Income Report: Q3 2015

It's that time again! While this blog is mostly about style for shorter men, I take time each quarter to publish an income report.

In other words, I write a post every three months detailing exactly how I make money with The Modest Man – and how much.

Why do this? Several reasons:

• I like being totally transparent.
• People often ask if and how I make money blogging.
• It's fun to write about online business.
• I want to inspire potential bloggers and online entrepreneurs.

If you're totally new to the world of blogging, and this is the first TMM income report you've come across, you should read this post first:

How Does This Blog Make Money?

If you don't feel like reading that post, just know that bloggers basically make money in three different ways:

1. Earning affiliate commissions (from recommending products)
2. Selling advertising space (banners, sponsored posts, etc.)
3. Selling their own products (digital or physical)

I'll break down how much I made from each revenue stream, plus expenses and total profit.

Ready? Let's do this!

Affiliate – $1,851 (up 25% from Q2)

• RewardStyle – $420
• Amazon – $515
• Modern Tailor – $792
• Other – $124 (mostly Blank Label and Saddleback)

Affiliate earnings are up, which is always nice to see. The biggest increase was from Modern Tailor, my favorite affordable made-to-measure clothier.

I actually don't know what drove this bump in MT sales. Maybe wedding season?

Amazon earnings were also up – a direct result of the best no show socks post.

Advertising – $4,679 (up 33% from Q2)

• Direct Ads – $1,850
• Google AdSense – $109
• Sovrn – $354
• Sponsored Posts – $2,375

It was a great quarter for advertising, mostly due to sponsored posts. I don't want this site to be full of sponsored content, so I'm focusing on high quality partners.

This means forming long-term relationships with brands I believe in.

I'd rather negotiate a whole sponsorship package – blog post, email, banner ad, social media – with one or two awesome sponsors each quarter, rather than making small, one-time deals with a new company every week.

I turn down 90% of sponsorship opportunities. And remember: I will always tell you when a piece of content is sponsored. I value your trust above all else!

Products – $2,434 (down 16% from Q2)

• The Modest Man Style Guide* – $2,434 (up 49% from Q2)
• Live Training Class – n/a

*This is the new and improved version of the Short Man Style eBook. Everything about it is better than the original, which is why sales have increased.

Since I focused a lot of time and energy on creating the new guide, I decided not to offer the live training again.

So product revenue is technically down from Q2, but that's because I only offered one product in Q3 (the new guide).

Total Revenue = $8,964 (up 13% from Q2)

Of course, I also have expenses. These can be broken down into two basic categories: recurring and one-time.

I list these expenses so you can see how much of this income is actual profit.

Recurring Expenses (paid monthly, totaled for Q3)

• ConvertKit – $447
• Cell Phone – $330
• LeadPages – $201
• Edgar – $147
• Internet – $120
• Wistia – $75
• Bluehost – $48

One-Time Expenses (paid monthly, totaled for Q3)

• Shirt Designer – $675
• PayPal Fees – $135
• Facebook Ads – $122
• Dreamstime – $39

Total Expenses = $2,339

The biggest recurring expenses for me are web apps like my email service provider (ConvertKit) and marketing tools (LeadPages, Edgar).

This quarter's one-time expenses included my first payment toward The Modest Man shirt. This design process is a bit of an investment, but I'm confident that it will pay off (and hopefully take TMM to a whole new level).

Total Profit = $6,625

The business is growing, but I'm still doing some freelance consulting to supplement my income. Even with this extra income, I'm not making as much as I was at my last “real” job.

But I love what I'm doing and wouldn't trade it for the world. I make my own schedule and decide how to spend my time. My success (or failure) is on me, no one else.

Plus, I get to connect with people like you – every single day. And that is priceless!