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$6,523 in January Extra Income and GOALS

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 69 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Find out how I made $6,523 blogging in january.Hey everyone! I can’t believe it’s February already. Felt like it was 2012 just the other day 🙂 2013 has been off to a great start and I don’t think I’ve been this happy in a long time. Things seem to be going well so far this year and everything is falling directly in place.

Yes, you read that correctly, I beat my goal that I made in December, and I made $6,523 in extra income in the month of January! After expenses, I made $5,823 for the month of January.  I thought the goal that I set was pretty high since I made $5,570 in December (and thought that was hard). I still can’t believe that I am doing so well, when just one year ago my extra income was at around $100 per month.

EDIT: I finally made my post on How To Start A Blog – Tips for a Beginner, so check it out! This will be another multiple post series.

I will say that this is not all super easy. Well, none of it is. I spend enough time to make this a full-time job on top of my already full-time job. Luckily, I do enjoy what I’m doing so it’s not like I’m dreading anything. My goals that I have are also a great motivator. I just keep thinking about how badly I want my student loans gone, and also how badly we want a new house next year. Read further on my Extra Income page to check out my other extra income updates.

extramoneyThis is proof on my extra income since some of you have asked (I did edit the image to make it smaller). This is for the month of January and before some fees and expenses (expenses were around $700 and included a major giveaway that I hosted, PayPal fees, etc.) being taken out. The other income categories that are listed below were mainly just cash I received from my sister for rent. $6,198 plus $325 in rent equals $6,523.

January was another great month. I also started dabbling a little more in affiliate income, and it seemed to work. I plan on working with this more and hopefully it becomes a larger percentage of my monthly extra income.

Posts that were popular in January:

  1. What Does a Virtual Assistant Do?
  2. I’ll Never Be a Frugal Blogger
  3. Ways to Earn Extra Income Part 1
  4. How To Become a Virtual Assistant
  5. Keeping Up With The Joneses
  6. So You Want to Be a Freelance Writer?
  7. Reconnecting With Family – An emotional post
  8. Wedding Budget – Our Expected Costs

 

A lot of you are very interested in earning extra income. I have tons of posts scheduled for future weeks. I did have a question though: is there anything that you would like me to specifically cover in a future post? Can be about extra income or anything else? I’m always up for ideas!

My sister’s blog still seems to be going great also. The following has been strong and her posts seem pretty good. Please subscribe to FITnancials if you haven’t yet. Her RSS and Twitter are calling your name, I just know it!

You can find my 2013 goals update here.

January Goals Update

  1. Keep our food budget down to $400. FAIL. We did bad. We started reverting to old habits. Towards the end of the month we started doing much better though.
  2. Workout at least 3 times a week and lose 2 pounds. FAIL. I was super busy in January and was too lazy to workout because I was too tired. We have a treadmill being delivered next Thursday and I’m looking forward to that!
  3. Make an extra $4,000 this month. PASS. See above and below! I made over $6,000 in January.
  4. Make sure the new blog starts off great! PASS PASS PASS. Subscribe to FITnancials if you haven’t yet.

February Goals

  1. Cook 5 days a week. Since we really want a new house within the next year, we are really trying to save as much money as we can for the down payment. As long as I have a interesting and tasty meal plan, I’m sure this is possible.
  2. Run 5 times a week and lose 3 pounds. Since we will have the new treadmill, this will make it a lot easier.
  3. Make an extra $5,000 this month. I increased this goal, but I still want it to be somewhat realistic. I’m hoping that it’ll just keep increasing and I’ll eventually be in the 5 digits.
  4. Schedule the engagement photos photographer. I’ve e-mailed some places, but it seems like no one wants to get back to me. The main person I wanted emailed me back, so I guess that’s all that’s important! I guess I just wanted more choices, but oh well. The wedding industry here in St. Louis must hate me because they all seem to be horrible with e-mailing me back. Why list an email when you don’t email back!? IT’S BEEN 2 MONTHS!
  5. Choose a wedding date. We need to talk to W’s family and come up with a date that will work since we will be using the family’s property.

Blog Goals

  • Twitter Followers: Goal was for 2,050 and I’m currently at 2,420 WOOHOO! I’m hoping for 2,600 in February.
  • Alexa rank: Goal was for 60,000. And I’m slightly below this amount. However, I am not focused on this. A lot of the bigger bloggers are at around 100,000, so I know that Alexa doesn’t really mean anything. All it means is that others with the Alexa toolbar are looking at your website.
  • Guest post at least 2 times this month. Haha FAIL yet again

 

Extra Monthly Income in January

  • Online Income (this includes staff writing, blog, virtual assistant tasks, affiliate income) – $6,198
  • Selling Clothes – $0
  • Miscellaneous – $0
  • Mystery Shopping – $0
  • Rent – $325

How did you do in January? Any extra income?

Related Posts

About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  4. John S @ Frugal Rules says

    Great work once again Michelle! That number is just crazy! 🙂 I had a pretty good month, but then again when you're starting from 0 then anything is pretty good. I just started dabbling in affiliate advertising and want to focus more on it so I can have a bit of diversity.

    Reply

  8. Christopher @ This that and the MBA says

    Wow u killed it this month…great job…how much would you say you spend on average doing all of your online tasks…because I see you on every site with a comment…and then to knock it outta the park with money like that…you must be a busy girl!

    Reply

  12. Anne - Unique Gifter says

    Once again,you're absolutely killing it! The lack of response from some businesses is so surprising, like what the PoPs said! How go your student loans? They must be disappearing at a nice clip, with all of this extra income!

    Reply

  13. kate says

    That is some awesome extra income! I'm new at all this stuff and just recently found your blog. Did you ever post a breakdown of how much staff writing pays and much you get paid for your blog posts?

    Reply

  18. Liquid says

    Another month of exceeding expectations. Great job 😀 You should write a book some day about your story of making extra income. I bet lot of people would be interested to read it :0) You've already documented all your progress on your blog anyway 🙂

    Reply

  28. anhle257 says

    Wow that looks really great. I just followed your blog recently and I love it! I checked out posts since you started this blog and they are really useful tips and information. Concerning your question, I definitely want to know how to make extra income. Of course we all know how but I want to know more specifically from your own experiences. Plus I'm not the US-based so it would be nice to know methods that work for people from outside the US! Thank you!

    Reply

  29. Cassi says

    Wow, congrats on making your goal of $4000 income! This month, I hope you can accomplish your other goals as well, but that one goal is impressive in itself. Keep up the hard work!

    Reply

  30. Joseph Anzai says

    Michelle,

    Looooove your blog, I just wish it had come out earlier. Oh well, it's not to late to start now. I found you through a comment you left on one of my favorite sites SPI. You are extremely inspirational and I can't wait to hear about your world travels someday.

    Reply

  34. Nick @ AYoungPro.com says

    Great post! I started my blog a few days ago and if I am 1/4 as successful as you have been by next year I will be stoked. I need to learn a lot and it seems like a huge mountain to climb, thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply

  35. I Love Being Online says

    Wow! Impressive!

    I started my blog, http://www.ilovebeingonline.com with intentions to make it a million dollar site. Since I opened up in December of 2012 – guess how much I made? $8.22 through Google Adsense, LOL!!! Horrible, right?

    I just don't know what to do anymore. I keep trying. Building up content, RSS readers, promoting on social media, etc. I will say that my readership has grown. I started off with about 6 comments and now I am up to like 30-50 comments per blog. Used to blog everyday and I've been slacking off.. I'll get back in action again here soon!

    Reply

  36. Karen says

    I really have enjoyed my time here strolling through your website. But, I was curious as to why you don’t go into more detail regarding your staff writing jobs. Is it the income part or the agreement between you and you client?

    Reply

  37. HerEveryCentCounts says

    Wow! I'd love to read how you are making so much extra income. That's amazing. I'd like to know how you find the time to do this — what sort of schedule do you work at your full time job, and does it actually allow you to work outside of it (I'm not allowed to take on other jobs without asking.) How much of your income was from your blog(s)?

    Reply

    • Michelle says

      I work 8am to 5:30 pm at my job. My work doesn't know that I blog. A lot of my income was from my blog and that includes affiliate income since I am ramping that up.

      Question for you though: what do you mean when you say that your work won't let you take on other jobs? You can't even freelance? I've never heard of that and am interested to learn more 🙂
      My recent post How to Live on One Income

      Reply

  41. Kristie Chiles (Arp) says

    Michelle, L-O-V-E your blog and the simple, but elegant way your words ebb and flow – a BORN blogger! Thanks for the inspiration! Really enjoyed your varied posts – very refreshing for certain! I’m always learning and looking for new rivers of online traffic..Pinterest and Instagram are calling my name : ), you know? Nice to “meet” ya! Kristie

    Reply

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