I usually like to start business reports with an image of the exotic location I’m writing from. However, now I find myself back in London – in very familiar surroundings.
Where have I been these last three months?
The last business report came from Cambodia. I was travelling in April through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, slowly making my way to Chris Ducker’s Tropical Think Tank – a boutique business event in the Philippines in May. After which I came back to the UK and I’ve been here ever since.
What have I got done?
I’ve been travelling, migrating my membership site from MemberMouse to DAP (don’t ask) and moving hosts from Vidahost to LiquidWeb. However, I’m pleased to say that I’ve published a book and a video course in the last two months. This sounds good but I’d been writing the book for more than six months, off and on.
- New book: Free Your Thoughts: How I Re-programmed Myself For Happiness And How You Can Too
- New course: How To Become A Logo Designer
What has caused this increase in productivity? Mostly, my business coach, Steven Aitchison. He has been a great encouragement and has also held me accountable. I would advise anyone to join masterminds or find “accountabili-buddies” to hold you to your goals.
A humbling drop in passive income
As many of you know, I publish my passive income reports every quarter. The total passive income revenue from the last three months was a disappointing $13,578.49 compared with $21,624.45 in the previous quarter.
There were many reasons for this downturn in passive income:
- Udemy income down
- Lack of “windfalls” from my membership site
- Higher than normal investment in outsourcing and software
It’ll be interesting to see how my new product impact on the figures for the third quarter.
My attitude to money
A humbling drop in monthly passive income is probably good for my inflated ego. The worst thing about it is that everyone can see this “failure” on my income reports.
Half of me wants to have a real go and bounce back with huge earnings in the next quarter. Whereas the other half of my says, “Oh WTF, who needs money anyway? Does it make a difference to my happiness?” No!
Philanthropy, gifting and donations
I really enjoyed an episode of Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income podcast about philanthropy with Dale Partridge talking about his new book People Over Profit (which I haven’t read). In it I was introduced to this Ann Frank quote, which I’d never heard before: No one has ever become poor by giving.
So I’ve started thinking about building in more gifting and donations into my business because, at the end of the day, just making loads of money is completely pointless.
I used to add the donations to the expenses of my income reports but I’ve decided to take them out and put them in here – to the business reports.
Here are the charities I give to on a monthly basis:
- In Search of Sanuk
- Plan International
- Good St.
- Chiang Mai charity set up by COSA
I gift $250 a month to the above three charities. I need to think about ways I can add to this in a meaningful way for my business.
Personal goals
“Exercise more”, “meditate more”, “eat more healthily” and “help people” are my usual (not very good or specific) personal goals.
If there’s one benefit to a northern european climate it would be that you can go running outside most of the year. So the exercising has been better. My meditation practice has been slightly better as I haven’t been travelling around so much.
Business targets
Specific business targets
Here are specific targets that I set three months ago and more targets for three months’ time.
| Target | Q2 2015 Target | Q2 2015 Actual | Q3 2015 target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passive Income | $30,000 | $13,578.49 | $25,000 |
| Monthly sessions | 25,000 | 17,480 | 20,000 |
Both the passive income and traffic targets were missed! And I have revised the targets for next quarter downwards.
General business targets
Last quarter I had three targets. Here’s how I got on:
- Publish a new Kindle book ✓ Target Hit! Free Your Thoughts: How I Re-programmed Myself For Happiness And How You Can Too was eventually published on June 3, 2015
- Publish a new video course. ✗ Target Missed! I finally managed to release How To Become A Logo Designer last week so not inside the second quarter.
- Double the engagement on my Facebook Page. ✗ Target Missed! Here is a Facebook Page engagement rate calculator. I’ve been inspired by a course by my friend Steven Aitchison called Your Facebook Challenge. I’ve been working hard on my Facebook Page but my engagement rate is stubbornly still 6.74% – but at least the Likes are up.
Here are my business targets from now until the end of the third quarter 2015:
- Publish a new Kindle (or two) so I’ve done Free Your Thoughts, all I’ve got to do now is Free Your Finances, Free Your Time and Free Your Location. It should take a couple of weeks to write a Kindle book so I’m hoping to get these done by the end of the year.
- Create a new video course I’m not too sure what about.
So I’m going book, video course, book, video course, book, video course … until the end of the year. Hopefully I’ll do one a month. Basically, the idea is to double down on Udemy and Kindle. Udemy is really the cash cow at the moment. Kindle has never brought much in but I enjoy writing books.
Follower numbers
I like to keep an eye on these indicators.
| Indicator | 30th Sep 2014 | 31st Dec 2014 | 31st March 2015 | 30th June 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| My Twitter followers | 2842 | 2959 | 3071 | 3186 |
| My YouTube Channel, subscribers | 1843 | 2309 | 2802 | 3113 |
| My YouTube Channel, video views | 486,948 | 566,054 | 639,658 | 697,134 |
| Facebook page Likes/Fans | 822 | 1010 | 1129 | 1510 |
| Subscribers to RobCubbon.com | 6692 | 7511 | 7910 | 8429 |
Not much movement here. But at least the Facebook Page seems to have put on a spurt.
What do you think?
What do you think about my passive income drop? What do you think about my Udemy and Kindle targets?
it happens, business goes up and down. As I said on your Facebook page, Swing for the Fences. I wouldn’t drop your goals, keep them up they to keep you motivated. I have a thought on your website, How about switching the position of the Premium courses with the Free courses, get the premium up higher and then feature one of the courses with a picture. I kind of just brush over them when I visit your site. I might make them stand out a little more.
I noticed you are, like Steve Scott, moving into personal behavior/self help books from the practical how to books you have been doing. Do you think that is a better direction. Why did you go in that direction. Keep plugging away.
Hey Bruce, you’re right about the ups and downs. I’m going to work on the courses page right now – it looks like an absolute dog’s dinner at the moment. You’re right! And I hope I’ll remember to get back to you when I’ve finished.
Yes, I wrote that book in the personal behavior/self help niche because I really love that niche. No other reason. 🙂
As you say, Bruce, keep plugging away.
Hi Rob,
The reality of business, of necessity, consists of peaks and plateaus; though, we all prefer the peak moments to those that are better left unmentioned.
Your Udemy and Kindle targets are very realistic and without any external force or a bit of procrastination (on your side), I see you achieving them brilliantly.
As an aside, don’t you think promoting your Udemy course(s) actively (as you do your Kindle title) would jump the revenue again?
Enjoy London!
Always,
Akaahan Terungwa
Hello Akaahan, thank you for your message and reassurance. I really appreciate it.
It’s a good point that my Udemy promotion is very much less compared to my Kindle promotion. Udemy does such a good job of promoting the courses – I get so much income from Udemy organically without having to do anything that social media promotion seems like a waste of time (I only ever got one or two sales when I did it). Email is the most effective way of promoting Udemy courses. Also, I’ve also got all the courses on my own site at learn.robcubbon.com so I should promote them more there rather than at Udemy. It’s a quandary.
Hope this makes sense!
Makes a ton of sense sharing your reality, Rob 🙂
I’ll remember this when I launch my first course on Udemy.
Do enjoy the day!
And you, Akaahan. Thank you. Best of luck with your Udemy course.
Hey Rob
Great report as usual, I love how you set yourself these targets every quarter and, on the whole, you are managing to hit them.
BTW – Your engagement rate is 267% 😉
Thank you so much, Steven. You are helping me so much. Yes, the engagement rate fluctuates wildly! Thanks for the good news! 🙂
Nice to see you failing. Uhh, that sounded awkard 😉
Nice to see your transparency. It is good for us, common mortals, to see that our heroes aren’t infallible. My online income is in the dip too (of different proportions though); it’s kind of relief to see you in the same situation.
I think your Kindle target is right on the spot. Nothing works better on that platform than publishing anothere piece.
Thank you, Michal, I’m glad I made you happy. Although, I’m not entirely in agreement with you as a “common mortal” and me as a “hero” but anyway. Let’s get publishing!
Hi Rob, I can’t think of anyone better at handling a set back like this.
I’ve no doubt you will bounce back…but in meantime thank you for slightly reducing my income envy issues 😉
I’m more than happy to do so, David. Hold on, no I’m not!
Why the switch to DAP? (Yes, I’m asking anyway lol)
Oh god, someone was going to ask, damn! Long story, too long! The moral of the story, however, is this: when you are creating a membership site focus on the end user, don’t focus on the tool. I changed from WishList Member to Membermouse to DAP and it cost me thousands of dollar and, even worse, a lot of time and hassle. I would have been better sticking with the same tool and making it work. I hope this helps, Rob. Rob
Great post and very inspiring to read.
I am sure you are helping many people and will continue to do so. It really is a great initiative.
Glad you liked it, Vicky. Thank you for your encouragement.
Hello Rob.
I like that you actually did post your lower income earnings. It is a big hit, but I admire the way you are discussing it with us. Your positive attitude is incredible and inspiring. I have take a big hit myself from one job to another after getting laid off. I took a big hit and I have bounced back. I have learned that you can never feel to secure, and yet, somehow, I have never felt more free and in control. I look forward to the day when I can really become a true online web entrepreneur, like you. Then I know that I will really experience freedom.
Don’t worry Rob. This is a just a setback. I know that you will bounce back too. You will do fine. I like that you have mentioned your monthly donations. I must learn to do more of that. Thanks Rob for your great leadership. By the way, I am still jealous of your 8 month vacation (work-cation). LOL.
Hello Rene, thank you for your kind words. I think the hard times in life will always teach us the best lessons – we learn much more than when things are good. And I’m delighted to hear you bounced back from your recent setbacks.
Hi Rob,
Those numbers are certainly a fairly big hit to your finances, but they’re still pretty impressive to those of us just starting out with passive income streams! So don’t be too downhearted, I’m sure next quarter they will pick up.
It’s also good to hear you talk about donating some of your income to charities. That is not something I have seen other bloggers mention before. Hopefully you can earn more money next quarter – not just for yourself, but to be able donate even more than you already do!
Jack
hello Jack. Thank you for reassuring. Yes, I’m trying to factor the donations into the growth of the company so the more the company grows, the more is donated.