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August 2018 Income Report
Welcome to my very first income report!
Originally, I planned to do my first income report later this year, probably either in September or October. But since I have been tracking the income I earned last month, I figured, why not start with the August 2018 Income Report? And sure, I didn’t meet my goal of earning $47 a day, but I still made a little bit of money. Not a lot, but enough for a couple cups of coffee, if I were still drinking coffee.
The August 2018 Income Report is the benchmark that I will be measuring future income reports on. One day, it’ll be nice to look back on this post and see how far I’ve come.
So, let’s break it down.
During The 31 Days Of August, I Earned $11.61 in Completely Passive Income
Where did this income come from?
Two sources. A majority of my income came from the writing prompt ebooks I have for sale on TheFakeRedhead.com. That’s my creative writing website, where I post writing tips and writing prompts for creatives, usually novelists. I’ve had the ebooks up for a while, but haven’t made a lot of attempts to actively promote them.
The rest of the passive income came from Google Adsense.
Here’s where I think the numbers get interesting. With only two sales on TheFakeRedhead.com, I made $7.96, which means I only made $3.65 all last month from Adsense.
August 2018 Income Report: What I Learned About Passive Income
It’s clear with the traffic I have that Adsense is not going to make me my zillions (at least, not yet). I knew that going into it. If you don’t already know that you really do need an absurd amount of traffic to make an entire living of Adsense, you do now. That’s not feasible for 99% of bloggers. Worry not, there are a ton of smarter ways to go about generating passive income. And this website ALL about working smarter, not harder.
One of the ways to do that is by focusing on selling my ebooks. Not only that, but looking at my Google Analytics traffic report, I can see that most of the people who come to TheFakeRedhead.com are new visitors. So, I need to find a way to really target those new visitors toward my ebooks. Google Analytics and the importance of monitoring your traffic is something I will cover in a future post.
Passive Income Plans
I spent the long Labor Day Weekend focusing on ways to improve the sales of my current ebooks for sale on TheFakeRedhead.com. Not only did I give the ebooks a refresh (and raise the prices), but I also am taking advantage of the flexibility I get with my theme, Divi, from Elegant Themes, to put those front and center on the pages of that website that get the most traffic.
The other thing I’m going to do is really do better at promoting those ebooks through my Pinterest account. Pinterest is a critical factor toward the amount of traffic I get to TheFakeRedhead.com, and once I really establish the Pinterest account that leads to QuestFor47.com, I know that it will be a critical factor toward getting eyes on this website too. If you don’t know my now that Pinterest is the best way to get free traffic to your website, you do now!
Along with working hard to get this website off the ground, I also did a lot of personal investment. I worked through an online course that I will talk about in an upcoming review, and have also purchased what I know is going to be a home run of an online course that will really get my business up and running. This is what is going to take this website, and my business, to the next level. It’s going to get me from not reaching my goal of $47 a day to reaching that and beyond. More to come.
If you’re on the fence about online courses, remember what I said in 8 Keys To A Successful Side Hustle: you must always be prepared to learn. Side hustles take time, take effort, and take an open-mindedness to understand that you do not know everything. Be prepared to learn and to invest in learning.
What I Posted In August
I posted a lot in August, because during this soft-launch phase, I know that getting content up is very, very important. As I’ve mentioned, you should have between 15-20 posts on your website before you launch. You want to take the best advantage you can when you launch. That means creating enough content to keep your new readers around. You want them to both stay AND come back whenever you put up a new post. And to get them coming back, you need to make sure you have them sign up for your email list. If you haven’t already signed up for mine, you can do so by clicking here.
The August posts include:
Start Here: Introducing My Passive Income Journey To $47 A Day
Passive Income Goals – Six Questions You Must Answer
Start Your Side Hustle In Five Easy Steps
Hosting Your Hustle – Why I Use Siteground To Host My Websites (And You Should Too!)
8 Keys To A Successful Side Hustle
3 Things To Do Before Launching Your Side Hustle
5 Ways To Maintain Your Side Hustle
Required Reading for Entrepreneurs – Why Dan Lok’s F.U. Money Is A Must-Read
Inspiration From Required Reading
Last month, I read (and reviewed) Dan Lok’s F.U. Money for Required Reading for Entrepreneurs. This book was incredibly transformative for my moneymaking mindset. It helped me think of a lot of things very differently. The link to that review is in the section above and I highly recommend that everyone picks up a copy. In Chapter 17: The Power of Setting D.I.G., Lok writes about not just setting a Daily Income Goal, but also having that daily target front and center, in a place you’ll look at every day. And guys, his D.I.G. is mind.blowing!
While I do have an Excel spreadsheet that I use to track my earnings, I also bought a giant, stick-on wall calendar that’s now hanging above my couch. I need my goals to be out there and for me to see each and every day, and while the Excel spreadsheet is great, I can minimize and forget it. But I can’t avoid looking at a giant calendar on my living room wall.
My motivational calendar hanging above my couch, accompanied by my budding Build-A-Bear collection!
I got my calendar from Amazon, the Whiteboard Restickable Dry Erase Monthly Scheduling Calendar for Wall 24 x 36. I really like this one because it has a completely adhesive back, and once it sticks, it doesn’t move. Not only that, but the calendar is large enough that there is plenty of room for me to write in my passive income goals, so I can really see how much I made.
The calendar comes rolled up the box, so I left it on the floor and weighted by some books for a few days to flatten out. With how sticky the backing is, I don’t think I needed to, but I figured I might as well make sure it’s not going to fall off the wall and terrorize the cat. It comes with a dry-erase marker, but I threw box of colored markers in my shopping cart to mark up the page at the end of the month. You’ll see the result in the September 2018 Income Report.
Coming Up In Required Reading For Entrepreneurs
More Goals For September
I’m not quite ready to full-on launch this website (if you’ve stumbled upon it so far, welcome, there’s more to come!) and most of it is related to getting more content up and posted. So for September, I’m going to try post the same number of posts that I had in August. I also am working a Facebook page and beefing up my Pinterest presence.
Upcoming posts include the Required Reading for Entrepreneurs review I mentioned above, a post on how it’s possible to both follow your passions AND make profits, and a comprehensive week in the life of a busy side hustler.
Me. The busy side hustler is me.
Additionally, I plan on posting reviews on two online courses that have helped me get this new website concept off the ground. I will also post about the hard truths of passive income, and what volleyball can teach you about blogging. Volleyball? Yes, volleyball.
Excited for my upcoming posts? Sign up for the email list to be the first to hear about the newest posts on QuestFor47.com.
Is there something you’d like to see me write about? A book you think I should feature in Required Reading for Entrepreneurs? Leave a comment below and tell me what you’re curious about.
Check Out My Other Income Reports
September 2018 – How I Earned $18.20
October 2018 – How I Earned $13.23
November 2018 – How I Earned $24.84
February 2019 – How I Earned $32.02
Ready To Start Your Own Side Hustle?
If you’re ready to get started with setting up your own website, don’t forget to download my FREE Blog Startup Checklist. Not only does it include the steps you need to start your own website, but the freebie printable has 50 different ideas for you to get inspired to write those first 20 posts. And don’t forget to get hosting (plus a free domain) for as little as $3.95/month through Siteground.
Ready to write an awesome blog post that your audience will devour?
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Looks like you’ve set a plan in motion! That’s awesome. I hope you continue to see progress and success as the months roll out.
Thank you! I’m really excited to keep going with this!
I’m curious how to get Google Adsense to work for me. I have it set up, I have traffic. But i haven’t made a dime! The only income I’m making is from my online Teachable course and Patreon.com/datesinthestates . This was a very interesting read.
Adsense can definitely be a little tricky. Are the ads showing up on your pages, because that might be part of the issue. I have a plugin called Ad Inserter that I use to get the adsense code on my pages. It’s a little tricky to use, but I think it’s definitely worth it to work through. Good luck!
Wow! I’m working my way to passive income. This is so inspiring! Great post!
Thanks so much! I’m really excited to see where I can go from here!
Way to have a plan! And, thanks for sharing, because it gives me hope and motivation. Good luck in your endeavors!
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” 🙂
I know it’s going to be hard, but I am so excited to see how far I can take this! Thank you!
Keep forward with the plan. Sounds like you’re well grounded to succeed.
Thank you! I’m so excited to see where this takes me!
Good start! I’m confident you’ll get there!
Thank you! I’m so excited to see where this takes me!
Some great tips, thanks for sharing!
Of course!!!
This is really interesting, I definitely need to look into more forms of passive income
Passive income is SO important. Being your own boss is awesome, but if you’re still trading hours for dollars, then you can only make so much. Truly passive income really has no limits!
How exciting to be expanding your passive income! I’m working on that shift to passive vs active product sales. Good luck!!
I’m so excited! Good luck to you too on your journey!
You will get there! You have goals and drive!
Thanks! I know I will and I am so excited to get there!
A few dollars here and there can add up. I need to start doing some things like this on my blog. Thank you for the motivation!
Oh for sure! I’ll really excited to diversify my streams and really start making money. Good luck and keep going!
Thank you for sharing this information. I’m also trying to figure out the best approach for monetizing a site. Great information!
Happy to help. It’s okay to start small. Remember to build your email list and really nurture those subscribers, because they’ll be the ones that are most likely to spend on what you’re offering
Well done! Proverbs about oak trees growing from acorns leap to mind.
Oh for sure! It’ll happen!
I love this! We’ve all gotta start somewhere right? You are right, it’s going to be so neat to look back on this in a few months!
Yeah, I’m really excited for that! And now that I’m really focusing on getting traffic to this website, I’m seeing a TON of interesting stuff go on in my Adsense dashboard. Can’t wait until the end of this month to see my progress!
These are great tips! I am not quite to where I can make money on my blog but hope to soon 🙂
Same here! It’s all a process, and I’m excited to see how far I go!
That is great, passive income is the way to go!
It really is!
Comgrats chica! I think your goals are spot on and I appreciate the tips.
Adsense isn’t even on my radar. The risk of the crap they advertise and the low low low pay just don’t come together for me. But selling ebooks is a fantastic way to get moving! I need some prompts so I am popping over to check them out.
Love that wall calendar!
Yeah, there are definitely some drawbacks to Adsense, but I’ve been keeping track of what ads I approve, which helps. I am SUPER picky. Can’t wait until I can move up to something like Monumetric. And the calendar is so great. I highly recommend it!
I love the wall calendar. I need to make a calendar for my posts, etc. to keep on top of everything. Way to go!
There are so many uses for this calendar, it’s wild! And it’s definitely big enough to put your blogging schedule on it too!
Congrats! Every little bit counts towards your goal!
Exactly! Thank you!
Yeah! Great start towards your monthly goal.
Thanks! Have to start somewhere!
Love sharing this ride with you! I started my blog this past spring and so far I have not yet monetized it with passive income, but it’s a goal for the fourth quarter of the year! Thank you for the in depth information.
Good luck with your blog! Monetization is a slow and steady race! It’s going to be awesome!
Completely agree about investing in learning. I try to set aside a little investment each month (sometimes it’s time, sometimes $$) for educational stuff for my site!
It’s so important! I have to train myself to not over do it haha!
This is an awesome article! Thank you for all of the information, it is super helpful!
Of course! Happy to help!
I have read The Science of Getting Rich! I love these types of books! I got into them about 2 years ago and as my mind shift has changed, so has the opportunities available. So glad to meet someone else reading them!
I’m 8 chapters in (taking it slow on purpose) and it’s so wild how my mindset has been framed compared to how it CAN be framed. Love it!
Wow! I never thought of coming up with a daily dollar amount. That’s a very focused goal. Impressive group of post for August too!
I had a general idea of it when I started this website (hence the url, lol), but didn’t really dig deep into focusing on a DIG until reading FU Money. And thanks!
Great job! It looks like you have a wonderful plan in place. These numbers are just going to keep going up. 🙂
Thanks so much! I’m excited to see where this takes me!
get it girl!
Thanks!
Sounds like you have a great plan! It can be so hard to get rolling with this, I’m still trying to get myself set up. There is always room for improvement!
It’s definitely a challenge to start, but there’s so much proof out there that once you get going and get your systems in place, it works! I’m so excited to improve every day.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading!
This is awesome that you are sharing this progress towards your goal! What an interesting project! I will be following along. Good luck!
Thanks so much! I’m really excited to see where this project will take me!
Hi, I do believe this is a great website. I stumbledupon it 😉
I will come back once again since I book-marked it.
Money and freedom is the best way to change, may you be rich and continue to guide others.
Glad you found it! Welcome!
I’m really enjoying your blog posts. Thank you for showing us newbies that it is a marathon and not a sprint.
Thank you so much! I have a great time writing them. Be on the lookout for my October post later this week! It’s going to be a good one!