I have been a hobby blogger since 2010 and have never really made any money from it. In the last 12 months I have been increasing my side hustle from online selling and want to try and do more.
It started last March when Claire started her new job. Since the changes in her health she took a job which was (meant to be) less stressful which meant a reduction in salary of £400 a month. Although my salary can cover this we knew it was going to be tight if we didn’t try and make some additional cash and to introduce something that was an easy side hustle.
The Side Hustle decision
There are a number of ways in which you can make money in your spare time. I knew that it had to be something I could do at home as I wanted to spend as much time with my wife as I could and I thought it might be nice to be able to do it without a bra on too!
The way I came to my decision was to look at what I could do or may have done already.
The obvious thing was to have a clear-out and sell my stuff. Car boot sales had not yet started in our area so ebay is a tried and tested way of selling goods online.
We did a big clear out of things, took photo’s and started to upload them. I already had good lighting from my blog pictures and things started to sell quickly.
We looked for ebay sellers on youtube to see if this was a viable option and found there was a huge reseller community of people who were buying things at a discounted price or second hand and selling it for profit.
I knew that this was something I could try and I watched countless videos of resellers and really did my research.
Starting small I started buying things I liked and I knew would make a quick profit and it worked. I created a business account as soon as I started selling anything I bought (this is a requirement of ebay rules) and made sure I logged everything that was incoming and outgoing.
I found I had a really good eye for ladies fashion so I focussed my energy on that with every penny I made being ploughed straight in to replenishing my stock.
In 2018 I didn’t manage to make any profit from ebay as I was growing the business and at the back end of the year I took a step back when my mum passed away.
How I want to grow my side hustle in 2019
Since starting my online ebay business I realise that you can really make a lot of money and the profits will come if I keep building the stock and listing regularly.
My ebay goal for 2019
For 2019 the plan is to double the amount of listings that we have on Ebay by August and to open another business account for anything bric-a-brac and another for toys to keep them separate.
Knowing what I know now I am sure this is achievable.
The profit I would like to make this year is between £1000 and £5000 – although a lot of my profit seems to go back in to stock, on fees and on expenses.
My blog goal for 2019
I would also like to grow my blog so that I can create more sponsored content.
My blog is my space on the internet that I have grown and nurtured since 2010. It’s somewhere I can be myself, have my say and share my experiences so I would like to develop that in to something more profitable.
There is real opportunity to create sponsored content that is still you and uses your voice even if this seems a challenge. Many bloggers do this every day and I am keen to harness this.
Growing followers naturally too is something I would like to do and I will be taking Vix Meldrew’s email marketing course to help me with growing and maintaining a loyal audience.
My overall goal would to be able to make £1000 from sponsored content and to grow my DA to over 30 (it hovers between 27 & 29)
The first steps are to make my blog look better and easier to navigate. I want to really focus in on what I am trying to portray and the messages I am choosing.
Do you have a side hustle?
What do you do to make extra cash?
Blogging is definitely a big side hustle for me as I do make a good part time wage from it which is great around my full time work. I am trying to do more freelance writing as well which has started slow but is going well x
Blogging is my side hustle alongside my “day job”. It sounds like you’re doing fab with ebay too!
Blogging is good for making some extra money, I also help small companies with their social media
You’re already doing so well, best of luck for reaching your blogging goals in 2019, I’m confident you’ll smash them and get that £1000 post x
I sell a lot on buy and sell sites which is really good for my pocket and also decluttering our home!
I really need to get into buying and selling on ebay, I have heard if done right (and apparently anyone can do it!) then you can make some really decent money! Good luck building your DA and scoring more sponsored posts – that’s something I think we can all relate to!