My September goals – and why I’m sharing them

I don’t usually share my goals here, although I do try to set them every month I tend to just write them out for myself and crack on with things. But this month I really wanted to hold myself accountable and I thought that publishing my goals might help me to stay motivated and actually achieve the things I set out to achieve!

August has been a tough month for me.  Although I had two weeks off work and side hustling, the rest of the month was spent juggling about a million balls and trying to keep everything ticking over.  With three children at home it’s been far from easy, and over the last couple of days I’ve really started to feel the strain.

Overall though, August was actually my best blogging month so far. I don’t usually like to share actual figures, but if I want to show how I’m actually making money, then I think it’s important to share – I managed to earn £1,133.49 which for a part-time effort is actually pretty good. This was just from my blog, I completed the odd survey but I haven’t actually cashed out so I haven’t included any side hustle income. Earning this from my blog did involve a LOT of juggling everything though, but I’m hoping I can continue to steadily increase my earnings over the next few months.

September Goals

1. Make £2,000

I’m going to aim to make £2,000 from blogging and side hustles. If I can achieve this on a regular basis then it will make a massive difference to our lives. Making over £1,000 for the last three months just from my blog has really spurred me on to push this figure higher.

How?

Setting a random figure is easy, but how will I actually achieve £2k?

• Blogging – I’m hoping to earn at least £1,400 from my blog in September. As well as My Money Cottage, I also have a number of other sites that are starting to bring in some money. They’re only earning small amounts of money but with some effort in September I’m hopeful I can earn more from those.
  The bulk of my blogging income comes from sponsored posts, guest posts and affiliate income.
• Matched Betting – This used to be my biggest earner by far but blogging has taken over. I just haven’t had the time to do it! I’m actually going to out myself now, but considering I actually work for Profit Accumulator, I should really dedicate some time to actually putting bets on myself! It’s such easy money when you just put a little bit of effort in. I should be able to make at least £300 from this without it becoming too stressful.
• Surveys – Prolific Academic have been really good to me recently and I’ve had some high paying surveys when I’ve logged in. I’m hoping to make £100-£200 from surveys in September.
• Mystery Shopping – September sees all three children in full-time education for the first time. This frees up every afternoon for me. I’m thinking I’ll perhaps dedicate Thursday afternoons to mystery shopping. My husband has Thursdays off and I tend to find things easier when I have him with me. Hopefully we’ll be able to get a few pub lunches paid for by mystery shopping too.
• Affiliate Marketing – I run Bargain Bunny which is bringing in a slow but steady income now. I’m hoping to get more organised with posting in there and potentially eventually employ somebody to do that for me. For now though, I want to be more consistent, gain more members, and obviously increase my income from that.

I’m going to be sharing how I’m getting on and how you can boost your income too within the Facebook group that runs alongside my 30 day money-making challenge. I’d love to see you in there and keep each other motivated.

2. Increase my passive income

This kind of fits in with me aiming to make £2,000, but it’s also a goal in it’s own right. I’ve really struggled with my workload over the last couple of months and keeping up with everything the children need too. I feel as though I’m trying to achieve lots of things all at the same time and actually doing nothing!

Increasing my passive income will mean that I’m earning more money without actually putting in more effort. In September, I’m planning on revisiting an affiliate marketing course I did a few months back and working out how I can improve and bring in more regular income.

3. Get into a routine

I really need to sort my routine out. As expected, it’s gone completely out of the window over the summer holidays, and I desperately need to get back on track.

I’m not sure whether I’m going to set myself a daily timetable or how it’s going to work yet, but I want to get my routine nailed in September.

4. Make two of my other websites profitable

I have a lot of websites, three of which are making money regularly now. I have two others that I’m hoping to get to profitability in September. This means I need to get more content on them and start applying for paid work with them too.

 

So, there you have it – a pretty open account of how things have been going and how I’m planning to improve things with my September goals. Do you have any goals for the month? I’d love to read them in the comments – perhaps we can spur each other on.