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Published: August 5, 2020

7 Comments Finance Reports

July 2020 Finance Report

Everything I earned and spent in my business

Below you’ll find all my finance details for July 2020.

Apart from a short holiday in Kazbegi, I spent the entire month in Tbilisi, Georgia.

First time seeing one of these finance reports? Click here for a quick intro.

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

July 2020 finance graph

Total Business Income € 15,705 $ 18,562
Total Business Expenses € 1,117 $ 1,320
Profit € 14,588 $ 17,242

🤑 Business Income

July 2020 income

Affiliate income (see below) € 15,429 $ 18,236
Patreon 1 € 220 $ 260
eBiz Weekly coffee fund 2 € 29 $ 34
Book sales (via Amazon) € 27 $ 32
Total Income € 15,705
$ 18,562
Previous Month € 8,026 $ 9,017

I was expecting my income to be about $15k for the month, so July turned out better than expected.

It was a big increase from the previous month, and by far the most my business has ever earned in a single month. I credit the success to a few things:

  • Traffic boost since the latest Google core algorithm update
  • SEO tweaks and improvements from earlier this year starting to pay off
  • Newest review content starting to rank higher in Google
  • More people looking for info related to making money online during the pandemic
  • A lot of luck

👍 Affiliate Income

Affiliate payments in July came from…

Affiliate Related Content
Amazon Best Business Books For Online Entrepreneurs
Authority Hacker Authority Hacker Review
Aweber Aweber Pricing vs Popular Alternatives
Commission Hero Commission Hero Review
Consulting.com Sam Ovens Consulting Accelerator Review
ConvertKit ConvertKit Pricing vs. Popular Alternatives
Income School Income School Project 24 Review
PaidViewpoint PaidViewpoint Review
SafetyWing Digital Nomad Travel Insurance
Savage Affiliates Franklin Hatchett Savage Affiliates Review
Survey Junkie Survey Junkie Review
Tai Lopez Tai Lopez Social Media Marketing Agency Review
Udemy Best Udemy Courses

(Btw, I don’t necessarily recommend everything I earn affiliate income from. Sometimes I’ll write a bad 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…

eBiz Facts affiliate income progress – July 2020

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

July 2020 expenses

🤝 Outsourcing

Outsourcing 3 € 317 $ 375
Total € 317 $ 375
Previous Month € 679 $ 763

📆 Monthly Subscriptions

Surfer 4 € 50 $ 59
Ahrefs 5 € 23 $ 27
Zoom 6 € 13 $ 15
YouTube Premium 7 € 10 $ 12
Adobe Photoshop € 9 $ 11
Google Drive storage (1TB) 8 € 9 $ 10
Virtual Post Mail 9 € 9 $ 10
Copycall 10 € 5 $ 6
Total € 127 $ 151

🤓 Hosting & Domains

Dreamhost 11 € 0 $ 0
Kinsta 12 € 0 $ 0
Total € 0 $ 0
Previous Month € 834 $ 937

📚 Books

How To Get Rich € 4 $ 5
Total € 4
$ 5

🏦 Transaction Fees

PayPal fees € 552 $ 652
Patreon fees 13 € 28 $ 33
Transferwise fees € 28 $ 33
ClickBank fees € 9 $ 10
Total € 617 $ 729

💻 Office Expenses

Phone credit € 9 $ 11
Internet € 9 $ 10
Total € 18 $ 21

🤷‍♂️ Miscellaneous Expenses

Brain Booster (30 day supply) € 15 $ 18
123rf image credits € 13 $ 15
Amazon Web Services (storage) 14 € 6 $ 7
Sendy 15 € 0 $ 0
SocialBee 16 € 0 $ 0
Teamwork project management software 17 € 0 $ 0
Total € 34 $ 40

💸 Expense Summary

Transaction Fees € 617 $ 729
Outsourcing € 317 $ 375
Monthly Subscriptions € 127 $ 151
Miscellaneous € 34 $ 40
Office Expenses € 18 $ 21
Books € 4 $ 5
Hosting & Domains € 0 $ 0
Total Expenses € 1,117
$ 1,320
Previous Month € 1,989 $ 2,235

Very happy I was able to keep expenses that low while earning more than $10k.

😢 Biggest Regret?

Nothing significant.

2020 So Far

Here’s how my business is doing this year in terms of profit and loss:

January € 84 $ 94
February € 3.424 $ 3,776
March € 3,366 $ 3,710
April € 3,240 $ 3,542
May € 4,246 $ 4,717
June € 6,037 $ 6,782
July € 14,588 $ 17,242
Total € 34,985 $ 39,863

🔮 Outlook For August

I plan to buy a few things for my home office in the coming weeks, may happen in August. So that could push expenses as high as $4,000.

Income will be down a good bit but I should still clear $10,000.

📲 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.

About The Author
Niall Doherty – Founder and Lead Editor of eBiz Facts Born and raised in Ireland, Niall has been making a living from his laptop since quitting his office job in 2010. He's fond of basketball, once spent 44 months traveling around the world without flying, and has been featured in such publications as The Irish Times and Huffington Post. Read more...

7 thoughts on “July 2020 Finance Report”

  1. Hi Niall,
    Do you break down the affiliate income by product/service? I guess that might be sharing a bit too much but it would be interesting to see the percentages and what’s driving commissions.
    It would also help to see what converts.
    Anyway, congratulations. That’s fast growth.

    Reply
    • Hey Keith,

      Do you break down the affiliate income by product/service?

      Nope, decided not to do that. I’ve seen other affiliate marketers sharing the exact breakdown of their earnings and they all seem to stop doing it after a while. Not sure if it’s because it invites competition or because of the inevitable criticism if one program dominates their earnings. (Maybe both.) I figured it’d be better to trust their experience than learn the hard way myself.

      If my earnings keep increasing I may stop sharing these reports altogether. At a certain point it’ll probably feel like I’m showing off.

      Reply
  2. You may have noticed that I changed the format of the report this month.

    The main change is that I’m now only reporting business income and expenses. In previous reports I also shared my personal income, expenses, and savings. That was interesting in the beginning when I was living the digital nomad lifestyle and transitioning from employee to self-employed. 10 years later, I’m not traveling so much and I daresay I’ve completed the transition, so my personal income/expenses aren’t so interesting anymore.

    Also, regarding personal expenses, as I get older I’d rather not share every little detail of what I spend my money on. Total transparency inevitably leads to more questions and judgements from readers, and I no longer want to spend time or energy dealing with those. It can get exhausting.

    Last thing: I updated the “2020 So Far” table so it now shows only profit/loss numbers related to the business. Previously it showed profit/loss numbers that included personal income and expenses. So if you’re wondering why the numbers for Jan, Feb, etc. are different for this month compared to last, there’s your answer.

    Reply
    • I was just about to ask about the change, as I noticed you are no longer mentioning how much you own under your name

      Either way, this is AMAZING! I was thinking you would definitely hit $10k a month by the end of the year but this just came so much earlier!

      And I’m truly happy for you! I remember how you shared this idea with us during the EOY Sprint Call and how we went through a few ideas when we met in Chiang Mai last time.

      Awesome awesome job Niall. Looking forward to see you hit your next milestone. If you’ve ever thought of making a case study video out of this result, please do lol!

      Reply

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