Ever since 2012, I have been recording the passive income that my business has earned. Just two or three years ago I was predominantly chasing active income, in other words, working for clients and swapping hours for dollars. In two short years my passive income has surpassed my active income.
If you’d like to know more about how I earn my passive income you could watch this video. Otherwise, ask yourself “why a cat” and read on…
My passive income
Think you can’t earn passive income from digital products such as e-books and video courses? Think again. I have shown that consistent effort in content creation can produce fantastic success in a relatively short time.
My target for the first quarter in 2015 was $30000. So let’s get going and see where I made my passive income and if it’s moving in the right direction.
Udemy
I have been selling video courses on Udemy, the online learning platform, for over two years now and it’s been my biggest passive income earner by a long, long way. Here is my Udemy revenue:
| Period | Revenue |
|---|---|
| 2014 Q2 | $6382.89 |
| 2014 Q3 | $11,017.98 |
| 2014 Q4 | $15,473.59 |
| 2015 Q1 | $15,659.30 |
Udemy has remained extremely consistent, averaging over $5000 per month, with a total of $15,659.30 this quarter – almost the same as last quarter. Some months are better than others, for example November is usually good because of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions and January is favorable too as Udemy capitalizes on New Year Resolutions to learn a new skill.
Skillfeed
Skillfeed is another online learning platform that charges customers a monthly subscription for access to all its courses.
| Period | Revenue |
|---|---|
| 2014 Q2 | $1,196.32 |
| 2014 Q3 | $1,090.78 |
| 2014 Q4 | $1,177.43 |
| 2015 Q1 | $1,190.05 |
Again the results are extremely consistent at over $1000 a quarter. And this is a completely passive income stream.
Skillshare
New kid on the block! Skillshare are another online learning platform that I have high hopes for. Their website is not as reliable as Udemy’s and I have only just managed to put all my courses on there.
However, look at the trajectory. January revenue: $103.32; February revenue: $150.57; March revenue: $277.27. We’ll see if it keeps going up. The total for the first quarter of 2015: $531.16.
Stone River eLearning
Another new kid on the block – an online learning platform called Stone River eLearning. I put my courses on this platform quite a while ago but I’ve never had many sales. However, this quarter sales picked up so I’ll put the total in here: $219.51.
Dealfuel
Dealfuel is a “Deals” site, similar to MightyDeals and Appsumo. They bundle my video courses and e-books to other products and give me a cut of the profits.
This won’t necessarily be ongoing income as I will pretty soon run out of digital products to do deals with but it’s a great way of re-selling content that’s already been created. Last quarter I made $641.92 in revenue with DealFuel.
There are loads of places you can sell digital products. Here’s an article I wrote about alternatives to Udemy.
Amazon Kindle
I have five books that I sell through Amazon, predominantly as Kindles – e-books that Amazon can purchase and, the next second, download and read. Here are my books:
- Running A Web Design Business From Home: How To Find and Keep Good Clients and Make Money with Your Home Business
- How To Sell Video Courses Online: How I make $2000+ passive income every month
- From Freelancer to Entrepreneur: Escaping work and finding happiness
- Build a Brand, Create Products and Earn Passive Income
- Create the Website You Want with WordPress
| Period | Revenue |
|---|---|
| 2014 Q2 | $965.09 |
| 2014 Q3 | $1800.04 |
| 2014 Q4 | $2410.45 |
| 2015 Q1 | $1694.01 |
The first bit of bad news. This quarter I had no new book launch and I wasn’t a part of a BuckBooks promotion so my book sales on Amazon stagnated.
You can even see in this sales chart of the last three months (the blue line below is borrows and the red line is sales) how sales are slowly declining. This just shows you how consistency of output is more important on Kindle than it is on, say, Udemy.
| Period | Number of books sold |
|---|---|
| 2014 Q2 | 478 |
| 2014 Q3 | 1229 |
| 2014 Q4 | 1662 |
| 2015 Q1 | 494 |
So I’m disappointed with my Kindle sales in Q1 2015: $1694.01. (I’m writing another Kindle now!)
Sales of my PDF e-books
I don’t promote these PDFs much nowadays as I’m more committed to the Kindle platform, however, both books have recently been updated and offer great content.
| My product | 2014 Q2 | 2014 Q3 | 2014 Q4 | 2015 Q1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Running a Web Design Business | $123.52 | $94.07 | $43.83 | $41.87 |
| How To Get Clients | $103.13 | $111.04 | $134.15 | $63.04 |
| Total: | $226.65 | $205.11 | $177.98 | $104.91 |
So more “bad” news. However, a reason for the drop in revenue to$104.91 here is a price increase which was requested in order to make them more attractive as a deal in DealFuel.
My membership site
My membership site now has 8 premium courses and 4 free courses.
| Period | Revenue |
|---|---|
| 2014 Q3 | $331 |
| 2014 Q4 | $974 |
| 2015 Q1 | $3,681 |
For the last two quarters of last year I was selling a monthly recurring fee for access to all the courses. At the beginning of this year, I did a “Jeff Walker style” launch of my newest course: Earn $5000+ a Month Passive Income Selling E-books and Video Courses.
So, from being an abject failure in the first few months of it’s life, the membership site netted me $3681 in the first quarter of 2015.
Google advertising income
This is revenue from ads on my YouTube channel as well as a tiny bit of Adsense here on my website.
| Google revenue | 2014 Q2 | 2014 Q3 | 2014 Q4 | 2015 Q1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total: | $315.54 | $311.66 | $357.53 | $372.84 |
Affiliate sales
ATTENTION: I am an affiliate for certain products that I recommend or mention here. I get a commission if a sale is made through one of my affiliate links. This article contains affiliate links!
| Affiliate product | 2014 Q2 | 2014 Q3 | 2014 Q4 | 2015 Q1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genesis WordPress theme | $471.45 | $307.76 | $253.53 | $777.95 |
| WPML WordPress Multi-Lingual plugin | $376 | $440 | $885 | $712 |
| Aweber email marketing and delivery | $46.20 | $63.90 | $72.90 | $77.70 |
| Others | $250.35 | $170 | $20 | $430.77 |
| Total: | $1144 | $981.66 | $1230.90 | $1998.42 |
WordPress Multi-Lingual plug-in and Genesis both had a good quarter! Others include BuckBooks, Dreamhost, etc.
Total revenue
So, if we add it all up. My passive income revenue in the first quarter of 2015 was: $26,093.12. It looks good compared with $21,624.45 in the last quarter but I’ve had a few windfalls this quarter (my membership site, DealFuel, etc.)
Expenses
But, but, but, that’s only half the story! From now on, I’ll be subtracting the expenses I’ve incurred for these quarterly income reports.
| What? | How much per month? |
|---|---|
| Outsourcing (oDesk, Elance and direct) | $2000 (est.) |
| Hosting (Vidahost) | $300 |
| Email marketing (Aweber) | $180 |
| Cloud storage (Dropbox) | $30 |
| Video storage (Vimeo) | $30 |
| Audio storage (Libsyn) | $30 |
| Membership plug-in (MemberMouse) | $60 |
| SSL (Godaddy) | $15 |
| Donations | $330 |
| Total | $2,975 |
Remember that some of these expenses are company expenses that are incurred to support my active income. For example, web hosting is needed for my web design business which isn’t passive.
But I always like to err on the side of caution with these income reports as I’d hate to exaggerate here. So, bear in mind that these figures are always an underestimation.
This quarter’s total passive income profit
So the revenue ($26,093.12) minus the expenses ($2,975) is … $23,118.12 (phew, more than last quarter, but only just!) and unfortunately, short of my $30,000 target. 🙁
Comparison with previous quarters
| Period | Revenue |
|---|---|
| Q3 2012 | $2447.10 |
| Q4 2012 | $2611.03 |
| Q1 2013 | $2036.93 |
| Q2 2013 | $3,949.05 |
| Q3 2013 | $5191.36 |
| Q4 2013 | $4626.56 |
| Q1 2014 | $7215.82 |
| Q2 2014 | $10230.49 |
| Q3 2014 | $15,435.79 |
| Q4 2014 | $21,624.45 |
| Q1 2015 | $23,118.12 |
Target for next quarter
My target for next quarter, Quarter 2 2015, is: $30,000 passive income profits.
Previous passive income and business reports
H1 2012
Q3 2012
Q4 2012
Q1 2013
Q2 2013
Q3 2013
Q4 2013
Q1 2014
Q2 2014
Q3 2014
Q4 2014
You can do it
You can make this much passive income if you just follow what I’ve done. All the details can be found here for free on the blog, I also have a free mini course on passive income.
I’m interested to hear what you think in the comments.
Congrats Rob! Solid numbers throughout! I’ve gotta get more Kindle books out! What’s your launch like for Kindle books? Do you have an article on that?
Also, that’s great about your membership site. This gives me hope for being able to do something like this on my own. I’ll have to check out Jeff Walker’s launch sequence.
Best of luck for Q2!
Hey Phil. Thank you for your support – it means a lot coming from you.
Yes, here is an article on Kindle launches: Become An Amazon Kindle Bestseller (with a book that takes 2 weeks to write). It includes a lot of links to other valuable Kindle launch posts and podcasts – it’s a real art! In fact, as you’ve probably noticed, Kindles are more work to market but bring in less money than Udemy courses. However, I agree, I think they are totally worth persisting with. I find Steve Scott is great on Kindle. And this Facebook group is particularly useful.
I bought the Kindle of Jeff Walker’s “Launch: An Internet Millionaire’s Secret Formula To Sell Almost Anything Online, Build A Business You Love, And Live The Life Of Your Dreams” and read that – really useful and cheaper than doing one of his courses!
And best of luck to you! 🙂
Excellent results Rob!
I’ve had your site in my feed for a while but haven’t payed much attention. I think I subscribed a while back when you had some Genesis Tutorials.
I recently turned on my own name domain because I grew tired of blogging on one topic. I also turned it on with a goal to generate traffic for some passive income.
Keep up the good work
Hello Loren, yes, like you, I like my blog being RobCubbon.com – my name – because it gives me more freedom to do what I want to do. Best of luck with it! And keep going, Loren! 🙂
Hi Rob,
Great results even though you didn’t hit the target. Really solid numbers and great break down of the process and what you use.
But have I missed something… “Why the Cat?”
Thanks
Naomi
Thank you, Naomi, and I hope the break down will be useful for you. Why the Cat? I like cats 😉
Hello Rob.
Thanks for the income report. I like the addition of the expenses. It helps to provide a true picture.
I love this statement, right at the top: I have shown that consistent effort in content creation
can produce fantastic success in a relatively short time.
I know you did not reach your goal of $30,000, but compared to last year’s first
quarter, you did very nicely. That’s three more than last year at this time. That is beautiful.
Hmm. let’s see. $100,000 – 23,118 = 76,882. Divide that by 3, you will get
25,628. Seems to me if you make an additional 3,000 each quarter, you will reach
over 100,000 this year. What do you think of that ? I know it’s ambitious, but it doesn’t seem
impossible to me. Seems to me you are planning on making much more that that, trying to make 30,000 in the first quarter.
Forget the numbers, I admire what you are doing and the way you are living today. Being able to travel all over the world and still work on your business is a beautiful life. Having new money every month based on your passive income. Wow. You are an inspiration to me (to us all) and I hope to one day to do the same. Thank you so much for the knowledge and info you are sharing through your ebooks, courses and your blog. I cannot thank you enough.
Hello Rene, you’re right, it’s not all about money but I find that the targets are very important. These are not the only targets and goals I have. In last quarter’s Passive Income Report, I targetted $150,000 passive income profits for the year!! So that’s why the quarter targets are so high.
But a beautiful, happy life of freedom is the real goal! 🙂
OK, I’m relieved! I’m not the only one who can’t achieve “simple” goals 😉
I was short of 166 subscribers for Q1.
Progress is progress. Enjoy the journey Rob.
PS. How do you count the income from Kindle? The royalties due to in the given period or the ones that actually landed on your account?
Yes, I have goals. No, I don’t achieve them – most of the time!
The way I calculate these various streams depends on the platform. Sometimes it’s money landing in my PayPal; sometimes it’s when they calculate it in an income report. Quite confusing to explain to my VA!
Anyway, to answer your question. I do a 90 day royalty report on the Reports tab at kdp.amazon.com at the end of the quarter (if I miss the date I can’t do it because they only give you 90 days this way!)
I then convert all the other currencies to US Dollars and add them up!
I’ve started reading your new book, Michel, and I’m enjoying it! 🙂
Want to be like you when I grow up.
I bet you don’t wanna be my age though! 🙂
Very happy for you Rob!
How did your outsourcing expenses come out so high?
What did you outsource?
Hello, Rahat. I now have a full-time VA and I also outsourced a lot of web development due to the launch on my membership site.
hi
you making annual salary in Q1?
that is amazing and truly inspiring.
Well done
Thank you so much, James, I love it when people get inspired from something I’ve done. 🙂
Great work again Rob!
The accountant in me likes that the course income is diversifying and your own membership site is now working – the holy grail!
Hey Paul. Good to see you here. The membership site will take a lot more work to get going long-time I think but good to see it’s started to show something from all the effort I’ve put in (and I remember talking to you about!) Hope you’re well.
I am really happy for you Rob! Keep up the good work! 🙂
Thank you, Silviu, thank you for your continued support. I really appreciate it.
Fabulous Rob! Well done, and the details are appreciated.
I’m thinking it takes a lot of active work (and research and marketing) to make this passive income happen though, right? Books and courses don’t just write and sell themselves. I admire your dedication!
Thank you, Louise. For me it’s all about free content. Because I’ve created so much free content, the books and courses almost do write and sell themselves. The books and courses are all a re-interpretation of the free stuff. You have been giving away loads of free content and I bet you can create many products very quickly by re-interpreting all your old content.
Hi Rob. Just found your site via Buzzsumo. Really like the report and high goals you’ve set for yourself.. I just published my first ever passive income report ($350+ / mo) and started working on a Udemy course myself. Interesting times ahead..
Wow, that’s good you found the site via Buzzsumo, Bodhi. Best of luck with your passive income pursuits. And thank you for the comment.
Hi Rob, just reading your income report again (for like the 5th time!) and I’m a little conflicted about something. It’s probably me overreacting but I’d really appreciate your opinion. (I’ll keep it short.) I have a course on Udemy which is making about $300 a month, and I’m struggling to get it to the next level of income generation – i.e. a full-time wage. I’ve seen you list Skillfeed before, and now Skillshare, and they seem to be sensible platforms to host my course on to increase revenue, but I have two questions.
1. Do you think my reputation will be diluted at all by being on more than one platform? (Obviously you have your courses there so I’m sure I’m being irrational. But I’d love your opinion.)
2. Am I not giving people an incentive to avoid paying full price on Udemy, because they can access it on a free trial here?
I guess I’m just looking for that single reason why I’m absolutely crazy not to host my course on these platforms. 🙂
If you don’t have time for these Qs, no worries. Cheers and enjoy Tropical Think Tank!
Hi David, I’ll advised you first and foremost to start creating another course now. Stop struggling on your one course, there’s very little you can do other than growing your audience both on your own platform and on Udemy by ensuring your students are happy and engaged.
Yes, put your courses on SkillShare and SkillFeed, it’s very unlikely that anyone will bump into your same course on two platforms and make the connection. Nobody pays the full price on Udemy anyway.
Have a look at this, if you haven’t already: How To Make Money On Udemy. And, good luck!
Dude – seriously impressed at how prolific you are. This is definitely motivating me to start creating more content.
I’m hoping to motivate people, Matty. 🙂