Here’s an update on how I’m getting on with my profit goal for 2018 taking February into consideration.
As I mentioned in my last income report, this year one of my 4 goals is to earn at least £4,000 profit from my Side Hustle ventures. It’s not a ground-breaking amount of money but everyone has to start somewhere, and £4,000 extra in my pocket on top of my day job is nothing to be sniffed at. So I’ve put my stake in the ground and declared £4K to be my 2018 target.
The first thing that I do when I set myself an annual goal is to see how that breaks down across the months and weeks of the year. So I’m looking at needing to make:
£4,000 per year or
£333.33 per month or
£76.92 per week
This means that my target profit for February would ideally be in the region of £333.33. Seeing as I was short of hitting my goal in January there’s another £101.08 to try to earn on top, but that’s simply a stretch goal!
INCOME REPORT
Here’s how my income is panning out:
| Month | Income | Running Total |
|---|---|---|
| January | £377.45 | £377.45 |
| February | £156.62 | £534.07 |
| March | ||
| April | ||
| May | ||
| June | ||
| July | ||
| August | ||
| September | ||
| October | ||
| November | ||
| December |
As you can see, at £156.62 there’s quite a dip in income for February. This is largely due to the fact that this income represents book sales made after the Christmas rush - mostly in January. I didn’t run any book promotions during this month and as a result my sales were down. Of course February is also a shorter month, so there’s a few less days to make money than normal.
So my running total income for the year is sitting at £534.07. If you’d have told me a couple of years back that I’d be generating income outside of my day job I wouldn’t have believed you, so it’s nice to think how far I’ve come already.
Here’s a break-down of where the income came from in February:
Unusually my audiobook sales came in as my 2nd best earner in February. I only have one audiobook for sale on Audible at the moment so this was a strong month. I managed to earn an Audible bounty which means that somebody chose my book as their free sign-up book to Audible, resulting in a lovely $50 bounty bonus!
EXPENSE REPORT
Here’s how my Side Hustle expenses panned out for February:
| Month | Expenses | Running Total Expenses |
|---|---|---|
| January | £145.20 | £145.20 |
| February | £18.62 | £163.82 |
| March | ||
| April | ||
| May | ||
| June | ||
| July | ||
| August | ||
| September | ||
| October | ||
| November | ||
| December |
February’s expenses are extremely low at £18.62. As mentioned before, I didn’t do any book promotions for my publishing side hustle and this is the prime reason why expenses were so low. I had very small expenses on advertising through Amazon and Ebay/Paypal fees.
During February I decided to have another go at matched betting, so I took out a monthly subscription to OddsMonkey (affiliate link) because I simply would not be able to take advantage of all the offers without use of their brilliant odds matching tool. This was my largest expense in February.
Compared to January I hardly had any expenses, but then my income was significantly reduced compared to January - so it’s interesting to see that there is a correlation between how much you spend, versus how much you make!
PROFIT PROGRESS
Here’s how my profit is looking now that February is taken into account.
| Month | Target Profit | Actual Profit | Difference | Running Total Profit | Running Total Over / Under Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | £333.33 | £232.25 | -£101.08 | £232.25 | -£101.08 |
| February | £333.33 | £138.00 | -£195.33 | £370.25 | -£296.41 |
| March | £333.33 | ||||
| April | £333.33 | ||||
| May | £333.33 | ||||
| June | £333.33 | ||||
| July | £333.33 | ||||
| August | £333.33 | ||||
| September | £333.33 | ||||
| October | £333.33 | ||||
| November | £333.33 | ||||
| December | £333.33 |
February was a low month for me at £138 profit versus my target of £333.33. I confess that I put in very little effort to my publishing business during February and this is clearly evidenced. Having books available for sale online has the potential to earn massive amounts of passive income, however at the moment I’m finding that I make much more money when I spend time and money actively running book promotions. I think this is a matter of scale. As I build up my book portfolio it will be less essential to run regular promotions, because I will have sufficient books to generate my desired income without really needing this.
Looking ahead to March, in terms of money I’m expecting to receive from kindle book sales, it’s even worse than February! However, from April onward things should start to look up because I’ve been running book promotions again. I think I just have to ride out these couple of low profit months and keep on looking at the bigger picture goal of getting more books published. There’s at least a two month delay between working on a book and seeing the profits in my pocket, so I just have to accept this.
WHAT ACTIONS WORKED/DIDN’T WORK FROM LAST MONTH’S PLAN
Here’s a review of how I got on with the plans I made last month to try to hit my February target:
Sign-up with a site to help me make money from Matched Betting. I’ve used Odds Monkey (affiliate link) in the past, and this is who I plan to sign up with again. I anticipate that Matched Betting will need to be my main money generator this month
- As mentioned in my expenses, I signed-up with OddsMonkey (affiliate link) during February. However, I did this nearer the end of the month which didn’t leave me much time to cover the subscription cost and make a profit. The net result was a deficit of -£0.75 after I’d covered the subscription cost! I will be continuing with matched betting in March
Research more affiliate and/or advertising opportunities that complement my content on Inspiring Life Design, and implement these
- I spent some time looking through my Amazon Affiliate account and my Awin account, and I updated the sidebar on this blogsite with any products or services I am happy to recommend. I appreciate that this limits my earning potential from affiliates somewhat, but I am only happy to put on this site things which I believe would help others in the same way that they have helped me
Carry out as many surveys and free draws as I can
- I continued to carry out surveys on my favourite survey site Prolific (affiliate link), earning myself some more money. I did not withdraw any earnings during February because I do not want to pay the Paypal fees for withdrawals. Instead I’m waiting to withdraw via Circle (affiliate link) (no fees over £20). I expect to make my first £20 withdrawal in March
- I also regularly checked in on the free draw sites that I am signed-up with. No luck so far, but it only takes one win to make it feel worthwhile (it takes me just minutes each day to check these)
Add a Coaching area to Inspiring Life Design so that I have a sales page to be able to offer coaching
- I did not find time to do this in February. I’m also not convinced that I have any readers who would be interested in this yet!
- If you would be interested in 1-2-1 coaching or mentoring sessions from me, please get in touch. I can offer guidance in online publishing, creating life/financial plans, goal setting, agile project management and blogging to name just a few things!
Have a look for ad hoc paid work that I can do using a freelancer website
- I did not find time to do this in February
TO ACHIEVE MY MARCH TARGET
Here’s a list of actions I plan to take in March to help boost my income/profit:
- Continue using Odds Monkey (affiliate link) to make additional income from Matched Betting. The beauty of this earner is that it’s tax free
- Continue doing surveys on Prolific and cash-out at least my first £20
- Continue checking the free draw sites I use such as Badger The Button (affiliate link) and Free Postcode Lottery (affiliate link)
- List more of my unwanted items on eBay
TO INCREASE INCOME FOR FUTURE MONTHS
Here’s what I’m working on to increase my profits for future months:
- Promote existing kindle books. I ran promotions during February which should boost my April income, I’ve also booked some to run in March
- Continue with the Kindle course I’ve been working my way through, to help me successfully create and launch my next new ebook and paperback
- Create weekly posts on this website to help my readers learn ways to make money. Building a loyal following of readers satisfies a key part of my personal mission statement, “Helping others with their own search for freedom and happiness”. As my readership grows this will help me to secure advertising, affiliates and sponsored posts, which in turn will allow me to better serve my audience because I will have more time available to create super-helpful content
- Increase the number of followers on my Instagram account so that I can share my message about designing a life of your dreams, driving more traffic to this website. I can add value by raising awareness of products and services which help people make money, so that they can ultimately quit their day jobs
- Continue working through my money making blog course by Emma Drew Turn Your Dreams Into Money (affiliate link) because this is offering me tremendous guidance on how to make this website the best it can be for my readers
That’s all for February’s profit report. How did your February go? Did you make progress on any of your goals? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below…
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