Now that I have finished the always stressful task of doing our taxes this year, I thought you might be interested to hear my top ten sources of income from last year. This, of course, is only the money that I’m making. Eric remains our household’s largest source of income. (Thanks, man. We appreciate things like food and shelter. You’re a real trooper like that.)
Top 10 Ways My Business Made Money Last Year (in alphabetical order)
Ad Networks – BlogHer, Google Adsense, and Lijit
Ads, Private- These are ads where I have been directly in contact with the company placing the ad and they paid me directly.
Affiliate Programs/Links – Amazon, as well as a variety of other eBooks by self-publishing authors/bloggers
Art – This includes pieces sold in my Etsy shop and those sold in person at craft shows.
Design Work – I have moved away from doing full blog designs for people, but was still doing it at the beginning of last year. This does, however, also include all of the blog and eBook design services that I still offer.
eBooks – I currently have four eBooks for sale, with some definitely factoring into this total better than others. I would love to continue to write eBooks, but I’m feeling at a loss right now about what to write the next one about. Maybe it will come to me in the middle of the night sometime. (I am, however, planning to come out with a second edition of one of the current ones with more content.)
Reviews – These are not always my favorite way to earn money because reviews can be very time consuming. But, when I get to try out something that I really enjoy, then it’s like an extra bonus!
Social Media Campaigns – I have typically done these through the ad networks that I belong to. What it typically entails is sharing a certain number of tweets or sharing on Facebook. I will almost always opt for sharing on Twitter for these types of campaigns when given the option. (I twice took Pinterest campaigns, but then realized that I hated doing that, because I just don’t want to use Pinterest like that.)
Virtual Assistant – This was actually a very small part (very small) of my income last year. But, that’s because I only put in a couple of hours at the end of the year. However, since I started in full force as the Online Project Manager at Catholic Icing at the beginning of the year, I anticipate it being more prevalent on my list this year. (If you need some help with virtual assisting or social media management, feel free to drop me an email and we can talk about pricing, what I have to offer, etc.)
Writing – This includes the writing that I’m paid to do on other sites. I am currently a contributing writers at both The Happy Housewife (in homeschooling and home management) and Life Your Way (in the family section, writing about homeschooling).
If you’re a blogger who is currently earning money, what were some of your best sources of income last year? Anything that you’ve decided to skip out on doing this year?
Angie — I’ve just entered into this arena, and I’vd found that affiliates and ads are the two ways that earn the most money now — sponsored posts earn a little less, and hopefully once I get my eBook out (AHEM!) that will generate some income.
Thanks for the list. There are some things on here I hadn’t thought of!
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Thanks for the helpful post & for hosting, & God bless!
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What a wide variety of ways to earn money! What an great motivator for those of us wanting to expand the way we bring in some extra money to help our families!
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Thanks for sharing this list. I’d like to start earning income with my writing and blog, and this gives me a good starting point for doing some research.
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