7 ms·

Gave up a day job. Now what? - Income report #2

83 points by kreci 16y ago

kreci 16y ago
As usual comments are very desired and more than welcome =)
- unwind 16y ago
  Does that goal of $1,000 cover your rent and other living expenses, or are you living off of previously saved money while trying out your new business?
  - kreci 16y ago
    Yes it does. I have described in one of my previous posts that it is what I earned monthly in my full time job. It is why it was a goal. Not sure where are you living but in Poland $1000 is enough for usual everyday living expenses...
steveplace 16y ago
I would focus 80% of your time towards the ebook. Your sales page could be optimized a little more (and there are typos). If you pull in more user testimonials and run some adwords, you could see this come in and be your primary source.
- kreci 16y ago
  Thanks Steve. I have been thinking about it. But it does not fit my long term business model. I am developer and want to make web and software development my main income source. And as I want to make it passive I am doing it by putting ads on free content or software (to make it long term income).
  - DuncanIdaho 16y ago
    Don't limit yourself like that. If you want to be web developer go get a job. If you want to be an entrepreneur then you better go where money is. Besides how do you expect web development to function as passive income source? Offering a service/application may be such an opportunity - but then you're an entrepreneur who uses code to leverage his business. BTW. Your project is mint - love every installment of it!
    - kreci 16y ago
      This ebook has been done "by accident". As a developer I want to make passive income from selling many copies of application or via ads on web pages/in software.
      - jteo 16y ago
        Accidents sometimes result in much profit. Don't limit your horizons.
        deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
      - dpapathanasiou 16y ago
        +1 to DuncanIdaho's comment. If you do go the ebook route (and if you keep blogging at your current pace, you should certainly have enough material), check out fifobooks.com (disclaimer: my startup runs that site).
    - jetsnoc 16y ago
      This comment is entirely out of context. I'm from Idaho as well and I thought I would say hello.
  - steveplace 16y ago
    You want to make web and software development? Fine. code up some a/b tests for the page, work on some ppc optimization, look for ways to capture email and advertise on there. It's not sexy. At all. But if it works, then you can focus on stuff you really want to do.
    - kreci 16y ago
      Thanks steve for valuable comments. I am doing it almost all the time. And meantime I am working on projects. Unfortunately I have only 24h per day and I still want to spend some time with my wife and my little kid (1 year old).
- vaksel 16y ago
  his price is way too low. All the "check out this ebook" sites I've seen, always charge $29 $37 $47. The reason for that is because most of these things get sold through affiliates, and with a high price you can offer someone $20-$30 per sale. So web publishers will promote them more, since with an ebook, they have to sell someone a $37 product to get $30. While with Amazon, they'd need to convince them to buy a $1,000 product to get there.
  - dmix 16y ago
    There is plenty of competition from other internet marketing ebook sellers competing on adwords. This drives up the cost per click. Unless you're targeting a few niche keywords then it is almost certain that the price will have to rise for adwords to be profitable (and as Vaksel mentioned to get affiliates). I just checked out the ebook and improving google pagerank is a common topic so there's likely some tough competition in SEM. My votes for a higher price or maybe find other marketing channels so you can keep it at $9.
edkennedy 16y ago
Congratulations on achieving your goal! A word about adsense and admob.. you could make a larger income from your app or website traffic by having your own offers instead of leaving it up to an outside source to decide. You could either direct them to your own real estate (ebook or other apps) or you could find an offer that you truly like, such as the hosting company you wrote about and direct traffic to there. Doing this should result in a higher return, and once established you can negotiate a higher payout as well.
- kreci 16y ago
  This is my very first attempt with mobile soft and it was my first bet (to use AdMob). But I am going to implement mediation layer to my soft so I would easily be able to "swap" ads and test what brings me best income.
  - againstyou 16y ago
    i'm sure that admob doesn't generate a great number, at least not for the iphone. do you have other ad service ? you can do a/b testing with ads, just put an 'if' in your code and check which service works better for you.
maxklein 16y ago
Well done. I think this goes to show that when you want to generate cash and your focus is on the money, it's better to do several small things instead of investing time on a single product that takes a long time to make cash. Your income is going to rise and rise, just remember not to get lazy. Keep yourself hungry, otherwise at some point you will stop growing.
- kreci 16y ago
  I promise to not become lazy =) At least until I will have a solid passive income... :D
- vaksel 16y ago
  i think the best option is medium sized projects. These have the potential to become big projects, and at least you won't rely 100% on SEO traffic.
  - kreci 16y ago
    That is exactly what I believe in. I am trying to do project that can be run in 2-3 weeks from start and if it got some attention then I work on it to make it bigger.
- louislouis 16y ago
  How do you keep yourself hungry? I've hit a point where life is very comfortable and I don't need to worry about the immediate finances or food or shelter. I've become lazy. I'm certainly not as motivated/hungry as when I was fresh out of uni and broke.
  - maxklein 16y ago
    Tie up your money in long term investments
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
    - 16y ago
fabiandesimone 16y ago
Congratulations on your increasing success. We all know how hard it is and you are putting yourself out there trying your best. Thanks for sharing!
- kreci 16y ago
  Thank you for your support!
jerguismi 16y ago
I think this is pretty impressive, he is clearly doing lot of work.
- kreci 16y ago
  I am trying all my best. Thanks!
carbocation 16y ago
I was critical of some of your prior posts, but this is pure gold. Your writing has improved, and this blog post has a lot of meat on the bones. Well done, thanks for sharing, and keep it up!
- kreci 16y ago
  Thanks for your support. I am really happy to hear such words - especially from someone who was critical before... :)
sireat 16y ago
What is interesting, how little income Amazon affiliate generated.
- kreci 16y ago
  I know that some people report a huge affiliate commissions with Amazon... but for me it is a really bad converting website. Mostly I send traffic from just a one website - computer hardware niche. Looks not to be a good choice but I do not know any better alternative...
sjf 16y ago
Does anyone else think this guy is making a mistake going for ad-based income. Looking at his income report, he is already making 50% of his income (and almost all his passive income) from stockphotos and ebooks. Comparing this to his current income from ads, it is obviously more profitable. I accept that he has more ad-based projects coming up, but in terms of effort, is producing ad-based software really going to be worth it? Another downside is that photos and books don't need the same level of ongoing maintenance as software. Perhaps someone here has some insight into how much money software with embedded ads can realistically make.
- kreci 16y ago
  I am still going to work on my photos and make as much income as possible with it. But I do not feel good with ebooks for a long term. If ads will not bring me a revenue I expect I will rather move only to photos. But I really believe in long term income with ads.
  - bemmu 16y ago
    Do you think the photo revenue will be stable in the long term? I don't really know much about the stock photo market, but if you spent a few years to get 10x the amount of photos there as you have now, could you be making $5000 / month off of just that?
    - kreci 16y ago
      It is long term income. I know personally a few guys that are making thousands of dollars from same amount of photos I have (but they are much more talented than I am).
  - ahoyhere 16y ago
    You're making a mistake: ebooks have a much higher value, overall, than photo licensing. You just need to learn more about it. And investing more time into monetizing with ads is a waste. I recommend two resources for you: Desperate Buyers Only and How to Launch the Out of Your Ebook. (For the record, I made $40k off my last ebook.)
tocomment 16y ago
I never knew you could make so much at istockphoto? Has anyone else tried that? Do you need to be an awesome photographer, do you have to be lucky? What sort of photos are best?
- hellweaver666 16y ago
  I make about $20 a month from two photos I uploaded about three years ago. One is a picture of a dolphin jumping out of the sea that I took while hanging off a boat on holiday and the other picture was a picture of my toilet roll and holder taken in my bathroom at home. I just convert it to credits and spend on iStock but yeah, the potential is there if you have good skills. I hear it's much harder to get photos approved now though.
- kreci 16y ago
  You just need to fill some profitable niche and you can make a way more. I know people that make 5 figures on istockphoto.
- ErrantX 16y ago
  > Do you need to be an awesome photographer, do you have to be lucky? No. You need a decent camera (as in a fairly expensive SLR model) and to know what people are looking for on Stock photo sites. kreci seems pretty good at it - he's got a huge portfolio containing lots of very similar photo's (which is what you usually get) covering all the themes that are popular on stock photo sites. If you want to do well his portfolio is good inspiration :) There are people earning a lot more than this.
count 16y ago
Do you see an 'HN' effect? I wonder how much of this was driven by your postings here? That is - how much of your stock photo and ebook sales are truly organic?
- kreci 16y ago
  From stock photo I got no more downloads even when my post is on top of HN. I got two referrals that made me $20 bucks (but I am unsure if it is from HN). About ebook I got just a few sales after posting here - most is from promotion on marketing forums where people are waiting for such products and really want to spend a few bucks to improve some of their marketing techniques (like increasing PR).
  - count 16y ago
    Cool! Thanks for being so open with the info.
rradu 16y ago
Am I the only one surprised that people still buy web marketing ebooks?
- bryanh 16y ago
  I have to admit I am surprised, and I'm even trying to compile a variant of a web marketing ebook. :-\
- patio11 16y ago
  The industry is built around fulfilling the aspirational goals of people to be Making Money Online, rather than actually improving their outcomes. Since you don't succeed merely from buying an ebook, you must have bought the wrong ebook, so you're always in the market for the right ebook next time.

83 points by kreci 16y ago

kreci 16y ago

As usual comments are very desired and more than welcome =)

unwind 16y ago
Does that goal of $1,000 cover your rent and other living expenses, or are you living off of previously saved money while trying out your new business?
- kreci 16y ago
  Yes it does. I have described in one of my previous posts that it is what I earned monthly in my full time job. It is why it was a goal. Not sure where are you living but in Poland $1000 is enough for usual everyday living expenses...

steveplace 16y ago

I would focus 80% of your time towards the ebook. Your sales page could be optimized a little more (and there are typos). If you pull in more user testimonials and run some adwords, you could see this come in and be your primary source.

kreci 16y ago
Thanks Steve. I have been thinking about it. But it does not fit my long term business model. I am developer and want to make web and software development my main income source. And as I want to make it passive I am doing it by putting ads on free content or software (to make it long term income).
- DuncanIdaho 16y ago
  Don't limit yourself like that. If you want to be web developer go get a job. If you want to be an entrepreneur then you better go where money is. Besides how do you expect web development to function as passive income source? Offering a service/application may be such an opportunity - but then you're an entrepreneur who uses code to leverage his business. BTW. Your project is mint - love every installment of it!
  - kreci 16y ago
    This ebook has been done "by accident". As a developer I want to make passive income from selling many copies of application or via ads on web pages/in software.
    - jteo 16y ago
      Accidents sometimes result in much profit. Don't limit your horizons.
      - deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
    - dpapathanasiou 16y ago
      +1 to DuncanIdaho's comment. If you do go the ebook route (and if you keep blogging at your current pace, you should certainly have enough material), check out fifobooks.com (disclaimer: my startup runs that site).
  - jetsnoc 16y ago
    This comment is entirely out of context. I'm from Idaho as well and I thought I would say hello.
- steveplace 16y ago
  You want to make web and software development? Fine. code up some a/b tests for the page, work on some ppc optimization, look for ways to capture email and advertise on there. It's not sexy. At all. But if it works, then you can focus on stuff you really want to do.
  - kreci 16y ago
    Thanks steve for valuable comments. I am doing it almost all the time. And meantime I am working on projects. Unfortunately I have only 24h per day and I still want to spend some time with my wife and my little kid (1 year old).
vaksel 16y ago
his price is way too low. All the "check out this ebook" sites I've seen, always charge $29 $37 $47. The reason for that is because most of these things get sold through affiliates, and with a high price you can offer someone $20-$30 per sale. So web publishers will promote them more, since with an ebook, they have to sell someone a $37 product to get $30. While with Amazon, they'd need to convince them to buy a $1,000 product to get there.
- dmix 16y ago
  There is plenty of competition from other internet marketing ebook sellers competing on adwords. This drives up the cost per click. Unless you're targeting a few niche keywords then it is almost certain that the price will have to rise for adwords to be profitable (and as Vaksel mentioned to get affiliates). I just checked out the ebook and improving google pagerank is a common topic so there's likely some tough competition in SEM. My votes for a higher price or maybe find other marketing channels so you can keep it at $9.

edkennedy 16y ago

Congratulations on achieving your goal! A word about adsense and admob.. you could make a larger income from your app or website traffic by having your own offers instead of leaving it up to an outside source to decide. You could either direct them to your own real estate (ebook or other apps) or you could find an offer that you truly like, such as the hosting company you wrote about and direct traffic to there. Doing this should result in a higher return, and once established you can negotiate a higher payout as well.

kreci 16y ago
This is my very first attempt with mobile soft and it was my first bet (to use AdMob). But I am going to implement mediation layer to my soft so I would easily be able to "swap" ads and test what brings me best income.
- againstyou 16y ago
  i'm sure that admob doesn't generate a great number, at least not for the iphone. do you have other ad service ? you can do a/b testing with ads, just put an 'if' in your code and check which service works better for you.

maxklein 16y ago

Well done. I think this goes to show that when you want to generate cash and your focus is on the money, it's better to do several small things instead of investing time on a single product that takes a long time to make cash. Your income is going to rise and rise, just remember not to get lazy. Keep yourself hungry, otherwise at some point you will stop growing.

kreci 16y ago
I promise to not become lazy =) At least until I will have a solid passive income... :D
vaksel 16y ago
i think the best option is medium sized projects. These have the potential to become big projects, and at least you won't rely 100% on SEO traffic.
- kreci 16y ago
  That is exactly what I believe in. I am trying to do project that can be run in 2-3 weeks from start and if it got some attention then I work on it to make it bigger.
louislouis 16y ago
How do you keep yourself hungry? I've hit a point where life is very comfortable and I don't need to worry about the immediate finances or food or shelter. I've become lazy. I'm certainly not as motivated/hungry as when I was fresh out of uni and broke.
- maxklein 16y ago
  Tie up your money in long term investments
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - 16y ago

fabiandesimone 16y ago

Congratulations on your increasing success. We all know how hard it is and you are putting yourself out there trying your best. Thanks for sharing!

kreci 16y ago
Thank you for your support!

jerguismi 16y ago

I think this is pretty impressive, he is clearly doing lot of work.

kreci 16y ago
I am trying all my best. Thanks!

carbocation 16y ago

I was critical of some of your prior posts, but this is pure gold. Your writing has improved, and this blog post has a lot of meat on the bones. Well done, thanks for sharing, and keep it up!

kreci 16y ago
Thanks for your support. I am really happy to hear such words - especially from someone who was critical before... :)

sireat 16y ago

What is interesting, how little income Amazon affiliate generated.

kreci 16y ago
I know that some people report a huge affiliate commissions with Amazon... but for me it is a really bad converting website. Mostly I send traffic from just a one website - computer hardware niche. Looks not to be a good choice but I do not know any better alternative...

sjf 16y ago

Does anyone else think this guy is making a mistake going for ad-based income. Looking at his income report, he is already making 50% of his income (and almost all his passive income) from stockphotos and ebooks. Comparing this to his current income from ads, it is obviously more profitable. I accept that he has more ad-based projects coming up, but in terms of effort, is producing ad-based software really going to be worth it? Another downside is that photos and books don't need the same level of ongoing maintenance as software. Perhaps someone here has some insight into how much money software with embedded ads can realistically make.

kreci 16y ago
I am still going to work on my photos and make as much income as possible with it. But I do not feel good with ebooks for a long term. If ads will not bring me a revenue I expect I will rather move only to photos. But I really believe in long term income with ads.
- bemmu 16y ago
  Do you think the photo revenue will be stable in the long term? I don't really know much about the stock photo market, but if you spent a few years to get 10x the amount of photos there as you have now, could you be making $5000 / month off of just that?
  - kreci 16y ago
    It is long term income. I know personally a few guys that are making thousands of dollars from same amount of photos I have (but they are much more talented than I am).
- ahoyhere 16y ago
  You're making a mistake: ebooks have a much higher value, overall, than photo licensing. You just need to learn more about it. And investing more time into monetizing with ads is a waste. I recommend two resources for you: Desperate Buyers Only and How to Launch the Out of Your Ebook. (For the record, I made $40k off my last ebook.)

tocomment 16y ago

I never knew you could make so much at istockphoto? Has anyone else tried that? Do you need to be an awesome photographer, do you have to be lucky? What sort of photos are best?

hellweaver666 16y ago
I make about $20 a month from two photos I uploaded about three years ago. One is a picture of a dolphin jumping out of the sea that I took while hanging off a boat on holiday and the other picture was a picture of my toilet roll and holder taken in my bathroom at home. I just convert it to credits and spend on iStock but yeah, the potential is there if you have good skills. I hear it's much harder to get photos approved now though.
kreci 16y ago
You just need to fill some profitable niche and you can make a way more. I know people that make 5 figures on istockphoto.
ErrantX 16y ago
> Do you need to be an awesome photographer, do you have to be lucky? No. You need a decent camera (as in a fairly expensive SLR model) and to know what people are looking for on Stock photo sites. kreci seems pretty good at it - he's got a huge portfolio containing lots of very similar photo's (which is what you usually get) covering all the themes that are popular on stock photo sites. If you want to do well his portfolio is good inspiration :) There are people earning a lot more than this.

count 16y ago

Do you see an 'HN' effect? I wonder how much of this was driven by your postings here? That is - how much of your stock photo and ebook sales are truly organic?

kreci 16y ago
From stock photo I got no more downloads even when my post is on top of HN. I got two referrals that made me $20 bucks (but I am unsure if it is from HN). About ebook I got just a few sales after posting here - most is from promotion on marketing forums where people are waiting for such products and really want to spend a few bucks to improve some of their marketing techniques (like increasing PR).
- count 16y ago
  Cool! Thanks for being so open with the info.

rradu 16y ago

Am I the only one surprised that people still buy web marketing ebooks?

bryanh 16y ago
I have to admit I am surprised, and I'm even trying to compile a variant of a web marketing ebook. :-\
patio11 16y ago
The industry is built around fulfilling the aspirational goals of people to be Making Money Online, rather than actually improving their outcomes. Since you don't succeed merely from buying an ebook, you must have bought the wrong ebook, so you're always in the market for the right ebook next time.