March Income Report

I’ll start off by saying this: my March income was an improvement.

Looking back to March 2018 when I first started making money online, it’s pretty cool to see how much I have brought in. And even though my blogging income fluctuates a bit due to the seasons/holidays, I am proud that I am able to pull in some additional income outside of my 8 to 5 job!

February saw a large drop from the holiday season, but March picked up a little.

Writing my February income report was a little bit discouraging because of how drastically my income dropped from the holidays. However, March was a fairly good month – even though most of the money I made was spent on Starbucks and a new wardrobe from Adeline Clothing.

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.

In these reports, 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. Up until recently, I had only one regular income stream, which is paid posts. My payment per post is approximately $19.03 (they pay me in GBP, which I convert to USD in PayPal). 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 = $1.2685.

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!

In February, I tried to get into some freelance work with Metro.

I passed the basic skills test to be able to become a member early in the month with the intention of picking up some extra income. Unfortunately, I haven’t had much time to try to work on there, and haven’t been back on in over a month. So I do not have any income to report in March.

Basically Metro is a place for freelancers to pick up small copywriting gigs. And when I say small, I mean like 250 words or less. We’re talking product descriptions for various clients basically. It seems pretty simple, but they are extremely strict about following the style guides they provide. You could spend a lot of time writing a description just to have it rejected by an editor and make $0.

Overall I’d say they’ve got a pretty steep learning curve (which I personally haven’t had a chance to master). But once you get the hang of it, it’s probably a quick way to earn some extra dollars. I’ll get back with you guys on how things go with them once I have time to get into it more.

Here’s a quick recap of my earnings from the past year.

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)
January 2019: $996.22 (all paid posts)
February 2019: $225.36 ($26.50 product, $5.00 freelance, $193.86 paid posts)

Total March 2019 Income: $520.41

Here’s a breakdown of where that money came from:
Paid Posts: $285.41
Free Product Value: $235.00

Where did I get the free product?

One of the ways I have made connections with brands in the past has been through a site called Intellifluence (affiliate link). What this site does is show you companies who are looking for influencers to share their products, write reviews on Amazon, or do other work for compensation. Usually they compensate by giving free product, sometimes they will pay a small cash amount once a transaction is completed.

I’ve used Intellifluence multiple times over the past year. I decided that even though most transactions are paid in product, it is still worth adding into my income reports. In February I completed a product review for a diaper caddy/organizer worth $26.50. In the past, I have done reviews (sometimes on Amazon, sometimes on my other blog) for other baby related products. But don’t worry; it’s not all baby products. There are plenty of other offers out there. Generally the good opportunities go quick, but occasionally brands will reach out to influencers directly!

So what other income streams will I be exploring in the future?

Well as I mentioned previously, I have some digital products in the works. You’ll find out about those once I set a launch date, so keep an eye out on Facebook and Instagram. 😉

Something I’ve been working my way back into is cash back or rebate apps. This would be ones such as Ebates or Ibotta (affiliate links). I use both on my phone and when shopping online on my desktop.

The nice thing about using Ebates on your desktop is that you can add a pin to your browser, and it will automatically tell you if a retailer has rebates available when you click onto their site. There are some in-store purchase options as well if you connect your card to your account. By doing so, it triggers the app to know you made a purchase in-store and you will receive your rebates.

Ibotta is something I mainly use for groceries. There are often generic coupons, like receive $0.50 back for any grocery store purchase. But they also have store specific and brand specific coupons available as well. I do my shopping at Meijer, so I already get a lot of coupons from my Meijer app. But the great thing is I can double up on my coupons between Meijer and Ibotta, saving money and getting rebates at the same time! Plus, I can connect my mPerks account to Ibotta so it automatically pulls my receipt information in. Other stores you may have to scan the receipt with your camera in order to receive the rebates.

I have a little bit of rebate money in both Ebates and Ibotta.

But I never want to count my income until I actually bring it into my bank or PayPal account. Ebates schedules their payouts, and I believe my next payout is sometime in May. So my May income report should reflect my rebates. Ibotta has a minimum payout of $20, so once I hit that threshold I will be able to transfer my cash back into my PayPal account.

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