January Income Report

As my first income report, I would like to preface my post with this: Holy sh*t, Batman!

I have always dreamed of making money from my own website, but wasn’t quite sure if it was possible. Sure, I’ve had a couple of freelancing gigs. I made a good chunk of change working for Bolde a few years back. But to bring in nearly a thousand bucks in one month on a side hustle?! Kind of mind blowing right now.

This month was my best yet.

Since I nearly broke $1000 and because it is a new year, I decided I wanted to start tracking my income from my side hustles. Currently I am working on monetizing more on this site, and I have some digital products in the works. I will be as transparent as possible about my income streams when writing these reports and break things down by exactly where I made my money.

Why is transparency so important?

The more time I spend in the online space, the more I start to notice how secretive other bloggers can be when it comes to making money. I mean, you can search Pinterest about ways to make money blogging or working online. But how many of those posts are telling you exactly where their money is coming from? I follow a few bloggers who break down their income reports, and it has been so helpful for my own growth as a blogger.

Even though these reports are about my income, they are meant to help you too.

If you’re new to the world of blogging, or are just looking for new ways to make extra money online, I want to help you! It took me so much longer than it should have to start making money online. Had I known about some of these routes sooner, I could have been making money two years ago. My goal is not just to increase my own income though. My goal is to help you build yours.

I’m going to tell you exactly what has or hasn’t worked for me.

There are some income streams I have attempted to utilize, but they just fell flat. Some websites claim they have a list of “easy ways to make money online,” but it turns out most of them are dead ends. Or worse, just pay pennies over long stretches of time.

I’ve gotta say, there is nothing worse than getting your hopes up about making money only to find out you aren’t going to make shit. Yes, I am referring specifically to avenues like Google AdSense. Don’t get me wrong, I love Google and use their products daily. But if you only have a small audience that you cater to, AdSense is a waste of time. Just saying.

So let’s get to the numbers.

Just for reference and a little bit of background information, I started having regular online income in March 2018. Currently, I have only one regular income stream, which is paid posts. My payment per post is approximately $19.16 (they pay me in GBP, which I convert to USD). It varies based on the current exchange rate, but for the sake of this post I will calculate past income using the rate of 1 GBP = $1.2772.

Out of respect and privacy of their business, I cannot say the specific company who pays me for this. However, I can tell you that all of these posts are published on my other website, Kristangible. They send me copy which I then edit and format, and publish to my site for compensation. It includes third party links, however I do not receive any commission on those links. They are technically not affiliate links in respect to me, and I am paid a flat rate (15 GBP) for publishing these articles.

As a side note, I truly cannot remember how I got in contact with them. I do know I had entered my information into a database in which another party matched them to me, and the company reached out to me directly by email. Unfortunately, I did not keep my email or write down who the third party was that made the connection. But if I ever come across it, I will be sure to add the link to this post!

Here’s a quick recap of my 2018 earnings.

March 2018: $229.90 (all paid posts)
April 2018: $229.90 (all paid posts)
May 2018: $574.74 (all paid posts)
June 2018: $344.84 (all paid posts)
July 2018: $421.48 (all paid posts)
August 2018: $134.11 (all paid posts)
September 2018: $114.95 (all paid posts)
October 2018: $249.90 ($229.90 paid posts, $20.00 product sales)
November 2018: $766.32 (all paid posts)
December 2018: $877.09 ($862.11 paid posts, $14.98 product sales)
Total 2018 earnings: $3908.23

Total January 2019 Income: $996.22

My month was good. Just looking at the number gets me excited, and I hope I always feel that way. It’s a good feeling to know that this is what I made outside of my regular 8-5 office job. It gives me motivation to want to do more online, and to try new income channels. I’ve been reaching out to more companies for freelance work lately, and hopefully by next month I’ll have some new income streams to tell you about.

But for January, everything I made was from Kristangible.

Like I said earlier, I have some digital products in the works. You’ll find out about those in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out on Facebook and Instagram. 😉

I am also exploring affiliate marketing opportunities, and looking into sponsored content. I’m sure you’ve noticed I do use some ads through Shareaholic. Depending on performance, I may shut them off just because I do not like the clutter on the screen. And quite frankly I’d rather have paid ad space from specific brands and companies that I feel comfortable promoting. I feel icky having ad content that has been chosen for me.

Well, there you have it.

February has started out slow, but here’s to hoping the month picks up. Seeing a steady increase the last few months has me pumped for the rest of this year. I can’t wait to look back in January 2020 and see how far I’ve come. Here’s to a year of following your dreams and meeting your financial goals.

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