Its been some time since my last blog post. I’m not much good at multi-tasking so it would appear. When my mind is on another aspect of my business (which it well and truly is right now), I find it tricky to come up with ideas for blog posts and then go ahead and actually write them up.
Why I choose Not to Disclose my Internet Marketing Income Any Longer
I’ve thought this through fairly long and fairly hard over the past few months and its very important to note that this is just my own personal take on things and should not necessarily reflect on yours and what you do, should you have an IM type blog.
Here are some reasons why I do not now disclose my IM income month on month.
1. I began disclosing my IM income back in July I believe it was, of last year – 2010. And for anyone who followed along with those posts, it was fun all the way – in the sense that the income was climbing up very nicely month on month on month.
Its a very good way to hold yourself accountable, and for some successful internet marketers, to prove to everyone who visits their blog and reads their posts that they know what they are doing and are thus a person worth following along in terms of progress, which then of course can very well translate into affiliate sales of recommended tools, or selling their own info products etc.
Okay, so there are the main reasons for me doing what I did, now why do I not do it any longer?
1a. As you may know, I relied heavily on my eBay affiliate (and to some extent – AdSense) income to boost my stats at the end of each month. And yes – in a sense this was passive income. The time I spent on my eBay sites was all “forward thinking”, in that I was enhancing my sites to improve on income for the months to come.
Thus, if I had not spent any time on my eBay sites (some of which had AdSense installed also) in any particular month, I would still be seeing similar income levels (fairly passive income).
But I was knobbled by Google and my eBay sites were – in the main – hit with a ranking penalty, which obviously is going to have an effect on monthly income levels over-all (and on motivation too).
My own eBay income suffered to the tune that I now see only about one third (sometimes less) of what I was achieving in the hay day. And I did not have time to replace that income (even though I was working on some stuff some time ago), before the Goog penalty occurred, which ultimately made me feel that I had far less “exciting” news to provide to my readers at the end of each month.
2. I was finding that I was chasing my tail, which was causing real ups and downs and merry go rounds. Each and every day you check your stats (where AdSense and eBay was concerned, I was checking my stats many times each day). What that leads to is that you end up on a high one day, then a low the next day and then a high a few days later, then another few days of lows. Not good!
What I do now is – not a lot. I let my income flow day on day and don’t check stats much at all.
Occasionally I take a peek at AdSense and at eBay because it provides a good feel for what is working and what is not. Then I can sort out any problem issues should there be any, or focus in more on what is working, or indeed do some split testing and what have you. But now I just turn off from what is happening day to day in terms of where my income is coming from. I don’t even tally up at month end.
Now some would say that you need to be regularly assessing income for the reasons just provided. But no – I still spend a whole heap of time online and doing my “stuff” – mostly emailing folks and communicating. But this leads to having a decent sense of what is working and what you need to keep focused on, without getting stuck with the daily highs and lows roller coaster.
3. Ego does (or can) come into play to some extent if you are seeing good stats and you can happily report back those stats.
I cannot claim that my own ego is any smaller or much better controlled than anyone else’s, LOL! But I feel there are other ways to show your knowledge and your ability other than reporting your income stats at month end (you do have to wonder how many internet marketers actually tell the truth).
I feel safe in the knowledge that the path I am now taking will be a real booster to my own income levels.
I guess from that angle, my ego is able to deal reasonably well without having to entertain the idea that I have to show off how much I make each month. Again, please do not take this point personally – I am discussing this from my own perception and am in no way labelling anyone else here.
4. I have my fingers in more income (or potential income) pies than at any time previously. To keep a tag on them all takes time and energy. I thus prefer to focus my energy on other things right now.
Of course you have to keep some records for alterior reasons (perhaps for tax purposes, if not much else). And no, I don’t have to pay UK tax any longer because I don’t stay in the country for long enough each year. So I don’t have to worry so much about those sort of records, at least not for now.
Its actually something of a relief not having to keep tabs on the income and report back each month. Less to worry about.
I don’t worry about my income any longer. I just let it happen. If you keep working on things you get to the stage of where you may suddenly find emails in your account saying something like…
“hey (insert your name), we’re happy to tell you that we’ve just issued you a check/cheque for $300! Congratulations!“.
That happened twice to me in the first week of the current month, and I did not even expect it. Why worry about it then? I’ll just keep on doing what I am doing and keep on trying to improve, improve.
5. It keeps everyone guessing. I know from experience of my own that when I visit a blog and sense that the blogger knows what they are doing in terms of making a good living from their work online, even though they do not report their monthly stats, I don’t need to know them.
For sure – I can have a guess, but that’s all it is. I’ll go back time and again to that particular blog because I know that this guy or girl knows what they are doing and I could probably learn a thing or five from them.
I could care less how much they actually make in terms of income from their work, if I’m honest with myself, because its not going to affect me any which way. So, even though I would really like to know how much they make – I’m gonna be guessing at it, which is no bad thing.
6. Some of my income stats impose on other people. Thus for me to share what I make may give the game away as to how much they are making also. That’s not fair to do so, and may actually contravene some laws that I am not aware of. Best I stay clear of this altogether then.
.
.
So what is my income now – some 3 months after Google knobbled my eBay sites (which very much hit my AdSense income too!) and penalized the rankings?
In honesty, I don’t really know. But the main thing is that I can live now the way I never could afford to live whilst my home was in the United Kingdom. I don’t want to buy a house because I don’t see the point in this sort of investment (even though most people see it as a wise investment to make – it no longer is for me, I don’t believe).
I don’t go countless holidays a year because I find that more and more when I do travel, I really don’t enjoy it that much – the older I get, the less travel I am inclined to do, which may sound very strange coming from a guy who uprouted from the UK to go and live in a hot tropical country half way around the world only 18 months ago!
In fact, more and more I get a real buzz from sharing my journeys on my blog, but otherwise I certainly do not enjoy all the messing around with flight bookings, flight connections and passport control etc.
I can go out every day to eat a delicous meal if I am inclined to do so (which I often am because I am a lazy cook, and I can’t be assed with washing up dirty dishes. When I cook a meal – generally it takes me all of 5 minutes, LOL!).
I live a fairly simple life in actuality, and that is the way I am happy. I choose not to get involved in the wealth-making circles either online or offline because its not who I am, if I am honest with myself.
So, taking an estimate at my income for the month of May, 2011 – probably somewhere around the $5k to $5.5k US mark.
Am I telling the truth, or otherwise? Have a guess…
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{ 64 comments… read them below or add one }
Your online honesty is pretty inspirational — makes it easy to distinguish the truth from the bullshit.
Thanks for the post.
Nicky Spur recently posted..It’s Lonely at the Top
Joseph,
I agree with your decision, and never seen the point of giving away my income online. That is too much information for anyone too know especially with all of the companies, people and governments now being able to track your every move as well as hold that information against you in numerous ways.
It’s usually obvious quite quickly whether someone knows what they’re talking about… and some of the people I listen to don’t give their income away, I wouldn’t ask and wouldn’t answer if they did.
If you have a challenge and want to keep people informed as to how much that particular site is making (as a reference point).. I think that’s all that is needed.
Tom
TomL recently posted..3 Ways in Which Anyone Can Succeed in Adsense
Thanks Nicky! I don’t see any reason to tell anything other than the truth. If I decided to do otherwise, I would not be able to sleep well at night.
Thanks for your comment!
Jo
Hey Tom, yes – I hear you about all sorts of folks taking notes on your income. And some of those folks its best we don’t be telling them nothing!
Agreed here too – you CAN tell if someone knows their stuff and its got nothing to do with the money they earn. A lot of folks (particulaly fairly new lads and lasses to the world of internet marketing) are drawn to big income stats and the “wow” figures. I too used to be, but it did slowly dawn on me that regardless how “wow” those stats were (many I believe to be utterly falsified), it made no difference at all to my bottom line, so why bother even reading the “wow” stats any longer.
Yes – by all means divulge income from your challenge, but otherwise keep everything else to yourself. I’m on board with this now, for reasons provided. And ya – I am not at all in favour of helping those folks who have a “snooping” type of job do their job any better either!
Thanks Tom!
Joseph
I agree wholeheartedly, Joseph. In addition to the well-reasoned explanation you gave, here’s one many bloggers haven’t thought of.
I follow a relatively “name brand” blogger whom I resonate with very well. Wouldn’t miss a post of his, and he has some great ideas.
Another blogging friend has some issues that my “name brand” friend’s blog could help. I referred friend number 2 to the “main guy’s” blog, hoping it would be a help.
The response? My ‘needy’ friend got very upset because he happened across the ‘name brand’ guy’s monthly post explaining his income. Anger, accusations, claims of boastfulness and, in general, a whole lot of hard feelings were engendered.
Was my ‘little guy’ friend perhaps a bit oversensitive? Of course he was, in many people’s view, but then again, we are all human and it makes no sense to take the chance of alienating the very audience you are trying to attract.
There are so, so many more things to write about than pointless listings of what you made in the preceding months. It’s mostly just boring to me.
Thanks for heading in a new direction.
Hey Dave, thanks for stopping by from across the water there and leaving a comment!
Hmmm… yes, I can see how folks could get upset over income claims, but this does sound like someone got too hot headed over small bits and bobs (maybe I’m wrong?).
However, I can add a bit to this Dave. In the past I used to pay quite a lot of attention to what other’s were making online. Some were and are highly legitimate, and good for them, others highly questionable. But I came to the point where I had to wonder was that adding anything to my bottom line in the sense – was I actually gaining anything at all from reading these type of posts, or was it in fact being detrimental to my philosophies. The latter is the case. Sometimes I was found to battling with my own ego because I’d perhaps just read a “glowing” income report on someone’s blog and finding myself comparing my own.
Thus I either had to “switch off” my ego (or whatever it was that was causing stupid things to come into my mind), or not read about other people’s income at all. Had to be the latter option here also because I’m still having to work on the former and I’m still not there with it yet.
I presume there is something of this that has occured between your friends – it does sound like it, even though there may be no admission, or no ability to really reason it through. But for me – I’d prefer to stick my head in the sand rather than try to reason sensibly with my ego, at least on occasion, and for now this is one of those occasions.
So yes Dave, you have procurred another point there – perhaps one that is even closer to “the heart” than any of the others.
Thanks for that!
Jo
I like reading income reports not for the bottom lines (which I assume are usually exaggerated) but because I am curious about the different ways people earn a living. Especially those that are diversifying into different areas or using different angles on new tricks. I usually don’t pay too much to the raw numbers.
I hope all is working out for you in all of your other ventures. It’s good to be busy!
Ego? The fact that you can admit to being challenged by the changes with google and the recession n’ all that, means that even if you’re ego was damaged, you’re still quite humble to share your personal information with us.
It’s true. It’s great when you find blogs where people know exactly what they’re doing. I have lots to learn.
In fact, I came across your blog because of, well, I can’t say how it started exactly, a google search is all I can remember, but it usually starts with a google search. I found a blog post called ‘THE Backlinking Strategy That Works’ on http://www.smartpassiveincome.com, and the blogger got his strategy from your 40-day challenge on warrior forum, which turns out to be a very informational forum I’m again, learning. Then I read some of that, and I just thought, well, I had to go straight to the source.
So now I can’t wait to get stuck into your article back catalogue.
Echo recently posted..Using Google Analytics to Measure The Average Time On Site – Not So Good
Thanks for your feedback Matt – yes, its a good way to get an “in a nutshell” overview of what’s going down. I s’pose that could be done here, seeing as I busy with a number of different ways to make an income and spend very little time on AdSense (which everyone knows about) and no time these days on eBay affiliate. I’m sure that would be intereting to learn about – for those who are not aware anyhow.
Cheers!
Jo
Hi Echo, thanks for coming by and sharing your thoughts and experiences!
Let’s face the facts here, even for those making upwards of 30k US a month, they are at a danger of having egotistical issues. The more you make the more you want to make is a fairly general rule going on. So you inevitably could be comparing yourself against those who make as much if not more than you do. After all, I’m sure I used to compare my own income when I was making a hundred or two hundred a month, with those that were on 600 and think how wonderful it would be to be making 600 a month!
Pat Flynn’s blog. Yes, I heard that he was offered a five figure sum for the website he used the backlinking strategies on too. Why don’t folks offer me five figures – I’ll build a nice site and get it ranking for lots of kwd phrases and get it earning some good money… Nevetheless, that’s not to take anything away from Pat – he’s done a wonderful job on this site – only 8 months old and making a really solid monthly income and got so much potential too! This is highly successful internet marketing for you, no doubting it!
Be careful of the Warrior Forum, Echo, you could be in danger of spending days and weeks on there
In which case you’re headed for info overload without a doubt!
One other thing that I could actually go ahead and write a post about which touches on the above point – this flies in the face of what everyone else says…
I know almost everyone says, don’t read too much and be sure to take action and lots of action too. Hmmm… in some ways I agree, but in some ways not. If I knew much more than I did 2 years ago about this game, then I would be way ahead of where I am today. In other words, if I had taken far less action and did far more reading of thoroughly valid and solid content, I would be far ahead of where I am today!!
Taking too much action is NOT a good way to progress, until you know precisely which actions are worthy and which actions are not! Yes – sometimes you have to prove to yourself what works and what does not. But I believe that if you can follow along with one or two folks who have been there done that and are willing to share pretty much all, and answer questions along the way too, well, you know where I’m headed here, I’m sure.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment – appreciate it!
Joseph
Hi Joseph,
I agree with you, I don’t see the point in telling everybody how much you make, except in one or two cases, where the blogger not only tells people the amount he makes but also explains some strategy and the adjustments he makes according to the income. I always skip the figures and go straight to conclusions.
Also, I’ve noticed that many young guys who copy everything their idol does, also publish their income even when it is so small that you don’t see the point.
Disclosing your income doesn’t prove you know what you are doing unless you show your bank statements, affiliates account, etc. There is a popular guy who claimed to make six figures and few months later he confessed in a video it wasn’t true. I bet he is not the only one.
Cristina
Cristina recently posted..El secreto para hacerse rico vendiendo camisetas
Hi Cristina, there is one other point why folks disclose their income – more so on relatively popular blogs – you tend to find that these sort of posts get the most eyeballs. Folks are utterly fascinated to find out how much others are making online.
From that perspective it could be either beneficial to your blog (in terms of readership) or detrimental. There was one person who commented on this blog not too long ago who claimed that if you are not seeing above 5k US per month from your IM work, you are “nothing” (or words to that effect). And I bet he’s not the only one who thinks along those lines, even though he’s the only one who has actually “said” it here.
Yes I know as to whom you are referring Cristina – that statement has caused many a conversation in blogging circles and in IM circles. I bet he is not the only one either, but he’s the only one that I am aware of that actually exposed his readers to the truth of the matter. I can fully comprehend why he got caught up in doing what he did – there’s an innate pressure on folks to be doing well in terms of the income they make online – its almost what society expects of us, sadly enough.
Thanks for sharing your views Cristina – Que tengas un buen dia!
Maybe I just see this matter from a Spanish point of view. In my country it is not polite at all to disclose your income. You don’t tell people how much you make and you don’t ask others either.
It was a little bit “obscene” for me to see so many guys showing their income online, LOL
Que tengas un buen día, Jo
Cristina recently posted..El secreto para hacerse rico vendiendo camisetas
Let me pick one word you mention here Cristina… obscene
From Wikipedia…
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious.
Which word do you feel most strongly represents your feelings if you had to pick one from that list? LOL!
Actually, this is one point of view I actually like the discussion of income for – its contrary to the norm. I think the norm is often ballsed up (for want of a better term, but none came to mind), so its good to court with the abnorm (or in this case abhorrent
).
Nevertheless, its good to hold a different opinion and enjoy a dialogue over it! More of your Spanish viewpoints are very welcome on this blog!
Nah, I was just kidding about obscenity. LOL
I respect income disclosure as long as:
1. It’s relevant
2. It’s honest
Cristina recently posted..El secreto para hacerse rico vendiendo camisetas
I’m a member of an MMO club, that gives a solid plan to earn mainly from adsense, I don’t want to name it here, but its called an academy, I think you know the one.
I must admit that I haven’t had time to even look at their site in the past two months, as I’ve been transferring my main e-commerce site across to magento and that’s taken up all my mental energy and time, recently.
Anyway, to get to my point, they have a forum that is dominated by what seems about 20-30 people (even though I’m sure there are over 1000 members) that spend a lot of time on there basically talking to each other. Also, as with any forum there are the know flamers and mis-informers etc etc. But, what intrigued me about the forum is that you get badges to proudly display how much you earn on a monthly basis.
I can see that the people who run the club, want this to act as a motivator and show what you can make, when you apply the formula etc. But, I must admit that when I first joined about 6 months back I was in awe of the people with loud and proud $20,000/mth badges.
I sort of listened to them more, as they know what they’re talking about don’t they…. don’t they…. I mean they couldn’t fake their income could they….
Anways, I’ve got the new site up and running now, there are still a few glitches here and there, but I am going to start applying the techniques in the coming months.
I’m glad you’re stopping these kind of reports and the facts and reasoning behind why you are doing so only make me believe you even more. Also, it would be horrible to start receiving begging letters from me, or your long lost relative when you become a millionaire
Off to do a Euro million ticket now anyway, its a rollover this week, after all!
I think I do know this “club” you mention John, although I only became aware of it a few weeks back when someone asked me my opnion and if I offer a discount on a link to join up with them. Yes – this idea about earning 20k a month and displaying the badge to highlight the fact. Sounds like the owner of the club will be quite happy to turn a blind eye to anyone who is mis-claiming here…
I am a millionaire John, but its on my terms and not on societies’ terms, you see;-) Thus its not about the actual cash in the bank or investment in property, its about the investment in my life and the amount of pleasure and fulfillment I get out of life on a regular basis. And that IS the sort of “income” that I like to report back about on the blog here!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts John – have a lovely weekend in the UK!
Jo
Absolutely true – you’re net worth is not the amount of cash in the bank. What use is it if you have lots of it, but don’t (because of meanness) or can’t (because of illness) use it to make your own and families life more fulfilled.
It’s the old teaching from the cradle to the grave (in the west) that you can’t be happy or fulfilled without having a great job, beautiful lady on your arm, a nice fast/expensive car, big house and lots of money. I’m with you all the way, the best things in life are free.
I’m nearly ready with the content pages that I wanted you to look at a month or two back. Will send them over soon, better late than never, eh?
Hey John, I don’t know if the best things in life are necessarily free all the time, but – I’ve bought a few bottles of red wine here in Malaysia for upwards of 12 quid a shot and they tasted utter cr.p! I can buy a bottle of wine in Asda in the UK for £3.95 and it wins hands down in comparison! So how about “the best things in life can be cheaper”, LOL!
Sure thing John, let me know when you are ready.
Hi,
I can really understands your reasons for not telling the world what your income is, after all it’s nobody business but yours.
I think this is a major stumbling for newcomers, myself included, as we never get to see what a really money making site looks from the start, so that we have something to work to, of course this may bring about a few copy cats, but they will learn the hard way about duplicate content; Sure most of the information required is spread far and wide over the internet, but this information alone does not really help that much if you do not know how to apply it, or do not have a clue what you are doing!
Btw, this is a nice blog you have here Joseph, look like another I shall have to bookmark.
anna recently posted..Precise Review On Acnezine – Effective Acne Treatment Product
Hi Anna, thanks in advance for bookmarking my blog
Yes, I understand that (particularly) beginners may very well like to analyze sources of income and assess which is a good way to earn online and which may not be such a good way. But Anna, I think that merely serves to mislead.
I may be good at something in particular thus spend a lot of my time invested in that aspect of my business, hence make more money from that. You may be good at doing something quite different. So you come along to my blog and see Joseph is making a good income in doing something that you don’t enjoy. You spend the next 6 months focusing on an aspect of the business that you hate. And because you hate it, you don’t do very well at it and thus your income is still not a lot.
Income posts are good for various purposes but not for everything and they may be very misleading too. I can’t possibly do what Chris Ducker (just for example) does to make money online as much of it would have me out of my depth. But if I were new-ish to the game and I saw that he was making a lot of income doing ….. (fill in the blank), then I may well tempted to try that out for myself, and no doubt would be doomed to fail.
This is merely another aspect to the whole thing and does not come into my reasoning for not discussing my income at this time. But its important to mention all the same, Anna – just to help you more deeply assess your own circumstances.
Thanks again for your comment!
Joseph
share yous journys there are people who wants to learn about this
I very much intend to share my journey Crys – there will be no change to that particular aspect of this blog.
Thanks for your feedback!
Joseph
Hi Joseph,
If I take away anything from this blog post, it’s that honesty really is just plain good sense. To thine own self be true, after all. And all those things the pro bloggers all seem to be doing is still simply nothing more than choice.
For a while, honestly, I saw so many pro bloggers posting their stats and income, and even more hopping on the bandwagon, that I thought there was a law about it! Silly me.
Delena
Delena Silverfox recently posted..epc Lisburn
Hi Delena, yes – it does seem to be almost something of an unwritten law that if you are an IM type blogger you should post up your monthly income stats. Well, as you know, I’m not a normal sorta guy, so I thought I would be abnormal here too, albeit it took me a while to get myself off that well beaten track.
And my next online marketing adventure will be into property – I don’t suppose there are many internet marketers making money from property so that should be interesting to say the least!
Hope you are well Delena!
J
Hi Joseph. Thanks for the advice. You’re right about taking the ‘right action’. It’s learning what’s effective, what’s going to get results so that time isn’t wasted. So you’ve hit the nail on the head, especially when it comes to someone like who’s starting out. I haven’t even dug into the warrior forum yet. I’ve headed the warning.
Echo, there are some real nasty sorts on the Warriors so do watch out for those – the troll types who appear to have tried everything possible that there is to try and failed miserably at everything. Thus they have nothing better to do but “down” everyone who shows a bit of get up and go.
Nevertheless, there is a lot of very good info on there. Sometimes when I am assessing some stuff that I need to learn more about, I’ll do a pure Warriors search – for example – “the best online shopping cart” – added in to a Warrior search. You’ll get a lot of feedback from other users.
Yes – taking “the right action” is imperative to success. Its all very well when you read time and time again “TAKE ACTION”, but if its not the right action to take, which most of it tends not to be, then it can be a waste of months and months and a whole lot of invested money. So, I would go very much against this ethos and say don’t take action, do nothing but contemplate things for a bit. If it “feels” right, then go for it, otherwise leave well alone.
Thanks Echo!
J
Hi Joseph,
Great reply thanks, I appreciate what you said but it was not my intention to infer that anyone should try and duplicate the success of another site by er.. duplicating that site, but just to gain an insight in to what a super-site actually could or should look like.
To be honest, unless I knew the person well or they were well respected (such as yourself) I would take any such income claims with a pinch of salt, as they could just a easily be as fake as a guru’s Clickbank screenshot, and merely a tactic to generate more traffic, sorry if that’s a bit cynical, but I, like so many others, have been burned by these crap-peddling gurus.
Anyway I shall keep plugging away and see if I can build my own super-site by default
Hey Anna, I can’t agree with you more – unless I knew the person well, or – I read enough of their blog in the one sitting to get a very good “feel” for this particular person, I would take all income claims with a very large grain of salt.
However, even then, I don’t personally see too much point to reading said income report because it would have very little baring on my own business model and what I choose to focus upon. Its great to read that someone makes 200 bucks a day from AdSense, but that does not mean that I’ll ever get there. Its great to read that someone makes 5000 bucks a month from creating iPhone apps, but there is absolutely no way I’m gonna think about doing that.
In many ways then, my point here is that its a waste of time and can be thoroughly misleading reading income reports. Not that everyone “polishes” the numbers, but just that your own forte in life may be very different indeed to the income reporters forte.
At one time I was as excited as most others when reading month end income reports from folks who work the IM game to make a living. Now though it simply has no bearing on what I personally do in my own business so there is little point in me spending time in pursuing that line.
Thanks Anna!
Joseph
Totally understandable Joseph, hope your sites recover. I had my two of my earning sites hit as well. A fix you may try is to redirect the old domain to a new one. This worked for me, but the rankings didn’t come all the way back, but still A LOT better than before. It may be worth a shot if your rankings have suffered for several months.
Erik recently posted..Her finder du Phukets bedstre strande
Hi Erik, thanks for your comment!
Do you mean take all the content from the old domain and pop it over onto a new domain, then redirect?
If these sites were smaller I would have gone through them and sorted out the problem but they are just too large to even contemplate starting with that. Never mind though – its a good chance to move onto other things and learn more about the bigger picture.
All the best Erik!
Joseph
well, its not everyone that feels comfortable to reveal their income. Your reasons are valid to me, ive seen some lame excuses before from people haha, pretty funny.
fazal mayar | make money online recently posted..World’s Top 10 Most Expensive Domain Names Ever Sold
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Fazal!
Joseph
Hey Jo!
Some great insight there in your post, and in the follow-up comment aswell (as always).
I reveal my income at the moment, even if it is just pence per month at the moment.
It’s more of a way for me to look back on the first 12-24 months of my IM journey and maybe for others to see how hard it is also.
Once I’m up to around $1,500 a month I’ll be able to quit my day job and concentrate full time on IM…and at that point I will probably no longer disclose my monthly income, and start to really enjoy working on the internet full time.
It’s not easy trying to start off when you’re out the house 12 hours a day with a regular day job lol.
Great post as always Jo, thankyou.
Ben.
Hey Ben, revealing an income is a good way to remain accountable and a good way to keep pushing even when the going gets tough, which is regularly is. As mentioned in the post, this is only my own take on where I am at right now and I respect you and Michelle and everyone else who enjoys posting up about their income – you have your reasons which are thoroughly sound! As you mention here – perhaps there comes a time when its no longer as necessary to reveal your income as it once was.
Hope things are picking up for you in this long hard struggle for freedom!
Jo
Hi Jo,
It’s been a while since I last heard from you, or since I checked your blog.
So glad that I checked it today, it turned out to be an inspiration for me. As I have been so involved in having more income, my enjoyment of what I do has declined.
As of late I have been designing sites for clients as well as writing, and when I check my income stat’s I have not enjoyed what I was seeing. X amount yesterday – O amount today.
That’s no way to live….. Gonna take your hint here and start liking what I do again.
Thanks for the great post,
HoneyJo
HoneyJo recently posted..Improve Your Online Marketing Success
Hey HJ, it has been a while!
Hmm… I can imagine that designing sites and writing can be very lucrative indeed, but will be a never-ending grind at the same time. I can’t say I always enjoy what I do either though HJ. I could have been out yesterday enjoying the ocean, fine food sitting beside the seaside, good company, but instead I opted to grind on with this online stuff hour after hour after hour. And yup, it was a grind for sure I can tell you! But hey – I find out today that a site which is only 13 days of age is already starting to see an income and that grind becomes a bit more enjoyable and those regrets I had start to pale.
The way I see it is that designing sites and writing for clients is a great way to make a fine income but there comes a limit to what you can do on your own. With internet marketing or call it what you will, there really is no limit to earnings when at the same time you could only be working a few hours a week. This is what keeps me going day after day, month after month (not that I would ever wish to work only a few hours a week).
Hope you are well HJ and that not every day is so much of a grind for you!
All the best!
Jo
I totally agree with your sensible decision disclosing your online internet marketing income is not fair.
“A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.”
All the best!
Sanjana Koli
Sanjana Koli recently posted..Dietary Tips for IBS
Hi Sanjana, thanks for letting me know your thoughts about this!
“A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.”
I do seek the approval of others to some extent or else I’d never make any sales of my eBook or any affiliate sales via my blog
. But I do take your point, so thanks for sharing! One way to get around this approval business is to work in SEO – you are able to hide behind your website and do not need anybody to approve or otherwise of what you are doing, which is quite the opposite of the social media thing and trying to earn an income from that. Its why I will never be any good at doing stuff like blog commenting (and guest blog writing) to drive folks to this blog.
Regards to you!
Joseph
I must say a wise decision can lead any other man in triumphant position.
Okay thanks for your input College Papers!
Joseph
Hey Joseph, sorry to hear about your hit in earnings. If it makes you feel any better I too took a big hit from google for my sites. I was making about $6200 from adsense on my best month, after the penalty it was down to $5200 and this month only $4800 but I have been doing a lot of work to rank my sites back up and I HAVE GOOD NEWS!
The last two days I have broke $200 each day on adsense, so this means you shouldn’t lose hope! If I break $200 a day for the month it puts me back to $6000. Keep building links and adding content to your best sites and they will recover.
Internet Money Hustle recently posted..Why you should subscribe to this blog
Hi Jeremy, thanks for letting us know about your bad fortune and then good fortune!
I’ve had to retrench and begin again on many of my sites in actual fact so progress is slow in this respect. For a while I focused on other aspects of my business which is good for experience (and pretty good for income too
) but its funny how you eventually get “pulled” back to what you’ve always done. So that said, I am in the process of building up new AdSense based sites (MFA), along with adding a ton of fresh content to one that is somewhat maturer. So yes, no doubt the income will improve due to this – there are early signs that its going well and will go well. In fact, I’ve had to take on a VA cos I’m killing myself with the backlink grind 
Would love to get back to those $200 days again on a regular basis – must feel oh so good!!
Thanks again Jeremy and I wish you the very best with the soon to be $300 days!
Joseph
Thank you for the tips. Sorry your income dropped, seems google hit a lot of folks hard in their pockets
You’ll be on top again soon, I’m sure.
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Hi Jasmine, I’ll never get on top with these sites I’m afraid. I’m thinking about getting a job these days cos its safer
Joseph
“Hi Jasmine, I’ll never get on top with these sites I’m afraid. I’m thinking about getting a job these days cos its safer ”
From one of the people who inspired me to get back into IM, and to keep gonig when times got hard.
Don’t quit Jo.
Ben recently posted..Earnings Report- May 2011
Hey Ben, no worries – its not that I am about to quit. It would be nice to have a bit more variation is all. I’ve got some stuff going down in the background which is looking very promising but its taking time, time, time and a lot of grind, grind, grind.
Its at times like these that it would be healthy to have more variation in life than sitting banging the keys on the keyboard every single day, hour after hour after hour.
A dream of mine was (or is) to go back to working part time in one of those damn awful warehouses I used to slave labour in, in central England, and roll up in a real nice sporty looking car each day and get everyone wondering how the hell a part time worker can afford such a nice car, LOL! It would be lovely to work a 16 hour week in some crappy job whilst making an extra 5k UK pounds a month from part time work online. I imagine I’d sell a few more of my ebooks to fellow staff members, probably some of the managers too, hahaha! Then if I got fed up with the job, just move along to the next agency job some place else for a while, till I got fed up with that too. Its all about having the happy medium, and right now I’ve not quite got that.
Hope things are picking up for you nicely Ben!
This is David. Hello to all. As I am new to the internet and blogging in particular,I have a lot to sort out and to learn. Thankfully, bloggers are some of the classiest and most informative people anywhere. I need all of the information I can get and this post helps a whole lot. Thank You for posting this. I am determined to hang in there because I believe in the process
Hi David, thanks for your comment!
Take care on the info overload bit – it can come to us all! I suggest you find some folks you can trust or feel you can trust and follow along with them and shut out all the other trash – those emails that you get about making a grand a week within 3 weeks from now, and anyone who claims they can show you success in the next couple of months – its utter nonsense.
There is a whole lot to learn and a whole lot to keep on learning but in a sense if you treat your first year or two as if it were a college course – make mistakes and learn from them and don’t expect fast results, then you are setting yourself up nicely for success in the longer term when you do begin to start getting real successful ventures under way – almost like when you graduate from college and you start seeing an income from your work.
Best wishes David!
Joseph
Funny enough I’ve always wanted to do something like that. I knew a guy who did. He owned a few houses that he was renovating, imported wine and sold it exclusive to Harrods (which netted him about £500k a year), and he imported Arabian horses into the UK at about £10k a time. Yet he came to work in the office of a haulage company, 4 hours each evening…for tax purposes (?), and as an escape from the stresses of self-employment that he used to endure. He was mad. Learnt so so much from him though.
Things are doing well my end, moved to Northamptonshire two n half weeks ago, and the missus is now in on the whole IM thing too, it’s rather encouraging.
I’ve earned more last month than I have before, and will hopefully report an increase on that next month
I do agree with you though, variety is the spice of life!
Ben.
Ben recently posted..Earnings Report- May 2011
I’m envious of your “friend” Ben
Yes, I can see that as serving as a good escape. Folks say to me what is there to be stressed about when you can sit at home all day, piddling around on the computer. Its called being self employed and being self employed can have the ability to up the stress levels at various times.
Northants, huh? I used to live there – just south of Rugby (or as many of the locals call it – Roogby, just like poob as opposed to pub). I’nt that where Prince William and Harry went to school – no, not the poob, I mean Roogby school?
Great going on the income increases Ben!
I’m off out now to meet a couple of your/our fellow country men who are here on vacation. Should be a fun evening!
Jo
I think you are making some good points Joseph and I cant knock you for that as it should be more about sharing your experience and helping others. Why would you want to travel if your in a nice place already.
I do find other bloggers income posting exciting as to the potential you can earn if you do things write and provide value to your readers. Its not the money but what the money can buy which is time, time to do as you want and not have to worry. Time to spend with family and enjoy the companies of others.
You have some valid points and I am glad you posted your concerns. Thanks
Hi Akil, thanks for your feedback.
Yes, its nice here, but if I were a bit more adventurous and could deal with all the flight connections and passport controls better, then chances are good I’d be off some place new every couple of months or so.
I hear its got cold again in the UK – thankfully I’m not there right now or I’d be one of the biggest grumblers “is this what they call summer?!”
………..Maybe youre wondering how much money you should ideally save each month…In the personal finance parable and very short book The Richest Man in Babylon which I recommend all serious savers and investors read at some point get it from your library or local bookstore! the richest man Arkad says that 10 percent of all you earn is yours to keep.In other words you should save 10 percent or more of your pre-tax income no matter what. Similarly putting 10 percent of your income each month under the mattress is out… you want to be earning at least some interest on your savings.Personally I save 15-30 of my money each month pre-tax income that is.
Hi Joseph,
Did you decide to stop posting along with your decision of not to disclose your internet marketing income? Lol. Its more than a month without a new post………..????
Hey Joel, no I did not decide to forgo the blog but its kinda happened that way for now. I’ve been so busy on some projects that there is little time for blog posting right now. No doubt there will be a blog post coming up soon, I just have to find the energy to put pen to paper. Sorry for the delay and thanks for following!
J
Hi Christina, thanks for the info on The Richest Man in Babylon. I guess when you are fairly heavily into internet marketing then anything you may ordinarily save tends to end up as a re-investment in your business. It does for me anyways. I have some people asking me if I would wish to invest in various things – gold being one of the main culprits, but truth is, I want to invest in something that I understand very well and know for sure I can make a return on – given time and given a few mistakes being made along the way. No doubt if I were above a certain income level per month, then another investment or savings vehicle would be in order, but until I personally am at that level, I’ll continue to invest what I can in my online businesses. At the same time, I find that I am creating jobs for people that otherwise they may not have.
Thanks Christina!
Joseph
H Joseph, I used to think it was a good idea to disclose ones online income. But your points here shows that it’s more of ego if anything else – and eventually leads to chasing ones tail.
It also puts a lot of pressure on your to surpass your previous income otherwise your visitors would see it as a failure.
I think the best thing as you’ve discussed is to keep them guessing as to how much you earn
Hi Helen, for some there is no doubt its mostly about ego, where for others its more about being held accountable and therefore pushing hard each and every month for better. For me it was not much about ego (I don’t think) because I was never making big money when I was posting the results, albeit month on month there were excellent gains being made. But yes – you can end up chasing your tail which does add to what already can be high stress levels.
There is of course another side to it and that is if you are making a good income online, people tend to trust your ability that much more and thus will follow along with you which really could be to everyone’s gain, particularly if you are sharing good and insightful information as to how you actually do make that income.
Personally I shall most probably never share details of my whole income again, but I may share income from certain projects that I am focussed on, and reasoning as to how it was achieved. The longer you are in the game the more you realize that it is just a process you go through over and over with a few tweaks here and there for different niches. I have one project in particular at the moment which is still fairly recent but is shaping up very nicely indeed. I intend to discuss that at a later date, but its too early to shed light on it right now even though month to month the income is rising steadily.
Thanks for your comment Helen!
Joseph
Hey Joseph,
great to hear you are doing well my friend.
I couldn´t agree with you more. I think that true success comes if you get the right things in life and that is definitely not only money. Monetary success is essential to live, but its not whats going to give you success from the inside out.
You need to determine why you are here and what you value. An enviornment that might be cool for your best friend might not be yours because you have different motives and goals.
As we chatted so often: I would rather take less money and be happy, than to have all the money and to be unhappy. True satisfaction comes if you have the right goals that you want to achieve.
All the best,
Gerald
Hey Gerald, this is a surprise! I’m about to get back to you on Skype re your recent reply to me.
Cannot add anything more to what you say here Gerald – you express yourself delightfully
When do you think you might be up for the relocation to Thailand? Must get together and knock a few ideas about over a beer or something.
Catch up with you shortly, sir!
Jo
I enjoyed reading your post. I think whether you wish to disclose your income or not is a personal decision, not a requirement.
Although you have taken a hit recently like many of us online, it seems you are maintaining an ideal lifestyle. Isn’t time and a lifestyle we each individually select one of the main reasons to market online?
Sometimes I think watching your stats too closely is like dieting. Jumping on the scale several times a day can be discouraging.
Giving it a break now and then and concentrating on proactively promoting your business is sometimes a good approach.
Enjoy a great meal out, lay back in a hammock and relax a bit. It will get better.
Hi Richard, thanks for your feedback about this matter.
Agreed – marketing online can bring choices that few people have in life – not on a daily basis, so its most certainly not just about how much money you make – its about how you choose to utilize it. I believe though that most people still think its about the amount of money that is made, when indeed its not that at all that truly matters.
He/she makes 20k US each month – wow!
He/she lives in an appartment overlooking a beautiful ocean and work as and when they want to and are truly at peace with themselves – WOW!
I’m off out now to enjoy a lovely dinner in the star light whilst the coconut trees sway around me gently in the breeze
And all for less than 5 bucks!
Thanks Richard!
Joseph