Wow – I’ve been a slacker on the extra income posts! Sorry about that. I’m going to blame it on the fact that we’ve been at Spring Cove Marina, spending time at the huge pool that has a poolside bar where you can just charge drinks to your account. You know, so you don’t have to worry about carrying cash. How utterly convenient! And the bartenders are so attentive… you don’t even have to get out of the pool. They just notice that you look hot (as in sweaty… not sexy), and casually yell over, “Your cup is almost empty. Want me to bring you over another Orange Crush?”

“Hell no, you weirdo. What do you think I am, an alcoholic?”   “Yes, please.”

So basically, we tried to do some relaxing this summer, and I blame my decline in side income over the summer to the rum punches, but glad I had at least some side income to pay for them all.

Niche Site Update

One of the niche sites I created (actually the first one) has been getting more traffic than ever, but it’s not resulting in much of an income stream, as I thought it would. I had set it up for Adsense, but I’m finding out that people just don’t really click on ads – at least not my ads – very often, so that’s a bummer. I have it set up for some affiliate sales, but I’m not seeing much progress in that department, either, so I may try to sell the site on Flippa or some other website flipping service. I know I won’t get much out of it, but now I’m trying to focus more on streamlining my income streams rather than a shotgun blast in several directions.

I have another niche site that I’m really proud of – although it hasn’t generated any income yet, it’s in a highly profitable niche, and I want to do a little more optimizing before I decide whether or not to pull the plug on it. You see, the niche sites were great for awhile, but now Google is penalizing low quality niche sites that don’t contain much value to the reader, which are only put up to generate revenue. This site, however, has the potential to become an authority type site, and is a high quality site. It’s for a high priced item, so the commissions would be great. The main thing I need to do is some search engine optimization because it’s not very high ranking on Google yet. I also need to write some more articles for it. The drawback is that it’s in the tech industry, which is always changing, so you have to stay on top of it, and it can be daunting to try to write for. At some point, I hope to be able to reveal the niche, but for now, I’m going to keep it on the down low.

Extra Income

Now, for the extra income summary. I’ve broken down the totals by month and the below is my side income only. It does not count the income I make from my job, nor the honey’s book sales, music sales or his freelance income. This is strictly my side income – I show this so that others can see examples of how they can make money on the side and to know that it is possible to make at least a few hundred extra bucks or more a month, which can be very helpful! I mean, who couldn’t use another $500 or so a month?

Extra Income Summary – July 2014

Web Design Work: $160
Sales/Commissions: $427
Affiliate Income: $28.69
Adsense: $24.61
Writing Gigs: $0
TOTAL: $630.30 (up $178.03 from previous month) 

Extra Income Summary – August 2014

So here are the totals for June. The below is my side income only. It does not count the income I make from my job, nor the book sales or the honey’s freelance income.

Web Design Work: $0
Sales/Commissions: $385
Affiliate Income: $3.79
Adsense: $17.10
Writing Gigs: $0
TOTAL: $405.89 (down $224.41 from previous month)

Extra Income Summary – September 2014

Web Design Work: $0
Sales/Commissions: $153
Affiliate Income: $9.27
Adsense: $10.25
Writing Gigs: $0
TOTAL: $172.52  (down $233.37 from previous month)

I’m hoping to build my side income back up starting this month. The honey leaves in a week for a 2 week boat delivery down to the BVI’s – which means that I’ll have plenty of alone time to try to write, get some website building gigs, and hopefully get that kitty built back up!

In the meantime, I’m also building a site at no charge for a family member who has an awesome side business and just needed an extra push to help her get to the next level. I’ll reveal it on here once it’s done because it’s such a great idea and I hope that the website comes out as good as I think it will.

Do any of you have any unique side businesses that you do that you’d like to share? I’d love to interview some of you – just email me via the contact page!

And last, but not least, I plan to renegotiate my salary this week at my full-time job. Surprisingly, I’ve never asked for a raise in my life (never really had to) but now it’s time to put on my big girl panties and ask for what I’m worth. Have any of you ever successfully negotiated a 5-figure increase in salary? Any tips?

Well, that’s it for now – I’ve gotta get back to that 4 letter word I always talk about.

No, not wine, silly. WORK!

Cheers!