February 2022: Creator Income Report & Reflections
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An honest look at how I earned $750 in revenue as a part-time small creator.
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Income Report
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Vidya
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Mar 2, 2022
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8 min. read
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Creator Income Report for February 2022.
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An honest look at how I earned $750 in revenue as a part-time small creator.
If you haven’t read my January Creator Income Report, here you go.
February was definitely an interesting and eventful month compared to January.
One of the hardest lessons I’m yet to learn is estimating how long a project is going to take. I overestimated how soon I can finish and launch Writing OS. This made me anxious most of the time and my imposter syndrome kicked in.
The only way to battle imposter syndrome is by doing things. But, I felt demotivated due to so many tasks begging my attention. It was a never-ending vicious cycle. There were times I watched more than 10 hours of Netflix in a day! Imagine feeling so paralyzed by the tasks that I had to resort to binge-watching some English drama to make myself feel good.
I finally abandoned all my routines and dedicated a full week, literally 24/7, to finish the project and launch it no matter what. Thank god, I was working on this project unknowingly for over a year because of my Newsletter. All I had to do was plan better and execute it.
Also, it’s really hard to realize that you’re burning out when you’re working on your favourite projects.
Despite all of this, February is definitely one of my productive months income-wise. I also met some amazing people online and I plan to interact with many more in the coming months. Having supportive friends (online or offline) is one of the blessings I would never take for granted.
Let’s look at the numbers now!
TL;DR:
• Almost burned out while working on a passion project: Writing OS.
• February was productive compared to January.
• Lots of supportive friends (online and offline).
Income Report for February 2022
What I earned and did in February this year:
A brief about my side projects and how I earn money as a creator:
- Newsletter - The Curious Bunch: I’ve started accepting sponsors for my newsletter since May 2021 when I crossed over 500 subscribers. Since then, I’ve been able to book sponsors (mostly inbound requests) for every weekly issue I send. You can view my current pricing structure on this advertising page.
- Info Products: WritingOS: A Notion Dashboard that helps you write consistently. Newsletter Checklist: Start a newsletter the right way with this checklist (free).
- Donations from Buy Me A Coffee and Tip Jar: I’ve been accepting donations from my newsletter readers since January 2021.
- I also take on freelance work from time to time. I help companies analyze their data, execute growth experiments, develop No-Code solutions, and occasionally write their newsletters and blogs.
Net Profit: $735.34
Net Profit ($735.34) = Total Revenue ($750) - Total Expenses ($14.66)
In February 2022, I made a net profit of $735.34. This is about a ~134% increase from last month’s net profit of $314.34.
This might seem nothing to you but it’s a huge deal for me! Especially for someone who lives in India. 🙂
Total Revenue: $750
- Newsletter ($466.30) — Sponsorships: $412.95, Classifieds: $53.35
- Info Products ($265.71) — Writing OS: $240.71, Newsletter Checklist: $25
- Donations ($18) — Buy Me A Coffee: $13, Tip Jar: $5
- Freelance ($0)
Last month, I pledged to myself that I would reach out to more brands to increase my sponsorship revenue. Luckily, I had some amazing inbound requests which led to booking sponsorship slots 2 months in advance. This could have an effect on next month’s revenue but I was more than happy to book these in advance since they’re aligned with my reader’s interests.
I also made a sale for Newsletter Checklist, which is a free product, and someone bought it for $25! 🤯 According to the traffic from Gumroad, the sale probably came from a curated post I made for Refind back in November 2021. Some long-term game, ha?
I’m currently working towards re-doing the landing page for Writing OS and planning a marketing strategy to promote it in March. More details about this in the below section. 👇🏻
Expenses: -$14.66
My expenses are the same as in January. I haven’t made any purchases and I’m very frugal when it comes to spending money on software.
Although I purchase most of these subscriptions on yearly basis, I’m breaking them down as monthly expenses so it’s easy for you to understand.
- Website Hosting ($7.99) — MDX: -$7.07, Carrd: -$0.92
- Domains ($6.08) — Vidya.so: -$5.42, Writingos.co: -$0.66
- Email ($0.59) — Vidya.so: -$0.59
February Milestones
I love celebrating small milestones because they’re the ones that accumulate and make a huge difference at the end of the year.
- Crossed $400 Life Time Revenue in pre-orders for Writing OS.
- Crossed 50+ pre-orders for Writing OS.
- I self-sponsored one of my February Newsletter issues for $40 and got 5 pre-orders (which were essentially $10 each) so it was a complete win-win for me! Newsletter sponsorships really work!
- Working for a client to write blog posts on my favourite topic!
- Took a session on Career Leap for writing consistently and effectively. 19 people attended the session and almost 14 people stayed for 90 mins. One blog post and one thread were created by listeners after attending the session. Shout-out to Lax and Keshav. 🙂
- Reached 2000+ followers on Twitter.
- 60 supporters on Buy Me A Coffee.
- Officially launched Writing OS on Feb 26th.
- Won FrugalMVP’s Cohort. It was a pleasant surprise from the team behind FrugalMVP. 🙂
What I tried/failed to do
I tried to launch Writing OS too soon and I failed to keep my promise for the launch date. However, I learned a valuable lesson here. In the future, I’ll be careful and add an extra 10 days to my estimated launch date. That should give me enough buffer to work on important things and make sure everything is on schedule.
Due to WritingOS project, I neglected my sleep habits and physical health. I haven’t attended my therapy session in February so I’m not sure how the consequences are going to be. I felt like I need to be in the right mindset to meet my therapist. It’s kinda counterproductive, isn’t it?
What I’m planning for March
I’m planning to re-build the landing page for Writing OS and double down on marketing efforts. Most of my marketing efforts include tweeting regularly, writing blog posts or threads, and staying true to the niche. Since WritingOS is a Notion Dashboard, I’m going to promote it on other Notion Marketplaces. I have no plans to do paid marketing in March.
I’m participating in Women Make Challenge and working on a Newsletter guide for beginners. This is an email course that can also be converted to a Notion Document. I’m going to make the email course for free. I haven’t yet decided if I should make it completely free because I don’t want people to take it for granted and not apply the tips I’m going to share with them. So, for now, it’s going to be partially free.
Other than this, I also have a final exam coming up for a course I’m pursuing in Data Science. Wish me luck!
That’s all for now. If you want to get in touch with me, I hang out on Twitter.