Welcome back to Flexibility Is Freedom!
After a long hiatus the last few months, I'm back to producing these monthly income reports, and have filled in the last few months that were previously missing.
Since I returned to Canada in mid-April, it's been a bit of a blur - my sister had a successful surgery, my mom went back to China, and I started another reno project - and before you know it, it's already August!
This is why I love traveling and "smelling the roses", it helps slow down the chaos of life and allows me to explore the world around me more. But as of right now, I'm working towards making my next trip happen by building another rental unit in my house and continuing to work on TheDermDetective.com.
Needless to say for most people, this year and last year have been pretty tough, with the non-stop interest rate hikes, fears of a recession, and layoffs/bankruptcies in many sectors.
I consider myself fortunate to have bought my house in 2021 when it was easier to qualify under lower interest rates, even though I'm paying a lot more than I did back then in mortgage payments.
As for the business, I've been working on a revised content format that uses Lasso displays but provides slightly more detail than my previous ones. You can see an example of this format here.
Other than that, I'm more focused on the renos at this moment, so when that concludes, I plan to develop a more comprehensive plan for TheDermDetective.com, as well as new projects to work on.
Overall, revenue and traffic were flat month-over-month, and my reliance on Amazon continues to remain high, thanks to the increased commission rates this month. Longer-term, I will work on promoting alternative merchants to diversify from Amazon (as I've done before).
This upcoming month, I plan to chill and hang out, take the month off to enjoy the good weather in Canada (one of the only times we get to do this 🤣), see friends, and eat good food.
To Flexibility and Freedom,
Tom