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I’m writing this side income report from sunny Fort Lauderdale, and couldn’t be happier about that! As I mentioned in my previous blog post, we arrived in Cocoa Village the day before Thanksgiving. We ended up spending Thanksgiving at a beach bar and had fish tacos… because nothing says Happy Thanksgiving like fish tacos and Yuengling on draft, right?
I gotta say, we loved Cocoa Village. It was such an awesome little town, with a killer pizza joint called Ryan’s, The Village Idiot, an awesome craft beer bar, and a sushi place that was so good that I ate my face off every time we went in there. To the point that I was infamous, and the sushi chefs would totally tease me about how much I ate. They always gave us great free samples to try though, and everyone was super cool.
Cocoa Village Marina was also fantastic. The staff was great, the facilities were top notch, and they worked a lot with Active Captain in finding ways to improve their service and wifi (very important), and I gotta say, they had great wifi from all of the boat slips – probably better than any other marina we’ve been at, and when you work from your boat, especially on a computer, this is VERY important, as it saved me from having to connect by tethering my iPhone, which gets very expensive.
The only thing we didn’t like about Cocoa Village was that it was COLD. I mean, I knew it was north of the “tropic zone” in Florida, but we didn’t expect it to be as cold as it was all winter. There were nights that it got down in the low 40’s, and I only got to wear a short sleeve shirt twice the entire winter. Yes, I know… #spoiledboatproblems. But when you spend a lot of time, effort and money to come south for the winter, you expect it to be warm.
View from our boat on a canal in Fort Lauderdale.
We decided to stay anyway because we did love the town and the marina, and we made some awesome friends on our dock there. February was coming to a close, though, and the honey got some freelance work opportunities in Fort Lauderdale, and although we had not planned on coming this far south, especially this late in the season, we weighed our options, and making money took precedence, so here we are, and it looks like we may be here for awhile.
Fort Lauderdale can be a little kooky, but the weather is unbeatable this time of year. I mean, it’s seriously amazing how gorgeous it is here right now. We’re at a cool little boutique vacation resort that has a few boat slips out back, and we have a million dollar view. It’s nice. We’ve worked hard, and I think we’ve earned it.
Extra Income
All that said… dun dun dun… here are the side income reports from the past few months. 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 income from book sales, music sales or his freelance jobs. This is strictly my side income minus fees such as PayPal – I show this so that others can see examples of how they can make money on the side.
Extra Income Summary – November 2014
Web Design Work: $331.24
Sales/Commissions: $113.72
Affiliate Income: $6.99
Adsense: $19.57
Writing Gigs: $0
Misc: $0
TOTAL: $471.52 (down $290.88 from previous month)
Extra Income Summary – December 2014
Web Design Work: $314.67
Sales/Commissions: $644
Affiliate Income: $16.36
Adsense: $8.59
Writing Gigs: $0
Misc: $50
TOTAL: $1033.62 (up $580.12 from previous month)
Extra Income Summary – January 2015
Web Design Work: $290.70
Sales/Commissions: $108.39
Affiliate Income: $3.10
Adsense: $13.94
Writing Gigs: $0
Misc: $37.37
TOTAL: $453.50 (down $580.12 from previous month)
Extra Income Summary – February 2015
Web Design Work: $290.70
Sales/Commissions: $172.70
Affiliate Income: $0.64
Adsense: $12.07
Writing Gigs: $0
Misc: $43.11
TOTAL: $519.22 (up $65.72 from previous month)
In Conclusion
As you can see, my side income has been staying pretty steady at around the $500 mark, with the exception of December, in which I always see a bump in Christmas sales from my online nautical jewelry shop.
I’m not disappointed, but not super pleased with it either because I want to grow my side income, not just stay steady. I definitely want to make some adjustments to the ads on the blog, and what I really want to do is find ways to automate and further monetize my niche sites. I have done literally nothing with them and while they certainly aren’t paying any bills, they aren’t costing me anything and I’m still seeing income from them, even though it’s very minimal. I also know that seeing an increase in income from websites or a blog can take awhile, so I know I need to be patient, too. March is looking decent so far, but I think (hope) to be seeing a much more significant difference in April and May.
As always, please leave comments with your own experiences, suggestions, or questions!
