How I Make $2738.21 A Month Without Working
Hello Steemians, I have a lot of people asking me on here where my money comes from. But let's get one thing clear: this isn't a "get rich quick" scheme.
I've been in business for over ten years now. However, three months ago, for one reason or another I decided to stop what I was doing.
Before that I was running a web and graphic design business for clients (I still do). I have some good clients and I outsource the work to trusty freelancers. But that's not passive income.
Passive Income
I make money from doing nothing from a variety of sources. I've been blogging and creating video content for a while. This created a following that I harness through the power of email marketing. (Simple, collect email addresses through a freebie on your site, give them great free content, and sell to them).
Every quarter (at the end of March, June, Sept and Dec) I tot up the passive income I've made. Most quarters I made much more than this but then I was usually launching courses and selling them to my email list. This quarter I didn't.
So where's the money coming from?
Selling e-books from my site
Woohoo! Where's the campaign? They brought in $14.64 last quarter.
Selling courses on various platforms
$5,533.79 in the last quarter. (It would have been so much more if I'd launched a new course or ran Udemy promos).
Selling courses on my own site
$710.53 in the last quarter. (It would have been so much more if I'd launched a new course). Check out my free courses on my own site
Affiliate commissions
I am an affiliate for certain products that I recommend or mention on my website or my Youtube channel. I get a commission if a sale is made through one of my affiliate links.
This quarter I received $755.16 in commissions. Siteground, the web hosting company was the biggest payer, over $300.
Amazon Kindle
I have 8 books on there. This quarter they brought in $720.11 in revenue.
Paperback books
I have the same 8 books selling on Amazon as paperbacks. This quarter they brought in $357.21 in revenue.
Audio books
I have the 2 books selling on Audible. This quarter they brought in $82.26 in revenue. I spent more on cappuccinos.
Google advertising income
This is revenue from ads on my YouTube channel as well as a little bit of Adsense on my website. This quarter Google brought in $289.65 in revenue.
Amazon FBA
For those of you who don’t know, Amazon FBA stands for “Fulfilment by Amazon” and involves sourcing physical product wholesale, shipping them to Amazon’s warehouses, selling them on their platform and, hopefully, pocketing some profit. (It’s the last part of the procedure I’m still working on).
My first product is over a year old and makes $500-1000/month profit. However, I’ve now got other products that are either selling slowly or not at all. I’m also spending a fortune on ads and promos.
As I explained in my article, Amazon FBA Business: How Much Money And Time Before I Got Profit?, this is profit on a per unit basis.
Anyways, my per unit profit from Amazon FBA last quarter was, a negative because of product launches: -$304.78 – this will be deducted from the total.
Merch on Amazon
If you don't know what Merch on Amazon is this video will set you straight as well as tell you how to apply (which I suggest you do): merch.amazon.com
Up until now, I sold all my shirts at a massive discount (I would make only about $0.30 a sale). But now I'm pushing the prices up on the successful shirts so I make around $3 a sale. Have a look at my Merch figures from June.
This quarter a tiny $40 profit. But I expect that to increase going forward.
Add it up!
Including another $16.05 from Redbubble that should make $8,214.62 passive income for the quarter. Divided by three, that gives you the monthly figure in the title.
Passive income – You can do it
Remember this is all about creating authority. Like what we're doing here on Steemit. People will get to know you and trust you if you give away great free value. Then they'll buy from you.
I have a great free mini course on passive income if you're interested (it's filmed in Koh Samui and Chiang Mai, Thailand) This is free info on how to make a decent income, grow an online personal brand, blog, collect email addresses, selling on YouTube, Udemy, Amazon, and your own site, etc., while sleeping well at night.
But this is not get rich quick! Remember, you've got to enjoy it. You've got to create value. And you've got to collect emails!
I'm interested to hear what you think in the comments.
Keep calm, and Steem On.
Great article. Like you mentioned, "This is not a get rich" scheme. You have to put in the time to establish the relationships and provide quality goods and/or services that retain value.
One very important item most entrepreneurs don't understand or anticipate is the burden of success. Setting expectations and then not being able to meet them is the quickest way to kill reputation. Once reputation is compromised, the business rarely recovers.
Failure is easy, success is difficult! Don't dream it, Steem It!
Totally agree with every word there, @bigskykilroy. I definitely always try to be honest. And it's not always easy. It means owning up to mistakes sometimes. But then people like vulnerability in other people sometimes.
Inspiring post ! I want to take your path and build something on the internet. I know that i need to work very hard and that i need to provide good services to people. I believe that succes will follow after that. Can you tell me something about your beginings with online business ? I upvoted and followed.
Thank you so much, @mrrobert96. Yes, I started providing web and graphic design services from home. I also regularly published the best content I could for free. That was 10 years ago. It's still a good idea to do something like that. hth
Great ! I will have to keep working in that direction i guess. Thanks for your reply @robcubbon !
Thanks for sharing your income report here so openly, @robcubbon! It's inspiring.
You are right that creating passive income doesn't happen overnight. It requires persistent effort, creating value, and yeah it definitely helps if you're having fun while you're at it.
That's also the approach I take with Steemit.
This year, I don't care about any financial rewards. Instead, I focus on having a good time here, sharing quality content, finding my tribe, interacting and building a following.
I'm sure that rewards will come (perhaps next year) if I am genuine and contribute to this amazing Steemit community.
Is there a chance that I spend a lot of time on this platform, writing content and comments, and making little to no money?
Yes...
But that's ok. Because if that were to happen, I will still have had a good time here. I'd like to believe though that continuous effort and sharing will pay off eventually.
Keep rocking at it Rob, and I'm sure a lot good things will come your way on Steemit too!
Well put, @livenowandwow – love your high grade use of animated GIFs my man. Let's share a beer soon. :)
You're on!
Good stuff man. I do most of these myself.
Fantastic. I'm following you now :)
When I saw the first picture, I thought you were going to say that you earned your money Kickboxing in Thailand. :)
haha, that would not only leave me pennyless but also with a lot of bruises.
Hi Rob, thanks for the post. It does all add up. And you are pointing out a very good point, its not a get rich scheme. I know how much work can go into Udemy courses, writing ebooks, blogging....
Now that I have your breakdown, I can see how far away from my target I am. I always followed your progress with interest...wondering if I could catch up. Maybe I will this year!
Resteemed
Hey @paulag thanks for the resteem. I'm sure you've "caught me up" on many levels. For example, I'm lucky if I make over $1000/month on Udemy whereas it was $5000+ a couple of years ago! It's all good though. I'm lucky that I've been able to do so many other fun things! :)
Thanks for all the helpful tips on different places to make money advertising and selling online.
my pleasure @mmatrics
Hey Rob! I've followed your blog and journey for a while. Just read your lastest post and good to see you're on steemit! I've been doing merch by amazon for about a year and it's insane! Follow me @andrewlarson I've made some merch posts in the past. You should join chris greens group on FB as well, it's amazing!
thank you @andrewlarson wow, if you've been doing Merch for a year then you definitely should be someone I should follow! (And I'm following now) Yes, I'm a member of Chris Green's FB group.
Great post Rob, but at some point you did have to put in some work to create the courses, write the books etc. I'm glad you said that it's not a get rich quick post but ther eis definitely a lot of work that went into it.
thanks @sgtechservices yes, I wanted to make that point that it didn't happen overnight. However, I do enjoy creating content as well. So not all hard work! :)
nice, Which kind of courses how to make passive income ?
What are the audiobooks about ?
Soy tu tio
I started off with WordPress courses, but I also did courses on email marketing, design, book publishing, etc., @tioluis - anything that people will find valuable.
I guess that is how commerce started, put a price to something people wants to pay for :)
Great job and hopefully that income multipies over and over for you :) and you can help more people
Soy tu tio