I must say it is strange writing these because it’s not like I’ve been making much financial progress, lol! Hopefully 2016 will bring larger passive income improvements. In summary, this month has included a lot more action and resilience. I’m quite happy with how this month went!
If you’ve checked out my old post, you’ll know I created some deadlines for myself. Here’s my list and my status report:
- Publish 2 new kindle books by 12/31 – DONE
- 2nd music video by 12/29 – DONE
- 2 new upbeat songs by 12/31 – Not done, music hasn’t been enough of a priority with kindle books and other things going on unfortunately.
- Design media kit templates on Etsy by 12/15 – DONE and it’s actually (slightly) working!
- Create a music blog gig on Fiverr by 12/15 – DONE, but it hasn’t been getting traction, haven’t been working on it.
- Attempt to send 10 stock photos to stock photography sites by 12/31 – Not done, probably won’t be attempting this any time soon as I’m focused on other channels.
As you can see I completed a majority of my deadlines, which is actually surprising to me. It helped me test different forms of passive income streams and see which avenues could be worthwhile to pursue. Ultimately, I think kindle books and authority sites will be of my main concern right now. Kindle books definitely have the potential of helping me meet my $1,000/month passive income goal by May 30.
After a chat with Jason Bracht (a kindle book guru) I’ve learned more about the importance of focusing your time on building a brand and an authority site and making kindle books under that brand. As you may know, I’ve been creating a handful of kindle books under an anonymous pen name. However, my ultimate goal will be to build this DigitalNomadQuest brand and my MeWantTravel blog. And I hope that I can create kindle books under those domains (travel, passive income, digital nomad life) as those are really the main things I’m passionate about. I think I’m going to start now with writing about these topics, and I want to release them after I’ve quit my job and made my move to (hopefully) show my credibility. I’ll make a blog post about my video chat with Jason Bracht in a later article.
Ok enough talk…without further ado, here is my income report for the month!
December 2015 Income Report
Freelancing
Same as last month; I’ve made a total of $2300 this month for freelancing. This includes managing Facebook ads and consulting for a client and doing graphic design for another client.
Normal Income
Still working my fulltime job so received my normal income for the month.
Passive Income
Kindle Books – $32.45 – saw some improvement! I’ve recently published 2 more books so hopefully that will generate more revenue for January.
Etsy – $13.77 – made 3 sales from my Etsy shop! I’ve actually put a lot of time and effort into the PSD templates that I’ve been creating and am quite proud of them…but I find the sales counts to be way more volatile than that of the kindle books. Therefore I wouldn’t be surprised if nobody purchased anything for January. It’s more fun for me to create Etsy designs especially when I’m writing kindle books about topics that I’m not super passionate about….but I think I need to focus on kindle for now.
Total: $46.22
Patreon
I’m going to put Patreon in another bucket. Patreon is a platform in which fans of my music have pledged to my music videos on YouTube. I expect to receive around $50 for December. But these pledges won’t continue much longer if I’m going to live abroad, unless I find ways to make music videos while I’m out there. Unfortunately, it’s been really hard to focus on music lately when I’m so wrapped up with writing kindle books.
Total: $50
Blogging
None from blogging, but my friend who co-owns our travel blog is going on more sponsored activities in Peru this month and next month!
Conclusion
In my opinion it was a good month, but I definitely still need to keep grinding. The passive income number hasn’t grown much but I hope it will soon. Right now, I’m thinking about how to expand on DigitalNomadQuest. Initially I wanted to start with a podcast series, but now I’m also thinking I should do video and use the audio from it to make the podcast (killing two birds with one stone)! The problem is it would be a LOT more work. Perhaps I should start with audio first and figure it out from there? What do you think?
