May
11
Johnny Gives Numbers: How Much Money Did He Make?
Naomi’s note: This is the one where I go all I-told-you-so on Johnny’s ass. Read, be impressed, and then remind him I knew it all along.
Just over a month ago, I wrote a manifesto of sorts over at my blog. I say “of sorts” because it was also kind of a rant, but I say “manifesto” because even as I wrote it, on a really shitty day both emotionally and financially, I knew that I was putting my stakes in the ground. I was certain that this would be the piece I’d refer back to when the shitty times were over, and that I’d mark 3/25/09 as the day I got sick and tired enough to say, “DAMMIT, NO MORE.”
If you have the time, why don’t you head on over and give that manifesto a read. Yes, it’ll take you a few minutes, but I have a sneaking suspicion that many of you may see yourselves in what I wrote. It’s damn near the human condition nowadays: broke, tired, scared, and angry.
Stay with me, champ. I’ll get to the point of all of this in a second.
I started this IttyBiz Online Business School thing with a goal in mind. On March 25th, writing my manifesto, I told myself that I’d like to build up to making $1500 per month. That would stop my financial bloodletting and give me a great foundation to build from. I knew I could do it; I was angry enough to bend steel I-beams to make it happen. The only question was how long it would take.
When May 1st arrived five weeks later, I had my answer.
In April — my first month getting serious about building an online business — I made $2978.39.
And now I can exhale. Things are going to be all right. Things are really, truly going to be all right.
How I did it
Here’s where the money came from:
• My unintentional service business – One of the OBS modules is about how to create a service business. Now, I hadn’t intended to do that, but I sort of did anyway with the Learn To Be Your Own V.A. site. Several people who had been reading my stuff and watching my webinars were fooled impressed enough with what I knew to send me money in exchange for me giving them a website. It was a natural outgrowth of doing what came naturally to me. If you’re able to demonstrate, through action and without charging, that you really know a topic, you build enough authority that people interested in knowing/seeing more will be willing to pay for your help. Apparently. (Naomi’s note: Johnny’s not referring to Big Kid Web Design. He’s talking about his $39 thing.)
• Affiliate commissions – I’m an affiliate for IttyBiz SEO School, IttyBiz Online Business School, a few ClickBank products (like that diabetes e-book in the sidebar of my Diabetic Weightlifter site), iContact, aWeber, Verio, GoDaddy, Amazon, Skype, Thesis, Wordtracker, Google Checkout, KickStartCart, PayPal, my mother, and a few others. I try to be upfront about this because when I offer to do things for free or cheap (like I did/do with the blog setups), I think that knowing “what’s in it for me” assuages customers’ fears that there must be a catch or that my services aren’t worth much.
• Niche websites – You make a little website; you put Google Adsense ads on it; you write a few posts; you game some search engine traffic; people click on your ads; you profit. A portion of my April income came from a network of seven of these little sites.
• Donations – A few people were happy enough with the free info I gave out that they dropped some money into my tip jar. This was very awesome of them. I put a PayPal “Donate” button in the sidebar of the Learn To Be Your Own V.A. site to accommodate this kind of awesome gesture.
• Book sales – I started selling a physical (as opposed to e-version) humor book a few months before hooking up with Naomi. Those sales do still contribute to my income. (Incidentally, you should really buy that book because it’s fucking hilarious.)
All totaled? Nearly three grand in my first month. That… uh… exceeded expectations.
So, what next?
First, a thank-you.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to state publicly, for the record, that Naomi Dunford saved my shit. She didn’t wave a magic wand and make money appear (I know because in my panic enthusiasm at the outset, I fucking begged her to wave that wand but the bitch wouldn’t do it). I did the work, but she helped me find ways to make what I knew and what I could do marketable. So thank you. Thank you, Naomi.
Second, two calls to action for y’all.
THE FIRST CALL TO ACTION: Make your own money without doing any real work.
Ed Dale has a fairly famous online thingy called the Thirty Day Challenge. The goal is to get people new to online business to earn their first dollar within a month. Well, no disrespect to Ed, but fuck that. I challenge every one of you who may currently be an armchair internet marketer to earn your first $19.50 this week. I’ve gotten a lot of new affiliates for my “launch your blog” service (another part of that unintentional service business I mentioned), and I think that’s because it’s an insanely easy product to sell. I sold five this past weekend to my two property managers and their families/co-workers simply by mentioning it, and they about fell on their faces in the rush to thank me for offering.
Here’s what you do:
• Obviously, sign up for my affiliate program so that you can make 50% on everything you refer to me, then read the product sales page so you know what you’re selling.
• When you talk to acquaintances and co-workers, casually say, “Hey, do you need a blog or website? I know this guy who’s offering to do them for only $39.” Then give them your affiliate link and offer to answer any questions they may have because you’re down with Johnny and know him from the Interwebz. This works really well with entrepreneurs. Like, both of my property managers need sites for their PM businesses. $39 plus hosting to an entrepreneur for a primary business asset is nothing. Also, be sure to mention how many shining testimonials I have, so they know I’m not a total dick.
• Don’t think of it as selling. Think of it as helping the person out. This was a mental hurdle I had to get past. Most people think selling is dirty, like it’s about convincing a person to buy something he or she doesn’t really need. But the truth is that many of these folks you’re going to mention it to NEED a site and will be amazed at the price. This “helping them out” concept is why I used “offering” in my pitch sentence above. It’s almost as if both you and I are conferring a favor, like they’re being let in on a crazy special deal. Remember, people will probably thank you for this. If they don’t, you’re overselling.
• Make it really, really easy. I can track how many people have followed the procedure in my “launch your own blog” e-book, and I can also obviously track how many people have had me launch blogs for them. Guess which number is bigger? As easy as the e-book makes the process, having me do it is even easier. My whole business model going forward will revolve around making things stupidly easy for people. So when you tell people about the blog setup service, include a link. Offer to contact me for them, since they don’t know me and you kind of do. You could even make it sound like a special hook-up, like you’re able to arrange this great deal whereas not everybody could. It’s sort of true. Everyone should read IttyBiz, but some losers don’t.
• Profit. If ONE FUCKING PERSON jumps at the opportunity to get a professional, ready-to-use blog, you make $19.50 simply for sending them my way. I do the work, and you beat the living shit out of the dollar Ed Dale is challenging his people to make in a full 30 days.
• Tell me about it. I mentioned last week that I about shat my pants when I first made $19.50 selling a copy of SEO School. If you get pants-shitting happy when you make your first affiliate sale for me, I sooooo want you to email me and tell me about it. There’s something amazing that happens when you make money that easy. You start to realize this is real, that it’s possible for you and for anyone. I’ve come to realize that this truly is a win-win world. You succeed most only when everyone involved benefits. So I try to help everyone I can.
THE SECOND CALL TO ACTION: Take a survey.
Everyone loves surveys, right? Well, I have a spectacular, can’t-reveal-it-yet use in mind for the info gleaned from this one, and I need as many people to answer it as possible. I hosted a similar survey on my V.A. site last week, and the answers were surprising to me. So I need a larger, more diverse sample of people to answer some slightly different questions. Would you please be so kind as to run through it? It’s short; I promise.
Five weeks ago, I wrote in my manifesto, “I got myself into this, and the only way out is to become the writer I always said I’d become.” There’s a lesson there that I hope to get into more as I get to know you better. I’m bad at real estate investment, but I’m a damn good writer. It’s my passion. Once I started to put serious, heartfelt effort into writing online, I found some very helpful friends, starting with Chuck Westbrook and Havi Brooks. And once I got some assistance from a bald, swearing lady who helped me figure out the right way to use my writing in combination with my other skills, things really started to change.
Everyone has a passion. Everyone has something they are outstanding at. It should have been the most obvious thing in the world, but I’m starting to really believe that tuning into that is that magic wand I was looking for.
P.S: Next week, I’ll share the survey results, so please remember to give me your two cents. I also hope some of the above is inspirational. If it is, remember that you can always email me (or comment) with questions, and also that it’s absolutely not hard to start making your own money today just by getting in on my new affiliate shindig and whooping the ass off of Ed Dale’s students.
P.P.S: I’m pretty sure I could take Ed Dale in a fight, but I’m also pretty sure he has a fuckload more money than I do. So for now, he wins. FOR NOW, ED!
P.P.P.S: I declare this post linkbait. You should link the everloving shit out of it because it’s one of those cool underdog stories, like Rudy. Except that I’m less of a pussy.
P.P.P.P.S: That’s a lot of P’s, shit.
Way to go Johnny! Congrats on the success!
I’d be curious to see a case study of a situation where someone didn’t have Naomi as a helpful promoter of stuff. Naomi, you a good number of people who are already predisposed to buy stuff, so going over to Johnny’s site and helping him out would be easy for them.
I think a lot of people don’t have that kind of connection. They start with a few hundred people on their lists and no one with a big social rep pumping them.
Perhaps that could be your next Lab Rat Naomi – an after the fact case study. Or a case study in how to get someone with a good list of buying-ready public (in your field) to pimp your shit for you.
I have to call bullshit on your survey — I got through 2 questions and my answer to both was, “It depends on what the skill is.”
For instance: I gladly pay Naomi for hand-holdingly specific advice about marketing, but I won’t pick up a $19 CSS book because I can find enough CSS reference info on the web to muddle through.
It’s not just whether or not I can figure it out myself, or how frustrating that process will be (although that’s definitely a part of it), it’s also how necessary that skill is, and the direct money in, value return that I get from spending money on instruction.
So, I’m not gonna take your survey, because it’s just way too damn general. But it’s quite possible I’m not your target audience anyway. ;)
Rock on Johnny!
That is so ding dang awesome… you must be so happy! Thank you for showing us how it can be done :)
Johnny,
Rock on! I made my first $49.50 on Saturday. I almost crapped my pants.
Keep moving forward.
I took the survey but I the only reason I chose the answers I did is because I’m always flat broke. If I had a pot to piss in I would definitely hire people left and right. Until then, I’m stuck doing everything myself. I’m making more money but all my freaking bills are going up at the same time, so yay!
Great post though. Just Stumbled it and am about to tweet.
Did the survey even though I had some of hte same reservations as Amy. Maybe you should keep that in mind when you analyse the data.
It rocks that you used a knitting example.
And congrats on doing all of this. I remember how pissed off you were a month or so ago and how much the real estate bullshit was contributing to that (and general money worries) so I’m glad that Naomi has turned it around for you.
Damn, I thought that might be a problem with the survey. I tried to insert some text about choosing a “middle of the road” skill or task, but inherently this was going to be an issue because I recognize that different skills will be handled differently.
Really the only way to tackle it would be to choose ONE thing (say, setting up a blog), but not everyone needs that, and it biases it in a whole other set of ways. Like JoVE, I can’t see you EVER paying for that task… but for another person, they’d always do it.
Meh. Every survey is flawed.
I’m excited for Chris. That is such a badass feeling.
Yup — glad for you, Johnny, but having access to Naomi’s list and having her shill for you didn’t prove much of anything.
Dude! You’re rocking it.
Am I the only one voyeuristic enough to wonder how much of that chunk-o-change came from which bit of your cunning plan, Johnny? Hmm?
@Phlat Yeah, it certainly helps that Johnny has Naomi’s backing but that’s part of the smarts. Johnny’s been doing the stuff that actually works, and that includes this IttyBiz series. He could either sit around waiting for his Google Ads to pay off, or hook up with Naomi and do something that benefits them both… and us. Genius.
It’s not like this stuff is a secret – Naomi (who also started at zero) shares enough information at different price points to help anyone who is willing to pull finger and do the work.
Aren’t you glad you opened up the comments again, Naomi? =)
Firstly, wow! Excellent Johnny! I’ve been reading as we go along and enjoying the journey. I did do your survey, but I agree with Amy’s reservations as well. It’s very, very general.
Here’s something I’d love for you to offer up … WP theme customization. All flavors; not just for Thesis (which is great and all, but I’m cheap and even $87 is too much right now). What are the basics of headers? How do you do (proper) global customizations? Whatever.
The problem with most of the extant WP customization tutorials is that they’re by geeks for geeks. I’m a wannabe geek. I need a bit more hand-holding. I’m happy to do the work myself, but I need some Geek 101 stuff.
Just my 2-cents. Use, discard, or throw out the window as you see fit.
Out of curiosity, could you break down your total profit into percentages of how much came from each source? That would give more perspective when trying to decide which avenues to pursue.
I have to say that I’m not surprised it’s working for you – although it’s great – since Naomi is awesome and you’re following her plan :)
@Lisa and @Annie – I don’t want to break it down too far for a couple of reasons, but I will tell you that the largest chunk came from affiliate revenue. I’ve never considered myself to be very good at sales, because so much of sales sounds like bullshit to me. That changed when it went from “selling” to “recommending stuff I know, use, and like.” For instance, iContact? In the past, I’ve sent five or so clients to them, but I didn’t know they had an affiliate program. I was just telling them about it because I liked the service.
It got a lot easier once I realized I could simply tell people about stuff like that, that benefits everyone. That’s why I’m hoping more people can make money as MY affiliates. A bunch of folks loved what I did on their sites, so it should be natural to recommend me to others. This seems like a great way to make money to me, and for everyone to win.
I think a great, great first step for anyone in just about any field (other than being my affiliate, natch) would be to go to ClickBank, register, find an info product in your niche, buy it, read it and if you like it, start telling people about it. Article marketing is a really easy way to do that, but you can email people, post it on your blog, whatever.
@Christy – Great idea. Hold me to it and remind me, eh? That’s pretty damn geeky, but it’s something that higher-level geeks might eat up. It would have to probably be done via some kind of interactive medium, though.
Johnny, this was an inspiration to read. I love knowing that it can be done. We just need to get off of our asses and just do it already.
Thanks for sharing your story.
~K
@kat_taf
Wow, these numbers blow my mind. And I’m already preparing to curl up into a ball of helplessness (with a large vodka, and clutching the TV remote) mumbling “I can’t do it.”
Oh, fuck that. I can do SOMETHING. I’m just not sure what it will be. Yet. Today I discovered that something I thought I was good at and could make money at is actually something I pretty much hate and I don’t want to make money at it anymore. So thanks for linking to your rant (which I finally read for the first time, today), because that was inspirational too.
I also took your survey and was pleasantly surprised to learn about SurveyPirate. So bonus points for pointing me to a free online resource that I’d never heard of.
Naomi rocks. You roll. Together, that’s beautiful music. I’ll just keep tinkering over here with my Schroeder-style toy piano for awhile and let you know what I come up with.
Man, it’s late or I’m punchy (or both) when I get that weird with my metaphors. Whatever. Thanks, Johnny. I mean it.
You know, I will say that I don’t think I personally could get anywhere doing something I hated. I’ve had a choice again and again to pick doing what I wanted to do or to pick doing what would pay the bills but which I always hated. I chose the former each time. Not always to my financial benefit right away, but it has always worked out with time.
Holy cow, Johnny, I just read the manifesto, and coupled with this, it’s…just amazing, really. I was at that point back in December/January (fortunately, things have picked up since then). So, kudos to you!
Also, I just discovered your “Um, words…” post on your blog. You are officially my new best friend.
Craptstic.
Now, thanks to all your success, I have to seriously consider utilizing these skills for myself, to which I’ll invariably put it off, stress over not doing it and add another ulcer to my ongoing stress pot.
I would end on a joke requesting a piece of that fat moneycake, but you’ve already outlined methods of acquiring it. Thanks for ruining my punchline.
Congrats. So great to see someone say “I’m gonna do this”, do it, and then actually make it work. Double your goal, no less. I’m proud of you son. I’ve achieved my goal of watching you mature into a fine young man.
*Craptastic.
Stupid spellcheck missing my juvenile swear words.
Thanks, folks. Now get in on that “moneycake.” Must be an artist word.
Go Johnny go!
Niiiice. I love this story.
“Bending steel I-beams” determination will do wonders folks.
Johnny,
Always great to read these articles and see things are working out. Absolutely love your attitude, so keep up that good work!
I really appreciate the detail and step by step overview. No fluff in the posting at all.
By example, you show how others can make money with blogging.
As sensors keep rolling out in their varied forms and under the power of varied service providers and system owners, there’s this ominous sense that someday soon, we may never be able to go offline again. ,
Well done! And more than that, thanks for being so open. I think this post gets down to the dirt that people really want to know when they’re looking into working for themselves through online businesses, and that’s cold, hard, nasty, sociopathically-emotionless figures!
I once had the notion that I would write a Mills & Boon romance novel a month; it would be super-simple and I’d make a ton of cash (btw, this was a very long time ago). I looked everywhere for info on how much I could expect to be raking in… it would have been easier to find out Colonel Sanders secret reicpe. The advance amounts that publishers of romance novels pay seemed to be some kind of big industry secret. Then I found out. Industry secret? Industry shame more like! It’s a pittance! No wonder they’re all use pen names!
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that you being upfront with the figures in your post is really motivating and refreshing.
There was one more thing that I woked out from the Mills and Boon phase: just because you read something and think it’s utter shit, doesn’t automatically mean you can do it any better! However, if any publishers out there would like a half-finished first draft of ‘Flesh Pistols at Dawn’, get in touch.
Ooh, now that’s a winning title. Maybe the Flesh Pistols could do battle with Fleshlights.
Fleshlights? You’ll have to educate me; what are they? I could Google it but I’m a little afraid too!