$15,151 in March - My Monthly Online Income Report Plus Traffic Stats (2024)

Welcome to March’sonline incomereport where I show you how Imake money online. It’s time to look at this month’s updateand track how I did.

If you are wantingto start a blog of your own,read my postHow To Start a CheapWordPress Blog. It gives step by step instructions on starting your own blog at a super affordable price. You can also get a free domain by signing up through my link. Plus, you can email me at any time and I can help you along the process so that you can launch a successful money-making blog.

Background information on my monthly online income report.

If you are new here, you might be wondering why I would want to publish my online income reports each month. If you are not new here, you can just skip to the next section 🙂

Thisall started out as mysideincome reportbecause in the beginning it was all about the money I was earning from my side jobs.In my sideincome reports from the beginning, I included all of the income I made except for what I madeatmy day job (that was a fixed amount and boring anyways).

However,I left my day job as a financial analyst towards the end of2013 and nowmy monthly income reports consist of the severaldifferent ways I bring in an income each month.

Many people have asked why I would ever want to publicly post my income each month. Some think I’mcrazy, andsome are glad I am open about what I’m doing. Whatever you think, I enjoy publishing mymonthly online income reportsand I share them publiclyfor threemainreasons:

• Before I started blogging, I knew nothing about side hustling and making money online. I didn’t think side jobswere worth the effort, and I thought the onlyway to significantlyincrease your income was through raises and promotions at your full-time job. If it weren’t forothers publishingtheir monthly income reports each month, I don’t know if I would have ever triedside hustling. This is why I like to publish my income reports. I want to help others see the positives in side hustling and how it can change a person’slife. There are many different ways to make money online, and I like to share my story each month to help motivate others to improvetheir financial situation by making more money.
• Secondly, I like to publish my income reports because it’s a way for me to look back, learn from my mistakes and see what areas need improvement. It’s also entertaining to go back to older income updatesand read about the interestingthings I did to make money. Everyone has to start somewhere, right?
• Lastly, I like to show others thatmaking sidemoney ispossible, and that there are many legitimate ways to make money from your home. If you are looking for information on the manyways to make money online, I publishedthe articleMonthly Income Report Roundup – My Favorite Income Bloggersthat showcases many awesomebloggers who are kind enough to share their income with the public each month.Just a few years ago, I didn’t think making money online was possible at all. Now, I realize that it is possible!

I know I say this every month, but it is the truth. Life is great now that I’m my own boss. I look forward to each and every work day and it is an amazing thing. Work and life balance is a real thing for me now and I truly love waking up each morning.

Aboveis exactly why I enjoy publishing my monthly income reports. I like to show others that you don’t have to hate your job and hate your life. You can make changes to your life and make money in a way that allows you to truly enjoy the life you are living. I’m not sayingthat you have to LOVEyour job, I’m just sayingthat your job should at least allowyou to do what you like to do outside of work (whether that be spending time with loved ones, painting, hiking, etc.).

Also, if you have any questions about making money online, you can always send me an email and I always reply back. If I haven’t covered something in this income report, I highly suggestyou check out myother reports as well because I have covered A LOT of topics, including reader questions I have received. I am unable to put everything in this single post because this would then become one messy whale of a post.

How was my online income inMarch?

Marchwas a normal month for income. It was definitely a good month and I am very happy with it.

Like I said in the postShould You Outsource Tasks To Make Life Easier?, I’ve been outsourcing more yet my income is still steadily increasing, so I am very happy with how everything is going.

I have been working on making more of my income passive (you can read more about this in the Affiliate section below) and this has been great because I have had much more time to focus on more important areas when it comes to Making Sense of Cents.

April should be an even better month as I am in the process of selling two more of my websites. That will be the end of me selling websites though, asI plan on keeping all the others I currently have.

Anyway, in MarchI made$17,051 in business income, before expenses.

EDIT July, 2016: I recommend checking out my online course for bloggers, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. I earn around$50,000 a month through affiliate marketing and I share my exact strategy and tips in this very informative online course. If you’re a blogger, then you NEED this course.

If you are interested in starting ablog of your own, I createda tutorial that will help you start a blog ofyour own for cheap, starting atonly $3.49 per month (this lowprice is only through my link) for blog hosting. In addition to the low pricing, you will receivea free blog domain (a $15 value) through my Bluehost linkif you purchase at least 12 months of blog hosting.FYI, you want to be self-hosted. This is essential if you want to monetize your blog as you will appear more professionaland this will help you monetize your blog tremendously.

Relatedarticles:

• How To Make Money Blogging
• 75+ Ways To Make Extra Money
• 10 Ways To Make Money Online From The Comfort of Your Home
• 10 Things I’ve Done To Make Extra Money
• Ways To Make An Extra $1,000 A Month

The number above isfor the month of Marchand before any fees and expenses (some fees and expenses that lower the amount above total around$1,900, which includes virtual assistants/staff writers for my other websites, technical assistance on my websites, giveaway expenses, PayPal fees, etc., however, this does not include taxes) being taken out.After expenses and fees,I made approximately $15,151. I could run my website for as low as just $25 per month but I outsource a lot so that I can have more fun while I’m traveling 🙂

Below are some of my other monthly sideincome reports. I publish an online income updateevery month but only included some of them below as it would be a very long list. If you head on overto myextra income pageyou can findall of my monthly income reports from the past few years.

• $672 extra in May(2012)
• $1,425 extra in July
• $3,275 extra in September
• $6,523 in January Extra Income(2013)
• $11,927 in October Income – I Finally Left My Job
• $12,640 in January Income(2014)
• $23,758 in February Income – My Monthly Online Income Report (2015)

Blog news.

I am in the process of selling two more websites and I’ve already noticed how beneficialthe extra time is after selling the firstwebsite. Yes, I probably could have just outsourced the tasks fromthe other websites and possibly made money that way, but I do still believe this direction is a better option for me.

I won’t lie, I was a little lazy with my blog this past month. While I did still write several articles and network a little, I forgot about other areas. I barelydid any interviews, I didn’t reach out to any publications, or anything like that.That is something I plan on changing in April.

I still need to go through many, many of my posts here on MSOC and fix the formatting, change the pictures to Pinterest-worthy images, and more. I have probably only done 15% of my postsso that means Istill a lot more to go!

If you are interested in starting ablog of your own, I createda tutorial that will help you start a blog ofyour own for cheap, starting atonly $3.49 per month (this lowprice is only through my link) for blog hosting. In addition to the low pricing, you will receivea free blog domain (a $15 value) through my Bluehost linkif you purchase at least 12 months of blog hosting.FYI, you want to be self-hosted. This is essential if you want to monetize your blog as you will appear more professionaland this will help you monetize your blog tremendously.

Traffic on Making Sense of Cents.

Many of you have asked if I would start sharing traffic stats here on my monthly income reports. It’s something I’ve never done before and honestly it scares me a little to do so! Not sure why, but I guess if everything else is already out there then I might as well include this as well.

I’m not sure if I will post this every month, as looking at stats isn’t always helpful. I know many, many bloggerswho receivelessthan 50,000 monthly page views who make MUCHmore money than people who receive over 500,000 page views each month.

So, as you can see trafficdoesn’t always directly relate to how much money you might make.

What matters is how much work you put into it and if you are trying the correct ways (to make money) that actually work for your exact blog.

If you are a new blogger or you are thinking about creating your own blog, I want you to know that it is possible to create a blog that people will read. I know many of you often wonder about traffic stats and whether anyone will read your blog, but if you produce posts that people want to read and you spend time marketingyour blog, you willbe just fine!

To get back onpoint, traffic on Making Sense of Cents has grown significantly over the past few months. I still can’t believe how much traffic has grown. Much ofit has to do with Pinterest and getting my name out there as much as possible.

I do need to start working harder on retaining all of these Pinterest readers. My bounce rate is the highest it’s ever been. I’m not sure where I’m supposed to be, but I would like to besomewhereless than this!

Below are my traffic stats for March of 2015.

EDIT: In more recent income reports, I have been including featured questions from readers. Below are some of the questions that have been asked.

• Where does blog income come from?
• How do I increase my affiliate income?
• Do I need millions of page views a month in order to make money blogging?
• How do you build websites up to sell them?
• Do only celebrities make money through owning websites?
• How much money can a person make blogging?
• Is there enough room for new bloggers to make money?

Wes’s website.

I’m feeling horrible about this lately. I’ve been so focused on my website and helping my sister over at FITnancials that I haven’t been helping Wes.

My plans for my website, online income, and making money online:

• Create a product(s) to sell – One thing I feel like I’m missing lately is that I want to actually create something I can sell through Making Sense of Cents. Whether that be an ebook, a course, or something else, it is something I think about nearly every single day. I have many ideas, but I’m not sure what to pursue right now.
• Promote more –I have been doing muchbetter when it comes to promoting, especially on Pinterest. Pinterest alone brought around 54,000 clicks to my blog just in the month of March!This is slightly lower than what I sawin February so I am hoping this starts to increase in April and future months again.Also, keep in mind that just a few months ago I was only receiving a few hundred visits a month from Pinterest, so this is a huge jump.
• Accept more interviews. –Like I said above, I wasn’t too active in March. I did see one interview go live on HuffPost –Can You Profit from Buying and Selling Websites?
• Stop being shy – This is one of my goals for 2015. I am such a shy person, and it’s something I need to work on if I want to grow my business.

Staff writing.

In March, I worked on a few staff writing jobs.

Staff writing is something that has slowed down in recent months in terms of income categorized below, as most of my staff writing is now bundled into blog management as well, in case any of you were wondering.This is because with some of my clients, they have me manage their websites and write for them as well, all for one flat fee each month. I just wanted to explain this as I know some of you had questions about it.

Update on my blog and social media management services.

Blog and social media management is still a service I enjoy providing to my clients. Nothing new in this area happened last month. My income in this category is down for March, but that should just be a one-time thing and I’m hoping in future months it goes back up. This is because for some of the websites I manage, my pay is based on a commission-like structure.

If you are wantingto start a blog of your own,read my postHow To Start a CheapWordPress Blog. It gives step by step instructions on starting your own blog. You can also get a free domain by signing up through my link.

Relatedarticles:

• How To Become a Virtual Assistant
• What Does a Virtual Assistant Do?

Affiliate income.

Marchwas an amazing month for affiliate income. I earned around $10,000 in affiliate income just in the month of March.

Definitely my best month ever for affiliate income.

I won’t see the payments until May and/or Junefor most of those, so you won’t see those amounts reflected in my monthly income reports until then. I am extremely excited about how much my affiliate/passive income has jumped in the past few months, especially with how little work is needed.

Passive income for the win!

I did a quick revamp of my recommendations page. Check it out and let me know what you think of it! Any tips on making it even better?

EDIT July, 2016: I recommend checking out my online course for bloggers, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. I earn over $50,000 a month through affiliate marketing and I share my exact strategy and tips in this very informative online course. If you’re a blogger, then you NEED this course.