Hey guys, it’s time for my February side hustle report!
I made $1501 of extra income in February – not too shabby.
Why Do I Share My Side Hustle Income?
One of my goals for 2017 is to increase my side hustle income.
I’m trying to save for early retirement and it can’t hurt to have a few extra dollars coming in each month.
Plus, I’m a total nerd and I actually find this stuff fun.
Without further adieu, here are my side hustle numbers – separated by category.
My Blogging Income Is Increasing Each Month
This past month was a great month for my blogging income, despite the fact that I spent most of my time trying to launch a physical product.
I was so busy that I only put out a handful of posts:
- Why You Don’t Need To Go The Full Mile To Get What You Want
- 10% Of The Year Has Passed – How Are You Doing On Your Goals?
- Should You Take Time Off? In Defense of the Gap Year
- 10 Books That Changed Me..And 10 That Didn’t
Yet I made over $1,000!
That’s the best thing about passive income like blogging – it’s passive.
FlexOffers & Ebates For The Win
FlexOffers kicked butt this month! I was not expecting an almost $800 increase month-over-month. CRAZY!
Ebates is also a consistent earner for me (probably because I write about how I use it to save money on travel frequently).
It has a great referral program, where if you refer three friends, you get $75.
If you haven’t signed up for Ebates yet, start earning your cash back now.
Blogging Expenses
As you can see – I have quite a list of blogging expenses. These expenses are worth it to me.
I actually just bought the Pinteresting Strategies ebook which is 90+ pages of content. I am learning how to increase my traffic and can’t wait to implement what I’m learning.
At $32, this ebook is a steal. Check out the Pinteresting Strategies ebook here.
Tailwind and Boardbooster also help me drive crazy traffic from Pinterest.
I highly recommend you sign up for the free trial for those two if you aren’t trying them out already.
I wrote tutorials with screenshots as I was setting them up if you need help:
Sucuri was a one time cost in January when my blog got hacked and now I have security monitoring for the whole year.
You Need A Blog To Make Money Blogging
I started this blog with Bluehost (because it was cheap).
I recently wrote a tutorial about how to create a blog on Bluehost as I was creating the site for my new physical product.
I included screenshots which I think will help people set up their site.
I Launched My Product on Etsy
OK so here is the exciting news for this month – I launched my physical product on Etsy!
I spent February brainstorming product ideas, listening to a bunch of Amazon and Etsy podcasts, and emailing back and forth with manufacturers to get my product made.
I finally launched my product last week and got my first sale!
I’m so pumped about it, you have no idea.
Why I Bought $584 Worth Of Product
As you can see, I dove in head first and bought $584 worth of product.
Some of you are probably thinking why would you do that?
Most experts recommend you start with a small order because you don’t know if your product will actually sell.
I didn’t start small. Here’s why:
- One of my goals for 2017 is to actually do things – not just google them excessively and then table them for later. There is no better way to learn about how to sell physical products than selling physical products. I consider this $584 an educational expense.
- Two, the more units I got, the cheaper the product would be. I only have to sell 10% of the units to break even on the product. I’m pretty sure I can do that based on the demand I see in the market.
- Third, I’m reinvesting the money I make on the blog back into my other side hustles. I don’t mind taking risks with this money.
So What is Your Product?
I plan to write a post next month where I share the details of how I thought of the product, how I designed and manufactured the product, and how I ultimately sold the product.
Stay tuned!
I Kicked Off My 1×1 Coaching Service
I kicked off my 1×1 Coaching Service this month and I loved it!
It was great connecting with some awesome readers and helping them figure out the next steps they should take.
I was surprised to see that sign-ups were even across the two areas.
- Debt Coaching (5 people)
- Blog Coaching (6 people)
Not everyone who signed up ultimately booked but maybe they will this month.
Check out my Coaching Services Page if you want to learn more about working with me.
All of my sessions are 60-minute Skype sessions and you can book online through Calendly.
We Still Have the Accidental Rental Property
We still have this property. Luckily, we have no unexpected expenses to report this month.
We’re figuring out what to do with it when the lease is up in June.
We might put it up for sale or rent it again for another year.
There’s a small chance we might move back into it, but that’s small.
Total Revenue = $1501.34
Check out last month’s blogging income report to see the month-over-month progress.
JOIN THE OFF-THE-BLOG EMAIL LIST
If you want my off-the-blog blogging tips (where I share all the good stuff) then join my email list:
Do you have any questions or comments about any of these side hustles?
Leave a comment below!
Millennial Boss
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Awesome job again Julie! The thing I really like about your income reports are that they seem attainable, and I’m hoping I can get to that level one day. It’s cool to read the income reports from the mega blogs, but those are just so crazy that I can’t even think about it.
Haha very true! I’m still in the “attainable” stage of blogging income. Good luck!
Hey Julie, great job growing your income! I really enjoy the part about you getting your own product. They say you know you’re doing something right when it gets you all excited. I’m sure you’re on the right path, can’t wait for your post next week!
Thanks so much! Yeah, it’s funny how a few sales on a product can get me way more excited than my 9-5 sometimes!
I’ve been thinking about opening up an etsy store to make digital birthday invitations, graphics, etc. I think that would be a good way for me to bring in a little extra cash. Was it easy to open the store?
Yes – opening the store is the easy part. Shipping is a little harder but nothing that should stop you from trying it out. Go for it!
Great job Julie! That’s definitively a nice increase month-over-month. And well done on your blog coaching services, this is something which I’d like to start as well and it’s nice to see that you love it!
I do! Thank you! Good luck in starting your coaching business!
Congrats on an awesome month, Julie. Your results are very inspiring. I’m still working on figuring out the whole side hustle game, so I really appreciate you laying everything out like this. Here’s to a great week and month ahead for you.
This is awesome growth Julie. Thanks for sharing. Are you going to share what your etsy product is? You might get some sale through the blog. Is the Flexoffer you are running Personal Capital or another one?
Wow, you’re doing really well with your side income. FlexOffers is very impressive. I’ve never been able to earn over $100/month from there. (If you’re running Personal Capital on FlexOffers, you should consider working directly with them. I think they pay better if you work with them directly.)
Great job!
Congrats on a great month! I can’t wait to hear more about your Etsy product. Very intriguing! I’m looking into Amazon/Etsy selling as a new side hustle but there are so many different directions it can go in and it’s difficult to take the plunge. I can just imagine how exciting those first sales must be!
Awesome! Congrats!
Slow and steady!
Amazon used to be my big income maker. But it has slowly gotten smaller. Other options are paying better now.
Wow, that is phenomenal for a side income, congratulations! Hope I get to this level one day, keep it up!:)