How much I made ($1000s) publishing for 100 straight days

Feb 11, 2024

Before we get going here today, I’d just like to say a huge THANK YOU to all the readers who’ve taken time out of their busy lives to follow along with my Publish Every Day project.

One hundred days ago, I wrote this post revealing my audacious plan to leave commuter life behind within 1 year by publishing every day on various platforms and putting my earnings into passive income investments.

This project has really resonated with a lot of people, and I think I know why:

Who wouldn’t want to leave the rat race to work on something they love?
I’ve been totally transparent and honest about the good, the bad, and the ugly of trying to build a content business on the side
Unlike most people in the “make money online” space on the internet, I’m honest and post real and realistic earnings almost every day

So today, to mark my first 100 days of this project, I’m going to go over my earnings and give you my thoughts on what’s working and what isn’t.

Then I’ll talk about my plan for the next 100 days.

Earnings at 100 days

So let’s take a look at those earnings right now.

If you’ve been following along throughout this journey, these charts will look very familiar to you by now.

Publish Every Day project at 100, total earnings

As you can see above, 100 days into my quest, I’ve made a total of $4,411.44.

Early on, I calculated that I’d need an average of CAD $250 per day in earnings to be in a position to retire from commuter life, and as the chart below shows, I’m still a ways away from that goal.

My average daily take? Around $45.

There are a couple of paths I could take here mentally.

The first would be the common choice, and that would be to act disappointed and quit.

I need to 5x my earnings to reach my goal, and with only 265 days in front of me now, the clock is ticking a lot louder.

I only have four days over $100, and a lot of days under $50.

But you’ll also know, if you’ve followed this project for any amount of time, that I’m all about process over earnings.

Creators will tell you it usually takes 2–5 years to make it in this game.

The whole point of this project was to demonstrate that consistently picking up small wins every single day can compound into a massive victories down the line.

HAVING SAID THAT, given where these numbers are, I’m in no position to be complacent, either.

If I don’t pick it up, I won’t reach my goal by day 365.

Now that I have my feet under me, it’s time for Phase 2.

The next 100 days

Writing here continues to provide the bulk of my earnings, but I know that’s not going to be good enough.

In my mind, there are two routes that could theoretically lead me to the promised land.

The first is that my YouTube channel blows up in a big way.

Given it’s only contributing about $1.38 per day at the moment, that seems highly unlikely.

Not impossible — it HAS happened before for others — but not something I’m realistically relying on.

YouTube is a long game.

The second — and the one I’m going to be pursuing in Phase 2 — is creating products.

The reality I’m discovering is that it’s extremely difficult to make a living on content alone.

A lot of the big names you know from this site and YouTube make their real money from selling things — subscriptions, courses, merch, books, etc.

The good news is I’m not starting from scratch — I’ve already created one KDP book (affiliate link) as a test case.

Sales have been less than stellar (read: almost non-existant) but that one was really just an experiment to figure out how to publish on the platform.

Over the next 100 days, I plan to publish:

A quit alcohol book/audiobook I’ve been dreaming about for the past 6 months or so
A general self-improvement book/audiobook, given people’s enthusiasm for these posts
A content course, which I plan to deliver via my email newsletter (subscribe free today!)

This is extremely ambitious given my schedule and responsibilities.

I have a full-time job and two kids in competitive sports, so I don’t have a lot of spare time kicking around.

But to achieve uncommon results, you need to put in uncommon effort.

So I’m just going to have to figure it out.

In general, I’m also going to make sure that I’m only spending my time on high-ROI content.

I’ve been writing here and publishing on YouTube for close to a year and a half now, and I know what works and what doesn’t at this point.

So I’m going to take one of the most important pieces of advice from one of my all-time favorite books about building wealth (affiliate link): focus solely on what gets you paid.

Friends, thanks again so much for following along this far.

This has been a fun ride, and your words of encouragement and your belief in me have really kept me going on the tougher days.

I hope you’ll keep checking in over the next 100!

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James Julian's Publish Every Day

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