Why Everyone Needs a Daily Earnings Goal

It’s painful to admit this but my finances took quite a hit during the winter months. Just like I know that Christmas is always around the corner, I can also predict that I lose steam around the beginning of November. This past year was no different. The only difference was that I also through out my back and was dealing with some low-grade depression on and off throughout the year. To perfectly candid, 2018 was a lot more mentally challenging than I would have liked and I found myself questioning if I was making the right decisions personally and professionally throughout the year. This post is specifically written for those of you in the content creation space. If you’re a blogger, podcaster, vlogger-this post is for you.

*In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Please read my disclosure here.*

Why Everyone Needs a Daily Earnings Goal 

Last year I was so busy creating courses, building out funnels, and creating content that I dropped the ball in one really important area: income growth. Whether or not your working a 9-5 or for yourself-it’s important to set daily income goals. In fact, for those of you who work for other people, have you figured out what you’re being paid hourly? When I was a salaried employee, I finally sat down one day and figured out what I was making per hour and I was PISSED.

Why?

Because I was working 60-70 hours a week when I factored in the commute or extra job related duties. When I first started working for myself I had an incredible month where I made $6,000-more than I made at my previous job. It actually wasn’t that hard to do.

How did I do it?

First, I made it a priority to pitch for projects daily. Every single day I would look for freelance writing gigs, side-hustles, and any random thing I could do to make money.

This consistency in pitching and putting myself out there to attract money helped keep my actions in alignment with my goals.

What about if you’re  working a 9-5? Well, it also applies to you as well. Are you attracting opportunities to grow your income? Work overtime? Or, get a promotion?

I’m not talking the crappy 3% raises that American employers have bamboozled workers into thinking are great (hint-3% is a crappy raise and is less than inflation). I’m talking a minimum of 10%. Are you willing to let go of a comfortable job after seeking and finding a new one that is more challenging and pays more?

By the way, when I fell out of the daily pitch habit-my client growth suffered and so did my income. Even if you currently have great freelance/contract clients, you should always be in the habit of attracting more to you.

The Paid, Pitch, Post, and Podcast Method

Ok, if you’re a blogger looking to grow your income and happen to have a podcast or vlog this process will totally make sense.

Paid

First thing in the morning after getting up and going through my Miracle Morning I focus on all paid projects first. They are the most important because I have to eat and pay my bills. My paid projects include the following:

• Freelance writing-I still freelance write and imagine that I will do so until my passive income consistently hits what I consider an earnings “tipping point”

• Managing my course-Currently I’m gearing up to do a large scale launch of my course late summer. I’m working on tasks related to that launch and it’s kind of time consuming.

• Book related tasks-My Autumn Stone books are increasing in sales as we move into the warmer months. Because my book sales are tied to my course sales-I’m aggressively working on those sales.

• Selling Tickets for Money on the Mountain-I have a monthly ticket sales goal from now until October. That means that I’m connecting with my ideal attendee each week to make sure that they know that I would love to have them at Money on the Mountain!

• Growing affiliate income-My affiliate income has continued to grow at a slow but steady clip.

• The occasional side-hustle-A friend of mine runs a brand ambassador team that I like to work with. It pays really well for a side hustle (weekly) and this summer we’ll have overnight events in the mountains. I love being paid to hangout in the mountains.

Pitch

Once my paid projects are done, I send out pitches on a daily basis. It’s the easiest way to grow your income and make attracting money easier. This doesn’t have to be overwhelming.

Here’s my process.

• Send out a minimum of ONE KICK A@@ pitch each day. You will send a minimum of 28-31 great pitches a month if you follow this system. More likely than not, you will send out more pitches because you will find that the more you pitch the easier it gets.

• Seek clients that will offer ongoing projects. These will help you build up your income over time.

• Know your value-pitch only what you really want and what you would really do. You know how easy it is to pitch for any and everything? Knowing your value helps to set boundaries.

By sending out daily pitches you will become confident pitching better clients and will increase your weekly earnings.

Post

As a blogger, one of the most challenging parts about blogging is building up posting consistency. As I continue to focus on growing blog income this means a couple of things:

• Publishing more-Because I enjoy writing this isn’t difficult. But, making sure that the additional components to a well-structured and monetized blog post.

• Evergreen-The content has to be relevant for the next couple of years. My most popular blog post is called “So You Want to Move to Colorado?” It has had thousands of hits. THOUSANDS. And, it has over 170 comments on it. I very rarely need to update that post.

• Pin-I am pinning these posts and include hidden pins each time I publish a new blog post.

• Market-It’s nice and all to write more content…but, I (you) have to share my (your) stuff.

By sharing consistent posts, growing my page views, sharing helpful tips, and getting people in front of affiliate links that will help your readers-you’ll make more money.

Podcast

This won’t be relevant for everyone reading this post. But, if you run a podcast it’s an affective way to get new people onto your email list and eventually make money. This directly affects your ability to earn more in the long-run.

Every podcast has a couple of very important components built into them to help me earn money as people engage with my podcast content.

• Helpful resources-Several of these are affiliates, some are not.

• An opt-in form. This has become a non-negotiable.

• A reference to something that I’m selling personally:
  • Make Money with Ebooks
  • Money on the Mountain Financial Retreat for Financially Single Women
  • Autumn Stone Books

These are very low-key ways that I use to sell products that I’ve already created and build up brand awareness for my personal products. When I do my blog income reports I show both income paid and income earned during the month.

I show both tiers of earnings to make a point that what is earned may be vastly different from what you’re paid during a given month.

External factors that affect your monthly payouts:

And, your long-term blog earnings.

• Affiliate program payout terms-Affiliate programs may have  30, 60, or 90 day payout terms.

• Earning enough to hit the payout threshold. Fortunately, I’ve stopped working with programs that have payout thresholds.

• Not enough traffic and interaction with your favorite affiliates.

• The person who signed up with your affiliate link didn’t complete whatever task they needed to complete in order to earn your affiliate payout.

• Your affiliates have a short-term cookie duration. An example of a program with a short-term cookie duration is Amazon Affiliates. Basically, if someone interacts with your Amazon affiliate link and makes a purchase within 24 hours of interacting with your link-you get a percentage of that purchase. You just have to have enough Amazon Affiliate links circulating out there to build up momentum in terms of earnings.

I’ve slowly, but surely, have grown my passive income and am paying particular attention to growing my mailing list as well. I have different lists that grow really easily, other lists that are a bit more challenging. The more I focus on daily earnings goals, the more I actually attain them and my Paid, Pitch, Post, Podcast system helps me stay focused on the big picture.

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Michelle

I am an obsessive foodie, but not self-righteous with it, love travel, meeting new people, helping you look good, and am freaked out by people who don't enjoying reading...something! Grab a Perrier, read my blog, feel free to drop me a line! Hope to hear from you soon.

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