Time Flies… 2 Year Business Anniversary Today
The second year anniversary has kind of crept up on me. On this day last year I wrote about my first year anniversary and I’d like to do the same again today. My second year has been vastly different to my first year in many ways.
Freedom Is Still Paramount
My reasons for quitting my day job were simply the desire for freedom and that hasn’t changed one bit. I love that I can do just whatever I like, whenever I like and never have to answer to anybody. Of course this freedom has a downside too – it’s very easy to abuse and I have done quite a bit of that in 2009 in particular.
2008 was a really rough year for me on a personal level. I was reeling from two broken relationships and I moved home 3 times. My whole world turned upside-down and I had to re-adjust to a whole new life. This took a massive toll on my business as I simply wasn’t able to work for much of that year – I was at a very low point for much of it and had no enthusiasm. But the freedom that the business gives me allowed me to get through that – I simply don’t know how I could have coped if I had been in a regular job.
2009 has been a polar opposite. I got my own place, I made a whole bunch of great new friends, I met a new partner, I started karate and snowboarding, I’ve been to music festivals, to DisneyLand in Florida and basically had the time of my life! But… the business paid the price. Once again, I have done very little work this year but at least it’s for happy reasons rather than sad ones but still the fact that I have the freedom to do that is so wonderful and that’s why I could simply never go back to being employed again.
A Shift Away From IM Back to Software
In my first anniversary post I talked about the difficulty of coming up with a long term business model that works online in a world where technology moves so fast. At the time I had started experimenting with AdSense and I said that the second part of my master plan was top secret. That was of course the software project and it’s actually quite shocking to me to realise that I was first thinking about doing it a year ago and I’ve still not released anything! Time really can fly when you’re self employed!
However, at least this second year I have felt more focused even if I have not actually put the hours in. Over the last year I have cut out all other commitments so I literally do nothing but work on my software project and this blog now. That feels much better to me than in the first year where I seemed to be all over the place with lots of different project and I always seemed to be knee deep in several training courses which were all conflicting with one another.
Writing software is much more natural to me than Internet Marketing but of course I can apply everything I have learned about IM to market the software that I am now writing. I am hoping that will put me in a unique position as most programmers are not marketers and most marketers are not programmers :-)
Even though I have been working on this project in one way or another for a year and have still barely touched the surface, it still feels like the right thing to do. For me the only business model that I am interested in now is a membership site. Therefore I have no interest in creating more ebooks, courses or anything of that nature. It’s not easy to come up with an idea for a membership site that can keep members for months or ideally, years on end. I listed a few membership site models in a previous post and online services was one of those models.
Even if the particular site that I am building does not draw in enough paid members, the skills I learn building that site can then be used to build something else so if my first idea fails, I have the skills to try something else. The software skills I am learning will open doors for me that marketing alone simply cannot do.
The Blog Plods On
This blog has most certainly taken a back seat this year but what is fascinating to me is that it continues to make a fairly decent income month after month after month from work I did well over a year ago. It has become a truly passive income. Just as well too, considering how long my software is taking me :-)
Of course now that I am only developing software and not really doing much in the way of IM or social media etc, there simply isn’t much to blog about and I can’t see that changing in the foreseeable future. However the goal of the blog remains the same as it always – to chronicle my efforts in making a living online. What you read here is real. I’m not some guru who’s made millions online and has a hyped up blog to sell the know-how. I’m a regular person who’s been struggling to make a living for the last two years and who has discussed all the efforts along the way.
Income Earned
- September ‘08 – $958
- October ‘08 – $1,153
- November ‘08 – $1,392
- December ‘08 – $1,498
- January ‘09 – $2,439
- February ‘09 – $1,352
- March ‘09 – $1,745
- April ‘09 – $1,776
- May ‘09 – $1,627
- June ‘09 – $1,062
- July ‘09 – $960
- August ‘09 (Estimated) – $950
I was away on holiday for August last month so I couldn’t do my usual stats but I have done my business accounts and August came out virtually identical to July so I’ve put in estimated earnings. The total comes to $16,912 which averages at $1409 a month. Like the previous year there’s no real pattern in the earnings though they have declined fairly steadily in the last few months. I do wonder if the drastic slow down in blogging has been partly responsible for that. It’s hard to say.
I’m annoyed with myself that another year on, I’m still basically earning about the same as I was this time last year but that’s exactly why it can be useful to take time out at pertinent times like these to reflect :-) My excuse for the first year was that my life basically sucked so I couldn’t work properly and my excuse for the second year was that I was having too much fun to work properly so now it’s time to find a balance and fit in some more work amongst all that fun :-)
Happiness Still > Money
At the end of the first year’s post I stated that happiness was far more important to me than money and of course that is still true. But it’s easier for me to say that because I have money! A lot of new readers to the blog don’t understand how I am able to survive on such a small income and ask if I have any other income streams. The answer to this question is no – I only earn what I show in these monthly stat reports. Well slightly less in fact as I have a few expenses such as hosting, and some services I pay for.
The reason I am able to basically survive with such a low income is due to savings. I was fortunate enough to build up a large amount of equity in my house which I sold in the beginning of 2008 (right before the housing market in the UK crashed!) putting a large amount of cash in my bank account. I now rent a house so that I can live off those savings until I am earning enough to support myself properly and feel secure enough to buy another property. I have enough savings to continue my current lifestyle for several more years so although I am annoyed with myself for slacking so much this year, I have a few more years of slacking potential left before I run out of cash!
What’s In Store For Year 3?
I am 100% dedicated to getting my software released. That is my one and only goal and I don’t care about anything else (work wise I mean). The income from this blog could drop to zero and even though that would be scary, I will continue working on the software project without getting sidetracked by anything else which might come with a lure of easy money.
One personality trait which I do possess is persistence! Nobody can call me a quitter :-) I may suck at getting things done quickly but when I decide I want something I will not stop until I get it. This year I REALLY want to make that full time income which is about $6,000 per month. I’m confident that I shall achieve that goal at some point in 2010 but if not I guess I’ll be even more annoyed with myself in my 3 year anniversary post :-)
As for the blog, I’m not sure what the future is… as long as I don’t reach my goal I will continue to have something to talk about but once I have released my software and have enough paying members to support myself, I’m not sure what will be left to say. I intend to keep posting monthly stats as long as they are relevant but after a certain point it’s really just showing off unless you have something new to teach.
I envision at least a year’s worth of work on my software project after the first release simply because there are so many features that I want to implement. However, the marketing will remain pretty much the same for each release so once again, I’m just not sure what there would be to blog about. I know what I am doing with my time work wise, but I don’t know what the future holds for this blog!
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TV Spoilers
September 22, 2009
Caroline,
Happy Anniversay!
I first heard of you from your interview with Yaro Starak earlier this year.
While you don’t know the future of your blog, let me tell you that your weekly emails have been great for me to work through and no matter what happens next, I appreciate all of the work you have put into this site to educate and enlighten us.
Edie
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