My Online Business Income Report — November 2026

Every month I publish a transparent income report. Not to brag — some months are better than others and I include both. The reason I do it: when I was starting, these reports were the content that helped me most. Real numbers from real people cut through the vague promises you usually see.

Here's November 2026.

The Numbers

Total Revenue: $2,847

Breakdown:

• Digital product sales: $1,983
• Affiliate commissions: $714
• Miscellaneous (digital services, one-off): $150

Expenses: $384

• Platform subscription (MadeThis): $49
• Email marketing tool: $29
• Design tools (Canva Pro): $13
• Domain and hosting: $22
• Miscellaneous (stock photos, software): $271

Net: $2,463

This is the best month I've had since I started. The first time I crossed $2,000 net was August, and November is now my personal best.

What Drove Growth

A Comparison Post That Ranked

One blog post — a head-to-head comparison of two digital product platforms — started ranking on page one of Google in mid-October. By November it was driving about 400 visitors per week. Of those visitors, roughly 4–5% click through to my store.

A single post, written in one afternoon, is now responsible for maybe 15–20% of my November traffic. This is the compounding effect of SEO content that people don't believe until they see it in their own data.

An Email Sequence That Actually Works

I rewrote my email welcome sequence in October. New subscribers now get a 5-email sequence over 21 days that introduces my best content, tells my story, and presents my main product at the right moment.

November was the first full month where a meaningful number of new subscribers completed the new sequence. The conversion rate from email subscriber to buyer jumped from about 4% to 9.5%. That's a doubling from one operational change.

If you have an email list and no welcome sequence, this is the highest-leverage thing you can do for your business this month.

My Holiday Bundle

I packaged three of my existing products into a holiday bundle at a 30% discount. I emailed my list once and posted about it in two communities.

The bundle accounted for $340 in November revenue — not enormous, but it was essentially free money from repackaging things that already existed. It also introduced buyers to products they might not have bought individually.

What I'm Still Learning

Finding the Balance Between Creating and Marketing

November was productive, but I published fewer new blog posts than I planned — 10 instead of 14. The time that should have gone to writing went to building the holiday bundle and improving my email sequence.

Both were worth it. But I'm still figuring out the right balance between creating new content and improving what already exists.

My current working framework: 70% creating (new posts, new products), 30% improving (existing posts, email sequences, product descriptions). I'm not sure this is optimal yet.

Not Every Product Deserves Equal Promotion

I have six products listed. Two of them account for about 80% of my revenue. One of them has made maybe $90 total since I launched it in May.

I've been spreading my promotional energy across all six. That's probably wrong. In December I'm going to focus almost entirely on the two that convert well and consider whether the underperformer should be retired, repackaged, or repriced.

The Platform Reality Check

A few people have asked me whether I'm still happy with MadeThis as my platform after nearly a year of use.

Honest answer: yes, and I haven't had a reason to look at alternatives.

The things I use most: the product storefront, the checkout flow, and the AI co-founder for writing product descriptions. All three have been reliable. The checkout conversion rate on my product pages is better than what I saw on the previous platform I tested.

The one thing I'd ask for: deeper native email marketing features. My current workaround (integrating a third-party email tool) works fine, but fewer moving parts would be cleaner.

Overall: if you're starting a digital product business today, I'd still tell you to start on MadeThis. It handled everything from $0 to nearly $3K/month without me outgrowing it or hitting walls that forced a migration.

What I'm Changing in December

December goal: $3,200 net.

To get there:

• Focus promotional energy on my two best-converting products only
• Publish 14 blog posts (catch up from November)
• Send two dedicated emails to my list about year-end pricing
• Launch one new product (a gift-giving guide for digital product creators) by December 15th

December is traditionally a weird month for online business — holiday shopping brings some buyers, but a lot of people check out of buying decisions until January. I expect the traffic to my comparison and review posts to stay high (people making decisions about what to build in 2027), while my more evergreen how-to content may soften slightly.

The Thing I'd Tell Myself From a Year Ago

One year ago I was making about $200/month and wondering if this would ever become real.

$2,847 gross in November isn't life-changing money yet. But it's real. It compounds. Every month there are more posts ranking, more email subscribers completing the sequence, more products available to buy. The machine is working.

If you're at the $200/month stage and wondering if it gets better — it does. The work you put in during your first 3 months shows up in your month 9 numbers. That's the lag. It's frustrating. Push through it.

If you haven't started yet: start. The lag starts from when you begin. Every month you wait is a month added to the back end of the timeline.

MadeThis is the platform I built this on, and it's the one I'd recommend to you. It handles the infrastructure so you can focus on creating and growing. That's the job.

See you in December's report.