These are my online business finances for November 2020.
I spent the whole month in Tbilisi, Georgia except for a few days holiday in Borjomi.
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 | € 9,822 | $ 11,745 |
Total Business Expenses | € 7,560 | $ 9,040 |
Profit | € 2,262 | $ 2,705 |
🤑 Business Income
Affiliate income (see below) | € 9,522 | $ 11,386 |
Patreon 1 | € 283 | $ 339 |
Book sales (via Amazon) | € 17 | $ 20 |
Total Income | € 9,822 |
$ 11,745 |
Previous Month | € 15,313 | $ 17,844 |
I was expecting my income to be at least $11k. Brought in a bit more than that.
👍 Affiliate Income
Affiliate payments in November 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 2 | € 1,855 | $ 2,219 |
Total | € 1,855 | $ 2,219 |
Previous Month | € 1,192 | $ 1,389 |
📆 Monthly Subscriptions
Ahrefs 3 | € 83 | $ 99 |
Surfer 4 | € 49 | $ 59 |
Zoom 5 | € 12 | $ 15 |
YouTube Premium 6 | € 10 | $ 12 |
Adobe Photoshop | € 9 | $ 11 |
Google Drive storage (1TB) 7 | € 8 | $ 10 |
Copycall 8 | € 5 | $ 6 |
Virtual Post Mail 9 | € 4 | $ 5 |
Total | € 180 | $ 216 |
Previous Month | € 135 | $ 158 |
🤓 Hosting & Domains
Dreamhost domains 10 | € 27 | $ 32 |
Kinsta 11 | € 25 | $ 30 |
Total | € 52 | $ 62 |
Previous Month | € 18 | $ 21 |
📚 Books
Total | € 0 | $ 0 |
Previous Month | € 29 | $ 34 |
- See my book ratings and everything I’m currently reading over at Goodreads
🏦 Transaction Fees
PayPal fees | € 389 | $ 465 |
TransferWise fees | € 99 | $ 118 |
Patreon fees 12 | € 36 | $ 43 |
Respondent fees | € 3 | $ 4 |
Total | € 527 | $ 630 |
Previous Month | € 636 | $ 741 |
💻 Home Office Expenses
MacBook Pro 13 | € 1,612 | $ 1,927 |
Phone credit | € 12 | $ 14 |
Internet | € 6 | $ 8 |
Total | € 1,630 | $ 1,950 |
Previous Month | € 61 | $ 71 |
📋 Admin Expenses
Admin expenses | € 1 | $ 1 |
Total | € 1 | $ 1 |
Previous Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
🤷♂️ Miscellaneous Expenses
Media liability insurance (12 months) 14 | € 3,106 | $ 3,714 |
Modafinil | € 112 | $ 134 |
Depositphotos AppSumo Deal | € 33 | $ 39 |
Matein backpack | € 32 | $ 38 |
Sendy upgrade 15 | € 24 | $ 29 |
Amazon Web Services (storage) 16 | € 7 | $ 8 |
SocialBee 17 | € 0 | $ 0 |
Teamwork project management software 18 | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total | € 3,314 | $ 3,963 |
Previous Month | € 73 | $ 85 |
💸 Expense Summary
Miscellaneous | € 3,314 | $ 3,963 |
Hired Help | € 1,855 | $ 2,219 |
Home Office Expenses | € 1,630 | $ 1,950 |
Transaction Fees | € 527 | $ 630 |
Monthly Subscriptions | € 180 | $ 216 |
Hosting & Domains | € 52 | $ 62 |
Admin Expenses | € 1 | $ 1 |
Books | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total Expenses | € 7,560 |
$ 9,040 |
Previous Month | € 2,145 | $ 2,499 |
I was expecting to spend about $8k overall so I didn’t go too far over that considering the unplanned $2k laptop expense.
😢 Biggest Regret?
Annoyed that my laptop got stolen out of the rental car. I was away from the car for 10 minutes and was sure I’d locked it, but apparently not. Reported it to the police but three weeks later and no update from them. I called 5 days after the theft and they’d yet to check the security cameras on the street.
Stings even more because I’d only bought the laptop a few weeks earlier; it was practically brand new.
Lesson learned to always always always double-check that I’ve locked a door before I leave it.
🗓 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 |
August | € 8,947 | $ 10,694 |
September | € 10,011 | $ 11,737 |
October | € 13,169 | $ 15,345 |
November | € 2,262 | $ 2,705 |
Total | € 69,374 | $ 80,344 |
🔮 Outlook For December
Expenses should be much lower than November. No more laptops to buy and no big insurance payment. I will be spending quite a bit on hired help, but should come in under $5k total expenses.
Income should be at least $12,000.
📲 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.
Amazing work Niall
When I saw “affiliate income” I had just presumed you ran some successful niche sites with this kind of income
Well done!
Thanks, Jason!
Hi Niall,
Your finance reports are quite motivating and I really love that you have been doing this for a long time.
I have been a great fan of your work especially your viral video about leaving the dream life of traveling (still my best video till date).
Between, I was thinking if you’d like to write about your blogging process? And do you build links to your site? You pretty much focus on quality content, so I just thought if link building is something you also get your hands dirty with?
Thanks and Merryc Christmas in advance
Take care.
Eniola.
Hi Eniola,
Thanks for the comment, and the kind words.
I’ve done very little link building for this site. Some small bursts of outreach here and there but I don’t enjoy it and it feels spammy, so I decided to let links to this website build naturally, which seems to be working out well so far.
At some point I might do this, but lots of other topics to tackle first!
Thanks for the reply. Keep up the good work on your blog, you inspire.
Between, Happy New Year in advance.
Can’t believe you’ve had to drop more on another Macbook! I presume you have some software like Prey so you can remotely wipe/lock your stolen device?