Welcome to March’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 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 earn a living.
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 at your full-time job. If it weren’t for others publishing their monthly income reports, 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 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 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 blog income in March?
Blog income in March was great. It’s definitely my best month ever. This is true even though pageviews were down around 10%. This is why I always say that blog income is not dependent on pageviews.
I’ve decided to change how I display my blogging income each month. From now on, I will be using the income amount I earned each month, instead of what I was paid. Payments can come anywhere from 1 day to 90 days later (sometimes even longer!), and many readers have been confused by “earned” and “received” amounts. Many of you have also said that you would like to see this change because it’s easier to compare month to month, since payments don’t always come in at the same time. Now, you can see exactly what I made each month and we can compare them more realistically over the years. This may make it confusing for this income report, but I believe this is the best way to display my monthly income reports from here on out. Due to this, I have updated figures in this post to reflect that, but things may be a little wonky in the beginning because I’m not going to update old income reports.
Anyway, my business is growing, income is increasing significantly, I have tons of awesome ideas for this year, and I am just extremely excited about everything. I really love my business and I don’t know where I would be without it.
The business is doing well and I’m very happy with it. I’ve been catching myself saying “Life is really good” a LOT lately. And, I mean it. Life is really good.
I earned $72,195.95 online in March, before expenses. Surprisingly, payments received totaled approximately $71,000, and that’s because I chased some old payments from 2015 that I’ve been waiting forever to be paid for.
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-hosted WordPress.
I started my income reports back in 2012. Please click here to find them all.
Breakout of March 2016 income – $72,195.95:
Affiliate income – $55,322.68 total:
Bluehost (check out my tutorial on how to start a blog) – $42,875
Survey companies – $7,388
MOTIF Investing – $1,426
Ebates – $1,360 (estimate as this is a tiered affiliate program)
Digit – $215
Izea – $273.89
Make Money Proofreading By Becoming A Freelance Proofreader – $478.08
Transcribe Anywhere – $168.80
$5 Meal Plan – $233.40
Personal Capital – $200
Mystery shopping – $10
Miscellaneous affiliates – $148 (various smaller affiliate amounts)
Sponsorships – $12,815
Staff writing and client work – $3,000
Display advertising – $1,058.27
The number above is for the month of March and before any fees and expenses (some fees and expenses that lower the amount above total around $2,800 (rounded up), which include virtual assistants/staff writers for my other websites, technical assistance, newsletter expenses, PayPal fees, etc., however, this does not include taxes) being taken out. After expenses and fees, I made approximately $69,396.
Please keep in mind that I work for myself when you read my monthly income report. This means I have to cover taxes (which are over 30%), health insurance, and all other benefits/expenses that an employer may provide.
Check out The Ultimate Guide To Making Money Blogging for all of the different ways you can make money through a blog.
Below are some of my other monthly online 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 income page you can find all of my monthly income reports from the past few years.
Comparisons and 2016 online income total:
Total income in March of 2016: $72,196
Total income in February of 2016: $49,607
Difference: +22,589
Total in 2016: $166,585
Blog news.
Making Sense of Cents is doing well and I’m very happy with everything.
I’m still working on getting ahead with blog posts, and eventually I hope to be at least a few months ahead with the majority of my blog posts each month so that I can spend more time promoting my work, networking, helping readers, and more.
Last month, I gave up Tailwind and starting using BoardBooster. Tailwind was great, but I needed something that would help me save more time. BoardBooster takes a moment to set up in the beginning, but then it runs very smoothly from there. I highly recommend checking out BoardBooster and using it for your blog!
Also, I have received many questions recently about how I’m staying connected to the internet so that I can work and travel in my RV at the same time. I use a Verizon Mifi and I am able to stay connected pretty much anywhere with it. It really comes in handy because you can’t always trust free wifi. Sometimes free wifi is slow, hard to find, or not safe. I don’t know what I would do without this device!
Overall, traffic decreased in March and I received around 500,000 pageviews. I expect that to go back up, though.
Top new posts on Making Sense of Cents last month:
Featured Question: How should I launch a new blog?
I feature one question from a reader in each monthly income report. Please leave a comment below if you have a question that you would like me to answer.
Starting a new blog is a lot of fun. However, you may have many questions about what to do next so that you can make money blogging, attract readers, and have a great blog.
I never had an official blog launch, but it probably would have helped things go a little more smoothly in the beginning!
Here are my quick tips for a successful blog launch:
Pick a topic you enjoy. Blogging can easily get tiring if you don’t enjoy what you’re writing about. Luckily, you can write about whatever you want to: Food, family, lifestyle, travel, finance, photography, and more.
Start a self-hosted blog. If you want to start a blog the correct way, you must be self-hosted. This can help you grow a following, improve your traffic, make money, attract advertisers, and more.
Produce high-quality content. If you don’t want to read your blog posts, I doubt anyone else does! Luckily, this isn’t as hard as it sounds. This is one big reason why I recommend blogging about a topic that you enjoy. This way, you can pour passion into your writing and it’s much more enjoyable.
Have blog posts already published. I recommend having at least a few blog posts already published on your blog so that new readers can have a sense of what your blog will be like. This way, they may be more likely to subscribe.
Have blog posts scheduled. As a new blogger, you may feel overwhelmed in the beginning. This is a normal feeling. Having blog posts ready and scheduled for future dates can take a lot of the stress off.
Create social media accounts. There are many social media outlets that exist. I recommend looking into creating an account for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, and more. While that may seem like a lot, you can automate a lot of it.
Have an About page. New readers will want to know more about you and who the writer is.
Network with other bloggers. Many new bloggers see other bloggers as competition. You should not feel that way! Instead, make friends with other bloggers, attend conferences, help other bloggers if you can, interact on social media, and more.
Publish a blog post at least once per week. If you disappear for 6 months at a time, readers may forget about you.
Guest post on other blogs. This can help get your name out there, bring new readers to your blog, meet other bloggers, and more.
As you can tell, there are many things you can do in order to launch your blog successfully. The best thing you can do, though, is to have fun!
Past featured questions:
My plans for my website and making money online.
Without plans and goals, it would be very hard to run a business. I believe that working towards a goal 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 noticing a huge improvement. One area is still Pinterest, and it brought around 200,000 clicks to my blog just in the month of March. I would love to see this number triple or quadruple before the year ends.
Accept more interviews. I took part in a few interviews in March.
Double my income. Yes, I said double. I would love to double 2015’s income and I think it’s possible considering how well 2015 ended. That means I will need to average around $53,000 a month. It won’t be easy, but it will be fun to attempt. Currently, I am on track with this goal!
Diversify my affiliate income streams. My goal is to diversify my affiliate income and have more sources.
Create an ebook. I’m in the very beginning stages of creating an ebook to help others increase their affiliate income. What questions would you like me to answer in my ebook? Eventually, I plan on expanding this further into a course, but, for now, I’m starting with an ebook.
Increase my pageviews to 1,000,000 each month. Okay, I realize this is sort of a superficial goal, but it’s quantifiable and that’s what I like about it. I would like to hit one million pageviews a month before the year ends. Wish me luck!
Staff writing.
I only wrote three articles for clients in March and I have one planned for April. As you can tell, I’m taking staff writing very slow. This is because I’m trying to spend more time on creating the book discussed above, as well as my improving my blog.
Related articles:
Affiliate income.
Overall, I generated $55,322.68 in affiliate income in March, as outlined above.
It was a great month, and I still can’t believe how quickly my affiliate income has grown in just the past year. Affiliate income is something that I really love due to how passive it can feel. It makes full-time traveling much more enjoyable when I know I can bring in an income while having a ton of fun exploring new places.
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.
How was March 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 myBluehost link if you purchase at least 12 months of blog hosting. FYI, you want to be self-hosted if you want to learn how to make money with a blog.
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