$30K Month: Success!
Some of you guys have been asking how I did on the $30K month for February... the answer is: I passed with flying colors!
I made it past $30K on Thursday the 26th, with two days to spare. Here's a breakdown of it:
- Day job: $2,500.00
- Launches and trickle sales: $22,207.03
- Affiliates: $4,846.44
- Membership site: $869.06
- Webinar future payments: $2,000
- Total: $32,422.53
Affiliate sales are way up, just about quadrupled. I planned to a product launch, resale rights offer, price increase, and e-class per week... but the two product launches went very well and I took a little bit of Eric Holmlund's advice and focused devoting 80% of my time to marketing.
I hit $30K with just two product launches that went VERY well, two resale rights offers that went VERY well, and one e-class. Here's a list of my accomplishments for the month:
- Made 986 sales.
- Wrote 5 sales letters.
- Wrote 6 blog posts.
- Sent 33 e-mails to my list.
- Paid nearly $1000 in PayPal fees!
- Recorded 50 videos on one Sunday.
- Wrote 2 guest posts, a 9-part guest video series, hosted a 90-minute webinar with a stranger and appeared on 2 interviews.
Tell me why I work a day job again? When I just made more in one MONTH from internet marketing than I make a whole year the day job? Oh right, "health insurance." (rolls eyes)
Instead of going on and on about myself, I'll leave you with a few lessons I learned from the $30K month that you can apply in your business right now:
Lesson #1: Focus on what makes money first. If freelance makes you the most money, freelance first to hit your daily goals and then work on long-term stuff like product creation or joint ventures when you're ahead. Personally, I got a product launch out of the way and then I was free to go about promoting it.
Lesson #2: Have a weekly goal. $30K broken down into 4 weeks is $7500 per week. So each week, all I had to do was think, what did I need to do to get that $7500? Usually a couple of product launches and affiliate sales. $7500 in a week is much less intimidating to me than $30K in a month. If you're not on that level yet, try for even $750 in a week.
Lesson #3: Have an accountability partner. I couldn't have made it this far without Jason kicking my butt every step of the way, and Jason couldn't have made it to $20K without me asking him why he hadn't launched anything that day.
Lesson #4: Never complain. Another big timewaster and a great way to waste the entire week feeling bad about yourself. If you have time to complain, you're not busy enough. This doesn't mean giving up your personal life or anything like that. But if you sit at the computer 3 hours a day, you had better be working on internet marketing all 3 hours instead of complaining!
Lesson #5: Do as much with the time you have as you possibly can. Get an early start to the day if possible, and NEVER EVER do any internet marketing work at your day job unless it's before, after, during lunch or on breaks. My girlfriend wakes up at 5 AM most mornings to babysit, so I got her to wake me up before she left so I could work without any distractions.
What did you think? Do you have close-ended monetary goals for each month and each week? An accountability partner? If not, maybe you need my Time Management on Crack productivity report and videos to get you where you NEED to go.
What's my goal for March 2009? $31K. What's your goal for this month? Please comment below with your goal and how you plan on getting there.
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Shoot, I had guessed $31,000. Should have known that wasn’t enough room to overshoot.
Congrats Robert…now imagine how much you could make if you were not wasting your time in a day job 🙂
JP
Good job Robert! I will be putting in place something very similar to this. There is definitely power in focusing on a goal and having someone help you to be accountable to it.
Welcome to the club Robert.
I’m with JP.. You should be able to pay for your own health insurance with all the extra time you’d have to create and launch a new product every week instead of working at the dayjob! 😉
Great job.. what’s this month’s target?
I reckon $40k is doable. Right? 😉
John
Hi Robert – congratulations on hitting your audacious goal!
That said, I’ll echo your own question: Why the HECK do you still have a day job?
As an aside – I got your TMOC report last week and it motivated me to make my first ever product, which is nearly complete. My goal is to launch it this week, even if just for the experience of having done that. I gotta start somewhere!
Thanks!
Congrats Robert… awesome results and great post.
Merrick and I can help you a bit on the March goal, if you release resale rights to WordPress Crusher and Time Management on Crack soon 😉
Kudos to you, Robert! Thanks for sharing the details.
Congratulations, bro!
By the way, I just launched my new blog site and will be installing some more of your plugins this week (picked up WordPress Crusher and Time Management on Crack this month to help you toward your goal!)
Would love it for you drop by and leave a comment if you could on what you think:
http://www.BodyTransformationInsider.com/access
Today’s post is approaching 100 comments already, which should be pretty regular.
-J
I keep the day job out of fear. That’s all there is to it. For the past year or so, having that job has COSTED me money… it takes up 80% of my time and gives me less than 20% of my income.
As I make more money, that fear gets weaker. It served its purpose… money to get started, give me a reason to wake up in the morning, give me proof of income so I can get a house.
As I stated a few months ago, my personal window for quitting is between March and June… I’ll definitely be doing that once I get the catastrophic health insurance and everything started up.
What’s your new product about, Jonathan?
Yeah yeah Soren… Merrick told me almost the same thing over e-mail 🙂
Rob,
Man, love your reseller offers…I bought both, and both got me into profit in under 2 hours…you got hot products, dude.
Congrats on beating your target!
Jack
Congratulations! I don’t know what I’m more impressed with–reaching your financial goal (which is great) or that you got all of that done in 30 days. I think I’m more impressed with the checked-off list. Keep the excellent content coming!
Joe
Hey Robert,
Great job!
I do wonder why you keep your day job as well. But sometimes having a more limited time to get things done keeps us even more finely focused.
Thanks for putting it out there for everyone to see and learn from. That takes some guts. 🙂
Peggy
Congrats!
I picked up Time Management on Crack and have finally set a date to fire myself from my day job. Keep up the good work.
All the Best
Joe
NICE job Robert 🙂
It’s very exciting stuff to kick-ass like this when all you hear is dreary economy stuff all day long on the news!
Keep up the good work and I look forward to reading about when you quit yer JOB!!
Congrats Robert!
When will you be planning your first $100k month? =)
Best,
Dan
“Tell me why I work a day job again?”
Because if it wasn’t for the day job you would have been $77.47 short of your $30K goal 🙂
Somehow I think you probably could have made that $77.47 up if you hadn’t been working 80% of the time.
Awesome post and accomplishment. I just finished reading TMOC so I can get myself more focused. About the day job…you’re a young dude you can find affordable health insurance especially when you’re banking 30K per month. 🙂
Congratulations on your success Robert.
J.R. Jackson
http://www.jrjackson.com
You’re not really keeping the day job just for the health insurance, are you? You should be able to buy your own insurance policy pretty cheap at your age. Like $100 a month or so to cover just yourself.
Congrats on the 30K month!
@Chris Lockwood
It’s not THAT cheap, but close. I pay $235 a month for a *decent* (not great by any means) plan and I’m 26 and in the fitness niche.
Regarless, pretty much a moot point when you just make $30K in one month.
-J
I love it. I’m 62. I’ve been in marketing for over 30 years. And, I’ve thrown away 98% of what I’ve learned because internet marketing is completely different.
Robert, I thoroughly enjoy learning what you have to teach me about internet marketing. The energy you put into what you do is fantastic. You know how to connect with your customers through your writing. Most importantly, your products offer real value.
Although I live near Washington, DC now, it’s cool seeing a young guy living in Turlock make things happen. My dad was from Turlock. My mom from Ceres. My grandparents from Keyes. Other than you, nobody else will have a clue where these places are. Keep up the superb play in creating the fulfillment of your dreams. You deserve it.
Hey Robert,
Well done Pal. I really need to ask you why on earth you are still working a day job. You must be extremely busy.
You’re a great inspiration to everyone holding down a day job and exploring Internet Marketing. You’re a credit!
Robert congratulations!
Why not dump that $30K into savings, then get a health insurance plan (mines under $150 a month) and go fulltime IM?
You still will have the $30K to fall back on in case something goes wrong and then you can really dedicate yourself to your passion.
Anyways that’s what I do I just leave a bunch in savings just in case; it’s nice to have the cushion and the freedom.
Hi Robert! That’s cool! thanks for your sharing!!
Way to go Robert!
How much of that does Uncle Sam get?? 🙁
Joel, you need to shop around for insurance- you can do a lot better at your age. Seriously. Look at Reed’s comment.
Hi Robert,
Congratulations!
Thanks for taking us on the journey with you.
BTW – when it comes to health insurance – move to Canada! You won’t have to worry about health insurance.
(Just buy a parka LOL!).
Best,
Kenny
Congratulations Robert!
I’m thrilled for you and want to congratulate you for not only meeting your goals, but putting yourself out there publicly, time after time, going full out, inspiring and motivating your self constantly.
Listen Robert, you are a self-motived, driven kinda guy. You’ll know when it’s time for you to QYDJ and go IM full time. You’ve got the chops to do it, and if it takes a month or two longer for you to really get psyched enough to do it, don’t sweat it — honor your intuition and your unique process. You’re on the path.
And when you’re ready, consider that you’ve put yourself in a situation to do something I’ve done, and I’ve recommended to a few clients who were also able to take advantage of a nest egg to launch their entrepreneurial career.
Check this out…
As I understand it, your day job earns you $30k and now you know how to make $30k a month.
Well..If you didn’t change your lifestyle for a year, you could drop that $30k into a savings account, top it up with $150/mo or so for insurance and benefits, and you could draw a “paycheck” and be fully insured for the next 12 months.
Heck, what if you went over-the-top conservative and put away two $30k months of income. You’ve just created two years of “employment” for yourself – without the inconvenience of having to have a boss.
Of course, 8 “mere mortal” hours translates to about 80 Plank Hours. 😉
I’d guess with all that extra time available, your fertile brain, your skills, and your “Time Management On Crack” approach … in not time, you’ll have multiplied your income to the point where you won’t even remember how to spell J.O.B.
Keep Rockin’ It – I’m rootin’ for ya!
Lou
Love your work Robert
I have been paying health insurance for years and it seems a waste as I never get sick!
cheers
Tony
HaHa, way to go Robert! You’ve helped me in so many ways, you definitely deserve more than that.
Thank you!
Freelancing is earning me a lot of points here.
Writing down this blog post on old school college ruled paper, =). It’s this weird thing that helps me you know.. but……..
I would say more, but its almost 5 in the morning, need to sleep an hour, then get up to work such a wonderful 7 to 4 o clock job.
::Nyquil::
Judas Ancient Gospel special on Discovery Channel
Rihanna back with Chris Brown on headline news
Weird Cartoon on Cartoon Network
Conservative Teen Author on Fox News
MTV…. Need to vomit.
Goodnight Plank and Plank viewers, and congrats robert..
ZZZZZzzzzzZzzzzzz…. =)
I heard on the news last night thanks to our ever expanding government, that there is 2.71 times the amount of money out there in the money supply than there was just a few months ago. The printing presses are blazing.
While everyone is saying how bad the economy is, the truth is the money, more money than ever, is lying around doing nada. No one is investing or spending for big ticket items.
your idea of selling small ticket items and doing these mini product launches is great. my website did $75K in January and $67K in Feb. (short month!)
People want good deals. I am opening a new economy style eBay store in a week called 99_cent_vitamins… actually this is fun….
Thanks for the Internet Time Management on crack. Can I change that count down timer to make a different noise. damn thing hurts my ears and scares the crap out of me.
Garey
HI Robert,
Congrats…
I think all too often we marketer get bogged down with goals like 30K in one month… and forget as you said.. we should break up our monetary goals into smaller chunks..
I know this has helped me..
I especially like your 5 step lessons…
Joe
Congrats Robert! Very well done. I need to take the tip on accountability partner more seriously, even at my age peer pressure still works 🙂
Also just a tip on health insurance. I don’t know your full situation, or how it is in California, but here in NC a healthy young person can get a very good policy from Blue Cross Blue Shield for a very reasonable rate per month. If HI is the ONLY thing keeping you at your day job – then take a few hours and investigate what’s available.
Again, congrats and best wishes!
–Jack
You are an insperation
Thanks for sharing this.
Trinidad
About ^^^^
I meant –> Inspiration 🙂
Great post and congratulations! I personally have purchased some of your products and hope that you can quit your day job and release more good stuff soon! – Joel
Robert, congrat’s on your success.
I have been averaging over $500,000 per year working 100% online since 1996.
I think your goal of $31k this month is WEAK – lol! Heck, you made $30k last month. It is time to start thinking bigger!!!
I’m challenging you to earn 10-30% more this month than last month.
In closing let me say that I own several of your php packages and they are all top notch. You go way up and beyond what you promise.
J.R.
Hey Robert,
congrats on over reaching your goal. I got you tmoc series along with wordpress on crack just to help you meet your goal,(ya right, ok I wanted it).
Excellent products. It has taken a whole lot longer on dial up to download, but the product “get it” has help tremendously. thanks for the recommendation.
I am on dial up because there is no cable, dsl or wi-fi in my area. Ma’ Bell, doesn’t think over 4,000 residents in a 10 mile area needs high speed.
I followed what you said in your blog post and through the products. My affiliate sales reached a few cents short of $100.00 last month. Nothing compared to your 32,000
but it is a great start. Maybe this month I can double that amount. After my new blog goes live.
Lou D’Alo, I Agree!
“How to INSTANTLY turn your MERE MORTAL hours…. into Robert Plank Superhours… Instantly!”
and then a link to plankhoursoncrack.com
😀
I’ve already posted you should quit your job.
Now you are just being silly. Get on with it.
Well done Robert…
Always knew you could do it!
Now to try to automate it…
Here’s a Facebook photo of me reading your ‘Membership Sites On Crack’ in Phuket, Thailand. Hope you like it…
http://tinyurl.com/cw9qqp
Thanks for the motivations…
Martin
Man, you’re good. Just came across you via some of your articles. Got to your page here and … very impressed. I’m kneeling and bowing at someone holding down a job who is as productive online as you. What a star. I’m off to start writing those articles … Cheers!
What is your Product development eproduct ?
You mentioned it in one of the the time management products.
Hey Robert,
I would think really hard on this before I quit my day job. We live in uncertain times,
and I can not help but believe that tougher times are coming.
Job competition is extremly tough right now.
Insurance is also extremly expensive.
My own two cents.
William
William – seriously?
Robert has just made IN ONE MONTH what his day job made him ALL LAST YEAR.
He has a several year long proven track record of creating income from the internet, so this isn’t a guessing game.
True – job competition is tough. But I would wager that for Robert to find a way to make $2000 a month via the internet is less tough.
If you can’t live free from fear, you’re not living at all.
My two cents.
Jonathan
Hi Robert
Congrats on passing that all-important first marker. Now, the next record must be 50K, and then 100K.
Remember to have fun, and keep up the heat. It’s always nice to read your blog posts although I must admit I haven’t always made comments on all of them. But I do read most of them, and follow you through RSS.
Carpe diem. 🙂
Hi Robert,
so the big part of your income is selling your own products. Do you really develop all products yourself? like those php tools/ ebook / video etc.
It will take a lot of time to do, even a very experienced PHP programmer.
Like for the videos how can you make the video so quick? it seems impossible?
Thanks,
@Johnny: I’ve practiced enough with video that I can record everything in one take. I’ve also practiced enough with creating the products that I have a system for doing it all. 2 days to make the scripts, 2 days to write the report, 2 days to make the video, 1 day to make the sales letter. I also re-use the templates for the download page and sales letter.
@William: I made as much in one month as I make from a year at my job (like Jonathan said), and I have 2 years worth of day job income in savings… I think I’ll be ok. As far as health insurance, I applied a while ago for $140/month full coverage. I also found out I have the option to keep my existing coverage from the day job, which isn’t too much more.
@Marcel: http://www.productuniversity.com
Hey Robert,
I was just brining a diffrent voice to the conversation. Sounds like you are ready and have been ready for a while to let go of that day job.
Have you thought of what you are going to say when you fire your boss?
@ Jonathan,
I wasn’t coming from a place of fear but of reasonable thought. Also $2000. a month for most people to live on is peanuts. It takes $2500 a month for my family to live on and I don’t have a mortgage and car payments.
(I do own my own home and I have 3 cars).
Awesome stuff –
I don’t know why I didn’t notice how much one could make online…
Anyway, I have now started my little blog too to see how it goes.
Well done man. Congrats! I like your 5 lessons. I’ve never tried an accountability partner for marketing, but its a good idea.
Re:
“Recorded 50 videos on one Sunday.”
– dude that’s a ton… you are an animal!
Impressive results… you may really like your day job!
Franck
Impressed! You are becoming a source of inspiration for me 🙂
I bought your actincomments plugin for WP and I am just amazed by its power. It’s just so coooool!!!
Thanks for useful PHP info, your content really gives me some cool ideas.
Thanks,
Deep Arora
Thanks for sharing your tips and earnings with us. This is inspiring for me, at least…
I will be more proactive and start making some cash online. For now, I just started with paid to blog sites, hopefully that should morph into something more profitable.
Awesome site by the way 🙂
Hey Robert, another good post and statistics. It all adds up with different funnels. Btw, 50 videos in one sunday? Talk about a go-getter.
Terrance Charles
http://www.terrancecharles.com/blog