Hey everyone. Happy Monday! I published my May Goals Update along with my June Goals yesterday. I decided to split up the posts, so don’t forget to read that 🙂 This is a whale of a post today, so make sure to grab a cup of coffee beforehand…
May was yet another good month with extra income. I don’t think any sane person could possibly complain about making approximately $7,641 in side hustle income, especially when everything in fun to do.
I still haven’t been able to crack the $8,000 level of extra income just yet (this is after expenses). Also, May income was below April’s income. However, not by much.
I do have plans to increase my side hustle income since I do seem like I have stalled out. The stalling is only normal I am guessing, since I have pretty much decided that I do not want to sacrifice enjoying life in order to make more money.
I am working on streamlining more tasks in order to have a better work-life balance. I also have added a couple more side hustles that will most likely add up to a decent amount of future side income. One thing that I really need to work on is being better with collecting payments. I currently have a couple of invoices outstanding that total over $1,000, and they have been outstanding for over 30 days now. UGH.
In May, I made $7,859 in extra income, after most expenses. In case you are new to my blog, “Extra Income” consists of all income that I make that 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, as he doesn’t do too much for extra income (he just started something last week, so we have not seen any profit from it yet) and he is mostly commission at his work (so it fluctuates every month anyways).
As I say every month in my income update posts: this is not all super easy. None of it is. 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. I just keep thinking about how badly I want my student loans gone, and also how badly we want a new house next year. Read further on my Extra Income page.
This is for the month of May and after most fees and expenses (expenses were a little over $900 and include payments for staff writing on my blog and work with FITnancials, PayPal fees, etc.) being taken out. May’s number above includes a rent payment from my sister.
You can find my 2013 goals update here.
Blog
I am definitely not private anymore. Everyone knows about my blog… Well, besides those in my industry and those that I work with. Being public with it all feels much more nice, but now I really need to think about how public I am with so many things in my life. Being public about income sounds just a tad scary to me. However, I haven’t publicly talked about our income from our main jobs, so that is still good.
My sister’s blog is still going great. Please subscribe to FITnancials if you haven’t yet. She has many plans for her blog, and just earned her personal trainer fitness certification last month and started a job as a personal trainer also. She’s doing great! And she’s about to start her first semester in college as well.
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
This is what I wrote for the past three months and this section is still pretty much the same.
I’m not doing as much staff writing as I used to. It has slowly dwindled down since the Fall (I started turning down some writing opportunities, while one was hit by the Page Rank issue recently). Thankfully this is something that has worked out for the best, as now I can focus my time on other things. Right now I only write for one personal finance website and one hotel’s travel blog.
As you can see below, I made approximately $700 in staff writing last month. However, I am thinking about ramping this back up again. I’m looking to diversify and may be looking for staff writing assignments in the near future 🙂 If you need a staff writer, shoot me an e-mail.
I made a post titled So You Want to Be a Freelance Writer?, so please read further about this topic in that post.
New side hustles – Blog Management and more
A lot of you have wondered what my new side hustle is. I was recently contacted by a blog owner and I am now managing a new blog. I am excited to start this and see where it goes!
I also recently started doing some consulting. This encompasses many things, such as helping new bloggers and also managing smaller aspects of blogs. The consulting mostly came from others asking me to help them. I never once even thought about consulting or coaching, but others have asked and I have come to enjoy it very much.
ALSO, I bought a domain for a new blog, and plan on starting that soon. This blog will be mostly focused on diversifying my finances and being more financially independent. I’m looking forward to starting this a lot! I even think W is a little excited for it too…
I do think that with all of my new side hustles, that my extra income will start growing again. WOOOHOO! This will make it much more easier to make the switch to self employment.
Some of you have also said that I should start an e-book. I have been debating this now for some time, and once I have more time, I would like to pursue this more. What are some good e-book ideas? Freelance writing, having a blog, something else? Let me know!
Are you interested in becoming a virtual assistant? Don’t forget to also read about what exactly a virtual assistant does.
How much time I spend
A lot of you have been asking how much time I spend with my side hustles. This is a great question, however, I’m not sure if I can be very helpful.
For example, I love to read blog posts, and don’t know if I should be counting that as “working.” Also, I tend to multi-task when I do anything, which means that I’m always spending a lot of time going back and forth – and that of course means a lot of time wasted.
Anyway, I don’t do as much staff writing anymore, but I usually spend around 30 minutes to an hour on each article that I write. Sometimes it can be shorter, but sometimes when I have no ideas, it is much, much longer.
Usually for my whale posts (which have been every single post that I’ve written lately), these take hours and hours. Usually they stretch over a period of days because I want them to be perfect. High quality posts are important!
Keep in mind that I have a full-time job completely unrelated to blogging (analyst in the financial services industry), so my side hustles revolve around that currently. I usually spend each Saturday and Sunday working on my blog as well. I definitely spend at least 40 hours a week on my side hustles.
Here is my normal weekday schedule:
6:15 am – Wake up and get ready for work.
6:45 am – Check emails, moderate comments on my blog, read blogs (I love reading blog posts!)
7:45 am – Leave for work
During My Hour Long Lunch Break – Check and reply to emails, moderate comments, read more blogs
6:00 pm – I come home from work and work on my side hustles more. Sometimes I barely work on them, but sometimes I work on them a ton.
Extra Monthly Income in May
Staff writing – $700
Blog (consulting, managing blogs, & direct advertising and Adsense, after all expenses) – $5,416
Affiliate Income – $1,200
Virtual Assistant tasks – $0
Selling Clothes – $0
Miscellaneous (not related to blogging and online income)- $0
Mystery Shopping – $0
Rent (We rent a room out to my sister) – $325
Comparisons and 2013 Extra Income total
Total extra income for May: $7,641
Income in April: $7,859
Difference: -218
Total so far in 2013: $35,868 (AWESOME!)
How did you do in May? What are your extra income goals?
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