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$32,474 in April – My Monthly Online Income Report

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 109 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 over $30,000 in one month blogging!

Welcome to April’s online income report where I show you how I make money online. It’s time to look at this month’s update and track how I did.

If you are new here, you might be wondering why I would want to publish my online income reports each month. If you are not new here, you can just skip to the next section 🙂

This all started out as my side income report because in the beginning it was all about the money I was earning from my side jobs. In my side income reports from the beginning, I included all of the income I made except for what I made at my day job (that was a fixed amount and boring anyways).

However, I left my day job as a financial analyst towards the end of 2013 and now my monthly income reports consist of the several different ways I bring in an income each month.

Many people have asked why I would ever want to publicly post my income each month. Some think I’m crazy, and some are glad I am open about what I’m doing. Whatever you think, I enjoy publishing my monthly online income reports and I share them publicly for three main reasons:

  • Before I started blogging, I knew nothing about side hustling and making money online. I didn’t think side jobs were worth the effort, and I thought the only way to significantly increase your income was through raises and promotions at your full-time job. If it weren’t for others publishing their monthly income reports each month, I don’t know if I would have ever tried side hustling. This is why I like to publish my income reports. I want to help others see the positives in side hustling and how it can change a person’s life. There are many different ways to make money online, and I like to share my story each month to help motivate others to improve their financial situation by making more money.
  • Secondly, I like to publish my income reports because it’s a way for me to look back, learn from my mistakes and see what areas need improvement. It’s also entertaining to go back to older income updates and read about the interesting things I did to make money. Everyone has to start somewhere, right?
  • Lastly, I like to show others that making side money is possible, and that there are many legitimate ways to make money from your home. If you are looking for information on the many ways to make money online, I published the article Monthly Income Report Roundup – My Favorite Income Bloggers that showcases many awesome bloggers who are kind enough to share their income with the public each month. Just a few years ago, I didn’t think making money online was possible at all. Now, I realize that it is possible!

I know I say this every month, but it is the truth. Life is great now that I’m my own boss. I look forward to each and every work day and it is an amazing thing. Work and life balance is a real thing for me now and I truly love waking up each morning.

Above is exactly why I enjoy publishing my monthly income reports. I like to show others that you don’t have to hate your job and hate your life. You can make changes to your life and make money in a way that allows you to truly enjoy the life you are living. I’m not saying that you have to LOVE your job, I’m just saying that your job should at least allow you to do what you like to do outside of work (whether that be spending time with loved ones, painting, hiking, etc.).

Also, if you have any questions about making money online, you can always send me an email and I always reply back. If I haven’t covered something in this income report, I highly suggest you check out my other reports as well because I have covered A LOT of topics, including reader questions I have received. I am unable to put everything in this single post because this would then become one messy whale of a post.

 

How was my online income in April?

April was a great online income month for me and it was by far my best month ever. This was mainly due to the fact that I sold two more websites of mine and I was able to generate a nice profit from them.

I also had a great month for affiliate income, I worked ahead a decent amount, and more. April was a great month and I really enjoyed working on my online business.

I’ve always been excited about what I do, but I am more excited than ever for the future. I have so many plans and everything is going very well.

Anyway, in April I made $34,174 in business income, before expenses.

If you are interested in starting a blog of your own, I created a tutorial that will help you start a blog of your own for cheap, starting at only $3.49 per month (this low price is only through my link) for blog hosting. In addition to the low pricing, you will receive a free blog domain (a $15 value) through my Bluehost link if you purchase at least 12 months of blog hosting. FYI, you want to be self-hosted. This is essential if you want to monetize your blog as you will appear more professional and this will help you monetize your blog tremendously. 

Related articles:

 

April Income

The number above is for the month of April and before any fees and expenses (some fees and expenses that lower the amount above total around $1,700, which includes virtual assistants/staff writers for my other websites, technical assistance on my websites, PayPal fees, etc., however, this does not include taxes) being taken out. After expenses and fees, I made approximately $32,474. 

Below are some of my other monthly side income reports. I publish an online income update every month but only included some of them below as it would be a very long list. If you head on over to my extra income page you can find all of my monthly income reports from the past few years.

 

Blog news.

Ever since selling three of my websites, I’ve been able to use my time much more wisely. It’s nice to be able to focus on what is especially important to me (such as Making Sense of Cents) and brainstorm new ideas for my main blog.

I still need to go through many, many of my posts here on Making Sense of Cents and fix the formatting, change the pictures to Pinterest-worthy images, and more. I have probably only done 15% of my posts so that means I still have a lot more to go! I actually didn’t work towards any of this in April as I forgot, so I plan on adding this to my to-do list so that I won’t forget this time around.

Top new posts on Making Sense of Cents last month:

 

I sold two more websites.

In April, I sold two more websites making for a total of three that I have now sold this year. This will most likely be my last big jump in income as I don’t plan on selling any of the other websites I own.

I am a little sad though because I did sell one of my favorite websites that I own. I decided to sell DiversifiedFinances.com because my heart was just in Making Sense of Cents more and I wasn’t spending the amount of time needed on Diversified Finances. Even though I will miss it, I still believe this was a good decision.

As I mentioned a few months ago, I decided to sell start selling some of my websites so that I can spend more time on Making Sense of Cents. I have many plans for Making Sense of Cents, and owning all of these websites on the side was not exactly at the top of my to-do list. I was being lazy with the other sites and my heart was not in them.

I believe this is the right step for my business.

However, this might mean lower income in future months because I did earn a little bit of income each month from these three websites. I’m hoping to make up for it since I will be devoting more time to Making Sense of Cents, which will hopefully lead to me seeing an increase here.

Like I said above, this is not a normal jump. However, it is nice to know that I was able to flip these three websites for a good profit.

If any of you have questions about selling a website, you can leave them below and I will try to answer your questions as best as I can.

 

My plans for my website, online income, and making money online:

  • Create a product to sell – I am 99% positive I want to create an ebook. I have multiple ideas and right now I am trying to figure out what direction to take.
  • Promote more – Pinterest alone brought around 56,000 clicks to my blog just in the month of April. I have been stuck at this level, but I’m still happy. Just a few months ago I was only receiving a few hundred visits a month from Pinterest, so this is a big jump.
  • Accept more interviews. – I wasn’t too active with interviews in April. I plan on changing this in May!
  • Stop being shy – This is one of my goals for 2015. I am such a shy person, and it’s something I need to work on if I want to grow my business.

 

Staff writing, blog, and social media management.

In April, I worked on a few staff writing jobs.

Blog and social media management is still a service I enjoy providing to my clients. I did lose one client last month because they sold their website to someone else and that company already had a designated manager for all of their websites.

Other than that though, I am trying to focus more on what is currently on my plate so I am no longer actively looking for new website management or staff writing clients.

My goal right now is to further grow the sites I currently manage and own, spend more time on my blog/website coaching service, and grow my income here so that I can be more of my own boss. This will mean that I will be less diversified as most of my income will be coming from this website and related services, but I do think this is what I am truly after with my business.

Related articles:

 

Affiliate income.

April was another amazing month for affiliate income. I earned around $12,000 in affiliate income just in the month of April.

I still cannot believe how quickly affiliate income has grown for me and I can’t believe I waited until recently to become more active with it.

I won’t see the payments until June and/or July for most of my affiliate payments, so you won’t see those amounts reflected in my monthly income reports until then.

 

April Chart

Breakout of the actual payments I received in April ($34,174, before expenses):

  • Staff writing – $750
  • Managing websites and social media for clients, as well as blog coaching- $2,839
  • Website-related (From the 3 websites I own – advertising and partnerships) – $5,235
  • Affiliate income (from Bluehost, Republic Wireless, etc) – $6,350
  • Sale of two websites – $19,000
  • Selling items from our home – $0
  • Miscellaneous (not related to blogging and online income) – $0
  • Mystery shopping – $0

April Monthly Online Income ReportOne question I am asked nearly every time I publish my monthly online income report is whether or not I can further break down my income. I have never fully broken everything down line by line, and I do this mainly to protect myself and those I provide services to.

Keep in mind that for a long time, a majority of my income came from private clients I worked for so sharing their name and what they paid me wouldn’t be the correct way to run a business. It also wouldn’t help you much either, so there wouldn’t be a point for me just to share someone’s name.

Don’t worry though. I plan on breaking apart my income fully either next month or the month after. Being so open about everything does scare me a little, so I am trying to think about what the best way is to share my income without jeopardizing my business.

Stay tuned!

Also, when you see my monthly income each month please keep in mind that I work for myself. This means I have to cover taxes (which are over 30%), health insurance, and all other benefits/expenses that an employer might provide.

 

Comparisons and 2015 online income total (but before taxes):

  • Total extra income for April: $34,174
  • Income in March: $15,151
  • Difference: +$19,023
  • Total in 2015: $88,479

How did you do in April? What are your extra/business/online income goals? Why do you work towards making extra money?

 

If you are interested in starting a blog of your own, I created a tutorial that will help you start a blog of your own for cheap, starting at only $3.49 per month (this low price is only through my link) for blog hosting. In addition to the low pricing, you will receive a free blog domain (a $15 value) through my Bluehost link if you purchase at least 12 months of blog hosting. FYI, you want to be self-hosted. This is essential if you want to monetize your blog as you will appear more professional and this will help you monetize your blog tremendously. 

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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

  1. Petrish @ Debt Free Martini says

    I can’t believe you made that much money last month!! That is amazing. My questions is have you thought of flipping websites since you made a good profit with selling those sites? Thank you so much for sharing your income it’s always a good motivator.

    Reply

    • Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says

      Flipping websites is something I have thought about, but it’s not my plan for now as I really want to focus on what I’m currently doing already (my blog, my clients, my blog coaching business, etc.). Those are all more important to me.

      Reply

  2. Nicola says

    I can’t believe you make so much money each month – you are awesome! I might email you a couple of questions if that’s okay? Your 2015 total is going to be amazing!

    Reply

  3. MyMoneyDesign says

    Outstanding month! Who did you use to sell your website through? What would you say were the biggest contributing factors to help you get the price you wanted?

    Reply

    • Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says

      It was actually a freelance client of mine who bought them, so I didn’t have to market the sites at all. I provided A LOT of detail with each site about how they can make money, how to improve the site even more, etc., and I think that really helped me get the price I wanted.

      Reply

  4. Kimsea Sok says

    Thanks for sharing..! I was really surprise to your income report. Honestly, you have done very awesome job, that almost of bloggers hard to achieve performance like. You know..? I blog for a long time ago, but I am not able to get high earning from my blog. My income go from $100 to $300 income each month. I really want to increase this amount of earning, but I think that it is almost impossible for me. Thanks for sharing your report..

    Reply

  5. Natalie @ Financegirl says

    Way to go gf!! I can already tell this post is going to kill it on Pinterest. I’m so amazed by you constantly. Your ability to earn income online is what I aspire to. I may be emailing you soon!! 🙂

    Reply

  7. Sarah says

    WOW Michelle!!!! I saw this in my email at 5:30am and popped right up!! Congratulations!!! Do you think you will start buying and selling sites since you’ve had so much success with it? Or for now are you planning on staying focused on the blog?? Congrats again!!!

    Reply

  9. Gina Horkey says

    Good for you Michelle! Amazing results:-) I was able to bust through $7k for the first time and hope to maintain that income level for this month.

    Reply

  10. Robin @ The Thrifty Peach says

    My questions are how do you know what to value your website and how do you put the word out to find a buyer?

    Reply

    • Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says

      I will be honest here, I had it very easy when it came to the sales of my 3 websites. One of my freelancing clients bought all 3 so I didn’t have to do any marketing. There are many ways to market your website though. There’s Flippa and there’s also a person in the personal finance community who markets them as well. If you want his email you can send me an email 🙂

      Reply

  12. Sarah says

    Wow! That is amazing and sort of depressing. You made more last month than I made in my last year of teaching. 🙂 Congratulations! As always, awesome work.

    Reply

    • Leslie Beslie says

      Sarah, remember, this is all before taxes! So it does make a difference. And the taxes on the website sales will be different from general freelance taxes. I know it won’t cut this income in half or anything but definitely keep that in mind because right now you’re comparing someone’s Gross Income to your own Net Income. Huge difference!

      Reply

          • Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says

            Net income would be pretty complicated, and I’m not sure how that would help anyone because of differences in state taxes, the amount put in retirement accounts that can be deducted, other deductions and expenses, and more. Plus, I wouldn’t know the exact net income amount until after I file taxes the following year, so information would be a little dated.

            Reply

      • Sarah says

        Yes, Leslie, I do realize that. However, my income BEFORE taxes and medical benefits was about $32,000/year.

        Reply

  13. Kristin says

    Yay, this is awesome! It’s so nice you started doing these reports way back when so we can see how you started out and the progression.

    Reply

  15. Amy @ DebtGal says

    Wow – congratulations on a truly amazing month!!

    I’m reasonably happy with how I did with my goals in April, and now that my summer break from work has started, I’ll have more time to devote to them. On the financial side, April was pretty costly, with over $1,100 in unanticipated expenses (a second propane bill due on the last day of the month, plus $550 at the vet for my geriatric cat).

    Reply

  17. Grayson @ Debt Roundup says

    All I can say is nice work Michelle! That’s impressive. Though it was padded by website sales, you are still very consistent with your income. I’m even more impressed by your increase in affiliate income. That can be hard to do, but you’ve got it!

    Reply

  19. Gen Y Finance Guy says

    You absolutely crushed it in April.

    April was a decent month for us. But I am glad it is finally behind us as it was the peak of our spending for the year. So going forward we will be able to make faster progress towards our net worth goal. We are aiming to increase net worth by $69,000 in 2015.

    Starting in May we will be able to increase NW by about $8,000/month.

    99.9% of our income still comes from our day jobs. But we are seeing consistent monthly revenue from the blog as well. It’s going to take time to grow this one.

    Keep up the great work Michelle.

    Cheers!

    Reply

  20. DC @ Young Adult Money says

    Nice job selling two more sites! I’m still considering selling mine, but I think the timeline will be further down the road (1-5 years). There’s just so many ideas I have to improve the content & create value for readers that I am not sure it would be wise to sell at this point. With that being said, I do plan on going the opposite direction as you and starting a second site. This will be in a totally different niche but I think there is way more opportunity for income in the niche I’m moving into (partially because there is a lot less “competition.”). We’ll see what I decide to do, seems like I change my mind quite often 😉

    Reply

  21. Bodhi says

    Hey Michelle. Nice to see the progress over time! I just published my first income report yesterday (I made $394.77 in April). Btw, found your blog through Buzzsumo.

    Reply

  23. diane @smartmoneysimplelife says

    Very impressive Michelle. You must be very happy you chose to do this full-time!

    Is it impolite to ask how many websites you own and if you started them from scratch or bought them?

    Thank you for sharing – it’s always inspirational to see what you’ve achieved in the last month.

    Reply

  24. Kim @ YourFinanceProfessor says

    Wow! You go, girl! This is so fantastic for you and a great reward for your hard work. Plus, it is an encouragement to those who are working hard to make it there too. Congrats and keep it up!

    Reply

  25. Justin says

    Congrats Michelle! I’ve been at this longer than you and your income blows mine away 🙂 Im quite impressed at your progress.

    I do have a few questions, and would love to collaborate with you a bit. First, is your contact interested in buying more sites? I own a couple dozen sites, and quite honestly, would love to sell a few to lighten my load and focus on just a few sites. I’m curious as to how you come up with a site valuation as well.

    Lastly, how did you go about best utilizing pinterest to increase your views so quickly? Im thinking of having my wife help me with that since Im an idiot when it comes pinterest.

    Reply

    • Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says

      I’m not sure if they are buying more sites, but they most likely are.

      The valuation was tricky and I’m not sure if I can share that. I chose something I was comfortable with, but I still negotiated some with the buyer.

      For Pinterest, I mainly just work towards creating better Pinterest images. That means making sure they are long images, catchy wording, and so on.

      Reply

  26. Gretchen says

    Wow, what an amazing month! Congratulations on selling those two website, and I’m totally looking forward to seeing everything you have planned for Making Sense of Cents!

    Reply

  31. Jason Butler says

    Excellent month. I’m a little surprised you sold diversified finances. I look forward to seeing what type of eBook you create. My side income was lower last month than it was in March. The good thing is that I had another affiliate sale. I think I’m finally on the right track with that.

    Reply

  33. K says

    Once again your monthly report keeps me focused on becoming financially independent! I hope to one day join you in the blog monetizing world!

    Reply

  36. Valerie says

    I’m probably missing something this year, but how do you find people to sell your financial websites to? Do you find them or do they find you?

    Reply

  42. Squirrelers says

    WOW! That basically sums up my reaction to your April. Congrats on a great month, and yes I know that selling websites is a one-time event but your affiliate income is pretty good – and perhaps sustainable I would guess.

    Reply

  44. Ravi Sankar says

    It’s really awesome michelle. Its the first time i am visiting your blog. The first topic i am reading is this article only. I am impressed bro. Keep rocking..!!!!

    Reply

  45. Camille says

    Oh wow congrats, that is extremely impressive! I am currently at that stumbling block of “okay, how do I monetize this little blog of mine now?” so articles like yours are very helpful and inspiring. Thanks for sharing your personal experience and insights 🙂

    Reply

  46. Chell Carter says

    You did really well this month. Do you have article son your site about selling a website and how that works? I find this really interesting. Who’s the target market? How do you advertise it? Once someone or a business has acquired, what does the new ownership get out of this? Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

    • Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says

      I don’t have an article yet, but I should probably create one soon. I did have it easy with the sites that I sold as I sold them all to a freelance client of mine. Most advertise their websites on sites such as Flippa.

      The new ownership will hopefully start earning a similar income to what was earned before.

      Reply

  48. Gen Y Finance Guy says

    Hi Michelle,

    How have you gained followers on pinterest? I see from your profile that you have 3,600 followers. Do you have any tips for the rest of us bloggers besides the photos with the interesting text?

    Cheers!

    Reply

  49. Allison @ Frugal on the Prairie says

    I know I’m commenting again but you mentioned that other people post their income reports. Who are your favorites to read? I love reading yours and would also like to look at others. They’re so inspirational! Thanks, Michelle! 🙂

    Reply

  50. Ellen Oliveira says

    Thanks for sharing this. I’ve been blogging for a little over a year, and I haven’t managed to make any money out of it. But I’ve been reading a lot of your posts. Hopefully I will break through. I do have a question… Can you share the links to the websites you’ve sold? what are they about? Thanks

    Reply

  51. Lauren says

    That’s amazing! You are truly an inspiration. I’m a hustler at heart, and feel best when I have my hands in multiple projects.

    Reply

  52. Kashif says

    Nice and detailed report. Sorry TL;DR 🙂

    I was wondering what site / system you use to sell your websites? I have few web properties that I would like to float in the market.

    Reply

  53. Melanie says

    Hello Michelle!

    I am reading through your blog for hours and I am amazed 🙂 It’s unbelieveable and truly admirable what you achieved. I am a journalist/writer in Austria and I am thinking of starting my own blog – not for hobby but as a profession. Reading your articles gave me a lot of new motivation and useful information, but on the other hand a lot of questions came up too. As mentioned, I am a writer for about 15 years and I worked for almost every print-format you can imagine. During the last years I also started to write for blogs, websites and other online-portals. So, writing isn’t the problem. But I don’t have any experience with running my own blog and I don’t have an idea, what I have to do, to earn money with it. Something I noticed in your income report was that you actually earned more money with managing websites, social media for clients and affiliate income than with just (staff) writing. And that’s exactly my problem – I really don’t have a clue, how to generate affiliate income or how to improve my skills to be able to offer a service for others to manage their websites or blogs. So, I just thought I’d give it a shot and ask you…. Maybe you’d like to answer me or help me, if you have time for it. I would be very, very thankful since I really want to go the whole hog this time. All the best from Austria 🙂

    Reply

  55. Lara says

    This is so inspiring! Thank you for posting. I’ve only had my blog for a little under a year and finally started to monetize it. I think I might start keeping a personal income report and hopefully when I start making $$$ I’ll but it on my blog.

    Reply

  57. Jake says

    I know this is an old post, I’m hoping you still reply to comments on it 🙂 Just curious, how did you sell your blogs? Did you use a service or website to advertise the sale (like flippa for instance), or did you just have someone contact you directly interested in buying it? Thanks!

    Reply

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