These are my online business finances for September 2021.
I was in Ireland at the start of the month, but spent most of September 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 | € 12,083 | $ 13,989 |
| Total Business Expenses | € 3,068 | $ 3,552 |
| Profit | € 9,015 | $ 10,437 |
🤑 Business Income
| Affiliate income (see below) | € 11,862 | $ 13,733 |
| Patreon 1 | € 207 | $ 240 |
| Book sales (via Amazon) | € 11 | $ 13 |
| Tip Jar 2 | € 3 | $ 3 |
| Total Income | € 12,083 |
$ 13,989 |
| Previous Month | € 11,828 | $ 13,955 |
I was expecting my income to be around $12k for the month, so I did better than expected.
👍 Affiliate Income
Affiliate payments in September came from…
| Affiliate | Related Content |
|---|---|
| The Affiliate Lab | The Affiliate Lab Review |
| Amazon | Best Business Books For Online Entrepreneurs |
| Authority Hacker | Authority Hacker Review |
| AWeber | AWeber Pricing vs Popular Alternatives |
| Consulting Accelerator | Sam Ovens Review |
| ConvertKit | ConvertKit Pricing vs. Popular Alternatives |
| FlexJobs | FlexJobs Review |
| PrizeRebel | PrizeRebel Review |
| Respondent | Respondent Review |
| SafetyWing | Digital Nomad Travel Insurance |
| theLotter | theLotter Review |
(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 | € 1,786 | $ 2,067 |
| Previous Month | € 2,785 | $ 3,286 |
📆 Subscriptions
| Income School’s Project 24 (annual) 4 | € 172 | $ 199 |
| SOUNDRAW 5 | € 60 | $ 69 |
| GeneratePress Premium (annual) 6 | € 51 | $ 59 |
| Cloudflare Pro Plan (monthly) 7 | € 17 | $ 20 |
| YouTube Premium (monthly) 8 | € 10 | $ 12 |
| Adobe Photoshop (monthly) | € 9 | $ 11 |
| CriticalCSS (monthly) 9 | € 9 | $ 10 |
| Virtual Post Mail (monthly) 10 | € 9 | $ 10 |
| Audible (monthly) | € 6 | $ 7 |
| Copycall (monthly) 11 | € 6 | $ 7 |
| AAWP (annual) 12 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Ahrefs (annual) 13 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Brainiac (annual) 14 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| ConvertBox 15 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| EasyCron (annual) | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Elementor Pro (annual) 16 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| ExpressVPN (annual) | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Google Drive storage (annual) 17 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Hexowatch 18 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| JotForm (annual) 19 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| LastPass (annual) 20 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Readwise (annual) 21 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| SocialBee 22 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Surfer (annual) 23 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Teamwork project management software (annual) 24 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Trends (annual) 25 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Zoom (annual) 26 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total | € 350 | $ 405 |
| Previous Month | € 548 | $ 647 |
🤓 Hosting & Domains
| Dreamhost 27 | € 28 | $ 32 |
| Kinsta (annual) 28 | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total | € 28 | $ 32 |
| Previous Month | € 13 | $ 16 |
📚 Books
| Unscripted | € 7 | $ 9 |
| Total | € 7 | $ 9 |
| Previous Month | € 9 | $ 10 |
- See my book ratings and everything I’m currently reading over at Goodreads
🏦 Transaction Fees
| Transaction fees 29 | € 526 | $ 609 |
| Previous Month | € 400 | $ 472 |
💻 Office Expenses
| Phone credit | € 14 | $ 16 |
| Internet | € 7 | $ 9 |
| Total | € 21 | $ 25 |
| Previous Month | € 44 | $ 52 |
📋 Admin Expenses
| Admin expenses | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Previous Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
🎁 Gifts & Donations
| CAMFED 30 | € 259 | $ 300 |
| Total | € 259 | $ 300 |
| Previous Month | € 109 | $ 129 |
🤷♂️ Miscellaneous Expenses
| Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers 31 | € 69 | $ 79 |
| Amazon Web Services (storage) 32 | € 14 | $ 16 |
| Virtual Post Mail credit | € 9 | $ 10 |
| Total | € 91 | $ 105 |
| Previous Month | € 21 | $ 25 |
💸 Expense Summary
| Hired Help | € 1,786 | $ 2067 |
| Transaction Fees | € 526 | $ 609 |
| Subscriptions | € 350 | $ 405 |
| Gifts & Donations | € 259 | $ 300 |
| Miscellaneous | € 91 | $ 105 |
| Hosting & Domains | € 28 | $ 32 |
| Office Expenses | € 21 | $ 25 |
| Books | € 7 | $ 9 |
| Admin Expenses | € 0 | $ 0 |
| Total Expenses | € 3,068 |
$ 3,552 |
| Previous Month | € 3,930 | $ 4,636 |
I was expecting to spend less than $5,000 overall, so I did pretty good.
😢 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 |
| April | € 12,013 | $ 14,456 |
| May | € 18,461 | $ 22,577 |
| June | € 11,239 | $ 13,320 |
| July | € 8,990 | $ 10,670 |
| August | € 7,898 | $ 9,319 |
| September | € 9,015 | $ 10,437 |
| Total | € 102,477 | $ 122,510 |
🔮 Outlook For October
I expect expenses to be around $5000.
Income should be about $13,000.
📲 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.
