Income Report: Q2 2016

Can you believe it’s already July? It’s time for another blogging income report! Read on to learn how profits from this blog increased by 45% over Q1.

In these quarterly income reports, I open up the kimono (so to speak) to give you a glimpse into the business side of blogging.

You might be thinking:

“Business side? I thought this was a style blog…”

I hear you, but I like to publish these income reports for a few reasons:

• People often ask if and how I make money with The Modest Man.
• I like to be transparent.
• Online business fascinates me, so it’s fun to talk about.
• To inspire other people to start and grow their own blog.

If you don’t know the first thing about monetizing a website, you might want to read this post first:

How Does The Modest Man Make Money? (opens in new tab)

In this post, I’m going to break down my revenue, expenses and profit for the second quarter of 2016.

TMM Revenue for Q2 2016

Let’s take a look at the big picture – quarterly revenue for the past 18 months:

Revenue from this website can be broken down into three general categories:

1. Advertising/sponsorships
2. Affiliate commissions
3. Selling products

Let’s see how each one did this quarter (note: some links below are affiliate links).

Advertising – $12,946 (up 82% from previous quarter)

• Direct Ads – $2,350
• Google AdSense – $407
• AdThrive – $1,830
• Sponsored – $8,359

From banner ads to sponsored blog posts, advertising continues to be the biggest source of revenue for The Modest Man.

In terms of total revenue, June was my best month to date ($9,674), and this spike was driven by revenue from sponsorships.

I’ve been fortunate to work with a bunch of awesome sponsors this year, and I have Menfluential to thank for facilitating many of these partnerships.

Menfluential vets and negotiates with potential sponsors, which often takes several weeks and many emails/calls.

That frees me up to do what I’m best at: creating content.

I predict that this part of the business will continue to grow, especially when the Q4 holiday season hits.

AdThrive continues to do a great job at filling unsold banner ad inventory (any banner spots that aren’t purchased directly by sponsors.

Affiliate – $4,474 (up 49% from previous quarter)

• RewardStyle – $972
• Amazon – $2,098
• Modern Tailor – $1,089
• Other – $268 (mostly Warby Parker and Saddleback)

I’m an affiliate for Modern Tailor, one of the better affordable custom clothiers. That means that I get a small commission when someone I’ve referred to them (via hyperlink) buys something.

For some reason, lots of people bought shirts and suits in Q2 (compared to Q1). Wedding season, perhaps?

Amazon earnings continue to climb, I think because these two posts are starting to rank really highly in search engine results:

1. Best No Show Socks (try Googling “best no show socks”)
2. Watches for Small Wrists (try Googling “watches for small wrists”)

They’re both solid posts, and they both contain a fair amount of links to Amazon. It’s great to see Amazon revenue finally start to take off!

Products – $3,786 (down 17% from previous quarter)

• The Modest Man Style Guide – $2,434
• TMM Button Up Shirts – $1,352

The Style Guide continues to sell consistently (averaging about one sale per day). It’s not a huge source of revenue, but it’s very consistent, and it makes me happy every single time I’m notified that someone bought it.

I really thing it’s the best resource for shorter men who want to jumpstart their style journey, but I still really appreciate the fact that people are willing to spend their hard earned money on something I created.

In April, I got the final payment for sales of the limited edition TMM button up shirts.

Consulting – $490

Over the past few years, I’ve done lots of freelance marketing work to keep the lights on at TMM headquarters.

TMM has finally grown to the point where I no longer have to take on freelance work, but I still do some special projects for friends, family and clients.

I report all of that revenue under the “Consulting” umbrella.

Total Revenue = $21,607 (up 39% from previous quarter)

Remember, this is quarterly income, not monthly income. So it comes out to about $7,202 per month, before taxes and expenses.

Speaking of which, here are my recurring and one-time expenses for Q2 2016:

Recurring Expenses (paid monthly, totaled for the quarter)

• Assistant – $1,050
• ConvertKit – $447
• Phone – $330
• LeadPages – $201
• Edgar – $147
• Internet – $120
• Bluehost – $60
• Canva – $39

One-Time Expenses

• Retreat – $900
• Travel – $385
• Camera Gear (new lens) – $227
• Web Developer – $100
• PayPal Fees – $86
• FacetWP – $79
• Facebook Ads – $59

Total Expenses = $4,230

I hired a part-time assistant to help out with email and social media, so that increases my monthly recurring expenses substantially (well worth it, though).

I also booked a trip to this awesome retreat center to hang out with a great group of bloggers an entrepreneurs later this summer (again, money well spent).

Profit = $17,377 (up 45% over previous quarter)

I’m really happy with the growth. Things are on track to hit the overall business goals for this year (double traffic and revenue).

The great thing about more revenue isn’t having more personal income. It’s the ability to invest back into the business.

For example:

• Hiring writers and photo/video editors
• Investing in a new and improved website (very pricey)
• Buying new gear (like video cameras and lighting)
• Trying out new brands at readers’ request

Of course, it’s also nice to be able to extract a comfortable salary, buy a Tesla contribute to retirement accounts, etc.

Thank YOU!

None of this is possible without you. Thank you for your readership and support!