If you're new here this is our monthly blog post where we update all of you on how the blog is doing. At the end of every month, we do a round-up of all of our income and all of our expenses and show what we're able to donate! (Read August's pupdate here!)
Looking back on September is a little bit different this month than August. We weren't able to run a fundraiser as we were focused on some different avenues and content creations but there are still lessons we can pull from the month!
September Income
In an effort to continue to raise funds for animals were always looking at different ways we can raise money. You’ll notice different revenue streams month to month as we test and try out new ideas, sometimes they’ll stick, and sometimes they won’t but we’ll do our best to explain each one if it’s new or if we’re moving away from it. All of the following will be totals earned. After the explanations and expenses section, I’ll calculate how much we are actually able to donate.
Dollars and Cents:
- Google Adsense – $12.97
- Youtube Ads - $23.49
- Amazon Affiliates – $0.11
- Share A Sale Affiliate Programs – $0.10
Income Explained
Youtube Ads - Adding this category into the mix as well, as I plan on getting back into Youtube and posting videos more frequently. The income earned currently is residual from previous videos I posted throughout the years but they all relate to veganism and dogs so I'm allocating it towards the business already.
Adsense and Affiliates - As it's easy to see our AdSense and affiliates marketing is down for the month of September. I only managed to get one recipe out the entire month which was our vegan loaded sweet potatoes. As such both AdSense and affiliate revenue were down. Having just started out we rely heavily on traffic from our social channels and referrals to drive revenue on the blog as we don't show up that much on google yet. So if I'm not creating recipes we don't have anything to post about on social media and less people come to the blog.
A learning experience for sure but I definitely need to focus on pushing consistent content out in order to get more eyes on the blog clicking around! Can't say I'm sold on Affiliate marketing still though!
Merch/Fundraiser - You'll notice both of these categories are absent from the income stream this month. We do have a fundraiser coming out in October but couldn't turn one around quick enough for September to make it work. We're still sourcing items for the merch line and hope to launch it soon but as discussed the income earned from it last month was kind of a fluke.
The expensive stuff
On to the hard part of how much we spend! I think it’s important to note that for the first couple of months I’ll be absorbing these costs with my own personal income as to still be able to have money to donate, but this won’t be a long term strategy.
We also have a lot of moving pieces in the expense section that will fluctuate month to month so we’ll do our best to explain which ones are good expenses and which ones were trying to get rid of.
Expenses
- Social Media/Website Consultation – $300
- Graphic Designer – $100
- Adobe Creative Suite – $45.73 monthly
- QuickBooks – $25
- Shopify – $37.89
- Tailwind – $9.99 monthly
- SiteGround Website Hosting – $13.06 monthly ($156.76 billed annually)
- Wp Recipe Maker Premium Plugin – $8.25 monthly ($99 billed annually)
- Social Sharing – $7.5 monthly ($90 billed annually)
- Groceries – $20.17
- Later – $7.5 monthly ($90 billed annually)
- MailChimp – $0
Expenses Explained
Social Media consultant – Ryan is a good friend of mine that does social media and website consultations for some of the biggest brands in the world. Some people may not see this as a necessary expense but in the first month we did 21,000 views, and since starting in July have already surpassed well over 30,000 page views. Having someone that is an expert in the field of optimization helps the blog significantly gain traction and views. As this isn't my area of expertize, I thought it would be best to bring in some one that it is in order to help grow quicker and help more dogs!
Graphic Designer – I’m working with an extremely talented graphic designer in Winnipeg to make sure the merch designs we come out with are actually good. Let’s face it I’m no artist with the computer and the majority of designs for dog merch on the internet right now are terrible. So I’m really excited for you all to see the designs he’s creating!
Merch Samples - You'll notice that this month we didn't have to bring in any samples which is a huge expense saver! But it also means we've connected with a good supplier we like so next month you'll see the cost of goods sold (COGS) category added as an expense.
Monthly Income/Expense Totals
All in for the month of September we were able to raise $36.67
At the same rate our expenses for the month of September were $575.09
Okay this definitely looks worse than it seems lol. I kind of expected to take a bit of hit this month as we didn't really post much as we've been talking to and figuring out this merch line and still working a 9-5. But it's crazy to see the difference of how we allocate our time can so drastically effect the outcome of the month.
As mentioned in the intro I'm eating the costs of the business the first couple of months until it becomes profitable so that we can still donate something (no matter how little). This strategy certainly isn't sustainable for my personal finances but hopefully, we're able to get the blog to a self-sustaining place in the next couple of months!
For the month of September (since we're not deducting expenses) we're able to donate 50% of $36.67 for a total donation of: $18.33
Again not breaking all the dogs out of the shelter just yet but soon this will all add up and hopefully make a huge difference!
All of this is because of YOU!
Give yourself a round of applause!
No seriously, everything we have accomplished so far is because of you! Without you there would be no Rescue Dog Kitchen, there would be no donations to shelters and there would be no helping out dogs in need.
Every single person that interacts with our content flips through the pages on our website, shares our recipe, comments on our Instagram, and somehow managed to find our unreleased merch line, is the reason we are able to do this.
Thank you to each one of you that helps us do this!
Hopefully we’ll see you again before next months pupdate!
Cheers!
John, Bone & Bailey
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