I’m building a small online business from nothing, and writing down what it costs.
No audience and no budget. What’s here is what it has actually cost, straight off the invoices — the list price, the coupon, and the tax that got added at checkout. When I write about a tool, I say what I actually did with it, not how long I have had it.
The build
All posts →Everything I’ve spent to start: $51.71
One invoice, a coupon that took two thirds off, and the free tools doing the rest.
The lessonI picked the wrong niche and killed it after four sessions
I designed a whole business before checking whether its affiliate programme paid recurring commissions.
Everyone writing about starting out stopped being a beginner years ago.
I haven’t started yet — so what I write is what actually happens, on the day it happens, at the price I actually paid. It’s a small site, deliberately: two posts and an honest ledger beats twenty pages of things I haven’t done. Every figure on this site comes off an invoice.
The build, step by step
2 of 5 writtenChoosing what to build
Picking something that can actually pay, and killing the one that could not.
Getting online
Domain, hosting, the invoice, and what it actually cost.
Making it worth reading
Writing something a stranger would finish.
Trying to earn
Applying to affiliate programmes from a standing start.
Monthly numbers
What it costs to keep this running, month by month.