March 2016 Income Report

So in an effort to be totally transparent and accountable, I’ve decided to start publishing an income report. I wish I would have done it sooner, as my home based business made $123,000 last year and it would have been nice to see all the ways that I accomplished this feat. But I didn’t 🙁 Since, I am really passionate about the idea of helping others get their hustle on and really, truly walk in financial increase, I thought it would only be fitting to walk that journey authentically and take you along with me.

Due to life circumstances, I am actually starting over to focus my income generating efforts through blogging and online teaching. Though database consulting (I focused on salesforce.com deployment for nonprofits) is extremely lucrative, I find that I’ve maxed out my capacity in the services realm and am hoping to take in more passive income. Additionally, I am homeschooling my kids (we occasionally hire a tutor/nanny) and I simply need more free time. So…I am taking you on my journey to passive income pursuits and will be documenting what I make and how. My goal is to make at least $1,000/month by the summer. My strategy will be focused mainly on blogging, eBook sales, eCourse sales, coaching and a very small amount of services (writing, video editing, etc.)

So here are the numbers for March 2016:

Income

Related: Start a Blog Now FREE eCourse

Expenses

Net income

-$971.04

So this looks pretty depressing. I am used to seeing more like $7,000-$10,000 a month. As you can see starting from scratch is hard (my blog is 2 years old but I just started giving it more attention in January of this year.) Additionally, March was one of the highest expense months ever for me. I had a city sticker for $231, incorporation renewal and taxes done by my CPA (I’m going to give TurboTax a try next year based on lots of recommendations.) I also renewed my subscription to CoSchedule (the tool I use to run my blog editorial calendar.) I expect my expenses to level out for April, however.

I want to note that I am recording expenses and income as they happen for the month. I have a few hundred dollars out there in affiliate income, but since I haven’t met the threshold for payout, it’s hung up in my pay queue.  Also, there are some things I pay in chunks for the year. I’m not going to put that here. I am only reporting what is actually received as income or spent in the month I am reporting on.

Related: How I Make $7,000 a Month Blogging

How did I finance the negative? Well, we are savers and I like to keep cash around exactly for things like this. Even if your business is online, it’s still a business and requires money to start and run. I see this as an investment and expect a return based on that investment.

Hopefully, April turns out better. I am enrolled in Elite Blog Academy along with Efficient Blogging and expect my traffic and related income to increase based on what I am learning there. So far, I can say that taking classes has ben helpful. With Efficient Blogging , I’ve seen over 100% increase in my page views. I just started Elite Blog Academy , so I am hoping that will kick in soon as well. Udemy sales were down in March (the number you see above is from February’s sales.) But I have made a commitment to churn out more courses and work on my promotion strategies to help boost sales.

Thanks for reading and I hope to have better news for you in April!

Aja McClanahan

Aja “A.J.” McClanahan is a writer, speaker and entrepreneur.