£1,966 ($3,026) in Online Income & Life Update – August 2015

Hi everyone! It’s been a while since I last posted an update about what’s been going on with me and that’s just because life’s been really busy lately. There have been some good and not so good things happening and I’ll cover them all in this post along with my report of my August income earned online.

Since June, we’ve had some family staying with us which has been wonderful, especially over the school holidays as it’s meant my little girl has been entertained quite a bit! Having the house full has meant that I’ve struggled with getting all my work done and this blog has had to take a bit of a backseat.

I used to post on Mondays, Weds and Saturdays and it’s been tricky just getting two posts out per week including Financially Savvy Saturdays! This is also the reason I’ve not been commenting as much lately on other blogs, please rest assured that I’ll be back on form again soon.

Property update

A while back, I said that we were going to try to sell our former home which is being rented out, so that we could release the equity and use it for a deposit for our future home. Well, in a nutshell, this has been a complete nightmare.

Actually trying to sell a house whilst it’s being tenanted is very tricky. The tenants complained that they didn’t want to have people looking around the house because of privacy issues. This has resulted in not many viewings and potential buyers offering on other properties because they’ve been unable to access ours!

To be honest, this has all been really stressful because now the tenants have given us notice, probably because they felt very unsettled. We can’t afford for the house to be empty but we’re still trying to sell it, so we need to try and line up another tenant who can move in when the existing ones move out, but who are fully aware that the house is to be sold. Not an easy task!

I’ll keep you posted on this and you can expect a post from me in the future on the pitfalls of being a landlord!

Savings update

Last time I shared a life update, I was feeling very happy that we’d managed to save £13,500 since November 2014 when we became debt free. Since then, we’ve had a setback. I mentioned this very early on in my blog – we actually owed a close family member some money in addition to all the other debt we owed.

We were planning to pay this money back when we’d got back on our feet properly – back on the property ladder and I was hoping to have a bit more in the bank before doing this. However, due to personal circumstances, we felt that we had to pay this money back now. I thought we needed to pay around £5,000, but it turns out we owed £10,000.

This was money we borrowed a long time ago when we got into debt the first time and were on the verge of going bankrupt. It’s funny how it’s difficult to remember bad times because my husband and I really didn’t know how much we owed! Obviously, we were gutted when we found out it was that much but we paid it all back out of our savings. Another important reminder to find out exactly what you owe and keep a record. Family debt is still debt.

Anyway, since then we’ve been saving really hard and we’ve managed to get our savings back up to just over £6,000. It doesn’t have the same ring to it as £13,500 but never mind!

Online income report for August 2015

August has been my best month so far in terms of income – money that I earn online mostly through freelance writing, blogging and social media management. I realised the other day that I need to start setting goals for my income just like I did in terms of reducing my debt when I was desperate to become debt free.

I’m really happy with how freelancing is going currently but there are always months where I feel really scared that I won’t be able to earn enough – so by having a income goal to work towards, I think this will help me to keep on top of the situation so there’s less risk of this happening.

With that said, below is a summary of my online earnings during August! Please note that these figures don’t take into account tax deductions or expenses.

Freelance writing and social media management – £1,220 ($1,878)

This work forms most of my income and includes article writing, twitter, facebook and pinterest promotion for four of my regular clients. Around 40% of the income earned here comes from the work I do using the Upwork freelancing platform.

This is my bread and butter so to speak and I’m very thankful for the continued work that comes my way from these businesses! I’m well aware that it could end at any moment, so I just take on as much work as I possibly can whilst it’s there.

Blog advertising and affiliate income – £657 ($1,011)

I have three blogs that I’m working on right now with Disease Called Debt being the main one. My newest project has fallen by the wayside. I tend to get these ideas in my head about a new money making strategy and then give up before it really gets anywhere! So hopefully, one day I will be able to get in the right mindset to give this another shot.

Since I signed up for the Elite Blog Academy (affiliate link) I’ve been learning about the things I needed to do to improve my blogs. I’m still working through the units – I’ve had no time at all to work on this since June. But even with what I’ve learned so far, I’ve managed to increase my blog traffic quite a bit. I’ll give you the full review on this course when I finally finish it but so far, so good.

My blog income comes from direct advertisers, Google adsense and affiliate income. I’m still pretty new to affiliate advertising and am just dabbling with it at the moment. August’s blog income has been great, but this is a variable income stream and I need to do more to make my earnings consistent.

Passive income from eBooks – £89 ($137)

I have a range of eBooks for sale on Amazon and this income has been generated through sales during the month of June (I get paid 90 days later). It’s not as high as in previous months but given that I haven’t had time to do any promotion since February, I’m pretty pleased with it. When I was doing a lot of work on my eBooks, I was making around £500 ($767) per month – I really need to start doing more with this side of the business again!

Passive income is great because it means I’m getting paid from work done during 2014! If you’re interested in making passive income from eBooks, you might want to check out my series on How to Make Money Writing and Publishing eBooks.

Total income earned: £1,966 ($3,026)

Income goals for September

• Freelance writing / social media management – income goal of £1,300 ($2,000). Work with existing clients to do this and take on more work if possible.
• Blogs – income goal of £600 ($923) – this is lower than what I earned in August, however, I have work to do to on increasing traffic and writing content for two of my blogs and building relationships with advertisers.
• eBooks – sales goal of £200 ($308) – to be paid in 90 days. Do this by writing another eBook, publishing it and promoting it. Also promote my other eBooks to generate more interest and hopefully sales.

Out of interest, is there a topic that you’d like to see me write about, that you’d find useful? If so, leave a comment below!

Target income for September  – £2,100 ($3,232)

Even though next month’s target isn’t much more than this month, I do feel a bit worried about putting this target out there in case I fail. However, goal setting is incredibly important to achieve success, no matter what you’re trying to do. One thing that I am sure of, is that it is possible to earn decent money online.

When I first starting blogging, I read income reports from Michelle at Making Sense of Cents. I couldn’t believe the figures she was reporting – back then she earned between $6K and $10K per month – now she makes in excess of $25K per month! She’s truly an inspiration.

I’ll report back at the end of September – even if I don’t meet my target. Hope you’ll root for me to succeed!

How was August for you?