Welcome to my March Income Report! Each month I publish an income report to take you behind the scenes of my #SideHustleGoneSerious and show you exactly how much I make, how much I spend, and what lessons I learned along the way!
Important Things That Happened in March
Social Media Marketing World
I kicked off March with a trip to San Diego for Social Media Marketing World – an amazing trip that really pulled me out of my comfort zone. I highly recommend this conference to anyone who seriously wants to make a living from their online business.
You can read more about my experience at Social Media Marketing World here.
Pep Talks for Side Hustlers Podcast
While I was at the hotel, I took a deep dive into Pat Flynn’s Power Up Podcasting Course, which I had actually purchased a year earlier at Chalene Johnson’s Marketing Impact Academy(also an awesome conference in San Diego).
I knew when I purchased it that I didn’t need it right away, but there would definitely be a time when I would be launching a podcast so I wanted to get in on the super special intro price!
When I returned home, I got right to work on Pep Talks For Side Hustlers, a daily podcast and Alexa Flash briefing that gives tips, motivation, and actionable advice to help side hustlers and people starting an online business to stay the course.
I feel very passionate about this topic because I know first-hand how hard it can be, but I also know the rewards waiting on the other side.
It’s also an entirely new way to connect with my existing audience and attract an entirely new audience.
So throughout March, I brainstormed episode topics, wrote several weeks worth of pep talks, built my podcast website, recorded, edited, and produced a few weeks worth of episodes, and streamlined my whole process so that I could hand it over to my VA team and all I would have to do is write, record, and edit the episodes.
I’ve also incorporated some list-building tactics and affiliate marketing tactics into the podcast as well.
The first episode went live on March 24 and I invite you to check out the first few episodes on iTunes here, and would LOVE it if you would leave me a rating and review ????
Personal
On a personal level, I lost my beloved aunt to lung cancer in March.
One of the things that I am most grateful for about being my own boss is that I don’t have to ask for time off to drive my mom to the hospital to be with her sister when we get the phone call that the pneumonia is winning.
That I don’t have to ask anyone to to spend a few days up at hospice with my loved ones as we spent my aunt’s final days with her. And that I don’t have a set number of days of “bereavement” leave for the funeral.
I have total freedom to do the things that matter to me, and my aunt was so proud of what I created for myself.
Review of My Goals
Again, my goal each month has been to generate $10,000 in revenue because my rough breakdown to replace my paycheck, cover business expenses, and pay taxes is:
$5000 – Income to cover my paycheck.
$2500 – Expenses
$2500 – Taxes
What I Focused on in March
I put my best effort into closing out as many one-on-one web design client projects as possible so that I could transition my time to working on the new 5 Day Website Challenge and list-building and growing the revenue that’s scalable rather than the revenue that requires my one-on-one time and is not so scalable.
I also decided to put some serious effort into a Pinterest strategy in the month of March because Pinterest can be a big traffic generator. I signed a contract with a Pinterest team to get me up and running. More on that in future income reports.
Creating Pep Talks for Side Hustlers as a way to reach a new audience was also a big focus.
In March I also started to implement the strategies I discussed in my meeting with the Bluehost affiliate team on my website. I’ve already seen significant results from our time together, and you’ll see that in upcoming income reports.
That being said, here’s how much money I made in March 2018:
INCOME BREAKDOWN
Passive Income:
Affiliate Income – Bluehost – $340.00
Affiliate Income – Elegant Themes – $124.00
Affiliate Income – ConvertKit – $58.20
Affiliate Income – Nathalie Lussier Media – $15.60
5 Day Challenge Upgrade – $85.00
How to Start a Freelance Web Design Business Upgrade – $0.00
Serious Side Hustlers – $783.00
Individual Courses – $84.00
Web Designer Academy – $497.00
Websites That Make Money Beta – $1691.00
WordPress Protection Package – $279.60
Passive Income Total: $3957.40
Time for Money Income:
Done For You Projects – $3093.86
Website Therapy Coaching Beta Test – $349.00
Consulting – $2500
Time for Money Total: $5924.86
Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that!
Then you can sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.shannonmattern.com/5day and I’ll show you step by step how to get started building your new website for your side hustle.
