Welcome to my first ever income report here on Dumb Passive Income. I’ve been hesitant to start doing these as my online income is sporadic at best. It might be another month or two or three before I have another net positive month, but I decided to start my monthly income reports nonetheless.
There are several reasons I decided to start sharing my side hustle income on this blog:
- This is my favorite part of the month in the blogosphere. Several bloggers and other internet entrepreneurs share their monthly income and expense reports and I always seek them out and read them. People are naturally curious about how others are doing, so I figured I would join in on the fun and help satisfy the curiosity of others.
- Income reports serve as proof. This blog is ultimately about how to create passive income (the dumb way). If I share exactly how much money I am earning and spending, people who read this blog will have proof that what I am doing is or is not working.
- Holding myself accountable. By sharing the details of my successes and failures online I will keep myself motivated. Nobody likes to share their losses and failures, so knowing that I have to report on my net income results at the end of each month will help me stay motivated to succeed.
Income and Expenses for July 2012
There are two ways I could report my income. I could report either the money that I have actually received – the stuff that is in one of my accounts and available for spending. Or, I could report the money that I have earned but maybe have not necessarily received yet. For example, my Google Adsense account has not yet reached the $100 threshold that is necessary for them to send me a payment so I didn’t receive any income from them. I did earn money through Google Adsense in the month of July though. I think my future reports will likely focus on money earned each month. For this month though, I will stick with only what I received, with unpaid earnings added at the end as a side note. Here we go!
Income:
Sponsored Post
- $150 from Budgeting in The Fun Stuff for sponsored post on my old blog
Article Writing
- $5.77 from Yahoo Contributor Network for page views on published articles from last quarter
Expenses:
Tithing
- $16.00 to Mel Trotter Ministries for giving of 10% (rounded up) of my total income for July 2012
Commissions
- $37.50 to Budgeting in The Fun Stuff for their 25% of sponsored post
Hosting
- $9.95 to HostGator (Affiliate link) for hosting on this site and all of my niche sites
Domains
- $65.19 to GoDaddy for 7 domains for 1-year
Unpaid Earnings
Advertising
- $8.66 from Google Adsense for July 2012
Net Results
Income minus expenses for July 2012 results in a positive earnings report of $27.13! This does not take into account the unpaid earnings from Google Adsense. You need to have a balance of at least $100 for Adsense to pay out and my current balance sits at a whopping $27.79. Most of the $8.66 that I earned last month from Adsense is from my first niche site, with just a few pennies coming from my old blog. Hopefully, as I build up my portfolio of niche sites, I will start to have regular monthly payouts, meaning I will be earning at least $100 per month just with Adsense.
I had no affiliate income for the month of July, which is not a shock to me as I have not actively or seriously pushed for any yet. I am signed up for affiliate programs at the following:
- Hostgator.com
- Amazon Affiliates
- Clickbank.com
After I get my Adsense income rolling, I plan to implement some serious affiliate efforts as well. In fact, one of my future niche sites (on the list) will target a specific product that I can sell through Amazon affiliate links.
The Dumb Part of My Income and Expense Plan
They say you have to spend money to make money. It is wise to invest a little, or even a lot to gain greater investment returns. You have to spend money on something in order to start a successful business. I am doing none of these! I am stubbornly spending only money that I have already earned when it comes to my online side ventures. In other words, I am not mixing my personal finances with my online stuff… yet. When I get to the point that I am earning more online than I need to spend to expand my income efforts, then I will start bringing some of the money home. Likewise, I am not spending any of my money from my personal accounts on any of my online stuff. I know that it would be wise to purchase certain tools that would make some of my online efforts easier and faster, but I refuse to do so until I have the money available from other online earnings. In this way, I am building this business, or passive income empire, from the ground up. Essentially, I am investing nothing but time and slowly building up some small passive income streams. Eventually, these small income streams will start to snowball and turn into larger passive income streams.
Why I Know Success Is On The Horizon
If you didn’t catch the very first expense I listed above, it was the $16 tithe that I sent to a local charity. This amount was roughly 10% of my total income for the month of July. Not my total income minus expenses. I realize that if I plan to tithe 10% of business income that it should be on just the profits (which are after expenses), but I don’t care. It is my money and my business so I am giving on my total earnings for the month. Here is how I justify this..
I am a Christian. As a Christian, I believe what is written in The Bible. In The Bible there is a verse in the book of Malachi, chapter 3, verse 10 that reads; Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! By tithing on my side hustle earnings each month I am putting God to the test. He asked for it! I am just obeying, and by golly, I for sure want a piece of that blessing that he says will be so great that I won’t have enough room to take it in.
That’s all for this month. I hope you enjoyed my first ever income report. In the future, there should be less words and more numbers. I won’t have as much explaining to do and I will have more and greater numbers to report.
Until then, remember that there are several dumb ways to create passive income online, but only one site that is blogging about it! Dumb Passive Income… dot com.
-Matt
Nice work thus far Matt! I just finally crossed over and above $100 for my Google Adsense account. It blows my mind to think that that $100 was made by people simply clicking a few adds on my page …
Thanks MyMoney, and back at ya. Google Adsense really is one of the best and easiest ways to make money on the internet, once you figure out how to properly optimize and get traffic.
Great work Matt! I’m looking forward to witnessing your emerging success!
Thanks Mike. Knowing that people like you are watching helps motivate me to keep pushing forward to obtain that eventual success.
“$65.19 to GoDaddy for 7 domains for 1-year” – you booked it all in a month? You can fairly divide that out per month if you want, heh. Are you tithing on revenue or profit?
Leave it to you PK to try to complicate my very first income report! Haha. To simplify it I am only reporting the income and expenses that actually happened during the month.
The tithe for July was on revenue, not profits. I understand this wouldn’t be technically correct, but then again you can’t out-give God.
Haha, that’s my job right? Throw wrenches in gears?
Good stuff, Matt. A toast (of water, since I’m holding a glass) to many more months of success.
Thanks PK (holding up my travel mug with luke warm coffee that’s almost gone)!
I’m really starting to figure this thing out and about to turn the corner. I think the move away from my old blog is going to pay off in the long run.
Nice to see that there are other people striving for passive income. im not quite at your level yet but i hope to get there soon!
I’m hardly at a “level” myself Bryan. I’ve just had a little bit of dumb luck. Keep following along and hopefully we will both be earning a decent “level” of passive income very soon.
you are definitely at a “level” you are actually make a profit, or coming close. there are alot of people who are losing a bunch of money, and people who are only making a couple cents a day (me). but i hope to raise that bar soon!
keep up the good work, and i will too!
Hi Matt
Are you serious? You pay $16 and then you blog about it and it somehows justified some ludicrous bible passage? Not cool – there is no justification ever to blog about you giving. This shows me that you care more about money than God – just like the rest of the world. Man up!
Hi Matt,
Call me crazy but I tithe a portion of my online earnings as well to a ministry.I dont care what people say, I have always seen my revenue increase by almost 10 times after that.I believe there is something about it-dedication and respect for the God. Dont listen to what people tell you-keep your core values,as your values always.Make it a practice to tithe.You shall be rewarded!
Thanks Izaak – I can’t believe you dug this deep into my archives and read this post! I just re-read the comment below this one for asd… yeah, I don’t let stuff like that bother me. As you can see, he/she didn’t even get a response from me. I don’ t know what his/her problem was…
That’s cool that you tithe on your earnings too! I have to shamefully admit that I haven’t exactly kept up with mine over the last several months. At least not on my side hustle income. Still tithing faithfully on my day job income. I know I need to get back to it though for my side hustle income. So thank you for commenting on this post which made me go back and read it myself! Good to see my thought process from 2 years ago – and I nice reminder that I really haven’t changed and I need to return to that way of thinking and faithfulness.
Great to hear from you Matt(Same Izaak who exchanged emails a few days ago lol).I didnt even think you would reply to this very old post lol 😀 Just thought I had to give my views on the same.It is a good practice and I still do it.I have been freelancing online for over a year and I am blessed to be making a very good amount every month.I tithe not because somebody asked me to,but because I know it’s the right thing to do.I wish you all the very best with everything!
Dear Matt,
Thank you for sharing your journey off dumb passive income. I am just starting out. May I know how you determine the niche when you first venture into internet marketing.
Thanks.
John
Hey Matt
I’m so inspired by your journey. I’m pleasant surprised to see someone tithing their income and listing it on their site. I’m a Christian too and will be getting my first online paycheck in May. The thought of tithing my paycheck really excites me.
Your income reports give me hope that an income online is possible. I’m looking forward to more income reports from you!
God bless!
Jane
Yeah John – when I first ventured in I picked niches based on what I was interested in. For example, I started a personal finance blog. I didn’t make very much money with it. Now I pick niches based mostly on keyword research and potential profitability.
Thanks Jane! Funny that you are reading and commenting on one of my reports from almost 3 years ago! Internet income definitely is possible. Even if only on a part-time basis. I’m living proof.
I don’t know if you looked at my more recent income reports – but yeah, it’s growing. Slowly but surely I’m able to bring in more and more money. It’s pretty exciting.
Haha yes, I did! Well I’m at the start of my internet marketing “career” so I thought it was apt to do so. Never despise the days of small beginnings yeah?
Maybe in a year’s time, I’ll comment on your 2013 post. 😉
Cheers
Jane
Hi Matthew,
Its so fun to read your post!
I have a question. Now you don’t essentially pick niches you’re interested in or have knowledge about. Then how do you write content and provide value for it? Just wondering.
Thank you for such amazing resources!
If you’re actually reading ALL of my posts – you’ll find out eventually. 😉 Here is a clue on how I wrote content early on – https://dumbpassiveincome.com/my-content-strategy-for-niche-sites/
Now I outsource most of it – meaning I pay somebody else to do the research and write the content for me.