That’s my second monthly review plus income report.

I do enjoy writing these, but as with any new tiny habit, there’s a bit of resistance in the beginning.

With every next monthly report, though, it gets easier and I can feel more of the benefits of this great practice.

Now is the time to plan how to end 2017 strong.

What’s been on my mind recently is that there are 2 months left before 2017 ends and we enter the new year.

What average people might do is rely on New Year’s resolutions, of course. And as it happens most often, 80% of these fail by February.

The main reasons are:

• People don’t really know what they want;

• They set many goals at one;

• Their goals are huge;

• They don’t make a detailed plan for each;

• Not preparing for failure;

• Desire for quick results;

• Disappointment when they realize this won’t happen fast,

And more.

But for those who are into self-improvement, it’s more about looking back, seeing the big picture, analyzing it, and then moving onto planning a fresh start.

During the last week of October and the beginning of November I’m doing exactly that.

Seeing what worked, where I didn’t see progress and why, and what I can do over the next 2 months so I can feel great by New Year’s Eve.

Such a strong end of it will guarantee the momentum I’ll build for January. What’s more, that will keep me motivated to win the first quarter of the year too.

So that’s what I advise you to do too. November is the perfect time for it.

Others haven’t really realized 2017 will be over soon and will have regrets in December. But you can take the time to see how far you’ve gone and plan what else to complete over the next 2 months.

Also, November is a bit of a quiet month. With the winter coming and most celebrations not happening now, it’s a good place to take time off for contemplating.

Even if you have a big project you’ve been thinking about starting in January or after that, I suggest you do the researching, planning and brainstorming now. This way you’ll get clear about many things, save yourself time in the future, and be ready to take action earlier.

One big freelance client less doesn’t need to affect the monthly income.

An important realization I had after calculating my earning for October is this: even though the higher income the previous month and the month before that was due to one bigger client, I don’t need to rely on him.

He disappeared for some time. That’s part of the freelancing world when you don’t have serious contracts and a few big clients to rely on. But make things work and keep your creative freedom and flexible working hours.

This client though, which seemed promising and the collaboration was doing great, led to showing me it’s not that hard to make more money on a weekly basis.

That was the proof I needed to keep things going for the next month too.

Now that I’ve shown myself it’s possible to survive and keep the profits higher without one individual or company like that, I feel better. And more positive and determined about the next months.

One of the main reasons some people can’t handle freelancing (even if it’s just the level between working for someone else, and having a real business that brings recurring income), is the uncertainty aspect.

`That’s okay. For them it’s better to have an employer and salary to depend on, but to know it will come every month and it will be a fixed amount.

I don’t need that.

Others can’t sleep not knowing where the money will come from next month.
While I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing I’m working for someone else, doing stuff I don’t care about.

But the situation with this one client reminded me of this: we all need actual proof that it’s possible to do bigger things online.

Meaning, when you’re working for weeks or months building a site and an audience, growing social media followings, making affiliate marketing work, selling your own products, or finding freelance clients without experience, you need to see these first few dollars or one purchase come in, to understand it’s possible.

Then, you just replicate the process and go from there.

Progress with moving the business to the Netherlands.

I now have all the necessary information and know which documents to prepare.

Made an appointment with the Chamber of Commerce.

And also have a meeting with an accountant in the end of November. There I’ll be able to ask all my questions about taxes, VAT, etc. As these are different in every country, even though I’m still in the European Union.

I’m now creating the foundation of my new financial habits that will be present from January on, when the business is registered in a well-developed country in Europe.

That means proper invoicing, detailed business records, organizing all this well and updating it frequently.

The actual work itself won’t change, but these are important and they have to be done too.

In need of personal growth.

I’ve had more time on my hands lately, and while still doing work, reading stuff for new projects, and exercising regularly, I knew I needed something new.

I often talk about the importance of learning new things and building skills in order to get out of the comfort zone.

So after trying to make learning dutch on my own a daily and weekly thing, I admitted I lack the motivation this time.

Did it back in the days with Italian and it worked pretty well. Now, however, I don’t feel like it.

That’s why I made a quick decision to take a crash course in dutch. Did a research and contacted a few schools to see where it will be possible to fit in one for beginner’s level in November.

Then set aside the necessary amount, knowing it won’t affect my spending for the previous and current month significantly. That’s key when taking financial decisions.

The course is now paid, and will be in the last 2 weeks of November, a total of 20 hours.

I’ll probably take the 3rd phase in January (it will cost less then and will be one week) and will have level A1 covered.

Then, the next level I can do whenever I feel like, and depending on the income these months.

If you’re stuck, feel like you lack creative energy, or have more free time than usual, do something like that too. Be it to take a digital course, learn a language, take up a new sport, or else.

These pay off in many ways in the long-run. And we’re all playing the long game here 🙂

October Income Report

The revenue for October is $1,881.

Less compared to the record earnings of $2,325 the month before, but still something that’s more than the usual. If I keep it this way for 1-2 months, I’ll be able to have a new minimum income floor for my budget.

There were 3 new clients this month. The sponsored posts I published were 35 (while 44 last month).

Let’s break down October’s income into weeks.

October, week 1

Revenue: $635

Sponsored posts: 11

The first week of every month is where I pay rent, insurance and other things. So expenses are always higher here.

Another thing I track is how much I’ve worked each week. Both in hours, and money made that will be received over the next few weeks. That helps me keep track of how the month is going.

October, week 2

Revenue:  $325

Sponsored posts: 9

Each week, I also calculate how much I’ve got left to make for the month in order to cover my income goal (which is now bigger).

October, week 3

Revenue: $311

Sponsored posts: 7

October, week 4

Revenue: $610

Sponsored posts: 8

What’s New on The Blog This Month

The LRS podcast will soon hit episode #100.

In fact, I’ll be preparing it these days and publishing it on Thursday, Nov 9.

Improving Performance.

I monitor the website’s speed and performance with popular free tools, such as Pingdom Speed Test and GTmetrix.

I test different plugins with the hope to fix things such as:

• Enabling gzip compression;

• Combining external JavaScript;

• Removing query strings from static resources;

• Leveraging browser caching,

• Minimizing redirects.

I also learn more about factors affecting website speed, some of the key ones being:

• Using a CDN;

• Minimizing DNS lookups;

• Minifying CSS and HTML;

• Optimizing above-the-fold content;

• Keeping the database clean;

And more.

Most popular post.

Over the last few months I’m receiving most hits (organic traffic from search engines) for this post on existential questions that I wrote a long time ago.

Backups

Now my preferred method to do backups on WordPress is with the plugin UpdraftPlus. I’ve set it up to store files in my Google Drive.

I’m also considering a way to keep data externally, for maximum security. That could be on a separate hard drive, or even on a USB flash drive.

Learn more about the 3 easiest ways to back up your files here.

So that’s what I had to share about my October, and what’s happening in November.

More stuff coming in the next monthly review and income report.

How was your month? And what are you looking to get done and achieve by the end of the year?