Over the course of this blog, I’ve shared the details of our debt, our income, and our spending. Back in March, I took a big step in the business side of this site by releasing my first premium guide, Unautomate Your Finances.
As I continue to take steps to grow my business, I want it to remain open and transparent to the members of the community who help support it. Last month, I gave a breakdown of March’s sales and income, as well as results from the product launch.
Every month moving forward (launch or not) I want to continue this habit of reviewing/sharing the past month and forecasting out the current month. Here’s April’s numbers and my business plans for May…
Net from UYF Sales: $1012.73
- Total Guides Sold (April): 83
- Income (less Paypal fees): $1344.17
- Affiliate Payments: -$331.44
Additional Income: $746.24
- Freelance Writing: $500.00
- Thesis/ScribeSEO: $120.45
- Unconventional Guides: $105.57
- Amazon: $20.22
Direct Expenses: -$185.90
- Hosting: -$14.95
- Aweber: -$29.00
- ScribeSEO: -$27.00
- E-junkie: -$5.00
- VodBurner: -$9.95
- Tech Consulting: -$100.00
Gross (Income – Expenses): $1573.07
As anticipated, income in April is down from March (launch month). Despite this, I’m not too disappointed in these numbers. I wanted Unautomate Your Finances to hit the $1000 mark for the month and it just barely crossed right at the end.
May’s Business Plans…
I fully expect another 15-20% dip this month in passive sales of the guide. With that in mind, I’ll be looking to help boost traffic and sales in order to try to keep income from UYF sales right around $1000 net. This may include going after more interviews, reviews, and guest posting opportunities to achieve that.
I’ll also be sharing two business products this month from two of the people I respect most online. As you can see from the above numbers, I am very careful about who I affiliate with or what content I share with everyone on this site. Here are some reviews you can look forward to:
- Danielle Laporte’s “Firestarter Sessions”. Danielle’s hot new multimedia guide is coming out on the 12th and we already recorded an interview that I’ll be sharing with you. Frankly, it’s one of the best interviews I’ve ever had the pleasure of giving. Danielle blogs over at WhiteHotTruth.com and is one of the most authentic and passionate bloggers I know.
- Chris Guillebeau’s “Empire Building Kit”. Chris launched his Empire Building Kit last month, but only left it open for 24 hours! Luckily, I was able to snag a copy and have been devouring it (tons of content, video interviews, and 365 daily e-mails over the course of a year). On the 18th, he’s opening it up for another 24 hours and I’ll be affiliating with this second opening. I’ll be doing a write-up of my experience so far, what I’m using the product for in this business, and a special bonus guide on what I learned from the first UYF guide launch. It’s going to be a lot of fun for anyone interested in small business.
So from May 12th –> May 18th, we’ll just call it “blow up your business” week around here, as two of my favorite people finally share their expertise with the world! 🙂
Sell Your Crap…
Last, but not least, I’ll be working heavily on my second guide, which will be titled “Sell Your Crap”. I think it’s more realistic that it’ll be released in early June, however it could hit the digital shelves later this month! Either way, it’ll be consuming a big part of the business side of things around here in May.
As you all know, 90% of my effort and content will remain 100% free. I’ll continue to openly share our journey to eliminate our debt, our battle to avoid accumulating clutter, and the ups and downs as we attempt to pursue our passions!
I appreciate your support and am looking forward to an exciting May!
Hi Baker,
Great to read about your success and I really appreciate the transparency. It give good insight in what to expect and what steps you’ve got to take to be successful.
Thanks for the inspiration and keep up the good work.
Best, Simon
Baker, it really is great to see the personal growth that you have obtained. I enjoy reading your journey. And I have no doubt that your future holds many of good things pulled forth from all your hard work. Keep it up.
So, I know a few people that use SEOscribe. Does it really cut alot of the work out researching keywords via G keyword tool? And is worth of its $27 per month charge? Perhaps I will go for a 3 month trail.
Good to see your ebook sales remained strong in the second month. Hopefully that continues. I don’t have my links up yet but one of these days… 🙂
I would drop the ScribeSEO – considering how well you did with the ebook, your time is far better spent creating more products like that rather than trying to SEO posts that just aren’t going to make much money for you regardless of which color of lipstick you use. 🙂
Hey Baker, how long did it take for you to assemble UYF? Seems like the interviews weren’t easy to get. I’m trying to go for the same thing with my future E-book release. You also gave me a push to start my own blog at http://www.livingwithoutcollege.com/. All the best luck!
Hey Baker,
I’ve been a quiet observer over here for a few months. Just wanted to say hello! Thanks for all the inspiration and valuable details on what is and isn’t working for you! I’m glad to see they are still mostly going in the working direction 🙂
If you can make $500/month freelance writing, I think I have no excuses to figure out how to bring in half of that in the next month or two… 🙂 And gosh, $1500 looks awesome to me right now, that’s maybe what I made in my best months at my old job. (And now I’m unemployed, so it looks REALLY good!)
The EBK is awesome, isn’t it? 😉 I’d love to help promote it myself, but my blog just really isn’t conducive to such a topic, I think… Unless there’s some way I could help tie it in? (I wouldn’t mind getting the word out about it, it’s been a lot of food for thought so far for me.)
Baker, keep it up man. I’d love to see more, but I know how it is. We need that life experience to be able to write about it.
Baker,
Wow, this is very ballsy. I appreciate your transparency! Thanks again for being innovative and showing us what great content looks like!
Great update, dude. The EBK relaunch will kick Thesis commissions in the ass! Ha.
And Danielle’s work is great too.
cg
Love the transparency — very helpful for those who are looking to do the same thing. Also looking forward to hearing about the Empire Building Kit.
$500 is some pretty good income for freelancing! I’m assuming that’s 5-10 articles yeah?
It definitely helps to freelance, while having your own blog to drive traffic. Perhaps I’ll consider that too.
Good luck in May!
Baker, like I said, you need your own TV show, dude.
xo
Great fun to read the real stats. Glad you share with the world. My favorite: $14.95 for housing. Best housing budget ever.
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Could you expect ebook sales to follow something like Gardner’s hype model?
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle) or is it more of an exponential decline?