Well, that's that--another year comes to a close. And, as we're all aware, the global health crisis continues to rage on. I can only hope that by this time next year, we're looking back on a rise from the fiery pits of 2020's worst offerings.
Despite the pandemic, as I close off this year and look back on this past year's passive income & side gig income performance, I still managed to come out on top from this year over last year.
Last year, I pulled in +$9,000 in side income; this past year, I hit +$11,000. (gross)
This past month, I managed to near my all-time high. Didn't quite break it; I managed $1,416 (versus my ATH of $1,524) and is my second-highest earning month for the year. However, as is a running theme, my income is starting to become more healthily split among several projects:
The breakdown:
- $682 from Nicehash mining. Mostly from strong value rise while I maintained a high balance in my Nicehash wallet
- $230 from flipping. Would have been more, but I had to refund a lady for something that wound up being defective
- $191 from Youtube ad revenue, a healthy rise over last month's numbers
- $160 in 3D Print sales, split between my Shopify store and Ebay
- $52 from Print on Demand services. Only have sales on Redbubble and Society6; none on Teepublic or Zazzle (The latter of which is a new platform I just started listing on)
- $47 with my two homebrew trading bot instances & one Gekko instance
- $34 in 3D model sales on MyMiniFactory
- $18 from Amazon Associates, mostly the Canadian version (I list links on my Youtube channel for both the Canadian and American version of Amazon)
- $2 in dividend income (it's a lull month)
As I had set forth to do in my last month's listed stretch goals for December, I have expanded to Zazzle as a new platform for my Print on Demand offerings. As of yet, I only have 1/4 of my listing back catalogue uploaded; I'm just waiting to see some 'proof of life' in my Google Analytics before I upload the rest. In the mean time, I am uploading to it alongside the other three platforms whenever I put up a new Print on Demand listing. I'll probably make completing my back catalogue upload completion one of my work items for January 2021.
With my homebrew cryptocurrency trading bots, I am seeing a LOT better results in orders being fulfilled with the timeout set to 2 days for Sell orders, instead of the 12 hours it was before. Though I suffered one instance where I saw a huge dip during a Sell order that couldn't fill, it eventually recovered as shown by the positive earnings this month from the bot.
Although, I have discovered an annoying bug with the trading bot, where it will make a buy order on an algorithm and then switch to a different one; something that is thankfully an easy fix. Will implement during the next downtime of the bot.
With manual trading on Coinsquare, I'm getting destroyed. Although my overall balance has gone up, my BTC value is down by 33%--meaning my BTC portfolio value could be worth 50% more than it is now... Considering I have 8k in my Coinsquare account right now... ouch. BTC dollar value is rising, but the altcoin values are not rising to match--so I'm getting lots of lossy trades. Maybe I'll put a kaput on manual trading, and stick to just hodling BTC.
On Youtube, I'm happy to see an increase in income this month over last; $191 versus $171 -- an 11.7% increase. Not gigantic; but healthy, and I'll take it. If I can keep up a monthly growth rate like that, I'll be earning $720 a month by this time next year!
As mentioned in last month's post, I was brainstorming secondary content video ideas to join my primary ones. Blue bordered thumbnails for Drone Flight videos, grey borders for vlog-style weekly or bi-weekly update videos, and gold borders for special announcements like New Years updates (of which I'm in the middle of editing as I type this).
As always, since my Youtube channel is one of my most important Passive Income projects, let's break down the metrics:
- Published five videos; four primary and one drone flight. Sixth video--New Years update special--set to go live at exactly midnight on New Years.
- Currently at 2167 subscribers, up 255 over last month
- Subscriber growth rate: 13.34%, A slight increase over last month's 12.47%
- Average daily views throughout December: 812, up over last month's 700, or an increase of 16%
- Average daily subscribers throughout December: 9, up over last month's 7, or a 28.5% increase
Lastly, we take a look at what my work items were for December, and how I managed to track against it:
- Four new main Youtube videos, and two 'What's Up With Mike' videos
Successfully did the four main videos, and did one drone flight video; but I intentionally delayed the 'What's Up With Mike' videos until I felt more confident about them - Finish novel Chapter 3 and revisions to previous chapters/prologue
Nope. I've lost creative focus on the story, so I'm parking it until I get interest in the project built up again. Don't want to get burnt out - 3 new Shapeways/MyMiniFactory listings
I think I only managed two - 3 new Print on Demand listings
I don't think I managed any. - Implement Zazzle sales channel for Print on Demand
Succeeded here, just need to finish uploading my backcatalogue of listings - Refurbish Patreon tiers & rewards (still don't have a single patron)
Had one go at it but didn't get very far; thought about it a bit and now have some ideas for another attempt. Moving to this coming month's 'sprint.'
So didn't hit every note. But that's okay. It's more of a guideline, not a mandatory list--as long as I move forward and make progress, I'm golden!
Here's what my goal is for January:
- Four main Mike in the Woods Youtube videos, plus one 'What's Up With Mike' test video
- 3 new Shapeways/MyMiniFactory listings
- 3 new Print on Demand listings
- Finish uploading back catalogue of artwork to Zazzle
- Refurbish Patreon tiers for Youtube
And finally, of course, we take a look at investments and how they've performed this past month. (Spoiler alert, still managing to hit my target 6.5% monthly growth rate)
Thanks to crypto performing strongly, and even my stock holdings grew by a paltry amount! Overall, I saw a 7.71% portfolio growth; hitting my monthly target of 6.5% yet again. Mostly thanks due to the performance of Crypto. I'm just waiting for that one month for a massive drop in value... But so far, by the seat of my pants, I'm continuing to see this ridiculous growth rate.
Should I, by some miracle, continue to at least meet my monthly growth target, I am on track to hit my next savings milestone of $25,000 by this time next year. The power of compound growth! And remember, I'm keeping track with this in the middle of a pandemic-fuelled economic recession.
Speaking of the end of the year and the new one to come, I suppose it's prime time to set some New Years Resolutions for what I'm hoping to accomplish in 2021! Here's my New Years' Resolutions:
- Grow Youtube Channel to 10,000 subscribers & average monthly income of $700 in ad revenue
- Hit $25,000 savings milestone
- Pay off existing Credit Card, Credit Line, & Auto Load debt
Let's see how I manage. That's me for now guys; catch you next year!
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See you next post!
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