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January 2025 Income Report

February 28 2025 – 03:13pm

To listen to an audio version of this report, join the Patreon »

January’s revenue was $5,814, down from December’s $6,298. Profits were $2,143, up from December’s $2,022.

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This month’s profits were below the 12-month average of $3,552. This is the third month in a row below the trailing 12-month average.

These low profits are not ideal. Profits over recent months were boosted by new product releases, such as the Journal Prompts Workbook and How to Sell a Book. As I dig in my heels once again to write Finish What Matters, I don’t currently have a short-term plan for boosting revenue.

But, I did just finish a project that will hopefully boost revenue in the medium term.

ActiveCampaign Review: video and article

After years of putting it off, I’ve finally updated my ActiveCampaign review video and ActiveCampaign review article.

As you know if you frequently read my reports, I have a good affiliate income stream with ActiveCampaign. Since making a series of email marketing platform videos and articles in 2017 and 2018, I’ve made more than $100,000 from ActiveCampaign.

Weirdly, Kit (formerly ConvertKit) has an affiliate program with very similar terms, I’ve sent a pretty respectable amount of traffic to them, but earned only a fraction of the commissions. I’ve earned well over $100,000 from sending to ActiveCampaign about 15,000 clicks. From sending Kit more than 10,000 clicks, I’ve earned $2,591. Kit must not be very good at converting their traffic? Or AC is very good at it? Or something else? 🤔 I don’t know – it’s weird.

Anyway, I’ve for years had somewhere on my to-do list to update my ActiveCampaign review, but, one, I had higher-priority projects to complete, two, I didn’t feel I had the video equipment and editing capabilities, and, three, I wasn’t positive that I wanted to stay with ActiveCampaign.

After evaluating other email marketing platforms at the beginning of the year last year, I decided I did, in fact, want to stay with ActiveCampaign. I got some projects out of the way, and I had video editing equipment and skills. So, I finally got around to it.

The video has been out a couple weeks now and I certainly can’t say it’s a hit. Then again, I never expected a lot of views up-front. One signal that seems disappointing so far is like rate. It has only 2 likes from 90 views, so about 2.2%.

The closest thing I have to compare to is my recent video on 100k self-published books sold. That has 11 likes from 524 views, a rate of 2.1%. Oh. So I guess the like rate isn’t as bad as I had thought.

The engagement rate on the video is also higher than average for most of the video, so that should be a decent sign.

The video is intended to be a search play, and to work in concert with the article and ActiveCampaign free trial page, so I can’t say right away whether it’s a success or failure.

I’ll make a couple predictions in Fatebook then.

• I’m 70% sure I’ll generate one new paid AC account by May 31st.
• I’m 10% sure I’ll generate 10+ new paid AC accounts by May 31st.

Saving on ActiveCampaign with a yearly plan

For four years, as I was considering switching from ActiveCampaign, I was paying monthly for my plan. Now that I feel a renewed commitment to the platform, I’m paying yearly. So, I’m paying 20% less than I was before, and so that will be reflected in my reports.

60-day meditation challenge: fourth time!

I just finished the Naval Ravikant meditation challenge for the fourth time. I hadn’t expected to make it through all 60 consecutive days, because I had a short vacation that would conflict, but I was able to grab an hour each day anyway.

My results have been different every time. In the past, I had breakthroughs at different times. The first time, it was after seven days. I’m not sure about the second time, but the third time, my breakthrough came around day forty. Weirdly, I didn’t have a major shift throughout this challenge. It was more like a very slow transition to better focus and more emotional resilience.

I’m still meditating an hour a day, and I hope to make it a relatively regular part of my routine. An hour a day forever doesn’t seem sustainable, but I’m considering shooting for 300 hours this year.

There still might be a breakthrough on the horizon. I still have a lot of muscle tension within various muscles in my face. It eases up a bit throughout each session, but I haven’t had it totally dissolve.

Coaching income

One anomaly in this month’s income is $515 from Coaching. Other than my profile on Clarity, I don’t make any effort to get coaching clients.

The option is there if someone really wants to ask me questions, personally. When this happens, it’s usually about self-publishing. A major motivation for writing How to Sell a Book was to give people an affordable option to learn just about everything I know about self-publishing, without having to comb through 6+ years of these reports.

But, my coaching income has seen an uptick since publishing the book, presumably from people who have read it but have follow-up questions. Granted, that uptick is from nearly nothing to a little something.

DropCap Advertising expense

An anomaly in the expense department is $397 in Advertising expense, to DropCap. DropCap is a marketplace for selling foreign-rights of your books.

I’ve had good success over the years getting foreign-rights deals both on my own and through agents. But my friend Paul Millerd has said he has gotten some deals through DropCap.

This $397 charge allows me to list several books on DropCap. I’ve listed Mind Management, Not Time Management, Digital Zettelkasten, and The Heart to Start, and 100-Word Writing Habit. This charge is good for a year of listing, but I’m counting the whole expense this month.

I’ve already made nearly $18,000 in foreign-rights deals for MMT, ZET, and HTS, so it’s possible I’ve mostly tapped the well for my best titles.

Pricing promotions challenges

I’d like to counter my declining book sales by offering a pricing promotion, but as of late I’ve struggled to arrange a pricing promotion. Ironically, some of my declining sales are probably due to my preparations for a pricing promotion.

I’ve developed a system for staying on top of my pricing promotion opportunities, which I introduced and shared for others to use in a recent Patreon video. My pricing promotions calendar has helped me stay on top of my Kindle Deals, and helped me land a Chirp audiobook deal for MMT in October, but a couple major gaps remain in my opportunities.

One, BookBub is not accepting my applications for BookBub Featured Deals. My last deal was for MMT in February of 2024. Since then, I’ve had 14 consecutive rejections, between MMT and HTS.

Two, my books aren’t getting chosen for Kindle Deals in the U.S. My books are being chosen for Kindle Deals frequently in the UK and India. But the last Kindle Deal I had in the U.S. was for MMT, two years ago. That was when I “botched” the deal by getting accepted for a BookBub Featured Deal, only to a couple days later get confirmed for a Kindle Deal. I don’t know if that put me on some kind of blacklist or what.

In the meantime, I’ve had MMT at it’s maximum price of $9.99 for eight months, hoping to either get chosen for a Kindle Deal or accepted for a BookBub deal. But, that hasn’t happened.

The first quarter – which I think of as self-help season – is coming to a close. So if something doesn’t come up soon, I’ll have to think of how to do a pricing promotion on my own, or just change the price.

Patreon boost coming

I finally got around to publishing a post/sending an email, letting everyone know about all the new stuff I’ve been adding to Patreon and actually asking people to join.

As I write this, my Fatebook prediction that I’m 70% sure I’ll gain between 1 and 10 new paid members expires in 4 hours. I’ve gained 7!

Help make my prediction wrong and join the Patreon.

Income

Book Sales

Misc. Products

Affiliates / Advertising

Reader Support

Services

Expenses

General

Advertising

Hosting

This post is filed under Income Reports.