January 2021 Income Report For A Low-Content Business

I've been running my business at PlanningAddicts.com for three years now - give or take. In all those years, I've never seen another business owner like me offer an income report. 

Sure, there are tons of bloggers who have done it, but nobody in the private label rights space. Not that I've seen anyway. So, this year, I'm agreeing to share my income and expenses and other metrics related to running my businesses. Yep, there is more than one now. 

Before you scroll down to see how filthy rich I'm not, you probably should understand more about who I am and how I run my business. So, I'll try to condense it. 

I'm a single owner of PlanningAddicts.com where I started out producing all my own products - planners, journals and workbooks in powerpoint format. I sell those to folks who want to produce books for print on demand at places like Amazon's KDP or as printables on Etsy, or sell via their own websites. In 2020 I started the process of hiring a team to help with production and management. 

The secondary part of my income is affiliate marketing where I tell folks on my business mailing list about sales and products from my business peers. When customers buy using my link, I get a percentage of the sale. 

I work a part time job for my family 3 days per week and this will likely never change. 

Okay, now we can get into the details. 

I finished my taxes earlier in January and saw that I doubled my income across the board. But, my expenses went way up too and the result for my actual profit was nearly the same as 2019. I hope this year to have a better handle on what I'm spending vs what I earn. 

The main reason expenses were so high is that I had to go through the test hiring phase for more than one position (virtual assistant, designer, artists) and that I was trying to get ahead of the production schedule. It's good have content ready and set up for sale months ahead of the launch date. 

Something new for me is that I actually used the Affiliate Tracking Trello Board that I created a year ago. One thing that tracking the affiliate income has done is show me where my buyers (you) are sending your money to and which types of offers my bonuses are best focused on. 

There have been a few surprises for me in tracking this month. And, one month is certainly not indicative of affiliate income on average. This will fluctuate over time for sure.

These numbers below are only for January 2021 and only for what my paypal and stripe accounts had deposited in them. 

You'll see what was actually paid to me during the month of January, and not what I earned. Some affiliate programs payout weekly or monthly, so even if I earned some commissions the last few days of January, I won't get paid for those until later. 

One last note. This income is very small compared to some of my peers, and much larger than some others. 
Don't judge your success or lack thereof by what MY numbers show. My path is much different than yours. 

Income:

• PlanningAddicts.com :($2882.25) (my main income site)
• Explore Your Magic Self:  ($0 ) (a passion project that I am still struggling with)
• UsePlr.com:  ($0   (just took this over in January with Ruth Bowers of Ritchiemedia.ca) 
• Gumroad.com ($0  (I have some of my products from planningaddicts.com on here and get sales randomly)
• Etsy.com ($0  (I actually turned off the store here as I've not gotten sales in months) 
• Coaching / Consulting ($0   (I do offer this as needed)
• Affiliate Promos ($824.9    ( income from affiliate commissions)
• Warrior+ ($ 254.74   (affiliate income - only money they deposit to my w+ wallet.  I haven't sold through here yet)

Total = $3,961.89

Expenses:

• Affiliate Payments for PlanningAddicts.com ($1,093.47
• Virtual assistant ($318
• Artist ($113.90
• Designers ($74
• Fiverr (0 
• Hosting (0
• Mailing List supplier ($15 + $10 {1/2 of 20 for useplr }
• Digital File Hosting ($7 (This is for 2 accounts to house files for USeplr and then everything else. 
• Training/Courses ($ 61.3
• Coaching / Mastermind ($49 + 99
• Payment Processor Fees ($168.38   (paypal / stripe)

Total = $2,015.55

Net Profit = $1,946.34

That last number does not take into account any taxes owed to my local governments. Just plain numbers based on income and outgo in my payment processors. 

I'll see you next month for the next installment of how I make my money (I totally heard that in a movie announcer's voice!)

Jenn