One quarter gone. How did I do this month?
This year I'm publishing side income reports each month for accountability.
Public accountability is a motivator to keep things moving forward. Reporting on the good / bad / ugly keeps things real and allows for reflection.
Which sources I'm reporting and which I'm not
I'm not posting anonymously so 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'm in the red overall and still will be for a while.
With that, let's go!
Google AdSense income: $21.49 (+$2.70)
This past month showed a modest uptick in my Google AdSense income.
Google AdSense has had a consistent presence 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: $6.99 (-$3.89)
My March 2024 Medium Partner Program went down quite a bit from February.
In retrospect, this isn't surprising. I published only five stories in March, or barely one a week. As I'm just starting to write on Medium, the income is closely related to how much I publish.
I'll be interested to see if posting more frequently in April makes a big difference in my earnings. This is my fifth article this month, and we're not even done with the first week of April.
Mr. Rebates: $2.49 (+$0.67)
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.
This month I also was able to cash out for $10.89.
Inbox Dollars: $12.05 (-$0.17)
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.
Amazon Associates: $0.00 (no change)
No purchases this month either.
My $6.81 balance gets carried forward.
Landa: $1.31 (-$0.02)
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: $2.55
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.
No intervention on my part and I barely notice the performance hit.
My one 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.
HoneyGain: $17.75
HoneyGain is a site similar to EarnApp. I share my bandwidth and I get paid.
It's very close to purely passive income, though I do “boost” things by checking in each day and clicking a button in the evening that gives me some extra earnings.
I talk more about these very passive income sites here.
Atlas Earth: $12.00
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 another $12.00 in payouts this past month.
Piano lessons: $80.00
I drive a few miles to give a one-hour piano lesson. Did this twice in March 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.
Global Poker: $51.25
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 that subsidizes my playing.
I talk more about how I earn regularly from online poker here.
TOTAL: $207.88 (-18% from last month)
Dipped a bit from last month. To be fair I wasn't as active creating online as I was in February.
I'm on track to change that this month.
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)
- 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
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.
Let's cheer each other on and encourage one another!
Thanks for reading!
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(header photo by Tnarg)
