These are my online business finances for March 2021.
I spent most of the month in Tbilisi, Georgia, mixed with a couple of snowboarding trips to Gudauri.
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 | € 15,486 | $ 18,186 |
| Total Business Expenses | € 2,641 | $ 3,101 |
| Profit | € 12,845 | $ 15,085 |
🤑 Business Income
| Affiliate income (see below) | € 15,152 | $ 17,794 |
| Patreon 1 | € 227 | $ 267 |
| YouTube ad revenue | € 78 | $ 92 |
| Book sales (via Amazon) | € 17 | $ 20 |
| Tip Jar 2 | € 12 | $ 14 |
| Total Income | € 15,486 |
$ 18,186 |
| Previous Month | € 15,669 | $ 18,916 |
I was expecting my income to be at least $15k. Brought in a nice bit more than that.
👍 Affiliate Income
Affiliate payments in March 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 | € 1,866 | $ 2,191 |
| Previous Month | € 2,470 | $ 2,982 |
📆 Subscriptions
| Cloudflare Pro Plan (monthly) 4 | € 17 | $ 20 |
| CriticalCSS (monthly) 5 | € 14 | $ 17 |
| YouTube Premium (monthly) 6 | € 10 | $ 12 |
| Adobe Photoshop (monthly) | € 9 | $ 11 |
| Virtual Post Mail (monthly) 7 | € 8 | $ 10 |
| Copycall (monthly) 8 | € 5 | $ 6 |
| AAWP (annual) 9 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Ahrefs (annual) 10 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| ConvertBox 11 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Elementor Pro (annual) 12 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Google Drive storage (annual) 13 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Hexowatch 14 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Readwise (annual) 15 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| SocialBee 16 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Surfer (annual) 17 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Teamwork project management software (annual) 18 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Trends (annual) 19 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Zoom (annual) 20 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total | € 64 | $ 75 |
| Previous Month | € 49 | $ 59 |
🤓 Hosting & Domains
| Dreamhost 21 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Kinsta (annual) 22 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Previous Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
📚 Books
| Indistractable | € 11 | $ 13 |
| Previous Month | € 12 | $ 15 |
- See my book ratings and everything I’m currently reading over at Goodreads
🏦 Transaction Fees
| Transaction fees 23 | € 613 | $ 720 |
| Previous Month | € 702 | $ 848 |
💻 Home Office Expenses
| Phone credit | € 13 | $ 15 |
| Skype credit | € 8 | $ 10 |
| Internet | € 5 | $ 6 |
| Total | € 26 | $ 31 |
| Previous Month | € 19 | $ 23 |
📋 Admin Expenses
| LLC annual report filing | € 44 | $ 52 |
| Previous Month | € 103 | $ 125 |
🤷♂️ Miscellaneous Expenses
| Amazon Web Services (storage) 24 | € 8 | $ 10 |
| User reviews | € 8 | $ 10 |
| Total | € 17 | $ 20 |
| Previous Month | € 520 | $ 628 |
💸 Expense Summary
| Hired Help | € 1,866 | $ 2,191 |
| Transaction Fees | € 613 | $ 720 |
| Subscriptions | € 64 | $ 75 |
| Admin Expenses | € 44 | $ 52 |
| Home Office Expenses | € 26 | $ 31 |
| Miscellaneous | € 17 | $ 20 |
| Books | € 11 | $ 13 |
| Hosting & Domains | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total Expenses | € 2,641 |
$ 3,101 |
| Previous Month | € 3,876 | $ 4,680 |
I was expecting to spend under $4k overall, came in well under that mark.
😢 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 |
| Total | € 34,861 | $ 41,731 |
🔮 Outlook For April
Expenses should again be less than $4,000.
Income should be around $15,000.
📲 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.
