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Side Hustle Income Report

2018 Side Hustle Income Report Month 8

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more information.

This month was a month of really hard lessons learned and they’re causing me to rethink my whole online business strategy.

First: My Merch by Amazon account has been terminated.

Last night I had 8 shirts taken down for copyright infringement. Amazon is super strict about copyrights. I’ve had designs taken down that were original designs but were deemed too close to another design or some trolls get “report to Amazon” happy.

I don’t object because my strategy has always been lay low and fly under the radar. But I’m guessing those take-downs caught up to me because by the time I woke up this morning my account had been terminated. Not deactivated but terminated.

If you’ve been following these income reports you’ll know how bummed — but not surprised — I am about this. Even though I waiver on t-shirt designing I’ve never taken my Merch account for granted. But I’ve been frustrated with Merch and this is the sign I need to focus on other things.

Second: A good friend lost her Instagram account and with it, over 46,000 followers.

Right now my friend Amanda at Debt Free in Sunny CA is fighting to get her Instagram account back because of an accidental shutdown of her account. She has a large supportive following and I’m sure she’ll get it back but I can’t imagine how stressful this is for her.

I’ve been putting a lot of eggs in my Instagram basket because of my blogging limitations since starting at The Penny Hoarder. But I don’t have 46,000 followers and if Instagram’s algorithm messes up at my expense, I don’t know what I’d do.

Both instances have taught me that I can’t rely on what I don’t own.

My website, email list, and products (not sold on Amazon) are the things I need to be focusing on if I want to continue to make money online.

Sorry this one’s a bummer but I hope others will learn from it and start out doing the important things instead of beating around the bush like I did.

Rest of the year’s reports:

My goal to become self-sufficient through online income is still on the table. It’s going to take some creative thinking but that’s never scared me before. And I’ll keep you updated every step of the way.

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: $962.24

We plan on doing Airbnb until we have a kid. So (fingers crossed, pray for us) no more than one more year. This is great income for us but not long-term income.

We charge $37-$40 per night and a $12 cleaning fee. The room is in the front of the house and we let the people use the spare bathroom privately.

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: $1021.14

June’s earnings from Merch by Amazon were $1042.53 and -$21.39 from Etsy.

Yep, last month was $0 and this month I owed Etsy money! It’s because I made some sales at the end of the month that I didn’t get paid for until September. 

And this will likely be my last 4-digit month in T-Shirts.

I don’t plan on building my Etsy store anymore. This could be the sadness talking but when I think about the projects that give me life, I think about writing, the podcast, and personal finance. Not t-shirts. I’m going to do more of what I love and less of the things that bring easy money.

Books: $863.98

These are my book earnings from June. I sold 238 copies of The No-Spend Challenge Guide and 35 copies of Meal Planning on a Budget.

In August I ran countdown deals on both books and did some publicity on them so I’m excited to see those results. NSCG is also on sale all September so we’ll see if that sale price gets me a net gain or just more eyes.

I’ve been running ads for both books and have netted $83.41 as of writing this.

Mystery Shopping: $10

We did one shop that reimbursed and paid $10. Haven’t been doing much mystery shopping since we’ve been so busy but I’m still on the lookout for the unique ones.

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

Blog: $500.61

This month I launched the Financial Freedom Planner! It’s a bundle of printables you can only get on my website and I launched it Aug 1st with a sale. most purchases came from my email list, no surprise. I have a great email list and I don’t nurture it enough. That’s going to change.

  • $17.78 from Amazon Associates
  • $75 from Ebates
  • $43.28 from ads
  • $364.55 from the Financial Freedom Planner

Something I didn’t mention before is that I’m also losing my ad company. They’re dropping everyone with revenue under $500 per month which you can see I’m very much under that.

Travis’ Side Job: $111.98

Travis does some paperwork for a private jet owner and gets paid pretty well for a few hours of work.

Total: $3,469.95

Total Passive Income: $2,385.73 (79% to Goal of $3K but that’ll go down next month)

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

  • Book Ads: $1.93
  • Etsy Seller Fees: $2.80

Total: $4.73

Set aside for taxes: $762

August Grand Total: $2,703.22

2018 Running Total: $21,116.99

Goals for Q3 of 2018:

1. Grow the Frugal Friends Community. We’re still focusing on growing our podcast audience. I’ve been appearing on podcasts we’ve started a book club to increase engagement and reviews! We’re giving away a copy of our Book of the Month for every 5 reviews we get.

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

2. Build my presence on Merch & Etsy. With Merch, the early bird gets the worm. I’m gonna try to capitalize on this Europe thing and see how things shake out. After a dismal few months on Etsy I still haven’t given up but I need a lot more motivation. Welp…

2. Make lots of connections at FinCon. The financial media conference I love is happening in a few weeks and I am super excited to connect with others in the space and plan my future in the industry. I have a big idea that I’m going to float around and hopefully others will get on board.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Congrats! I am so glad I opened this month’s mailer. I agree with you though. We don’t hear from you enough on the email. I love that you are conscious of putting high quality content out there, but folks forget and only are reminded when you show up in their inbox. Best of luck figuring out the next steps around engagement. I am sure it is difficult to find the right balance.

    1. Thanks Heather! It’s so true, I am going to be better about it! And I’m going to head in a direction I think the lovely people on my list will want to go.

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