Following on from the popularity of my first income report last month, I am pleased to bring you another income report. June 2013 was not a big month for this blog. I spent around a week or so working on the relaunch of Martial Arts Videos and in the last 10 days of the month I had lots of hosting problems.
I did eventually find a new hosting solution, however between the downtime I experienced and the time I spent looking at new hosting companies, I lost over a week. This was time I could have spent working on something more productive.
Disappointing Results from Second Free Run on Promotion
Hosting wasn’t the only disappointment in June. My free promotion of The Art of Freelance Blogging on Amazon in June was very disappointing. Around 850 copies were downloaded but the promotion generated zero reviews. More concerning was the ranking of the book. Since launching the book has been in the top 40 blogging books. After the free promotion, it dropped out of the top 100. Sales have been slower since then and I am only now getting close to the rankings I once had. Hopefully, this promotion will still have some value in the long term as the book will be shown in more “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” pages.
For those who are not familiar with Amazon’s KDP Select program, it breaks down like this. Their KDP Select program allows you to get 70% commissions in regions such as India. It also allows you to offer your book free for five days in order to generate reviews. The downside to this program is that you are not permitted to sell the book anywhere else during the time you are opted into their program. You need to opt in to the program three months at a time. They take this very very seriously. If they find your book being sold elsewhere, they will not pay you unpaid earnings. It is complete bull that they will not pay out monies owed to authors…though they are the dominant company in the book market. Their house, their rules.
This was the first time that I had renewed a book in the Amazon KDP Select program. In future, I do not believe I will renew again. What I will do instead is keep the book in the program for the first three months and then release the book elsewhere afterwards. Sales in other bookstores such as Apple’s Bookstore and Barnes and Nobles are generally much lower, but I will still make money. I will also reach people who have not heard of me previously.
Traffic Statistics
Traffic for June was around 500 visitors per day again. Considering I published less articles and my website was offline for long periods of time towards the end of the month, I am not too displeased about traffic staying at the same level. It does, however, remain something that I need to address long term as I want to increase readership here.
I am unsure what traffic is going to be in July. This month I will be hopefully returning to Scotland after another year in South America, so I will be spending a little time catching up with friends and family. Therefore, I suspect traffic will be at a similar level, but even an increase of 100 to 200 visitors per day would please me.
Last month my global Alexa rank was 87,360. It currently stands at 82,232.
Readership & Social Media
Readership is something that should increase every month. It is rare for a blog to see readership decrease over time as few people unsubscribe from a blog once they follow it, and those who do are easily replaced by new subscribers. Whilst traffic is obviously very important, I do want to develop a loyal readership that reads my blog regularly, even if they only read my articles through their feed reader.
The stats for last month’s income report were taken on 19 June 2013. The stats below were taken on 6 June 2013, therefore the growth below does not represent a full month.
- RSS = 1,623 Subscribers (+181 Subscribers)
- Email Newsletter = 1,826 Subscribers (+7 Subscribers)
- Facebook = 271 Followers (+30 Followers)
- Twitter = 2,012 Followers (+12 Followers)
- Google+ = 450 Followers (+19 Followers)
- YouTube= 25 Subscribers (+2 Subscribers)
* RSS stats are tracked by Simple Feed Stats.
As you can see, the growth of my readership is slow…but it is still growth so I am not disappointed. Particularly when you consider I have not actively updated Twitter, Google+ or YouTube in a while.
Income Details
Book sales were very disappointing. No sales were made during the free promotion of The Art of Freelance Blogging and afterwards sales were extremely low for the week afterwards. So my decision to offer the book free pretty much halved the income from the book for the month. I am positive that book revenue will be much higher next month as sales return to normal, so I think this was just a lesson I had to learn about Amazon KSP Select.
I made a little extra from freelance blogging but made less affiliate income. The drop in affiliate income is possibly due to less posts and the problems with my hosting.
My total income for KevinMuldoon.com for May 2013 was $1,878.70.
It was generated through:
- Freelance Blogging = $1,382.80 (+$218.70 )
- My Books – $231.75 (-$171.31). This includes digital and printed book sales.
- Affiliate Income = $264.15 (-$238.77)
* Difference in income from previous month show in brackets.
Overview
These income reports are more about looking forward than looking back. As I noted last month, my goal is to increase income generated through this blog. I do not want to make all my money from freelance writing. Therefore, in July I am not actively going to be writing for others. So expect my income to be much lower next month.
I have been looking at some different business opportunities online, however I am still very much in the research stage of that so I do not want to say any more about that just now. One thing I am working on is more books. I have several great book ideas. They are not just concepts, I have broken down each chapter and written the introduction for a few of the books already. My aim is to try and release two more books by the end of the month (fingers crossed!). Over time my book income should increase steadily, giving me a more stable income every month. This should also advertise this blog to more people.
In between writing books, I also hope to write some high quality guides to publish on KevinMuldoon.com. This change of direction will mean slightly less money in the short term but a lot more money in the long term. Whilst I do enjoy writing from others from time to time, I prefer the greater challenges and rewards that I set myself.
The main challenge for me just now is to get back into a good working routine. Relaunching Martial Arts Videos and suffering from so much downtime with my previous host took up most of June. This left me with a hundred little tasks to do every day. I always write better when I have zero distractions, but dealing with so many problems and emails every day has made that difficult. My plan is to now reduce as many distractions as possible and focus on writing. In theory, I should be able to complete a new book within a week if I do not work on anything else. Despite this, I do not see myself completing four books per month, though who knows: I may surprise myself.
I hope you have enjoyed this month’s income report. If you enjoyed this income report, I encourage you to check out the income report from my friends website WP Squared too.
Thanks,
Kevin
This post reminded me to leave a review for your book! I downloaded it a while ago and read it on my kindle but forgot to leave a review so it should go live soon.
I see I earned about the same as you from freelance writing in June but I’m guessing the amount of hours worked was very different! I’m still trying to get my rate up to a more acceptable level and then when it is, I can write a bit less for others and try and diversify.
I was ill this weekend and couldn’t work so lost some money in terms of earnings and now have a backlog. This has brought home the need to get some other more ‘passive’ income streams going.
I look forward to reading the new books.
Joe
Hi Joe,
I appreciate the review :)
There are a few things to consider when trying to increase rates:
The quality of your writing
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It’s hard to justify higher rates if your writing does not justify it. I know this from both sides. If someone writes for me and their articles are just so-so, I would not care if they said to me that if I didn’t increase their rates they would leave. I know that sounds harsh, but from a business point of view: it really comes down to how much the author is worth to the website owner.
It isn’t difficult to find average writers. However, if an author provides something that others cannot, they will surely be more responsive to the request of a pay rise because you are vital to their business.
The perceived quality of your writing
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Your profile can get you a lot of jobs. That is why an online resume of some kind is so important, whether it be a simple website that lists your details or a blog that is updated regularly.
Take me for example. I am sure that I am getting paid more than other freelance writers who can write just as well as me…or even better. Yet, my profile may help me get higher paid jobs.
Things that help my profile include:
* This blog.
* The fact I have developed other blogs in the past.
* The fact that i have written for many high-traffic blogs.
* My books.
I always make a point of mentioning these things when applying for a job e.g. I am the author of XYZ and have written for ABC etc.
Your number of clients
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As you know, one of the things I touch upon in my freelancing book is that freelancing is a volume game. The more job offers you have, the more room you have for negotiation.
For example, say you are writing for three blogs at the moment but you have worked out that you need to write for five blogs semi-regularly to make a good income. When you only have three jobs, you are not in as good as a position to turn down job offers that pay low. You may need to take a job that doesn’t pay as well in the meantime.
Now consider a situation in which you are writing for seven blogs and are looking to decrease your hours. You are now in a position to contact blog owners and explain that you are increasing your rates. If two or three blogs do not agree with this, you are still in a good position as you have four writing gigs that do pay well.
The topic you are writing on
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Articles that require more experience or knowledge of a subject generally pay better. That is why many tutorial type articles pay well….whilst articles about Britney Spears’s new boyfriend do not.
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I turn down the vast majority of job offers as they do not pay enough. I am lucky that I am in a position to do this. Whenever I accept a job, I always think of how it benefits me – e.g. payment, traffic back to this blog, raising my profile etc.
I also look at my alternative options. For example, say a blog owner wants me to write 5 high quality articles, something that would take me all week to write. In the short term, I would get good money for this….however, in the long term, it is not always the best option. For example, in that time I could write a 10,000 word eBook and sell it on Amazon. Even if it only generates $50 per month, that is still $1,200 over two years (there is obviously no guarantee of this).
Alternatively, I could use that time to build a mini-content website with 20 pages of content. The site may go on to make $3-$5 per day through Google Adsense. So by turning down a job offer of $1,000 for freelancing writing, I may end up making a website that makes over $1,000 a year.
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Passive income will definitely give you more options. I am looking to increase my income from Adsense and from my books. If you can build up a little income yourself, you will be able to be more selective about the jobs you take. Over time, this means that you will only be taking on jobs that pay well, so your effective hourly rate will increase.
Kevin
No need to apologise Jon. I have downloaded free books myself in the past and not left a review, so I cannot criticise people for it. Still, as an author, when you do a free promotion you are looking for a few new reviews so that it later convinces someone to buy the book etc.
Hope you enjoyed the book. I will hopefully release my new book by the end of the month so make sure you are subscribed as I will announce when it is free to subscribers :)
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Apologies – I was one of your 800 who downloaded the book. I finally got a chunk of time where I could write my first ever Amazon review, I hope it is ok. I really enjoyed the book and look forward to reading more of your posts here on your blog
-Jon
One or two new books per month? Do you write them that quickly? That’s impressive.
Yes I am talking about deevranorling.com. Web development, SEO and all the other jargon and ins and outs of the web and attracting traffic are all foreign to me. It’s a huge learning curve and quite a brain-drain for someone who isn’t technically minded.
Hey Kev, I really enjoyed reading your income report, thanks for sharing your numbers.
Cheers for the shout-out :-) We initially weren’t sure about doing it ourselves but glad we did because people seem to enjoy it (and link to it!)
Your monthly earnings from freelance blogging – while also running your own blog – will definitely inspire people.
Have you ever considered expanding your ‘art of freelance blogging’ book into some sort of coaching class and/or info product?
Yeah lots of readers seem very keen on seeing my numbers etc. Suppose it gives me a kick up the butt to plan more and increase my monthly income.
With regards to coaching or releasing an info product? I realise that lots of money can be made in info products…though I also feel that most are overpriced. Plus, when it comes to freelancing, I feel like I covered every major subject through my book.
Coaching is a different story. That’s something I may consider when I am back in Scotland and back to a normal working routine. There are few routes I could go down:
At the moment, I think it is better for me to develop this blog more and release more books. Once I have a readership, I can then look at devoting time to coaching.
What are you guys working on just now?
Kevin
Hi Deevra,
Congrats. I emailed you about it today :)
Diversifying income is what most top blogs and bloggers are trying to achieve. I am working on another book just now. Ideally, I’d love to release one or two new books every month and increase my monthly income from books. Plus it raises my profile.
With regards to getting traffic, are you referring to deevranorling.com?
Kevin
Thanks Sally.
I wasn’t impressed with my second promo run so I will probably only opt in once and then sell my books on other book stores. It’s definitely worth it the first time to get some reviews.
Is your non-fiction book about writing? Care to share the link. :)
Kevin
Thanks for sharing this, Kevin. I have mixed results from KDP Select days. My short story anthologies didn’t seem to benefit from it all but my first free promo on my non-fiction writing book sent it to number one in its category. It’s dropped back somewhat now but it will be interesting to see what happens if I do a second free promo on it a couple of months.
Hi Kevin
I just won a copy of your book from Sophie (Be a Freelance Blogger) and am looking forward to reading it. :)
I found your income post above quite interesting. At some point I need to look at diversifyiing income. At the moment I am still new to freelance writing and trying to focus on finding work and doing marketing. But definitely need to explore other avenues of income generation. My website does not receive much traffic at all right now and I don’t have the time to figure out how to bring more traffic to it yet, so monetizing it or doing Google Ads, etc is not something that will work for now.
I do find it interesting the earnings you are making from book sales though.
Thanks for sharing this info.
Good luck. I’m hoping to finish my next book within the next week or so too :)
What’s your book about?
Hi Kevin, thanks for sharing, particularly your experience with Kindle Select and your free book promotion. Planning on writing a book a week! That’s some work ethic:)