Online Income Report – February 2011

Here is a breakdown of my online income for February 2011.

Google Adsense – $256.31

Affiliate Income – $199

Brokered Ads – $48.94

Direct Ads – $159.53

Total – $663.58

My online income was down but I’m not too worried about it.  This money was made with very little effort on my part once I start putting more work into my sites they should start making more money for me.  Online income for March should be about the same.  I’ve been experimenting with different Adsense ads and placement but the experiments so far have only resulted in decreased income rather than increased income.  I believe I have finally made some improvements and Adsense should start going back up.  I’ve been getting pickier about ads.  I need to come up with a consistent policy on them and figure out a balance that will make me money but not put off my readers.

February Investment Income – $97.32

My February investment income rose to $97.32 from $97.23 the month before.  This was due to an increase in the value of the funds and individual stocks I hold in my portfolio since I did not add any money to my investments.  I’m hoping I can get this over $100 in the next few months but I’m not yet sure when I will have additional money to add to my investments.  My cash reserves are lower than I prefer right now and I won’t be adding to my investments until I get my cash back up to what I consider a comfortable level.

This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement savings, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings. What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income. My goal is to get this amount to $1000 a month. If I have $1000 in monthly passive investment income I will be able to retire early. You can see what my actual investment income for the month was by looking at my monthly income report and adding the interest and dividend amounts.

Alternative Income – Focus Groups

It has been a while since I  wrote about a new way to make alternative income.  I made $30 for about an hour of my time yesterday by participating in a focus group.  I just had to give my opinion on new varieties of oatmeal to help the makers determine which product to develop.  There are lots of different types of focus groups.  Last year I participated in one that gauged our reaction to different advertisements by attorneys.  Focus groups are pretty easy money but there aren’t a lot of them available to participate in.  I’m signed up for a local company that has focus groups but you can’t participate in more than one every three months.  The focus group I did last year I found on Craiglist.  The site FindFocusGroups.com is supposed to help you find focus groups but I haven’t used it so I can’t vouch for it.  You  could also try the company I just did a focus group with but they only have locations in Dallas, Chicago, and Springfield, MO.  If you know of any other legitimate focus group companies please share them in a comment.

February Expenses – $1548.52

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for February.

Household

$621.94

Entertainment

$128.80

Transportation

$322.21

Food

$60.29

Medical/Dental

$57.44

Utilities

$116.05

Travel

$227.79

Debt $14

Total

$1548.52

My expenses were higher than I like but not as bad as they seem.  The $227.79 of travel expenses and over $100 of the transportation expense were incurred as a result of participating in the medical study in St. Louis.  The travel expenses were for six nights of  hotel rooms and the transportation expense was the cost of gas for getting to St. Louis and back.  It would probably be more accurate to just deduct these expenses from my medical study income later this month but I’m just going to list them as expenses.  My expenses will probably be just slightly less this month but I’m hoping I can get them back to the $1000 level in April.

Netflix – Cheap Home Entertainment for Movie Lovers

This is a repost from last year. I don’t have Netflix right now because our apartment includes free cable. When we move I plan to sign up for Netflix again.

As you can tell from the picture of some of my movie ticket stubs from the last few years I love movies. Netflix is the greatest value I have found in movie watching entertainment. Yes, I could get DVDs for free from the library or an occasional free DVD from Redbox but neither of them have anywhere near the selection of Netflix. Now that I have the ability to stream movies over the internet as well as receive DVDs in the mail my other movie-watching options do not compare. I will always watch a few movies in the theater but now that I have Netflix I have cut way back on going to the movies. I try to limit going to the theater to those movies that will most benefit from being shown on the big screen.

Netflix is also a great way to watch TV series. I’m just about to finish the second season of “Veronica Mars” which is now one of my all-time favorite movies. I like the series so much that I almost went to see “When in Rome” just because Kristen Bell is in it but the previews made it look too awful so I will wait for it to come out on DVD. (I did eventually watch it on DVD, not that great.) Now that I have unlimited movies available via mail and internet I can take a chance on movies I’m not sure about it. My plan comes out to $9.68 a month with tax which is about what I would spend in one trip to the movie theater. This makes Netflix a frugal entertainment option for me. As you can tell I’m a big fan of Netflix and have no reservations about including a couple of affiliate links for them in this post.