WOOHOO! I’ve hit a new record with my passive income, totaling to over $200/month. It might not be much to you, and it might not continue at this rate, but I’m still excited. Hitting a new benchmark has provided me with newfound motivation.
JFYI I’m currently making an additional $500-600/month passive income with my rental property, but I’m only going to discuss my online ventures in this report.
August 2016 Progress Report
Etsy
In August, I decided to put a lot more effort into my Etsy store and Kindle books. With just a bit more effort, I’ve been able to almost triple my Etsy sales.
By the end of August I had created about 44 listings, which was 6 shy of my goal (50 listings). However, it seemed to suffice as it took my shop to the “next level”. This is good proof that the more listings you have, the better the discoverability. And from my speculation, the more people buy and review your products, the more likely others will buy and exponentially increase your sales.
I’ve realized that creating these products can take over 3-4 hours. Times that by 50, and you can see that I’ve spent about 150-200 hours on my shop, not to mention additional hours on marketing, customer support, and shop set up. So I’m sure I’ve already spent at least 225 hours on building my Etsy store! Though Etsy is a source of passive income, it still requires many hours of setup.
My next goals are to:
- Expand the shop to have 100 listings by end of year.
- Open new shops with more specialized products (but I need to research the rules about opening multiple shops.)
- Look into other platforms that sell digital downloads.
- Look into Etsy ads after I hit 100 listings.
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).
Kindle
Whenever I have time, I try to add more books in my Kindle store. I added 2 new books under my pen name and have created new free promotions on my books to generate more reviews.
I’ve also recently purchased KDP Rocket to assist with competitive keyword research. So far, I’m liking the tool a lot. This tool will help me find less competitive markets to enter and create books around.
I’ve also had this goal of creating an ultimate digital nomad guidebook. Since a lot of people ask me about my journey and how I’m doing it, I figure this would be the best way to put everything I know into book format. It will take years of work, but I think KDP Rocket will help me a lot in optimizing my keywords when I have the product ready.
My next goals are:
- Put my books on Createspace and use ACX.com to translate the kindles into audiobooks. (However, I might not have time to do this for September as I will focus on Etsy.)
- Continue racking up reviews for my books with free promotions and sharing.
- Put up 1 new book.
Blog
Launching the DNQ Interview Series in August has given me some sort of greater sense of purpose. I’m not sure why, but I’ve been super pumped about the series. It’s really forcing me to network and learn the stories of people I’ve always been interested in. This in turn not only helps with blog content but also teaches me a lot in general about things I’ve wanted to pursue.
My first episode got some good response, with the founder of NomadList tweeting my article:
This gave DigitalNomadQuest some decent traffic!
I’m a bit worried that I won’t keep up with weekly interviews, but I’m going to force myself to and try my best. Hopefully, I’ll be extremely consistent so that you’ll look forward to new episodes each Monday. 🙂
Active Income
The fear is definitely sinking in when it comes to my active income pursuits. My part-time work might either be coming to a close or gearing towards less hours. This change has given me a bit of power of broke fear. I’ve noticed it a bit more as I’ve been in Lisbon. As a result, I’m trying to work a bit harder on my blog, Etsy, and Kindle books.
Overall Thoughts
August was a great month for me, and I’m determined to get a lot more done while in Lisbon. I’ve met a few digital nomads (thanks to NomadList) who I co-work with at different cafes. I must say this has improved my productivity immensely! We don’t exactly hang out as we just sort of work on stuff every time we meet. Sometimes hustling really requires putting your head down and doing less socializing/sightseeing.
Hopefully September continues as a strong month!
