November BTS + Passive Income report
Why Behind-the-scenes + income reports?
As an experiment I’m writing monthly “passive” income reports while giving you an in-depth look behind the scenes. These posts are a reality check on what it really looks like to sell digital products online. Honest posts that will hopefully show massive progress over the months and years and also share my thought process, behind the scenes decisions and how I drive sales.
Read more about why + what I count as passive income in the first report over at Freedom by Design.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, only ever for things I use, love and/or have paid for myself. Check out most of the tools I use on my resources page.
What happened in November?
Lots of 1:1 Work
I wrote 4 sales pages and accompanying promo emails, finished a set of website copy, hosted a quarterly planning session for a previous client, and reviewed 1 sales page. I also started booking 2022 writing dates!
My interim assignment also kicked off and… I work from an office, report to the COO and lead meetings?! It’s something else. And although I am so grateful for new experiences and the fun of working with a team, it also makes me really certain that running my business as a solopreneur is the best.
I also did a huge amount of work for my translation project, really excited to wrap that up (for now). At some point I really wasn’t sure anymore what was English, what was Dutch, and what words my brain just made up to mess with me.
New branding on the site!
The brilliant Olivia from Let’s Go Studio implemented the new Damn Copy branding on the site. It’s a lot brighter than I would’ve made it and I LOVE it. Having a lot of the graphics and style parts in place makes it really easy to create new things. It wasn’t easy for me to hand off something I cherish doing as much as my website, but I just didn’t have the time and wanted it to be done. I’m so glad I got over myself and outsourced it!
Black Friday/Cyber Monday
For Black Friday I offered 50% off all my copy templates and the Opt-In Page template was available for free, because who doesn’t love a free sample? I ended up making $370.37 and the Opt-In Page template was downloaded 63 times!
Re-read Harry Potter
And it was everything. I found marks in book 1 to indicate the part I read to the class for my book report back when I was 11. Half of my copies are falling apart, so I asked Santa for a brand new box set of the books! Fred and George are still my faves. I’m re-watching all the movies next!
“Passive Income”
DIGITAL PRODUCTS
Gross digital products sales: $ 370.37
I made sales for:
Template This
Affiliate pay-outs: $30
Affiliate income
Gross affiliate sales: € 155.41
This is counted in the month I make the affiliate sales. I add expected sales on payment plans too, since these are a result of work I did this month (or before) and converted the total to Euro’s. This is to keep things simple and compare based on my actions. Recurring commissions are counted each month since they can be cancelled.
€ 71.18
£ 71.50
Affiliate income sources:
WeGlot to make your website multilingual
What’s next?
⚡️💸 November was my first €10K revenue month - and I’m uncomfortable
This was such a huge milestone and I knew it was coming (manifested + worked for that shit). I thought it would be a huge celebration and up and up only from here. And although I do feel like it’s up and up only, it both matters more and less than I thought?
I’ve noticed that reaching new levels of income also require a different mindset, more systems, and tricky outsourcing and investment decisions. Everything was going so well, yet I’ve been feeling deeply uncomfortable and notice the discomfort makes me procrastinate and sabotage.
How odd that I feel safer when I struggle than when I succeed… I have most definitely hit an upper limit 🥲
Plans, choices, rest
I’m low-key making some plans and setting priorities for Q1. I’m mainly looking forward to taking some solid time off over the Christmas Holidays. I’m investigating business coaches that can support me while I’m growing Damn Copy, but so far no one stands out to me.
Honestly — I just want to hang out on the couch with a blanket, some hot chocolate and the next season of the Witcher for a while.
And then come back swinging.
