April 2013 - Showcase of Affiliate Business Realities

Passive Income: $65 
Costs: $30

April reminded me once again why I want to create my own products. The product I'm affiliating with decided to have a sale. They probably got more sales than normally, but I didn't.

I didn't know about the sale so I couldn't tell about it to my readers. Even if they had, I've not been actively updating the site.

PS. Sorry for neglecting you guys! I've been traveling in Italy for the last month.

Polignano a Mare in La Puglia

We had a little round-trip in La Puglia, in southern Italy. In Italy it's pretty easy to buy prepaid mobile broadband, so I had a good internet connection. But... I concentrated on advancing the Happy Bootstrapper.

I don't have problems working "on the road". In fact, sometimes a little distance from your regular environment is just what you need. However, I can't work in the active travel days. Being in a new place, trying to find a place to stay and finding my way around uses so much battery!

We often stay in one place a little longer. Renting an apartment for a week is also a good way to bring down the costs. Our apartment in Lecce cost about 20€ per day ($25) and when you have a kitchen, you can cook at home.

I had really good time and we skipped the spring street dust in Finland. Now it's late spring here and the colors outside are lovely.

The Happy Bootstrapper Is Here!

I'm proudly presenting my new blog, The Happy Bootstrapper.

Grow Your SaaS Customer Profitability will be my first 30x500-style product. I'm pretty excited about it, but there's a lot to do before it's out.

I'll be using Happy Bootstrapper to publish nice educational material that runs traffic to the Grow Your SaaS Customer Profitability pitch page. When the book is finally ready, I'll transform the pitch page into a full-fledged sales page.


How will this affect Passive Income Stream Creator?

From now on The Happy Bootstrapper will take priority to this blog. The Happy Bootstrapper is all about finances and profitability of a SaaS & online product business. Stuff that you need when your business is up and running and you have customers.

However, I'm not closing down Passive Income Stream Creator. I'll keep on writing every now and then, just as I have previously. I'll keep my reviews and how-to articles here. They are more suitable for beginner passive income learners and would not fit in the Happy Bootstrapper theme.

I'm probably going to manage the new project separately so you won't be seeing it in the status reports.   I'm not planning to stop being transparent, but there's nothing but costs at the moment. As I want this project to pay back both 30x500 and my new MacBook Air, the costs are running over $4,000 already. I'll publish my stats when there's something on the plus side too!

In the meantime, check out The Happy Bootstrapper!

March 2013 - 99 Dollars

Passive Income In March 2013: $99 
Costs: $30

Nothing much to tell this month. SBI is starting to bring money home. I'm happy with that, taking into account I abandoned working on that site about 5 months ago.

Now, I've been preparing my new site, ready to take action based on what I learned in 30x500. It will probably be out in April, depending on my travels. And it definitely needs its own blog post.

Feb 2013 - I've Got Money And I've Got Business Ideas

Passive Income In February 2013: $45 
Costs: $30

Another great month is behind. My course investments are starting to pay off.

Both SBI! and 30x500 have been winner's choices for me. If you don't know these courses, there's more info in my Resources Page.

Site-Build-It!

Most of the money in February came from my SBI! site. The one I've neglected since 30x500 started.

The SBI! does say that it takes about half a year to make any money with it. Even though I've completed only 8/10 of this course, it has still kept its promises.

My site has only 16 articles and I've done no link-building for a long time.

For some reason unknown to me, I jumped up in Google ranks 2 weeks ago. I now have 1500 unique visitors per month and several of my long tail keywords rank in the first page.

The best thing is that these new visitors don't bother mailing me before they buy. So I'm concentrating on 30x500 and just watching the money flow in.

Admittedly, this stream is small and it's potential is not very big. But I'm proud of every penny I make online and SBI! was a good learning experience that prepared me for 30x500.

30x500

Business ideas are flowing in, thanks to 30x500 process. During the last couple of weeks, I've had several good business ideas. The best thing about these ideas is that there is a high probability people want these products and they are willing to pay for them.

I have not yet selected the final business idea, but I've selected my audience and my business "theme":

I'm going to help bootstrapped micro-businesses with their financial and accounting problems.

I had "forgotten" that I have BBA and several years of experience in small biz accounting. Truth to be told, I didn't think those skills would be of much use - except for taking care of my own finances. Fortunately, 30x500 dig them up and pointed out that small businesses often need help in that area.

I have to refresh my old skills so I'll not be able to start by creating a SaaS as a hoped. But I'll be happy to start by creating info-products for this awesome audience. That will also show me what the demand for extra services really is.

I'm looking forward to what happens in next month. I hope you had a good biz month too!