In an effort to add more transparency to my business, I have decided to begin releasing monthly income reports. I recently had the opportunity to do an amazing interview with Pat Flynn from The Smart Passive Income Blog. In this interview we discussed Pat’s choice to share his income with the world and weighed some of the pros and cons. In the end, simply being transparent and honest with his readers has resulted in a much larger and loyal following. He went as far to say that sharing his income on his blog has been one of the main factors in creating the large personal brand that he’s created. It’s one of the keys to his success.
Personally, I’ve always been honest and I’ve never shared any information that I felt was misleading. However, I’ve never really shared the exact results that I’m achieving. I think it will be a good way to hold myself accountable and to constantly strive to grow each and every month. If my income goes down, I’ll have to answer as to why. If it goes up, I’ll let you know what I did. Sounds like a cool idea to me…
I’ll admit, the idea of putting my earnings out there to the world is a bit new and scary to me. I don’t want it to come across as bragging or egotistical. I just really liked the idea of full transparency and full accountability. This year I’m working on some pretty big projects which aim to prove that people can be successful online without resorting to hypy, crappy, BS. Transparency can sell and I aim to be as transparent as possible with all of my teaching from here on out. The podcast was the first step in my new direction… This is my next.
Some Quick Disclaimers:
In the spirit of full transparency… I must make a couple of notes about the following income reports.
The numbers that I’m sharing are before any refunds. Some of the products that were sold have 30-60 day refund periods. Seeing as I can’t know who will and won’t refund, refunds are not accounted for.
On the products that I created, the numbers are AFTER affiliates have been paid. These are the net that I collected after I made sure all affiliates received their cut.
Finally, there is some income that I am NOT including in this report. I have a second business with Josh Bartlett. Seeing as this business is a 50/50 partnership, I opted not to share income from this business due to the fact that it would also give insight in to some of Josh’s earnings. Therefore, that aspect of my business will remain out of my reports.
This report is income from the products that I create and the income generating blogs that I have around the net.
I’ll start by giving a breakdown of the income and then finish with some explanation as to why some of the numbers are the way they are.
The Income Report – January 2012
- Income From My Products:
- The WordPress Classroom $8,473.89
- The WP Cash Cow $11,471.25
- The Marketer’s Classroom $2,954.00
- Total (From My Products) $22,899.14
- Income From Affiliate Products:
- YouTube Revealed $591.00
- HostGator $350.00
- Easy Video Player $289.42
- OptimizePress $90.00
- Bring The Fresh $74.85
- The Diet Solution $63.72
- Aweber $51.60
- SEO Blueprint $45.21
- The Truth About Abs $26.96
- Master Cleanse Secrets $17.98
- Artisteer $12.49
- Popup Domination $2.40
- Total (Affiliate Products) $1,615.63
- Adsense $62.61
- Total Income $24,577.38
Some Explanations
As you can see, my income reports probably look quite different from someone like Pat Flynn’s. Since his business model is based solely around blogging and earning income from affiliate commissions, his biggest numbers come from affiliate products. My business model has been primarily from creating and selling my own products. Therefore, my products are my biggest income generators.
As you can see, however, I do make a good amount of money from affiliates and Adsense on my various blogs. Not only do I teach people about WordPress and how to make money with blogging, I AM actually out there blogging and making money with it myself.
You’ll noticed that I earned affiliate commissions from The Diet Solution, The Truth About Abs, and Master Cleanse Secrets. You’re right if you guessed that I’m not promoting those on this blog. Those are from two health and wellness blogs that I have floating around on the interwebs.
You probably already know what The WordPress Classroom is and realize that it (and my business with Josh) is my main business focus. However… This month, The WordPress Classroom was NOT my biggest income generator. My biggest income generator was The WP Cash Cow. I’m going to write a full blog post about exactly how I generated that income this month but for now, I’ll tell you that it was a well timed Warrior Special Offer that just kind of went crazy.
The Marketer’s Classroom is a product that I created with Joe Fier of Video Sales Lab. We intend to do a larger launch with it but, for now, we tested the concept as a WSO to see if there would be any takers. It worked out fairly well. It’s basically a general marketing education program that takes people from creating their own products to selling them online and getting traffic to them. A soup to nuts, nothing left out, kind of product. We’re going to do some more testing on it but that could grow to be a much larger business in the future.
You’ll also notice that I only generated a little over $62 from Adsense this month… This is because I’ve actually been pulling Adsense down off most of my blogs in favor of promoting affiliate products. I’ve found that it’s difficult to push both affiliate products and generate income from Adsense at the same time. It’s better to keep a clear goal and a clear focus of what you want visitors to your site to do. In this case, affiliate products pay out better than Adsense so I’m testing in an attempt to bring my income per niche blog up a bit.
So that’s it… That’s my income report for January 2012. I’m hoping that this wasn’t a bad idea to post this. I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Is the income report a good idea? Are there things that I should clarify on the next one? Are there any topics you’d like to see me dive in to in a blog post or podcast? Give me all your feedback and questions and I’ll do my best to comment back and give my feedback!
 Monthly Income Report – November 2012 |  Monthly Income Report – October 2012 |  Monthly Income Report – September 2012 |
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Hey Matt this is a great idea brotha. I started doing the same last year and it was a hit. I now do it for my new blog and only share what the blog made.
This is also a good way for you to actually see what’s been working and what areas need improvement on.
As you well know we as marketers can get very busy at times and easily forget the small little simple things. These reports will remind you of them.
And a big plus is that it’s a great motivation and inspiration for your readers. They will see that it’s actually possible to make some kind of money online.
For me I’ve seen improvements in all areas as a result of these reports.
Congrats homie. Lets connect soon. I would love to have ya on one of my podcast shows. My readers would love to hear from you.
Yo Joey,
It’s been a while. Good to hear others are having good results from sharing how they’re doing. I think I made the right choice.
I’m down to do the podcast. Hit me up any time and let’s get something scheduled.
Matt,
I’m so glad you created this posting and broke down your income for us all. I’ve been following you, your blogs, and products for the past year and half. I’m quite impressed with your business strategies and enjoy the information you’ve been presenting to us with your weekly Podcast.
This is a great motivational post and shows that I need to spend the time to create the products I have on several Mindmaps. Like most people I have a lot of ideas but for some reason have not taken action.
Please continue to update us each month on year earnings.
All the best,
JR Gautreaux
Thanks JR! I appreciate it. I think I’ll stick with it. I just hope that next month I can top this month.
love this concept – great post and looks like you have some really good product offerings. do you live in San Diego?
Thanks Drew! Glad you liked the post. I am in San Diego.
Cool idea Matt. I’ve been reading Pat’s income reports for a little while and I find it very intriguing. It’s almost even more motivational to actually try the stuff you talk about when you “prove” that it works.
It’s like taking the typical clickbank/merchant account screenshot on a sales letter to the next level. I’ll keep checking in at least once a month for these reports
Thanks Marcus. My recent call with Pat really inspired me to do this. So far it seems like it’s getting some pretty good feedback. I think I’ll probably keep it going.
Matt
Yup, works for me. I’ve always enjoyed Pat’s reports and it’s good you’re doing the same (and crediting him too). It definitely builds trust with your readers and is inspiring too. I bought Cash Cow, but not Marketing Classroom and again, it’s interesting to see the figures behind the WSOs and also to see behind the scenes to the products you think are worth affiliating to.
It doesn’t come across as bragging though your figures are high enough to brag about and I hope they’ll continue to get higher as the year progresses. And my own too, obviously!
Marion
Thanks Marion. I’m glad this didn’t come across the wrong way. That was one of my biggest concerns.
Thanks so much for checking out the WP Cash Cow. Hopefully you’re getting a lot out of it. It’s the reason The WordPress Classroom makes the money that it makes…
Hey Matt.
That’s quite an insight and very interesting. Do you outsource much of your work?
Mike.
Hey Mike,
I do outsource quite a bit of things. I outsource SEO to places like Fiverr and oDesk. I’ve got a team of people working with me to keep the WordPress Classroom running smoothly… And I ALWAYS outsource graphics (I suck at making graphics).
Great! Now I feel even worse about my salary level at my job! Time to get serious about affiliate marketing. It is inspiring though to see results and a break down of how you achieved them. Looks like you’re in a great position. Congrats!
Rick
Hey Rick,
You shouldn’t feel bad about your current position. It’s a stepping stone. Everyone needs to start somewhere. No being 100% satisified with your current job is what’s going to motivate you to change your position. Keep learning and keep implementing and you’ll see results.
Hello Matt.,
Your transparency is quite interesting, intriguing and very encouraging to someone like me who has been looking for ways of making money online, striving to put in place an online business that can stand the test of time. Your post has shown me that I have not made a bad choice and that in truth I can earn a living online working full time. Presently, am doing this part time, looking forward to make it full time by the end of 2012.
I recent bought into your WP Cash Cow and I am still studying the videos and know that I would definitely get lots of value out that.
Thank you for showing me that making a living online is REAL! Keep up the good work.
Thanks for purchasing the WP Cash Cow. It’s a great start and it’s the way I got going making my own products.
I’m glad this post had the desired effect. I wanted to see people get motivated by it and realize that results are possible. It’s especially interesting if you look back to my first couple posts back in early 2009… You’ll see that I was excited to make my first $50 in a week and that I had grown a mailing list of 100 subscribers. Things can move fast.
Great to see that your products are working. Motivational on my parts. Time to get working a little harder and a lot smarter.
Glad it motivated you Dan! If you haven’t checked out the podcasts yet, I try to give as many ideas as possible to get moving and get motivated.
It just takes a lot of action and a lot of motivation. Even if you’re not seeing results right in the beginning.
Hey Matt
This is a great idea and is motivational as well. I was one of the buyers of your WP Cash Cow course, amazed at how much you made from this.
Look forward to getting to know you more.
Thanks Sue! I’m glad people are finding it motivating.
The WSO did really well. One of my next blog posts is going to go in to great detail about why that WSO was successful. I’m hoping that it will be pretty informative.
Hey Matt,
I am an old subscriber of your blogs and talking here first time.I have seen Pat’s blog last year and still visit the site sometimes.As a newbie internet marketer from a third world country I need to get a minimum earning like $20 per day that will be a reliable income source.Can you please help me to set up a true business like it for me?If I will get a success,I will be able to promote it among thousands of people and freelancers in my country with your method and products as I have that circle here.Please reply me in my mail.Thank you for updating me regularly with your tips and news.
Hi Tanmay,
I highly recommend starting by listening to my free podcasts. (You’ll see the link in the top menu and on the giant blue button in the sidebar). Those really should get you thinking and get you pointed in the right direction.
Thank you Matt for replying me.I will update you.I am really searching something like that.Since I am from a third world country,everything is not possible for me actually for internet marketing.
Nice work Matt! A real inspiration!
Just started my first niche blog two weeks ago and can’t wait to finish the content up and start building links. Since I haven’t had much luck with adsense in the past, I was looking at some products in clickbank to use as affiliate sales. However, I don’t want to sell something I haven’t used myself. Am I out of line to ask the clickbank seller for a trial version?
Thanks!
Hey Bob,
I have have already done niche site SEO (manual & whitehat) for few sites and they are getting well traffic.If you need any service like that,kindly let me.Thanks!
Hey Bob,
I don’t think it’s out of line to ask a Clickbank seller for a trial version. They get it constantly… Believe me. However, most sellers are probably going to decline if they don’t believe that you’re capable of sending quite a bit of traffic. It’s kind of a catch-22 when you’re first getting started. You don’t want to promote something without actually trying it and they won’t let you try it unless you have a strong ability to promote it.
Your best bet at this point is to actually purchase the product and review it to really get going. I’d also recommend putting together some sort of report of your own and begin building a mailing list by giving this report out. If you can go to a vendor and tell them you have a list of x subscribers, you’ll be much more likely to get a review copy.
Hope that helps…
Great points Matt!
I’m already using a “Free Guide” on my eCommerce site and it definitely helped with email subscribers. Sometimes, it just takes another perspective to remind you of what works!
I’ve also been on the lookout for affiliate options for products that I’m already a fan of and that has been very promising. Again, duh!
Thanks for the reply; sorry for the delayed response.
Yowza, Matt!
That’s all I can say. Good thing I’m creating my own products, too.
Yowza, yowza, yowza on that income!
Thank You!
Creating your own products is definitely the way to go in the long run.
Hey Matt,
I think this is a great idea, I started following Pat because you said he was one to follow. I could not believe he was so transparent with not only his earnings but also methods to generate this income. Pat also lists his resources and what he uses them for and has found this very profitable, just look at his bluehost earnings every month. Hats off to you both this is a new and bold step, very refreshing with no BS.
ps: I read your blog about you honeymoon in Ireland, glad you and your better half enjoyed our wee Country and please come back, welcome any time.
Noel.
Hey Noel,
Pat’s blog is amazing. It’s really inspired me to follow in a lot of his footsteps with my blog. I’ll be sharing a lot between the site and the podcast. So stay tuned.
Ireland was amazing! I can’t wait to get back.
Well done Matt!! As much as I enjoy writing my own income reports, seeing other people crush it online too gets me sooo pumped! Very well done, and from the looks of it, others seem to enjoy the report as well.
Thank you for the link and I wish you continued success! Let’s chat again soon. Cheers!
Hey Pat,
Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting. Awesome interview a couple weeks ago. Looking forward to chatting again.
That sure says a lot about the best way to create income: your own product. The small AdSense portion you have concerns me. I just signed up to run AdSense ads and have spent way too much time trying to figure out where the script gets pasted. Still trying to figure out.
Best of luck,
Patricia_H
Hi Patricia,
Don’t get me wrong. Adsense can make you A LOT of money. There’s just certain niches that it’s more lucrative in than others. The niches that I play in tend be a little more saturated and therefore don’t really have the best payouts. I’m experimenting with focusing more on affiliate income. We’ll see how it goes.
Matt congratulations on your WSO. I can see that did really well for you. If anything at all your pie chart demonstrates the power of multiple streams of income. Thanks for the info and best wishes for the new year! (yes I know it’s February, but the year is still pretty new) :>)
Thanks Ed.
The goal for next month would be to have more large slices and less dominate slices. I’m diversified with my businesses but I’d love to see some of the affiliate income really start to take over.
Thanks for posting your income, Matt! I was delighted to see the large WSO income. You sell quality and practicality instead of scarcity and “mystery meat.”
Yet you outsold the sleaze. Love it!
Clearly the formula is stay down to earth, tap different media and networks to reach prospects, turn subscribers into friends, and make buying as natural as breathing.
Cheers,
Mary
Thanks Mary. That’s really nice of you. I’m trying this year to be more and more transparent and to prove to the world that you don’t really need to be sleazy and scammy to make a buck with your own products online. Honesty and transparency can sell products too.
Mr. Wolfe
Love this report thank you sooooooooo. much. You are a true teacher.. Bought countless wso’s and the wp cash cow was one of the best… you make things that are simple seem simple… the irony (:
Would love to get your opinion on a program … don’t want to post it here because… it compete’s with yours…
Here’s the funny thing about info overload they tell u to delete and stop subscribing …but had I done that … I wouldn’t be Dancing with the Wolfe.
Have a great day… and anyone on this blog should feel honored and estatic about learning from you.
Product > Platform> Customers> Conversions
Platform=Store u need to sell from store. Thanks for teaching the people to build a store
to sell their products.
Sensei.M
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed the WSO!
When it comes to info-overload, I hear you. I still personally subscribe to a lot of lists. Most of them I’m subscribed to so I can pick out which emails grab my attention the best and steal their tactics. There are still a few though that I always pay attention to because every time they mail I know it’s important… I want to be one of those people for everyone else.
Hiya Matt
I think the income report is a good thing, for us…and even you. Inspiring too. And a much much better proof of ‘income’ than all those clickbank/paypal graphics people do on landing pages to sell stuff. If anything…what I’d like to see in your income report…is the income left over after taxes/cost of doing business. But then again, i’d rather you focus on whatever it is you’d rather focus on.
Hey Brian,
Thanks for commenting! I’m glad you enjoyed the report. As far as your suggestions, I’ll create an expense report at some point to show you where money goes as well. After taxes, may be difficult to calculate however. Taxes are paid so far after the sale is made, I’m not sure that will be really possible. The numbers I did share are after affiliates are paid though. So this is income to me after that. It does not include the money paid to my outsourcers or my hosting or my Aweber or anything like that. So I’ll generate a report soon to share that info as well.
Thanks again!
I think that the exposure of how you are making money is terrific, although I wish you would really get into where your traffic is coming from, but nonetheless it is inspirational to know that this is actually being done and that you have real live products to sell and that they are selling. It is certainly fascinating to go down the list and see where and how much money came from what. Another thing that is very interesting to observe is the loyalty of your subscribers and the comments that they make, so obviously you are doing a lot of right things.
I would like to know more about WordPress Cashcow as I didn’t even know you had put this product together and I am sure considering the intended transparency you’re willing to share, this probably is a damn good product.
Paul
Hey Paul,
If you check out my podcast episodes, I really dive in to how I drive traffic to my various websites. I’m also working on an in-depth post right now all about the WP Cash Cow and how I made so much so quickly with it. Stay tuned for that.
Thanks for commenting!
Kia Ora Matt
Thanks for sharing this. I’ve only recently had the pleasure of “discovering” you and your work; I’m enjoying my time in The Marketers Classroom… what you’ve done with by sharing your income in today’s blog is added truckloads of street cred to your products / models / plans …
It proves that it can be done… sure, it might be getting a little bit more competitive than when you started a few years ago, but in saying that, I also tell myself the online world is growing proportionately larger as well, so in the end everything balances out…
And of course, it’s like everything in life: nothing speaks louder than action and it’s “only” action that gets people crossing the finish line … if you don’t put in the training (the everyday mundane boring stuff) then it doesn’t matter how many times you step up to the start line (ie, talk about it), you ain’t never (sic) gonna see a finish line.
Thanks for sharing this Matt – really appreciate it.
Smiles from DownUnder in New Zealand
Thanks Julie! The funny thing is… when I was trying to get in to this business, everyone was saying it was too competitive. “Don’t teach blogging… There’s too many people already teaching that.”. Guess what… I taught it because it’s what I knew and it’s what I was good at and the results speak for themselves.
I’m glad you liked the report. I hope I can top it next month. I don’t do large successful WSOs every single month so it will be interesting to see if I can top myself.
Hi Matt,
What a great idea! I’ve just looked at Pat’s too and I feel really inspired by your transparency.
I would love to do the same, but have to admit to a feeling of nervousness! I’m not sure why, I’m a very transparent person and this would surely only highlight that.
You seemed a bit tentative in your post too, what were your fears in doing this and now you’ve done it do you feel it as a positive move? Have your fears been alleviated?
Jo:)
Hey Jo,
To be honest, I’m not really 100% sure what my fears were… I’ve always kept finances very private. Sharing this information was just out of my comfort zone.
I guess there was fear of people thinking I was sharing to brag or fear of people thinking I’m less accessible because of the money I make… I’m not really sure.
All in all, I’m very happy with my decision. You can see from the comments that people are overwhelming happy and inspired by my choice. So I think it was a good one. Not to mention it’s going to make me work that much harder this month to make sure I can prove that I consistently make good money.
Wow, I’ve just become a loyal fan and this is the first post of yours I’ve read!! I follow Pats blog often but as I’m more of a product creator than an affiliate it was a teeny bit hard to resonate with.
This has really shown me how much quality products rock, very inspiring!!!
Thank you xxx
Awesome Cherrelle! Thanks so much! Keep checking back. I’ve got a lot of cool ideas for creating products. I’ll be sharing them shortly.
Speaking of sucking at graphics … where did you have your avatars done? They are first rate.
Hey Mike,
Thanks for the compliment! My new logo for Business & Blogs (The one on my Facebook page) was done by my graphic designer.
However, the one in the sidebar for the Business & Blogs podcast was done for real cheap by a company called logonerds.
Matt
I just can say WOOOWWW!!
The other day i was listening a marketer saying “I know you’re tired of hearing what the well known marketers incomes are, and you wish you have just a part of it”
Well, as a newbie i gotta say that’s right, i hope mine could be just a part of it, but i’m not tired of hearing it as it’s my motivation to keep working harder and smarter…
Thanks for the info because it also helps us to see what’s working for you and what´s maybe not, as some friends already said.
Thanks Carlos. As you can see, I don’t make millions online (yet) and I don’t claim to either. I think the interesting thing with my story is that you can look back to posts I made 2 years ago back before I was making really any money online and see the entire progression. It’s really humbling to go back and read the posts that I wrote 1 and 2 years ago.
I can tell you now that next month is probably going to be a smaller income than this month… But that’s life. You have good months and bad months but you just keep moving forward and hope to continue stringing together really good months.
Serendipity?
About a month ago I mentioned to a fellow blogger that I was looking into creating some kind of membership site. She said, “What a coincidence. I just got something in the mail about that very thing this morning.” She sent me the link to WPCashcows. I got it and IMMEDIATELY saw the tremendous value. Imagine that – I got a product that delivered EXACTLY as promised.
Of course, your follow-up series was a compelling promotion for your WPClassroom. I KNEW those testimonials weren’t faking it as I had already had a small taste… WPClassroom looked like the whole enchilada and I was HUNGRY!
I haven’t been disappointed there either! If anything, you are too modest! Talk about OVER-delivering! No wonder your products are selling!
One of my favorite online mentors is Charlie Page. That guy exudes the type of honesty and transparency that you are showing in your work. Now connecting the dots with what I’ve learned from Charlie and what I’m gleaning from you as I make my way through WPClassroom – I’m looking to live my dream by finally making an online income in 2012!
Thanks Matt for being the type of person I truly want to emulate; creator of great, useful products, honest and transparent, AND PROFITABLE! Now THAT’S success!
All the best from Toronto,
Russ
Thanks so much Russ! I’m glad the WP Cash Cow has helped you and I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the WordPress Classroom. It really means a lot!
Hey Matt,
I randomly stumbled about WordPress Classroom a couple weeks ago and becoming a member was one of the smartest financial decisions I’ve ever made! I just wanted to say thank you. Using your video tuturials helped me get my site launched at least a hundred times faster than I would’ve been able to without it. If you get a second, check out my blog. Its http://www.milliondollarpursuit.com It’s still in its infancy but it’ll be fully loaded and ready to rock in no time.
You’re the man.
RT
Thanks RT! That’s a great testimonial! I really appreciate. Congratulations on getting your site off the ground!
Thanks Matt,
It was great to sort of reverse engineer a successful Internet business. The transparency was educational and appreciated. Thank You.