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Press release and ebook sales figures for October 2011

November 9, 2011 By

October was a very fun month for making money. Vacation season was over, the kids were back in school and everybody was back in a regular work groove.

When I sold jewelry supplies eons ago, we couldn’t wait for October because it always brought a new surge of business. It appears to be no different for the digital products industry.

Last month I officially launched my press release writing business over at Buyer Friendly PR. For a good part of the month I offered seriously discounted services while I built my portfolio and accumulated testimonials.

True to my word, I raised my press release price to $95. This change eliminated the huge rush of clients I had before, so I’m working less but making more.

When I raised my prices I also defined exactly what kind of clients I wanted to work with. I did this so I could create the best possible results for the people who hired me. Check out my press release services page to see how I worded all of this.

For those of you who are curious, I didn’t have a problem making the transition to a higher price range. You really just have to be prepared to look for clients in other places. The forum that I advertised on was good while I was in the lower price range, but now I’m finding clients in new locales – LinkedIn and Quora, for example. (I’ll save that for another post.)

Blogging is GREAT for your sales

Ebook sales actually increased in October. And I have to admit this… blogging really, really, REALLY does generate more ebook sales.

I knew this already, but last month was the first time I consistently saw a huge correlation between blog posts and my ebook sales levels. Even if the blog posts had nothing to do with my ebooks, they worked almost like mini launches.

So why didn’t I do more of it? Balance, my friends. The initial surge of press release clients took an enormous amount of time. I was always 10 press releases behind the eight ball.  As soon as I knocked out four, six more would come knocking at my door.

But here’s my logic… I’d rather bring in a few thousand dollars in press release revenue and at least $10K in ebook sales any day.

There’s NOTHING like collecting money for work you’ve already done months ago. That is a joy I wish all of you could experience because it puts your mind state in a very comfortable place.

Okay — the envelope please!

With all the formalities out of the way, here are my press release and ebook sales figures for October 2011:

Ebook sales – $5,787

Press release writing – $1,250

What will I be doing to raise those numbers?

My mom and I recently started having Friday night sales calls where we hold each other accountable for a specific dollar amount to be earned for the month.

The one thing I HATE is not meeting my numbers. Especially because my mom does outside sales, where she has to (gasp) call people on the phone and (double gasp) show up at their offices to meet with managers. Call me an online snob but I honestly don’t know how she does it.

She’s really an ass kicker when it comes to meeting her numbers. Since we started our calls she got top sales person of the month in her company. She brought in the most new business in October. (My mom has got some serious sales game up her sleeve!)

There’s something to be said about accountability, people. So if you’re ever interested in starting a small weekly accountability group with me, I’d be happy to get something going. Send me an email or leave a comment.

I’m also becoming more active on LinkedIn. I haven’t quite figured everything out yet, but I am currently ranked #1 for “press release writer,” which I’d say is a step in the right direction.

I’ll be doing some press release blogging over at Buyer Friendly PR, based on questions I’ve been sent. That blog (with its 2 lonely posts) is already generating a spurt of traffic in Google for a few really nice keywords.

I know what works… I just have to keep the ball in the air. That’s the big power strategy I haven’t quite mastered yet!

 

Filed Under: Passive Income Monthly Reports Tagged With: , ,

My ebook sales figures for August 2011

September 12, 2011 By

From what I’ve heard, read and picked up from other authors, summer months can sink an ebooks sales figures like a Lego tied to a five pound brick. The kids are out of school, people are on vacation and maybe the Internet isn’t calling like it was prior to summers warm embrace.

Besides my recent move to Hawaii, my grandmother passed away unexpectedly, and it definitely took some of the wind from underneath my wings. I wasn’t on my A-game in August. But that’s life, you know.

I had some pretty grandiose plans in August and I wasn’t able to get a lot done because I took my grandmothers death a lot harder than I thought I would (quite honestly).

I believe it’s important that you know these things because even though we’re discussing business and making money here, it doesn’t exist separately from our real lives. Life is always coming up with these jack-in-the-box surprises that come out of left field.

And in saying that, I’m REALLY thankful that I had those ebook sales to support me when I was in mourning. They allowed me to step away from the Internet and fly to NYC to be with my family. They gave me time to think and pray and eat and love when I needed it most.

When I started this blog earlier this year it was my goal to make passive income galore. I won’t say I’m in the “galore” stage yet, but I will say that in August 2011 my ebooks came to the rescue and did a pretty good rendition of the passive income samba, if there is such a thing.

The stats speak for themselves

July was pretty okay for me as I outlined in this post. August was a wee bit less awesome, with $4,210 in revenue.

So yes, my ebook sales did go down by over $1K from the previous month.

But I’m not ashamed of $4K in profits. I’m not upset by the fact that I didn’t have to do any additional work to make that money. Even though I lost a grand, I was able to live my life away from the Internet and still put a few dollars in my pocket.

Allow my mourning to be your wake up call

Everybody’s got a song-and-dance they’re using to get to the top of the financial food chain. But the big question you should be asking yourself today is that if life were to toss you a bag a moldy lemons and you can’t make lemonade, could your online business still support you?

If you were (God forbid) to become terribly ill and could only spend a maximum of 90 minutes a day online, could you still put a roasted chicken (or some veggie tofu) on the dinner table without straining?

A lot of online businesses are dependent on steady and active participation. I’m thinking in particular about my freelance writing friends. They stop grinding and the revenue stops flowing. That’s a little scary for me, even with a savings to pad the fall.

That’s part of the reason why I really began to pursue ebooks as my primary revenue source. I needed to know that I had something to support me should I suddenly need surgery, or if there’s a death in the family, or even if I fall in love with some awesome muchacho. (Love? Yes… I make breathing room for everything!)

Life is funny. As soon as you think you have it all figured out, shit happens. It doesn’t make any sense to live in fear, but it does make sense to prepare with a passive income plan. As cliché as it sounds, offense is often the best defense.

I can’t force everybody to jump on the ebook party bus, but I will say that if you’re looking for a business that can insulate you during life’s hard times, you might find it’s a very nice place to be.

Have a great Monday… and if you have a grandma who’s still alive and well, tell her that you love her today.

Filed Under: Passive Income Monthly Reports, Writing and Blogging Tactics Tagged With: , ,

My passive income report for July 2011

August 5, 2011 By

If you’ve read the sales page for Creating E-books that are Impulse Buyer Magnets, then you know that my whole point of going shoulder-deep in the e-book world was to prepare for a move to Hawaii — a move I’d been contemplating for several years.

I gave up my apartment, put everything in storage and moved in to a temporary unit just so I could give myself NO alternative but to succeed. It’s an admittedly insane motivational tactic and I still can’t believe I had the ball-zinos to do it!

During those stressful months I figured out exactly what I needed to do to attract impulse buyers, and I made it work. Perhaps with a few more thousand gray hairs on my head, but what the heck… no pain, no surfing at 6am.

Guess what… I made it to Hawaii on e-book sales!

A year ago if you’d have told me this is the path I’d be taking to get here, I would’ve given you a heartily sarcastic, “Yeah, right!” I had a jewelry supply business for many years and then I garnered some success as an Amazon affiliate.

Each time, I made pretty decent money. Enough NOT to have to get a job, enough to live in Bangkok, if that’s what I wanted — but not enough to take off to Hawaii.

It wasn’t until I made a commitment to reach financial success selling e-books that I started progressing.

Now before you start thinking it was all smoothies and unicorns, you should know that part of “progressing” meant failing.

I have several stories of e-book failures on this blog. The road I was taking six months ago looked like it was paved with a bed of nails, rather than gold.

But if nothing else, I was focused. I didn’t veer off the path just because I skinned my knee a few times. I didn’t hop into AdSense sites just because the e-book thing wasn’t working out. I stayed on the path despite the failures.

The secret to success is so obvious, it would blind the shit out of you on a dark road.

Okay Bob, the envelope please…

Sales in July ended up totaling $5,320.

That’s from sales of e-books (not shown on this blog) as well as the e-books on this blog. Culminated from 5 e-books total.

My goal within the next two, maybe three months, is to push that number up to $400 a day. It definitely helps to have a higher-priced e-book in the mix, but it’s also a volume thing. The more e-books you have to sell, the more you tend to sell. (I discuss this all-important strategy in detail in Creating E-books that are Impulse Buyer Magnets.)

I also think that once the kids are all back in school things may pick up even more on their own. Only time will tell.

But for now, I’m writing like crazy. No rest for these excited little fingers.

Now tell me, how was your July? Was it all you expected it to be?

Filed Under: Passive Income Monthly Reports Tagged With: , ,
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