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Leaving Work Behind

Quit your job and build your best life

My Monthly Income Report — October 2013

By Tom Ewer 56 Comments

A magnifying glass over $20 notes.I made some bold claims in my last income report. The kind of claims that can come back to bite you on the ass.

I know this as much as anyone. I’ve certainly been the “victim” of expecting too much of myself in the past (although the word “victim” is a misnomer, as the fault has usually been mine).

I knew that as I wrote down those bold claims, but I also knew that I needed a kick up the ass in October. And publicly-stated claims usually provide me with the extra dose of motivation that I so desperately needed after having spent the summer months working (and achieving) very little.

So with the month now over, one overriding question remains: did I follow up on my promise to move forwards with my projects with great speed and gusto? Read on to find out!

What Happened in October?

I started the month with the expectation that it would be one of wrapping things up: namely my much-delayed LWB re-launch and the launch of a brand new online freelance blogging course based upon my existing freelance writing guide.

With my writing business going so smoothly and requiring no more than an hour of my time on average per day, I certainly had the time to get a lot done. And upon reflection, I think I did pretty well.

I certainly wasn’t putting my nose to the grindstone and working all hours of the day and night, but then I don’t want to put myself in that position. What I do want to do is help more people and create greater and more diverse income streams. I have to work in order to do that (a concept I seemed to be lacking an understanding of through the summer).

Most notably, you guys finally saw the re-launch of Leaving Work Behind on 4th November – the result of hard work throughout October. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so far and I am very happy with how things have gone. Although the re-launch hasn’t resulted an enormous spike in traffic and a huge influx of new subscribers (more of a hump), it has (I think) finally set a solid foundation in place upon which I can build something far greater than what already exists.

I’m especially happy with how quickly the community forums have sprung to life so far. If you haven’t registered yet then do so now and get involved!

People have already got lots to say on the Leaving Work Behind Community Forums!
People have already got lots to say on the Leaving Work Behind Community Forums!

Meanwhile, I didn’t launch my new freelance blogging course course (which will be called Paid to Blog), but I’m not worried about that – I didn’t want the two events to be too close anyway. Now that the smoke has cleared from the launch, I’ll be ready to move ahead with Paid to Blog soon.

With all that said, how did the month go in terms of the numbers?

Monthly Income Report – October 2013

  1. Freelance writing:
    • Income: $7,698.35
    • Expenditure: $2,037.15
    • Profit: $5,661.20
  2. Websites:
    • Income: $2.04
    • Expenditure: $0
    • Profit: $2.04
  3. Affiliate Marketing (Leaving Work Behind):
  4. Information Products:
    • Income: $1,043
    • Expenditure: $58.90
    • Profit: $984.10
  5. eBooks:
    • Income: $42.11
    • Expenditure: $0
    • Profit: $42.11

Total profit for October 2013: $7,556.86

After the huge nosedive that was September’s income report, I’m really delighted to see that things have bounced back so strongly.

But what is interesting is where the money has come from. It’s not that my affiliate or product sales have increased – they are as relatively steady as ever. No – it’s a big increase in my writing earnings that have been the cause October’s healthy uplift. In fact, my gross writing earnings in October were the highest ever.

You may be wondering how this came about. After all, over the past few months I have switched from a pure freelancing role to subcontracting work to writers and acting in an editorial role – making sure that the pieces they produce are suitable for clients and making changes where necessary. So how did I make over $7,500 gross in one month?

The answer is simple really: I secured a number of new clients in October. I can’t tell you why – it’s not like I went out in search of them – but I worked with five new clients in the month.

That’s the beauty of getting referrals through bylines and your blog: you don’t have to be actively in search of new clients for them to materialize. It only strengthens my firm belief that any freelance blogger who wants to elevate themselves must work hard on creating a quality blog.

Looking Forward (and Upward)

While the increased writing income is fantastic, it may well never be higher (I know I’ve said that before, but still…).

Ultimately, I do not want the writing to represent the core of my business. That is why I have poured so much time, energy and money into the re-launch of LWB. Without wanting to sound arrogant (which may be difficult in this case!), I look around me and I think I can help people far more than some other bloggers out there who are far better known than me. Clearly they’re marketing themselves better than I am, but in spite of that, I think what I have to offer is just as (if not more) valuable.

I have resolved myself to the fact that I can’t succeed only by trying to help people. I have to get to those people too, which means actively seeking to increase the reach of Leaving Work Behind (and Healthy Enough). I need to work as much on marketing my content as I do producing it, if not more. Otherwise, my blogs will never fulfill their potential. I’ll be working on that in the coming weeks.

What’s in Store for November?

Although there are now less than two months left in the year, I still have three big projects that I want to complete before 2014 rolls around:

  1. Launching Paid to Blog
  2. Launching my Leaving Work Behind book
  3. “Hard launching” Healthy Enough

I hope to launch Paid to Blog this month and make good progress on my other two goals. I hope that doing so will set December up nicely, enable me to see off 2013 in style and give me a great platform to build upon in 2014.

I feel like the whole year has been building up to these final two months and I can’t wait to see how it all turns out!

Photo Credit: Images of Money

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Vukasin says

    Hey Tom

    I really love reports and I’ve been following lot of them recently. The reason why I do that is so I can compare those to my results. I can see where I made a mistake, I can see a good opportunity….

    I just see plenty of positive things in one simple report.

    What I would like to see from your report would be your traffic stats. I noticed that many bloggers do share this and I would definitely would like to see some of yours.

    Also, I saw that Leaving Work Behind Forum Community is making a good progress.

    Keep with good work Tom.
    I’m really excited about your book! 🙂

    Reply

    • Tom Ewer says

      Hey Vukasin,

      What I think I’d like to do is a more detailed report featuring traffic stats, email subscriptions, forum data, etc. along with details on what I’ve tried to do to improve things. I’ll consider that for next time. Thanks for the suggestion!

      Cheers,

      Tom

      Reply

  3. John Shea says

    I enjoy these reports, really gives me something to look forward to with my writing. I like the new design as well and I think it’s good you started a LWB forum as well!

    Reply

  4. Nida Sea says

    I love reading your income reports, Tom. Your success continues to inspire me and push me to keep trying. I’m glad you’re able to continue pushing projects to their completion.

    I’d love to join Paid to Blog once it becomes available. I’ve done well securing clients and raising my income as we talked about once before. It’s been a wonderful experience, but I’d like to try my hand at blogging income. Looking forward to more updates from you!

    – Nida

    Reply

  6. Joe says

    Well done!

    What do the expenditures under freelance writing equate to? What you pay your sub-contractors or something else?

    Looking forward to hearing more about the paid to blog course.

    Also, don’t take this the wrong way, but in what way exactly do you think you “can help people far more than some other bloggers”? and why? Just interested to know, not doubting you or anything.

    Good luck for November, are you going to do an end of year review too?

    Reply

    • Tom Ewer says

      Hey Joe,

      Yep — the writing expenditure is what I pay my subcontractors.

      You can have bloggers who are awesome at marketing but not so good at actually offering value. They’ll still do well but they may not help people as much as I believe I can. Or you have bloggers who are essentially trying to make a quick buck and again are good at marketing. And so on.

      I’ll probably do an end of year review!

      Cheers,

      Tom

      Reply

  7. Christian says

    Nice to see the improvements Tom. And like you say, sometimes you just don’t want to launch too much too quickly.

    I hope december wil be a big month for you because of the launch of Paid to Blog, keep up the good work!

    Reply

  8. Financial Samurai says

    Howdy Tom – Good job. I thought you were focused on trying to make more money passively via affiliate income and stuff? Making more money writing requires more writing no?

    It’s good and interesting to hear more paid writing opportunities out there though!

    Reply

  9. Nik Parks says

    Hey Tom!

    I’m somewhat of a new fan…but I’m loving LWB! I love the transparency of these income reports—they’re very inspiring to me.

    The re-design is absolutely gorgeous, by the way.

    Keep up the phenomenal work,

    Nik

    Reply

  11. JacksonAnderson says

    Hey Tom!

    Awesome income! Absolutely smashed it in regards to the bounce back September!
    I bet you’re stoked about that but even more stoked on the new LWB and course coming out this month!

    Interested to see what ‘Paid To Blog’ is all about!

    My question to you is will this course be building off successful freelance writing or will you be covering completely different bases?

    oh and secondly do you plan to launch with potential discounts for current subscribers or pre-launch specials or anything like that?

    Really hope it all goes well for you, definitely looks like you’re setting up 2014 perfectly!

    All the best Tom!

    Jackson

    Reply

    • Tom Ewer says

      Hi Jackson,

      Paid to Blog is going to replace SFWO — it’ll be an updated version of the course with lots of new features and whatnot. Existing owners of SWFO will get a free upgrade to the base version as well as a big discount on the completely new bits 🙂

      Cheers,

      Tom

      Reply

  13. Eshwar says

    Hi Tom,

    I found out your blog searching for “income reports” (my way to find financially-open-and-healthy blogs, weird?). I have bought many Ebooks and study materials in the past, and truly hope that “Paid to blog” will not only help me with blogging but also blogging for other sites. Only a handful of those past materials really helped me to be where I am now.

    The book will be more helpful if shown the way to market the content, I am sure it will have as you do that yourself. But it will be really helpful if shown the way to market your site as well, as the content you write for your site isn’t going to be organically visible to a large audience on it’s own, say within a reasonable time like in 3 months or so. I have blogged all this year without marketing my contents. It’s where I fail, and I know most others as well.

    Thanks,
    Eshwar

    Reply

    • Tom Ewer says

      Hi Eshwar,

      To be honest, the course is more about making money from freelance blogging, not building a wildly successful blog. While I do devote a fair proportion of the course to getting your blog set up and you content out there, the main focus is on making money as a freelance blogger.

      Cheers,

      Tom

      Reply

  14. Daniele says

    Hi Tom,
    Always good to read your reports and I’m glad that numbers came back up 🙂
    You’re one of the folks that inspired me to start sharing my own monthly reports!
    Numbers are still relatively low, but in Euro 🙂

    Reply

  15. Yaisa Hagood says

    Thank you for posting your income. I have been following your blog for awhile even though I don’t always leave a comment. I have wanted to leave corporate america for awhile now but I’ve struggled to be successful in Network Marketing. Your blog is proof that there are other ways to be successful working from home and enjoying all the benefits that come with it. I am going to focus on my skills that I can profit from to finally make my dream a reality in 2014.

    Reply

  19. Jackson Davies says

    Hey Tom, good to see you had a healthy Uplift in your figures and it is interesting how those 5 clients lifted your writing profits so high! I’m also liking the new look, it feels a great deal more personalised. I’d be interested to see how the Paid to blog site works out. I’m writing this message from the lovely island of Barbados 🙂

    Reply

  20. Damon says

    HI Tom

    Excellent Income you’ve earned over the course of October.
    I notice quite a few Bloggers earn quite well with Hosting companies and I see that you use Westhosts. Is that mostly from advertising on your blogs or do you create special landing pages for them?

    Thanks
    Damon

    Reply

    • Tom Ewer says

      Hey Kristi,

      Thanks! Paid to Blog is essentially an updated version of Successful Freelance Writing Online with extra features.

      It will be an online course rather than a PDF, and each section of the course will be punctuated by “Action Steps,” so that you know what you need to do.

      It’ll feature extra interviews and also a couple of really cool resources in the premium version. You’ll have to wait and see what they will be 🙂

      Existing owners of SFWO will get free access to the updated version of the base product (i.e. all the stuff you’ve already got, but updated).

      Cheers,

      Tom

      Reply

  22. Business Plan Mentor (@bizplanmentor) says

    Count me in on your Paid to Blog offering! Can’t wait.

    I love this: “I can help people far more than some other bloggers out there who are far better known than me.” I call that confidence not arrogance.

    Love the new look of LWB. It’s fresh and current but not over the top. You still seem approachable and believable.

    Looking forward to all your upcoming projects.

    Sylvia

    Reply

  24. Ron says

    Tom – Why did you stop these? I am about to jump ship myself and like your income reports because they are realistic.

    Reply

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