Online Income: $11,106 in July 2017

July was an exciting month to be sure. Although my income was down slightly from June, I’m still very happy that I earned over $10K.

Income is always a little lower in the summer (as you can see every year on my list of income reports). But, now that I know that, I can plan ahead for my fluctuating income.

Lower income means less work too, which I used to dread. But now I welcome it as an opportunity to have a little more time off and more time to work on my own blog, too.

July marked 2 years of me being fully self-employed and 3 years of freelancing. You can check out the lessons I learned in year 2 of self-employment here.

Why Share My Online Income?

Some people ask me why I share so many of my personal finance details online. As you know, I share not only my business income and expenses, but my personal spending at the end of each month too.

The reason I  decided to share all of these juicy details online is to be as transparent as possible for you, my readers! I want you to know how much work goes into running an online business, and how I’m using the money I earn each month.

Sharing my finances also helps me stay accountable too. It helps me stay motivated to keep working on earning more money, paying off debt, and building savings.

With that said, here’s a break down of what happened with my business income and expenses in July.

Income

VA/Blog Management Services – $7,784.18

Freelance and Ghost Writing – $2,820.00

Coaching – $147.00

Advertising and Affiliate Income:

Survey Junkie – $93.00

MyFinance – $13.35

Direct Advertising – $248.93

Total– $11,106.46

Learn how to make affiliate income with Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. I highly recommend it!

Expenses

In my opinion, an income report is only halfway complete if it doesn’t share expenses. I truly value transparency, which is why  I like to share my business expenses with you too! I think this helps create a complete picture of what it really costs to run an online business.

The expenses listed below are only what I paid out of my business account this month.

You won’t see a line for internet because that is something I would pay for even if I didn’t have an online business. (But yes, I do get to deduct most of it now that I have an online business.) So, keep that in mind.

Contract Services – $2,921.59

PayPal and Other Fees – $42.34

Facebook Ads – $661.36

Board Booster – $10.00

Canva Annual Subscription – $119.40

Amazon Video Equipment – $69.94

Calendly Annual Subscription – $96.00

Total Expenses: $3,920.63

Income less Expenses: $7,185.83

Reflections

Finally my expenses are back down a bit. The past few months have been very expensive as I’ve been investing more in growing my business with Facebook ads, tools, courses, and more.

Investing in my business isn’t a bad thing by any means, but I hate seeing those expenses get so high.

My PayPal fees were way lower than normal, but I know they’d be higher if I didn’t use FreshBooks. I can’t recommend FreshBooks enough if you are primarily paid by PayPal. It can help you save a TON on PayPal fees. Plus, if you use my link, you can try FreshBooks free for 30 days!

Last year I started using Board Booster to increase my traffic from Pinterest. I plan to increase my plan size soon so I can keep growing my Pinterest traffic. I also use Tailwind, but I pay for that annually, so that’s why there’s no charge shown for it each month.

Don’t forget, I don’t get to “take home” that entire $7,000. My online income has not been taxed. So, I always set aside a large portion of it for taxes.

If income reports get you jazzed, you can see all of my online income reports on this page!

Just to see how far I’ve come, I averaged my monthly online income for the 37 months I’ve been freelancing. Even with the part-time months at the beginning, my average monthly online income (gross) is $5,617.11. My 12 month (gross) average is $10,505.60.

Did you make any income online last month? Don’t forget to ask questions below. They may be covered in a future post!