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 with this goal, I'll be reporting both on my income and my expenses this year.
I haven't been profitable for a number of years now. My day job has been subsidizing my side hustles.
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.
Which sources I'm reporting and which I'm not
Since I'm not posting anonymously, 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, 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! I'll start with the income.
Inbox Dollars: $20.00
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 squeezed in two $10.00 payouts this month. To make things easier, I've been cashing out directly in Amazon gift cards rather than prepaid Mastercards. Most of the time, I buy Amazon cards with them, but it's extra steps to do so.
Website services: $28.46
I met a poker player at the tables during a sit-and-go, and he pointed me to his Kick channel.
He later mentioned that he wanted a website, so I did that for him!
(To be fair, I chatted with him a lot before it got to that point, but it paid off.)
For hosting his website, I received a recurring $30/month, minus a $1.54 PayPal fee.
Online Poker: $32.15
I had a cashout totaling $52.15 in March at Global Poker.
I've started playing on another site with a similar business model called Clubs Poker. There was a deal so I bought a $20 chip package there. So net, I made $32.15 in March.
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.
EarnApp: $10.02
This is a super-passive way of making some money by sharing an internet connection for anonymous traffic for business use.
The payout used to be $2.50 but they bumped it up to $10. There's a small fee for cashing out, which left me with $10.02.
I'm up to 128 referrals, which shuttle 10% of their earnings to me as a commission. Twenty of them have actually used the app to trigger commissions to me.
Atlas Earth: $18.00
This is kind of a dumb “game” that pays you to watch ads basically, but at this point I've been playing it long enough that I'm earning almost $0.03 per ad I view, 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 March.
TOTAL INCOME: $108.63
Overall, a slow 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 A2 Hosting: $14.99/month
- Tailwind, a Pinterest poster: $14.98/month
- Canva Pro, a graphic design too: $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
Training courses: $146.00
I told myself I wasn't going to get more training, but I did.
One was a package by Beau Norton. I found myself taking notes during his ads. I figured that was a good enough sign that the training was worth it.
I also bought an intro deal from Mark Thompson, whom I follow and trust.
TOTAL EXPENSES: $346.86
NET INCOME: -$238.23 (-$528.95 YTD)
In the red again. I do have one service I'm looking at downgrading that will save me nearly $20/month, and another that I can cancel in October that will save me another $15/month.
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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(Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash)
