April 2010 – Earnings Report

Welcome to my April 2010 Earnings Report!  To preface this posting, these earning figures are not meant as a form of boasting – they are an accurate way for my readers to gauge which online money making ventures are working and which ones are failing.  There are many other bloggers in the “make money online” niche who are making a lot more than I am.  My earnings are meager compared to people like Pat Flynn and Chris Guthrie, who both make thousands of dollars a month from their online ventures.  Although I will say that both of these bloggers have much more highly targeted forms of income than I do.  I doubt anyone has as many income sources as me!

You’d think I would be happy with this month’s earnings since I broke the $1,000 barrier for the first time, but in actuality – I am a little dissappointed with the results from many of my sources.  A few negatives were my complete lack of earnings from Constant Content, which has consistently made me at least $60 a month for the past year.  My CashCrate earnings were also dissappointing since I actually built a dedicated blog to attract CashCrate referrals and my earnings were almost $200 last month.  To have my CashCrate earnings drop down to only $96.77 is not what I had hoped.  My new iPhone app only made $9.80 in the two weeks that it has been live.  I am hoping that once the free version of iTimeOut is available on the app store, I will make at least $40 to $50 a month from AdMobs.

My stock photo sales, Google adsense and my eHow earnings pretty much did what they do every month and it is nice to know that I can consistently count on these sources of residual income.  The biggest positive for me was my earnings from UserTesting.  I did a post a few weeks ago about UserTesting and I did not seem to get much interest from my readers and only a few people even commented on the post.  Let me tell you, UserTesting is the bomb!  Prior to doing these wesbite reviews for UserTesting I was trying to make money writing articles.  Writing takes so much effort and time and I never know if my articles will actually sell.  With UserTesting I simply accept a job, put on my headset, give my verbal feedback on a website and I make a quick $10.  Simple.  Most UserTests take me about 12 minutes and it seems like I have been getting a PayPal payment from UserTesting almost every day.  If I did not have two small children making noise in my house, I could have easily made $400 this month from UserTesting.  (You should do your reviews in a quiet environment.)  Overall, this is the best way to make money online that I have found in a while.  Vibrant Media also looks to be a good source of income and I earned $10.98 in just one week.  I imagine that in a full month I should make at least $30 to $40 from these in-text link ads.

 As you can see I have a long list of income sources and no real strength.  They say if you throw enough shit at the wall, eventually something will stick.  Well I’ve got an empty wall full of dents with a big pile of shit on the ground in front of it!  Even though this is the case, I am not ready to give up yet.  I have another iPhone app in development and a few other irons in the fire.  I am happy to see that this blog has become a forum for many different money making ventures and each day I can see the number of new visitors to Residuals and Royalties steadily increasing.  Below is my earnings report for April, 2010…

April 2010, Earnings Report

  1. Ehow:                              $68.61
  2. Constant Content:      $0.40
  3. Shutterstock:               $53.32
  4. Dreamstime:                $27.77
  5. BigStockPhoto:           $15.25
  6. iStockPhoto:                $24.21
  7. Fotolia:                           $6.41
  8. Field Inspections:      $150.00
  9. Focus Groups:             $125.00
  10. e-Junkie Affiliate:        $5.00
  11. CashCrate:                     $96.77
  12. Project Payday:           $15.00
  13. Google Adsense:         $95.43
  14. Vibrant Media:             $10.98
  15. Blog Advertising:         $0
  16. ebook Sales:                  $125.00
  17. Amazon Associates:   $0
  18. User Testing:                $240.00
  19. iPhone App Sales:       $9.80
  20. Android App Sales:    $1.50

 TOTAL RESIDUAL INCOME:  $1070.45

+/- March Earnings: +$161.02  (Was $909.43)

It is a good sign that I have seen an increase in my monthly earnings every month since I first started keeping steady monthly earnings reports.  I would need to make at least $5,000 a month from all of these sources to say that I “make a living” from online income.  My goal is to hit the $2,000 a month mark by January of 2011 and go upwards from there.  I’d like to thank those of you who come back day in and day out to follow me on this journey. 

Best regards,

Michael-John Wolfe

Tags: make money online, residual income, royalties

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39 Comments to “April 2010 – Earnings Report”

  1. Blogging Banks 1 May 2010 at 8:02 am #

    Congratulations on breaking $1000/month barrier. Don’t be too harsh on yourself for failing to make a ton of money with Iphone apps- this is a very very intensely competitive market, where a few players make most of the money, while the majority is left earning next to nothing.
    What do you do with your online earnings? Do you reinvest them in anything? If you buy dividend stocks or bonds with the money you will be earning a true passive income that is completely independent from online earnings. You will be earning interest and dividends, which are the truest source of passive income that I know of..

    Best Regards

  2. MJ Wolfe 1 May 2010 at 8:03 am #

    Last month I reinvested my earnings into paying my iPhone app developer as well as hiring LinkWheeler to improve my search engine rankings. The rest of the money went to bills! I would like to reinvest my money, but I have always had terrible luck with the market. I don’t know much about dividend stocks or bonds. Any suggestions on how I could learn more about these?

    MJ

  3. alicia 1 May 2010 at 8:29 am #

    Congrats on hitting the $1,000 mark. I see that you have also made some income from your Iphone app. I enjoy reading your blog. BTW, is it really difficult to do the Iphone apps?

  4. MJ Wolfe 1 May 2010 at 9:03 am #

    Thank you Alicia! No, it’s not difficult – my app developer did all of the work, I simply told him what I wanted and I drew up a blueprint of my app idea on paper. Let us know if you decide to puruse an app!

    MJ

  5. Murlu 1 May 2010 at 2:48 pm #

    Congrats MJ!

    I was just telling my friend about your blog the other day as we were discussing some MMO strategies.

    I really enjoy that you’re doing it like most people would, the legit way. You’re not doing some scammy sales.

    It’s awesome to see it continue to build up and up, I would love to reach the $1000 mark.

    I think I technically made around $1000 in April but it was through a lot of sales on Amazon so it won’t be consistent this month.

    I finally put my foot down and launched my new blog Murlu. It’s part MMO but I plan to cover ways from the inside (I’m a webmaster at an ecommerce company) so I think I have a really great, unique spin on things.

    You keep writing, I’ll keep reading!

  6. MJ Wolfe 1 May 2010 at 5:26 pm #

    Thanks Murray! I actually just got my first ever Amazon Associates sale today. I went to Murlu.com – looks good. You have a lot of posts already. I will take some time and read them all this weekend. If I ever need to hire a webmaster for freelance work…you’re my guy!

    MJ

  7. alicia 1 May 2010 at 8:01 pm #

    Ok, I will let you know. I will have to do some research though because I know very little about apps. I just heard about this MMO a few months ago from reading Pat’s blog. Thanks for the offer. How did you get started? Did you get an e-book on it? It sounds interesting but I don’t know much about it.

  8. MJ Wolfe 1 May 2010 at 11:40 pm #

    I just dove in a hired an app developer from elance! Coming up with a winning idea is the hard part!

    MJ

  9. Duia 1 May 2010 at 11:49 pm #

    1000 dollars! It is really a big number for me. Now, I can just earn about 150 dollars per month by blogging.
    Of course, according to what I know, if people want to gain big fortunes online, Affiliate marketing is a good choice (I am trying and hope can earn much in the future)

  10. MJ Wolfe 1 May 2010 at 11:50 pm #

    Hi Duia! I hear you about affiliate marketing, but I have never been able to figure out how to profit from it. Let us know how you do. Good luck!

    MJ

  11. jeff 2 May 2010 at 4:57 am #

    Interesting to note that you are targeting $2K/mo. — think about this: some people don’t even get a real, ‘physical’ job that incomes $2,000/mo.

    Obviously, you needed to take into consideration what your COLA is, and what you deem be a ‘comfortable’ life of residual income, however I just wanted to give you some inspiration and thought.

    Just know that to many, like myself, your success is truly envious! Congrats!

  12. MJ Wolfe 2 May 2010 at 4:58 am #

    Hi Jeff! My COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment?) involves supporting a wife and two kids! I am not trying to achieve “Ferrari and Rolex” status, I just want to live comfortably. If it was just me, yes – I could live on a lot less moolah! Thanks for the words of encouragement!

    MJ

  13. MJ Wolfe 2 May 2010 at 7:22 am #

    You’ll get there Cameron! Thanks for your support! :)

    MJ

  14. Blogging Banks 2 May 2010 at 8:06 am #

    Well I have been following this site, and the guy has some good ideas on dividend stocks – these are strong solid companies that we all know about and whose products we use every day. Best of all those stocks seem to raise payments every year.

    http://www.dividendgrowthinvestor.com/2010/04/16-quality-dividend-stocks-for-long-run.html

    http://www.dividendgrowthinvestor.com/2010/01/2010s-top-dividend-plays.html

    As for your site, I think that you could be making more money on adsense if you placed the adsense banner on the top of your page. I don’t know if you have experimented with this, but I think you shoudl try it. To me adsense is the best way to monetize a blog.

  15. MJ Wolfe 2 May 2010 at 8:07 am #

    Thanks, I will check out those sites! I also like the fact that your blog lists the banks that pay you to open accounts. That’s pretty sweet! I know I could make more if I had adsense atop my blog, but it’s a little too much “in your face” for me, I’d rather that my blog has the look and feel of legitimacy. Thanks for this!

    MJ

  16. George185 2 May 2010 at 8:42 am #

    Congrats on breaking the $1000 dollar mark. I’m close to breaking the $500 mark, though most of that came from building a freelance website.

    I think that posts like this are everyone’s favorite to read because it provides us with hope and direction.

  17. MJ Wolfe 2 May 2010 at 8:43 am #

    Thank you George! Hope you hit the $500 mark in May! Keep us posted.

    MJ

  18. MissEb 2 May 2010 at 9:31 am #

    Disappointment can be a good thing as that can keep you going even harder. However, I do think you’ve done BRILLIANTLY and that you should really give yourself a big hug for breaking through the $1k barrier. Let it sink in. YOU’VE BROKEN THE $1K BARRIER!

    I wish you heaps more success this month.

    Take care…

  19. Heather Carreiro 2 May 2010 at 12:55 pm #

    Great news!

    I’ve just added “try User Testing” to my to-do list for this summer.

    I LOVE the new Tweet this button by the way. I just visited Alexa yesterday and saw that 100% of my unique users get to my site from Twitter. Hopefully the button will drive more people to your site as well!

  20. MJ Wolfe 2 May 2010 at 12:56 pm #

    Hi Heather! Good luck with UserTesting — it is super easy! You just have to be FAST and accept jobs as soon as they come up. In fact, I keep my account open during the day and hit “refresh” every so often to see if a new job is available. Jobs are taken within minutes! Yes, the “Tweet button” was a good idea — a little birdie told me about it! ;)

    MJ

  21. Murlu 2 May 2010 at 1:44 pm #

    Thanks MJ!

    I’m doing my best, networking and trying to transition from full time 9 – 5 to online.

    I think you’ve really got it down pat, there’s so much to learn on here. Can’t wait to see how May rolls around for you, I’ll be keeping a close watch :)

  22. ceholmes 2 May 2010 at 7:21 pm #

    wow MJ, you really rock, congrats! I hope to get to the 1,000 threshold one day…hopefully sometime this year (crossing fingers)

  23. Brian 2 May 2010 at 8:10 pm #

    Nice job MJ. A thousand a month is a real nice goal to reach! I have a question about your adsense revenue. I recently started an “adsense site” and I am intrigued by the wash, rinse, repeat nature of them. Is your adsense revenue just from this blog or do you have other sites as well?

    Thanks again for sharing. Good luck getting to $2000 (I think you are going to get there quicker than you think)

  24. MJ Wolfe 3 May 2010 at 2:22 am #

    Hi Brian, my adsense usually ranges from about $90 to $125 a month and yes, I have mulitple other websites. I’d say that I have about 8 total websites with adsense on them. A few of them are my limo company websites, which I think are my best earners because people go to the site and call me for a limo and if I don’t answer they probably click on an ad of another local limo company and call them.

    MJ

  25. Deneil Merritt 3 May 2010 at 4:59 am #

    Wow, what a great month for you. I also went over the $1k mark last month. As for your iPhone app, you should read smartpassiveincome.com on how to boost traffic to your iPhone app. Pat is always getting better at iPhone apps.

    Keep up the good work man. I am sure you will be making $2k a month sooner or later. Just never quit. People always have a habit of quitting right before everything is about to work out.

  26. MJ Wolfe 3 May 2010 at 5:30 am #

    Thanks Deneil! Yes, I go to smartpassiveincome.com all the time! I aspire to be as successful as Pat someday! As far as quitting goes, I won’t lie — it does cross my mind almost weekly. I guess I gotta fight through that feeling! Congrats to you on crossing $1,000 as well! Nice work!

    MJ

  27. Deneil Merritt 3 May 2010 at 7:14 am #

    You welcome. Yeah, that guy just aspire us all. Start thinking about success. Each time you find yourself thinking about quitting, think about success. It will help you stop thinking about quitting. I know it helped me. Thanks, now the right challenge begins this month. Passing the $1k mark again.

  28. Tiptopcat @Money Making Experiment 3 May 2010 at 4:19 pm #

    Hi there.
    Excellent results for the month of April. I love the fact that you have so many different streams of income going on.

    Congrats on breaking through the $1,000 barrier.

  29. Alvino 4 May 2010 at 1:32 pm #

    Michael,

    Congrats on achieving such proficient money in a month. A question not related to residual income. How has your acting gone? You mentioned an auditioned a few months ago and just wanted to see how that went. Just so that you know I have your acting book and it is excellent. Great job on everything.

  30. MJ Wolfe 4 May 2010 at 4:43 pm #

    Hi Alvino! Thanks for buying my book! To be honest, when I moved from L.A. to Denver I just assumed that acting would have to become more of a hobby than a career. Boy was I surprised when I signed with an agent here and started getting a good amount of auditions. In fact, in one week I had 4 auditions here in Denver, which would be a good week in L.A. – let alone Colorado. But my last 5 or 6 auditions have been awful – my heart has not been in it and I was even dreading these auditions. It seemed that after 6 years of auditioning in L.A. and 1 year here in Denver – I had lost the “spark”. I called my agent last week and told her that I need a break from acting and I only want to audition if I am specifically requested by a client. I am sure I will go back to a full pursuit of acting again – I am just not sure if my hiatus will be 3 months or 3 years. Wouldn’t you know it – I got requested by a client for an audition next Monday for a corporate training video. Fun! Just when I try to escape, they reel me back in…haha! Hopefully these requests won’t happen too often. Best of luck with your acting endeavors Alvino! Are you in L.A.? Have you gotten into the union? If you are SAG, do whatever you can to get registered with Idell James Casting, Advanced Casting, etc. That SAG commercial background pays great! And the food aint bad either! Just stay away from the craft services table!

    MJ

  31. Onibalusi Bamidele 5 May 2010 at 9:55 am #

    Hi MJ,

    Glad to read your income report, I am yet to be making money online (maybe soon). You are not building a list, why?

    I initially didn’t intend to make a comment, but I loved your post and I wouldn’t like to miss any of it, I wanted to subscribe to your feed but email subscription is not available (I subscribe via emails because this is more easy to read).

    Thanks for this great blog.

    -Onibalusi

  32. MJ Wolfe 5 May 2010 at 5:50 pm #

    Hello Onibalusi! Thanks for your input! I hear you about the email subscription, that is something that I have to get around to doing. Plus, I am sure in the lon run that I can only benefit from building a list. Hopefully soon! Best of luck to you!

    MJ

  33. Greg Ellison 5 May 2010 at 7:27 pm #

    Your monthly is very cool and inspiring. It is nice to 1K+. The one website that makes you money 18.User Testing looks very innteresting. Thanks for sharing your income report with us. Thanks Greg Ellison

  34. MJ Wolfe 6 May 2010 at 2:52 am #

    Thanks Greg! That’s pretty cool that you posted a list on your blog of various different earnings reports from accross the web. Nice! Let us know if you try UserTesting.

    MJ

  35. Alvino 6 May 2010 at 2:42 pm #

    Michael,

    Sorry for the delay. I love coming on your site and seeing all the info. that you give. Thank you so much! Yes, I bought your book a few months and have literately “consumed” all the info. in it. It has so much and I thank you so much for that.
    I am currently in Virginia but plan on moving to the west coast sometime next year. I have been taking classes and trying to get some “experience” in student films. Nothing much or major but something to have before moving out west. Once I do get there, I plan on doing everything you have written and see how far this journey takes me. Shoot for the stars because if it fails, reaching the moon isn’t that bad at all.

    In all truthfulness with a family it is a little difficult(which I’m sure you know) but I don’t think its impossible.Thanks for your help.

  36. Tony 11 May 2010 at 3:36 am #

    Nice numbers and for me it proves that you are always better off if you don’t focus too much on one income source and have your eggs in many baskets!

  37. MJ Wolfe 11 May 2010 at 4:46 am #

    Thanks Tony! I am running out of room for more baskets! Haha!

    MJ

  38. Partnersuche 31 May 2010 at 1:44 am #

    Good Job, but whhat is : User Testing ?

  39. MJ Wolfe 31 May 2010 at 4:27 am #

    Hello! You can read my post on User Testing here: User Testing

    Good luck!

    MJ


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