Below you’ll find all my finance details for November 2019.
I was in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a week mid-month, but other than that stayed put it Bali, mostly in Ubud.
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 Income | € 4,007 | $ 4,415 |
Total Expenses | € 2,614 | $ 2,880 |
Profit/Loss | € 1,393 | $ 1,535 |
🤑 Income
Affiliate income (see below) | € 3,644 | $ 4,015 |
Refund: Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing (reviewed here) | € 179 | $ 197 |
Patreon 1 | € 127 | $ 140 |
Refund: ClickBank University (reviewed here) | € 43 | $ 47 |
Book sales (via Amazon) | € 14 | $ 15 |
Total Income | € 4,007 |
$ 4,415 |
Previous Month | € 971 | $ 1,086 |
I was expecting only about $2,500 for affiliate income in November, so this shook out nicely.
👍 Affiliate Income
Affiliate payments in November came from…
Here’s a progress chart for affiliate income since starting eBiz Facts…
💸 Expenses
🍽 Food & Drink
Eating out | € 483 | $ 532 |
Groceries | € 152 | $ 167 |
Total | € 635 |
$ 700 |
Previous Month | € 595 | $ 666 |
🏡 Housing & Utilities
1 month at Ubud villa | € 367 | $ 405 |
1 night at Bangkok airport hotel | € 99 | $ 109 |
2 nights at Kuala Lumpur Airbnb (50% payment) | € 83 | $ 92 |
1 week at Chiang Mai condo (50% payment) | € 82 | $ 90 |
2 nights at Canggu guesthouse | € 29 | $ 32 |
Total | € 660 |
$ 727 |
Previous Month | € 451 | $ 504 |
💪 Health Care
Ubud gym membership (3 months) | € 100 | $ 110 |
Massages (x3) | € 33 | $ 37 |
SafetyWing travel insurance 2 | € 33 | $ 37 |
Strepsils | € 3 | $ 3 |
Total | € 170 |
$ 187 |
Previous Month | € 65 | $ 73 |
🛫 Travel & Transport
1 month scooter rental in Ubud, Bali | € 84 | $ 93 |
Taxis in Bali | € 39 | $ 43 |
Taxis in Chiang Mai | € 30 | $ 33 |
Scooter fuel | € 6 | $ 6 |
Phone holder for scooter | € 3 | $ 4 |
Total | € 161 |
$ 178 |
Previous Month | € 352 | $ 393 |
💻 Business Expenses
Outsourcing 3 | € 506 | $ 558 |
PayPal fees | € 106 | $ 117 |
Dreamhost domain renewals | € 29 | $ 32 |
Pigeon 4 | € 26 | $ 29 |
Ahrefs subscription 5 | € 20 | $ 22 |
Patreon fees 6 | € 17 | $ 19 |
Zoom 7 | € 14 | $ 15 |
YouTube Premium 8 | € 11 | $ 12 |
Kinsta web hosting 9 | € 10 | $ 11 |
Google Drive storage (1TB) 10 | € 9 | $ 10 |
Phone credit (with SIM) | € 9 | $ 10 |
Virtual Post Mail 11 | € 9 | $ 10 |
Copycall 12 | € 5 | $ 6 |
Amazon Web Services (storage) 13 | € 4 | $ 5 |
Upwork fees | € 2 | $ 2 |
Respondent fees | € 1 | $ 1 |
Dreamhost web hosting 14 | € 0 | $ 0 |
Sendy 15 | € 0 | $ 0 |
SocialBee 16 | € 0 | $ 0 |
Teamwork project management software 17 | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total | € 779 | $ 858 |
Previous Month | € 648 | $ 725 |
🎁 Gifts & Donations
Flowers | € 13 | $ 14 |
Effective Altruism Fund 18 | € 9 | $ 10 |
Monthly Love & Courage podcast donation 19 | € 5 | $ 6 |
SamHarris.org subscription 20 | € 4 | $ 4 |
Patreon: The Blindboy Podcast 21 | € 3 | $ 3 |
Patreon: Úna-Minh Kavanagh | € 3 | $ 3 |
Total | € 36 |
$ 40 |
Previous Month | € 26 | $ 29 |
📚 Books 22
Personal History **** | € 13 | $ 14 |
The End Of Jobs **** | € 3 | $ 4 |
Being Mortal | € 4 | $ 4 |
Secret Formula | € 3 | $ 3 |
Chasing Heisenberg | € 3 | $ 3 |
Heretic | € 2 | $ 2 |
The Eighth Sister *** | € 2 | $ 2 |
Lying Next To Me | € 2 | $ 2 |
Total | € 31 |
$ 34 |
Previous Month | € 15 | $ 17 |
👕 Clothing
Underwear (6 pairs) | € 45 | $ 50 |
Blue shirt | € 12 | $ 13 |
Total | € 57 |
$ 63 |
Previous Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
🤷♂️ Miscellaneous Expenses
Laundry | € 25 | $ 28 |
Toiletries | € 21 | $ 23 |
Netflix subscription | € 11 | $ 12 |
Monthly banking fee (Hong Kong bank) 23 | € 8 | $ 9 |
Mosquito repellent | € 6 | $ 7 |
Earplugs | € 4 | $ 4 |
Amazon movie rental | € 3 | $ 3 |
Entry to waterfalls in Bali | € 3 | $ 3 |
Kitchen supplies | € 3 | $ 3 |
Monthly banking fee (Dutch bank) | € 2 | $ 2 |
Total | € 84 |
$ 93 |
Previous Month | € 92 | $ 103 |
💸 Expense Summary
Business Expenses | € 779 | $ 858 |
Food & Drink | € 713 | $ 786 |
Housing & Utilities | € 660 | $ 727 |
Travel & Transport | € 161 | $ 178 |
Miscellaneous Expenses | € 84 | $ 93 |
Health Care | € 170 | $ 187 |
Gifts & Donations | € 36 | $ 40 |
Books | € 31 | $ 34 |
Clothing | € 57 | $ 63 |
Total Expenses | € 2,614 |
$ 2,880 |
Previous Month | € 2,244 | $ 2,510 |
I was expecting to spend less than €2000 for the month, and it was a little bit of everything that pushed me well over that mark.
😢 Biggest Regret?
I spent more on food and drink than I usually do, but that was mainly due to meeting up with people for meals in Chiang Mai and Bail. No regrets there.
Overall I felt my money was well spent in November.
🗓 2019 So Far
Here’s how I’m doing this year in terms of profit and loss:
January | € 653 | $ 747 |
February | € 529 | $ 601 |
March | € 242 | $ 272 |
April | € 240 | $ 269 |
May | € 171 | $ 196 |
June | € 1,906 | $ 2,163 |
July | € 45 | $ 50 |
August | € 173 | $ 190 |
September | € 2,940 | $ 3,215 |
October | € 1,273 | $ 1,424 |
November | € 1,393 | $ 1,535 |
Total | € 3,731 | $ 4,144 |
📊 Where That Leaves Me
I had €10,168 / $11,376 to my name at the end of October.
Taking into account all my November income and expenditure, and the most recent exchange rates – I have accounts in EUR, HKD and USD – my total bank and cash balances now work out to €11,778 / $12,975. 24
🔮 Outlook For December
We’re nine days deep into the month as I’m writing this. Affiliate income is looking good and expenses are about average.
I’m on track to pull in $4000, and expenses will probably be around €3000.
📲 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.
How much traffic do you get per month? I always thought your site was SUPER big and you were making 6 figures from ebizfacts because it just seems like a super high-quality site.
Hey John,
I get between 30,000 to 40,000 unique pageviews per month. It’s never been much higher than 40,000. And before 2019 I never seriously looked to monetize the site, never had any ads on here, never did much affiliate marketing.
Now that I have gotten serious about affiliate marketing, hopefully 6 figures isn’t too far away 😉
This link https://ebizfacts.com/go/george-kao/fb2019/ gives me https://www.georgekao.com/fbebiz.html and “This site can’t be reached”.
Overall I am glad that you have a good month)
Thanks, Sergy.
Both links are working for me now so it was probably just a temporary thing.
It’s good to see all that great work you are doing on reviews is paying off. It is a great service to others. Do you see the affiliate income may have unlimited potential or as you cycle through the reviews there will be an up and down effect on income?
Thanks, Nancy!
There will be ups and downs from month to month, but on the whole I expect my affiliate income to keep increasing. The potential isn’t unlimited, but I’ve seen plenty of other people earning $20k/month or more, so that’s definitely doable.
Nice! Would you share how much you make from each affiliate product?
I think it’s satisfying to not only see your income grow but also see it grows as a result of helping people make a wise educational choice. That should be an even bigger motivator!
Hi Hazel,
Not publicly, as that could invite competition. I’d rather keep people guessing as to the breakdown 😉
I’ll message you privately with more info though.
Surely most affiliate commissions are from tai lopez? going off number of views for the videos which indicates how many page views each post is getting. Tai lopez video has ~100k views while others are just a tiny fraction of that.