{"id":11297,"date":"2018-10-21T17:28:22","date_gmt":"2018-10-21T17:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themodestman.com\/?p=11297"},"modified":"2023-05-24T17:35:48","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T17:35:48","slug":"income-report-q3-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brockmcgoff.com\/income-report-q3-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Income Report: Q3 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a whole year since the last TMM income report<\/a>. Let’s see what happened since Q3 2017…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"Income<\/p>\n

I know, I know…it’s been a while. I haven’t published a quarterly income report since Q3 2017<\/a> (about a year ago).<\/p>\n

What happened? A couple of things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. These reports take a long<\/em> time to produce, which meant…<\/li>\n
  2. I was spending less time writing about style (which also takes a lot of time and energy).<\/li>\n
  3. The income reports sometimes felt a little “off brand” or random.<\/li>\n
  4. Lastly, as the business started to grow, I sometimes felt a little weird about sharing exact<\/em> revenue numbers.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    For all of those reasons, I simply chose to stop doing income reports after Q3 2017. I didn’t even do an annual review for 2017 (like I did for 2016<\/a> and 2015<\/a>).<\/p>\n

    So why start back up? Believe it or not, these “behind the curtain” posts were pretty popular, despite the fact that they have nothing to do with men’s style.<\/p>\n

    I get a lot of questions about blogging, being an influencer (I hate that word) and making money online<\/a>. I’ve even had a few people reach out and ask when the next income report would be published!<\/p>\n

    Plus, I kind of miss writing these. I track my revenue and expenses each month in an extremely satisfying, color coded spreadsheet.<\/p>\n

    But putting a public-facing income report together really forces me to comb through the numbers and think about the past three months.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Producing these reports is a good exercise for me, and since they’re well-received, I’ve decided to bring them back.<\/p>\n

    Rather than going back to fill in the gaps, I’ll just pick things back up at Q3 2018. Let’s get into it!<\/p>\n

    TMM Revenue (Quarterly)<\/h3>\n

    Let’s start with the big picture:<\/p>\n

    \"TMM
    TMM Quarterly Revenue by Category<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    You might notice that after a sharp peak in Q3 2017, this chart starts going in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n

    Allow me to explain…<\/h3>\n

    Q3 2017 was the peak of my willingness to publish sponsored content. I did about one sponsorships each month.<\/p>\n

    Paid partnerships are an extremely lucrative way to monetize any sort of audience platform – blog, YouTube, Instagram, Google+ (heh, jk). But\u00a0I’ve never loved taking on sponsors.<\/p>\n

    Don’t get me wrong: I’m flattered that brands want to work with me. You should be too, because that means they value you as a potential customer. I’ve worked with some awesome brands, and I think sponsored content can be great if it’s done the right way.<\/p>\n

    But it’s hard to be 100% unbiased and objective when money changes hands, and anyone who says otherwise is lying to you (or worse, to themselves).<\/p>\n

    In my opinion, too much sponsored content waters down your voice. It makes it hard for your followers to know what you really think, which products you really recommend buying.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    I mean, how many times have you read a glowing review for a product, only to realize that the whole article was sponsored by the company who made<\/em> the product?<\/p>\n

    For lots of reasons, I decided to scale way back on sponsorships. In fact, there have been a few months this year when I didn’t do any sponsorships at all.<\/p>\n

    Yeah, it’s leaving a substantial amount of money on the table. But it feels great!<\/p>\n

    Show Me the Money<\/h2>\n

    Now that we’ve got all that cleared up, let’s talk numbers. Revenue from TMM falls into three categories:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Advertising (includes sponsorships)<\/li>\n
    2. Affiliate commissions<\/li>\n
    3. Selling products<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Let’s look at each category for Q3 2018 (note: some of the links below are affiliate links).<\/p>\n

      \"TMM<\/p>\n

      Advertising –<\/strong> $16,927 (down 30% from same period last year<\/span>)<\/p>\n

      During the same time period last year (Jul, Aug, Sep), I did 3x as many paid partnerships (compared to Q3 this year), hence the 30% drop year over year (YoY).<\/p>\n

      Honestly, I’m okay with this.<\/p>\n

      The rest of the advertising revenue comes from display ads you see on this site, plus YouTube ad revenue (Google AdSense).<\/p>\n

      Affiliate –<\/strong> $7,314 (down 27% from same period last year<\/span>)<\/p>\n

      I think this YoY drop is due to two things:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Q3 2017 was an unusually strong quarter for affiliate revenue<\/li>\n
      2. Amazon lowered their commission rates last year, which has caused a steady decline in revenue from that program<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Affiliate programs have always been a small part of my business, but I know other content creators who do really well with them.<\/p>\n

        It’s definitely something I want to focus more on going forward, especially since affiliate income is truly passive.<\/p>\n

        Products –<\/strong> $1,643 (up 49% from same period last year<\/span>)<\/p>\n

        \"The<\/a>
        The Modest Man Style Guide<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

        This category includes digital products (The Modest Man Style Guide) and physically products (the occasional sale on Grailed, etc.).<\/p>\n

        In July, I paired down my watch collection by selling a bunch of them off via Instagram. This is more for fun than for money. It’s nice giving someone a good deal and seeing a watch or article of clothing go to a good home.<\/p>\n

        The Style Guide is good for about $200\/month on average. It’s a solid guide, but I haven’t updated it in a while, and I do almost nothing to promote it.<\/p>\n

        But again, that’s 100% passive income…the best kind!<\/p>\n

        Grand Total = $25,885 (down 27% from same period last year<\/span>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Passive = $21,095 (up 3% from same period last year<\/span>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

        I decided to start tracking how much of the revenue from TMM is passive (i.e., doesn’t require routine, direct input from me).<\/p>\n

        Sponsorships are not<\/em> passive. Display ads are passive. Affiliate programs are passive.<\/p>\n

        I like passive income. To me, it’s way more valuable than any other kind of income.<\/p>\n

        Going forward, especially considering my partnerships with PMNYC, my goal for TMM is to grow the passive side of the business.<\/p>\n

        Sure, I’ll still do some sponsorships, but I’m being super picky about them. Any company I work with has to: a) be an excellent fit, and b) have the right budget. If this means one per month, one per quarter or less, that’s fine.<\/p>\n

        What About Expenses?<\/h2>\n

        I’m not going to list out every single one-time expense anymore because, frankly, it’s very tedious. Of course, I do track these in my accounting software (Wave).<\/p>\n

        But here are the monthly recurring expenses, totaled for the quarter:<\/p>\n