These are my online business finances for August 2021.
I spent half the month in Tbilisi, Georgia and the second half in Ireland, mostly in hotel quarantine in Dublin.
I’ve been tracking everything I earn and spend since January 2011, just a few weeks after quitting my day job. Every month since, I’ve published one of these finance reports.
Sharing this info publicly keeps me accountable and hopefully gives you some insight into how I earn a living online.
Patrons get to see each new report before anyone else.
💵 Summary
| Total Business Income | € 11,828 | $ 13,955 |
| Total Business Expenses | € 3,930 | $ 4,636 |
| Profit | € 7,898 | $ 9,319 |
🤑 Business Income
| Affiliate income (see below) | € 11,598 | $ 13,684 |
| Patreon 1 | € 198 | $ 234 |
| Book sales (via Amazon) | € 18 | $ 21 |
| Tip Jar 2 | € 14 | $ 17 |
| Total Income | € 11,828 |
$ 13,955 |
| Previous Month | € 13,504 | $ 16,028 |
I was expecting my income to be around $12k for the month, so I did a bit better than expected.
👍 Affiliate Income
Affiliate payments in August came from…
(Btw, I don’t necessarily recommend everything I earn affiliate income from. Sometimes I’ll write a negative review of something and people will still sign up to it via my link. Humans are weird like that.)
Here’s a progress chart for affiliate income since starting eBiz Facts…
Note that, to keep things simple for myself on a day-to-day basis, I practice cash accounting rather than accrual accounting.
“Under the cash method of accounting, sales are recorded when cash is received, and expenses are recorded when cash is sent out. It’s straightforward and intuitive. The problem with the cash method, however, is that it doesn’t always reflect the economic reality of a situation.” – Accounting Made Simple
The economic reality of affiliate marketing is that some companies pay their affiliates every month, while others have irregular payment schedules. As a result, my affiliate income can look more inconsistent month-to-month than it actually is.
💸 Business Expenses
🤝 Hired Help
| Hired Help 3 | € 2,785 | $ 3,286 |
| Previous Month | € 3,547 | $ 4,210 |
📆 Subscriptions
| Dynamite Circle (annual) 4 | € 423 | $ 499 |
| LastPass (annual) 5 | € 41 | $ 48 |
| Phantombuster (monthly) 6 | € 25 | $ 30 |
| Cloudflare Pro Plan (monthly) 7 | € 17 | $ 20 |
| YouTube Premium (monthly) 8 | € 12 | $ 12 |
| Adobe Photoshop (monthly) | € 9 | $ 11 |
| CriticalCSS (monthly) 9 | € 8 | $ 10 |
| Virtual Post Mail (monthly) 10 | € 8 | $ 10 |
| Copycall (monthly) 11 | € 6 | $ 7 |
| AAWP (annual) 12 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Ahrefs (annual) 13 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Brainiac (annual) 14 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| ConvertBox 15 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| EasyCron (annual) | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Elementor Pro (annual) 16 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| ExpressVPN (annual) | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Google Drive storage (annual) 17 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Hexowatch 18 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| JotForm (annual) 19 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Readwise (annual) 20 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| SocialBee 21 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Surfer (annual) 22 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Teamwork project management software (annual) 23 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Trends (annual) 24 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Zoom (annual) 25 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total | € 548 | $ 647 |
| Previous Month | € 300 | $ 356 |
🤓 Hosting & Domains
| Dreamhost 26 | € 13 | $ 16 |
| Kinsta (annual) 27 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total | € 13 | $ 16 |
| Previous Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
📚 Books
| Can’t Hurt Me | € 7 | $ 8 |
| Perennial Seller | € 2 | $ 2 |
| Total | € 9 | $ 10 |
| Previous Month | € 11 | $ 13 |
- See my book ratings and everything I’m currently reading over at Goodreads
🏦 Transaction Fees
| Transaction fees 28 | € 400 | $ 472 |
| Previous Month | € 414 | $ 491 |
💻 Office Expenses
| Coworking in Tbilisi | € 22 | $ 26 |
| Phone credit | € 13 | $ 16 |
| Skype credit | € 8 | $ 10 |
| Total | € 44 | $ 52 |
| Previous Month | € 62 | $ 74 |
📋 Admin Expenses
| Admin expenses | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Previous Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
🎁 Gifts & Donations
| No-Code MVP giveaway 29 | € 84 | $ 99 |
| CAMFED 30 | € 25 | $ 30 |
| Total | € 109 | $ 129 |
| Previous Month | € 143 | $ 170 |
🤷♂️ Miscellaneous Expenses
| Amazon Web Services (storage) 31 | € 14 | $ 17 |
| Perpetual Income 365 32 | € 7 | $ 9 |
| Total | € 21 | $ 25 |
| Previous Month | € 37 | $ 44 |
💸 Expense Summary
| Hired Help | € 2,785 | $ 3,286 |
| Subscriptions | € 548 | $ 647 |
| Transaction Fees | € 400 | $ 472 |
| Gifts & Donations | € 109 | $ 129 |
| Office Expenses | € 44 | $ 52 |
| Miscellaneous | € 21 | $ 25 |
| Hosting & Domains | € 13 | $ 16 |
| Books | € 9 | $ 10 |
| Admin Expenses | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total Expenses | € 3,930 |
$ 4,636 |
| Previous Month | € 4,515 | $ 5,358 |
I was expecting to spend less than $4,000 overall, so I went a bit overboard.
😢 Biggest Regret?
Nothing significant.
2021 So Far
Here’s how I’m doing this year in terms of profit and loss:
| January | € 10,224 | $ 12,410 |
| February | € 11,792 | $ 14,236 |
| March | € 12,845 | $ 15,085 |
| April | € 12,013 | $ 14,456 |
| May | € 18,461 | $ 22,577 |
| June | € 11,239 | $ 13,320 |
| July | € 8,990 | $ 10,670 |
| August | € 7,898 | $ 9,319 |
| Total | € 93,462 | $ 112,073 |
🔮 Outlook For September
I expect expenses to be under $5000.
Income will probably be down around $12,000.
📲 How I Track All This
Curious as to how I track everything I earn and spend? Check this video…
💬 Feedback Welcome
Thoughts? Questions? Speak up in the comments below.
🗂 Archived Finance Reports
I’ve been posting these monthly finance reports since January, 2011. You can view all my old reports via this page.
Whatever you just put out there, is my ultimate blogging goal 😐
Glad to see you earn huge after all the efforts you put in in the epic posts.
This kinda motivates me 🙂
Thanks again, Niall!