July 2018 Online Income Report | Rebuilding Online Income - Update 1

Once upon a time, I survived off income I made from this blog and other online activities like freelance writing. It wasn’t pretty but I was single and determined to survive off what I made online. I managed to pay all my bills through online income in between full-time jobs.

Since then, life changed a lot. I got married, had a beautiful baby, and left blogging in favor of an awesome full-time job with benefits at a cool company that I’m proud to work for. I abandoned blogging and online activities and let the income dwindle. It never stopped, but it definitely took a turn for the worse.

I miss that income and the challenge of earning money online so I’ve decided to set a new starting point and build from there.

I want to earn more money through blogging to help pay for things like daycare, college funds, and hopefully eventually our house. Money doesn’t solve all the problems in the world but it will help me give Penny a better life without spending all my time away from her working.

Why I’m Sharing Online Income Numbers Now

I’ve never shared my online income numbers before, so why do it now?

First, accountability. I’d like to have somewhere to talk about what I’m doing and how I’m using my very limited spare time now to increase my online income. I’d like to share these because it’s a nice way to look back and learn from my mistakes and successes. I started blogging years ago as a way to do the same thing in another area of life so I’d like to do the same with online income.

Second, education. I’m sharing how much extra income I’m making online each month in an attempt to chronicle it and to grow it. Having extra income would help our family achieve so many goals and I’ve watched other bloggers grow their income and I’d like to do it too. I’d also like to educate others on how you can earn extra money online (or even just on the side in “real life”). Earning extra money is possible and I want to show people it is possible.

Lastly, I love reading income reports. They aren’t for everyone but I’ve always loved reading blogger’s income reports. It’s inspiring to see what can be created from nothing. If you’d like to be inspired by other bloggers who’ve done this and had major success, check out Making Sense of Cents and Pinch of Yum. They both started with small amounts and grew their online earnings to major life-changing amounts.

July 2018 Extra Online Income

July was a pretty typical month for my online income, so it’s a great place to start.

Here’s my income source breakdown:

Amazon – $294.04
Google Adsense – $114.90
Awin Affiliate – $125.22
Sponsored Post – $50.00

Total Income: $584.16

This is the amount earned in July 2018, before any fees, expenses, or taxes.

That means I don’t keep all of it it and at least 30% will be gone before it hits my bank account.

I find it awesome that I’m still earning $500+ a month after a couple years of zero effort. It’s a great reminder that this can truly be passive income. Once you build a foundation it can continue working for you even when you are away or unable to keep working.

I’ve got a decent foundation where I’m not starting from nothing, so I just want to expand that and grow now.

Blog News

As one might expect after abandoning something, traffic has dwindled on my blogs instead of grown.

It’s unfortunate but hopefully that is about to change as I work on things. I’m fixing old posts and continuing to share my YouTube videos here. I’ll also have plans for fresh content and food related roundups soon when I have time. Creating content definitely takes longer now since I can only dedicate small amounts of time per day and some days zero time to it between work, mom life, and other responsibilities.

I changed my permalinks to remove dates and make them much cleaner. I put this off for years and now that I’ve done it will probably have a ton of 404 errors for visitors until I’ve fixed it all. Apologies but this will be for the best in the future!

I’ve also changed my writing focus to the things I’ve been interested in years but rarely blogged about, namely personal finance. In my head I’m considering myself a personal finance focused mom blogger. I’d like to share the lessons I’ve learned during my time learning about money and of course being a mom is now a huge part of my life.

My YouTube channel has experienced decent growth in the last couple months. I continue to get increased viewers, subscribers, and watch time. However, I’m still below the monetization level for YouTube so I’m not earning any money from that effort. I’m hoping to hit the monetization level before Labor Day and be monetized again in September at the earliest.

Want to start a blog and earn money too? Check out these posts:

Popular posts on A Merry Life last month:

Popular YouTube videos on my channel last month:

Thanks for reading/watching/following along with this new journey!