Hi!

Thanks again for tuning in! It's a different newsletter today; I hope you don't mind!

Today I want to write about the financial side of managing my blog and my newsletters. I usually never do that, yet here's an email about it. The tl;dr version is that stitcher.io and all its related projects (including this newsletter) are making a loss right now. There's no reason to panic — I can take that loss — though I would like to see it break even again. I've set up GitHub sponsors to see whether I can manage the costs.

Before linking to GitHub, I first want to provide some context.

I've been working on stitcher.io as a hobby project for over five years now, and I've been enjoying it tremendously. In the beginning, stitcher.io was just a static blog that I hosted on a cheap $5 digital ocean droplet (in fact, my previous employer provided it for free, thanks Spatie!).

Over time though, costs began to grow. I got a long-term sponsor contract, meaning I had a couple of hundred euros extra monthly income. It also meant I was now legally required to start a side business in my name, which of course, increased my monthly costs: paying an accountant, social security fees, paying taxes on that newly created income, …

I also started sending out a regular newsletter, meaning I had to upscale my cheap droplet, had to deal with mailing providers, etc. I managed to always break even thanks to that long-term sponsor contract, but I always knew that if they decided to pull the plug, I'd have to search for other solutions. I am still running carbon ads, but honestly, they earn too little to rely on: $50 a month on average.

So here we are: I've got a monthly cost of around 250 euros for hosting, mailing, accounting, and software, which doesn't take into account any yearly or biyearly costs such as social security costs, taxes, domain names, and of course all the time I spend on it.

Now, to be clear: I don't want to turn my blog and newsletters into a profitable business. And I will keep working on it regardless of whether it's making any profit. Though, it would be nice to be able to break even again. I also did consider other ways to finance this project, like, for example, by writing a new book, but I have to admit that my family situation right now (2 kids, a third is on the way) doesn't permit such a time investment in something that I don't know will work.

So, long story short: stitcher.io right now is making a loss, I'm fine with it, but I would like to see it break even. I feel a bit awkward writing about it, but on the other hand: lots of other people do it, so I figured I'd give it a chance. If you benefit from my work and want to help out on a one-time or recurring basis, you can check out my GitHub Sponsors page. If you're a company looking into dedicated ad placements on my blog or newsletters, you can contact me via email.

Finally, maybe you've got some questions or valuable insights for me. Don't hesitate to hit reply; I'd love to hear from you!

In other news

I can't help but also mention a new blog post I wrote. I decided to remake some of my blog posts into very short videos, and I wonder what you think of that format. You can take a look at the first one over here, where I talk about why tabs are better. Let me know your thoughts!

That's all for this week's newsletter; next week will be back to normal :)

Until next time!

Brent