Namely taking a good look at my AMS ads and ruthlessly culling anything that hasn’t brought in any sales in the last six months. Ads are easily my biggest expenditure, and while I don’t mind spending on them I want them to work for me, not gobbling up income without bringing in sales.

I’ve put limits on every portfolio so that when a certain amount is spent it pauses until the next month, but ads aren’t something you can just set and forget—you need to keep an eye on them, make sure they’re working, and prune them when they stop. It’ll be interesting when I crunch the numbers tomorrow for the taxes to see how much I spent on ads in 2022 versus income. I suspect the ratio ain’t gonna be all that great, another reason to start getting ruthless with the pruning.

So yeah, tomorrow is going to be dedicated to getting the tax numbers ready for the accountant, and next weekend I want to set up the closet in our bedroom (it’s a large walk-in space so I won’t be cramped) and start recording Shadow of the Swan as an audiobook. I’m also trying to work out how I want to sell it—I would prefer not to use Audible, especially since they’ve reduced the costs of audiobooks on their own stick, and Jeff Bezos doesn’t need any more of my money anyway. I know I can start a Shopify story and deliver the audiobook file via BookFunnel, but Shopify also takes a big chunk out of the audiobook cost and I don’t actually need a separate store—that’s what my website with its book pages is for. PayHip has also been recommended to me—apparently PayPal is the absolute best way to do it but it’s supposed to be a nightmare to set up for digital items. Must do some more investigation while I’m getting the audiobook ready.