This year I'm publishing reports of my side income each month for accountability.
My goal is to keep things moving forward by keeping it real. Reporting on the good and the bad allows for reflection on lessons learned.
Which sources I'm reporting and which I'm not
Since I'm not posting these anonymously, my primary and part-time jobs and my main investments won't be reported.
Everything else is on the table!
Some income will be reported when I cash out, and others when I earn it.
Also, for the moment I'm reporting income, not profit. I'm in the red overall, and still will be for a while.
With that, let's go!
Google AdSense income: $26.54 (+$7.84)
This past month showed an uptick in my Google AdSense income. Things were looking to be on-par with April until the very end, where I got activity from the Netherlands, of all places!
Google AdSense has had a consistent place for most of my blogging run. It's been much higher than it is now. Even with the blog just mostly sitting there, people visit and interact with the ads.
Medium Partner Program: $33.60 (+$28.14)
May was my best month yet for income from the Medium Partner Program. After a discouraging April, May saw an increase in over 500% over April's numbers. I was just $0.70 shy of making as much in May as I made in January through April, combined.
I published 17 articles in May, and now stand at 59 articles total.
This is of course a good direction to head in. My focused goal is to earn $100 in a calendar month with the Medium Partner Program by the end of August.
Mr. Rebates: $3.76
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: $11.73
Inbox Dollars is a get-paid-to site that pays out cash for surveys, trials, sign-ups, and other activities. March's earnings were roughly the same as February's.
Inbox Dollars pays 10% of my referrals' earnings for life. Most of the income comes from a couple of very active referrals.
I was able to make a payout of $40 this month.
Amazon Associates: $4.35 (woohoo!)
It's been a long dry spell, but my links triggered some commissions in May.
I should see the payout in a couple of months since I'm over $10 accrued now.
Landa ($0.00 so far)
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: $7.86
EarnApp is about as close to passive income as you can get for an app. It runs on my computer, transfers anonymized packets from one place to another, and I get paid for allowing this.
Essentially no intervention on my part, and I hardly notice the performance hit.
I have five referrals now, but only one is actively using the software. My one active referral 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.
With the timing of the payouts this month, I squeezed three in.
I talk more EarnApp and other very passive income sites here.
Piano lessons: $80.00
I drive a few miles to give a one-hour piano lesson. Did this twice in May for $40/lesson.
It's easy for me and enjoyable for both myself and my student. Not bad as far as trading time for money goes!
This is my favorite side income currently because of the interactions, to be fair. Not at all passive, but that's okay!
Global Poker: $51.51
I got another cashout at Global Poker this month.
I play for fun mostly. I 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 that subsidizes my playing.
I talk more about how I earn regularly from online poker here.
Some income sources I'm saying goodbye to: $28.38
In order to focus on my Medium Partner Program goal, I'm cleaning house of some low-value ad-watching income sources.
I cashed out my last $7 from Atlas Earth. It was nothing but watching ads for a few cents apiece. I'm enjoying the incremental increase in margin.
Several get-paid-to (GPT) sites have also been stopped. Timebucks ($11.38 payout), Reward XP ($5.00 payout) and Prize Rebel ($5.00 payout) are done.
TOTAL: $247.73 (+8% from last month)
I was happy to see an increase from last month, especially in the Medium Partner Program income!
Other sources that are waiting in the wings
I have a few others that I'm involved in. Some will pay out soon:
- HoneyGain is a site similar to EarnApp. I share my bandwidth and I get paid.
- MyPoints: a site similar to Inbox Dollars (owned by the same company)
- Swagbucks : another 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!)
- 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
- Benable with its swanky lists and built-in affiliate program
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, of course, was twenty years ago.
But the next best time is right now.
Recently, I've taken the advice of a fellow writer and begun to concentrate on building my Medium income. As is evident from my income report, there are lots of onesey-twosey sources but none really big and reliable.
Most of my activities at least for the next few months will be focused directly toward, or one-step away from, achieving $100 in Medium income for a calendar month before the end of August 2024.
Regardless … let's cheer each other on and encourage one another!
Thanks for reading!
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