The Lunch Money standard

This page sets out how Daily Lunch Money writes about online business, what a reader can expect from any article on the Business Desk and what the publication will not claim.

No overnight-rich promises. Online income is never guaranteed.

Editorial principles
Principle
Figures are worked throughEvery earnings or cost figure is shown as a calculation with its inputs, so a reader can substitute their own numbers instead of accepting an average.
Assumptions are statedWhere a figure depends on a price, a fee rate, a conversion rate or a country, that dependency is written down in the article rather than hidden in the result.
Costs come before earningsPlatform fees, payment processing, tools, refunds and tax are named before any income figure is discussed. Gross is never presented as take home.
Time is treated as a real costArticles state how long something plausibly takes, including the unpaid period before a first sale, because that is usually the largest cost of a small online business.
Ranges instead of single promisesOutcomes are given as ranges with the reasons they move. A single confident number describes somebody else's project, not the reader's.
Risks are written in fullCategory saturation, platform policy changes, account suspension and fee increases are stated plainly where they apply, not left to a closing disclaimer.
No overnight-rich promisesOnline income is never guaranteed. Nothing published here is financial, tax or legal advice, and no article should be read as a prediction of your result.
Sample material is labelledArticles published as examples while the desk is being set up carry a sample label and are excluded from search indexing.

Business Desk