A $1,000.00 Day in IM really isn't very much money, is it?

I'd like to think that I wouldn't up my standard of living very much at all, I'd use the money to become very wealthy which is my dream. Then maybe once I've hit my goal I'd start to enjoy myself more

Who ever says $1k/day isn't much is full of crap. There is always room for more, but if you can't live off $1k/day, then you probably need to check into a rehab

I have a marketer client who makes more than $1K per day. Actually, if revenue starts getting below $2K per day he starts getting anxious and cranky. A good chunk of that goes to Google/Facebook/Bing/the latest shiny new fad for advertising right off the bat. He pays a couple PPC managers, a couple designers, a couple VAs, a social media guy, a business consultant/accountant, and a few programmers/developers (finding trustworthy people for that last role seems to be a major pain point for him, and he has a programming background so he already is in a good position to manage that aspect). On top of that, there's the expense of producing the DVDs that he's selling, which often feature subject matter experts who I'm sure are getting at least a US living wage for the time they put in or a healthy percentage of the profits. When all the expenses are paid out, there's a partner that gets part of what's left, and of course as someone mentioned, taxes.

I know he lives in a wealthy town and takes frequent trips to conferences in nice locations, but still, I don't think I'd want to be him from what I've seen. I think on some level he loves his work and is living his dream, but he seems stressed out and super busy a lot of the time. He must step away from the computer at some point, but he appears to be tied to Skype and usually will respond within an hour whether you message him at 8 am or midnight. He appears to work harder than any of his employees or freelancers do.

I don't know for sure since I don't have a bird's-eye-view of the business, but I suspect that he could reorganize things to be more efficient, cut out a lot of the stress, and work much less while still making a good living (though perhaps not as much as he's making now). A lot of money does seem to get wasted due to management mistakes and poorly-planned ambitious efforts. For other businesses at the same revenue level, it may not be as chaotic. Then again, what do I know? He's achieved a lot, is doing something difficult, and none of us will ever have a perfect business or life.

My point is the life of someone bringing in a stupid amount of money is not necessarily what we all dream about. I've found it interesting to get an inside glimpse at a successful IM business and thought it would add to the discussion if I shared.

Right now I'd be happy with $100 a day.

At the top of my game I was making about $300 a day. Seems like a lifetime ago. Fortunately, I didn't burn through my cash and not in any danger of being out on the street, yet. But eventually, I need to get my new business at full speed. I'm convinced that in time, between all the funnels I'll have going for me that $100 a day won't be too difficult and that's more than I'll ever need to keep a roof over my head and food in my stomach. I don't need much. Material things never interested me. Even when I was making a crap ton of money (for my standards anyway) I didn't spend much. So even if I never get back to where I was (I think I can) I'll still be okay even with a modest income.

As far as $1,000 a day being enough for some people, I doubt it's enough for Donald Trump.

Like everything else in life, this is a relative thing.

Quite a nice statement, that shows a good mindset and a properly selected goals!

When broaching a topic like this...

We must remember that screen shots and income claims made by most online "gurus" are selling tools.

In most businesses gross income is not a tool to attract more business.

In IM, this is one of the largest selling tools and builds the most desire to do business.

When I build software for a company, they are solely worried about software and concepts that I've previously built. Not how much money I make.

Screen shots can be photoshopped and more importantly bank accounts pre-affiliate payout and pre-tax make for nice pictures albeit false realities.

$1,000,000 can quickly turn into $120,000

$1,000,000 with 75% affiliate payout = $250,000

$250,000 with overhead = $200,000

$200,000 after taxes quickly shrinks to $120,000

Those are not bad numbers ... just trying to make a point.

Perception is reality.

Next time you see a screen shot from one of these online ballers, just remember this.

Keep your head down and focus on your pockets and you'll be good.

Expectations can keep a man with $20M in his bank broke for life. Keep your expectations manageable and remember:

"The best offense is a good defense"

Sorry for the rant .. I am new to the forum and must build up my posts so I can advertise!!

Signing out!

just a quick question, can you provide us the name of some people that you can trust to mentor you

"A thousand dollars a day is NOT very much money, it isn't going to support our lifestyle" so 30K a month isn't going to support our lifestyle? For some probably not but for many it would be more then sufficient i imagine.

Although I have not have an average of $500 since 2008, my income was sufficient until Oct last year. Since then, I have had to sell off more than $30,000 in stocks and mutual funds to cover my living expenses. I am also in contact with an auction house to sell off part of my collection of luxury watches. I do have a small vacant property worth over $500,000 which I can sell or rent. I am also eligible for a pension from my last government job in 9 years' time.

So right now, although it is pretty unpleasant, I am not extremely worried yet. So far, the only cut I have made is with my hobby which is flying RC helicopters. Besides, my methods are more or less intact. It was because my biggest merchant suddenly reduced their commission rate by 25%. Also, the conversion rate suddenly halved. I believe that they did some tricks with the commission tracking.

What you said there is not exactly indicative of my current situation. My current stock portofolio is worth much more than 30k and I have a fully paid property worth over $500,000 which is vacant at the moment. This is excluding a another larger property which I am living in at the moment. Moreover in 9 years' time, I will receive an inflation adjusted payout of over $250,000 plus a monthly pension. If I had no children, me and my wife could have retired long ago. It is just that things are so expensive over here.

What is extremely important is to save up when times are good. IM earnings are very volatile. Under no circumstances should one live from paycheck to paycheck. In fact, I think it is very important to have a fall back plan if things did not work out well.

The post has stimulated some thinking, as it was intended, but even I'm surprised at some of the replies, questions and comments and the email has been a fascinating study in what IM is perceived to be.

I'll share some thoughts on the 20th, need some time to compile and check so many websites. If there is a general "idea"....and I'm not saying there is, but a lot of the communications I've recd show a general

LACK OF PLANNING as opposed to the execution. There IS a lot of Shiny Object Syndrome and Unicorns and Rainbows. And not enough, in my opinion, thinking about what you want to do with your time and I stand by one of my original premises, most people take too much time and waste energy by working 60 hour weeks, when a solid plan of action which will produce results can take place in just a few weeks.

Thanks for some great food for thought, and keep your questions, comments and opinions coming, it is interesting to see.

gjabiz

PS. How do you define IM? What do you think it is?

About ten years ago, I took a coaching course from a very smart man named Stuart Lichtman. He found that if someone attempted a goal beyond what they believed was possible, their subconscious would actually work actively to sabotage their efforts. He found that for a goal to be effective, it needed to be big enough to get the person excited and even a little scared, but not so big that their minds went into this self-protect mode.

That goal range, at least where making money was concerned, was about five to ten times what that person had achieved previously.

If your best consistent result is $10/day, then aiming for $100/day is a perfectly reasonable goal. Once you've reached that level long enough for your subconscious mind to accept it as normal, then you can up the ante on your goal. For someone accustomed to making $100-$200 per day, $1000 per day is a perfectly reasonable goal.

Regardless of what we believe about the "how", I think the passage above is what matters most. If you don't want it badly enough to do what's necessary, the rest is academic.

I tell a true story to my 8 year old son to demonstrate: in high school I was on the gymnastics team. I was the second best on the team at pommel horse. A kid named Eric was also a pommel horse specialist--and he was pretty bad in our first and second years.

In the summer after our sophomore year, I discovered other interests and spent the summer pursuing them. Eric spent the summer practicing pommel horse pretty much every day.

I had more natural talent than Eric. But after that summer I discovered I was no longer very good compared to others who had put in work over the summer. So I quit.

Gangly, weak and uncoordinated Eric, went on to place 7th in the state in his senior year.

For me, the value in most plans is in the thinking that goes into them. In working with both individuals and businesses, I have found that because unpredictable changes tend to occur plans typically have to change--often significantly.

I also see many people using "planning" as an excuse for not doing. I worked with a group of attorneys (the kind that bill $300 - $600 per hour) that had a nine-page business and marketing plan template they were going to use for their practice. They met a couple times a month for about four months before giving up.

Meanwhile, some of them had just started pulling the trigger--failing, adjusting, getting a win, etc. More of an OODA loop model (OODA Loop on Wikipedia). They are the ones that have been most successful in getting business. I believe everyone else was hiding behind the "we're still planning" excuse. (Today they're hiding behind other excuses.)

I've seen that play out over and over again.

I'm not saying planning is a bad thing, or that people shouldn't plan. But I don't think a plan has to be extensive for most people starting out in IM. They do need to do enough planning to think things through reasonably well. But there is a point of diminishing return.

I think that commitment is at least as important as planning. I'm not convinced that lack of a good plan will cause people to fail. I think ultimate success or failure is more about commitment. However, I DO think that with a good plan, committed people can succeed faster than they otherwise would.

The JUNE experiment is over and here is what I've learned from this thread:

From the posts, PM and email, plus the feedback from the Nectar's Report here are my findings.

There are FIVE groups of Warriors.

Number one, the largest by far, are those who want to make ANY amount of money. They post with excitement when they get that first sale, the first 100 dollars and the first 1,000 dollar month. They come to WF with hope and belief there is a way for them to make money online. They tend to buy at least 3-5 WSO's on making money.

MOST don't make any significant amount of money even after several months into it.

Group TWO are making a little bit of money with some consistency maybe a Fivver here or an affiliate there. They are DOING something and getting some results, which gives them HOPE and they think they only need to find the right system, the right method and they will take off big for the IM pot of gold.

Group THREE are long suffering Warriors, they have reached a certain level, a plateau, maybe 50 bux or even 100 bux a day....the goals 80% of Warriors would be very happy with. They have been at it for several months, and their hard work is starting to pay off, albeit in small but steady sums of money. They want more, but seem to be stuck on the details of how they are going to do it.

Group FOUR, they are making 100 dollars a day and more. Some, have even gone up to 300 or more, and they feel they have ARRIVED...but, the party ends when they get a Google slap or ignore their business and put it on auto-pilot and don't pay attention to their customers. Also, in Group Four are those Journeyman Warriors, who are making 500 bux a day, or the magical 10k per month. The Warriors who make 120,000 US Dollars a year, who are single and without children find this to be a good amount of money. They keep working hard, may travel and have done what they set out to do.

Group FIVE. The Warriors who have hit the 1000 dollar days with regularity, invest in their BUSINESS and stay on top of trends and technology. They know and use metrics and latest information to build their business. Some have become IM "legends", others simply like to fly low and collect the dough.

This last group is in the 250k a year, upper percentile of American taxpayers, and after a couple of years of this income, are better positioned to sustain the lifestyle, although my research shows they carry a huge amount of debt too.

They DO want things and they spend their money, leveraging their assets to get the new car, house or boat or whatever. Only 15% of this last group live below their means and invest for the future, keeping their incomes steady and stable preferring the Buick over the Lamborghini. They have college funds for their children.

Now some of you may be in a couple of these groups, and some are on their way up, some are starting over.

As regards PLANS, it is not taught properly, because a good plan analyzes all the downside and possibility in advance, so when the storm comes, and they almost always do, they are prepared and ready. They don't lose everything because they built their business on a Google algorithm which changes.

MOST Warriors jump head first into the shallow end of the pool, and pay the price...although you find a few which survive and thrive and they render their success as THE way to do it, because they have done it THAT WAY.

There are NO limits.
There are NO Rules.
There are no right and wrong ways because YOU are an individual with your strengths, weaknesses and learning skills.

Mind set is, in my opinion, the KEY to IM success, when coupled with a well thought out PLAN of Activity which foresees potential problems and builds contingencies into their plan.

Thanks to all who have responded to the thread, it has been a valuable learning experience for me.

gjabiz