2018 Side Hustle Income Report Month 10

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This update is going out late this month but with very good reason. Many things can change in the course of a month.

on November 5th I was featured in an article from Money Magazine (Time Magazine’s finance publication) about Merch by Amazon. Well, two days later I get an email from Merch saying that “after further consideration” my account has been reinstated.

Huh.

So what does that look like?

Only 7 of my 150 shirts look like they’re going to go back up. However, those shirts have been in “processing” purgatory for over a week. Amazon also paid me the over $2,000 in royalties it owed me from August and September sales. It hit my account this week so you’ll see it on next month’s report.

I sent an email to Amazon asking “what’s up?” and I’m waiting for a response. I’ll keep you updated as the juicy saga unfolds.

Rest of the year’s reports:

• January’s Side Hustle Income Report
• February’s Side Hustle Income Report
• March’s Side Hustle Income Report
• April’s Side Hustle Income Report
• May’s Side Hustle Income Report
• June’s Side Hustle Income Report
• July’s Side Hustle Income Report
• August’s Side Hustle Income Report
• September’s Side Hustle Income Report

I’m still not sure what the whole Merch thing means but it doesn’t change the path I’m on. I’m going to keep working on other streams of income that come from making an impact in people’s lives.

As always, I only include income that’s deposited into my account so sometimes it’s from stuff I did a while ago but none of it is speculative.

Airbnb: $698.92

October was our slowest month by far. I have a hunch that it had something to do with hurricane season and the fact that snowbirds didn’t come down as early so they could participate in local elections.

We charge $37 per night on weekdays, $40 per night Fri and Sat, and a $12 cleaning fee. I mark nights down to $35 per night if we’re unbooked short notice. The room is in the front of the house and we let the people use the spare bathroom privately.

In October we were booked 9 nights over 3 stays. I won’t calculate the avergae since one of those stay carried over into November and it would skew the calculation.

I highly recommend Airbnb to monetize unused space. It’s fun to meet new people and easy because you’re never too far if something goes wrong. If you want to get started, sign up through this link and you’ll help us earn a little extra too!

T-Shirts: $34.29

This is all from Etsy. This number will be artificially inflated next month and we’ll see what happens beyond that. I still don’t plan on building my Etsy or Merch store (At least not with T-shirts.)

Books: $987.91

These are my book earnings from August. I sold 300 copies of The No-Spend Challenge Guide and 52 copies of Meal Planning on a Budget.

In August I ran countdown deals on both books and did some publicity on them and made a whopping $11 over last month. NSCG was also on sale all September and became #1 in its primary category so I’m excited to see that number next month.

My ads are still running and since July I’ve netted an extra $261.70 which is $105.44 since last month.

Mystery Shopping: $0

No mystery shopping recently. I just haven’t been up for it. It’s fun but you have to be available afterwards to write the report and I’ve just been exhausted so we said nah. I started back this month.

If you want to learn more about mystery shopping you can read my post about it.

Blog: $127.90

Another light month.

• $16.87 from Amazon Associates
• $37.28 from Ads
• $73.75 from the Financial Freedom Planner

To put this in perspective, I get an average of 15,265 page views per month from 11,833 sessions (or 1.29 pages per session) and I have 1,997 active email subscribers. I don’t do anything to get traffic to the blog. I have a lot of pins on Pinterest and that along with some organic traffic is how I get this.

Total: $1,849.02

Total Passive Income: $1,150.10 (38% to goal of $3K per month- 2% increase over last month!)

Expenses:

• Book Ads: $13.56
• Etsy Seller Fees: $9.09
• Planner Templates: $59
• Frugal Friends Book Club Winner: $13.56

Total: $95.21

Set aside for taxes: $420

October Grand Total: $1,429.02

2018 Running Total: $23,736.91

Goals for Q3 of 2018:

1. Grow the Frugal Friends Community. We’re still focusing on growing our podcast audience. I’ve been appearing on podcasts we’ve started a book club to increase engagement and reviews! We’re giving away a copy of our Book of the Month for every 5 reviews we get.

If you want to participate, subscribe to the show, leave us a review, and send a screenshot to frugalfriendspodcast@gmail.com!

We’re also working with Cook Smarts to introduce people to an awesome service and hopefully build revenue that can pay for the podcast upkeep.

2. Build a New Website (and all the things that come with it.) New things mean a new brand and a new website. I’m through the planning stage and the rest of the year bring a lot of writing, designing, and building! I’ll share more in December but watch out for what’s to come!