Welcome to my income report for January 2021

In January I have earned $150 in total. 28% less than in the previous month.

What I Did In January

So what happened in January?

Nothing much really. I have spent 90% of my free time doing videos, while I procrastinated the rest 10%. My development journeys suffered along with it and I don't have anything to show for.

It would be helpful to hire a VA, that would do editing, copywriting, and publishing, so I can focus on business and tech development. Maybe one day, when I manage to build a steady income from my side hustles.

Started a New Ecom Journey

It is a wish, but I have decided to start a new e-commerce journey selling physical products to real people. After many years of trying my luck with niche websites and various SAAS projects, I think it is time to go back to basics.

I might not succeed and I might lose a lot of money in inventory, but it is real. Not like developing a web app, no one wants to use.

They say, that 90% of the Ecom business fails two years after the launch, but those are incredible odds if you ask me. Startups and SAAS businesses have a much higher failure rate. But they require no starting capital and upfront time investment.

While with Ecom, you need money to buy inventory, but then you can start selling right away. That is what I like about it.

And if it fails, you write off your initial investment minus the products sold. With SAAS you would have to write it off all. The codebase developed is mostly worthless.

You can speed up the launch by leveraging the financing part if margins allow it. You cannot speed up SAAS development, even with external financing.

And finally, you are providing a clear value to the customer, by selling him a physical product. With SAAS, value is not tangible and you need to reach masses to get a meaningful cashflow.

What about the cons? There SAAS wins it all. Ecom brings hell a lot of headaches with lost shipments, product quality issues, refund requests, warranty claims, and many more process-oriented flaws you have little or no control over. Most of which cost a lot of money.

Well let's see, wish me luck.

Live projects

Good House Music

At the time of writing this post, it grew to 209 subscribers. A 10% increase over the previous month.

I have uploaded one new DJ mix and 6 single tracks. The most viewed track recorded 79 views.

My channel gets more and more attention from the Youtube algorithm. If I had less than 10% of the views recommended a year ago, the number sits at 20% now. I think as one of the videos surpasses 1000 views, Youtube will start to recommend your videos more.

According to the projections, I should reach 1000 subscribers in 463 days. Exciting right? But I have to keep grinding and somehow attract more than 150K views to reach the goal

I will keep uploading till I reach 200 uploads, then we will see if it is going anywhere.

Personal Youtube Channel #1

In January, I posted 8 new videos on my personal Youtube channel, that I don't want to share yet. My most viewed video posted in January got 34 views. My other videos averages about 10-20 views after publishing.

I document my journeys on this channel and all videos are low quality, low effort vlog-style screencasts, that don't require more than 5 hours from ideation to publishing.

The most time-consuming part is recording and editing, which can span anywhere from 2 to 4 hours. Because of the low quality and distorted focus on multiple niches, there is zero probability of my channel blowing up from a viral video.

But I am totally fine with that. It is my outlet for documenting my journeys and practicing English. If someone finds my content interesting and subscribe along the way, then great. If not then it won't stop me from grinding.

Personal Youtube Channel #2

Despite having no free time whatsoever, even with the home office regime, I decided to start a new channel from scratch. But instead of producing low-quality videos, I will try to post well researched, analytical documentaries style content.

Yes, it will take me at least 15 hours to publish a single video, whereas research and editing take at least 10 hours for 5-minute content, but I will take my chances and experiment with film-making style production.

Wish me luck, it will be another decade long journey with this one.

Financia

In January, I slacked hard on Financia, mostly doing minor bugfixes and performance optimizations...

Various bug fixes and optimizations
Updated outdated savings data
Expanded data coverage

Except for one new customer, nothing much happened. In February I want to add more content, that is now hidden from the public. I also want to create a mailing service MVP, that people wanted so much. Those are two main priorities, that can push the website to the next level.

Income Report Breakdown

P2P Lending

Nothing has changed in January.

My P2P strategies are turned off and I am still waiting on the sideline. Most of the defaulted lenders are on an ongoing debt recovery plan, that will fulfill all the debts in the next ten years.

In February, I will move my capital elsewhere. EUR is falling like a rock and my unrealized currency conversion loss grows day by day. I don't think the sickness situation will be over in 2021 and it will take another two years for the P2P lending market to get more healthy.

So time to leave P2P lending, let outstanding loans complete themselves, and look for greener pastures.

Savings Accounts

The national bank is looking to keep the interest rate near zero, so more and more banks decrease their rates on savings accounts leaving me no option, but to move everything to riskier assets. I mean getting 0.5% PA on a deposit is ridiculous. Of course, I will keep a small emergency fund on a savings fund in case something serious comes up.

Used Stuff Sales

My path to life minimalism went well in January. I got rid of the book and some Playstation one games. The fewer material things I own, the more freedom I get.

Plans, dreams, and wishes

My goals for February are the following. Make Financia better, keep working on my new authority website, and produce video content on regular basis.

That would be it. Thank you so much for following me on this journey and see you in the next report.

Income Report Jan 2021 – Started a New Channel