June 2017 Progress Report

Sharon Tseung My Progress Reports 6 Comments

Disclaimer: I don’t break down the actual amounts in my progress reports in fear of revealing too much online – my apologies! These posts are merely a way for me to track my progress.

In June, I worked pretty hard on new entrepreneurial endeavors, BUT I have dropped a LOT on passive income this month. I believe this is because I haven’t done much maintenance on the channels that are working, so it is kind of scary. However, my boyfriend told me that sales have dropped significantly for him and a lot of people say that this kind of happens over the summer, especially for his niche. Regardless, I shouldn’t let this happen and should keep increasing my sales.

I definitely spent way more than earned this month because I was putting money in investments on other passive income channels as well as purchased insurance and flights & accommodations. Even though I say I have worked hard, I know I am not working full-time hours hard. A part of me is scared but the other part of me is taking my sweet ass time and being complacent. So I think I really need to force myself to do 8-hour FOCUSED days with no distractions.

June 2017 Progress Report

Travels

In June I visited Vancouver from June 2nd to June 9th and am going back July 12th. I was in Vancouver for about 7 nights, and it was quite beautiful! We did some indoor rock climbing, played the escape game, and checked out certain sights.

vancouver canada

vancouver canada

The rock climbing we did. Haha jk

Passive Income

After Vancouver, I got back into productive mode. I realize I’m now attempting almost all the income streams I had been interested in. These past two months I had paused on Etsy and started working more on Kindle, Amazon FBA, and drop shipping. I guess a positive side of having issues with Etsy was that I was forced to expand my efforts to different channels. If I can kill it on these income streams, I want to get back to working on creating a massive location & financial independence book as well as developing courses and other things like that.



Kindle

So what I did on Kindle was add the paperback versions to one of my e-books that actually sells from time to time. I discovered my paperback versions actually sold a few units this month which means I had been missing out on more passive income! So by the end of this month, I started auditioning people to do the voice for my books to make audiobooks as well. You can actually go on ACX.com to do this, and rather than pay the voice actors a fee you can opt into a royalty program where the people you hire receive 50-50 profits on audio sales.

Etsy

I told myself I would update my shops in my last post, but unfortunately I didn’t end up doing so because of all the different things I was working on. But because of this, profits have dropped a whopping 26-27% from last month. This means I want to stock some new items in my shops by the first week of July.

If you’d like to open your own Etsy shop, you can use my link here which gives you a free 40 listings (and provides me with 40 free listings as well). 

Amazon FBA

For Amazon FBA, I have now ordered 6 products. Some are still in production while others have actually delivered to the warehouse. It is good that I’m attempting multiple income streams because there are points where you can’t really do anything to move forward on Amazon FBA but wait. So during the down time I can work on other efforts.

Dropshipping

With our dropshipping store, our main focus is now marketing.

  1. I have been steadily growing our Instagram channel (now at 2300 followers), but we still haven’t gotten sales. My goal for June was 2000 followers so I’m glad we passed that.
  2. We’ve added “buyable pins” on Pinterest so that the prices of each item are now shown on our pins.
  3. We have outsourced someone to collect influencer emails to hopefully get users to review our products.
  4. We’ve also launched a few Facebook ads, though we haven’t been able to get a conversion yet. We figure we’re willing to spend $500-1000 testing to get a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t.

I am optimistic that if we reach 10k followers on Instagram we will start seeing some sales, but I don’t know how long this will take! For July I will aim to hit 4,000 followers on Instagram (and maybe 20 on Pinterest…nobody seems to like us there 🙁 ).



Buddhism Studies

As you know from my previous progress report, I have been reading Buddhism materials because I’ve found it is a great way to train your mind. I finished this book in June, called Buddhism Plain and Simple and I actually really recommend it. I’m not even trying to be a hardcore Buddhist lol but reading this book is like understanding a great perspective on how to view life and be more aware. I’m actually going to reread the book with my boyfriend – we’ve been taking turns reading out loud like elementary school students, haha.

Conclusion

I am also attempting a new channel, but I have decided I will discuss it in next month’s report because I discovered it very late in June.

As I noted earlier, even though it’s exciting that I am finally attempting almost everything I said I would, a part of me is scared that nothing will succeed after everything’s set up. It’s easy to get discouraged by lack of gains, and it’s even scarier when your passive income amounts are dropping! While I was writing this, a brief thought of “full-time office job” popped up into my head out of fear, and I quickly popped that thought bubble with a slight cringe. I really don’t want to go back to the corporate world. And honestly I don’t have an excuse to justify not figuring out this financial independence/passive income thing. I have enough savings and enough current passive income to last me some time (and possibly even profit if I were living in Thailand). Meanwhile others hit up Chiang Mai with $1000 and a dream and figure out how to kill it. If they can do it, so can I. As long as I don’t let fear (and my parents) heavily influence/dictate my life, I should be okay. It’s up to me to succeed and I definitely need to put more pressure on myself.

Let me know if you have questions in the comments below :).

JUNE 2017 progress report pinterest

 

June 2017 digital nomad Progress report (1)

 

 

About the Author

Sharon Tseung

Hi, I’m Sharon Tseung! I’m the owner of DigitalNomadQuest. I quit my job in 2016, traveled the world for 2 years, came back to the Bay Area, and ended up saving more money and building over 10 passive income streams on my digital nomad journey. I want to show you how you can do the same! Through this blog, learn how to build passive income and create financial and location independence.

Comments 6

  1. I’ve always been curious about Amazon FBA and drop shipping so curious to learn more! Thanks for doing these updates – I sometimes think about moving abroad but I’m not sure I could stay motivated if I lived in Chiang Mai. Have enjoyed following your progress reports and wanted to finally leave a quick comment 🙂

    1. Post
      Author

      I’ll try to write more posts on Amazon FBA/dropshipping as I learn more! Thanks so much for reading and dropping a comment 🙂

  2. My etsy sales dropped as well. I need to figure out why but don’t have the time to investigate. Hang in there! Even when your income drops, you’re still learning and will be better for it in the long run.

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      Author

      Ahhh right? I think it may be the same across the board – perhaps sales just drop around this time of the year. My other friend’s Etsy sales have dropped, and the company she works for is experiencing the same. Also I think you’re good as your affiliate marketing commissions are amazing!

  3. Really curious about that new channel! 🙂 Guess I’ll have to wait for the July progress report. Your blog is such an inspiration for us passive income hustlers! Thanks for this.

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      Author

      Ahh I’m really happy to hear that! I hope it is inspiring! Yes I will keep you posted in the next report 🙂

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