Income Report – May, 2018
Every month we report how much we made with all the different ways we try to earn money online. We strongly believe there are more ways to earn money rather than a typical 8-5 job, so we’re out to prove it’s possible. Here are all the different ways we’ve earned money in May.
As always, feel free to copy what we did and make it better. We’re all here to help each other.
What We Accomplished in May
- Andrew wrote some great articles in May including Get Paid to Write Articles: 20+ Websites That Pay You For Writing in 2018, Day 137 of the Epic Niche Site Battle, How my Affiliate Site is Doing, Stock Analysis of IRM, and 7 Good Reasons I Still Carry Cash.
- Adam also wrote some awesome articles in May including a Side Hustle Spotlight on How To Become a Virtual Assistant, April Round Up of our Favorite Income Bloggers, What I Learned From Starting A Business That Horribly Failed, and How You Can Save Money on Your Summer Adventures.
- We were super appreciative to be featured on two blogs this month including FITnancials and MoneyMaaster! Thank you so much Alexis and Jordan!
- We finally finished our How To Start A Blog free email course. Something we’ve been working on for a while now. We’re trying to add more depth to this post and give people a chance to ask us questions directly!
- We added a “disclosure” tag below all our blog post titles to make us more compliant (did you see it?). We went through Upwork and hired a Freelancer that turned out to be awesome. Let me know if you need any recommendations.
- Lastly, Wallet Squirrel increased our Domain Authority to 32. That’s pretty cool. Hopefully, Google likes us more now. =)
May Income Report
This was another down month, but it had some unexpected surprises that I’ll get into.
Where all my income is coming from
Cashback Credit Card (66.30) – This is the highest my 2% cashback has ever paid me. In March, I had a car accident (that I’m still dealing with), but my insurance asked me if they should send me the money or if they should send it to the body shop to pay for the damage. I initially thought it would be easier for them to send it to the body shop, but quickly realized if they sent me the money. I could charge the damages to my 2% cashback card and then immediately pay it off with their money. That’s what I did and received an extra $40. Wahoo!
Dividends (25.67) – I regularly talk about how much I love dividend stocks and this month aligned with several companies paying out dividends. I essentially received $25.67 for doing nothing but owning a couple companies. True passive income.
Interest Checking/Savings Account (8.42) – Man am I glad I switched to Ally Bank from Wells Fargo. I now have an interest checking and a 1% Interest Savings Account. I usually keep about $4,000 in both my checking and savings account as a buffer and that pays decent interest every month. Currently, I have a bit more in my savings account since I’m saving up for a Prague trip in October. Luckily those Prague savings keep earning me more interest. Wahoo!
Seeking Alpha Articles ($7.78) – So Seeking Alpha is a finance website that analyses the stock market. I wrote 3 articles for them in July 2017 and their pay model pays me $0.01 for every page view and those three articles continue to bring in traffic. I love it! I should really write another article for them.
Wallet Squirrel AdSense ($6.73) – I purposely don’t include a lot of ads on this site because frankly, I hate ads. I have only one in the side bar and definitely no ads that follow you around the entire site. Maybe that reduces my ad revenue, but I’m ok with that. It still brings in a few dollars every month, but luckily that revenue keeps increasing as Wallet Squirrel continues to get more page views every month!
Stock Photography ($4.70) – Not a lot this month for our stock photography. I blame Adam (lol). No this regularly fluctuates but continues to motivate us to take more stock photos whenever we travel or hike. It’s another form of Passive Income that we really love.
Lending Club ($3.77) – Oh Lending Club. I invested $300 over 2 years ago and this continues to trickle in money. It’s not a lot, usually around 5%, but it’s a nice diversity from the stock market that I really like. Plus I just switched my account to “Auto” investing so that it’ll invest in loans that meet my certain criteria so I’m not manually choosing loans which takes time. I’m curious how this change will affect my future interest. Hopefully for the better. You can bet I’ll write about it.
Epic Niche Site Affiliate Marketing ($1.21) – This is purely from the Affiliate Site I created apart of the Epic Niche Site Battle. Honestly I haven’t given it much thought and really need to add a couple more blog posts. Especially since it’s proven to make money with the very limited traffic it currently gets.
Where does this money go?
After expenses (hosting/SEMrush/social media manager/etc.) Adam and I split the income each month to use that cash different ways.
I use that extra cash to invest in my dividend portfolio. Which this last month I’ve bought 4 shares so far of IRM which continues to see a rise in their stock price. Those four shares will produce $9.64 for me annually for doing nothing. That is pretty cool!
Adam uses his extra cash to help pay down his mortgage to reach a debt-free life. This is a great goal and, where most people agree, your extra money should go each month.
What’s next in June?
Adam and I are going to try to take some photos together for a refresh of the Wallet Squirrel homepage and to make our site more personalized. I’ve noticed that people relate better to blogs that have lots of photos of the author. Since we’re real people and the ones writing all the content. I figure we’ll try to look like real people. lol
Lastly, I’m going to try to reach outside of my comfort zone and pitch some larger news agencies on some awesome money saving tips I’ve picked up over the years. I’ve never pitched a major news website before so I don’t know what to expect. Any tips?
Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!
Wallet –
Nice job on your dividends and side income! Also, that credit card cash back is fricken impressive, though I am sorry you are dealing with an extreme car accident. I hope you and others are okay. Congrats on a solid month of income.
-Lanny
“Side Hustle millionaire” status is right around the corner waiting for you my friend. Keep the blogging going. Keep the inspiration flowing abundantly. Keep the side hustle talk going strong. You’re well on your way to becoming “side hustle millionaires.” 🙂
Man I love the way you format these posts with the general earnings all neatly tucked into one image! Heads up, I might steal some of it 😛
I’ve been reading up on the affiliate site battle and I like that idea, it forces you to take steps in order to “beat the other guy”, clever!
Keep up the good work.
Regards,
– LD
I did something similar with the cash back credit card when we had to replace the back sliding glass door at my wife’s house. Before we were married and I wasn’t living with her yet, my dog ran through the sliding glass door, probably because she saw a squirrel, shattering the glass (and scaring everyone!). Since she’s considered my property (the dog, not my wife), my insurance paid for a new door.
The new door cost $3200. I think my wife only used a 1% cash back card, but still, that’s $32 bucks. Plus, the new door was “energy efficient” so we deducted some money off her taxes that year, too.