Side Income Report for March 2018: How I Earned $6,478.63 (on the Side)

The month of March was intense from a personal life perspective, with a couple of major unexpected things happening.

Right at the beginning of the month, Shelly and I decided that we’re going to move back to San Francisco. She accepted a job offer that was too good to pass up on with a former employer, and we knew we’d eventually want to be back in the Bay Area again anyway, so this just bumped up our timeline.

So, we began the process of arranging the details of a big move, coordinating with the breaking of our lease here in Denver, and all the fun stuff that goes along with that.

Then a few days later, on March 8th, 2018, I got the terrible news my father had unexpectedly passed away of a heart attack. It caught everyone completely off guard (myself included) as he had no prior known medical issues.

I’ll remember my dad, Joe Robinson, as the hardest working person I’ve ever met. At 74, he was still running his construction company, pouring concrete (largely by himself) just about every day. He was a true lifelong learner; someone who always took every opportunity to be an educator to me—and we traveled the world together starting way back when I was just a toddler.

I’m not going to dwell on this anymore right here. I’ve been collecting my thoughts and I’ll be putting together something I’ll share on the blog at some point over the coming months.

For now, here’s his obituary if you want to learn more about the man that had such an incredible impact on shaping the person I’ve become—especially when it comes to my work ethic.

Now, if you knew my dad at all, you’d know pretty easily that he would’ve been pissed to hear that the world stopped even for a moment, on his behalf. And while I took most of the month of March relatively “off” from my side projects, it’s back to business now.

So, let’s get to how my side businesses did during the month of march, which understandably took a backseat for most of the month…

I generated $6,478.63 in revenue, and again (like in February) spent more than usual—this time on quite a bit of travel back and  forth between Denver and my hometown of Hanford, California. Still, I turned a small profit ($115.76) despite the rollercoaster ride last month was.

Now, let’s get into the details…

Side Income Report March 2018:  $6,478.63

In these monthly reports, I track my total side income every month, including each individual source of that income, and associated expenses with running my side businesses.

Next, I break down the traffic to my blog which heavily impacts my side income, including what’s performing best and how I’m working to drive in more readers. I also cover how many email subscribers I have, the number acquired during the month, and what that growth trajectory looks like.

Then I talk about my podcast download numbers for the month, and which episodes performed best.

Finally, I cover updates on other side projects I’m working on.

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Now, let’s do this.

1. Side Income Breakdown for March 2018

Gross Income

$6,478.63

1 x Content Marketing Client

    $5,000.00     

1 x Fiverr Pro Consulting Call

    $715.00     

Affiliate Earnings

   Udemy
   CreativeLive
   Amazon.com (Business Books)
   Adobe
   Shopify
   ConvertKit
   Treehouse
   Hostgator
   Skillshare
   Teachable
   Freshbooks
   Docusign
   Contena
   Visme

     $439.03    

        $159.89
          $75.95
          $162.19
          $41.00
          $0.00
          $0.00
            $0.00
            $0.00
            $0.00
            $0.00
            $0.00
            $0.00
            $0.00
            $0.00

Carbon Ads (on the Blog)

    $324.60     

Podcast Sponsorships (Side Hustle Project)

    $0.00     

 

Expenses Breakdown

Total Expenses

$6,362.87

Web Services – Hosting and Storage

   Kinsta
   WP Engine
   Dreamhost
   Google Drive
   Amazon Web Services

     $492.45    

        $200.00
        $249.00
        $22.90
         $19.98
          $.57

Online Tools & Subscriptions

   ConvertKit Email Marketing
   Adobe Creative Cloud
   Edgar Social Media Mgmt (Pre-Paid Annual)
   Narrow.io (Twitter Engagement Tool)
   AddThis
   Calendly
   Quickbooks
   Zoom.us (Video Conferencing)
   Apple App Store (Mac App Renewals)

     $460.51    

        $319.00
        $49.99
        $0
        $19.00
        $12.00
        $10.00
        $10.00
        $14.99
        $25.53

Professional Services

   Freelance Writers (Client Work)
   Office Rent (thx Close.io 😉)
   Hourly Office Rent (Palo Alto, CA)
   Podcast Producer (Xavi at Branded Pod)
   Business Insurance

     $3,243.66    

       $2,428.00
        $0.00
        $80.00
        $699.00
        $36.66

Advertising

   Quuu Promote (Pre-Paid Annual)

      $0.00  

        $0.00

Travel, Office Supplies & Misc

   Office Supplies
   iPhone X Payment Plan
   AT&T Service Plan (iPhone)
   Transaction Fees (from Int’l Payments)
   Home Office Internet (Comcast 👎)
   Travel (Southwest & United ✈️)
   Travel (Uber & Lyft 🚕)
   State Tax Payment (2017 – CO)

      $2,166.25  

        $36.95
        $56.16
        $100.26
        $158.25
        $132.26
        $763.33
        $107.04
        $812.00

 

Net Profit Breakdown

Net Profit

$115.76

Back to profitability (sort of)…

Another expensive month for my side businesses, this time with a lot of travel weighing things down more than usual.

Keeping the rest of this side income report pretty quick, as I’m in the middle of packing for our move! 😊

2. Blog Stats for March 2018: 193,483 Sessions and 43,412 Total Email Subscribers

March traffic in google analytics

Overall traffic was up by a whopping 30% this month I moved up to 241,167 pageviews.

This massive turnaround was due largely to my post on motivational quotes skyrocketing up to the #1 ranking spot in organic search. Like so…

Motivational Quotes SERP Ranking 1 Google Organic

As is typical with Google, this is being tested quite a bit. I’ve noticed the ranking position fluctuate quite a bit on an hourly, daily and weekly basis. So, I’m expecting that it’ll still vary quite a bit (as will my organic traffic) into April—and will hopefully begin to stick up in that #1 spot toward May-June.

As I mentioned in last month’s side income report, my dependency on organic traffic makes me prone to pretty big swings in monthly traffic, depending upon where my highest trafficked blog posts get ranked throughout the month.

When my posts show up near the top of search results, my traffic goes up considerably.

However, this is part of my decision when competing on very difficult search terms like:

Overall site traffic is up by about 7% compared to March 2017.

Email Subscribers.

March 2018 Email Subscribers ryrob

I use ConvertKit to manage my email subscriber community and send out my weekly (sometimes twice weekly) updates.

March saw the addition of 2,880 subscribers to my community.

Which brings me up to 43,412 total subscribers.

3. Podcast Downloads for March 2018: 13,598 Downloads

March Podcast Downloads

The end of March marks the 9th month of hosting my podcast, The Side Hustle Project.

With a total of 13,598 downloads, I’m still down quite a bit from January’s high of 16,425.

Overall downloads per episode were down a little bit as I didn’t have quite as much time to spend promoting individual episodes this month either.

Here are the episodes that went live this month:

However, March did bring my total download numbers for the show up to 103,969 downloads!

🎉🎉🎉 I CROSSED 100,000 DOWNLOADS OF MY PODCAST 🎉🎉🎉

If you’re not a listener yet, give it a try right here 🙂

That’s it for my March side income report.

Hi I'm Ryan Robinson

I'm a blogger, but I'm not my blog. I am not my business either. Occasional podcaster and very-much-recovering side project addict. Co-Founder at RightBlogger. Join me here, on ryrob.com to learn how to start a blog and build a purpose-connected business. Be sure to take my free blogging tools for a spin... especially my wildly popular free keyword research tool & AI article writer. They rule. Somehow, I also find time to write for publications like Fast Company, Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Next Web, Business Insider, and more. Let’s chat on Twitter (X?) and YouTube about our feelings (and business, of course).

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11 replies to “Side Income Report for March 2018: How I Earned $6,478.63 (on the Side)”

  1. Hey Ryan,

    You know you’re the man when it comes to the side also blogging stuff, right? I’m glad to hear that you made close to $7,000 with your side hustle ambitions. It’s a good thing to know that not only is the internet here to stay, but we can also make money online 24 hours a day. And being that you’re contributing writer for Forbes Magazine, that alone can indirectly boost your blogging Revenue potential. I see something in it you probably don’t. Feel free to ask me how any time. 🙂

    Reply
  2. So sorry for your loss, Ryan. I’ll be thinking of you and your family.

    Thanks for another insightful income report.

    Reply
  3. hey Ryan, congrats for your 43k subscribers.

    With this amount of good leads you can easily make a comfortable living online — it depends on how you cultivate your relationship with them and the things which you pre-sell to them on a regular basis.

    What do you usually send them and how often?

    Reply
    • I really don’t “sell” much to my community, not as of late at least. Something I’m planning to switch up over the coming months as I take selling to my email list more seriously.

      Reply
  4. Hi Ryan,

    After reading this blog partially, I felt the desire to double back and tell you that I’m sorry to hear that your dad passed away. I can only imagine the emotions you’re feeling right about now. My mother just turned 77 years old last month and I often wonder how many years she has left until she’s no more. My heart goes out to you and your family in your time of loss. I look forward to building a successful business relationship with you in longevity. Supporting you every step of the way. 🙂

    Reply
  5. Hey Ryan, just also want to express my sympathy on the passing of your dad. He sounds like he was an honorable and wonderful person.

    You clearly learned a ton from him about work ethic, which is on prominent display in every piece of content you put out into the world. I love following your journey!

    Reply
  6. Hey Ryan, meet also necessity to refer my sympathy on the transient of your dad. He sounds equal he was an worthy and wonderful cause.

    You understandably scholarly a ton from him most operate ethic, which is on spectacular demonstration in every join of cognition you put out into the reality. I couple pursuing your traveling!

    Reply