Pat Flynn Net Worth: Career, Income Sources,Skills, Etc.

Welcome to my Pat Flynn Networth post. 

In this post, we’re going to look at who some see as the godfather of creating passive income Pat Flynn, and how he got the Net worth he has now. 

Pat Flynn Career Path

In 2005 Pat graduated from the  University of California, Berkley with a B.A. Architecture. A year later he started working at MBH Architects as an Architecture apprentice and eventually became a job captain.

While he was working at MBH Architects he was studying for the LEED exam.

For those that don’t know, Leed stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design which is a green building certification that is used worldwide for creating sustainable buildings in a responsible way.

While studying for the exam he put all his findings, charts, study guides, statistics, and more on a blog called the Green Exam Academy.

Unfortunately in 2008, while he was studying for the exam he got laid off from work. After not looking at the blog for months he went on it once and to his surprise, 10.000 people were visiting his website on a daily basis.

Apparently, he was ranking on Google which in return sent visitors to his website organically.

He decided to put Ads on his website through Adsense and earned $40 a month. It wasn’t much but it was enough to see that there might be an opportunity here. 

Pat was under a lot of pressure during this time. He was laid off from work and was about to get married.

So he took a risk and started to invest more time in online marketing. 

He joined an online marketing training platform, joined different masterminds, and constantly tried to come in contact with experts to learn as much as possible about online marketing.

Armed with all this knowledge he decided to take 2 months and write an ebook which was an expanded study guide for passing the LEED exam and put it on Green Exam Academy and earned $8000 first month.

In the second month, he earned $ 10,000 and in the third month he hired a voice actor to create an audio version and he was earning roughly $ 30,000 a month.

The business was mostly running on autopilot through the visitors he got from being on the first page of Google. In total, he’d spend 6 hours a month doing maintenance but that was all that was needed.

After the success of Green Exam Academy, he decided to create Smart Passive Income. A blog dedicated to helping people earn a passive income by putting in the work upfront and reaping the benefits later. 

In 2008, he started an LLC called Flynn Industry which functions as a parent company for all his projects (such as Green Exam Academy, Smart Passive Income, etc).

He started to create multiple income streams by writing for other websites such as Infobarrel, creating niche affiliate blogs, and courses, and mentoring people.

On July 19, 2010, Pat published his first SPI podcast episode detailing his journey. He still uploads new weekly episodes with all types of tips for Entrepreneurship, marketing, branding, passive income, and productivity. 

Listen to the first episode here: SMART PASSIVEINCOME PODCAST: Introduction

In 2019, started together with ALEB WOJCIK the Kickstarter for the Switchpod. A Tripod that can easily switch between filming what is in front of you and turning around for selfies.

They successfully funded $100,000 in 12 hours, went on to raise over $415,000 during the campaign, and started shipping to thousands of customers 6 months later.

In the meantime, he’s written 3 books, done keynotes, and is busy with new projects as we speak.

Patt Flynn Books 

• Will it Fly?: How to Test Your Next Business Idea So You Don’t Waste Your Time and Money (2016)
• Superfans: The Easy Way to Stand Out, Grow Your Tribe, and Build a Successful Business (2019)
• Let’s Go: Expanded Edition: How to Transform Moments of Panic into a Life of Profits and Purpose (2017)
• Let’s Go (2013)

Pat Flynn’s sources of income

Too many Pat Flynn is seen as the godfather of passive income so I thought it’d be cool to break down all his income streams to get a better insight into how Pat Flynn earns money.

Pat has a lot of income streams but these seem to be the most vital income streams.

1. Blogging 

A majority of Pat Flynn’s success he owes to the first blog he created called The Green Exam Academy. The blog website while having a dated look is still running. 

Through properly setting up this blog it got recognized by search engines such as Google as the result with the most value and as a result, ranked first on many Google result pages.

Contrary to what many people believe blogging isn’t dead. Many online entrepreneurs use blogs as the foundation of their online entrepreneurial endeavors.

77% of marketers report that content marketing has become more important to their organization in the last year (Content Marketing Institute).

Also, 80% of bloggers report that blogging drives results (Orbit Media).

On his LEED website, Pat sells the green exam study guides that he offers when reading his blog posts. 

2. Affiliate marketing 

Pat Flynn has multiple niche websites that bring in monthly traffic in the same way that the Green Exam Academy does but he monetizes them differently. Instead of creating a guide that people can buy he places affiliate links in the content on the website.

As an affiliate marketer, you don’t sell products but connect people with the products they’re interested in. Through the use of unique links directed to websites where they can buy these products, the companies can see who referred them. 

Every time a referral purchases something the affiliate marketer gets a commission at no expense to the person purchasing the product. 

By getting these websites on the first page of Google search results people keep coming to his websites 24/7 without continuously having to create content.

The SPI blog is a great example of a website he uses for affiliate marketing.

In one of his posts about affiliate strategies, he puts affiliate links to an email marketing service called Convertkit. Here's an excerpt from the post.

In this context it’s educational but at the same time if you purchase a Convertkit subscription while visiting the website he receives a commission.

3. Podcast sponsors

Pat Flynn has multiple podcasts such as the Smart Passive Income podcast and the Askpat podcast. He makes money with these podcasts through brand sponsorships. 

Companies pay him to mention their brand at the beginning, throughout, and sometimes at the end of a podcast. The price for mentioning their brands is predetermined through negotiation with the company.

4. Online Courses 

Online courses are a great way to earn money online without continuously working. You create a course one time and after that, you drive people to the course. 

Of course, you’ll have to do maintenance to keep the content “fresh” but this isn’t a day-to-day thing. There are multiple ways you can create an online course. 

You can use a platform that markets the course for you but in exchange will take a big chunk of the profits or you can create a self-hosted course that you’ll have to market yourself but keep all the profit.

Here’s a list of all the Pat Flynn courses that he sells from his blog Smart Passive Income:

• Smart From Scratch (costs $199)
• Email Marketing Magic (costs $499)
• A to Z Webinars (costs $499)
• 1-2-3 Affiliate Marketing (costs $599)
• Power-Up Podcasting (costs $799)
• Amp’d Up Podcasting (costs $999)
• Power-Up Podcasting Bootcamp (costs $1599)

5. Mentorship

In the past, Pat has mentored many people and showed them the ropes in exchange for money. If you have valuable knowledge that you can communicate in an effective way then mentorship can be a great way to earn money. 

People are willing to pay a lot of money for direct access to mentors who can go with them through every step and give feedback when needed. 

Pat used to publish income reports on his website to let people know what was possible when you invest in online marketing but he stopped doing it because he got to a point where he was of the opinion that it looks unrealistic. 

Interested in looking at his old income reports? Then click here to read all the income reports

Skills and knowledge needed to acquire his net worth 

1. Online Marketing 

You might have the greatest offer in the world, but you won’t earn a nickel if nobody knows about it. That's where online marketing comes in.

Online marketing is one of the most valuable skill sets to have especially in entrepreneurship. 

Pat recognized that and joined online training platforms, bought courses, and approached countless experts to learn as much as possible about online marketing.

Judging from his articles and courses he has put a lot of time into learning about the following forms of online marketing.

• Search Engine Optimization a.k.a. SEO
• Facebook advertising
• Email Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• YouTube Marketing

2. Brand Development

Pat Flynn has spent a lot of time learning how to build brands in all types of niches. He went from providing people with study guides for exams to creating content for Pokemon card collectors.

Every website and the content he has created fits perfectly with the theme he is covering. It showcases that he really understands the niche which is essential to building a relationship with them.  

3. Blogging

One of the main skills that propelled Pat’s success was his blogging. 

People often think that blogging is simply writing stories and posting them online. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Blogging is a skill and a lot more technical than you think. 

You need to learn how to: 

• locate the people who’d be interested in your content.
• Learn how to write in a tone that suits your niche.
• Write introduction paragraphs that draw people in
• Adapt to both readers with a short attention span and those who prefer long-form content.
• How to increase your authority as a blogger
• Etc.

4. Webdesign 

Pat knows how to create beautiful websites in a very practical way. Pat’s websites aren’t just digital "business cards" or portfolios. They’re designed to generate income.

You can see that when you’re looking at websites such as smartpassiveincome.com and switchpod.co.

Luckily, nowadays you don’t have to learn code or even have any web design experience to build beautiful websites. 

Websitebuilders can take care of 90% of the work but you still need to know how the website builder works and how you can take advantage of them.

5. Public Speaking

Pat has done multiple speaking gigs and is constantly making videos and podcast episodes. In his first podcast episode, he even said that one of the main reasons he started his podcast was to get better at public speaking.

Now people are willing to pay him a lot of money to speak at events. 

6. Team Building

Pat is doing a multitude of projects at the same time. The niche websites run on their own but he also has a team overseeing the editing of his content and more. 

This can’t be done without identifying the right people to work with you and finding ways to be productive as a team.

More Entrepreneur Stories

Learn more about these online entrepreneurs and their real digital success: 

• Austin Evans Net Worth
• Tim Ferriss Net Worth
• Steven Schapiro

Final Words

Pat Flynn has achieved a lot over the years but the foundation of it all was that first blog. 

He put everything he knew into that blog and people were willing to pay for that knowledge. Increasing your net worth always starts with providing people with something they perceive as valuable.  

I hope this post was of value and if you have any questions or just want to show some love feel free to leave a comment.

See you at my next post!