Andy Hough

September Income – $3153.38

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Here is a breakdown of my income for September.

Online Income

$1402.16

Interest

$12.88

Stock Dividends

$95.61

Mystery Shops

$259.24

Bank Bonuses

$10

Survey/Cashback

$27.24

Medical Study

$800

Job

$546.25

Total

$3153.38

It was a good month for income.  My online income not only totaled more than $1000 for the third month in a row, it also reached a new high.  I don’t think I’ll match that high again this month but I should have a good shot at breaking $1000 again.  I was pleased that even without the job income I made over $2500.  My mix of passive and alternative income is working well for me.

My overall income is going to be down this month.  I will not have any job income this month.  I am screening for another medical study but even if I do get in it will pay less than the one last month.  Stock dividends will also be less because most of my stocks don’t have scheduled dividends in October.   The March, June, September, December distribution schedule is the most common among my stocks.

I was also quite pleased with my mystery shopping income.  I have cut back on the amount of shops I do the past couple months but since I’m getting better paying shops my income is still about the same.  I don’t include reimbursements in my mystery shop income but I don’t subtract expenses from it either.

We will see what this month brings.  My income should still be more than my expenses.  It would be great if I could consistently get my income above the $2000 level.

September Expenses – $1864.21

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for September.

Household

$345.58

Entertainment

$170.05

Transportation

 $141.83

Food

$99
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Utilities

$86.63
Debt $30
Bar App Fees $933.68

Total

$1864.21

My expenses were reasonable last month.  I made my goal of keeping my expenses under $1000 not counting bar application fees.  Most of the reduction in expenses was in the transportation category because I cut back on long drives for mystery shopping and didn’t have to drive to St. Louis for a clinical trial like the month before.  Transportation will be expensive again this month because I’ll likely be doing a study in St. Louis and have a trip to Omaha scheduled.

I was also happy that I kept my food expense below $100 for the month.  That will be difficult to do this month with all the traveling but it is achievable.

Entertainment expenses were too high.  Much of it was for a birthday dinner for my stepdaughter.  That won’t happen again this month but we have a trip planned so this expense will probably still be high.

Other expenses, except for the bar application fees, should remain about the same.

Expanding My Online Empire

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My online income for 2009 was less then in 2008 but my income for this year is already my best ever with a few months to go.  I am not really sure why I am seeing such a nice improvement in income this year but I think it is a combination of putting in more work and luck.  I don’t really know a lot about making money online.  I barely have enough technical knowledge to write a blog but by sticking with it I have started to get some good results.

My online income is still not quite enough to live on but it is getting close.  That is why I have decided to expand my online empire. My current goal is to add one source of online income per month until the end of the year.  I currently have four sites that make money. One of the sites makes very little money but it requires very little work so it is still a good deal.  I also have two sites that aren’t currently making money.  One of the sites hasn’t been monetized yet but I have a special monetization method in mind for it.  The other site I will either sell or completely revamp.

To reach my goal of making a full-time income from my sites I have decided to launch some niche sites.  I already have three blogs and I don’t have time for another one.  A niche site will take quite a bit of time to launch but afterward should not require too much time.  I have been taking a lot of inspiration from the niche site duel at Smart Passive Income.  I already have an idea for my niche site and I will be using information I have learned from reading about the niche site duel to get the site started.

Since lots of people ask me how to make money online and I am usually not sure what to tell them I have decided to share with you the process of launching the niche site.  The first update should be sometime next week.  Thanks to all of you who have helped me make money online.

Top Blogs with Online Income Reports

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I noticed the other day that I was getting some referral traffic from a German website. I visited the site and while I couldn’t read the post (I should have done that semester abroad at Bucerius) I was able to get the general idea. It was a list of 17 sites that share their online income. I was pleased to see that I came in seventh in the list.

Here are the 6 that earned more than me.

SmartPassiveIncome.com –  $20,683.09.

This is one of my favorite blogs and the only one on the list I was familiar with. I have been following this blog since it was new. I can remember when he had a goal of 100 subscribers and now he has over 10,000. This is a great site for learning about making online. I need to start implementing more of what I have learned.

Helloko.com- $7400

Shoutmeloud.com – $3880

Blogtotravel.com –  $3227

Deneilmerret.com – $1942

Passiveonlineincomeblog.com – $1159.38

Looking at the earnings reports of all the sites above me was informative.  All of them but one made a significant portion of their income from selling a product or service.  The one that didn’t made most of its money from affiliate sales.  That might be an indication that relying on advertising for most of my income isn’t the best way to go.  I’m going to work on developing a product and increasing my affiliate income before the end of the year.

Lacking Motivation

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I have lacked motivation to do much lately. My life is pretty good and it doesn’t require much effort on my part. Of course things could be even better with more effort but since things are pretty good with little effort it is hard to come up with the motivation to do more. Maybe if I just let things go until they are no longer good then I will be motivated to get things back to pretty good.