Smutlancer Monthly Income Report: September 2018
I hesitate to call September a “tight” month because I know there are people who will kill to earn this kind of money, but it was tight for us. We made it through and things are already looking up in the coming months. It was also nice to have a few blog and podcast sponsorships come through. That definitely helped out.
The lesson for this month is this: multiple streams of income are always best.
You may have to focus on building one up for a while and then focus on another, but try never to depend on a single source for cash. Eventually, that source won’t have as much money to pay, and you’ll be the one hurting most.
September 2018 Income
My September income is primarily based on work completed in August. I bill clients on the last day of every month, and they have 10 days to pay. Affiliate sales tend to pay quarterly, but some pay monthly. I break down my freelance writing between vanilla and sex content because I want to show what’s possible in either category.
My freelance writing income was a lighter month than usual, which is the nature of freelancing. But, if this year is like every other year before it, I expect the next few months to be very busy.
- Freelance Writing
- Vanilla Content: $2020.00
- Sex/Adult Content: $3200.00
- Affiliate Sales: —
- Podcast Sponsorship: $50.00
- Sponsored Blog Posts: $300.00
- Website Sponsorship: $50.00
- Banner Ads: —
- Book Sales: $10.98
- Patreon: $212.00
- Consulting: —
Total Income: $5,842.98 (down $792.40 from August)
September 2018 Expenses
Some expenses are monthly, some quarterly, and some annual. Taxes are something I pay both monthly (a 2017 tax bill) and save for monthly to be paid quarterly.
- Web Hosting: $42.98
- Domain Renewals: —
- Podcast Hosting: $32.00
- Canva —
- Buffer: $10.00
- InLinkz: $2.99 (linky tool for Masturbation Monday)
- Blog Contributors: $10.00
- Taxes: $1000.00
- Payment Fees (PayPal, Stripe): $195.67
- Shipping/Postage: $16.45
- Tech Support: —
- Patreon: $25.00 (creators I support)
Total Expenses: $1,335.09 (down $107.80 over August)
When my income goes down, I do my best to keep my expenses down, but I don’t always have that choice. I’m glad a few annual purchases didn’t come through in September.
September 2018 Net Income: $4,507.89 (↓ $684.60 from August)
To give you a good idea of the nature of freelance income, let’s compare September’s income ($4,507.89) and July’s income ($5,839.15). It’s a difference of $1,331.26 between the two months. And yes, I felt every penny of that difference.
The lesson here is to try to have multiple streams of income and, when you do client work, to have multiple clients. You don’t want so many clients that you can’t juggle them all. But there is nothing scarier than knowing one client has the ability to make or break your month. In all honesty, that’s where I’m at right now. Your income level is one thing to think about, but the source of income is another, and I am definitely aware that I have most of my eggs in one basket right now.
My Personal Income Goals
So the month of September was meant to be a step back so I could get my bearings and start working on different elements of my website. I’ve tightened up the on-site SEO both here on The Smutlancer and on Masturbation Monday. Now my focus is shifting to Loving BDSM and my personal blog.
My blog isn’t made to be a money-maker. It’s not informational. I don’t have great SEO technique on it. But it’s the flagship. That’s where my biggest audience is and the site that gets found most often in search. By making a few tweaks and trying to bring more traffic to some of my most popular posts, I should be able to boost my traffic and therefore boost the number of companies who want to partner with me (especially for sponsored posts).
I’m still working on long-form content. It’s a skill I don’t have yet. I’m used to popping off a 500 word blog post and calling it a day. One piece of content (that I hope to publish here very soon) has taken me two weeks to write and I still have about 25 percent to go! And I’m sitting at 6000 words right now.
All of these things are part of the puzzle of trying to make money directly through my websites and move away from so much client work, especially the vanilla topics I’m not interested in. It’s a long-term project because it’s a long-term goal. I don’t expect to see a lot of progress before the end of 2018 and maybe not even until the end of 2019. All of these little steps I’m doing now, though, will (hopefully) let me focus on the bigger goals later…and believe me, I’m filled with goals and ideas!
Okay, it’s your turn. This monthly report is meant to be helpful to you. Is there anything specific you’d like to see in this report that I’m not sharing already? Are there numbers that you’re curious to know? I can’t promise I’ll share every detail requested, but if I can make this more helpful to you, I will. Let me know in the comments below or talk to me on Twitter!
