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As mentioned in a previous report, the main goal of creating multiple streams of income is to create wealth. Its no good unless you get to keep it So my reports are going to start including debt, savings and net worth. I got the idea from Jeremy over at Zero Passive Income, he turned his financial picture around in about 6 months! Follow his blog as he posts some great info and inspirational posts. Now the wife dosent want her debts public so for now her side is not part of the equation, and who knows I may feel that way down the road.

Photography Business

My main source of income is my own photography business. While I don’t include it in the report for many reasons I do want to mention it as how it does drives many factors in the rest of my pursuits. Don’t know if it is the economy or the typical eb and flow (last year it was slow this time) but income has dropped the past couple months. I had a peak in April (highest month ever) then last couple months have been about half. Still at a positive level (more in than out) so Im ok there. I shoot mainly maternity and babies (newborn through 1 year) so those type of portraits tend to always come in as they are once in a lifetime moments that you cant wait on like a family portrait so Im not to worried Im still hitting the number of sessions I want in a month, just sales are down a bit.

AdSense

Started off the month great doing over a $1 a day average till the 12th of the month. Getting some of the higher $ clicks on some of the others sites. Then started slowing down with a site getting delisted and a couple sites moving down to page 2 or lower. With most the clicks coming from my big traffic site but clicks are only worth under .50 and clicks there are even slowing down. On a couple good notes I made more than last month and only had 2 $0 days.

Amazon

Amazon I have taken a new tact. I still have amazon affiliate on some of the sites but not making really anything there. Reading Sarah over at Common Sense Marketing about using your iphone to find books and items to sell on Amazon. So I took her info and started with just books and movies we had in the house. and with in hours had made four sales. Wife wants to get involved in this so it will be easier on me. So we will hit thrift stores and garage sales now and then, as well as any library book sales.We shall see how it goes and if it works out ill post more about it in the future. This month is mainly stuff we had around the house so future months may be a bit more difficult as we try to find inventory sources.

Other Affiliates

Zilch, nada, zero. Have a couple click bank products out there and items from CJ and the others. Nothing yet on that front.

Merchant Accounts

I wholesale merchant accounts for online and retail stores. As mentioned in last report its down to one merchant but looks like he had a great month! Still have it on my to do list to create a couple sites to try and get some more as this is great passive income. If you need one hit me up

InfoLinks

For those that are unfamiliar with InfoLinks.com (not an affiliate link if you want to check it out) they provide in text advertising. Their code will select keyword in the text of your article and create a hyperlink of it for an ad. If clicked you get paid. Their are others out there but I liked InfoLinks because of the ease of installing, basically a WP plugin and enter your account and your done. I’m experimenting with it on a few sites to see how it does, maybe you just need ALOT of traffic but so far not to impressed (see numbers below). I started it this month on 1 site about the 1st (site best paying as well) and added a couple more later. So far clicks range from 0 (yes zero pay from a click) to the highest so far of .36, I wonder though if it takes away from adsense? May do a full review in Sept or scrap it all together.

August 2011 Report

Income

Passive Income

Amazon	$207.37
Adsense	$23.19
Merchant Accounts	$171.58
Info Links	$0.97
Other Affiliates	$0.00
Total	$400.86

Portfolio Income

Money Market	$1.03
Waddell	$0.00
buy and hold	$0.00
Total	$0.00

Assets vs Debt

Assets

Debts

Net Worth

 

What I learned and Goals achieved

On the plus side overall the income is up thanks to amazon sales and adsense did increase. On the other hand having my big project delisted midstream was a big let down, and getting rejected on the reconsideration just the other day I still dont know what the problem is.

I did finally get it through my head (at least a little) that looking at a large amount in the bank account is not really good if you are paying interest on so much debt. I stopped paying minimums and actually just paid off one credit card. Making an aggressive run to pay off the last two debts I have besides the house and would like the next one paid off some time next year.

Finally jumped back into the stock market as well. Has been a long time un-written goal since I sold everything awhile back.

While I have a ways to go still organizing the finances and getting a budget together (and sticking to it) Im better off than I thought I was before I started this process

Goals met this month:

1. Adsense monthly total of $20 completed 8/29/11
2. Paid off Business Visa

Whats next and Goals

Well with the big project still in limbo Im going to focus on back linking some of my current sites and see if I can get them to nudge up a bit more. Be doing some of this myself with blog commenting and article marketing, and may bring on a part time VA to more of the other types. Also considering hiring a content writer as I would like to get 2-3 more sites added from scratch. Ill continue to eye flippa.com but its going to have to be really sweet for me to pull the trigger on any more for awhile.

Will be adding more goals to my goal page in regards to amazon sales and investments. This month amazon sales has been mainly stuff from around the house so may be hard to top it as that dries up. Do have plans as a family to hit some library book sales and garage sales this month, see if we can start to build an inventory.

Next month I will also me focusing on setting a budget for both business and personal as well as fixing categories in my tracking. Im throwing in the graph below as a starting point, as the next phase in getting financially set is to get a handle on spending. Making sure income is greater than out going. Cutting back on electrical and phone bill will be a big help but I also have a tendency to just buy something if I want it and need to focus on the need more. Not saying its a bad thing to get something you want once in awhile and not need but I tend to do it a little to much. This month is skewed a bit due to a late property tax payment but even with out that it seems outgoing out weighed incoming this month (actual not on paper).

As noted I need to tweak my categories a bit. My studio lease is currently in with home mortgage there in green, and shouldn’t have that much in uncategorized. Also I havent been tracking cash payments which I will start doing with a new app.

Well thats my month in a nutshell, looking forward to a continued improvement in Sept!

How did you do in Aug? Setting goals for Sept?