Welcome to the December 2016 edition of the Money Manifesto blogging income report.
As a quick reminder, I use these income reports to both hold myself accountable as well as to inspire others that you can indeed make a decent living by working online.
Lessons Learned in December 2016
The biggest lesson I learned in December about self employment was having a baby makes self employment a whole lot more interesting. I now have a little person that relies on me for everything so it’s super important that I continue earning the income I need.
It’s nice that I can work from home and watch the baby when my wife returns to work, but I’ll definitely need to carve out time to work on my business when she’s home watching the baby.
We’re very relieved we can raise our child ourselves for the first few years, but I have a feeling I’ll be a bit more productive when the baby starts school and is out of the house.
Until that happens, I need to get better at managing the time I do have available to work on the blog. I imagine I’ll have some lessons learned on that topic coming in the following months.
Blogging Income Total for December – $4,779.36
December was a decent month for my blogging income. I still have not entered a major growth mode, but I’m maintaining a very reasonable income to help support my family.
It’s amazing to me that I was still able to make this much money during one of the busier months of the year for my family. My wife and I were still adjusting to life with our new son, we moved into a new home and celebrated the holidays with family.
That said, I still continued earning income in all of the usual ways for both my freelancing and Money Manifesto.
Freelance writing has been a stable base of income that I’ve thankfully been able to rely on throughout the last year. I’m always aware that a client could no longer need my services, so I’m prepared to go find more freelance writing work when I need to do so.
However, I’d like to focus on growing my income directly from Money Manifesto in 2017, so I’m not actively seeking new writing clients. I still seriously consider any opportunities that come my way, I’m just not out looking for more freelance writing work.
If you’re interested in earning money from writing, I suggest taking Holly Johnson’s Earn More Writing course. I’m about halfway through it and have already picked up a lot of great tips and I’ve been freelance writing for years.
Sponsored content has continued to work well for me based on the deals I have currently arranged. I’m always open to new opportunities, but only if they’re the right fit both for myself and my readers.
Traditional advertising still isn’t a big winner for me. However, I have hope that once I start growing my site I can work with a higher paying ad network to help boost my income in this area.
Finally, affiliate income continues to be an area I’d like to expand. I do make some money from affiliate income, but I know others are killing it.
That’s it for December’s income report. As always, if you have any questions shoot me an email or leave a comment below.
About Lance Cothern
Nice work to close out the year!