A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions ~ Marcus Aurelius (tweet this)
2013 has been a great year for me so far. January and February netted me well over $13,000 — equivalent to $78,000 per annum.
Although it is truly wonderful to earn that kind of money and I consider myself very fortunate, I cannot help but strive for more. I don’t see this as being greedy — the money is actually something of a “side effect.” The key influencer is that I see more opportunity and potential than ever before in what I am doing. I am motivated by the idea of growing this blog’s audience, diversifying my income streams and ultimately making more money so that I can in turn show you how I did it.
Nonetheless, I can’t ignore the fact that earning more money in itself is greatly satisfying. In February’s income report I predicted that March could be a new record month for me in terms of earnings. Was I right?
What Happened in March?
I didn’t plan to start any new projects in March. I had a lot of work to do in terms of consolidating existing projects and I was also on vacation in Colorado for the last ten days of the month. With that in mind you would be forgiven for thinking that it was a pretty uneventful month in terms of my business.
However, it was not without its moments. I was pretty packed out with freelance work and had to ensure that I got ahead with my regular work at the same time, which made things pretty interesting. Being able to competently manage such situations is vitally important in terms of determining your worth as a freelance writer. In my opinion, clients hire you as much for your reliability and your consistency as they do your writing ability. Fortunately I was able to deliver on my promises and kept everyone happy (which also enabled me to relax fully on my vacation).
Speaking of my vacation, it couldn’t have come at a better time. Not only did I need some R&R, my time away was a huge period of inspiration for me in terms of ideas for my business. I have come back with a whole bunch of potential projects to work on and can’t wait to get started.
But that’s enough about the future — how did I get on in terms of earnings in March?
Monthly Income Report — March 2013
- Freelance writing:
- Income: $5,399.74
- Expenditure: $19.95
- Profit: $5,379.79 ($100+ per hour equivalent)
- Websites:
- Income: $11.17
- Expenditure: $0
- Profit: $11.17
- Affiliate Marketing (Leaving Work Behind):
- Income: $886.75
- Market Samurai: $93.12
- Start a Blog That Matters: $199.18
- Amazon: $26.55
- Freelance Writer’s Den: $48.50
- TweetAdder: $218.80
- Westhost: $300
- AWeber: $0.60
- Expenditure: $169.19
- Profit: $717.56
- Income: $886.75
- Information Products:
- Income: $1,392.50
- Expenditure: $80.05
- Profit: $1,312.45
- eBooks:
- Income: $101.44
- Expenditure: $50
- Profit: $51.44
Total profit for March 2013: $7,472.42
A quick glance at my income reports summary page will tell you that this is a new record, beating my previous best in January 2013 by $619! It’s also the first time I’ve broken the $7,000 mark.
Speaking of new records, my freelance earnings of $5,400 is also a new high. This was down to a fair amount of one-off work in addition to some quarterly charges for website maintenance arrangements that I have with a couple of clients. Those quarterly charges have warped my hourly rate calculations somewhat, which came out at $150. Therefore, for this month I have simply approximated my equivalent hourly rate as $100+.
My gross affiliate income was broadly comparable to last month’s earnings, which I’m really happy to see. Affiliate marketing is something I am working hard on at the moment and I’m looking forward to sharing my strategy with you soon (when I’m confident that it is fully effective).
My information product continues to sell pretty well as I continue to tweak and test — I hope that with increased traffic and further optimization these earnings will continue to climb.
Finally we have the rather paltry eBook earnings. It is fair to say that my endeavours on this front haven’t generated spectacular results (which led me to alter my strategy in March), but I’m not quite done yet. I plan to release the final two books in my freelance writing series this month then optimize all five books as best I can. At that point I’ll judge just how worthwhile my Kindle publishing experiment has been.
The Issue of Overspending
Up until the end of 2012, I’d never really been in a position where I’d earned much more than my outgoings on a consistent basis. That is now changing — with my regular outgoings hovering around the $4,000 mark, each month in 2013 so far should have seen me with a nice wad of cash left in my pocket. However, that has not been the case as of yet.
It started off with some unfortunate but necessary expenses such as a new washing machine and dishwasher to replace faulty old appliances. Then it was planned expenses, such as the work to refurbish my spare bedroom into a home office (I’ll have all the photos up on my Facebook page when it’s finished!). Then my house was burgled, which of course has an associated cost regardless of how good your insurance policy is.
But beyond that, I have definitely been guilty of spending more than I typiclly would. I think it’s largely unavoidable when you start earning a bit more — that freedom to spend when you’ve always had a mindset of being relatively careful with your money is an intoxicating feeling. While I’m not spending beyond my means, simply increasing my outgoings in line with my income is not going to get me anywhere. If I want to make the big changes in my life (such as buying a new house and providing for a family in the future) I need to be more responsible with my increasing income.
My Financial Target
With the above in mind, I took the opportunity while waiting for my plane home at Newark Liberty Airport to write down a rough idea of what I want to earn (and save) in order to reach my “material goals.” Here’s what I came up with.
What I Want in Two Years
- A new house ($150,000 deposit plus ~$1,000 extra per month for the mortgage)
- A new car ($15,000 deposit plus ~$100 extra per month for the finance charges)
- One awesome holiday per year ($7,500)
- Luxuries and miscellaneous ($1,500 extra per month)
What I Need (to Get What I Want)
Capital required:
$150,000 + $15,000 = $165,000
Monthly income required:
$4,000 (existing outgoings) + $3,225 (extras as per above) + $6,875 (capital) = $14,000
In other words, I need to approximately double my existing income within two years in order to achieve my financial target (which is in turn led by my material goals). Which means I’ve got a lot of work to do.
However, I must add a caveat to all of the above. As I said in a recent update on my Facebook page, it is key to find “less material things” than money to work towards in order to feel truly fulfilled. At this point I feel that I can work towards earning more money and helping other people at the same time, which is truly awesome. I’m not going to be distraught if I don’t reach the above financial target — for one thing, I am 100% sure it will change within the next six months, let alone the next two years.
As long as I feel that I have good forward momentum I am likely to be happy. I’ll keep reaching for the stars and we’ll just have to wait and see how far I get.
What’s in Store for April?
April is yet another month of consolidation, but hopefully my last one. I will be wrapping up the bulk of my Kindle eBook project and hope to be doing a great deal of work on my authority site to establish whether or not it has legs as a “mainstream” project in the long run. I will also be starting on one major new project — something that is going to be very big indeed for Leaving Work Behind. More on that soon.
I doubt very much that April will see a record month of earnings as I will be doing less freelance work and I do not expect any other stream of income to increase dramatically. My hope will be that I can maintain my affiliate and information product earnings and hopefully increase my eBook earnings, but only time will tell.
What I’m really excited about is my new home office, which should be completed by the end of April. I am hoping that a uncluttered room completely dedicated to work will enable me to be far more productive than I have been recently. Increased productivity is something that I am in dire need of and I am hoping that my new working environment will give me the jump start that I need.
Wow – congrats from Germany!
I read your books in my easter holidays and now I will go through them again to make some notes to implement the things I learned from you in my blog.
Thanks a lot, you really helped me improve my blogging 😉
Best regards
Heike
It’s my pleasure Heike, thanks for your support!
Hi Tom,
You’re doing amazingly well as I remember when you were first starting out. I’m in a predicament where I’m looking to leave my 9-5 job but need to up my income before I can make the jump. So I’m planning now how to go about it and it’s great to use you as a bit of inspiration to what hard work can get you.
Good luck with the house and the car 🙂
Adem
Thanks Adem — it’s good to hear from you!
Adem, before you jump, talk to your HR department and see if you can negotiate a severance package.
Also, $1 earned online is different from $1 earned from one’s job due to taxes and benefits. It’s more like one needs to earn $1.5 going solo to equate to a $1 job e.g. earn $90,000 online to make it equivalent to a $60,000 a year paying job.
Google “Quit Your Job And Die Alone” for more info.
Good luck!
I know we’ve had this discussion before but with the tax laws the way they are in the UK (where Adem and I live) the opposite often applies. I earn far more now, pound for pound, than I did before. It pays to be self-employed.
Plenty of good improvement, Tom! It’s nice to see that you plan out accordingly what you need before jumping into to getting what you want. I can’t wait to see your new projects. Will you post pictures of your newly remodeled office?
Absolutely, they’ll be all over my Facebook page and I’ll probably post them up on the blog at some point.
Congratulations Tom! I’m surprised you report in dollars though :-). Not surprised that your freelance writing business is your greatest source of income. And personally, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with setting money goals. I agree that money doesn’t bring happiness or personal satisfaction – but it is a means to measure, and money can bring other things that add to your sense of happiness and personal satisfaction (security, access to free time and resources, feelings of accomplishment, etc.). Bravo!
American dollars are the currency of the internet 😉 and to be honest the bulk of my income is paid out in dollars. Thanks Ruth!
great month again tom! Keep it up! those are some healthy numbers you are after in two years but you can accomplish anything you put your mind to.
Thank you Miki!
Nice work Tom, I’m new to your blog, and I appreciate your transparency and sharing with us your financial ups and downs as you re-invest to grow, nice to be flipping a profit into ’13! I have a lot more to read here to get caught up.
Money doesn’t buy happiness, happiness spends money 😉
Matt
Nice quote Matt! Thanks 🙂
Hi Tom,
Congratulations on your new achievements! Hitting the 7’000$ mark is no small feat!
I am most impressed by your hourly rate for your freelancing work, this should definitely add some credibility to your paid guide.
Keep up the good work!
Al
Thank you Al!
Thanks Tom..your income report really inspires me to grow further with my new personal blog..I am no good at writing in English and I hope you can give me some advice how someone like me can write good content like yours..
Since you are an excellent writer could u please give me your opinion bout my writing style at my new blog…and where should i improve further…
Best regards, 🙂
Zul
Hey Zul,
That’s a really big question…My main piece of advice would be to make sure that you have the fundamentals of written English absolutely nailed. That is far more important than having an extensive vocabulary or anything else along those lines 🙂
Cheers,
Tom
Smart move investing in your work space.
Hey Tom don’t forget, you are the source of cash now what ever you do don’t sign a mortgage man these dudes are crooks.
Save and pay cash that way you don’t have to work IF U NO WANT TO.
Too late I’m afraid Darnell — I’ve had a mortgage for nearly six years 😉
Hello Tom,
Congrats on the record month.
I’m happy to see that your affiliate marketing efforts have paid off. I am slowly working on that as well.
At this point, it is still content that needs to be produced, but isn’t that always the case.
Looks forward to what you have in store for April.
Iain
Thanks Iain!
Hi Tom,
congrats on your new record!
You mentioned “information product” brought you well over $1000 income. Could you share a link to those information products?
Always interested in your new stories.
Thanks,
Susan
Hey Susan,
Here you go: http://www.leavingworkbehind.com/freelance-writing-online/.
And some links to how it came to be: http://www.leavingworkbehind.com/tag/information-products/.
Cheers,
Tom
Nice work!
Thanks Tawnya!
Thanks for sharing! Absolutely is great performance. I don’t when could did the same as you. I have congratulation with perfect job
Thanks Kimsea 🙂
Hello and thanks for sharing this information.
I just wanted to drop you a quick note to say thank you for all the inspiration that you have provided me in this journey that I am on (to leave my job). I am still working my J-O-B right now, and I am spending many of my free hours to build my own website and it’s following. Consequently I don’t usually have the time to comment on your posts or emails, but I wanted to remind you that I am receiving them and they are very helpful to me.
Quite frequently, I actually receive your emails via my smartphone, while I am at work, and it is always very refreshing to see and read them. You have a very upbeat spirit, and that is always appreciated very much.
Keep up the good work Tom, and I wish you the very best success in the world. Thanks again for being an inspiration to me.
Regards,
Matt Vaden
Hey Matt,
Thanks for stopping by and commenting and thank you for your support!
Tom
Fantastic month Tom! Can I ask – is most of your freelance writing work just that or do you do technical website stuff for these clients too?
Looking forward to hearing more about your affiliate marketing plans.
Thanks for being so honest, as usual 🙂
Hey Kirsty,
The vast majority of my freelance writing work is just that. I also do some content marketing work (i.e. social media and email outreach). None of what I do is what I would call “technical” — more a case of keeping plugins up to date, managing backups, etc. Nothing that I don’t do for my own blog.
Cheers,
Tom
Hey Tom,
As a part-time freelance writer trying to break out of low-paying markets, you continue to be an inspiration. Since you inspire me so much, it’s only fair that I pay it back.
I just finished reading Your Money or Your Life and it’s already helped me pay down some debt. I think that there are a lot of good tips you can use to help cut down on unnecessary spending and save up for your house.
Thank you for all the inspiring posts.
Sarah Linn
Thanks Sarah, I’ll check it out! Good title for a book 🙂
Hi Tom,
Well done passing the $7K mark! You´re a true inspiration for us still locked in the fixed income, 9 to 5 slug…UGH! But I´m working at breaking out, and reading your content is truly a beacon of light…keep it up!
Kind regards,
Erik:)
Thanks Erik — best of luck to you! Let me know if there is anything I can to do help 🙂
Good job Tom! You have some great goals to work toward too.
Thanks Julie!
Well done bro!
Thanks Oluwaseun!
Hmmm…where do you plan on spending this $7500 for just one vacation? LOL, this is great, Tom. As always, thanks for sharing this.
I prefer to be highly conservative 😉 So that was to pay for two people on an absolute blowout holiday once per year!
Great work Tom! You are certainly inspiring!
Thanks Denny!
Great to see you’ve had a record month Tom. I think I get almost as excited as you when you have a great month! It’s fun to see someone progress from zero to great heights. I’m enjoying following along. $7500 is a perfect amount for a beach holiday with pretty drinks and umbrellas don’t you think? Lol
That’s the plan 😉
Great work again!
I made £900 / $1300 from freelance writing in March thanks in (a big) part to this site and your information product so thanks for that!
I like your goals. Is that $150,000 deposit goal the amount you would like to have saved in two years? What would be the total price of the house if you don’t mind me asking and would it be in the UK? I’d like to afford a house one day too.
I’m looking forward to seeing the picture of your home office too.
Good luck for April!
Joe
Hi Joe,
That’s fantastic news — congratulations!
Yep — the deposit is for two years time. The house price I have in mind is £500,000 (or $750,000).
Cheers,
Tom
Thanks Tom. I still need to do my website and find some regular writing jobs but so far so good. £500,000 sounds like a sweet gaff. Good luck with it all. Joe
Cheers Joe!
Hello Tom
Seem that information product (e-book) perform better on its own website than on Amazon, right?
Because I am having my new e-book kind of “How-To become translator” release in a couple month ahead and I am deciding whether I should sell on Amazon or Click Bank. As I follow you income report, it shows that information product in specific niche seem does not do well on Amazon and if this is the case, I probably leave the plan for Amazon and go for Click Bank. Please feel free to advise me. Thanks again Tom!
Hi Paul,
That’s a difficult question to answer. The information product has been successful because I spent 18 months building up a loyal and relevant audience here on LWB. Without you guys it never would have been worth the effort. Amazon on the other hand gives you a pre-built audience to tap into. It really depends upon your personal situation.
Cheers,
Tom
Good points, I have not thought about that. Website and Amazon is different way to market, thanks Tom!
My pleasure Paul 🙂
Good stuff Sir.
I’ve been reading through tonight.
It looks like your hard work is paying off.
Your payment for freelancing is increasing dramatically — it looks like you’re making a name for yourself.
Congrats!
Thanks! 🙂
Hey Tom,
Came across this via Matthew Woodwards’ SEO blog. I always love reading income reports as they keep me incredibly motivated to achieve similar results.
It’s quite discouraging having no income from my site and I’m wondering if I should look at doing some freelance writing on the side. Is there any tips you have for someone venturing into the area? If you don’t mind, of course.
Again, thanks for the article – I love the topic of your blog and have subscribed. Looking forward to reading your content!
Cheers 🙂
Hi Sam,
There’s loads of tips on the site already — just click on the Archives link in the nav bar or use the search function in the sidebar. If you have any questions then just let me know!
Cheers,
Tom
Embarassing, haha. I noticed almost as soon as I’d posted this comment.
Cheers Tom!
No problem 🙂
Exceptional work mate! I’m sure you’ll meet your targets once you break $10,000 a month it get’s easier. Oh and if you want a good holiday definitely head to Thailand!
It’s on the list Chris — thanks! 🙂
Tom
I am at the point where I am ready to leave work behind. Chipping away at it each week!
Stopped by after reading Income report from Matthew Woodward!
Still work for large corporation in management capacity. Hoping the day will come somewhere I don’t have to work 55 – 60 hours a week for someone else.
Looked at your monthly report which is a great accomplishment!
What did you write that would produce and income of almost $5400? Please share a link to an article you wrote.
Affiliate programs and Information products brought in some nice income.
I am currently looking add affiliate programs to my site. If you have any recommendations, I would love to review.
Well done.
Respectfully,
Steve Schellert
805-768-4393 Cell
I had the same question but also the same concern. If Tom stopped writing 60% of his income would vanish.
Hi Chris,
I’ve got two thoughts in response to that:
1. If I stop writing I’ll still retain 40% of my income — awesome!! Sounds quite tempting 😉
2. If anyone stops working then they’ll likely lose the majority of their income (with a few exceptions), so this comes as no surprise to me.
Cheers,
Tom
Amen!
A. That glass is half full
B. Same as others.
It’s all perspective.
The wrong perspective can stop you dead in your tracks from taking action (ask me how I know!)
If I died tomorrow I’d still be making $15,000+ a month approx 70% of my current income. I guess it’s more about building a retirement plan in my mind at some point you’re not going to be “write” anymore and then what would you have left?
I follow about 5 blogs yours is one mostly cause I think your a nice guy and because of that I’m just worried about ya. maybe it’s just time to quit the working for others and build something lasting for yourself.
I still think you’ve done an awesome job though bro keep it up!
Anyway mate won’t bother your blog with my rants anymore i’ll keep watching from afar.
I hope you do keep bothering me Chris 🙂 because I love to read fresh and intelligent perspectives like yours.
I know I’m being deliberately facetious here but if you died tomorrow you wouldn’t be earning anything 😉 but I get your point. And I don’t know about your particular business model but I doubt that income would sustain itself over the long term unless you found someone well-qualified to oversee it.
We’re on the same wavelength here, I just don’t think you’ve realized! If you check out my income reports summary (link in the nav bar) you’ll see that my “passive” income has been growing steadily over the past few months. That side of the business is very much on my mind and I’m working hard to build that income!
At the end of the day I’ve only been doing this full time for 16 months and I think I’ve one pretty well so far. Just gotta keep putting one foot in front of the other…
Hope to hear from you again.
Cheers,
Tom
Hi Steve,
I write for ManageWP.com and MyWifeQuitHerJob.com amongst other clients.
As for affiliate programs, I would always say go with what you use and love.
Cheers,
Tom
For 16 months in, it is awesome earnings.
Now that he is pretty stable in terms of regular money coming in from writing, he can start using that money or knowledge or skills to move towards more passive income sources.
Sounds like a great start to me.
Congratulations on your success. I’ve just started my journey and am documenting it in a blog like you. Look forward to hearing about your first 14k month.
Thanks Adrian!