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. Parenthesis show change from the previous month.

I share my income because I want people to know that working online is a serious possibility, but it does require a lot of hard work and it will take you a while to find your niche and build your business. In 2015, I barely made more than I did working part time at $10 per hour in college. Now things are looking up but are still realistic. There are a handful of very very very successful bloggers that share their income online, and while I believe then and am impressed by them, making over a million dollars a year online is probably not something most people are going to be able to achieve. Making a livable income and having the flexibility to go where you want and even to work when you want? Yes. That’s what I do, and I think you can too.

April 2016 Income Report

Affiliate Revenue – $45.28 (-$82.80)

Airbnb – $531.00 (-$451.00)

Award Bookings – $243.38 (-$965.70)

Cash Back Promotions – $10 (-$1,338.60)

Freelance Writing – $3,920.79 (+$2,045.79)

Misc. – $0.00 (-$72)

Substitute Teaching – $0.00 (-$161.00)

Travel Agency – $0.00 (same)

Tutoring (online) – $143.90 (+$106.35)

Total: $4,891.35 5,813.31 (-$921.96)

April 2016 Reflections

April was a pretty crazy month in a lot of ways. I was still out in Colorado and had met a really cool group of people so I was trying to make the most of my last couple of weeks out there – and the last couple of weeks of skiing for the season. Depending on how you look at it, you could call my last day of the ski season (this year) a success. I wasn’t at all ready to head back to Michigan, but at least from the work perspective it was probably a good thing considering I hadn’t really been pushing things at the beginning of the month (and that will partially be reflected in next month’s income report as well).

Even with all of that considered, this month was a pretty good one! My freelance writing is really taking off and currently providing the bulk of my income. There are two blogs that I am regularly contributing for plus a handful of random gigs here and there.

It was a bit of a tough month for award bookings, which is two-faceted. 1 – we got less booking requests this month and 2 – I wasn’t spending my days sitting at my computer a whole lot and especially when demand is a bit low, competition is high between the award booking specialists to take on new bookings. Overall, I’m find with it and I wouldn’t trade my last few weeks of being in Colorado for a couple extra hundred dollars. Though, maybe next year I’ll rethink jumping off cliffs.