My February 2016 Monthly Income Report

February’s Overview

February went by so fast and March even faster especially since it’s already past mid month as I write this. My apologies for releasing this report so late.

In summary, I experienced some growth in February which I’m happy about.

In February, I generated $11,383.30 which was equivalent to a +74.53% improvement from January’s revenue and a +32.61% increase in net income.

A quick glance at the breakdown below should reveal that majority of my efforts were dedicated towards Amazon and eBay. The rest of my income streams suffered.

Part of this was deliberate while part of it wasn’t.

For example, I deliberately chose to to ease off everything else except my dating site and adsense revenue which have a direct correlation. The website has been having issues which has resulted to loss in membership and traffic- which directly affected my membership fees revenue as well as AdSense revenue.

For a closer look, see below…

Income Breakdown

Digital Services $1,069.43 (-77.22%) AdSense Revenue from Niche Sites $46.05 (-53.26%) Dating Website Membership Fees $23.91 (-48.90%) Room Rental Income $1,147.17 (-1.04%) Amazon $8,013.04 (+327.17%) $5K Amazon Business System $0.00 (-100%) Alex & Pike $0.00 (0.00%) eBay $933.70 (113.30%) Craigslist $150.00 (+15K%) Hot Chocolate Donations $0.00 (-100.00%) February’s Gross Income $11,383.30 (+74.53%)

Estimated Expenses

Cost of Goods Sold $3,985.87 Web Hosting $62.00 Landing Page + Analytics $18.00 Email Services $37.00 Fees $287.88 Amazon SEO $50.00 Shopify Store Subscription $0.00 Shipping & Handling + Shipping Supplies $48.00 Advertising $223.69 February’s Estimated Expenses $4,712.44 (+215.90%)

Net Income (estimated): $6,670.86 (+32.61%)

I tested a new product on Amazon before committing to investing in inventory. This resulted in a much higher COGS which will hopefully come down in March since I’ve pulled the trigger on the product allowing me to lower the COGS and have better margins.

Lesson Learned

You reap what you sow: I’m still at the stage in building my income streams where most of my streams still need a lot of attention before they “mature”. So, I’m only getting results in areas I put my effort in directly. I’m ok with this for now, but my goal is to build everything well enough so that by the end of this challenge, I don’t have to put in as much effort into each stream to get decent returns.

Also, although February’s income was better compared to January’s, I’d like to reduce the high fluctuations and have a more stable (and predictable) growth. Right now, my income graph is all over the place- up and down. So I’m diligently working on making that happen.

Looking Back

Now I’d like to review the goals I set last month to see how well I did;

Start Amazon Private Label Blog Series: I’m ashamed to not have blogged even once last month 🙁 I’ll do better the remainder of this month.

Looking Ahead

I’ll continue to put more into PL and eBay as those two are giving me decent results. I’ll also start sharing some of the challenges I’m facing with PL.

Start Amazon Private Label blog series and share more on PL journey.

Again, just like last month, I’ll keep my goal at a minimum to maximize the chances of successfully completing it.

Thank you for reading, until next month, stream on!