I prepared myself a little better and expected to start working right away, I would have worked more efficiently.

I also have an audio guide for my new products in development, and so I’m doing everything I did before, except much much sooner in the process – so hopefully it will eventually do better than my other eBook, which would be awesome. However, it’s a new exam era, and things could change at any moment. This is why I’m trying to work on other projects at the same time, so just in case this were to ever shut down, my family and I would not.

Another important thing I learned in June was that my wife and I are expecting a baby in January! Even though this is the most awesome thing that could ever happen, it makes what I do that much more important. Not only am I going to be a provider for my wife and I, but also for a delicate, brand new life in this world – and I want to make sure he/she has all of the things my wife and I had growing up, plus much more. SO, I’ve been doing some reading about raising a baby and also some research about funding an education plan, which I’m sure I’ll end up talking about as our lives change. Life insurance, strollers, creating a will – it’s crazy to think that it’s now time for me to do all of these grown up things.

What’s Next

1. Make sure intheleed.com is complete with all relative new material
2. Start campaign for IBMA Review Site
3. Hopefully launch a brand new iPhone app I’ve had under development for the last 2 months
4. Meet with CPA to plan our family’s financial future
5. Our first meeting with the OB for the baby!

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read this rather long report. Cheers!