Welcome to August’s online income report where I show you how I made money online last month. It’s time to look at this month’s update and track how I did.
If you’re new here, you may be wondering why I would want to publish my online income report each month. You can simply skip to the next section if you’re not new here.
This all started out as my extra 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.
However, I left my day job as a financial analyst in October of 2013 and now my monthly income reports consist of the many ways I make a living each month.
Many have asked why I would ever want to publicly post my income each month. Some think I’m crazy, whereas some are glad I’m 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. I want to help show others 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 actually see what areas need improvement. I use my monthly income reports as a way to track how I’ve done and I treat it sort of like a journal.
- 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 successful bloggers who are kind enough to share their income with the public each month.
I know I say this every month, but it’s the truth. Life is great now that I’m my own boss. I look forward to each and every day and it’s a wonderful feeling. I truly love waking up each and every morning.
Above are just a few of the reasons for 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.).
How was my online income in August?
August was another great month for business income. I’m still trying to get the hang of traveling in an RV and working at the same time. It can be difficult at times as we’ve come across quite a few areas where wifi is hard to find (even though I have a mobile wifi device).
Having no wifi at times though is great though because I can enjoy where I am and write articles with no distractions. So, either way I am happy with how things are going!
Even though my income has increased significantly over the past few months, I’ve noticed that I’ve actually been working less. I’ve been a master at work-life balancing lately and it’s really paying off!
Like I say every month, the business is going well and I am very happy with it. Things around here seem to be improving and I have no complaints whatsoever.
I’ve always been very excited about my business, but I am more excited than ever for the future. I have so many plans and everything is going well.
Anyway, in August I earned $23,992 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 website domain (a $15 value) through my Bluehost link if you purchase at least 12 months of blog hosting. FYI, if you are asking yourself “Can you make money blogging?” – my top tip is 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. My blogging income did not take off until after I switched to self-hosting.
Related articles:
- How To Make Money Blogging
- How I Make Working From Home Work For Me
- How To Become Financially Stable and Keep The Job You Love
- Becoming a Work-Life Balancing Master
The number above is for the month of August and before any fees and expenses (some fees and expenses that lower the amount above total around $1,900 (rounded up), which include virtual assistants/staff writers for my other websites, technical assistance on my websites, newsletter expenses, PayPal fees, etc., however, this does not include taxes) being taken out. After expenses and fees, I made approximately $22,092.
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.
- $672 extra in May (2012)
- $6,523 in January Extra Income (2013)
- $11,927 in October Income – I Finally Left My Job
- $12,640 in January Income (2014)
- $23,758 in February Income – My Monthly Online Income Report (2015)
- How I Made $25,138 Online In July Plus My 4 Year Blogiversary
Blog news.
The main new thing I tried in August was scheduling my pins on Pinterest. I am now using Tailwind and it has saved me a TON of time. I’m still going on Pinterest to pin occasionally, but now I can get all of my other pinning needs out of the way ahead of time.
Overall, page views are increasing and I received around 300,000 page views in August.
I still need to go through 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 only completed around 15% of my posts so that means I still have many more changes to make! I actually didn’t work on any of this in August as I forgot yet again.
Top new posts on Making Sense of Cents last month:
- Make Money While Traveling – Yes, It’s Possible!
- Why Would A Person Choose To Live A Frugal Life?
- Frugal Things I’ve Done Recently
- 10 Daily Challenges To Improve Your Life
- The 6 Steps To Take To Invest Your First Dollar – Yes, It’s Really This Easy!
- You May Be Wasting Thousands Of Dollars On These 7 Things
- Are You Interested In Traveling The World And Working At The Same Time?
- Selling Your Home – Step By Step Process
Featured Question: How do I increase my affiliate income?
I feature one question from a reader in each monthly income report. Please leave a comment below if you have a question you would like me to include.
I plan on making this a whole post by itself one day because there are so many things I could cover with this single question. Below are some of the things that are working for me when it comes to affiliate income:
- Use the Pretty Link plugin. I use this for all of my affiliate links. It makes them look cleaner when it looks like “makingsenseofcents.com/bluehost” instead of the long links that affiliate programs usually provide.
- Provide real reviews. You should always be honest with your reviews. If there is something you don’t like about a product, either don’t review the product at all or mention the negatives in your review.
- Ask for raises. If you are doing well with a particular affiliate program, ask for a raise. The worst thing that can happen is that your affiliate manager says no. The best is that they say yes!
- Form a good relationship with your affiliate manager. Your affiliate manager can supply your readers with valuable coupons, affiliate raises, and more.
- Publish tutorials. Readers want to know how they can use a product. Showing them how to use it, how it can benefit them, and more are all very helpful.
- Have a recommendations page. I always like checking out recommendations pages on blogs. It can be a great way to list valuable products and services that readers may need or want. Here’s mine as an example.
- Don’t go overboard. There is no need to include an affiliate link 1,000 times in a blog post. Include them at the beginning, middle, and the end, and readers will notice it.
I recommend checking out my online course for bloggers, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. I earn over $50,000 a month through affiliate marketing and I share my exact strategy and tips in this very informative online course. If you’re a blogger, then you NEED this course.
My plans for my website, online income, and making money online.
Without any plans and goals, I think it would be very hard to run a business. Constantly working towards something can help keep a person motivated.
Below are some of the areas I am currently working on:
- Promote more – I am doing much better at promoting my articles and I’m definitely noticing an improvement. One area is still Pinterest – Pinterest brought around 95,000 clicks to my blog just in the month of August. The other area I am trying to improve is Facebook and I’ve noticed somewhat of a difference, but not much. Why must Facebook be so difficult?
- Accept more interviews. – I took on a few interviews in August but, for the most part, didn’t have time for HARO. I plan on responding to at least a few a week from now on out.
- 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.
Staff writing is still a service I enjoy providing.
I did start writing for a new client – GoRVing – 4 Steps To Afford The RV Lifestyle. I’m super excited about this new writing gig!
I did have one problem last month though where a client decided not to pay me – still unsure of what to do about this situation as I have never come across this before.
Related articles:
Website management.
Blog and social media management are others services I still enjoy providing to my clients. I plan on keeping the clients I currently have, but I am no longer expanding this service to new clients due to time constraints, though.
Many contacted me last month which made me want to reopen this service, but I am trying to focus on what is currently on my plate while also managing a good work/life balance. If this is a service you are looking to find someone for, I do have contacts I can refer you to, though.
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.
As each month passes, I get more and more excited about affiliate income. Why I waited around three years to be active with affiliate income is something I will never understand!
The somewhat passive income that I’ve been making this year has been great. Knowing that I can travel and still earn a living is a great feeling.
I earned around $22,000 in affiliate income in August. My best month for affiliate income ever.
I won’t see the payments I earned in August until 60-90 days later for most of the affiliate programs I am in, so you won’t see those amounts reflected in my monthly income reports until then.
My main form of affiliate income is through Bluehost with my How To Start A WordPress Blog On Bluehost tutorial. However, I am looking to diversify my affiliate income and I have been researching other affiliate programs so that everything isn’t so reliant on Bluehost. I have been doing somewhat well with diversifying my affiliate income so far, though, with around $7,000 last month coming from other affiliate programs.
Breakout of the actual payments I received in August ($23,992, before expenses)
- Staff writing – $1050
- Managing websites and social media for clients – $1,764
- Blog coaching and consulting – $790
- Website-related (from the 3 websites I own – advertising and partnerships) – $8,486
- Affiliate income (from Bluehost (main source), Republic Wireless, etc.) – $11,902
- Selling items from our home – $0
- Miscellaneous (not related to blogging and online income) – $0
- Mystery shopping – $0
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 may provide.
Comparisons and 2015 online income total (before taxes)
- Total business income for August: $23,992
- Income in July: $25,138
- Difference: -1,146
- Total in 2015: $186,515
How was August for you? Are you interested in earning income online?
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.
This post contains affiliate links. All opinions and statements are 100% mine and links are only placed to help you with your own blogging journey.
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