Last month I published the first side income report I had done, ever.
Public accountability can be a driver and a motivator to keep things moving forward. I'm committed to put these out once a month for a while, reporting on the good / bad / ugly.
Which sources I'm reporting and which I'm not
Since I'm not posting anonymously, income from my primary and part-time jobs and my main investments won't be reported here.
Everything else, though, is fair game. Some income will be reported when I cash out, and others when I earn it.
Also, I'm reporting income, not profit. I'll be in the red for a while.
With that, here we go!
Google AdSense income: $18.79 (+$7.79)
This past month showed an uptick in my Google AdSense income. (And I passed the $100 threshold at the end of January which gave me a payout of $108.64 near the end of February.)
Google AdSense has had a consistent presence for most of my blogging career. It's been much higher than it is now, but even with the blog just sitting there for part of that time, people visit and interact with the ads.
Medium Partner Program: $10.88 (-$0.10)
My February 2024 Medium Partner Program income was basically the same as in January.
I published nine stories in February, or once every three days or so. As I'm just starting to write on Medium, the income is closely related to how much I publish. I notice that I might get a few views or reads on days that I don't publish, but it does tail off very quickly.
Mr. Rebates: $1.82 (+$1.02)
Mr. Rebates is a cash-back rebate site that I've used for nearly two decades.
Mr. Rebates rewards members who refer new users with 20% of what the referral earns, for life.
All of the income this month was from these referral commissions. I have a small number of dedicated referrals that buy a lot, so I reap the benefit.
Inbox Dollars: $12.22 (+$1.52)
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.
I cashed out a $30 Amazon gift card this month.
Amazon Associates: $0.00 (no change)
No purchases came with the 102 clicks on my links. Oh well.
My $6.81 balance gets carried forward.
Landa: $1.33 (-$0.72)
Landa offers shares of rental properties in several states. These shares pay “dividends” each month, based on the net income the underlying properties bring in.
I put $250 in for fun to see where it goes.
I plan to buy more shares as I earn enough from dividends, but don't plan to put more money in unless the prices dip substantially.
EarnApp: $2.51 (-$0.03)
EarnApp is about as close to passive income as you can get for an app. It runs on my computer, and transfers anonymized packets from one place to another, and I get paid for allowing this.
No intervention on my part and I barely noticed the performance hit.
I did pick up a referral this past month that gives me 10% of their income for life (at no cost to them as it's baked into the rate everyone gets). The minimum payout is $2.50 (minus a very small fee), so the referral right now will get me to that $2.50 slightly faster. Most of the income this month, like last month, was from the app “working” on my computer.
Atlas Earth: $12.00 (+$2.00)
I wouldn't “play” this game if it didn't earn money. It's pretty dull. It amounts to watching ads for a few cents apiece.
I've been playing Atlas Earth long enough that I got $12.00 in payouts this past month.
Swagbucks: $25.00
Swagbucks has several ways to make money: surveys, watching content, searching the internet, click-through rebates, and other contests. This site does do its best to keep things interesting, so it's one of my favorites.
I've made over $1,000 overall on Swagbucks, mostly from a few very active referrals. Those referrals aren't active anymore but I do have a couple that still trigger some residual SB.
This month I accrued enough SB to redeem a $25 prepaid MasterCard.
Shopkick: $10.00
ShopKick is a grocery store app similar to Ibotta but lets you scan items in-store for points called “kicks.”
I don't use the app a whole lot, frankly. I can get 10 kicks for having the app open when I walk into Walmart. (The app knows when you're near the entrance so there's no cheating it, haha).
I finally earned enough kicks to redeem a $10 Amazon gift card.
Piano lessons: $40.00
This is a new side income for me this month! I drive a few miles to give a one-hour piano lesson. It's easy for me and enjoyable for both myself and my student. Not bad as far as trading time for money goes!
Global Poker: $50.00
I got another cashout at Global Poker this month.
I play for fun mostly but have enough of a winning record on micro-tournaments and $0.05/$0.10 cash games to not go broke. Also, there's a small daily sign-in reward so that helps.
Social media services: $70.00
My big winner this month was a small task of doing a few shares on social media. It had the side purpose of getting me more active on X (formerly Twitter) again.
TOTAL: $254.55 (+160% from last month)
This is a nice bump from last month when I didn't even scratch three figures.
I'll take it!
Other sources that are waiting in the wings
I have a few others that I'm involved in. Some will pay out soon:
- MyPoints: a site similar to Inbox Dollars (owned by the same company)
- Impact and FlexOffers, similar to Commission Junction
- ConvertKit, the mailing list manager extraordinaire
- Tutoring (in real life!)
- HoneyGain: a site similar to EarnApp
- Honey: A completely different app than HoneyGain; used for coupon codes
- CryptoTab: a browser that mines bitcoin
- InstaGC: a site similar to Inbox Dollars (NOT owned by the same company)
- My YouTube channel (halfway toward 1,000 subscribers and part of the way toward 4k hours)
- Selling on eBay
We can only start from where we are.
There's no other place to start except from where we are right now.
I began buckling down more on side income this year.
The best time for me to have done this was twenty years ago. The next best time is right now.
Let's cheer each other on and encourage one another as we keep going forward from here!
Header Photo by Pixabay
