These are my online business finances for December 2021.
I was on the road for the month, splitting time between Andorra, Spain and Ireland.
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 | € 13,197 | $ 15,013 |
| Total Business Expenses | € 4,569 | $ 5,198 |
| Profit | € 8,628 | $ 9,815 |
🤑 Business Income
| Affiliate income (see below) | € 12,976 | $ 14,762 |
| Patreon 1 | € 197 | $ 224 |
| Book sales (via Amazon) | € 17 | $ 19 |
| Tip Jar 2 | € 7 | $ 8 |
| Total Income | € 13,197 |
$ 15,013 |
| Previous Month | € 13,357 | $ 15,078 |
I was expecting my income to be around $13k for the month. Did a bit better than that.
👍 Affiliate Income
Affiliate payments in December 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 | € 3,245 | $ 3,692 |
| Previous Month | € 1,971 | $ 2,225 |
📆 Subscriptions
| Surfer (annual) 4 | € 431 | $ 490 |
| Elementor Pro (annual) 5 | € 32 | $ 37 |
| Cloudflare Pro Plan (monthly) 6 | € 18 | $ 20 |
| Secret outreach tool 😉 | € 16 | $ 19 |
| YouTube Premium (monthly) 7 | € 10 | $ 12 |
| Adobe Photoshop (monthly) | € 9 | $ 10 |
| CriticalCSS (monthly) 8 | € 9 | $ 10 |
| Virtual Post Mail (monthly) 9 | € 9 | $ 10 |
| Copycall (monthly) 10 | € 6 | $ 7 |
| AAWP (annual) 11 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Ahrefs (annual) 12 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Audible (monthly) | € 0 | $ 0 |
| BerryCast 13 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Brainiac (annual) 14 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| ConvertBox 15 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| EasyCron (annual) | € 0 | $ 0 |
| ExpressVPN (annual) | € 0 | $ 0 |
| GeneratePress Premium (annual) 16 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Google Drive storage (annual) 17 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Hexowatch 18 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Income School’s Project 24 (annual) 19 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| JotForm (annual) 20 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| LastPass (annual) 21 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Readwise (annual) 22 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| SocialBee 23 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| SOUNDRAW 24 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Teamwork project management software (annual) 25 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Trends (annual) 26 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Zoom (annual) 27 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total | € 540 | $ 615 |
| Previous Month | € 1,105 | $ 1,247 |
🤓 Hosting & Domains
| Dreamhost 28 | € 14 | $ 16 |
| Kinsta (annual) 29 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total | € 14 | $ 16 |
| Previous Month | € 32 | $ 36 |
📚 Books
| Breaking The Habit Of Being Yourself | € 7 | $ 8 |
| Empire State of Mind | € 4 | $ 5 |
| Total | € 11 | $ 13 |
| Previous Month | € 9 | $ 10 |
- See my book ratings and everything I’m currently reading over at Goodreads
🏦 Transaction Fees
| Transaction fees 30 | € 557 | $ 633 |
| Previous Month | € 575 | $ 649 |
💻 Office Expenses
| Internet | € 8 | $ 9 |
| Phone credit | € 1 | $ 2 |
| Total | € 9 | $ 11 |
| Previous Month | € 45 | $ 51 |
📋 Admin Expenses
| Admin expenses | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Previous Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
🎁 Gifts & Donations
| CAMFED 31 | € 167 | $ 190 |
| Total | € 167 | $ 190 |
| Previous Month | € 266 | $ 300 |
🤷♂️ Miscellaneous Expenses
| Amazon Web Services (storage) 32 | € 16 | $ 18 |
| Virtual Post Mail Credit | € 9 | $ 10 |
| Total | € 25 | $ 28 |
| Previous Month | € 3,306 | $ 3,732 |
💸 Expense Summary
| Hired Help | € 3,245 | $ 3,692 |
| Transaction Fees | € 557 | $ 633 |
| Subscriptions | € 540 | $ 615 |
| Gifts & Donations | € 167 | $ 190 |
| Miscellaneous | € 25 | $ 28 |
| Hosting & Domains | € 14 | $ 16 |
| Books | € 11 | $ 13 |
| Office Expenses | € 9 | $ 11 |
| Admin Expenses | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total Expenses | € 4,569 |
$ 5,198 |
| Previous Month | € 7,310 | $ 8,251 |
I was expecting to spend about $4,000 overall, ended up going over mainly due to hiring more help.
😢 Biggest Regret?
Nothing significant.
2021 In Review
Here’s how I did for the 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 |
| September | € 9,015 | $ 10,437 |
| October | € 10,336 | $ 11,953 |
| November | € 6,048 | $ 6,827 |
| December | € 8,628 | $ 9,815 |
| Total | € 127,489 | $ 151,105 |
Total revenue for 2021 was $208,536.
Which means a profit margin of 72%.
Of course, that doesn’t factor in how much I paid myself.
I tracked 971 work hours for myself throughout the year. Dividing the business profits by those hours results in a $155.62 hourly rate.
Not bad, but it doesn’t take into account untracked hours and the previous months and years I spent building up the business.
Still, a good year overall, with revenue and profits increasing about 50% from 2020 🥳
🔮 Outlook For January
I expect expenses to be around $6000, with the biggest expenses being hosting and hired help.
Income should be about $13,000.
📲 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.
