Income reports are fairly common online mainly coming from people who are promoting location independent lifestyles or promoting building your own online-based company, which are really two sides of the same coin. I think that looking at how money can be made online is really important, and I wish that there had been more resources like this when I got thrown into the deep-end of the entrepreneur pool. And more than that, I wish there had been some realistic starting out examples. There are a few people who have made very very VERY successful blogs about creating online businesses and make A LOT of month. Definitely something to aspire to, but right now I am focused on making a livable amount.

I had always enjoyed doing my own projects and making a little bit of money on the side but I went in head first with a combination of leaving my job so I could move to a different state and having my boyfriend at the time who lived in said state break up with me. On the same day.

Since I didn’t see that one coming, the logical next step was to go to Asia for six weeks before coming back to begin my (online) MBA program through Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. That was going on two years ago now, and I’ve come a long way since then. The first year I mainly spent floundering, and the second year was spent building a foundation for a web-based career. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still not set yet. If growth doesn’t happen in the next one to two years, I will need to go back to the more “conventional” lifestyle, which would still likely include remote work for me at this point, but it likely would be a more conventional 9-5 type setup. But, I hope that doesn’t happen.

Starting this year I’m going to be sharing my income reports, and possibly eventually my expense reports (but I need to figure out a way to track that and publish it in a way that is not going to drive me crazy). This is partially to show that a web-based career is possible and partially to provide extra motivation to grow my online career. I won’t be sharing how much time I spend on various projects because it is very difficult for me to separate what is work and what isn’t sometimes (which can be a great thing and can be a bad thing). I do track this for my records, and may at some point decide to include that information.

As is the nature with a lot of sales and freelance work, it can be very seasonal. I have seen large variations from month to month over the past year and expect those variations to be present again this year.

January 2016 Income Report

Note that unless otherwise specified, all amounts indicated are pre-tax. Note also that payments are indicated in the month they are received, not in the month that work is completed.

Affiliate Revenue – $72.68

Airbnb Rentals – $241.00

Award Bookings – $153.70

Cash Back Promotions – $111.24

Freelance Writing – $675.00

Substitute Teaching – $123.25 (post-tax)

Tutoring (online) – $1,124.33

Total: $2,500.02

January 2016 Reflections

Airbnb and online tutoring are both new things that I started doing because the winters tend to be a little slow for other things, like my photography business. Overall, this month hit right on the nose of my average monthly income goal, which isn’t a bad way to start the year. I’m looking into a few more freelance writing gigs right now and I am also awaiting payment from two people that I have already done work for who are both currently 2.5 months overdue making payment. I am still confident that they will eventually pay me, and hopefully I’ll have positive updates on that development next month! In following months I will also outline the differences from previous months for the various different projects I work on.