November 2015 Income Report: Chiang Mai, Thailand

I started off this month with an injured leg and hardly any internet in South Africa. I had been tethering off of my iPhone and paying crazy data bills. But luckily, I somehow also got a lot done as I was in a cast and couldn't walk. On November 2nd, I got on a plane and flew business class back to Chiang Mai where it's been a pretty crazy month.

I'm writing this now hoping, but not being sure if I can really having a third $20k month again. It's insane to think just a year ago when I had my first $10,000 month I thought that was the ceiling or the limit. So even if my hot streak has a dip, I'm super fortunate to have saved a big chunk of my earnings as I tried not to increase my lifestyle or expenses by too much even though I was making a lot more money than I was used to. Here's my detailed income report for the month of November 2015 including screenshots of all of my online businesses.

Video Follow Along (and Explanation)

Follow along this video for a full explanation and backstory for each section where I explain what's been going on this month in detail. If you prefer to read first, you can save this video for the end by scrolling up when you're done.

Income from Book Sales

 Kindle book sales for both 12 Weeks in Thailand and Life Changes Quick

Paperback sales for both books

For some reason I can't view my eBook sales in PDF form this month but I manually added it up by looking at my paypal transactions and it looks like I had a really good month for 12 Weeks in Thailand: The Good Life on the Cheap for some reason. It could it's because it's getting to the holiday season and a lot of people are planning their trips to Thailand.

But either way, really glad to see more book sales coming in and for seeing more 5 star reviews on Amazon! Big thanks to Eric Murphy, George Baltakian, Khairul Izad and Mark Peters for taking the time to leave a review after reading the books. Really glad you guys enjoyed them!

New Reviews of 12 Weeks in Thailand on Amazon.com

New Reviews of Life Changes Quick on Amazon

PDF Profit: $80 +/-
Paperback Profit: $26 +/-
Kindle Profit: $220 +/-

Total Profit from Book Sales: $336 +/-

Income from Udemy Courses

This next section is what I've been super excited about this month as I just launched my new Udemy course this month. I filmed the entire course while in South Africa and completed most of it while I had a cast on so it got done a lot quicker than I had expected...mainly because I had nothing else to do. My biggest goal for creating my new course on Udemy was to have it be an intro to my full membership course, Earnest Affiliate. If you're curious what the difference is between the two, I wrote a blog post about it here.

But halfway through outlining the course, I knew that even though most people would buy it using some type of crazy discount and it'll never sell for full price, I wanted to really make it comprehensive regardless and really give a lot of value in it and it's been paying off.

This was the best month I've ever had on Udemy

Total revenue from my four Udemy courses combined

Big thanks to Logan H, Michael H, Nick B., Derek S., Lorrie H., and Louise C. for reviewing the course!

I think this has been a great start for my new Udemy Affiliate Course as it already has over 100 students and a bunch of good reviews so far which will hopefully carry in momentum throughout the year.

Total Profit from Udemy: $731.89

Income from Dropshipping

By the time you read this, Anton's course is now closed and not taking new members until it reopens sometime in 2016. Since no one can actually buy his course this month, I wanted to take this opportunity to stress how important it is to jump on opportunities when they present themselves and be willing to put in the work. 

I joined Anton's course 2.5 years ago and it's been a full time source of income since. I honestly feel bad for anyone who has been debating back and forth and hasn't just pulled the trigger and bought the course while it was still open as what he teaches genuinely works. My advice? Keep in touch, save up some money, freelance, work on something else, and whenever he opens it back up in 2016 jump on it as it's one of the few programs out there that consistently delivers results. 

Total sales from Dropshipping Store #1

Gross Revenue: $21,843.99

Advertising Budget: $1,088.56
Costs of Goods/Shipping/Etc (waiting on my VA)

Total Profit from Dropshipping Store #1: $2,023.91 +/-

As for the store I run with Larissa we had a pretty good month in revenue but not the best we've had in profit. Part of the reason why my other store did so much better was because I run Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions but forgot to tell Larissa to do the same until it was already too late. 

I don't know if it would have made that big of a difference because we didn't actually lower the price, just gave a coupon for free shipping like I always do but I think it people's minds they were looking for some type, any type of Black Friday sale. Lesson learned to implement it for next year. Either way, it's awesome to know that it's been exactly 1 year since Larissa and I started this new store together and it's been profitable every since. 

I've also been earning a ton of miles from using my rewards card to fulfill orders and have been using it to fly Business Class around the world for free. Since I'm spending on average $20,000 a month and getting 2.05% of that cash back, it's been adding up to at least $400 a month which is nice to count as a part of my total income. 

Gross Revenue for Dropshipping Store #2: $12,987.00

Advertising Budget: $454.13

Costs of Goods/Shipping/Etc

(My 50/50 split = $738.50)

Total Net Profit: $1,477.00

If you followed my blog from the beginning you'll know how excited I am to earn over $4k a month from drop shipping as that's what I used to make as my full time salary back in California working a 9-5 job. 

Now that I'm able to do it location independently, I'm super happy and want to share it with others. Unfortunately Anton's not taking new members for a while for his course but keep in touch and I'll let everyone know when it opens back up sometime in 2016. 

Total profit from Dropshipping: $4,199.27

Income from Miscellaneous 

This month I made $6.15 from Adsense which I was actually going to just pause but realized it's not even worth my time to figure out how to turn it off. 

As for YouTube my estimated earnings were really good this month at $76.62 including 58 cents from their new Youtube Red program which I'm still not sure how it exactly works. I'm assuming I get a small share of earnings from people who have signed up for the program and watch my channel or it could be from people who decide to sign up for Youtube Red after watching my channel? Either way I'm excited to see if that grows as YouTube's premium ad free service grows.

I also made $475 from Phone Coaching this month which I did a lot of in the first half of this month but am honestly a bit too busy for now so I raised the price so only really serious people sign up. 

Total Profit from Misc Income: $557.77

Income from Affiliate Commission

Even though I live write these income reports and have no idea what the final numbers are going to be until just now, I sometimes see "affiliate payment received" emails pop into my inbox so I have a vague idea of how the month is going to be. 

This month i'm really excited that there wasn't one big source and that my affiliate earnings are spread out over a bunch of different sources which is nice because it makes it a bit less volatile and a bit more stable. I reveal my exact sources of affiliate commission inside my course Earnest Affiliate but here are a few sneak peeks at some of my affiliate dashboards showing how much money I made from each network. 

Sneak peak into my Amazon Affiliate Dashboard

Sneak peek at one of my affiliate network dashboards

Sneak Peek at how much I made as an Udemy Affiliate last month

 Join Earnest Affiliate to get full access to all of my affiliate case studies.

Total Profit from Affiliate Commissions: $10,445.89

Income from my Training Course

As you all know I'm really excited to have more students in my course Earnest Affiliate which is why the price is currently so low and I'm paying affiliates 75% commission to promote my course just because I genuinely want as many committed (paying) students to join and do well as possible.

This month I didn't make a ton of money from new student signups but I'm really glad to see that my existing students are starting to do well, including a few who have been making income already. But I'm most excited about the students who are thinking long term and building a brand and a following before they monetize their sites. 

Profit from my training course $665.53

Celebrating Thanksgiving in Chiang Mai with Friends

Living Expenses for November 2015

Even though my income was at an all time high these past two months, and it was tempting to go ball out and increase my lifestyle, I kept a level head and kept my expenses relatively low for the month and didn't buy anything crazy to increase my fixed expenses either. 

I haven't been super good at keeping track of all of my expenses as I generally just try to not overspend while focusing on making more money but here's a rough idea of what I'm spending every month. 

Rent: $329.43 a month

Utilities: $15.62 a month 

Internet/Phone: $16.85 a month 

Coworking Office: $95

Gym Membership: $39.06 a month 

Flight: Johannesburg to Chiang Mai $1,295.55

(one way business class) 

Visa Extension: $54

Transportation: $40 a month 

Food/Misc: $400+ 

Other: $200 +/- 

Donation to Muay Thai Isaan
Monthly Payment to My Mother

Total Living Expenses $2,475.05

Total Profit for November $16,936.35 

Bootstrapped into Savings: $14,461.30

Wheww. That's it. This has been a really humbling month as a lot has happened during it. But I'm so grateful and fortunate that I have so many positive support systems in place, loving and caring friends and family as well as all of you, my readers and supporters.

I truly hope everyone reading this the world's success in these upcoming months and in the new year. I hope you all get to spend time with loved ones and family over December and make it home or plan to be with friends and loved ones this month. We are so blessed even with everything that is going on in the world and the obstacles that life throws at us.

Keep in touch and let me know how it goes and what you're working on!


P.S. If you haven't watched the video up top yet, scroll back up and watch it as I explain in much more detail what's been happening this past month. Let me know in the comments if you prefer the video embedded at the start or at the end of the income report.


Warm Regards,

Johnny


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