This is a series of reports that I will post each and every month summarising my progress. I’ll first mention the major events that may have happened within the month that could have made a difference in my earnings. I will also break down the sources of my income so that I can keep track of how each one is doing. Lastly, I’ll conclude with the most important things that I learned and what I have planned for the near future. I’d love to respond to any questions or comments that you may have. Thanks!
Important Goings On In March
Here are the import goings on this month:
Merch By Amazon
I finally got accepted to Merch By Amazon after waiting 8+ months. I only noticed that I’d been accepted on the 31st March so it made no difference to my income for the month. I am gated at 10 designs so I am trying to get the first 25 orders sold as quickly as possible so I can get tiered up to 25 designs (or 50 I’m not sure how it works now).
Dropshipping
My progress has really slowed with regards to my income even though I am working harder now than I was back in October, November & December. So I’ve decided to branch out and give dropshipping a try. The problem with selling this organically is that it’s really hard to scale up. However, if I pay for traffic from Facebook and Adwords I can scale up really quickly and boost my income.
How Do I Make My Money Online?
The majority of the money I make online comes from Kindle Publishing. Some income also comes from Createspace, ACX and a small amount comes from selling print on demand T-shirts on sites like Merch By Amazon, Redbubble and Teespring. Plus some small affiliate earnings.
Kindle Publishing
This is my total from Kindle taken from the Book Report dashboard plugin for Kindle. It adds everything up into one nice figure.
Total from Kindle Publishing – $1,350.07 (£1089.24)
Createspace
Total from Createspace – $1265.53 (£1021)
Note: I take this screenshot before the end of the day so I will get a few more sales as I get most during the night then get reported here. I don’t want to stay up until 5AM to take a screenshot.
ACX
Sold 112 audiobooks (0 bounties)
Total from ACX – $200.90 (£185.28)
Note: This is an approximation as I do not know the exact amount until later on this month (20th). So I’ve made an approximation based on what I have been paid in the past.
Merch By Amazon (Redbubble, Teespring, etc)
Merch By Amazon – $0 (£0).
Total from RedBubble – $233.17 (£188.01).
Total from Teepublic – $20 (£16.13).
Total from Teespring – $4.80 (£3.87).
Total from Zazzle – $0 (£0).
Misc Income
Affiliate Income – $12.49 (£10.07).
Total for March 2017
$3104.84 (£2503.60)
What’s Next?
It feels like I’m stuck in quicksand no matter how hard I work I don’t seem to be making any progress with my income. That’s why I have decided to give dropshipping a try. My Shopify site is already done and ready to start selling so I will be launching my first Facebook ad either this week or next week. Hopefully this with lead to a jump in my income because it’s getting really frustrating seeing my progress plaque like it has been since December.
Like I said above I’m working harder now than I was for the last 3 months of 2016. So I’m getting annoyed that my income has not increased to reflect the work than I am putting in. But fingers crossed next month will be different.
If you have any questions please ask them below. Thanks for reading!
Congrats mate about getting into Merch. I’ve been waiting 6+ months myself but no luck with approval. Did you reapply any time after your first application?? I’ve been waiting for so long and I get so upset when I hear some guy or girl who applied in January 2017 gets approved before me.. they aren’t approving on a first come first serve basis and I don’t know how long I’ll get in. They’ve also done so many tier restrictions and upload limits and now Teespring is uploading content on Amazon, it’s making me wonder if this thing will become saturated too quickly.. It’s a shame your Redbubble is declining though, I’ve found my sales going down as well… maybe it’ll do better on Amazon?
Thank you! Have you thought about trying to apply on a different email account for merch and see if that one gets you in quicker? That’s what someone I know did and they are up to 500 shirts now. Might be something to think about. Don’t worry about it becoming oversaturated, Merch is removing any designs that don’t sell any units after 30 or 60 days. Those people that are uploading crap will soon abandon it for the next shiny thing. I think the key to try and have your shirt designs on at least 3/4 platforms. With redbubble it really seems like customers wait until there is a 20% off sale to buy anything. So if RB only has 1 20% off sale that month you hardly sell any units.
I found your site due to the merch informer review. re- your income stalling. I’m interested – why do you think the kindle income is not increasing..I assume you’re still putting out books? Do you have any ideas what’s going wrong? (well ok not ‘wrong’ – but not as well as you’d like)
And as for amazon merch – is there a reason you haven’t jumped on the other options already – i.e Teespring amazon integration (which essentially allows unlimited products to be listed on amazon) or Gearbubble.com not to mention the Shopify-Amazon integration (which would allow you to get all your Redbubble designs onto Amazon right now??) Or is that what you mean by ‘dropshipping’.
Just be bloody sure you know what you’re doing with Facebook ads. I’ve seen people wander into this and get badly stung. Very easy to sink $100 per day or more and see no results.
Hi Simon,
Thanks for the comment & kind words. I think the reason my kindle income is stalling is because I am not putting out books consistently. They have been coming out in dribs and drabs over the last 4 months.
I’ve not jumped on the Teespring-Amazon integration yet because they haven’t rolled it out in the UK yet (at least not for me). When I log in I don’t have the button that lets me fill out the info to list it on to Amazon.
With drop shipping, it’s actually going to be conventional drop shipping, so having a Shopify store and selling Ali Express products through an app called Oberlo. Don’t worry I’ll be getting training for Facebook Ads, I tried them once before and wasted £80 and got no sales so I will start small with maybe $5 per day and scale up once I’ve started to get sales.
Congrats Brendan about Merch approval. I hope I don’t have to wait long for approval. Keep updating about your Merch journey. I’m very interested to know. Wish you good luck, buddy.
Thank you, I will 🙂