So here it is! My long awaited income report number 1. Over a month ago I have been writing about "Giving up my day job" and provided my income plans (part 2 here). I have promised you to post my income report every month. So now you may read it! My income report number 1! Unfortunately you won't see a huge number in here as I am still building my online business. But I hope to provide you more interesting reports each month :) At least I'll do my best to grow the numbers each month.
Just the beginning...
My first goal is to earn anything over $1000 per month. Like for first month it is not bad - but still not $1000. Anyway I will write more about my next months plans at the end of this post. So let's start with providing my earnings :)
So here is the list...
My list will be build from the biggest to lowest source of income. I do not provide numbers that I have on my bank account but rather reports from stats provided from first to last day of the month. Money will come to me sooner or later :)
- iStockphoto - I have sold 202 licenses for my photos - that made me a total of $546.89. Not bad. Over half of my income goal from one website. The rest of list is not looking so good :/
- Amazon affiliate program - $12.00 - just a few dollars to buy a two good coffees - but I need coffee everyday :(
- PPC income (from my websites, including Google AdSense, InfoLinks and more) - 14,88 € - not much. But always some additional buck.
- Affiliate programs (GetAFreelancer, Namecheap) - $2.90 - LOL =)
It is not a huge amount of money. But it was my first month. I do not want to give you too much details - but April is looking much more promising!
What are my plans...?
So as I have written on the begging of this post. What will go next? As my source of income in my previous posts I have been giving you website flipping that is not in the list. Why? Because auctions I have already set are longer than 30 days... First income will come in April.
And what's more...? This month I have published my killer report "PageRank 4 in two weeks?" that is quite popular and get a great feedback. Moreover I have a new web sites...
More to come...
Plus... ups. Sorry I won't be saying about it know as I am still working on this idea and do not need competitors before it is done :). I will report more numbers next month. So bookmark, subscribe or whatever more to visit my blog next month.
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KreCi,
Check out Amazon affiliates, by far the best way to make money if your content is properly suited. Might not be available in your state though. In terms of my own numbers, I’ve made just over 100 dollars from my first six blog posts in the past 2 months. Not much, but I’m really just blogging for fun right now.
I am using Amazon affiliates on one of my blogs – but I think that my niche is not selling to well online. I got just a few bucks from blog with about 10000 visits per month.
Interesting. I’ve had roughly 20k visits to mine. Really, the bulk of my money comes from 2 posts, one of which is a book review. Are you doing the spammy “Buy this book” link, or the more classy normal link? Also, are you talking about a product in the post itself?
Yes I write about the product and put a link to it on the Amazon under the post. But it is computer hardware blog (Mini-ITX) so this things are rather expensive… Moreover Amazon do not have too much choice for it. And there are no dedicated to Mini-ITX shops with affiliate programs.
I forgot to add Amazon earning to the list… LOL… Ok – I will update now.
Congratulations on the first month! I was interested at one time in selling stock photos. I used to be quite involved in photography in general, devving and printing my own pics. I looked at the istock site and pretty much concluded that the best way to make money there is to take pics of people. I live in Prague, Czech Republic and I was hoping to take pictures of architecture, as they have great examples of all the major movements. How much time to you devote to taking pics?
Good luck in your endeavors!
It is not about a time for making photos – as you build your base and it is getting bigger and bigger each month. As a stock photographer you must think what may sell for ads and popular articles. Then you might be successful. Architecture photos are not too popular on stock photography sites.
I’ve noticed about the architecture pics. How long has it taken you to build the photo base you now have? And is most of the base still providing income, or do you see it tailing off? Your $500 for the month would more than cover all my expenses out here, so I wonder how long it would take to get to the size base you have now.
I’m sure this will be sort of frowned upon but what about selling stuff on eBay? I know people who buy stuff at yard sales or suchlike and resell it on eBay…
I believe it may be profitable but I am not able to do all of this stuff at once :) And I would like to stay rather with online and virtual goods only (it is too much to go and buy things, then pack it and go to postoffice…). I want to build steady 100% online income.
what was the day job and why did you give it up?
I think it would be good to clarify.
I have been working as a computer helpdesk assistant and web developer when had no requests from users.
Is there a specific business you’re trying to build, or are you just seeing how well you can do online?
I want to build steady online income. Mostly with stock photography – as I really like it. And with web development. I build website – make some money on it and then usually sell (until I will hit a real money killer).
I am a big believer in cross pollination of ideas. Are you applying any of your tech skills to your stock photography revenue stream? Data analysis, A/B testing etc…
I think that my English is to weak to answer your question :) I use technical knowledge on web development – and of course I am learning a lot of things about professional photography. Moreover I invest in studio equipment – check my older posts I link to in this one.
what percentage of your time did you devote to stock photos?
if 95.98% of your income was from selling stock photos and you devoted less than 50% of your time to it then it’s a no-brainer.
PPC and Affiliate are brutal businesses – it takes years to get a steady income stream going.
Why not stick with stock photos – especially if you like it more.
I have been building my photos base for a few months. Last month I have spent most of my time for web development. Results are slowly coming this month – I will give more details about it with my next report (next month). I will compare both of it and decide which way of making money is better :)
Very impressive on the iStockPhoto selling side, will be recommending to my photographer mates
Nice job with the photos. How about a blog on digital photography and an e-book on how to make money selling your stock photos? Seems like a niche you could sink your teeth into and have some solid experience.
I have found that trying to be an affiliate for a product I dontlove is tough. Its hard to get ranked and requires work that if you don’t have your heart in it is hard to put in. You must love taking pictures so go for it!!
Good luck
Thank for great comment Brian. I will think about it – but I am not sure if I would have enough subjects to write about it. But it is still worth to consider.
I have been trying to do the same thing while tracking my progress but only made a small amount of money. Never really got the seo thing does anyone know a good seo service?