For 2024 I published my side hustle income report each month to maintain accountability.
This year, my main goal is to be profitable.
To maintain transparency, I've been reporting both on my income and my expenses this year.
My day job has been subsidizing my side hustles. All this does is make my online efforts play out as a time-consuming hobby.
My goal this year is to turn this around.
Working at my business regularly helps me to sleep better at night. But without profit it eventually will just be added stress.
I'm getting myself out of the course-buying mode. That's been a big expense for me. I have enough information right now to last several lifetimes.
I'm going to need to turn things around in a big way to be profitable for the year.
Which sources I'm reporting and which I'm not
Since I'm not posting anonymously, my W-2 income and my main investments won't be reported.
I'll report on income as I receive it, not when I earn it. In other words, I report on it when it hits my bank account.
I'll report on expenses in two ways. If I've bought an annual plan for something, I'll break the cost up per month and expense it as I go along. One-time purchases will be expensed the month I make the purchase.
With that, let's get going!
Inbox Dollars: $10.00
Inbox Dollars is a get-paid-to site that pays out cash for surveys, trials, sign-ups, and other activities.
Inbox Dollars pays 10% of my referrals' earnings for life. Most of the income comes from a couple of very active referrals, and it's been reliable for quite some time.
I earned $10.00 in payouts in August. To make things easier, I've been cashing out directly in Amazon gift cards.
EarnApp: $20.73
EarnApp is one of the most passive sources of income I have, aside from bank accounts and dividends!
They recently changed their compensation plan from per GB to per month. So this will cut into my earnings a bit. I did cash out twice to the tune of $20.73.
Here are reviews of this app and a few other passive apps.
HoneyGain: $18.27
HoneyGain is similar to EarnApp. Very passive income.
This one was slow for a bit, but it's picked up. I made the $20 payout threshold in August and received $18.27 after the fee.
Bytelixir: $10.25
Bytelixir is another internet-sharing app I've been trying out.
In August I withdrew $10.25 in USDC (a stablecoin backed by the US dollar) into my Robinhood account.
Website services: $28.46
I have a website design and maintenance client who's a poker player I met at the tables during a sit-and-go.
For hosting his website, I received a recurring $30/month, minus a $1.54 PayPal fee.
Atlas Earth: $18.00
This is kind of a dumb “game” that pays you to watch ads.
At this point I've been playing it long enough that I'm earning 2.75 cents per ad, and I can view one per hour if I want. I can view six in a row before I have to wait to view more of them.
The game does pay out pretty much instantly, and I cashed out $18.00 in August.
Online Poker: $219.67
I play online poker mainly for fun at very low stakes.
However, this month I withdrew almost everything from my accounts and have essentially stopped. I still keep the accounts active but I'm not playing anywhere near like I used to. The payback for the amount of time I put in isn't where I want to be. It's 100% trading time for money, and not a lot of money.
I withdrew $219.67 from Global Poker and Clubs Poker in August.
TOTAL INCOME: $325.38
Quite a bit better than last month.
And now … for the expenses.
Services I mentioned last month: $200.86
Here's a summary of the services I mentioned last month that I'm carrying forward:
- My newsletter provider Kit: $49.17/month
- Domains at NameCheap: $21.43/month
- Web host at Hosting.com: $14.99/month
- Tailwind, a Pinterest poster: $14.98/month
- Canva Pro, a graphic design tool: $15.00/month
- Camtasia, video editing software: $5.33/month
- LinkWhisper, internal linking plugin for WordPress: $5.59/month
- CleanTalk spam protection: $2/month
- IFTTT Pro, automation engine: $2.99/month
- Frase.io SEO tool: $17.49/month
- GeneratePress One, theme elements: $8.25/month
- UberSuggest SEO tool lifetime deal I'm expensing at $40.84/month
- Publer: social media posting software $2.80/month
In August, I did take action on a couple of services, and will have less expense next month by about $42/month.
TOTAL EXPENSES: $200.86
NET INCOME: +$124.52 (-$1,007.01 YTD)
I was in the black this month!
I still have a four-figure deficit to overcome.
We can only start from where we are.
The best time to start earning side income was twenty years ago.
But the next best time is right now.
Let's encourage one another.
Let's do this together!
