Striving to end 2025 in the black
For all of 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 with this goal, I'll be reporting on both income and expenses this year.
I haven't been profitable for quite some time. My day job has been subsidizing my side hustles.
My goal this year is to stop that cycle. Working at my business regularly helps me to sleep better at night, but without profit it eventually will just be added stress.
Which sources I'm reporting and which I'm not
I'm not posting anonymously so my main job income, my part-time job income, and my main investments won't be reported. I'll report everything else, though!
I'll report on income as I receive it.
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! I'll start with the income.
Mr. Rebates: $10.57
Mr. Rebates is a cash-back rebate site that I've used for nearly two decades. People simply sign up for a free account, click through to online stores, and get a percentage back in their account.
Mr. Rebates rewards members with 20% of what their referrals earns, for life.
(Note, the link above and others in this article are affiliate links, which means that if you sign up I stand to earn a commission, at no additional cost to you.)
Most of the income recently has been from referral commissions. I have a small number of dedicated referrals that continue to buy through the site, so I benefit from their activity rather than my own.
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. Like Mr. Rebates, most of the income comes from a couple of very active referrals, and it's been reliable for quite some time.
I was able to cash out a $10 virtual MasterCard from Inbox Dollars this month.
Amazon Associates: $16.29
A nice little surprise in Amazon Associates this past November.
An article I wrote on the OXO Brew 8-cup Coffee Maker over a year ago finally generated a sale.
The payment for this and other activity hit my account at the end of January.
Website services: $28.46
This one started out of the blue a bit at the end of 2024.
A poker player I'd met and visited his Kick channel wanted a website, so I did that for him! To be fair, I had followed his Kick channel, provided some tips for promoting his Kick channel, and chatted with him a lot before it got to that point, but it paid off.
For hosting his website, I get a recurring $30/month, minus a $1.54 PayPal fee.
Online Poker: $92.99
I had two cashouts totaling $112.99 in January at Global Poker.
I've started playing on another site with a similar business model called Clubs Poker. I paid $20 for chips to play there.
I play for fun. 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.
TOTAL INCOME: $158.31
A fairly average start to the new year.
And now … for the expenses.
Kit: $49.17/month
My newsletter provider is Kit. I'm definitely not using the entire capabilities of Kit, and it's my largest monthly expense, clocking in at $49.17/month.
Domains: $21.43/month
I currently have 14 domains registered with NameCheap for my side hustles. Thirteen are dot-coms and one is a dot-co.
These I pay yearly. The cost per month to carry them is currently $21.43.
Web Hosting: $14.99/month
I switched web hosts to A2 Hosting, away from SiteGround.
So far, so good, and I'm saving $25/month with no appreciable loss of service at the moment.
I've locked in $14.99/month for three years for my hosting.
Tailwind: $14.98/month
This is a Pinterest poster that I used to use, but don't really anymore. I may let this one drop soon. It's costing me $14.98/month.
Canva Pro: $15/month
I finally got myself a Canva subscription. I'm enjoying learning how to use this software, and I've got several templates for YouTube thumbnails for my currency collecting channel.
Another $15/month subscription though.
Camtasia: $5.33/month
My next renewal for my video-editing software will be $63.99 in August. I use this to do some touch-ups to my videos.
LinkWhisper: $5.59/month
This is a WordPress plugin that I use for my main blog, MightyBargainHunter.com. It helps with internal linking for SEO purposes.
CleanTalk: $2/month
This is another WordPress plugin for spam protection. The $2/month covers five sites, so it's pretty reasonable.
IFTTT Pro: $2.99/month
If This Then That is a service similar to Zapier. I got the pro plan when it was “name your own price” essentially but I don't really use it anymore.
Frase.io: $17.49/month
This is an SEO tool that I got a lifetime deal for, and bought into a half-price upgrade. I don't really use this one anymore either. I may let it go soon unless it has some features that will help me out with my main blog. They are mainly AI features but if I want to do AI (not really) then there are now free alternatives.
GeneratePress One: $8.25/month
GeneratePress is the theme I use for most of my sites. I got a lifetime license for it.
This new service adds some more design features. I'm in the trying-out phase for this.
UberSuggest: $40.84/month
I got a lifetime deal for UberSuggest, an SEO tool. (I'm a sucker for lifetime deals, in case you haven't figured it out!) My main purpose for buying this was to learn some more about SEO and tune up my main site so that it performs better in the SERPs.
The lifetime deal cost $490 and I'll “pay it off” this year for expense purposes.
TOTAL EXPENSES: $198.06
Wow, almost $200/month! It's a bit shameful to say, but I don't think I've ever really added everything up.
NET INCOME: -$39.75
So, there's my baseline. $40 in the red.
If I decide to get rid of the services that I'm on the fence about, then that will put me into the black just by itself.
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!
Thanks for reading!
Hi, I'm John and I encourage people to work for themselves, and on themselves, every day to sleep better at night.
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