Top Story on Forbes (and Yahoo, MSN, & More)

Top Story on Forbes (and Yahoo, MSN, & More)

Other interesting content: See our step-by-step guide to starting a blog.

Life has been busy as of late.  Newborn babies are exhausting little creatures, and sometimes we aren’t sure if it is day or night.  To parents who survive these early days while holding down a job, we salute you.

But each day is a little brighter.  GCCjr sometimes sleeps 3 hours before screaming bloody murder, a big improvement over the usual 2.  He’s also figured out that his left hand is really tasty, which has improved his self soothing skills.  And I’ve learned to change a diaper without getting peed on.

All of this to say we are beginning to feel less like one of the Walking Dead, and a little more like our old selves.  Sometimes we even have a brief moment of clarity during which we actually accomplish something!  I took advantage of one of these moments recently to process all of our income & expenses for the 1st Half of 2015 (Yeah, I know how to party! Woot!)

Imagine my surprise when… *GASP*…  this little blog accidentally made some serious bank!

Instead of continuing the income trend of previous years…

Blog Income
2012 – $0
2013 – $0
2014 – $1,987

We got:
2015 – $25,372 (through June 30th)

For the first half of the year, we have had an effective portfolio withdrawal rate of ~0%.  HOLY CRAP!

As an added bonus, Go Curry Cracker! was recently named by Wisebread.com as one of the 5 Best Websites to Help You Retire Early.

Richard Branson just may have been right:

Have Fun, Do Good, Success Will Come – Richard Branson

Accidental Income

Thank you!

I started writing this blog almost 3 years ago about two of our favorite topics, Money and Travel.  I never knew so many other people loved Travel and Money as much as we do.  Thank you for reading and commenting and sharing!

Along the way we added some advertisements and affiliate links for things that we personally use and love.  For example, TurboTax has been my tax tool of choice for years, so it was a great opportunity when I had the chance to be a TurboTax affiliate.

I really know nothing about SEO or how to optimize revenue, so getting any income at all is a novelty.  It just sort of happened.

Blogging Income

This is how we started making money online. To get started blogging, see our post on How to Start a Blog.

Advertising

All of our advertising income comes from Google’s AdSense.  It pays anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars if you click on an ad of interest.

There are other ad platforms, and it is possible to earn more by selling advertising space directly.  I haven’t explored this option.  The offers I have received for direct advertising haven’t been a good fit.

Affiliate Links

– Flexoffers – flexoffers.com hosts an affiliate program for thousands of unique companies, products, and services. To get started getting affiliate income from the things you already use and love, Flexoffers is the place to start.

Even better for bloggers, if you refer other people into the flexoffers affiliate program, you can earn commissions from their sales. Can you see how powerful that can be?

Get started with Flexoffers asap.

– Amazon.com’s affiliate program is one of the best around.  If a reader clicks on an Amazon link and purchases anything within the next 24 hours, we get paid a small percentage of the sale.  The sale price is the same regardless.

Usually sales are for books that we recommend, such as Your Money or Your Life.  But sometimes it is for really weird stuff, like a Hazmat Suit

Personal Capital – PC is a great tool for tracking expenses, analyzing 401k fees, managing cash flow, and optimizing asset allocation.  Recently, budgeting tools and a high quality Retirement Planner / Calculator.  And it is FREE.

If you give it a try we get a referral fee, and is one of our best income sources.

If you are interested for your own site, click here to become a Personal Capital affiliate. The payouts are well worth it.

– Credit Cards – We use cash back and rewards cards whenever we can. We even had $10k in free travel to Europe. Credit cards are a great example of getting paid to do what you were going to do anyway. We’ve had a few conversions from recommending cards we like.

– Other products and services – sites like linkoffers.com and Commission Junction represent thousands of affiliate publishers.  Almost any product or service can be offered.

Some examples include PerformanceBike.com and Nashbar.com for bike stuff, and Blue Host for WordPress Hosting.

– Free stuff – Many services and sites offer free stuff for referrals.  Some examples are in the “Things we love” section in the sidebar, such as Airbnb Credit of $35 and A free Ride on Uber.

Sponsored Links and Posts

Some advertisers will pay for bloggers to include links to their sites, to write articles about a product or service, or to share a guest post from the advertiser.

I’ve turned down all of these offers to date as none of them have been a good fit.

Other

There are many other potential sources of income, many I’m probably not aware of.  Some bloggers write books or write for other sites, others sell apps they created or offer consulting services, and some even have How to Make Money Blogging courses.  There is really no limit to the possibilities.

Multiple Streams of Income

With a potential 60+ year retirement, we always considered earning an income on the side as a possibility. Any additional income can significantly boost a portfolio’s longevity as the 4% Rule assumes future income is zero.

The opportunities seem endless.

I’ve been offered some consulting work from time to time, but even thinking about it is unpleasant.  I think this would be an income source used only in the case of emergency.

Winnie has had requests to use some of her photos, and may put her portfolio online for that purpose (many photos already on her public Facebook page.)  She has also sold a few pieces of her jewelry, although so far just for the cost of materials, but maybe there is an Etsy store in her future.

We’ve also both talked about writing a book.

It is an amazing thing to earn income for doing something you were going to do anyway.  I suspect many Early Retirees have already or will discover something similar.

Repeat our Results?

Is this kind of income sustainable?  I am skeptical, although by objective measures I’m sure the blog is underperforming.

Is this repeatable?  I really have no idea.

But I think sharing a passion through blogging is rewarding in itself, whether that be Travel and Money or Underwater Basket Weaving. So much so that I think everyone should blog!

Sound interesting? I have a step-by-step guide that can have you up and running in 30 minutes for less than the price of a monthly latte.

Get started with blogging today!

Have Fun, Do Good, and who knows, maybe you’ll make some accidental income.