Another month and one in which I can write about earning money online – how exciting is that?! The numbers are small, but it’s another income stream that I am trying to build, slowly but surely. The summer months can be a bit slow on the blog, as I presume everyone is out enjoying the sunshine, so I’m pleased I have managed to earn some side income during July.
Long before I started this blog, I used to read income reports from other bloggers, marvelling at how they could earn a living online. Earning numbers far beyond what I earn at my full time job, and managing to do this all with a laptop and some determination. The fact that there are so many ways to earn a living online means that almost anyone can earn some money on the side, if they want to. I keep pondering whether or not to write an online course, but I’m worried that I would put all my time and effort into it and then no one would be interested, or even buy it. I have a couple of options to consider in terms of building online income at the moment, which I’m hoping to make some decisions about during August.
Some of my favourite bloggers who share their income reports are:
- Making Sense of Cents (who just made $112,000 in July…!)
- Disease Called Debt
- Smart Passive Income
- Pinch of Yum
- From Aldi to Harrods
All of these bloggers post their monthly earnings, and some of them earn some amazing amounts every month! I can only hope to one day be posting an income number in the thousands, but we all have to start somewhere and I’m so pleased I’ve finally made some money online. A lot of these bloggers seem to do really well with affiliate income which I haven’t really seemed to crack yet. I don’t want to seem as if I’m actively pushing sales of anything, as that’s not what my blog is about, so I need to figure out a better strategy in this if I want to succeed.
I’m going to continue to split how I use my earnings online; half will be saved into the Ultimate Dream Fund and half will be reinvested into this site. I want to make this a better site, so I’m going to have to invest some money into the growing of The Frugal Cottage. At some point I want to do a complete redesign of the site but at the moment I don’t have the funds to do so. There are other things I keep pondering whether to start to pay for, like Tailwind for scheduling my Pinterest posts. I’m not sure whether they’re worth it though?
Anyway, this is what I earned in July:
Energy advert – £500
Sponsored link – £14.06
Total: £514.06
Look at that! This is an amazing amount for me to earn in one month, though the only slight snag is that the energy advert is very much a one off, so not a consistent form of income at all. Though it was a very nice payment, and a great experience, I very much doubt I’ll be able to get anything like that again any time soon. The sponsored link is an odd number as I was paid in dollars and that’s the conversion to pounds. I am still looking to get some writing jobs; I keep looking at job boards and definitely need to start. I have also signed up to Profit Accumulator and am going to try and get into matched betting this month as there are many pf bloggers who make a good income from this every month! If you want to sign up here, you can have a free bet which should net you around £40 for free! I have set aside 30% of this income for tax and national insurance purposes, which means that what I can save is reduced, but that’s the law… 
For August, I’m aiming to earn £100 in side income/online income. So far, I’m not on track to meet this, though I have got some plans in place to try and get there. I have some things I want to put on eBay and I’m hoping to get some more survey payouts soon!
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It’s difficult for a frugal person who writes a frugal blog to reconcile their need/wish to earn money with their frugal tendences! I am a minimalist and prefer not to buy stuff, so it’s difficult for me to “push” affiliate products.
I earn money from Google AdSense, Amazon’s affiliate program, and from selling my ebooks on Amazon. My blog income is very part-time at the moment, but at one time it supported my family (when I was divorced).
Congrats on the ad! It can take time to land a direct ad deal, but the profits are nice since there’s no middle man taking a big cut.
If you’re looking for more traffic (and who isn’t), I’d link to each of your favorite income reports latest report each money and then email them to let them know. They’ll likely share your post to their networks give you a little extra traffic.
Great job on the £500! I tried MB but it was too much work and I felt like the offers dry up after a while. Let us know how you get on though!
Thank you! I’ll admit, I don’t think I really understand matched betting! I keep reading the instructions, but it just doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense…