How I Made $5,406 in August 2018 Working from Home [+ My 2 New Income Streams]

This article contains affiliate links.

Welcome to my monthly income report. I publish these to share not just the revenue from my blog and freelance writing business, but also the mistakes, lessons and new projects.

Make sure you check out all my income reports.

I’m currently earning a few thousand dollars a month thanks to sponsorships, freelance writing and ads but I’m also working on 2 other income streams (affiliate marketing and selling online courses).

Read on to see what’s been going on over the past month. Hopefully, this will inspire you to add a new income stream to your business, start a profitable blog, make your first money freelancing, or simply work on a new business idea.

What Happened in August 2018 on My Blog and in My Business

2 New Income Streams

The efforts from the last few months paid off as I received my first bigger affiliate commission. That’s also the first time I received money from Mediavine after I put ads on my site and started collaborating with a great advertising network.

The affiliate payment is around $80 and that’s passive income. It came after someone purchased the course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing through one of my links here on the blog.

It’s an online course I’ve taken myself. Affiliate earnings usually arrive months after the item is purchased, so that took some time.

Here’s my detailed and honest review of Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, if you’re curious what it’s about.

Ads Now Bring Me Recurring Revenue

Ad revenue also arrives nearly 2 months after the last day of the current one. The very first payment from Mediavine arrived.

It’s a total of $64, but ads were placed on my site in the middle of May. So most of the next 2 weeks was simply testing user engagement and what ads perform best on Let’s Reach Success.

From then on, after the initial 2-3 weeks of having ads on the site, the revenue has only been increasing. I know what money I’ll get paid the next few months.

This is now not just a recurring income stream, but also passive income.

That’s one of the 4 best ways to earn passive income through your blog I talk about in my free course The Passive Income Boss.

Check it out if you haven’t already.

Back on Track After The Summer Slump

Last 2 month’s income was lower, I was distracted, spent fewer hours in front of the laptop, and didn’t really work on the new projects I have on my list.

That happens to many people in the blogging business.

But because users and readers too are on vacations, enjoying the good weather, spending more than usual and not caring about their usual life goals, traffic and revenue decrease during the summer months.

I’m now back on track. I do freelance work more often (I left it behind for quite a while as I didn’t feel like it) and I create content for the 2 paid courses I’m working on.

The Evolution of Blog Categories on Let’s Reach Success

My journey started with spiritual growth (forming a stronger mindset, letting go of the past, mindfulness).

Then, it moved onto personal development (studying the habits of successful people, becoming more productive, managing our time better, fixing our relationships, taking care of our health, setting goals and sticking to them.)

While these 2 areas of life will always be important and something I come back to and keep covering here on Let’s Reach Success, I also became passionate about business. With that, came the categories ‘Entrepreneurship’, ‘Career’ and ‘Self-Employed’.

That means I began writing about it more as I built my own online business and with that, I started covering lifestyle design and location independence.

I also allowed guest posts and sponsored articles in these niches.

Now, you might be seeing blog posts on saving money, making money online, earning through your blog, side hustles to start from home, investing in real estate, and more.

That’s because the ‘Money’ category is also part of the personal development and business growth process.

Money management is as important as time management. And earning more provides freedom.

So I turned ‘Money’ into a separate category and placed it in the menu on the site. It has subcategories such as ‘Make Money’, ‘Save Money’ and ‘Investing’.

Being in debt, not having a budget, and not starting something on the side to earn extra income are all mistakes we do that prevent us from living a better life. So this category is something I’ll be focusing on more and more in the future.

Especially now that I myself am getting better at managing my finances, have some savings, and am thinking of buying my first home in order to rent it one day before I buy a second one.

Now, let’s move to the numbers and see what I earned last month with my blog and online business.

August Monthly Income Report

I earned a total of $5,406 in August 2018 from my blog and business.

This is a big thing for me as I’m hitting the $5K/month milestone for the very first time!

Please keep in mind that’s gross income. After extracting fees I pay to other platforms, transaction fees, paying my own taxes and insurance and covering my pension as a solopreneur in the Netherlands, there’s much less left for me to spend.

It took a while till I got to over $4K/month blogging and freelancing. You can see the progress here together with all other income reports.

This Month’s Revenue Breakdown

Total Revenue (Gross Income) – $5,406

FREELANCE WRITING: $1,181

Upwork

Clients outside of any platform

SPONSORSHIPS: $4,049