Category: business

Personally I find it very useful that some bloggers share their income reports.  Pat Flynn I think started this trend of transparency and his openness has garnered a lot of success in terms of gathering a large and trusting audience.

Starting out in business I find it is such a mental game.  The belief that you can actually make an income online is something that you need to believe in the core of your soul, so that you can push through the difficult starting times and ultimately realize your goal.

For me, being around people or reading blogs such as those listed below, have helped me see that people ARE making money online and that it can be done.  They are normal people, like you and me.  Some might be more intelligent, some less. Some more charismatic, some less. Some betters writers, some less.  The major trait I find that’s important is persistence and consistency.

So feel free to explore the blogs below and see that it is possible with a bit of perseverance to create a passive income business online.

List of Bloggers Publishing Income Reports

Entrepreneur On Fire (EOFIRE)

• Income:  ~ $200,000 per month
• Business Podcast
• Major Sources of Income: Podcast Sponsorship, Freedom Journal (physical product), Online Course (Podcaster’s Paradise), Affiliate Income.

Smart Passive Income (Pat Flynn)

• Income:  ~ $150,000+ per month
• Blogs About: How to make money online
• Major Sources of Income: Affiliate Income (Bluehost, internet business related)

Project Life Mastery

• Income: ~$90,000 per month
• Blogs About: Making money online, goal setting, motivation, productivity.
• Major Sources of Income: Kindle Book Publishing, Courses (Morning Ritual Mastery, K Mastermind (for Kindle Publishing), Course on Kindle Publishing).

• Income:  $65,000 per month (last reported)
• Business:  Wordpress Assistance as a Service
• Major Source of Income: Core business

• Income:  ~$60,000 per month
• Blogs About: Food, Blogging.
• Major Sources of Income: Affiliate Income, (AdThrive, Bluehost), Food Photography eBook, Workshops.

• Income:  ~$60,000 per month
• Blogs About: Blogging, Budgeting, Personal Finance
• Major Sources of Income: Affiliate (Bluehost / How to Start a Blog, Online Survey Companies), Advertising / Sponsorship on Site.

Just a Girl and Her Blog

• Income: ~$50,000 per month
• Blogs About:  Home Organization & Decoration.
• Major Source of Income:  Online Course (Book Boss – Write and Launch a Profitable eBook in 90 days or less), eBook on Blogging, Affiliate Income (BlueHost / How To Start A Blog).
• Minor Sources: eBooks related to Home Organization & Decoration, other affiliate commissions related to blogging niche.
• Major Breakthrough: Launched eBook on How to Launch a Blog.

• Income: ~$50,000 per month
• Major Sources of Income: Online Courses (internet marketing related)

• Income: ~$40,000 per month
• Business: Product Reviews
• Major Sources of Income:  Affiliate Income, Online Course.

• Income:  ~$20,000 per month
• Major Sources of Income:  Amazon FBA, Service Business, other.

• Income:  ~$20,000 per month
• Major Sources of Income:  Affiliate Income, Drop-shipping Sites.

• Income ~$20,000 per month
• Major Sources of Income:  Affiliate Income

• Income: ~$20,000 per month
• Blogs About: Finance, other.
• Major Sources of Income: Ad Revenue.

• Income:  ~$10,000 per month
• Business: HTML5 Games

• Income:  ~$10,000 per month
• Blogs About:  Making money online
• Major Sources of Income:  Amazon FBA

What can you learn from this?

Affiliate income is extremely significant (with two notable Affiliate programs being BlueHost and AdThrive).

Most of these bloggers make money from teaching people how to blog.

Exceptions to the above is Kindle Book sales (as well as teaching people how to sell Kindle Books), Amazon FBA, Online Games.

Update: January 2016

Came across this site which summarizes very nicely all the bloggers who report their income online! Check it out: http://www.incomereporters.com/income-reports/2016/

 

There are three widely recommended business books which I’ve read in the fairly recent past. I’m going to perform an amazing feat of mental agility and summarize ALL three books for you in under 500 words.

The books in question:

The One Thing by Garry Keller and Jay Papasan

The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson

The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

And here is the summary:

Focus on ONE strategic thing that will move your goal forwards, every single day.

Tada!

It’s a very simple concept, but when applied correctly can dramatically improve your results.  As I heard in an interview with Steve Blank recently, when asked how people can make a successful startup, he summed it up:

“Just show up.  Showing up gets you 80% of the way there.”

Gary Keller likes the phrase:

What is one thing, that if applied (in my business), would make everything else easier or unnecessary?

In our day to day lives we get sucked into the vortex of unimportant emails, distractions, “putting out fires”. Very little time is spent on productive, strategic work.

This question helps focus your mind on the one strategic thing.  Instead of going out and making 100 sales calls, your “one thing” might be to post a job for a top sales person.  The latter will give you a lot more leverage.

You can apply this “one thing” concept to any goal that you set, whether its in business, relationship, social or self improvement.  If you identify a strategic action to take in each of these areas and do this every single day, you are almost guaranteed to see continual improvements.

While in the short term these improvements might be undetectable, over the long run it generates an exponential compounding effect of improvement so that you can blast through and achieve your goals.

How do I apply it myself?

Every day in my journal, I have a section “The One Thing”.  I think of the one thing that will yield the greatest strategic returns over the long run.

The best thing to do is then the FIRST THING in the day when you start working is to do your “one thing.” Once you have done this you can already consider the day a huge success.

These are often very small steps.

For example, in the journal entry below (excuse the doctor’s hand writing), my one thing was:

“Post job for business book summary biz”

It took me about 10 minutes to do, but is potentially a huge strategic move.

Action Points:

✓ In your journal, write down your “One Thing” for the coming day.

✓ Do the One Thing – preferably first thing in the day.

✓ Wash, rinse, repeat.

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There you go – 450 words, 3 books. BOOM!

Theres lots of literature on goal setting.  I want to give my two cents on the topic.

Firstly, what I’ve come to realize is that there are two distinct types of goals: Outcome and Process goals.

Outcome goals are those that are not fully in control, but represent a desired end result.  For example:  Earning $10,000 per month (seems to be a popular goal).

Process goals are under your control.  By implementing and achieving your process goals, you will be moving closer to your outcome goal.

I think that when goal setting it is important to work with these two goals hand in hand.

I’ll give you an example of my own personal goals in the business sphere:

Outcome Goal:

I am earning $1,000,000 per month as of the 1st of July 2017.

Process Goal:

We are releasing 4 games per week as of the 1st of July 2016.

There are a couple of other points you should not about goal setting.

Firstly, there’s a stream of thought that says to write the goals out in the present-tense, stating it as if you have already achieved the goal (shout out to Muoyo Okome of Daily Spark Media for that).  I like the idea of that and think it definitely can’t hurt.

Write down your goal every day as part of your journaling habit. That will always keep your goal top of mind and hone your focus and creativity towards achieving the goals that you’ve set.   It also gives you the opportunity to constantly refine your goal so that the goal is properly aligned with your intrinsic desires.

It’s also important to set a date on the goal, because that allows you to plan around this constraint and puts some time pressure to achieve it.

You should work back from the outcome goal and create a realistic plan for your process goal.

In our case, from looking at our initial metrics and taking very conservative estimates, to reach the target revenue we will need to have about 200 apps.

To reach 200 apps in one year’s time, we need to be releasing 4 apps per week. Simple maths.

If you don’t have some initial metrics, take your best guess or base your estimate on market stats.  You can always refine the goal later.

It’s important that you set a goal that stretches you, but is within the realms of achievability.

Lastly, a word of caution about the date.  It’s absolutely FINE if you don’t hit your goal by the target date, you can always push the date back.  But don’t compromise on your goal (as long as it is still important for you).