

Gave up a day job. Now what? - Income report #2 - kreci
http://www.kreci.net/reports/gave-up-a-day-job-now-what-%E2%80%93-income-report-2/

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sjf
Does anyone else think this guy is making a mistake going for ad-based income.
Looking at his income report, he is already making 50% of his income (and
almost all his passive income) from stockphotos and ebooks. Comparing this to
his current income from ads, it is obviously more profitable. I accept that he
has more ad-based projects coming up, but in terms of effort, is producing ad-
based software really going to be worth it? Another downside is that photos
and books don't need the same level of ongoing maintenance as software.

Perhaps someone here has some insight into how much money software with
embedded ads can realistically make.

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kreci
I am still going to work on my photos and make as much income as possible with
it. But I do not feel good with ebooks for a long term. If ads will not bring
me a revenue I expect I will rather move only to photos. But I really believe
in long term income with ads.

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ahoyhere
You're making a mistake: ebooks have a much higher value, overall, than photo
licensing. You just need to learn more about it.

And investing more time into monetizing with ads is a waste.

I recommend two resources for you: Desperate Buyers Only and How to Launch the
____Out of Your Ebook.

(For the record, I made $40k off my last ebook.)

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kreci
Thanks for a valuable comment. The problem is that I can not do all things at
once. And I have precise business plan for making money on things I write
about. If I will not be able to realize it I may try ebooks again. But I am
not too talented writer at all and as I said this ebook has been written "by
accident". But I can not say I will not write more in a future :)

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ahoyhere
OK, it's your life. But I'd like to draw your attention to this idea:

You can't do all things at once. Yes, naturally.

So you choose to focus on the things you can least control.

Does that make sense?

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maxklein
Well done. I think this goes to show that when you want to generate cash and
your focus is on the money, it's better to do several small things instead of
investing time on a single product that takes a long time to make cash.

Your income is going to rise and rise, just remember not to get lazy. Keep
yourself hungry, otherwise at some point you will stop growing.

~~~
louislouis
How do you keep yourself hungry? I've hit a point where life is very
comfortable and I don't need to worry about the immediate finances or food or
shelter. I've become lazy. I'm certainly not as motivated/hungry as when I was
fresh out of uni and broke.

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maxklein
Tie up your money in long term investments

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patio11
Max's advice here is good even if you don't subscribe to the "I need to be
worried about the rent to do decent work" philosophy. I have never met someone
who said "You know, I saved too much for retirement", and given that most of
us are 35+ years from it a dollar invested today is likely to be a dollar or
more of income per life _plus_ $25 to your children or favorite cause after
you die.

(Well, less whatever tax your local jurisdiction charges rich plutocrats like
yourself.)

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carbocation
I was critical of some of your prior posts, but this is pure gold. Your
writing has improved, and this blog post has a lot of meat on the bones. Well
done, thanks for sharing, and keep it up!

~~~
kreci
Thanks for your support. I am really happy to hear such words - especially
from someone who was critical before... :)

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steveplace
I would focus 80% of your time towards the ebook. Your sales page could be
optimized a little more (and there _are_ typos). If you pull in more user
testimonials and run some adwords, you could see this come in and be your
primary source.

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kreci
Thanks Steve. I have been thinking about it. But it does not fit my long term
business model. I am developer and want to make web and software development
my main income source. And as I want to make it passive I am doing it by
putting ads on free content or software (to make it long term income).

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DuncanIdaho
Don't limit yourself like that.

If you want to be web developer go get a job.

If you want to be an entrepreneur then you better go where money is. Besides
how do you expect web development to function as passive income source?
Offering a service/application may be such an opportunity - but then you're an
entrepreneur who uses code to leverage his business.

BTW. Your project is mint - love every installment of it!

~~~
kreci
This ebook has been done "by accident". As a developer I want to make passive
income from selling many copies of application or via ads on web pages/in
software.

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jteo
Accidents sometimes result in much profit. Don't limit your horizons.

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rradu
Am I the only one surprised that people still buy web marketing ebooks?

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patio11
The industry is built around fulfilling the aspirational goals of people to be
Making Money Online, rather than actually improving their outcomes. Since you
don't succeed merely from buying an ebook, you must have bought the wrong
ebook, so you're always in the market for the right ebook next time.

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tocomment
I never knew you could make so much at istockphoto? Has anyone else tried
that? Do you need to be an awesome photographer, do you have to be lucky? What
sort of photos are best?

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ErrantX
> Do you need to be an awesome photographer, do you have to be lucky?

No. You need a decent camera (as in a fairly expensive SLR model) and to know
what people are looking for on Stock photo sites.

kreci seems pretty good at it - he's got a huge portfolio containing lots of
very similar photo's (which is what you usually get) covering all the themes
that are popular on stock photo sites.

If you want to do well his portfolio is good inspiration :)

There are people earning a _lot_ more than this.

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edkennedy
Congratulations on achieving your goal! A word about adsense and admob.. you
could make a larger income from your app or website traffic by having your own
offers instead of leaving it up to an outside source to decide. You could
either direct them to your own real estate (ebook or other apps) or you could
find an offer that you truly like, such as the hosting company you wrote about
and direct traffic to there. Doing this should result in a higher return, and
once established you can negotiate a higher payout as well.

~~~
kreci
This is my very first attempt with mobile soft and it was my first bet (to use
AdMob). But I am going to implement mediation layer to my soft so I would
easily be able to "swap" ads and test what brings me best income.

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againstyou
i'm sure that admob doesn't generate a great number, at least not for the
iphone. do you have other ad service ? you can do a/b testing with ads, just
put an 'if' in your code and check which service works better for you.

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fabiandesimone
Congratulations on your increasing success. We all know how hard it is and you
are putting yourself out there trying your best. Thanks for sharing!

~~~
kreci
Thank you for your support!

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count
Do you see an 'HN' effect? I wonder how much of this was driven by your
postings here? That is - how much of your stock photo and ebook sales are
truly organic?

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kreci
From stock photo I got no more downloads even when my post is on top of HN. I
got two referrals that made me $20 bucks (but I am unsure if it is from HN).
About ebook I got just a few sales after posting here - most is from promotion
on marketing forums where people are waiting for such products and really want
to spend a few bucks to improve some of their marketing techniques (like
increasing PR).

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count
Cool! Thanks for being so open with the info.

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jerguismi
I think this is pretty impressive, he is clearly doing lot of work.

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kreci
I am trying all my best. Thanks!

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sireat
What is interesting, how little income Amazon affiliate generated.

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kreci
I know that some people report a huge affiliate commissions with Amazon... but
for me it is a really bad converting website. Mostly I send traffic from just
a one website - computer hardware niche. Looks not to be a good choice but I
do not know any better alternative...

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kreci
As usual comments are very desired and more than welcome =)

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unwind
Does that goal of $1,000 cover your rent and other living expenses, or are you
living off of previously saved money while trying out your new business?

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kreci
Yes it does. I have described in one of my previous posts that it is what I
earned monthly in my full time job. It is why it was a goal. Not sure where
are you living but in Poland $1000 is enough for usual everyday living
expenses...

