December 2016 Monthly Income Report – $6,864.00
Welcome to my monthly income reports. Each month I will be completely transparent with you guys about the money that I am making with my online business. I do this not to boast, but to show you that it is possible to make real money with hard work and dedication.
I am going to be honest with you guys, this month I didn’t create much “new” content, BUT the beauty of what I am building is that a lot of it is passive income. (Meaning that I can still make money while I am doing other things). This has always been my long-term goal as an entrepreneur, to be able to create multiple revenue streams that are always working for me even when I am SLEEPING 🙂
Being a father of a 2-year old who’s birthday is on CHRISTMAS DAY, I had a lot going on this month and spent more money on toys than I ever thought I would have. My wife is a teacher and was off for a couple of weeks and it was great to take some time off and spend with them.
As a YouTuber and content creator, the last few months are generally when you will receive the most Ad revenue, due to all of the companies spending the rest of their marketing budget AND the fact that it’s Christmas season, and they are trying to move more product. Knowing this, it’s always important to make sure that your content is optimized to make sure you capitalize on this fact.
Multiple Streams Of Income
One of the key things to making money online is having multiple streams of income. As you will see in this report, I have, on a good month 5-9 streams of revenue. Try to find various sources of income that are different enough that if something catastrophic happens to say YouTube or another way you are making money you will be ok financially.
DO NOT count on one stream of income to be the only way you make money online.
What Happened In December 2016
In December, as I mentioned earlier I didn’t churn out the content like in months past BUT I still released over 15 individual podcast episodes, 4 new YouTube videos, and 3 new blog posts. A lot of this was done at the end of November and beginning of December. I had all of my podcasts scheduled to release by the first week of December. It was great to see all of that hard work pay off as I was spending time with my family. It just really confirmed the fact that as a creator it’s always a good idea to have content in the “can” to publish when you want some time off or have something come up.
Overall, it was a very successful month for me and my business and I am so excited for what the new year is going to bring!
Income Breakdown For December 2016
Affiliate Income:
Bluehost – $580.00
The two ways I am driving traffic to my Bluehost link is through Video and Blog Posts
Here Is The Blog Post That I Have Showing You How To Sign Up For Bluehost And Get A Free Domain Name
Amazon Affiliate Program – $960.00
I know that this number may look HUGE in comparison to what it has been in past months. The reason for this is because it was the Christmas season and more people were obviously buying gifts on Amazon.
The Amazon Affiliate Program is a great way to get started with affiliate marketing. Amazon makes it easy to sign up and begin creating links to share to your audience. Utilize the Amazon links for product reviews, DIY project supplies, and so much more. Also, this number will be bigger in November and December due to the fact that more people are buying during the Christmas season.
Grammarly – $20.00
I use Grammarly as my number one writing tool. Grammarly is a spell checker superhero. It allows you to fix grammatical mistakes beyond just spelling errors.
Here Is My Video Review Talking About Grammarly and How to Use It
TubeBuddy – $78.00
TubeBuddy is the tool I use with my YouTube channel that adds a ton of great features that the native Youtube platform doesn’t have. Features such as automatic Facebook video uploads, batch video editing, card templates, annotation templates, YouTube quick links, and so much more. If you are serious about growing your YouTube channel, this is a fantastic tool.
Here Is My Video Review Talking About TubeBuddy and How to Use It
AudioBlocks – $80.00
AudioBlocks is the tool I use for all of my Royalty Free background music, sound effects, and music loops. AudioBlocks is a great tool for Podcasters and anyone creating content online. For just $99 per year, you have full access to download as much audio as you need. The site is also updated each month with new audio.
Here Is My Video Review Talking About AudioBlocks and How to Use It
Screenflow 6 For Beginners Course
Screenflow 6 For Beginners – $140.00
I worked for 2-3 months on creating this course, and I am extremely pleased with how it turned out. I have learned so much about the course creation process, and cannot wait to share all of it with you guys. You can check out the course here.
Website Income:
Disclaimer: Google frowns upon people revealing what they make through Adsense and Youtube. I will list an estimate here that will be close to what I made this month. This is not an exact number 🙂
Adsense – $96.00
Sponsored Posts – $150.00 (This is the amount I was paid to write sponsored content on my blog, I recommend only doing this for products that fit your niche) The guys over at Money Ahoy have a great post on how to get Sponsored Posts Here.
YouTube Income:
YouTube – $2300.00 ( This is an estimated number as I am not allowed to share exact revenue numbers, but it will let you see the value in creating a YouTube channel and what it could become).
I have a rather large YouTube Channel called TechnologyGuru with over 120 thousand subscribers and 22 million video views. It has taken me a long time to grow this community, and the channel is a primary source of traffic for all of my other content. Video content is only going to get larger if you are building a community I highly recommend starting a YouTube channel.
Subscribe To My YouTube Channel Here
Subscribe To My YouTube Creators Hub Podcast on iTunes Here — On this show, I interview successful YouTube creators on their journey and get valuable content from them on the YouTube platform.
Podcast Sponsorships – $615.00
I have four podcasts in my Porter Media network, all of them based around content creation.
YouTube Creators Hub – Value for people wanting to start, grow and monetize video content.
Podcasters Unplugged – Value for people wanting to launch, grow, and monetize audio content.
Online Business Realm – Value for people wanting to start and grow an online business.
TubeBuddy Express – This show is an 8-10 minute podcast focused on one topic related to YouTube and video creation.
Teachers Pay Teachers – $72.00
Teachers Pay Teachers is an excellent site for educators to create digital and print items for other teachers to purchase and use in their classroom. My wife is an educator, and I saw so many PayPal payments to this site, I had to check it out. I have made a few items as I have some history in using Indesign and creating things for our church. I am still learning this platform and can see how with more work and items in my store I could make a decent passive income from this site.
Sign Up For Teachers Pay Teachers Here
Fiverr Earnings – $1900.00
Fiverr is a tool I have used from the beginning. I have used this site so many times I have lost count. I have purchased video intros, WordPress tech support, funny videos for my wife, logo design and so much more. I began selling on Fiverr around three years ago as I am a trained Voice Over Talent. I consistently make over $900 each month from Fiverr and only see this number increasing as I devote more time and work to the platform.
Freelance DJ/Host Work — $300.00
November 2016 Total Income – $7291.00
October 2016 Expenses:
- Podcast Hosting With Libsyn: $80.00
- Upwork Virtual Assistant: $200.00
- Website Hosting: $100.00
- Domain Names: $27.00
October 2016 Total Expenses – $425.00
October 2016 Total Net Income – $6,864.00
Goals For Next Month:
- Clean up my workflow and find a couple of task/productivity apps that work for me and stick with them!
- Finish the design and production process to continue to grow the Online Business Realm YouTube channel
- Start working on my full YouTube course
- Post 4 new posts on the OBR blog (This blog that you are reading now)
- Do the first ever YouTuber roundtable podcast episode on YouTube Creators Hub
In closing, the month of December just confirmed what I already knew. I love doing this job and I am really proud of what I have accomplished this year.
