Hey everyone! I hope all of you had a fun and relaxing long weekend. On Monday, I published my August Goals and Life Update, and in it I stated that my goal was for $10K in side hustle income.

I sort of reached this goal. Before fees and expenses, yes, I reached this goal, but once you account for fees and expenses, I did not.

August was a slower month than usual. I also took a vacation, so I will blame not being able to reach my $10K goal on that. However, I did receive an uptick in the amount of bids I put out. I received many emails from business owners who were interested in hiring me. Hopefully some of these pan out!

Since August was a slower month (but not horrible by any means), it did give me a slight taste of self-employment. I was able to take a vacation and still almost reach my income goal.

In August, I made $10,310 in extra income, before expenses. Just last August, I made $1,603 in extra income. I am definitely happy and proud of my progress.What a difference one year makes! I never even thought that I would be anywhere near this amount. I always thought that other freelancers who posted their income were just “lucky.”

I know that this is a lot of “extra income” but please keep in mind that I spend many, many hours every single day on my side hustles. This is definitely not passive income. I have also been growing this for quite some time, and for around one year I was not making a single dollar, but I was still putting full-time hours into my side jobs. Taxes also take approximately 30% to 40% of my extra income. This is something that not everyone thinks about.

There were some expenses, and they are listed below. In case you are new to my blog, “Extra Income” consists of all income that I make on the side, and does not include my office job that I have in the financial services industry.

Extra income also does not include any money that W makes either.

As I say every month in my income update posts as a reality check: this is still work. 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. The goals that we have are also a great motivator. The fact that I plan on making the jump to self-employment is the biggest motivator that I will ever need! Read further on my Extra Income page.

As always, if you have any questions about my monthly extra income that you would like me to include next month, please let me know.

This is for the month of August and before fees and expenses (expenses that lower the amount above include approximately $755, which includes payments for staff writing on my blog, work with FITnancials, PayPal fees, etc.) being taken out.

August's number above includes a rent payment from my sister. So after all expenses and fees, I made approximately $9,554. In the amount above, I do not count the amount that I bring in to blogs that I help run, I only include the amounts that are my actual earnings from my services.

You can find my 2013 goals update here.

Blog News

I don't know if I have much new with blog news to share. Everything is going great! Last month was my 2 year blog anniversary and I still cannot believe that it's been two years since I started blogging. Like I always say, life has changed so much, and I don't know what life would have been like if I didn't start my blog.

My sister's blog is still doing well. Please subscribe to FITnancials if you haven't yet. Lots of new things are happening to her, and she is planning a move to Chicago soon. Follow her while she tries to plan her move to Chicago.

My newest blog Diversified Finances is doing really well also. Being able to talk so much about self-employment and get direct feedback from readers is great. If you want to continue hearing all about my switch to self-employment, because follow me over there! I love being able to talk about self-employment on my new blog, and I'm sure those of you who aren't interested are happy that 100% of my posts on Making Sense of Cents aren't related to self-employment anymore 🙂

If you are looking to start a blog, don't forget to read my post How To Start a Blog. It gives step by step instructions on starting your own blog. Also, one of my most popular posts this past month was How To Make Money Blogging.

Staff Writing

Lately, my staff writing has been decreasing, but I really would like to ramp it back up again. I really enjoy writing, and I have so many ideas for blog posts.

Many of you have asked how I am able to make $600 a month from staff writing. I have one lucrative job where I make a decent amount for staff writing, and that is how. Don't undersell yourself!

So, here's a shameless plugin: If any of you need a staff writer or just a random content writer, please let me know. Whether you need a couple of articles every week, or just a single post with no on-going relationship, I am your girl. I can write regular content, content to fill in gaps in your writing schedule, content for advertising and so on. My turnaround is fairly quick and I would definitely say that I am reliable 🙂

I made a post titled So You Want to Be a Freelance Writer?, so please read further about this topic in that post.

Update on my newest side hustles – Blog and Social Media Management

My blog management side hustle is going well. I manage different aspects of several different blogs, and that is what has helped me ramp up my extra income in the past couple of months. All of my new services make me extremely happy. Every little thing all make the switch to self employment possible. I would still like to help more website owners, as I have time open for that, and it is something that I truly enjoy.

I have started bidding on more social media management jobs as well. I'm really hoping that some of these come through, as social media is something that I am very interested in.

Lately, I have been receiving many, many emails on readers and other bloggers who are wanting me to be a blog consultant for them. I receive at least a couple of emails each week, and I have been thinking about starting this back up again. I do have a question: what is something that you are looking for if you were looking for a blog consultant? What value would you see in it?

Also, I am thinking about starting a niche site. The technical terms and everything sound so confusing but I'm very interested in seeing whether or not I could create a successful niche site. Can anyone recommend any really good articles on niche sites and starting one? Do you have one? What do you think?

Are you interested in becoming a virtual assistant? Don’t forget to also read about what exactly a virtual assistant does.

Affiliate income – I'm on a quest.

Affiliate income has definitely been on my mind lately, but I haven't done anything related to affiliate income in quite a while. Thank you all for clicking on my links from months ago, and I'm glad readers are still finding helpful information in my older posts. However, I would really like to increase my affiliate income by publishing new posts.

I have been looking into more and more affiliate programs, and I have received many emails in the past month about different affiliate programs that I can join and review for you all. I will only review products and insert affiliate links for products that I think are useful.

What would you like to see more of? Reviews on budgeting programs? Classes? Maybe credit cards? Let me know!

Offline side hustles.

I have been thinking about offline side hustles a lot lately. There are a lot of things that I would like to do, but it will have to be a secret for now.  I have tons of ideas but I'm not sure about anything. They would be more of a hobby, with the hopes of making a couple of dollars while I am at it.

Once I make the switch to self-employment, I definitely want to ramp everything up as much as I can. I want to work my hardest towards earning income and I really want to get my freelancing services out there.

What offline side hustles do you have?

Extra Monthly Income in August (after expenses)

• Staff writing – $600
• Blog (managing other bloggers' websites, my blogs – direct advertising and Adsense) – $8,204
• Affiliate Income – $425
• Virtual Assistant tasks – $0
• Selling Clothes – $0
• Miscellaneous (not related to blogging and online income) – $0
• Mystery Shopping – $0
• Rent (we rent a room in our house to my sister) – $325

 

Comparisons and 2013 Extra Income total (after expenses, but before taxes)

• Total extra income for August: $9,554
• Income in July: $11,117
• Difference: -$1,563
• Total so far in 2013: $66,711 (WOOHOO!)

 

 

How did you do in August? What are your extra income goals?