Income Diary

What do you think the top PPC levers are in 2026? Because of AI, many marketers are less worried about campaign structures or bidding... But if everyone is using the same tech, PPC becomes more competitive. So what matters in 2026? Check out the results.

Is it worth being an influencer? When we surveyed 5920 influencers, their average monthly income was $323.19. Even with influencers with over 1,000,000 followers, their average income generated was $6,109.83 a month. And when you look at the Neil Patel brand, it doesn't generate more than $10 million a year. It's not bad, but it's a single-digit percentile of our overall revenue. When you look at Kylie Cosmetics, the majority of the company was sold for $600 million. But keep in mind Kylie has roughly 400 million fans... and that's just on Instagram. Legion Athletics makes $30,000 to $40,000 a month in revenue from the founder's personal brand. However, influencers generate $400,000 to $500,000 a month in revenue for the company. And I have countless more examples. Being an influencer can generate revenue. You need lots of followers, and getting that takes years. On the flip side it's easier and more scalable to build a business leveraging influencers, versus being one yourself. But in an ideal world... you ideally want to leverage influencers, be an influencer, and build a corporate brand... all at the same time.

The 3 biggest marketing mistakes I made in my career… 1. Building a personal brand… no matter how big your personal brand gets it’s hard to build a big company around it. My personal brand never drove more than $10 million in annual revenue. Even larger personal brands like Kylie Jenner built a nice size business but it’s tiny in comparison of corporate brands like L’Oreal. Ideally you want to do what Nike has done. Leverage personal brands to build a larger corporate brand. Just like they did with Jordan. Or how Legion Athletics generates $400,000 to $500,000 a month in revenue from leveraging hundreds of influencers. Versus the founder’s personal brand, which only brings in $30,000 to $40,000 a month. 2. Not focusing enough years marketing the same company. It takes 3 plus years to start getting real traction, but it takes 10 plus years to really build a corporate brand. After 10 years of being consistent you’ll start generating the majority of your sales from word of mouth marketing. But you have to put in the 10 years first. I didn’t focus enough when I was younger and I founded one too many businesses. 3. Focusing on the US instead of the world. The US may be the largest economy but the real money is made by targeting the world. If you look at most Fortune 500 companies you’ll notice that they have a global presence. We used to generate most of our revenue from the US, but international is what’s leading our growth and will make up the majority of our revenue by far in the long run. Even with our web traffic, the US makes up less than 20 percent now. The majority of the world’s population doesn’t live in one country. So target the world but don’t go after too many countries at once… slow and steady wins the race.

I used to fly on private planes due to convince, but one day I realized I could have changed someone’s life with this money… without adding much inconvenience to my life. I used to like nice, large homes… I had one… even broke a state record when I sold it, but I would rarely see my kids in my own house... hence I sold it. I used to want fancy cars when I was younger… bought a few, but none were as great as my Honda Odyssey… especially when you have kids. And I used to buy fancy watches… and now I rarely ever wear any of them. Over the years I went through many phases… but two things have stayed consistent… The first is how much I cherish my family and friends. And the second is my love for business and the game. Fancy stuff comes and goes and it doesn’t really make you happy at the end of the day. These days I live in a 3 bedroom condo. It’s not big… my kids play in the living room due to lack of space and we also iron our clothes in the hallway due to space. But it’s great… we gave away most of the things that we didn’t need. We’re genuinely more happy. I could easily go back to my old way of living, but I wouldn’t be as happy. You don’t need fancy stuff in life. But if you want something that is silly, work hard and get it. Find out what makes you happy in life and focus on it. You’ll go through a lot of trial and error and experience different phases, but eventually you will get to where you want.