If you're anything like me, you've probably heard about the blogger and author Patrick "McFly" Flynn. You may have even seen him speak at one of your favorite conferences or read something he wrote on Twitter. But how much money has McFly made over the years? What kind of lifestyle can someone with $3 million in annual revenue live off of? And what if I told you that this guy was just 23 when he started making serious cash online?
The truth is, we know almost nothing about McFly. The Internet loves to talk about him because he's so relatable -- but there aren't any hard numbers about him. So today, let's take a look at exactly who Patrick Flynn is (and isn't) and see where he ranks among other successful Internet entrepreneurs.
In 2017, Forbes estimated Flynn's net worth as between $4 million and $5 million. That puts him somewhere between the top 1% and 0.1%, depending on which number you believe. In 2020, Business Insider put his net worth at around $6 million. These estimates all come from anonymous sources, but they don't sound too out-there given that McFly has been open about his finances for many years now.
So why haven't we learned more about Flynn's personal life? Because it doesn't matter! When it comes to entrepreneurship, it really only matters whether or not you succeed. If McFly makes enough money to buy a mansion, then he'll be happy. And if he buys a houseboat instead, that's fine too. It could mean he likes living on water better than land. Or maybe he wants privacy. We simply won't know unless he tells us himself.
But before we get into McFly's story, let's start by taking a closer look at how bloggers actually make money.
When most people think of blogging, they imagine themselves sitting behind their computer writing articles every day. This works great if you want to write books or sell physical products. However, if you're trying to monetize through ad sales, blog posts aren't going to cut it.
Instead, you need to focus on building up traffic. There are two ways to do this: SEO (search engine optimization), which involves ranking high in Google search results, and social media advertising, such as Facebook ads. Either way, the key here is to find a niche market that advertisers will pay attention to. For example, Flynn focuses primarily on creating YouTube videos related to digital marketing and business management. Once you build up some buzz on these topics, it becomes easier to convince companies to advertise on your site.
Now that you understand how bloggers earn money, let's turn our attention to how McFly did it.
Before Flynn became famous, he earned a modest amount of money teaching others how to build websites. Then, in 2009, he launched SmartPassiveIncome.com, a blog focused entirely on teaching readers everything they needed to learn to become millionaires via internet marketing.
Flynn quickly gained popularity thanks to his unique approach to explaining complex subjects. Instead of writing long essays filled with jargon and technical terms, he would break down each concept using simple analogies. His explanations were easy to follow, and anyone could grasp them without needing to spend hours reading dense textbooks and academic papers.
At first, Flynn didn't charge for access to his content. After all, he wanted everyone to benefit from his knowledge. Eventually, though, he realized that paying for premium memberships wasn't sustainable. So in 2012, he began charging subscribers to view previous posts. Today, SmartPassiveIncome charges $39/month for unlimited access to its archives. While it might seem expensive compared to free sites like Medium, it's still far cheaper than most traditional educational resources. Plus, since Flynn earns less per post than professional writers, he's able to offer students a discounted rate.
After earning a decent sum of money teaching people how to create websites, Flynn decided to try his hand at starting his own ecommerce store. By 2013, he had developed several popular courses that taught beginners how to set up shop online selling their own goods.
While most people would consider those types of businesses risky propositions, Flynn knew that Amazon.com already dominated the retail space. To compete against the juggernaut, he needed to develop an alternative product offering. Rather than focusing on low prices and fast shipping, he chose to target wealthy individuals looking for luxury items. With this strategy, he found a new audience willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for rare watches and designer shoes.
Today, Flynn runs multiple stores under different brands including WatchItGrow, ShoeDazzle, and StashBox. All three companies allow customers to purchase merchandise directly from his company rather than having to go through third party retailers.
As of March 2021, Flynn's total yearly earnings amounted to over $13 million. How did he manage to pull off such a feat? Well, Flynn owns several patents for inventions related to software development. As a result, he also has licensing agreements with major tech corporations ranging from Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, and HP.
Because of this, Flynn essentially gets paid whenever someone uses one of his patented technologies. Unfortunately, patent trolls often use these arrangements to sue small competitors. Still, Flynn is well aware of the risks involved in developing intellectual property.
Despite the fact that Flynn has amassed billions of dollars over the past decade, he insists that he hasn't achieved financial independence yet.
"I'm not rich," he said during an interview with Entrepreneur Magazine. "My wife and I aren't rich...We're comfortable."
Even so, McFly says that he wouldn't change a thing about his career path. "I love my job," he added. "There's no doubt in my mind that I'd do this again tomorrow if I had to."
Still, Flynn acknowledges that becoming financially independent requires patience. Even after spending millions of dollars promoting his various ventures, he admits that he's barely scratched the surface.
"You have to keep working while you work, and hope that eventually things start coming together," he explained. "It takes time, especially early on. I spent five years doing very little on any project except for growing [SmartPassiveIncome] organically."
And despite his successes, Flynn remains humble.
"I'm not perfect," he admitted. "Everyone messes up. I messed up plenty of times along the way. But I always came back stronger."
Patrick Flynn Net Worth: $3 Million
Forbes' estimate of Flynn's net worth ranges anywhere from $4 million to $5 million. According to BI, his current value sits somewhere around $6 million.
Where does Flynn rank among other prominent figures in the blogosphere? He currently holds the #2 spot based on Alexa rankings.
If you've ever read the blog posts by Pat Flynn (MC), or seen him on YouTube videos where he gives advice about how to start your own business online, it should come as no surprise that he has become one of the most popular entrepreneurs in the world today. His name is synonymous with making money through the internet, and many people have adopted his strategies for their own businesses with great results.
Flynn started his career working at Microsoft back when Bill Gates was still running things there. After several years of experience, he left to work full-time on starting up his first company, which eventually became known as "SmartPassiveIncome". This site would go on to be one of the top sites for newbie Internet marketers, helping them learn all they could about creating websites, building blogs, learning SEO techniques, etc. After launching this site, Flynn decided to take some time off of working to focus more on his family but continued to write articles and give talks around the country about what it takes to succeed online and build a successful business.
Nowadays, Flynn runs another site called "The Simple Dollar" along with two other companies under his umbrella: The Smart Passive Income Blog, and The Money Coach Podcast. These three sites collectively bring in over half a million dollars per month in revenue thanks to the millions of visitors who visit each day looking for tips and tricks to help them get rich quick.
But does Pat Flynn actually make any real money himself? What exactly is his annual salary like? We're going to find out right now!
First things first, let us address the question of whether or not blogging can really be considered a legitimate form of passive income. In short, yes. While not everyone will see the same level of success, anyone with a platform and enough traffic can easily begin earning a few hundred dollars every single week without putting in too much effort. However, if you want to grow into something bigger than just a couple thousand bucks a year, then you'll need more than just regular old blogging.
This part isn't so much about the general average payouts for bloggers as it is about determining what kind of blogger you are. If you're writing informative content about topics you love, then you may be able to make anywhere between $100 and $500 per post. On the other hand, if you're posting pictures of cute animals all day long, you might only manage to pull in somewhere between $5 and $10. It's also important to remember that these numbers don't mean anything unless we know how often you publish a piece. A high volume of daily posts will naturally raise your earnings.
Are writers paid better than bloggers? Do you need to be famous before you can make a decent amount of money?
Flynn writes quite a bit here on our site, and while I personally think he makes excellent points about how to increase your chances of success, his overall message hasn't always been positive. Many readers complain about his negativity and lack of support for those struggling to create a profitable niche market. As such, I wouldn't recommend reading too much into his comments. They aren't meant to tell you everything you need to know, but rather offer up some helpful guidance for beginners trying to figure out how to make money online.
No, not necessarily. You won't get rich overnight, even though a certain percentage of bloggers seem to believe otherwise. But if you keep doing what you already know works well, then you should be fine. Of course, the best way to ensure profitability is to spend lots of hours researching different niches and markets, finding ways to improve upon existing methods, and using them effectively. Once you've done that, you'll probably notice an uptick in your earnings.
Yes, absolutely. There are plenty of examples out there of bloggers who made thousands of dollars simply because they were willing to put in the extra time needed to research, analyze, and implement effective strategies. Some of these tactics include setting up shop on Amazon, getting involved in affiliate programs, buying domain names, and/or hiring someone else to handle the technical aspects of hosting or designing your website.
Even if you decide to continue doing it yourself, however, you'll likely end up spending far less time working on your blog than you did before. That means you'll have more free time available to devote towards other activities, including traveling, taking classes, or maybe even pursuing side projects outside of the home.
Is Pat Flynn a millionaire yet? Will he reach millionaire status anytime soon? How fast will he achieve millionaire status?
So far, Flynn has reached the six-figure mark with his various ventures, although none of his companies have managed to hit the billion dollar mark. According to Forbes, his total wealth sits at $3 million, meaning he's almost certainly going to surpass that value within the next five years or so.
As I said earlier, it doesn't matter how much money you make once you hit that level. What matters is how quickly you move beyond it. Is Pat Flynn planning to retire shortly after reaching millionaire status? Or will he keep pushing forward until he reaches billionaire territory? I'm sure we'll hear more updates on both fronts very soon.
To learn more about Pat Flynn, check out his website, YouTube channel, and podcast. And if you'd like to take action and try out some of his strategies, sign up for his email list below.
1. Choose a Niche
It’s no secret that there are thousands of different niches out there for you to choose from when starting up your new business venture. The key thing here is to be sure that you will be able to provide value to your customers.
You can do this by providing high-quality content which they would enjoy reading, but also by offering them something that would solve their problems at some point down the line. This could be anything from creating articles explaining why certain products work better than others, to helping them set up a website so that they can create their own niche market.
By choosing a very specific topic area, you will ensure that you won’t waste time writing about topics that no one wants to hear about, while also giving yourself a more defined goal to aim towards instead of trying to write about everything under the sun!
In order to really get started with building your own niche site though, you need to know exactly what kind of information you want to offer to your readers. You don’t necessarily have to go into any sort of detail right now – just take note of any ideas that pop into your head over the next few days. It’ll help to keep things fresh if you think carefully about each idea before moving onto another one.
A quick search for "how to start an online business" will turn up dozens of sites that promise you the world if only you sign up with them. They'll give you all sorts of advice on how to get rich overnight. But what happens when they don't deliver? What makes someone like Pat Flynn successful in spite of this problem? Why do people flock to him despite not having any idea who he really is or why he's so famous? Is it because he has some secret formula for making millions of dollars without actually trying? Or is there something more fundamental going on here than just luck?
I'm sure that most readers have at least heard of Pat Flynn (MC). His name is synonymous with internet entrepreneurship. He was one of the first bloggers to become wildly popular in a short period of time. In fact, he became so renowned that Forbes named him as their highest-earning blogger in 2011. At that point, Flynn had made over half a million dollars selling eBooks through his site, SmartPassiveIncome.com. And by 2012, he'd earned over $2.5 million. Since then, he hasn't slowed down a bit, earning another $1.7 million last year alone.
Flynn isn't your typical self-made millionaire though. He didn't buy into the hype that everyone else was getting rich off of internet businesses. Instead, he started out doing things the old fashioned way – working at a job, saving, investing, and building a portfolio. Then, after several years, he decided to take action instead of waiting around for others to tell him what to do. That's where his blog comes in. It's essentially a collection of essays written by Flynn about various topics related to personal finance. The goal isn't necessarily to teach you how to become financially independent. Rather, the hope is that reading these articles can help you avoid wasting your own hard work and money. You might even learn a thing or two along the way.
But before we dive into those 10 lessons, let's talk about exactly how Flynn earns such astronomical sums of money. How does someone go from living paycheck to paycheck to being the top earner among all other bloggers? Let's find out...
The best place to begin answering this question is probably right at the beginning. When did Flynn decide to quit his day job? Was it five minutes ago? A week ago? Two months ago? Five years ago? There's no simple answer to this question. We know Flynn began writing content full-time back in 2010. But since then, he's also been involved in real estate, hosting webinars, and consulting. So it's impossible to say whether or not he still works outside of blogging.
That said, the evidence suggests that Pat Flynn doesn't need a traditional 9-to-5 job anymore. Over the course of seven years, he built up enough wealth from his blog to support himself entirely while actively blogging. Nowadays, he spends most of his time creating new products for sale. These include courses, books, software packages, and more. While many entrepreneurs would balk at spending so much time developing new products, Flynn says that he enjoys it because he gets paid every single minute he puts in.
He may be able to sustain his lifestyle with the proceeds from his blog, but he certainly wouldn't call himself wealthy. As I mentioned above, Flynn's net worth currently sits at $3 million. If you're looking for specific numbers, however, you should check out our list of high earners' salaries. According to Flynn, most of his earnings come from affiliates rather than direct sales. This means that he sells products that he thinks will benefit his audience. For example, he recently launched a membership program called Smart Passives. Once memberships sell out, he uses the profits to create additional programs. He believes that this model allows him to build a sustainable empire based solely upon word of mouth.
It sounds pretty awesome, especially considering that Flynn doesn't seem to spend too much time worrying about finances. He claims to live simply and focuses on enjoying life. Still, he understands that he needs to continue putting food on the table somehow. Luckily, he has plenty of options available to him.
If you've ever read anything written by Flynn, you already know that he makes a lot of money each month. However, he won't share exact figures publicly. At least not yet. Instead, he prefers to focus on providing value to his community. If he were to disclose his earnings today, he could potentially lose access to his audience. After all, anyone can see how profitable his posts are once they hit the front page of Reddit.
However, Flynn does want to stress that his income fluctuates quite a bit throughout the year. If you look closely at his annual reports, you'll notice that his income ranges between $100k and $500k depending on the quarter.
So far, we haven't discussed how much Flynn earns directly from his blog. Instead, we've focused on how much he earns indirectly by promoting products and services for other companies. Unfortunately, we can't provide concrete details regarding his total yearly earnings either. All we can offer are estimates based on data pulled from previous reports.
For instance, according to Flynn's 2018 tax return, he reported gross revenue of $873,637 during 2017. Of this amount, $846,861 came from advertising and sponsorships. Meanwhile, the remaining $26,776 came from product sales. Based on these totals, Flynn earned roughly $4,000 per hour in 2017. To put this number into perspective, consider that he wrote approximately 740 hours of content that year. On average, Flynn writes three to four blogs a week.
As for his current income, Flynn told us that he expects to earn somewhere between $600,000 and $700,000 this year. Again, this figure includes both ad revenues and royalties. But he also plans to launch multiple new products that generate significant amounts of cash.
While Pat Flynn seems to love his job, he admits that he never imagined becoming so obsessed with it. Sure, he enjoyed writing before starting SmartPassiveIncome.com, but he always held onto the hope that he could eventually leave behind his career altogether. Today, he sees blogging as a form of insurance against eventual financial ruin due to illness or unemployment.
This brings me to my next point. Does blogging represent a reliable source of passive income? Well, yes and no. Obviously, it depends largely on which niche you choose to write about. If you specialize in health tips, you might enjoy generating thousands of visitors per month. Alternatively, if you prefer to cover more general topics, you may struggle to attract attention unless you have a very unique voice. Also, keep in mind that the longer you wait to monetize your blog, the harder it becomes to transition away from ads completely.
Still, Flynn remains optimistic. He likes to think of his blog as an investment that continues to grow regardless of his actions. Even if he stops posting regularly, he hopes that the traffic generated by his existing content will remain loyal. Plus, he knows that there are countless ways to bring in extra cash besides paying Google AdSense. For example, he hosts weekly webinars where he teaches viewers everything they need to know about growing their own websites. And he also offers free resources including guides, videos, and tutorials.
To wrap things up, I wanted to end on a positive note. Throughout the article, I emphasized how important it is for people to understand the basics of personal finance. Hopefully, these ten lessons serve as useful reminders in helping you improve your financial situation. And remember, there's nothing wrong with taking advantage of opportunities to earn extra money whenever possible. Just try your best to stay within reason. Don't blow past your budget or risk losing control of your finances.
Just follow our battle-tested guidelines and rake in the profits.