Welcome to a further instalment in my wonderful business and life! Every quarter I crunch the business’s figures, work out what’s wrong and what’s right, and, basically think out loud on my blog. Thank you for putting up with me.
This quarter has been, on the face of it, quite eventful. These last three months, I have:
- Launched three courses
- Wasted a lot of money on FBA and given up on a product
- And, I think, finally did what I’ve always wanted: start a viable side business that is totally separate from my brand
Let’s start with my “successes”. Don’t worry, as usual you’ll also get the dirty details of my horrendous failures.
Merch by Amazon success!
I love thee Merch By Amazon. Why do I love thee Merch By Amazon?
Well, compare it to two years of Amazon FBA pain: sourcing products, paying upfront for inventory, organizing transportation, spending a fortune on ads and, ultimately, loosing money despite selling thousands of products.
With Merch By Amazon, I identify a niche, design a t-shirt, upload a PNG … And. That. Is. It. Amazon does everything else and I sit back and watch the royalties come in.
Bringing in $120 a week, doesn’t sound great. But I’ve only just started. I never spend more that an hour a day on it. It’s got potential: I conservatively predict that this little side business will be bringing in over $1000 a month by the end of the year.
That’s over $1000 a month, pure profit, while spending less than an hour a day. Who knows where this will be this time next year!
The only blot on the horizon is Amazon’s trigger-happy habit of banning accounts. I’ve had nearly 10 rejections of designs that have fallen foul of their strict content policy.
If you want to know more about Merch By Amazon:
- how to make sure you get accepted straightway
- how to identify profitable niches quickly
- and how to make sure you don’t get your account banned
And, generally, if you want to know how to do Merch By Amazon right, you should take my brand new course: Merch by Amazon: An Introduction to Selling Print On Demand T-Shirts.
And, talking of courses …
More course launch success!
Regular readers will know that selling courses has been an important part of my business for a long time. This quarter I launched three courses:
- WordPress Security: Secure & Lock Down Your Site Against Hackers!
- The Complete Steemit Course: Earn Cryptocurrency For Free (Free Course)
- Merch by Amazon: An Introduction to Selling Print On Demand T-Shirts
For along time, Udemy was my main way of selling courses. This was both good and bad.
Udemy was good for me because it brought in nice monthly revenues and expanded my audience. It was bad because it got me in the habit of accepting low prices for my courses and it made me over-reliant on one platform for passive income.
Now I sell the premium versions of my courses on my site and “watered down” or lite versions on Udemy. My latest course on Merch By Amazon is doing well on both platforms.
I’m delighted to say that I’m now making as much from my own Teachable school as I am from Udemy.
This last month, for some reason, I received really good organic sales from my autoresponder emails. As a result I’m now running Facebook ads retargeting my website’s visitors to get them to join the mailing list.
It’s all about the list…
More Amazon FBA pain
Well, we’ve been here before. I’ve put a lot of money into my first two products.
My first product sells OK. I used a Viral Launch promo to get it “above the fold” in the results for its main keyword. I failed. It pushed it up to 7th in the rankings, on the third row and therefore just “below the fold”. I increased my spend on PPC ads but despite all this there wasn’t a reasonable increase in sales to justify continuing. So, the product descended back to the mid-page position it’s always been in.
My second product doesn’t sell. I’d already done a Viral Launch promo of 100 units which failed to get it off the ground so I blasted it with another Viral Launch promo of 350 units. And, nothing. So I’m discontinuing that product.
It’s too early to tell whether my third product will do any good. I’ve just ordered another 300 units to see how it goes. Fingers crossed on that one.
I’ve spent nearly two years trying and failing at FBA. I’ve just crunched the figures – I’ve actually lost money on it. So where do I go from here? I really don’t know but I’m going to keep at it.
Steemit, YouTube and content creation
Content creation remains a central part of my business. Last quarter I said I was trying to do more video and posting more on the Steemit platform. I also did a free course on Steemit in an attempt to further understand the platform as well as to introduce more people to it.
I’m still positive about the Steemit model. It’s a blockchain based social media network with a win-win model of rewarding content creators and users with cryptocurrency. However, I’m not really making much money there – a few dollars a post (although cryptocurrencies being what they are a few dollars could equal a fortune in the future – or nothing at all).
Lots of people are questioning me. Why do I bother with this platform? I have to say that I question myself sometimes. But I will persevere with it for the time being. Content creation is a long game. Always has been. So is investment: the total amount of Steem I own is increasing.
The new videos on YouTube (for example the one above on Bangkok) haven’t done well at all. My viewing and subscriber figures are rising painfully slowly despite all the extra effort. On YouTube I tend to see success with the odd technical “how-to” video. Otherwise, my “talking head” videos only get a handful of views.
Anyway, I shall persevere on this as well.
What I’ve been up to
I spent most of Thailand’s rainy season in Chiang Mai. The rainy season really wasn’t that rainy this year. It rained on average about 30 minutes a day – usually the 30 minutes when I had somewhere to go to though.
I took a trip down to Phuket, Thailand’s largest island, to check out some different weather and scenery.
And now I’m off to London to visit family. After that, I’ll go back to Thailand for high season. Five months of unbroken sunshine and bike rides. I can’t wait.
What’s next?
OK. It’s goal time. By the end of the next quarter I will:
- Be making $1000+/month on Merch By Amazon
- Have launched at least one course on Photoshop design for Merch By Amazon
- Be making a profit on Amazon FBA
By the way, if you read my last business report from Q2 2017, I’m delighted to say that I achieved all but one of my goals!
You can do it (and emails I get)
I get lots of emails from people asking me about business. If you’ve recently sent me an email don’t think I’m talking about you here. I get a lot of emails.
Just recently two or three of the emails really struck me. I’m a lucky guy. But I was in a bad situation over a decade ago. I thought getting a website live was beyond me. Then I managed to create a website. Then I got one visitor. And then another.
I took it slowly. I still do. The goals are small. The affirmations are huge.
You will get there.
Lots of love from BKK! Rob x
Thanks Rob. It’s been the rainiest rainy season I can remember, Chiang Mai has that reverse eco system! Have fun in blighty, when do you get back?
The rainy season certainly had a sting in the tail at the end there. A very wet September. I’m back in Thailand
wow you have been busy. I got to learn so many things from your one blogpost. Lovely photo of Chiang Mai. Wish you good luck in your business endeavours.
Thank you, Rajlakshmi, Chiang Mai is a very beautiful place.
Nice work on the Merch stuff Rob!
Thanks, Nick!
I love your progress reports, Rob. They are very helpful. I feel like you take your readers along on your journey. It’s always good to hear people share what they have tried that didn’t pan out and why they think that is, versus only sharing the success stories. Thanks for letting us learn with you. (I have friends who have retired to Chiang Mai from Florida. I loved it when they were there and am toying with the idea. Thanks also for the reminder it’s a beautiful place and great for digital nomads.)
Hello Suzanne, it’s great, and thanks for letting me know, that these reports help you.
Yes, Thailand is a beautiful place and Chiang Mai is a great place to meet other online entrepreneurs.
Along with the rest of your quarterly reports, I just so happen to be one of the “handful” you speak of who watches your talking head videos. I wish there was something I could tell you to further convince you to persevere with them. However, similar to your Amazon FBA situation, I can understand there having to be a point at which you may need to cut your losses so you can put your energy into what does work.
Overall, I just hope that you keep doing what you do for as long as you can. I have about three more weeks to tough through at my day job before I finally leave and start down my own runway. I’m starting to go back over some of your ebooks to re-inspire and motivate myself.
Best of luck with your new endeavour Yardell.
Hello, Yardell, thank you for your lovely message. I haven’t done any talking head videos recently but I will do more soon. It’s uninspiring to see that on average they get 100 views on YouTube when you compare those figures to other YouTubers out there.
Best of luck on your new change of direction, Yardell, and please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions if you have any. 🙂
Very helpful Rob and you remain inspirational as ever. Can’t wait to interview you for my podcast next week about Merch! Best regards John
Thanks John. It was great to talk to you the other day.
I always look forward to your updates Rob, the last bit of this blog post really resonated with me.
I haven’t emailed you but could easily be one of those people.
I have been following your progress over the last few years and trying to make a go of it myself too. I am in full-time employment but have been trying to create a sustainable side business. Things are slow but I am building month by month. Whenever I feel like I am starting to doubt my ability I am re-energised by one of your latest blog posts.
Recently I found out that I am going to be made redundant by my employers by Christmas.
I have no excuses to not take action! Just got to keep at it.
Hello Tom, I’m actually going to make a video about this soon. And it’s going to be less about tough love “make it happen” type message and more about how desperate I was before things started to happen for me.
For example, for me, the internet came along in 1995, that’s when I got a modem and started surfing the web. And it wasn’t until 2005, ten years later, that I managed to publish my first few web pages. In that intervening 10 years, although I was sure the internet was going to be the next big thing and I was proficient at Photoshop, I thought myself incapable of mastering HTML and/or being able to publish on the web.
My confidence was just so low.
Then, once I got my act together and began blogging, etc., I didn’t set myself a target of being able to leave work and become an online entrepreneur. It sort just happened. I left my day job when I felt ready to do so.
So, the point I’m making is it’s different for everyone. Some people need luck and time to make mistakes and to find their way. I needed more time and luck than most people.
But we can’t all be like these superheroes who develop the next killer app while at college and go on to become millionaires. That’s the tip of the iceberg. Usually success is slow and unspectacular.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions. And best of luck with your journey.
Tom,
Don’t beat yourself up too much. Anyone can play the tough love, “Make it happen” card. Most who do aren’t making anything happen. Its harder to lead by example because you need to have an example worth following.
That is one of the things I’ve always admired about Rob. He could easily throw the “Tough Love” card and easily back it up. He rarely – if ever – does. Its just: “I know where you’re coming from. I’ve been there. This is how I got out. You can do the same”. Ive been following him myself and thanks largely to him, I’m currently well on my way out of my own hellscape of a corporate drudgery.
I’m not saying that he’s the ONLY person around that you could be following and inspired by, but the world has enough “Just do it” wannabes floating about. I say that you’re doing yourself a huge favor by sticking with Rob and whomever else you can find who has more of a: “THIS is how you can ‘just do it’.” message to serve.
Great answer, Yardell. Thank you. 🙂
It’s always a pleasure to read your blog, Rob. My parents were in Phuket a couple of years ago. They loved it!! I love how candid your posts are, and you show what works and doesn’t. I will be interested to hear more about how your FB retargeting goes. Haven’t dabbled in that for course promotion yet. Congrats on your Teachable milestone! Keep pushing!
Lisa, you don’t know the buzz I get when Lisa Irby comments on my blog. Like, oh my god! Unfortunately, the FB ads experiment was not successful. I can say that now.
Congratulations on your recent mind-blowing success with Merch, PoD and the courses and help you are giving to the community. You are truly an inspiration to me. I’ll keep pushing.
You told me about your parents coming here. I know you have an issue with long flights but … come on to the Land of Smiles!
Very helpful and inspirational…This is my first visit..looking forward for more updates 🙂