This year is definitely a 'give and take' in terms of income & portfolio growth. Some losses here, some gains there.
This month I saw only a paltry $487 in side hustle revenue, and a -6.85% month-over-month investment portfolio decline; as we continue to slide into a recession (however temporary or long-term that may be).
- $168 in Nicehash earnings. Aging hardware causing diminishing returns; and downward trend of BTC price caused value loss
- $153 in Youtube ad revenue, probably a slight decline due to advertisers spending less (actual Youtube metrics are up)
- $71 in Flipping earnings
- $64 in Print on Demand earnings between Redbubble & Society6, with a couple Teepublic sales!
- $14 in 3D model sales on MyMiniFactory
- $12 in net Dividend income after accounting for any fees
- $4.92 in Amazin affiliate income - a very poor performance this month
- $0.86 in Signum token value. Mined tokens value slightly outpaced value loss.
- $0.02 in Lbry token value, hahaha
- -$3.94 in Binance value loss due to crypto price drops--HUGE UPDATE ON THIS IN A BIT
Monthly reminder of what my primary focuses are, project-wise, for this year (my 'tentpole' projects)
- Youtube. This includes associated spinoffs like the Amazon affiliate links in the description and mirror to Odysee.
- Cryptocurrency. This includes:- Expansion & refinement of mining capabilities, and seeking other earning capabilities- Gaia Trader, the version 2.0 of my homebrew trading bot being written for public release
- Print on Demand & Digital Asset Sales:- Artwork Print on Demand on Redbubble, Society6, etc
- 3D model sales via MyMiniFactory & alternatives
- 3D print on demand via Shapeways
Let's talk about the Cryptocurrency side of things, as there's lots to talk about.
First, the state of the crypto market--it's seen a downwards slide this month. My GPU mining earnings outpaced the value depreciation in my accumulated Nicehash earnings, but not by much. I still haven't deposited the mined coins from the past few months, so the value swing is a major percentage of the value reported. Maybe I should have moved them over to reduce the impact of my MoM portfolio loss..
The major piece of news that I wanted to share is that I have officially released the Gaia Cryptocurrency Trading Tool!
As I've previously mentioned, GCTT is a complete re-write of my homebrew trading bot that I have now made public for everyone to use. It's currently on v0.1.0, and lots of improvements and additions coming in the future!
It's designed to be a simple easy to use & fast algo trader for first-time cryptocurrency automated trading curious folk; once the app runs, you can either put in your API keys to do live trades for you, just use the theoretical Paper Trader practice mode to play around with. You add one or more strategies to trade with, and let the app do the rest! (For far more in-depth information, check out that User Manual link)
Here it is running in Paper Trader mode, where I'm testing out the AUTO functionality--where instead of specifying a strategy, you can let the app benchmark for a week and pick the most profitable strategy for you--and continue to reassess daily. (On the right is my original version of the app I wrote for personal use)
And of course, I wrote this as much for my own use as other people's -- so much so, in fact, that I legit just went and bought a laptop that has no purpose other than a dedicated machine to run this very app. (Laptops can survive a power outage, and lets me have maximum uptime for the app).
Based on prior experiences trading on Coinsquare and my testing, I'm hoping for a 1% daily gain. We'll see how that goes at the end of the month--I'm leaving this app running for the entirety of September.
As I mentioned last month, the monetization strategy is to have people sign up to Binance using my affiliate link in the app--as the bot trades for them and hopefully grows their portfolio, I also earn piecemeal trading fee commissions from everyone. It's a win-win!
And since release, I've already gained one new sign-up, putting me at 108 sign ups (but still only 17 of which have been trading on Binance, same number as before):
Now let's switch over to my primary tentpole project: Youtube.
Here's an updated look at my views chart over the last 365 days; which shows a gradual upward trend over the last half year or so.
I've almost started cresting over the 800 average daily views mark. It's all thanks to niching down to specific content, and improving the human-interest aspect of my thumbnails & titles (I've learned to avoid keyword stuffing).
I managed to successfully release a video every week in August, which meant I hit my stretch goal of 5 videos! Of the five, three related to my completion of the Durham section of the Trans Canada Trail; one was about a 3D printed spork (which took off initially but died off quickly), and one about riding electric skateboards for longer durations.
With the two projects I have going on in the background for Youtube, I made progress with the electric snowboard build. I successfully completed all of the soldering & wiring; initial tests look good, with the remote showing as being read on the ESC with the indicator light changing color when it detects input from the wireless remote. All I'm waiting on is the motor to arrive, which is still somewhere out on the ocean on a tanker heading for Canada. I've printed off a sample hub mount piece for a fit test before I commit to the full mounting arm 3D print in Nylon PA12.
Here's what my metrics are looking like for August:
- Published 5 videos, hitting my stretch goal of one per week, and crushing my minimum of 3 target
- At 6,332 subscribers; up 234 over last month
- Subscriber growth rate: 3.84%, down from last month's 4.28%
- Average daily views throughout August: 724, up from last month's 713; or an increase of 1.54%
- Average daily subscribers: 8, on par with last two months
Now let's take a look at what I set out to do for August, versus what I actually accomplished:
- 4x to 5x new Mike in the Woods videos
Hit stretch goal of 5! - Maintain 200 active Flipping listings
Completed - Solve major clog issue on 3D printer preventing me from progressing on projects
Completed--just needed a nozzle change - Electric Snowboard build:
- Initial unfinished 3D modelling of motor mounting arms
Completed, awaiting motor for motor mount fit check - If
motor arrives with time to do so, and 3d printer issues resolved,
finish design & print off initial motor mount prototype and mount to
board
No motor yet - Gaia Cryptocurrency Trading Tool:
- Create How-To guide for users to get up and running
Done - Finish porting existing strategies from old bot version
Did a sizeable amount; adding more with each subsequent release - Implement 'Auto' strategy that will select the best strategy to use based on daily benchmarking
Completed - Clean up UI and make more presentable to end user
Minimal improvement, focused on functionality & readability - UI display & user accessible setting to display/control whether bot is in Paper Trader mode or Live Trading mode
Completed - Persist strategies between sessions so user doesn't have to re-add them on app restart
Moved to v0.2.0 target features - Upload & release v0.1.0 to public
Completed!
Did pretty well! Getting v0.1.0 in a great state and releasing it was definitely the hallmark of August.
Here's my goals for September:
- 4x Mike in the Woods Youtube videos (minimum of 3)
- Maintain 200 active Flipping listings
- Electric Snowboard Build:
- Once motor arrives, do a motor mount fit check. Refine until appropriate.
- 3D print and mount prototype mounting arms to snowboard
- Waterproofing of exposed fiberglass in board cutout and where bolts connect through to battery case
- Mount ESC to inner top lid of battery case
- Program ESC to work with hub motor
- Order contour tool from Amazon for beginning motor tread insert design
- Complete features for, and release, Gaia Cryptocurrency Trading Tool v0.2.0
- Order replacement fans for one of Mining Rig 004's GPUs
And now a look at my investments:
As you can see, I had nearly a 7% (6.85%) monthly loss, due to both crypto and stocks taking a dump. The RNG giveth, the RNG taketh away... Getting annoyingly close to the intersection of my target growth rate, and where things actually are. Hopefully next month's not so brutal, but we'll see.
Here's how the weighting of my portfolio has changed:
Cash saw a slight bump due to the revenue from dividends, and Stocks displaced crypto a bit more as stocks continue to be more insulated against drastic drops compared to cryptocurrency.
And lastly, a look at my FIRE goal math, which adds up my total monthly revenue and leverages the 4% rule from investments, to calculate my monthly funds as tracked against a target '$80,000 annual salary' equivalent:
Only 8%, compared to the 15% from last month; we need to reverse this trend and get it heading for a 100% goal!
If you find these posts helpful, and you are interested in cryptocurrency, try signing up for Binance! It's a widely-known cyrptocurrency exchange (think stock exchange, but for crypto). It's free to do so, and by using my referral link we'll both earn 10% of any trading fees you pay.
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