It's been a fun, yet insane past 30 days. I just got back spending the past 10 days on the legendary full moon party island of Koh Phangan and the week before that I had to make a quick visa run to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. You'd think I didn't get anything done at all with this travel schedule, but it was actually quite productive. Hanging out down on the islands was a much needed rejuvenation and since there's a new coworking space there, I actually got stuff done.
As always I have the bad habit of not looking at any of my numbers until the end of the month when I actually sit down to write these things so I have no idea if my income went up or down! I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and hope it went well! Here are my actual screen shots, and how much I made from my various income sources including book sales, udemy, dropshipping, advertising, affiliate commission, membership sites, youtube, and coaching.
*There's a video follow along this month at the bottom of the post for anyone's who's interested in it sooner, it's here.
Income from Book Sales:
Last month was a fantastic month for book sales after getting featured on Entrepreneur and Business Insider. This month it looks like total sales are still up by over 50% from before the feature so that's great news. Hopefully with all of the awesome reviews people have been leaving for the book it'll continue to trend upwards.
Total Profit from Book Sales: $332.66
paperback book sales for sept
New Book Reviews for September:
Thanks so much to Randy, Shaisha, Adam and GH for taking the time to leave reviews for the books on Amazon. It helps a ton with the rankings of the book and getting them in front of more people.
If anyone hasn't read the books yet, check out 12 Weeks in Thailand: The Good Life on the Cheap and Life Changes Quick today.
Income from Udemy Courses:
Another month of 100% passive income from my Udemy courses as I haven't been promoting them. Larissa and I split Small Talk and Get Relationship Ready 50/50 which is why the numbers look a lot lower than the Jump Start course which is 100% mine.
About 40% of my income comes from Udemy, Affiliates and Udemy Ads promoting my courses and the other 60% has come from either my blog or posts in various forums.
Total Profit from Udemy: $265.71
Income from Drop Shipping:
August was a pretty bad month for my drop shipping stores, but I've went in, fixed my ads and am back on track! Bam! My main store got $24k in sales this month with just over $500 in advertising.
Anyone who still thinks spending $997 on the course that taught me step by step how to setup these stores doesn't understand investing in yourself and in your education. Anyone who thinks dropshipping is a scam or doesn't work needs to read this post.
Total Gross Sales: $24,013.14
Advertising Costs: $515.91
Customer Service: $150
Shopify Cost: $79
Costs of Items/Shipping/Etc: ----
+$387.56~ in travel reward credit.
Total Profit from Store #1: $4,057.72 +/-
*Waiting on VA to update the exact shipping costs.
For the other store and Larissa and I run together we had a pretty decent month but hopefully we can scale it up in the next month or two as we still need to add more suppliers and products. I also need to setup the store to optimize better as right now our purchase rate is super low compared to the add to carts.
Total Gross Sales: $8,435.00
Advertising Costs: $232
Customer Service: $150
Shopify Cost: $59.25 (Sign up for the Travel Like a Boss VIP List to get a 20% off Shopify Coupon)
Costs of Items/Shipping/Etc: ----
+$146~ in travel reward credit.
Total Profit from Store #2: $2,410.79
(Shared with Larissa + Spiffs to our VA)
Bonus Dropshipping Income:
If you remember a few months ago, I had some income from a 3rd store that I was a partner in setting up but was run day to day by another friend. He ended up selling the store because he got busy with his job and was nice enough to send me $1,850 as a thank you for helping him set it up.
I think he undervalued it and could have gotten even more, but it was cool seeing how easy it was to sell and that the payout wasn't that bad for a store with only a few months of track record.
A small part of me is still debating if I want to hire a team of VAs to help me setup new stores following the same methods I learned in Anton's Course but instead of running them myself, have it run completely by virtual assistants with the sole intention of selling them after 6-12 months of profitability for a big payout. Not only would it be a nice additional source of passive income but having big $20,000+ paydays after half a year wouldn't be a bad game plan.
Total income from Store #3: $1,850.00
Total income from Drop Shipping: $7,646.28 (My share of net profit after all expenses)
Miscellaneous Income:
Coaching:
I had one in person coaching session his month where I helped a fellow DSL member optimize his store for more sales. He was already profitable so it was all about trying to make more sales with the same amount of traffic.
He signed up for 2x sessions for $195 but so far only used one, making this month's profit: $97.50
Advertising:
I also made around $7 this month from Adsense and another $63.71 from my Youtube channel.
There might be some other things I've forgotten about, but all of these are bonus items that I don't really think about too much but it all adds up!
Total Profit from Misc: $168.21
Income from Affiliate Commissions:
I'm really excited for this section as I've been using myself as a case study for my new course Earnest Affiliate. I've finally accepted the fact that even though I'm decent at setting up ecommerce stores, publishing books, creating Udemy courses my real calling is teaching and sharing information. I love making myself a guinea pig to find things that work and sharing with others.
My natural talent is networking, creating relationships, teaching and interviewing others on my podcast. I know that if I spent all of my time and energy I could crush it with ten more dropshipping stores, but it honestly just doesn't excite me and I'd rather spend my time reviewing products, writing reviews, and interviewing interesting guests.
Here's a sneak peek at some of the items I promote in Case Study 2 of 5
Last month I decided to promote a completely new offer that I saw value in that I never promoted before in the past and make over $1,000 that very month which was pretty cool as I was able to use that as case study #5 in my course.
A lot of people think all of my affiliate income comes from promoting drop shipping since I'm so vocal about it, but in reality it's only 20% of what I promote through my various blogs, mailing list, podcast, and social media.
Sneak Peak of 1 of 5 of my affiliate partner program dashboards
Total income from Affiliate Commissions: $12,458.76
Want to earn EXACTLY how I made over $12k a month from affiliate commissions with ZERO paid ads, no complicated SEO, no private blog networks and only recommending products and services that I personally use and earnestly recommend? Join the course and I will show you step by step how to replicate my success with your own blog!
With easy to follow video tutorials, I show you step by step how to start a blog, create content, find and get approved by affiliate offers, and how to get free traffic. As a huge bonus, you'll get access to the private member forums, personal help with your site, and access to all of my confidential case studies which show you behind the scenes in my personal dashboards how much i'm making from each individual product, how I'm promoting the item, and where the traffic comes from.
Right now the course is still only $197 but will go up to $297 as soon as I'm done creating the final videos. Members who get in early get lifetime access to all future updates, so if you've ever been interested in creating a blog, website, or podcast and want to monetize it with affiliate offers spending $200 on a course where I show you exactly how I make $12,000 a month should be a no brainer.
Inside the member's area of Earnest Affiliate including the case studies
Total Income from New EA Signups: $1,374.74
I'm still making 10x more from being an affiliate myself than selling my course, but I didn't create it for short term profits, I'm in it for the long run as I truly believe I can create success for my members and in the next couple of months and can surpass even my own income. My goal is to help members become so successful they will spread the word and the course will help bring my income to the next level.
Here's what a member of Earnest Affiliate posted in our private member forums the other day:
"I decided to take the affiliate model inspired by this course and asked my business friends to simply refer people to me rather than sell my software themselves. I had a sale for thousands of pounds within a week or so of arriving here, so I can vouch this technique really works. It keeps the selling to those with the most expertise, and then refer people to them when they are trustworthy. Thanks Johnny." -John C. UK
Join the course here for only $197 and only for a limited time.
Living Expenses for September 2015:
Rent: $329.43 a month (the USD dollar keeps getting stronger!)
Utilities: $15.62 a month
Internet/Phone: $16.85 a month
Coworking Office: $109.38 a month
Gym Membership: $39.06 a month
Food: $468.75 a month
Misc: $125 (random crap I forget about)
Flight: Visa run to KL: $115.68
Hotel: 1 Night in KL: $18.71 a night
Flight to Koh Phangan: $397.85
Hotel: Free
Scuba Diving at Sail Rock: $75
Unlocked iPhone 6S Plus 64gb: $897.82
This month my expenses were almost double what I normally spend but it was mainly because of the new phone and the 10 day trip down to the islands for the full moon party and to hang out on the beach with friends.
With my buddy Henry from Austin who came out to visit! Drinks on the beach? Why not!
A photo posted by Johnny FD (@johnnyfdk) on
Sep 23, 2015 at 9:09am PDT
Total Expenses for September: $2,579.09
Total Profit for September: $22,246.36
I just spent the last 10 minutes in awe as I had no freaking idea my income would be this high this month. A few hours ago, I posted on my facebook page that I was getting ready to write my income report for the month and asked people to guess if it would be higher or lower than last month.
One person guessed it would increase to $15,000 which I thought at the time would be impossible. But I guess I really need to stop underestimating myself and the work I've put in these past two years. A big thanks to Simon, as well as all you, the readers who have been super supportive of my journey these past few months.
You guys have no idea how motivating it is to hear success stories on a daily basis from people who have benefited from my books, blog or podcast and made it happen for yourselves. Thank you for giving me a reason to continue to share, write these crazy long income reports and spend do what I truly love doing. I genuinely appreciate everyone who actually takes the time to read the entire post and not just scroll down to the bottom. Leave a comment below if you read the whole thing! I want to hear from you!
I hope everyone enjoyed this month's income report and hopefully either learned something, got inspired or got some ideas. I sincerely hope everyone crushes it this month! Let me know in the comments how you did last month and what you have planned for October 2015.
By the way, I wasn't sure if I should have this video on the top or bottom, but here's the follow along video for the month where I explain in a bit more detail about each revenue stream. Let me know in the comments if you actually enjoy the video accompaniment and if you'd rather have it in the start or at the end of the post.
Warm Regards,
Johnny
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If you enjoyed this article, make sure you check out the rest of the blog at http://www.JohnnyFD.com and read the new book www.LifeChangesQuick.com