November Online Income Report

November was a pretty busy month, but I’m excited to share what I earned from working online in my spare time.

If you are a new reader, each month I share the income I earned from working online aside from the work I put in at my full-time office job. I started side hustling in February of this year just a few months after I started my blog in the hope of earning some extra money to meet some of my financial goals quicker.

I just can’t stand the thought of having debt for years and years so I decided to be proactive about earning extra money to get rid of it quicker and I truly believe almost anyone can do the work I do and earn a decent amount each month.

It can be scary to post your income online for anyone to see, but I’m hoping my income reports answer some of people’s questions about working online, inspire others to start side hustling as well, and offer a deeper insight as to how I’m making my financial goals and dreams a reality.

So without further adieu…

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In November, I made: $2,260

That’s $695 more than last month! This is income that I actually received in November and not just money I earned. I have clients who pay my all throughout the month so there is some work I completed in November that I might not receive payment for until the end of this month.

Also, since I’m responsible for paying taxes on this income, I set aside about 30% of whatever I earn from online work each month.

In this income report, I’m going to break down how much I earned, explain how I earned it, show how many hours I spent working each week and evaluate my goals for next month.

Here’s How My Total Income Breaks Down:

Freelance Writing: $1535
Virtual Assistant Work: $495
Affiliate Sales: $130
Sponsored Posts: $100
Ads on my website via Google Adsense: $0 (booo… in order to receive a payout from Google Adsense I need to reach a threshold of $100)
eBay Store: $0 (I listed some items in the middle of November, but I need to work more on this)

How I Earn an Income from Online Work

As you can see, most of my income comes from freelance writing. Shortly after I started this blog I started pursuing freelance writing gigs because I love to write and wanted to earn some extra money by working at home at night and on weekends while my son sleeps. That way, I don’t have to put in a lot of time and effort at a part-time job and deal with the hassle of securing a babysitter.

After I worked with a writing coach, the leads just started pouring in, literally. I met a lot of other bloggers who were freelance writers as well and were kind enough to pass on leads to me and refer me for jobs. I also found the confidence needed to send out cold pitches to prospective clients which landed me a few gigs as well.

Mind you, none of this probably would have ever happened so quickly if I didn’t start my blog. My blog is like an online portfolio for my writing and allows me to share more of my thoughts and personality as opposed to my social media profiles. You can only say so much on Twitter with an 140 character limit.

If you are serious about earning money writing, you must start a blog. Check out my simple tutorial to help walk you through the steps of setting up a self-hosted blog, hassle free.

In November, I was approached by a popular financial website to write reviews on specific financial services and identity theft products along with a current client of mine who needed me to transcribe some periscopes. I also received a few referrals for virtual assistant work and did a paid trial with a client along with sending out a cold pitch in the hopes of being able to write for another website. All of these actions contributed to my increase in income from October.

How Many Hours I Worked

I started tracking my hours spent on blogging and side hustling last month and I did it again this month just to get a better picture of how much time it takes me to get the work done properly. I’m also hoping that tracking my hours will motivate me to keep finding ways to work more efficiently.

Just note that in November, I did a lot of extra work for clients and my own blog in the hopes of getting ahead for a few weeks so I can take a much needed break in December. So while these hours may look like a lot, December’s hours will be a lot less.

November 2-8: 17.5 hours
November 9-15: 20.5 hours
November 16-22: 23 hours
November 23-29: 19 hours
November 30: 3 hours
Total: 83 hours

RELATED: How to Start Side Hustling and Making Extra Money

Goals for my Blog and Online Income

Start earning at least $2,500 per month in extra income by the end of 2016’s first quarter: Since I already surpassed my goal of earning at least $1500 per month, I feel like it’s time to set the bar again. While earning at least $1500 per month is a bare minimum. Earning $2,500 per month would allow me to cover the entire amount I wish to put toward my student loans next year even after taxes are deducted. It will also put me at the halfway mark for my goal I set to participate in Sarah’s challenge.

Come up with a new content strategy for my blog: I feel that as I’m growing and evolving, my blog should as well. I have some great ideas for how I’m going to take the content to the next level on this blog next year and need to start writing my ideas down. I’m sure other freelance writers know how it can be so difficult to consistently come up with fresh content ideas for your clients AND your own blog but I’ve learned that while my ideas are flowing, I need to stop and write them down because sometimes I get stumped.

Continue to lower my Alexa rank and boost my social media followers: I haven’t done much for this yet so I really need to pick it up. This goal is all about building up my blog even more along with my own personal brand.

Secure at least one new client: I’m still hiring 🙂 and even though I won’t be working that much on my side hustle in December due to the holidays, I’d still like to pitch and secure at least one new client so I can start the new year off with them.

That’s enough goals for now, are you looking forward to the new year? Have you already decided how you want to increase your income in 2016?