Performance Reports

Month #1 of the new decade is done…almost. There are still a few things left to do on the final day of January, but it was definitely a solid month.

I turned 22 and made progress towards a bunch of projects I’m working on. Let’s get right into it…

 

Reaching 4,000 YouTube Subscribers

Initially I was going to wait for my channel to reach 4,000 YouTube subscribers on its own, but now I feel compelled to make it happen by the end of January…

…which means I don’t have much time remaining to make it happen.

I’m wrote this Performance Report on January 29th. At the time of writing, my channel is at 3,968 subscribers.

I’m doing double time in Facebook Groups and interacting with people on social media to help make it happen.

If you got my email from a few days ago, I mentioned how I’ve been stuck at the 3,000 subscriber range for over two years. It’s one of the humps I’ve wanted to get over for a while, but I was on and off YouTube.

Now I’m serious.

Immediately after writing this Performance Report, I’ll be grinding more to grow the YouTube channel, so there will definitely be more than 3,968 subscribers if you visit the channel through this link.

I enjoy providing you with content on YouTube. Expect a lot from me on that platform in 2020.

 

Publishing A New Book Every 2 Weeks…

This is my most ambitious goal. So far, I’ve published Blog Monetization Simplified which takes about building up your blog and generating revenue from your content.

I have two books in the works. One at 5,000 words and the other at 9,000 words. I’m working on the 5,000 word draft first and then relooking at the 9,000 word draft for the other book. I stopped writing the 9,000 word book because I wanted to concentrate on getting YouTube Decoded finished before the New Media Summit.

This decision paid off massively as the book signing was a big success. However, I bring this up because even though I only published 1 book this month, I can easily have a month where I publish 3 books.

Since I focus more on getting consistent sales than having a successful book launch, it is okay for me to publish books at that frequency.

I’m not counting No Content Books for this goal, but I do see myself going in that direction with pen names in the future. No Content Books are just so easy to create and the right ones can take off.

I know some No Content Authors who have published 1,000s of books (journals, workbooks, etc…different from writing a 20,000 word draft and looking it over).

The only initial challenge with this concept is getting reviews. Right now I’ve been reaching out to people who have reviewed books on Amazon before and will continue that process. For my more successful books, the reviews come organically, so it’s just generating that initial momentum and then the continuous stream of sales will take care of the rest.

I primarily use Amazon Ads for scaling my reach, and if you want to get more book sales using Amazon Ads, I recommend taking a look at my YouTube channel where I frequently talk about self-publishing.

Yes, I am pushing the YouTube channel because I’ve got this last day left to hit 4,000 subscribers in January. I may have graduated college but “the night before” hasn’t left my system yet 🙂

 

Running Life

I’m finding a way to get into the NYC Marathon in 2020. My fastest half-marathon was 1:25:00 so just a tad off with the time, but I will find a way in through the lottery or charity.

I got sick leading up to my final half-marathon of the year which I did finish but not in a good time relative to my other performances.

With that said, I have my first half-marathon slated for February and my first marathon slated for March. I’m working my way back up to 80 miles each week before going to 100 miles each week so I hit my times in both of these events.

I know I can hit the times. It’s just the matter of continuing the grind and getting better each day.

 

In Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this month’s Performance Report. This was a good first month as a full-time entrepreneur and I am excited about what this year has to offer.

I already know that the big payoff is going to take place in the second half of the year. All of the results I’m working towards in my business will happen then.

Of course, the running goals will happen sooner than that 🙂

What are your thoughts on this Performance Report? What are you currently working on? Sound off in the comments below.

This is my last blog post of 2019…of the entire decade. I am extremely grateful and appreciative for all of the times you’ve taken the time to go through some of the work I’ve put out over the years.

Hearing from people about how my work has impacted them gets me through the challenging times…and I definitely had a few of those this decade (I’m sure we all have).

Yesterday I shared a video containing some of my goals for 2020. I’ll embed it below for anyone who is interested.

With that in mind, here is the Performance Report for December 2019.

 

I’m Done With School

The biggest reason I am excited to see what I can do in 2020 is because 2020 is the first year of me truly being a full-time entrepreneur.

Up until this point, I have been doing entrepreneurship, podcasting, book writing, coaching, virtual summit hosting, social media and everything else that I do part-time.

Now I can go all-out for the entire year rather than just in the summer.

It’s not like I was making excuses while in school, but now between the commute, homework, classes, and final exams no longer in my schedule, I have more time to do more things.

I enjoyed my time in school and got to learn a ton about finance, but I am excited to now see what I can do.

 

The Half-Marathon

To cap off my 2019 running schedule, I ran the Big Apple Half-Marathon in Central Park at a time of 1:37:57. I had just recovered from sickness and not able to get proper runs in two weeks leading up to the event. My fastest half-marathon time is 1:25:00.

But wow was that marathon scenic. I ran the half-marathon with fellow podcaster Debra Kasowski and we had a great time.

It’s been a great motivator now that my two week break is over and I’m back to focusing on qualifying for the Boston Marathon and other majors.

One of the ideas I’m throwing around for 2020 is to start a running channel on YouTube. Let me know if you’d be interested in hearing more about my running journey and get some fun videos in the process.

I’m not fully committed to the idea yet but I am getting somewhat close to that commitment point.

 

More Books On The Way

I enjoy writing books for you because they are a more affordable way to receive high quality information.

I haven’t charged $1,997 for a training course and only briefly charged $997 for one of them. I do promote affiliates who charge these types of prices for their courses if I believe what they’re all about, but I don’t like pricing my courses too high.

The low priced books create the possibility of one reader buying 10 of my books which has happened a few times.

With that in mind, I have more books on the way.

One of my 2020 goals is to write my 50th book which means doubling the current amount of books in my catalog.

My last final exam was on December 11th. In the 20 day stretch leading to 2020, I finished writing two books.

The first one, Build Your Authority Platform, has already been published on Amazon. As soon as I’m done writing this Performance Report, I’m submitting my dividend investing book so it’s submitted before 2020 hits.

My newer books are around 18,000 words which is around 100 pages. That’s all I go for in a book. Smaller books are easy to produce and are also easier for the reader to read in one sitting.

Since I write 1,000 words each day and bring that up to 2,000 or 3,000 words on some days, I can go from idea to published book in under two weeks.

Publishing books en masse gives me more books to run Amazon Ads for. Combine that with the experience I can provide in a book, and you can see why I’m focusing a lot of my attention on publishing more books in 2020.

 

YouTube Is My Key Social Network For 2020

I will still be active on the other social networks and grow on them. My Twitter audience is the largest and growing my Facebook Group to 2,000 members is one of my 2020 goals.

However, YouTube will be the social network I focus on the most in 2020. Now that I have more time, I can fully embrace YouTube without cutting back on podcasting, virtual summits, and the other stuff I am doing.

Since I’ve been on the school schedule for a while, I’ve had to learn how to be productive with less time. Now that I have more time, I can fully embrace more things.

The reason I am focusing more on YouTube is because a YouTube subscriber is worth far more than any other social media follower.

On Instagram, you’d be happy if a follower scrolled through their feed, happened to find your picture, like it, and leave a comment. Then that Instagram user keeps scrolling through their feed. Maybe they spend 10-20 seconds on your picture before moving on.

On YouTube, you can get someone’s attention for several minutes or even hours if you have enough videos that complement each other.

Getting someone’s attention for just 3 minutes gives you a lot of space in that person’s mind. Three minutes is enough to build a relationship and get someone to continue following your content…and that was the average view duration for my videos in 2019.

This is similar to why I started podcasting. Not only do I get people to spend more minutes consuming my content, but I’m also building relationships with the guests.

However, YouTube is different in the sense of the data it provides.

In fact, there’s so much data that it’s hard to figure out which data is important.

On YouTube, three pieces of data matter: the clickthrough rate, the minutes watched, and the retention rate.

If people click through your thumbnail and watch most of your videos, you are off to a great future on YouTube. Combine that with lengthening your videos, and people will spend more minutes on YouTube.

YouTube rewards creators who get their viewers to stay on YouTube over longer periods of time.

For 2020, I will be working on my retention rate and my clickthrough rate. The retention rate for most of my videos is around 35% which is average. I will be aiming to get this number as close to 40% as possible.

There are some variables that impact retention rate so I am not too concerned. However, if a video’s retention rate drops below 30%, I rewatch that video to figure out why so I don’t repeat the same mistakes.

Furthermore, half of YouTube’s channels and videos have clickthrough rates that vary between 2% to 10%.

The clickthrough rates vary for each video. Titles and thumbnails are the most important factors when optimizing for the clickthrough rate.

My goal for each video I publish in 2020 is to have at least a 5% clickthrough rate. This will involve me spending anywhere from 15-30 minutes working on each thumbnail to make sure it’s click worthy.

Below are two of my recent videos that have clickthrough rates hovering at around 8%.

Upon seeing the success of the dividend investing video’s clickthrough rate, I decided to create a similar thumbnail for my Math Behind Making $100,000/Yr From Self-Publishing Video.

That video’s clickthrough rate hovers at around 5% which is good, but not at the same level of the dividend investing video.

I created a thumbnail with that set-up one more time and got a clickthrough rate closer to 4% which is more average.

Fast forward to my video of How I Self-Published 25 Books Before Graduating College.

The title is good and the thumbnail was customized. I didn’t use any preexisting templates to create the thumbnail. I recorded a brief video of myself posing for that picture and took a screenshot of the video.

I put a lot of thought into that thumbnail and now it has an 8% clickthrough rate.

I’ll be creating custom thumbnails like this rather than exclusively using a thumbnail template and up the frequency to two videos each week and build from there.

Right now dividend investing, self-publishing, YouTube growth, and podcasting seem to be three topics that will frequently find their way on the channel.

I was pressed for time when creating the thumbnail for the 2020 Goals video and used a  thumbnail template for that video. So far the clickthrough rate isn’t that great but it can get a little better over time. I currently don’t expect it to have a higher clickthrough rate than the videos I’ve mentioned so far.

I even started new YouTube channels for each of my podcasts…and the running channel may come into play later in 2020.

 

In Conclusion

Thank you so much for all of the support this decade. This journey has been incredible and it’s about to get so much better.

Please let me know your thoughts about this Performance Report in the comments and your thoughts on the 2020 goals. I’d also love to hear what you’re doing.

October was filled with a few midterms, but I got through them. Luckily, my appearance at the National Publicity Summit was just after all of my midterms, so I was able to focus on the event and be dialed in without having to think of exams.

It’s amazing for me to think that November is my last full month of school. Sure, there’s the first week of December and finals, but November is my last full month and I am excited to see what I do in 2020.

Here are a few things that happened this month…

 

I’m Launching A 3rd Podcast

Following a tradition since the first New Media Summit, I am once again launching a new podcast called Ditch The Job.

On Ditch The Job, we will interview two guests each week to talk about how they ditched their jobs. Based on the guests and listeners I’ve had on Breakthrough Success, I know this would be a good spinoff based on what people in my community are interested in.

Ditch The Job is specifically for the people who hate their jobs and want to do their passion full-time or the people who may love their jobs but recognize they can be doing more for themselves and others by pursuing a different but still enjoyable path.

I think that if you love your job, are happy with your pay, have enough time to spend with your family and on yourself, and don’t feel burned out all of the time, you should keep that job.

Doing something just for the pay shouldn’t be your prime motivator. There are plenty of ways to make money without needing a job that we’ll explore on Ditch The Job.

I have never had a traditional job, but I understand working part-time as I’ve never had a full year of full-time entrepreneurship. 2020 is my first full year as a full-time entrepreneur.

 

Ocean Writing Retreat

Two fellow authors and I have put the finishing touches on our Ocean Writing Mastermind. We will be hosting the retreat at a Florida beachfront home at Jensen Beach just outside of Port St. Lucie. 

In that retreat, we will be teaching authors how to make 6-figures from their books. We will approach it from two directions:

#1: Selling enough books to hit $100,000/yr

#2: Setting up the backend offers so you can turn readers into clients of your products and services to make $100,000/yr

This retreat is going to be extraordinary, and there aren’t any retreats like this one. There are writing retreats where a few authors gather together and just write, but this retreat will teach you the business side.

And we’re right by a Florida beach at the end of January. If you’re a New Yorker like me who wants to escape the snow, this is probably one of the best ways to do it.

The timing of the retreat is also perfect for my running schedule as the nearby Florida Marathon takes place on February 2nd. I am very happy the scheduling worked as there are no winter marathons near my area that I know of.

As a side note, in my future travels, I will be looking for marathons in those respective areas, and I may start a vlog about my life as a runner as a fun project. I have a lot of fun just thinking about the project and know it has to happen someday.

 

Dividend Investing YouTube Videos

Dividend investing has been a big passion of mine for more than a year, and since it relates to business, I decided to create some videos around the topic for my YouTube channel.

You can expect the same marketing type videos, but I’ll throw in a dividend investing video each week as well.

Dividend investing also happens to be a high demand topic with a relatively low supply of videos. So far, I’ve seen more search engine traction for my dividend investing videos, but the best is yet to come.

 

In Conclusion

I’m really starting to think about school coming to an end. I am eager to finish strong in 2019 but am excited when I think about 2020. What are your thoughts on this performance report? Sound off in the comments below.

September was my first full month of school in over three months. Three months from now, I’ll be done with school. 

This is an important point for me. The more productive I am during these three months, the more I will accomplish during my first year of full-time entrepreneurship.

A few things happened this month that gave me a new perspective and will help set the stage for 2020. Given the full-time status, I fully expect 2020 to be my most successful year to date.

With that said, here’s what happened in September…

 

New Media Summit

Steve Olsher and the entire team do an incredible job with this event. It’s one of my favorite events I go to twice a year as an Icon of Influence.

For people new to the event, the New Media Summit is an event where attendees pitch themselves to 40 podcasters . During the event, those 40 podcasters get the moniker “Icon of Influence” hence me calling myself an Icon of Influence.

I booked a ton of guests for Breakthrough Success and a few for the Profitable Public Speaking Podcast. I launched the Profitable Public Speaking Podcast between New Media Summit events and may launch another podcast before the next New Media Summit. I also got booked on a few podcast and built new relationships.

Each New Media Summit puts me at a higher level because the people and atmosphere of that event make you dream bigger and believe in your abilities.

 

YouTube Decoded Book Signing—Drama First Then The Actual Signing

After several years of writing books and marketing them on Amazon, I finally had my first book signing. While many authors are quick to do book signings for their books, I never really rushed into that kind of marketing. 

This edition of the New Media Summit featured a book signing. Since I was almost halfway done with my book Profitable Public Speaking (based on the podcast), the timing was perfect…

…until my mom suggested I go in there with a YouTube book.

This idea made sense. New Media Summit attracts a ton of podcasters and people who are on the fence about starting their own podcasts. Many of the New Media Summit attendees eventually start their own podcasts since they appear on dozens of them after the New Media Summit.

From a business context, YouTube is often a forgotten platform. People know what is it but don’t use it for their businesses. 

While this was a great idea, there was one big problem…

I hadn’t written a single word for this book…and there was only a month left before New Media Summit kicked off.

That’s not even the entire story. I finished the book on time but had difficulty publishing the paperback version. I resorted to B&N only to realize it wouldn’t arrive on time even if I paid an extra $200 to ship the 100 copies that I needed for the New Media Summit.

I finally published the paperback on Amazon, but the author copies wouldn’t arrive in time. After some digging, I realized buying the books directly from the Amazon sales page would result in the books arriving on time because of Amazon Prime (it currently takes longer for author copies to arrive).

The only problem with this route is that each author copy costs $2.15 while each copy in the Amazon marketplace costs $9.99. 

We’re talking about an extra $784 which is nothing to laugh at. Luckily, I thought of a ninja trick to make the books cost less and still arrive on time.

As a self-published author, you have full control over your book. You control what the sales page looks like, the cover, the text inside of the book, the distribution, and yes, the pricing.

For YouTube Decoded, I barely promoted it leading up to the book launch. That was by design as I made the Kindle edition free for a few days to line up with the New Media Summit. This is a common strategy authors use to get reviews for their books and then tell their entire audiences about the book.

At this point, the Kindle and paperback editions are both published but have zero sales. Books at $9.99 can add up if you buy 100 copies. However, you can change the pricing of your book. 

Amazon will tell you what the minimum price of your book must be for you to break even. Each of my books is inexpensive to produce since I keep my newer books under 100 pages. I sweetened the savings by turning off expanded distribution to lower the minimum price. 

After everything was done, I purchased copies of my book at a rate of $3.58 per copy…with free 2 day shipping. I didn’t see the free shipping option from the order author copies part of KDP, but it was an option when buying it on Amazon sales page.

103 copies and $11.52 in royalties later, my books arrived on time for the book signing. If I didn’t use this ninja trick…or if I used it a day later, the books would not have arrived on time.

YouTube Decoded is now back to the $9.99 price point and doing well on Amazon. I’m starting up some Amazon Ads for it soon and am excited to see how it turns out. The book is off to a strong start and I may have figured out a new strategy that will add new sales to my books each day. I’m in the beginning phase of this strategy, so I want to make sure it works before I share it.

 

2 Important Points About The Book Signing

As I’ve shared before, the book signing was a massive success. I only walked away with a few copies. This is what I intended because some of those copies are now props in my videos.

But I had two conversations that changed how I view self-publishing and verified my strategy.

One person asked me for a copy of my book, and as I was signing it, she remarked how she was happy the book was so small so it could fit in her suitcase. 

For context, about 30 authors were a part of this book signing. Unless you are a minimalist who hauls Texas sized suitcases everywhere you go and only packs one pair of clothing, you’re not fitting 30 books in your suitcase…especially with most books being 200+ pages. 

Needless to say, I did not go home with 30 books in my suitcase. With that said, I probably got around 10 other authors’ books at the event, so you enough books to keep you busy for a few months or the entire year depending on how often you read.

And yes, I had to maneuver the space in my suitcase to fit those books because I packed like an anti-minimalist (never doing that again. I respect minimalists who do it right).

That was Important Point #1. People often forget that your book takes up space in the suitcase, backpack, or whatever it is your readers will put your book. Sometimes it doesn’t matter. Other times, it makes a big difference.

That leads me to Important Point #2. 

One of the attendees came up to me and said she loved my book and really wanted one, but said she opted against getting the paperback because it wouldn’t fit in her suitcase. 

Rather than argue that a book under 100 pages could make the cut, I told her to get the Kindle version which was free for a few days. She did just that and walked out of the New Media Summit with a digital copy of my book. 

If she decides to leave a review for that book, she will show up as a verified customer because she got her copy directly from Amazon (this will help with ranking higher on Amazon).

For new books, I’ll combine a free book signing with a free KDP Promotion. In my opinion, it’s okay for a new book that I’ve barely promoted and doesn’t have any sales coming in yet. I wouldn’t do this for one of my books that is performing well on Amazon and has profitable Amazon Ads running for it. Those are the books I will not make free again unless the profitability of those respective books dry up at a certain point.

 

Changing My Video Creation Pace

On YouTube, I’ve been releasing two new videos each week. For a few weeks, I am going to experiment with releasing only one video each week.

I have a few ideas on how to make my videos different from everyone else’s rather than just providing another talking head video where I cover a few talking points with some b-roll.

With that said, I’m all in for 5-7 LinkedIn videos each week. In my experience, you don’t need to do as much video editing to win on LinkedIn. I literally take out my iPhone and talk for 1-2 minutes. 

I could never do that with YouTube because their algorithm places a strong focus on watch time, retention rate, engagement, and clickthrough rate. 

Based on my experience, you can create a quick video on LinkedIn that gets engagement and do well. It’s harder to do well on YouTube if the watch time isn’t there which is why I create longer videos and spend more time editing the YouTube videos. 

I used to create daily LinkedIn videos, but then I went on a vacation and never got back on the saddle. If you aren’t connected with me on LinkedIn yet, make sure you do that if you want to see the videos.

 

TEDx Prep

The most exciting thing that happened to me this September — and perhaps this entire year — was securing my first TEDx Talk. I had been working towards this goal for years, but I finally landed the gig when I thought less about myself and more about the event I was applying for and what it was all about.

Too many people think of the TEDx Talk as their big moment with empowering and providing value to the attendees coming at a far second place. 

TEDxLincolnUniversity focuses on core themes that align with my brand and what I stand for. Many of the attendees will be college students, and I’ve always been about showing younger people that they can achieve success now instead of waiting until they get the degree. 

I’ve been told I’m too young to have a business and that I should step aside and just listen to the people with 20+ years of business experience. 

A TEDx is the ultimate goal for anyone who wants to speak professionally. But this TEDx means far more to me than just that…and that thinking right there combined with relationship building is how I got the gig. 

With that said, preparation for the TEDx Talk begins now. While it differs for each event organizer and speaker, I wouldn’t describe the prep work as intense. However, you’ll have to put in a few hours each week leading up to the event. You’ll have calls with event organizers, rehearse the talk, and sharpen it so you’re ready for the big day.

I recently interviewed a 5-time TEDx speaker for the Profitable Public Speaking Podcast, and he told me that he rehearsed his first TEDx Talk 30 times before giving it on the big day. 

I’ll keep you updated on the prep work so you have an idea of what goes into a TEDx Talk. It’s certainly not you getting the gig and then just showing up on the big day. 

 

In Conclusion

September was a great month, and I am eagerly awaiting 2020 when I’ll have my first year of full-time entrepreneurship. 

I refuse to use school as an excuse for not hitting any of the business related goals I have for 2019, and I am also going to enjoy my final semester. 

I recognize there are plenty of people I frequently see on campus who I’m not going to see or talk to for a while (if ever) when I graduate. 

I also recognize I have a semester left of finance classes that are sharpening my investing skills. 

With that said, I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions on the Performance Report in the comments below. So make sure you do that if you’ve got something to say 😉 

August was my last full month of summer break leading into my final semester of my collegiate career. After this semester, I’ll be able to go all-in on my business all of the time. School started for me a few days ago, but I’ve tapped into some productivity during school days that I haven’t been tapping into for a while.

Here’s what happened in August…

 

I’m Writing A Different Book Now

In the last Performance Report, I shared that my next book would be Profitable Public Speaking which is based on my second podcast. However, we are changing course for one simple reason.

The New Media Summit is coming up, and I’d rather bring a book to that event about YouTube. It makes more sense from a branding perspective and the event’s topic to have a YouTube book at the event instead of a public speaking book. Profitable Public Speaking is currently at 9,000 words while YouTube Decoded is at 10,000 words at the time of writing (August 29th in the morning).

The goal for YouTube Decoded is to finish it before September (a little more than 20,000 words) so I can look through it a second time, format it, and have it all ready before the New Media Summit. 

 

YouTube Growth Is Starting To Pick Up Momentum

After a strong June, my YouTube channel didn’t grow as much in July. That changed in August as I decided to double down on the channel. The channel has grown more this month than in any other month this year, and I’m almost at the point of gaining 10 subscribers each day.

Based on where I’m at, I need to gain a little more than 50 subscribers each day to be on pace for 100,000 YouTube subscribers in 5 years. Even though I’m not at that pace yet, the way social networks like YouTube work is that I’ll have a few months of 10-15 daily subscribers on average, and then my channel will take off and get 100s of daily subscribers. This is basically the same thing that happened with Twitter.

I am very excited to provide you with valuable videos over on the YouTube channel…and if you aren’t subscribed yet, it’s never too late to join us. You can subscribe to the channel here.

I honestly believe September is the month where we’ll hit 4,000 subscribers on the channel and I’ll then be able to give everyone that free course I’ve been talking about. We’re just 400 subscribers away from that goal.

 

Changing Up The Batching

With the school schedule back in effect, I have to change up how I batch my tasks together. Thursdays are the primary day for me to do interviews. I have one day of the month where I’ll create 3 training courses. 

I’m also going to create more videos during my commute back and forth to school. I didn’t do any videos during the commutes this week because I was getting back into the swing of things, but I can easily complete multiple videos each school day during the commutes instead of at home. 

I’ll still do videos at home, but doing videos during the commutes will save me a ton of time and result in less stress. 

 

Podcasting And YouTube Coaching

This is the prime area I’m looking to grow in. I already have a few coaching clients, but I want to expand. It’s extraordinary the amount of impact you can have as a coach on someone’s work, performance, and legacy.

I just wrapped up the YouTube coaching program with Anthony Ambriz and learned a ton from him that I’ve applied to my channel. Writing my book YouTube Decoded is a way for me to share what has already worked for me and reinforce some of the concepts I learned from the calls with Anthony.

If you are interested in jumping on a free strategy call to see how we can work together, let’s get that started here

 

In Conclusion

August was another solid month. I did have a two week vacation in there and did my first vlogs which was very exciting. 

I know we’re still in Q3 right now, but September always feels like the start of a new quarter for me just because of going back to school…one final time 😉

What are your thoughts on this Performance Report? Do you have any questions for me? Sound off in the comments. 

July was a month in the right direction. I created multiple training courses this month which are now part of the Advanced Influencer Mastermind and built up multiple streams of income.

 

The Wealthy Author Audiobook Is Coming Soon…

After publishing the book towards the end of March, it took me a while to follow-up with an audiobook. However, my work on the audiobook side is officially done. I submitted the audiobook to ACX and they will take it from there.

Making the decision to publish audiobooks has increased my book royalties by 10%. And that’s with 2 audiobooks compared to 23 Kindle books. I honestly may consider turning one or two of my top books into audiobooks but I’m not sure about that.

One thing I’m certain of is that I will turn all of my future books into audiobooks. I will start working on the audiobook edition of Breakthrough Success in mid-August. While I haven’t had a $100 month from audiobooks yet, I see myself making a few hundred each month as I add more audiobooks to be catalog and get more exposure for my existing audiobooks.

One thing to note is that a key factor for audiobook earnings is the length. The length of the audiobook determines what price Audible will sell your book at. For instance, the audiobook edition of Content Marketing Secrets (6h 59m) costs $19.95 while the audiobook edition of Podcast Domination (2h 15m) costs only $6.95. 

The Wealthy Author audiobook is slated at 2h 25m, so it’s likely to be priced at $6.95.

While I don’t like writing longer books, longer audiobooks do help you more because your book is sold at a higher price point. Since many Audible members have credits and use those credits to buy audiobooks, it won’t matter how much your audiobook is priced at. 

So far, 60% of my audiobooks sales have come from members’ credits. Interestingly enough, almost 80% of listeners who bought the Content Marketing Secrets audiobook did so with their credits while only 43% of listeners who bought the Podcast Domination audiobook did so with their credits.

That’s what happens when one audiobook sells for $19.95 and another audiobook sells for $6.95. However, I make more than double the royalties from a $19.95 audiobook sale than a $6.95 audiobook sale. Part of the problem is that I talk fast from a time standpoint, but overall I have no problem with my talking pace.

It just makes it harder to make the book longer (which is a good thing for the listener). 

 

Profitable Public Speaking Is My Next Book 🙂

After writing a book around Breakthrough Success, I decided I couldn’t leave out Profitable Public Speaking. Right now I am cruising through the book and have reached the 10,000 word mark. Since I write shorter books that rarely exceed 25,000 words anymore, the book should be done by the end of August. 

While I don’t want books to be my entire business model, they’re great for promoting everything else you’ve got going on. Oh, and I LOVE writing books and sharing them with my community.

 

More Training Courses 

This month, I created two new training courses, and that was with two weekend trips up to Boston. I am very happy with the training course production and might turn some of my future training courses into books. 

Repurposing content is one of my favorite things to do, and I’ve used books, training courses, and virtual summits as inspiration for one another. 

The training courses I publish will now go in the Advanced Influencer Mastermind. Some people suggested I change the name of the mastermind for selling reasons and I will consider it. I have a few ideas and am always eager to test new things.

Speaking of training courses…

 

The Content Marketing Plaza

This is the only course I don’t offer in the Advanced Influencer Mastermind, but AIMers do get a 50% coupon for this course.

I’m also bringing up this course for another reason…it made a few sales this month.

Understand that this is a course that I do virtually no promotion for. The two people who joined Content Marketing Plaza weren’t on my email list before. I’ve promoted the Plaza on some podcasts, virtual summits, and other places in the past. 

I’m honestly not sure how I got those sales, but it means I have to work harder on promoting the Plaza. 

I was of the mindset to do a big launch around the Plaza like you see a bunch of other people doing. However, I’m just as down for a big boost in monthly income which is what I got from the Plaza this month. 

 

Breakthrough Success Sponsorships Are Taking Off

Breakthrough Success has two sponsors committed for the rest of 2019 — SkillShare and Jobber.

We’ve also gotten some traction for the Fiverr gig which I’ll raise the price for in the future. The interesting thing about the Fiverr gig is that a bunch of people using that gig didn’t know who I was before that gig.

While I don’t see myself making a full-time income from Fiverr, it is certainly a great discovery tool. A few sponsored guests booked appearances to be on Breakthrough Success as well.

 

I Will Hire Another Coach Soon

My YouTube coach is amazing. Two lessons the experience has taught me is that I can only go so far on my own and having the knowledge isn’t enough.

Based on the coaching package I chose, there are only a few calls I have left with my YouTube coach. He’s been amazing and is someone who walks the talk.

The new area I’m looking to pursue is Pinterest, and I already have a coach in mind. I’m traveling in Cape May for two weeks soon, so I don’t want to hire this person right now.

However, the moment I get back, it’s game time.

 

In Conclusion

July had a few positive signs and put a higher emphasis on different income streams I overlooked in the past. 

What were your thoughts on this performance report? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.