Super quick update on this one, not going to spend too much time delving in. Only pulled $377 in net income from side projects, and my investment portfolio saw a -19% drop since I had to dip into it a bit to pull some funds for a downpayment on the Model 3. (No, I am not ignorant of the fact that I keep dipping into it, and it's rather frustrating that I do)
- $130 from Youtube ad revenue--channel is in steep decline
- $78 in Patreon patron membership fees, though my patrons have all since cancelled
- $57 from MyMiniFactory 3D model sales--a massive surge probably relating to the holidays
- $42 from Nicehash, continuing a worsening trend with my GPU mining
- $31 from Print on Demand artwork sales, less than anticipated due to best-seller getting removed
- $22 from Amazon Associates
- $15 from Flipping sales, one of the worst-performing months yet
- $4.38 from Shapeways 3D print sales
- -$1.24 from Lbry token value loss
- -$3.01 from Binance value loss (Trading bot is up in profit though)
- -$13 from Signum token value loss
Man, this month has been a worsening beating. Youtube channel's taken a nosedive, my best selling item was removed from the Redbubble store, and Nicehash earnings continue to sh*t the bed.
Let's start with the cryptocurrency side of things...
With mining earnings continuing to be trash, and a lot of my AMD cards having continual fan failures, I figured that since I'm spending more on fans to fix them up and return them to active service than they're actually earning by mining, I'd sell off all the cards that have failing fans and condense down to the cards that still work. As such, I have seven cards being listed & sold. Unsure if I'll replace them with new cards for mining at this point, or just let this be the starting point of my mining rig phaseout in preparation for the house move in a year or two. It's hard to let a good thing go.
The entire market still sits in a slump, making this quite an extended bear market. Both my Lbry and Signum token values saw a loss over last month even though Signum mining is still in full swing--even though GPUs have been removed from some of the rigs, they are still full-tilt on the Signum hard drive mining front.
There is a silver lining on the crypto front though--even though the overall fiat value is down, my GCTT trading bot has actually slowly climbed its way back up to profitability! Now that the AUTO-style strategies have had over a month to tune to profitable strategies, I have broken the starting value and actually posted positive.
As of this exact moment, the bot is down by 0.47%, but over the last two days I've seen it as high as 1.5% above our starting value. Last month it ended at being down by -7%, and early this month it got as low as -15%. But after a series of profitable trades and tuning to the most profitable strategies, we've now broken even.
Based on my target goal of a 1.1% gain per day, I'd like to see the bot hit 34.78% up in profit by the end of the month--will be great to see how it fares! Or if it tanks again just like every other project I have going on.
I didn't bother developing & releasing v0.4.0, as I've had no new affiliate signups, so I haven't bothered.
Let's jump over to Youtube land.
Boy, we keep a-fallin'.
You can see a bit of a dead cat bounce at the very end of the chart there. Hopefully we've bottomed out, because this much of a drastic drop has really been making me feel like crap. Having dumped so many hours, so much effort, and so much research into improving, only to have it keep toppling over in my face.
But I don't give up that easily.
Now that I've narrowed down my focus to 'Unconventional EV Adventures' and updated my branding to as such, I've got several 'content buckets' from which to draw video & trip ideas for the channel. I also ranked them by which I thought was going to be the best performing based on past performance, public interest, and available competition (topmost being the best):
- Electric Snowboard Touring
- Tesla Model 3 Overlanding & Camping
- Autonomous Inflatable Boat Raftpacking
- E-Bike Bikepacking
- Electric Skateboard Backpacking
As you can see, the Electric Skateboard backpacking bit seems to be the poorest rated of the bunch, if I'm being honest. By branching out into other EV adventures, I think I can tap into some growth.
By combining tactical selection of these 'content buckets' with known well-performing video types like "Top 10" style videos, I'm aiming to break stagnation and really hit solid growth. As it stands, I'm going to hit 7,000 subs by the end of the year, and my current projected growth--according to SocialBlade--has me barely hitting 10,000 subscribers by the end of 2023. That is piss-poor performance, in my opinion. I'm setting a goal to hit 15,000 subscribers by the end of 2023, with the stretch goal of trying to hit 25,000.
I have a lot of work cut out for me.
As such, you might have noticed me starting to focus more and more in on the Youtube project at the expense of time spent on others--I'm pretty much going full-in on Youtube at this point, with other projects being put on the backburner. For 2023, I will be laser focused on growing my Youtube channel to where I want it to be.
Let's take a look at November's metrics so you can get an idea of why I'm so frustrated:
- Published 4 videos, staying on track with target of one a week
- Finished November with 6,905 subscribers, up 143 over last month
- Subscriber growth rate: 2.1%, down from last month's 2.8%; continuing a downward trend
- Average daily views throughout November: 554, down from last month's 649; or a decrease of -14.6%
- Average daily subscriber count: 5, down from last month's 6
To hit my goal & stretch goal at the end of 2023, here's what my metrics will have to look like, averaged out over the year:
Subscribers per day: 22 (15k sub target), or 49 (25k sub target)
Views per day (based on rule of thumb that you get 1 subscriber for every 100 views): 2,200 (15k sub target), or 4,900 (25k sub target)
Let's take a look at my work item list for Nobember versus how I actually fared:
- 4x Mike in the Woods Youtube Videos (minimum of 3)
Completed! - Maintain 200 active Flipping listings
Completed! - Electric Snowboard Build:
- Resolve wire type mismatch issue -- Z916 to Z910 adapter
Fixed & confirmed working - Begin initial ESC programming with motor & verify functionality
Done & confirmed working - Redesign motor mount as drop-in (consider screw & nut to close off)
Done & tested, but had critical failure. redesigned to be more bulky w/ metal insert - Monitor affiliate signups with Binance to gauge when to move forward with GCTT version 0.4.0 development
No new signups, postponing development - Resolve multi-fan dead GPUs
Moving towards selling fan-damaged GPUs
And let's set out some goals for December:
- 5x Mike in the Woods Youtube Videos (four primary plus one end-of-year New Years update)
- Maintain 207 active Flipping Listings (upped count from GPUs listed)
- Electric Snowboard Build:
- Order metal bracket inserts for motor mounting arms from Shapeways
- Perform downhill durability testing (Nikola Motors test)
- Wrap up odds & ends of build like waxing, water-sealing exposed innards
- Order replacement motor
- Continue to monitor Binance affiliate signups to gauge when to move forward with GCTT version 0.4.0 development
Investment portfolio:
I took a huge -19.25% hit because I withdrew $2500 in crypto to put a downpayment on my Tesla Model 3. This has put me below my target MoM growth rate for the first time.
Portfolio weighting:
Interestingly, this has put me in a position where my stocks outweigh my crypto investments for the first time.
And finally, a look at my FIRE income tracker, where I calculate my total monthly revenue plus the monthly portion of my 4% annual withdrawal rate of my investments:
Nope, not any time soon...
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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