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Being your own boss is a dream come true. You have your own schedule and your own rules. No asshole to fire you for needing time off. You may even make your money. However, being self-employed has its disadvantages.
I started this blog before COVID started and made some blog posts explaining why self-employment is accessible for me and why it’s better for me than a 9-5. I thought it would be cool to have my own thing. While it is cool, at times, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
Content creators struggle. Our struggles are just as valid.
Your taxes will be different.
With Amazon’s affiliate program, Adsese, Patreon says anything over 600 dollars has to be reported to the IRS during tax season.
I started earning money for my content on crypto blogging sites like Steemit.com. It’s kinda like Reddit in a way without the
stupid self-promotion hatred. Last year Coinbase sent me a notification that I had taxable activity to report. You can use software like Turbo Tax to file. They have tax advisors you can pay to do your taxes, someone who is just starting wouldn’t have that kinda money. It cost me 130 to file last year.
Your earnings won’t be consistent
Unlike a normal job where you get say 600 bi-weekly, your earnings won’t be consistent. It will depend on that particular month. On my crypto blogging platforms, my posts got 3,4,5 credits a post, then it steadily dropped over time, and I cannot figure out why. I cannot figure out if I made negative changes to my content that caused people to vote my posts with fewer credits. It’s rough seeing your earnings dip and you don’t know why.
Views dipping isn’t enough to tell me if it’s something I am doing. Sites change their AI, some months are better for earnings than others. If you don’t communicate with me, I cannot work with you. Always have multiple streams. Don’t just only rely on Adsense or Twitch subs/tips. Have as many streams as you can handle. So when one stream fails, you have a backup stream.
Gotta buy your own stuff
Unlike a regular job that may provide you with a laptop or tablet, you have to buy your own stuff. Say you have to pay for faster internet or buy your own tablet, or phone. You know the old saying you gotta spend money to make money. For Youtube, I started with the crappiest stuff. I had a crappy computer, no consoles, a crappy desk set up, crappy chair so it was uncomfortable editing for long periods. Viewers constantly made comments about the audio, however, I had no money to get better stuff. Up until my blog earnings picked up to where I can trade a little more often, was unemployed due to autism and mental health issues. Other health problems picked up when COVID started. It was difficult starting up a gig with no money.
Save, Save
when you get your payouts, you have to create some savings so you will be covered if something goes wrong. When I was getting the 200 bucks from Steemit, had I put away at least 30 bucks per check, I wouldn’t be struggling as hard. I would still be somewhat OK.
Hey being my own boss allows me to accommodate my illnesses, a perk I wouldn’t have on a normal job.
In other Words
My crypto blog earnings have dropped. I could not find a way to raise them. Luckily, I am in facebook’s reels bonus program, and my page recently passed 1k followers and I unlocked ads. Once the ad revenue roll in, it will help. now I learned to save money. Just like when i was getting the 200s and 300s from Steemit. had I saved 50 bucks per payout, I would have had 400 dollars saved up and I could have given to my grandma for the heating system, or my mom to pay our phones off so the bill can be lower.
it’s important to stay within a budget to avoid struggling down the road if your earnings take a dip. Unless you’ve tested things out long enough and your money is strong enough. And it’s sad that I was getting good money from these blogging sites and post-earnings started dipping. No one communicated (if my content is the reason) before it got this bad so I had time to make changes. If there is something I am saying wrong or whatever, I can’t do anything if you do not tell me.
Always have more than one stream of revenue.
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