Another month is in the books and it’s time to report how much alternative income I have received last month. For those who haven’t been following my alternative income reports, it started as a way of tracking all my income that doesn’t come from a typical 9-to-5 job. That includes this website, interest from investment accounts, etc. Originally, I had visions of investing in Prosper (though I have found Lending Club to be much better) and getting a 13% annual return. If that were possible it would be fantastic. Maybe it is possible – but not with my skills as a loan picker.
I know I need to set up a FAQ on my alternative income… I guess I’m just Lazy.
For now I’ve pretty much settled on totaling up profits from online income. My income from investments (outside of retirement accounts, which is what I’d go by) is pretty low – probably not a huge factor in the overall number. Most of that online income comes from the website you are reading, but it’s slowly starting to diversify. I have a few other sites that brought in $300 in revenue and my new How To Fix is still a loss leader while I try to drive good traffic to it. My friend says that you build a website for 6 months from now – not for now. I think it’s 500% right on this one. So while How To Fix isn’t getting millions of visits a day, it’s growth is good and I’m happy with it.
Overall that I earned $1,683.95 from my sites last month. It’s not a great number, but it’s fairly steady while I look to grow and diversify web properties. The big question is whether it’s really worth investing my time and money in this way. I feel that it is, but it’s really difficult to be 100% certain when income seems to lag behind the development of the site.
Last month, I talked about another idea I had besides How To Fix. I have decided to put that idea on the back-burner… it simply required too much money to get off the ground to pay off in my opinion. I think I could spend the $1000 a month wiser at this point. We’ll see, I switch back and forth on this almost daily. That’s probably the best sign that I’m not ready to do it.
I have been reading your blog for awhile & like you, am always on the look out for alternative income streams. In addition to starting a blog on a hobby I love, I have recently put in the time to learn how to become a profitable Texas hold’em poker player. This is a hobby I enjoy, so I have taken something I love & turned it into a money-maker.
Just another example of a less-than-traditional alternative income stream!
-The Poker Meister
“My friend says that you build a website for 6 months from now – not for now.”
Though its not the overall subject of this post, that statement jumped out at me. Would you mind expanding on it further?
I think his thought is that it usually 6 months (give or take) for a website to take off. Some of that 6 months could be marketing and some of it could be waiting to rank in search engines.
That’s what I’ve been learning on every blog, every big of advice I find. It takes a long time for a page or a site to “season” in the eyes of Google. (And apparently Bing puts even more emphasis on age.)
But that’s the cool thing about “passive” income. You’ve got to build it for the joy, at least on some level. It’s like casting your bread upon the waters. (Plus the slow lead time gives you a chance to learn and fix your mistakes.)
I’m approaching the 6 month point (4 months since moving to my own domain, though). Although I thought I had a good idea what I was doing when I started, The Casual Observer had changed quite a bit. For example, I never really intended to have multiple writers!
A blog that starts generating revenue quickly is a tremendous business model. Most full time businesses require 1-2 years to break even and require a significant investment of money upfront.
Blogging replaces upfront money investment with upfront time investment. Building passive income isn’t a passive journey!!
And if you pick a subject that you love talking about anyway, blogging is just fun!!
Scott,
What you are forgetting that the time to operate a blog is typically much more than 40 hours/week. If bloggers paid themselved salaries, most would probably be making minimum wage..
“If bloggers paid themselved salaries, most would probably be making minimum wage..” – blogging banks
Right…but the key words in your sentence are PAID THEMSELVES. Maybe its just me, but it makes it all worth it.
Really Nice thought. You run several Websites successfully. That’s a great thing. In my case, I can’t manage several Assets at one time. Rather than, I put all of that Time & Mind labour to grow just One Asset….!!!
$1600 is probably the amount of time you could have spent watching tv or gone drinking with your buddies. So effectively replacing that time saved you $1600/month!!! Way to go!