Side Hustle Income Report: August 2017
What up all you hustlers out there! I hope August was a good month and you brought home the bacon. By that I mean some side hustle cash, but yes, I hope you had a chance to enjoy some delicious bacon to celebrate!
I had a pretty decent month on the side hustle front. I even got into two new ones! The first was when I used uShip to transport a few items back and forth on my recent road trip. The second was when I started writing for SeekingAlpha!
TWO new side hustles started in just ONE month. Boom!
If you haven't checked out that articles, go do so! I mean, learning new ways to make cash never hurts, right? Right.
As a guy that doesn't make six figures, side hustles are my way to have extra money to invest. I do well enough with saving (and investing) my salary, but more is welcome as it adds an afterburner effect to the whole show!
So by flipping that switch, you shoot past those around you that aren't hustling on their off time. Not to say don't relax as we all need to recharge, but find a nice balance between your relaxation/family time and time you get your hustle on.
Anyways, on to the show!
uShip Side Hustle: $249.88
I won't go into too many details as I wrote it all out in an earlier post.
One item each way from home to L.A. & back resulted in exactly $249.88. I won't deduct any expenses, but the road trip was going to happen either way so there was only a small amount of additional gas and time to detour to the pickup/drop off places.
Still, $249.88 is pretty decent for bring stuff along on a journey you were going to make anyway!
SeekingAlpha: $133.48
My other new side-hustle takes my passion for stocks and my slowly increasing (what say you all?) skills as a writer and merges them into one kickass side-baby! This little gig throws up $35 per accepted article and continues to drool a penny per view afterwards. Notice how I went with the baby theme, writing skills I tell you what.
During the month they accepted two of the four articles I wrote. Those two articles earned me $133.48!
That's $70 initially, and $63.48 for the views.
The sad thing is that only desktop views count towards the penny, you get nothing for mobile. Shame, but the views continue to bring me a shiny penny every time someone clicks on them (from a desktop).
If you want to check them out, you can see what I have been thinking and researching in the stock market world.
Albemarle: Great Company, Strong Sell – Here I went into why I think Albermarle is a great company, but it has increased in price WAY ahead of earnings. ALB is one of the three large companies that are mining lithium. Earnings have increased by 17.3%, but the stock has risen 82%. This is a company that has historically tracked near to its earnings. I sold my shares and bought some junior lithium miners on the OTC market instead.
The next article I wrote was a matchup between two retail REITs. Retailers have been hit hard due to the Amazon threat, and it has carried over to the retailers landlords. I compared two of the top-tier landlords that were closest to their 52-week low.
Now this one doesn't count as it was published on the 1st of September (next month though!), but you can check out my pick to profit off of the reconstruction that will be going on after Hurricane Harvey.
I wouldn't mind the penny or a follow over there guys and gals – It all adds up! Please and thank you. :D
Gig Apps: $76.25
I also completed a few jobs through my phone. I briefly talked about them on my Road Trip Travel Hack post, they are Gigwalk, Field Agent, and EasyShift.
On EasyShift I completed 15 jobs, earning a total of $76.25.
Field Agent gave me $20 even for five jobs.
Gigwalk did not have any worthwhile jobs whenever I checked, so nothing from them.
These phone gig apps gave me $96.25 during the month of August! Badass!
eBay: $117.95
I must admit, I haven't been hitting eBay hard. I used to bring in $2-4000 a month in gross revenues back in 2015! It would be nice to start hitting that type of revenue again and I have a lot of stuff that needs to be listed. I just never really got back into it after I worked away from home for 6 months last year.
Still, I get a few sales every month. Seven in August to be exact. After cost of goods, fees, and shipping I earned approximately $117.95 in profit.
Notable sales included brand new FootJoy shoes, a used leg brace (Yes, medical crap is expensive if you buy it from the doctor/hospital), and a really cool laserdisc (remember those!?) about The Doors.
The Doors laserdisc had a really cool hologram on the cover and a gatefold interior with artwork and a few pages of their story. Really cool, beats the shit out of any DVD I have ever seen. It was one of the last discs of my laserdisc bundle I picked up with my father-in-law at a church sale. I got about 30 of them for just $75. They have been all profit every time they now sell, as my costs have been recouped months ago.
Robinhood: $26.02
Yes, even my zero commission brokerage account was a side-hustle in August! Robinhood currently has a promotion that gives you a free stock when you sign up! If you want to get in on this sweet action, check out my review and click the link inside.
Four awesome and amazing people signed up and got a free stock using my link. When they (or you!) do that I also get a random stock. I will count the value based upon the price of the stock the day I received them.
I got two shares of SIRI, one GRPN, and one F for a total of $26.02!
I really like Robinhood, free to sign up and use as well as no commissions when you buy or sell a stock. If you aren't using them, check them out. You could just even use them as an app to watch your stocks as their interface is very smooth.
Steemit: $70.70
Finally, we come to lovely Steemit. The best place to share your passion and turn it into cryptocurrency. If you haven't read my article on how I earned $25,000 on Steemit, check it out!
During August I made 5 blog posts and earned this much. Steem was $1.29 last time I checked.
Steem Dollars 25.916 = $24.77
Steem Power 35.603 = $45.93
A combined total of $70.70!
All added up, my side-hustles earned me a grand total of $694.28!
Wow, what an amazing thing. You see, I never actually added them all up before. Normally I just see bits and pieces and think 'that's nice', but nothing much more.
It's like a reverse of spending little amounts. Those people always say they never know where all their money goes. For me, it's that I never knew where all my side-money was coming from!
Another thing is that I really enjoy making money from my own endeavors. Yes, my job earns me the most and I couldn't survive on $694.28, but I don't find myself having fun doing it like I do on my side-hustles.
I also believe that I could ramp up any of these side jobs to bring in a decent amount of cash if I had to. Say if I lost my job, or to supplement my income during early retirement. I mean, I was pretty much there selling on eBay back in 2015!
It would be a fun challenge to see how much I could bring in if I had all my time to do so. No main job to work around, just straight up hustling.
I can see myself doing that once I hit a bare bones type FI.
What do you think of my hustling in August? What about you? How are your side-hustles coming along? Bacon? I would like to know, so leave me a comment down below. I love to read them.
Thanks for stopping by! Keep on hustling, you hustlers!
Master of Coin, sir! Man, you're a god send when it comes to the finances. Everything calculated down to a tee. Loving it, my bro! :)
Thank you, buddy! Master your finances, or let your finances be the master of you is what I believe. I know it isn't a popular topic here, but I know a few people enjoy reading about it.
Thanks so much for your friendship here. I really appreciate you.
Wow! So impressive, really. I want to side-hustle too but sadly, I'm short of ideas here in Pakistan. Could you suggest something?
I don't know your situation, but I have thought about what I would do.
I would find some amazing artisan leather workers and have them make truly high quality handbags and messenger bags. Here is a link to what I am talking about. https://www.etsy.com/search?q=leather%20messenger%20bag&ref=auto1&as_prefix=leather%20mess
The cost of the bags plus shipping to America/Western Europe would have to leave you a nice margin. After you get a few bags that are really well designed and looking great, hire a professional to take beautiful photos of them. Also, maybe a good looking model in a nice setting with the bag.
Then use those photos and promote your products! Etsy, eBay, anywhere else. Make your brand. Build a business that will make you rich!
If that is too much, you seem like you are fluent in English, so you can always be a virtual assistant or write articles for websites. :D
Great idea. My passion is writing and I am currently earning a not-so-bad income from it. Write e-books as a ghost writer. I even self-published my own book but it hasn't sold much copies. I really want to use my writing skill to earn better but having a hard time finding better paying clients. Nonetheless, I am striving for better. Thank you so much for taking out the time to think and suggest me a great idea. :D
About what are you currently getting per article?
I am getting about $7 per 1000 words which isn't great. I have had clients who paid me $15/1000 words too but they didn't give regular work. This $7 one is offering me regular work and is great to work with but the rate is too low especially when I have to manage the household on my income solely.
Shoot, that sucks. Check out my website www.doublingdollars.com and see if you would like to write about money, philosophy, personal finance and the like. I can pay better than what you are getting. I have lots of article ideas and not enough time to write them!
You are too kind. Thank you so much :) Can't tell you how happy I am feeling right now. Went through your website. It is really nice. I have written on personal finance and money but I am quite good at writing about success, motivation, positivity, contentment and the many topics discussed under your philosophy section. So how about I write for such topics for you. Here's my email address: [email protected]
If you want to talk on steemit chat or discord, please let me know. Thank you so much for giving me time :)
This is so awesome! Thank you so much for sharing! My eBay selling isn't selling at all... HAWH HAWH HAWH. Absolutely nothing happening there. I stopped Amazon FBA because the numbers weren't adding up. Switched to private labeling and shipping myself. Works out much better. I am going to try these apps. Steemit, I am hoping to make connections here and if I earn some steem that would be great too! Totally love Robinhood! So glad there are others loving it just as much!
What are you trying to sell on eBay. I have some stuff that doesn't, but I sell whatever I can make a few bucks on. no theme to my store at all.
How does private labeling work? Just sell off your own website?
Just keep on being social and adding value here, and Steemit will slowly find you. Just never give up! All the ones you think are doing so well all started from nothing. Those that persevere are the ones that get rewarded.
Keep Hustlin' my Friend
Good stuff, I looked into writing for seeking alpha couple years back. Didn't realize they were paying $35 an accepted article, pretty sweet.
Def. keeping uShip in mind on my next road trip!
If you have space, you certainly should. Roadie too, Roadie is more popular on the east coast.
well your point is absolutely right on " find a nice balance between your relaxation/family time " thats really important part
Yes, all work and no play makes for a sad hustler... :)
yeah :)