2018 Side Hustle Income Report Month 6

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Hello there!

How’s your summer going? I’m tired. I maxed out in June. Like, couldn’t take on any more.

I’ve always been good at saying no and knowing my limits but with the addition of the RV renovation, I am beat. So we’re slowing down on the RV. What I thought would take 2 months will take 3 if we’re lucky. As long as I can get it listed by September I’ll be happy.

Summer is always slower for online businesses so it’s a good time for us to work on the RV and plan for the fall. Back to school and Halloween will be my next big pushes.

Here are the first five months for reference:

As always, I only include income that’s deposited into my account so sometimes it’s from stuff I did a while ago but none of it is speculative. If you want more ideas on making money at home you can grab the list of work-from-home jobs I started with by entering your deets below.

Airbnb: $1,040.99

Summer is definitely the slow season but instead of being empty we’ve found that bookings are just very last minute.

We started June with no bookings and ended up with only 3 days unbooked. And one of our guests stay with us off and on 3 weeks! We ended up becoming good friends.

I highly recommend it as a way to monetize unused space. If you want to get started, sign up through this link and you’ll help us earn a little extra too!

T-Shirts: $2,151.53

May’s earnings from Merch by Amazon were $2135.83 and $15.70 from Etsy.

This number is artificially high due to Mother’s Day so next month’s will be back to normal.

Merch has been frustrating me.

My designer has made 60 designs so far (including 10 popsockets) and only the popsockets are selling which leads me to believe that Merch is too oversaturated to be viable.

Unless I sit around at the computer waiting for that one viral pop culture reference, I need to divide my attention.

Popsockets offer a really low ROI compared to shirts so I don’t want to focus too much of my effort there. I’m pausing the last 40 designs to focus on beefing up Etsy because I don’t want all her work to waste away on Merch.

Books: $723.60

These are my book earnings from April. I sold 276 copies of The No-Spend Challenge Guide and 41 copies of Meal Planning on a Budget. April was the start of the downward summer spiral.

It’ll pick back up in the fall but for now, it’s a great time to try out some ads!

I started running an ad for MPoaB. It’s been live for a week so it’s too soon to tell but my cost per click is good so far! (I’ve sold one book and only spent $.15 cents.)

Mystery Shopping: $0

We didn’t do any mystery shopping in May because of our vacation, hence no income in June.

If you want to learn more about mystery shopping you can read my post about it.

Blog: $258.17

#GetRichBlogging. The blog income broke down like this for June:

$28.71 from Amazon Associates
$49.60 from other affiliates
$29.86 from ads
$150 from freelance writing

Total: $4,174.29

Expenses: I’m a frugalprenuer so I keep my expenses low but there are some that are unavoidable.

T-Shirt Designer: $164.40

This is for the designer on Upwork who’s designing my shirts.

Etsy Seller Fees: $2.90

It’s $.20 cents to list and $.70 cents when you sell.

Total: $167.30

Set aside for taxes: $775

June Grand Total: $3,205.59

2018 Running Total: $16,117.59

Goals for Q3 of 2018:

1. Grow the Frugal Friends Community. I met my Q2 goals! So this quarter I’m taking it easy and focusing on growing our podcast audience. I’m going to be emailing other podcasters to appear on their shows to talk about frugality and we’re starting a book club to increase reviews! We’re giving away a copy of our Book of the Month for every 5 reviews we get.

If you want to participate, leave us a review and send a screenshot to frugalfriendspodcast@gmail.com!

2. Build my presence on Etsy. Yeah, I didn’t even make $20 on Etsy last month but I’m ready to put more time into it. I don’t know what’s going on with Merch and while I’m happy my old shirts are selling, I don’t want to get complacent, I want to grow. So by next month I’ll have 40 products live and optimized and by the end of the quarter I’d like to venture into digital products.

Jen Smith

Jen Smith is a personal finance expert, founder of Modern Frugality and co-host of the Frugal Friends Podcast. Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Lifehacker, Money Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, Business Insider, and more. She’s passionate about helping people gain control of their spending.