I really couldn’t have asked for a better month – July has been simply incredible. My online income has exceeded all expectations yet again, setting another consecutive record. I’ve worked so much over the past 7 months and that effort is certainly represented by what I’ve achieved this month. As always, I couldn’t have done it without my favorite piece of software, GameMaker Studio.
July Online Earnings
$15 (+$5) – Myriad Online donations
$60 – Mobility engine licensing
$320 – “Making Money With HTML5” eBook
$900 – HTML5 partnered earnings
$5100 (+$2963) – HTML5 earnings
During July 2012 I earned a total of $6395 (+$4128) online! That makes this the first month where I’ve earned more than my parents.
eBook Sales
Early in the month I decided to start accepting pre-orders for my upcoming eBook, “Making Money With HTML5“. I’m surprised and humbled by the initial response, and while selling 16 copies may not seem like much, to me that’s huge. Given the price tag of $19.99, the eBook pre-orders also contributed a substantial amount to this month’s earnings. To the early adopters, all I can say is: thank you!
HTML5 Partnership
Last month I mentioned that I was setting up partnerships with talented developers that were interested in monetizing their HTML5 mobile games. The idea being that they would make the game, I would sell it to my contacts, and we’d share the proceeds. Well, the first sales have started coming in and it’s going very well. The partnered HTML5 revenue this month represents my share only, for a single game which has a long way to go.
As more of these partnerships come into fruition my HTML5 portfolio will continue to grow. Being able to license many games as a bundle will allow me to establish more deals at higher prices, to the benefit of all parties.
I’ve purposely chosen highly competent developers to work with so that I can minimize the need to micromanage them. At first I was worried that I might have been wasting my time with this idea but in the end it all came down to finding the right people to work with. I really enjoy this setup, and working with others is always more interesting than working alone.
My HTML5 Earnings
As you can see, my own HTML5 mobile games have performed pretty damn brilliantly this month. There’s no other way to put it.
The same as June, I began licensing only one new game. “Hi-Lo” was made in 9 hours as an experiment to see if I could take an extremely basic concept, polish it, and sell it. While I won’t disclose the exact revenue that the game has generated just yet, I certainly consider the experiment to be a success.
In addition to the new game, my previous ones have continued to earn (much to my continued disbelief). The majority of my HTML5 earnings this month are fueled by simple circumstance and nothing particularly special. A certain publisher that I had not been in contact with for a long time became available again, and decided to license all of my recent work. I also sold a bundle of games to a new publisher which was quite a lucrative deal.
The HTML5 market has expanded quite substantially this month, with multiple new publishers entering the scene. I’m currently working on setting up a variety of new deals, including a licensing agreement that will see some of my games placed on the website of a major corporation. I can’t say much about it yet, but it’s pretty exciting!
I’ve also decided to start edging back in to mobile ads, and after some research I settled on a service called LeadBolt. Hopefully they turn out to be more reliable than AdSense.
What’s Next?
August is going to be a really busy month. I’ll be spending a lot of time on my eBook and hopefully it will be ready to publish soon. I’m expecting to launch a few more partnered games too, and of course I have to try and maintain my own HTML5 earnings. To that end, I will be challenging myself to create “5 HTML5 Games In 5 Days” sometime during the month.
On the iOS/Android front, my app hasn’t really progressed much lately but my team is still working on it. I’m also resuming development of my major project Myriad Online after a 3 month hiatus, so I definitely don’t have a lack of programming to do during August.
Finally, to help promote the launch of my official Facebook page I’ll be hosting another GameMaker Studio giveaway in the first few weeks of August. More details about that will be posted soon.
So yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to…I don’t know where I get the time either!
Matthew
Note: This income report has been posted early due to the GMC jam 72 hour competition which I’ll be entering at the end of the month. I wouldn’t have been able to write this post at the end of the month, so I wrote it today and couldn’t stop myself from publishing it early. I’ll update this until the end of the month though.
Wow, congratulations Matthew. I see you have made over twice the money you made last month, and that this month hasn’t even finished. I hope you continue getting this much income, and that you make more games, because they work really well on mobile phones, which is the reason why I play a lot of your games.
This is insane. Brilliant. I will have to buy the mobility engine soon, it will make a perfect combination with your book
Hey TV, that’s cool news! I was wondering, when you “sell your game to your contacts”, do they get full rights on it? Does your name still appears as the creator of thoses games? And, where can we go to play these games?
I typically only sell non-exclusive licenses, so I maintain the right to sell to multiple publishers. My own branding is removed most of the time, but sometimes I am credited on the game page. I currently don’t have the games listed anywhere but I’m working on putting up a page!
Great work mate. I love reading these posts and I’m looking forward to working with you
Thanks Luke, and likewise!
That is absolutely amazing!
Great job mate!
It goes to show what can be done with a little effort.
This is very interesting. Do you plan to have affiliates promote your ebook? Am definitely ordering one soon.
That’s certainly something I’m considering, yes. Since this is such a niche product though, I’m not entirely sure how well that’ll go.
Stunning. I have no words for how proud I am of you! Hope to get where you are soon as well.
Nell @ Housewife Empire recently posted..When Your Online Biz Hits a Wall
I know you will, you’re doing great! Thanks for the comment.
If it’s not ask much…
How much do you charge for the non-exclusive licenses?
That’s the type of information I cover in my eBook.