March Online Income Report

The first quarter of the year is just about over and now it’s time to talk about my online income. I tried to focus on continuing to work smarter after burning out in the middle of the month, and there were plenty of nights where I just choose to rest over working `because I needed it. I’ve been working 7 days a week for months between my full-time job and my online freelance work and while I’m happy with the work I do online, it’s was important to rest when I felt like I needed it.

Yet and still this was the best income month I’ve had to date and my site received the most page views it ever has last month so I’m excited about that.

If You’re New Here

Last year I started publishing the income I earn outside of my full-time job through online side hustles as a way to motivate myself and others to earn more to meet financial goals and work toward financial freedom. I officially landed my first freelance writing client in March 2015. At first, I attempted to start earning an extra income as a way to help me pay off my debt and got hooked. I paid off more than $11,000 of debt last year and wouldn’t have been able to do so without earning an extra income.

I also publish these income reports to demonstrate a true and transparent way that people can earn an honest income working online. I’m not going rocket science here, and I believe almost anyone can do the same things I’m doing to earn money with the right tools and motivation.

The work I’m doing has been so rewarding I recently decided to plan quitting my job later this year to pursue freelancing full-time. I’m excited to make the leap and pretty much felt like if I wanted to grow my income more I’d have to give up something.

As a side hustle, I don’t want to spend more than 15-20 per week freelancing and blogging and my job has been burning me out so I knew that if I wanted to protect my mental and physical health and earn more, I need to leave my full-time job.

I can honestly say I never would have starting growing my side hustle income as much and getting to the point where I grossed more than I net at my full-time job last month if I wouldn’t have started a blog. If you’re interested in starting a blog of your own, you can review what I’ve learned after a few months of blogging and you can check out my tutorial to starting your very own self-hosted blog in just a few minutes.

Now let’s talk about the numbers.

In March 2016, I Earned $3,540

That’s +828.98 more than last month. This is money that actually made it into my account so part of it was earned in February and a large portion of it was earned in March since I invoice most of my clients toward the end of each month. I started using Freshbooks last month to save on Paypal fees and it’s been working okay. I just want to make sure I have enough clients who use PayPal to justify using Freshbooks since I’m only doing the free trial right now.

Here’s How my Income Breaks Down:

Freelance Writing: $2,820
Virtual Assistant Work: $410
Sponsored Posts: $310

I’m happy to say affiliate income is coming in soon – that passive form of income everyone wants 🙂 I had a payment come in over the weekend but since it was technically April I’ll report it when I do next month’s report. I’ve been taking my time with affiliate income because I honestly don’t want to rely on it too much or scare my readers off so I’d rather focus on writing about stuff that I like to talk about and sharing something I like when I find it valuable which isn’t every day.

Hours Worked in March

March 1-6: 17.5 hours
March 7-13: 15 hours
March 14-20: 20 hours
March 21-27: 17 hours
March 28-31: 10 hours

Total: 79.5 hours

Goals for My Blog and Online Income:

Continue to take one day a week to work on only my stuff: Last month, I started using Mondays to work on only my tasks like fixing up old blog posts and taking care of other responsibilities on my site along with marketing and coming up with content strategies. Basically, I try to pick 1-3 tasks to cover each Monday and it’s been working out well so far. When you have other clients, it’s so easy to get caught up with their work and goals and forget about your own. I still want to meet my goal for my blog and create some products toward the end of the year when I have more time.

Pitch less: I know it sounds weird to have this goal but it’s only temporary. Pitching takes a lot of effort on my part since I customize everything and with my wedding literally less than a month away, I honestly just want to coast by this month and not worry about pitching as much. Last month I pitched about 4 potential clients and 10 brands for partnerships so I’m content with that. I lost 2 clients last month but I gained 3 new ones so I don’t think anything major would happen it I dialed back on pitching for a little bit and used my time elsewhere.

Continue to diversify and explore additional streams on income: This is a goal I’m always thinking about. I love freelance writing, but it’s not the only thing I like to and it’s not the only flexible way to earn money. Since I made the decision to quit my job this year, I figure it wouldn’t hurt to establish an additional stream of income. Like I said I’d like to create 1-2 products, but that could take a while since I haven’t even started developing that yet.

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How was your month? What are some of your favorite ways to diversify your income?