I’m typing this report while sitting in my favorite hostel in one of my favorite mountain towns. I’m sitting by the fire and looking at the fire pit glowing outside on the patio. And, I’m recovering from hosting my first ever Money on the Mountain Financial Retreat for Financially Single Women. I plan on writing a post about the experience, but for now, I wanted to share my September 2019 Blog Income Report before I get distracted with some big projects that I’m launching this month. One thing to note is the diversification in earnings. Again, diversifying my earnings has been an ongoing area of focus for the past year and that has started to payoff this year. I’m already getting a little giddy when I start think about what can happen by this time next year with my earnings.
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September Income Generated $7974
For this report, I’ve decided to share side-hustle income that I generated (typically I don’t). And, if I had freelance income I would have disclosed that as well, but I don’t have any freelance writing clients right now. My primary area of focus is building up predictable income from my blog, in particular, passive income. But, keeping it real, passive income is not passive in the beginning. It has taken a lot of work to get the blog to generate consistent income and actually have it grow each month. You’ll notice that a significant amount of money was raised for Money on the Mountain. All event income generated went towards Money on the Mountain. I did a lot with the amount that it cost to host the event.
- Incomplete earnings are never shared. They are confusing and it might take a year to hit the cash out threshold on incomplete earnings, so I don’t share them.
- I’m loving how my income shifts depending on the time of year and what projects I’m working on. This will be a shock to a lot of people, I’ve decided to add freelance writing back into my income stream for the next couple of months. I’m testing out my new onboarding process. Basically, I will fully vet future clients and make sure everything is clear before saying “yes” to a project. I’m REALLY trying to finish pay off my unsecured debt by the end of this year. I’m so over it.
Whatever you’re waiting on to start, stop waiting! It will take awhile to gain moment and build consistency. Once you build consistency, your earnings will (hopefully) begin to grow.
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What Actually Hit My Account $6974
- $147-Make Money with Ebooks Course-I’m actually switching my focus to heavily marketing my course. It’s underperforming as a result of not marketing it enough. That’s about to change.
- $335-Affiliate Income-This is a mix of Amazon Affiliates, a referral to a coaching program, and Ibotta my favorite grocery savings app.
- $1125.30-Side-Hustle Money. I did a couple of fun side-hustles in September.
- $1572.02-Autumn Stone and Michelle Jackson books. I write romance under the pen name Autumn Stone and non-fiction under my actual name. I did release a novella in September but I basically stopped focusing on ebooks as I increased my focus on Money on the Mountain.
- $3695 Money on the Mountain Financial Retreat Ticket Sales and Sponsorships-The majority of this money (think 80%) earned in this category went directly to Money on the Mountain. The retreat was my primary area of focus for the past two months. This is focus is reflected in the earnings.
Pending Payouts
- $1100 in Autumn Stone and Michelle Jackson book sales. Books sales were down as well as I focused on Money on the Mountain. This will payout at the end of November.
What to Learn From this Income Report
- Diversification is a wonderful thing. I am rolling out one more product that I created about 2 years ago and sat on. It’s now time to release that product and I’m DONE developing products!
- Events are expensive LOL!
- I love passive income and knowing that I have a minimum income that is coming in. AND, I love focusing on growing that income.
- Growing income takes TIME. But, once you get a feel for what works it’s easy to focus and duplicate the process. I’m finding that everything has gotten much easier.
- Depending on the time of year, my area of focus will change. Now that the retreat is over, I’m now shifting my focus back to the following:
- Books
- Affiliate income
- Course sales
- Sponsors for Square State (podcast)
- Picking up some freelance clients-are you a company looking for a writer? Check out my portfolio to see if we would be a good fit. And, my email is: michelleismoneyhungry@gmail.com
Square State
For those of you who are new to me, you might not know that I have a blog and podcast about Colorado. Yep, I’m an overachiever LOL!
Now that Michelle is Money Hungry is running the way that I wanted it to, I’m now working on Square State again. Ironically, Square State is MUCH easier to run than Michelle is Money Hungry. I will show any earnings related to Square State in upcoming posts.
Those potential earnings will likely come from the following:
- Affiliates
- Sponsors for the podcast
- Colorado Book Sales
- Amazon Affiliates
- Ads (in the future)
Lessons Learned
I had an epic money mindset block for YEARS. In order for me to get that blockage to shift I did a couple of things.
- Focused on generating money wins in ways that I was excited about pursuing. I love passive income and now that I’ve begun to earn it consistently via books and affiliates, I’m excited to see how I can grow those earnings. As I experienced each small win, I gained confidence in my ability to to replicate the process again and again. The small wins matter.
- Have the right people around you. I have people around me who believe that I’m capable of doing amazing things. And, these are people who aren’t my mom.
- Consistency for the WIN! The more consistent I am, the better my overall results.
- Not traveling for the past two years was super helpful to me as I was able to stay focused on my goals. I do plan on visiting my grandma SOON. And, potentially going to Texas in December. Other than that, I don’t plan on traveling until March at the earliest.
- A lot can happen in a year. I can’t believe that I hosted an in-person retreat!
- What you focus on grows
I’m working on paying off the last of my unsecured debt (which is why I will be doing ALL THE THINGS!) Send me good vibes as I head into the end of the year. I’m so over this debt, it has GOT TO GO.
Related Posts 2019
- May…oops! I forgot to do this report
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Congrats Michelle! Enjoy your time on the mountain and can’t wait to hear how the retreat went!
Thanks Tonya! Am enjoying being on the mountain. Then, it’s back to work!
Congrats semms is been a great month, well done!!!
Thanks Giulia! It was a good month. I’m exhausted though LOL!
Congrats on hosting your first retreat and developing such a diverse income stream!
Thanks! It was a lot of hard work and I’m still in a bit of shock that it went so well. But, I’m really proud of what I’ve done.
The numbers are going up. I know the passive income is feeling good. My 1st book will be released at the end of the month.
Get it going!