These are my online business finances for June 2021.
I spent the entire month in Tbilisi, Georgia.
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 | € 15,762 | $ 18,680 |
| Total Business Expenses | € 4,523 | $ 5,360 |
| Profit | € 11,239 | $ 13,320 |
🤑 Business Income
| Affiliate income (see below) | € 15,534 | $ 18,410 |
| Patreon 1 | € 207 | $ 245 |
| Tip Jar 2 | € 11 | $ 13 |
| Book sales (via Amazon) | € 10 | $ 12 |
| Total Income | € 15,762 |
$ 18,680 |
| Previous Month | € 22,635 | $ 27,683 |
I was expecting my income to be around $15k for the month, so I did a bit better than expected.
👍 Affiliate Income
Affiliate payments in June 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 | € 3,032 | $ 3,593 |
| Previous Month | € 2,861 | $ 3,499 |
📆 Subscriptions
| JotForm (monthly) 4 | € 24 | $ 29 |
| Cloudflare Pro Plan (monthly) 5 | € 17 | $ 20 |
| YouTube Premium (monthly) 6 | € 10 | $ 12 |
| Adobe Photoshop (monthly) | € 9 | $ 11 |
| CriticalCSS (monthly) 7 | € 8 | $ 10 |
| Virtual Post Mail (monthly) 8 | € 8 | $ 10 |
| Copycall (monthly) 9 | € 6 | $ 7 |
| AAWP (annual) 10 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Ahrefs (annual) 11 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Brainiac (annual) 12 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| ConvertBox 13 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Dynamite Circle (quarterly) 14 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| EasyCron (annual) | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Elementor Pro (annual) 15 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| ExpressVPN (annual) | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Google Drive storage (annual) 16 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Hexowatch 17 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Readwise (annual) 18 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| SocialBee 19 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Surfer (annual) 20 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Teamwork project management software (annual) 21 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Trends (annual) 22 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Zoom (annual) 23 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total | € 83 | $ 99 |
| Previous Month | € 308 | $ 377 |
🤓 Hosting & Domains
| Dreamhost 24 | € 20 | $ 24 |
| Kinsta (annual) 25 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total | € 20 | $ 24 |
| Previous Month | € 12 | $ 15 |
📚 Books
| Total | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Previous Month | € 41 | $ 51 |
- See my book ratings and everything I’m currently reading over at Goodreads
🏦 Transaction Fees
| Transaction fees 26 | € 490 | $ 581 |
| Previous Month | € 737 | $ 901 |
💻 Office Expenses
| Internet | € 27 | $ 32 |
| Phone credit | € 13 | $ 16 |
| Coworking in Tbilisi | € 11 | $ 13 |
| Skype credit | € 8 | $ 10 |
| Total | € 60 | $ 71 |
| Previous Month | € 6 | $ 8 |
📋 Admin Expenses
| Admin expenses | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Previous Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
🎁 Gifts & Donations
| CAMFED 27 | € 380 | $ 450 |
| Previous Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
🤷♂️ Miscellaneous Expenses
| Trademark application | € 422 | $ 500 |
| Proven Amazon Course (reviewed here) | € 24 | $ 29 |
| Amazon Web Services (storage) 28 | € 11 | $ 13 |
| Total | € 457 | $ 542 |
| Previous Month | € 209 | $ 256 |
💸 Expense Summary
| Hired Help | € 3,032 | $ 3,593 |
| Transaction Fees | € 490 | $ 581 |
| Miscellaneous | € 457 | $ 542 |
| Gifts & Donations | € 380 | $ 450 |
| Subscriptions | € 83 | $ 99 |
| Office Expenses | € 60 | $ 71 |
| Hosting & Domains | € 20 | $ 24 |
| Admin Expenses | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Books | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total Expenses | € 4,523 |
$ 5,360 |
| Previous Month | € 4,175 | $ 5,106 |
I was expecting to spend about $5k overall, so I wasn’t far off the mark.
😢 Biggest Regret?
I made some changes with affiliate links on the site at the start of May and it took me 6 weeks to realize that it was killing conversions. Probably cost me at least $5000 in revenue, and possibly as much as $10,000.
Thankfully it was easy to fix, but annoyed that I (a) made such a silly mistake and (b) took so long to realize it.
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 |
| Total | € 76,574 | $ 92,084 |
🔮 Outlook For July
I expect expenses to be under $5000.
Income will probably be down around $12,000, mainly due to that mistake I made with affiliate links in May.
📲 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.
