It’s been a while since I’ve done an income report. I think I got tired of doing them every month because it felt like my numbers were almost always the same.
I last left off in September and October so here’s a super quick overview of how business has been since then:
You can see there have been some highs and lows *cough*February*cough* since then. That’s the nature of this business. But those two highs (January and March) make me REALLY happy!
So let’s focus on what’s been going on so far this year.
Sales from Q1 2015
January – £4,093.28 in total sales
£4,093.28 in sales! That’s my highest month EVER! That’s about $6,050 in USD if you’re curious. My pre-mades did well, bringing in £1,735, and I also took on A LOT of design work. I completed three projects that had started in December, and then I started like four others. Suuuper busy.
My hosting business also did very well. I brought in £683.71 in December 2014 and that rose to £1,027.29 in January. The new year saw A LOT of people moving to self-hosted WordPress, so I had a bunch of new hosting signups.
February – £2,509.28 in total sales
February is one of those months that I want to pretend never happened. What even happened here…?
- My pre-mades went down quite a bit, which I don’t really have an explanation for.
- My hosting went down just a little. This is normal. I got a lot of new signups in January, which means extra money from domain registrations. But in February, those same people pay their monthly fees WITHOUT the domain registrations, so that’s a tad less money. But that’s okay.
- I did VERY little design/dev work.
This is actually when I stopped taking on new design/dev clients and I guess the number shows. But I also spent a lot of time doing the development for one project and I didn’t end up getting paid for it until March, so we’ll see those numbers in the next month..
But overall, this was a shitty month. It sucks, but it happens.
March – £4,037.87 in total sales
Aaaand we’re back! Once again, things are big and beautiful and booming. I was so glad to see these final numbers because February was discouraging as hell. I felt like March would tell me a lot. Was January a fluke? Or was February the fluke? Well, these March numbers have turned me into a glass-half-full kind of person, so I’m declaring February the oddball month of 2015.
My pre-made numbers sooooared! I hit just over £1800 in pre-mades alone. That’s about $2660 USD for you Americans.
My hosting numbers also went up quite a bit. I expect they will go back down again next month though. In March I decided to make other payment plans available other than just monthly. So I had a few new customers purchase yearly packages, which are $156. So obviously those brought in good numbers, but those customers won’t be paying again for another year.
My design numbers went up because I got paid from that February project. They’re still not super high because I’m only doing coding work right now and I’m trying to focus more on my pre-mades since that’s what I love most and they bring in good money. 🙂 Just a few days ago (so the very end of March) I launched a new plugin called Novelist (for authors). I haven’t done an official post yet on Nose Graze because I’m hoping to have the demo sandbox site up and running first (it has a few kinks). I’m also putting more time into things like UBBv3 and I’d like to finally sell my email newsletter plugin.
Expenses from Q1 2015
Expenses are boooring. They’re not as exciting to talk about so I’ll just show you the charts with some numbers.
January – £930.82 in expenses
I had to pay for two servers at once in January, which is why my hosting bill was so high. It was double the normal cost. Sadface. 🙁
February – £882.26 in expenses
And since things didn’t go as planned, I had to renew BOTH servers in February, and thus pay for both AGAIN. Major suckage.
March – £1,087.11 in expenses
I had a buttload of expenses in March. A big portion of that (£291.80) is for conventions and events, which was WordCamp London. My licenses and subscriptions expenses also went through the roof because I had to buy a Shutterstock subscription (£148) and I bought a pretty expensive plugin for $199.
Quater 1 recap
Okay, let’s look at some final numbers!
January
- Sales: £4093.28
- Expenses: £930.82
- Profit: £3162.46
February
- Sales: £2509.28
- Expenses: £882.26
- Profit: £1627.02
March
- Sales: £4037.87
- Expenses: £1087.11
- Profit: £2950.76
Total profit from Q1: £7,740.24 (in USD: $11,440.93)
And how’s the blog doing?
I thought it might be fun to include some blog stats for a change. 🙂 So here are some cool numbers from Q1 of 2015:
- 104,797 page views
- 47,250 unique visitors
- Top referrer: Twitter (3,528 sessions)
- 120 new email subscribers
- Most popular post: How to Choose a Good Blog Name (3,946 page views)
This is awesome to see Ashley! Glad you had a good Q1 — you are totally wonderful to work with so I hope you get lots more happy customers!
Thank you so much Anne! 🙂
Wow good going. The freelance biz is no joke. Lots of work, keep it up!
Yes, it’s DEFINITELY a full time job! I definitely do more work than I would at a 9-5 job, but I love it, so it’s all good. 😉
Wow, you make BANK! Awesome job!
Thanks girlie!
I’ve actually missed these posts, Ashley. I think it’s because I’m inherently nosy. It’s a British thing, I think. (Or just a me thing). You seem to be doing awesome, so way to go!
I don’t blame you. 😉 I’m the exact same way with other freelancers. I want to know ALL THE DIRTY DETAILS.
I always like seeing these posts, it’s interesting to see how much money you get from what and what your highest expenses are. Your premades really sell well!
I might once start doing posts like these if I ever make enough money not to feel sad showing my stats, but my business is growing so that’s good. For me January was actually the odd month out, as most authors are busy celebrating christmas in december and aren’t booking tours. And as I send invocies before the tour starts, that usually means that if I have a slow month I only see it the month or two after that. February was my best month so far this year. Can I ask how you get those neat pie chart pictures?
You should totally do it, Lola! 🙂 Even if you’re not making a ton of money, I think it’s very cool to see progress. I know some freelancers who started out posting monthly income less than $50, but then a year later you can see them making thousands a month. It’s really inspiring to see how they grow and change over time.
I actually coded my own accounting system in WordPress and that’s where I get the charge. 🙂 I use the Google Charts API to dynamically draw them, then I just screenshot them for the blog.
Good job! I am seriously impressed.
Thanks Tiffany. 🙂
Wow – amazing job there, hard work does pay off. I’ve been following your blog for a couple of months, this is probably the first time I ever commented though. I just wanted to say I love reading your lifestyle posts, they’re actually genuine and helpful. Your book reviews are awesome too!
P.S I wished you had a pre-made theme for blogger </3 I see your creative whim theme everywhere!
Thank you so much! It’s definitely hard work, but I love doing it.
I thought about making some themes for Blogger, but honestly Blogger is SUCH a pain to code for. 🙁
I’m glad for those numbers! You deserve it because you work hard, do awesome things and also share with us some goodies 😀 I can’t wait for the email newsletter plugin and bbbv3 ;D
Thanks so much Vera! 😀 I spent a few hours on UBBv3 last night!
Congrats – I’m glad things are booming (let’s just ignore February!). I’m excited foe UBB 3 and I need to checkout the novelist plugin for my author site. Are you still not taking on design projects? I’ve been working on my author site and at moments I’m okay with it and others I hate it. I’ve been thinking of hiring someone to just start over.
Sorry but I’m not doing new design projects right now! I need to focus on UBB and other premades. 🙂 I’m forwarding everyone over to Anna Moore. I do still code all of her projects, but I’m not doing any design!
Great Blog By Ashley ..
Wonderful income stats …
I wish you get more views and income in the upcoming months ….
I always find it interesting to get to take a look at behind the curtain of a business via these income/expense reports. I know it’s sharing a lot but thanks for putting them together and sharing!
I know how you feel, Monica. 🙂 One of the reasons I share is because I love looking at other peoples’ reports. It’s so interesting and inspiring!