Just how much money did I earn from online endeavors in 2014? Here is the breakdown in comparison to 2012 and 2013:
| Category | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
| Amazon Sales | $28.68 | $24.73 | $0.00 |
| Book Sales | $101.07 | $48.75 | $43.97 |
| eBay Sales | $641.73 | $252.69 | $54.90 |
| Goods Received | $140.00 | $545.69 | $0.00 |
| Surveys | $474.00 | $867.50 | $484.00 |
| Rebates & Cash Back | $233.51 | $119.42 | $371.26 |
| Writing Contests | $750.00 | $0 | $0 |
| Prizes from Giveaways | $149.00 | $1,755.95 | $1,224.99 |
| Advertising | $1,957.25 | $3,233.35 | $2,594.70 |
| TOTAL | $4,475.24 | $6,848.08 | $4,773.82 |
And here it is in a pretty pie chart form:
The numbers are pretty pitiful. A $2,074.26 drop from last year. As you can guess from the numbers above I sold almost nothing. In fact, the $54.90 eBay total came from one sale; a baby monitor that didn’t work with the cameras I purchased.
In 2013 I was given a plethora of goods to review. Everything from free canvas prints, to wall decals and even laundry related items. Last year I didn’t receive a single offer.
A few of my go-to survey sites stopped producing big bucks last year and in general I lost interest in wasting time starting surveys that never seemed to pay out. A few also changed their cash out rules, so you can only request gift cards once a quarter, which means I can bank a ton of points but never use them for anything worthwhile.
The only category that increased was cash back and rebates. I started using Ibotta, SavingStar and Checkout51 much more frequently. I also made certain to click through Mr. Rebates, Ebates and TopCashBack whenever shopping online. Of course, this category is rather misleading, because it also means I probably spent a whole lot of money to earn back as much as I did.
In 2013 I was particularly lucky and won a total of twenty-one giveaways. This year my overall earnings weren’t quite as high, but I still managed to bring home $1,224.99 from thirteen different contests. I entered fewer contests overall this year and participated in fewer tweet chat related giveaways. These days I only submit easy entry forms with super low entries, which means my numbers will probably dwindle even more.
My advertising revenue also fell a bit from last year. In general I received fewer offers to advertise and the rates for each advertisement were lower than ever before.
Overall the picture is rather bleak, but in general I didn’t push things as hard as I did the previous year, so it’s not surprising I earned a whole lot less.
As someone with a new site, I think you did really well!