"I thought Amazon was my best hustle. The numbers said otherwise."
Marcus Thomas is a senior software developer at a fintech company in Austin, Texas. His day job pays well — but in 2022 he started looking for ways to build income outside of his employer. By mid-2023 he was running three side hustles simultaneously: WordPress support and maintenance retainers, Amazon dropshipping, and a faceless YouTube channel in the personal finance niche.
"I thought I was killing it," Marcus said. "My bank balance was up, revenue was coming in from three directions. I felt like one of those 'multiple income streams' people you see on Twitter." Then he started using Hustlay to actually track each stream. The numbers told a different story.
The three hustles
WordPress support retainers
Marcus's first hustle grew out of helping a friend migrate a WooCommerce store. Word spread. By the time he started tracking properly, he had seven small-business clients paying between $150 and $400/month for maintenance, updates, and occasional dev work. Revenue was $2,100/month and growing.
"WordPress stuff is a referral machine once you get a few clients. Nobody wants to deal with plugin updates and SSL renewals. I charge flat retainers, clients forget I exist in a good way, and the money comes in every month."
Amazon dropshipping
Marcus launched an Amazon store in January 2023, sourcing from a supplier in China. His first few months were encouraging — gross revenue hit $3,800 in March. "I was excited. I thought I'd found the thing." He reinvested in ads and more inventory.
What he hadn't been tracking carefully: Amazon's fee structure, the ad spend required to maintain visibility, and the time he was spending on customer service, returns, and supplier communication.
Faceless YouTube channel
Marcus started a faceless YouTube channel in the personal finance space in April 2023. He outsourced voiceovers and used stock footage, keeping his identity off-camera. After 11 months the channel hit 4,800 subscribers and was generating $340/month in ad revenue plus occasional affiliate commissions.
"YouTube is a slow burn. I knew that going in. I spent about four hours a week on scripting and editing direction, plus whatever the outsourced VAs were doing."
What Hustlay showed him
Marcus set up Hustlay with one project per hustle and began logging everything: revenue, costs, and hours. Within 60 days the quarterly P&L view made something very clear.
| WordPress | Amazon | YouTube | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly revenue | $2,100 | $3,800 | $340 |
| Direct costs | $60 | $2,870 | $110 |
| Shared costs (allocated) | $120 | $180 | $60 |
| Net profit | $1,920 | $750 | $170 |
| Hours/month | 14 | 28 | 18 |
| Profit per hour | $137 | $27 | $9 |
| Effective margin | 91% | 20% | 50% |
The comparison with his day job was damning. Marcus's total compensation at the fintech company worked out to approximately $62/hr. Amazon was returning less than a third of that per hour invested.
"I was spending 28 hours a month at $17/hr take-home when I could have been billing WordPress clients at $137/hr. I was literally paying myself less than minimum wage on the hustle I thought was the big one."
The decision
The data made the decision obvious. In October 2023 Marcus wound down the Amazon store, selling remaining inventory at cost over six weeks. He redirected the 28 hours/month into WordPress and YouTube.
- Grew WordPress retainers from 7 to 11 clients over four months, adding $1,500/month in revenue with minimal additional time (most clients added were lower-maintenance).
- Redirected some freed hours into YouTube scripting — channel crossed 8,000 subscribers by February 2024 and ad revenue grew to $610/month.
- Net income increased by $1,200/month while working 12 fewer hours per month total.
Eight months in
| WordPress | YouTube | Amazon (closed) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly revenue | $3,600 | $610 | — |
| Net profit | $3,280 | $390 | — |
| Hours/month | 20 | 16 | — |
| Profit per hour | $164 | $24 | — |
Combined net profit from side hustles went from $2,840/month (all three running) to $3,670/month (two running), while working 36 total hours instead of 60.
What Marcus tracks monthly in Hustlay
- WordPress: Each client is a separate transaction tagged to the WordPress project. License renewals (Divi, WP Engine, security plugins) go as direct costs. Shared hosting costs are split by number of clients.
- YouTube: Ad revenue and affiliate payments as income. VA payments, voiceover costs, stock footage licenses as direct costs. Time tracked per video from scripting to upload.
- Taxes: Marcus uses Hustlay's quarterly estimate tracker to set aside 30% of every side-hustle payment. "I used to dread April. Now I barely think about it — the money's already sitting there."
The tool that made the difference
Marcus had tried a spreadsheet before Hustlay. "The spreadsheet worked for maybe three months. Then I had three projects, multiple cost categories to split, quarterly estimates to calculate — I just stopped updating it." The 20-minute monthly reconciliation in Hustlay kept the data current. The profit-per-project view made the comparison undeniable.
"The number I cared most about wasn't there before Hustlay: profit per hour, per project. That's the number that tells you whether to keep doing something or stop. Every other metric is downstream of that."