How I Made An Additional £20K Over The Past Tax Year

*This is a collaborative post but all content on how I made extra money over the past tax year is my own

I’ve been blogging in some capacity for around a decade now. Although I’d say I’ve only been blogging ‘properly’ for about five years or so. But in that time I have been lucky enough to be able to make a good part-time wage from my corner of the internet. And thankfully each tax year it seems to creep up a little bit more.

I knew I’d done a similar post before and in 2020 I talked about h0w I’d made over 12K online. For some reason I didn’t do this type of post in 2021, although that figure was around 14K. When the 2021/22 tax year ended a few months ago I was actually quite shocked when I did my submission as to the figure I was entering. So I thought I’d do a post to talk through how I have made that over the past tax year.

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Working over the past tax year

For those who don’t know me that well I do work full-time in a job I am very happy and comfortable in. I’ve worked in the content marketing space for most of my working life and started my current role in April 2020. So the additional money I made over the last tax year is just that ‘additional’. I know I am very lucky to have both streams of income and I don’t ever take it for granted. But I do work blooming hard for it.

In order to make the additional money I do I will admit I work a lot. Before starting my full-time job in the morning you’ll find me writing posts, in my lunch break you’ll find me scheduling social media, and after work it continues. I do also time at the weekend working. Although I have definitely found a better balance between living and working which is so important.

The main way I make money

This website is my main source of income and around 75% of my total income. And this money comes from a combination of guest post publication and sponsored content I write.

I’ve spent a lot of time and effort creating this website and I have pride in it, so I don’t accept every offer that comes my way (even if the budget is a good one). And like pretty much all content creators I have to push away the constant $10 offers that flood through the inbox.

Sometimes companies will pay me to host a piece of pre-written content on my website. These posts are all hosted in a specific guest post area of my website. These posts don’t appear on my homepage as that’s kept aside for content that I have written myself.

And then sometimes I will work with a company to create the content myself and they either want me to talk about their product or service, or mention them in some capacity. These are the types of posts I prefer doing as I can talk about the brand in my own personal way.

The extras that brought in some income last tax year

Back in 2020 I had started doing a few freelance pieces of writing, but this isn’t something I have sadly kept up with so I have nothing to report here.

While my blog is my biggest source of income I do take on very occasional Instagram campaigns if they align really well with my content. A few of the campaigns I have done via Instagram were done as part of a package alongside blog content including a local Herts initiative, The Outdoor City (Sheffield) and CoverForYou travel insurance.  The only Instagram only campaigns I completed were all financial ones including Snoop, American Express, The Association of British Insurers (ABI) and Credit Karma. Again I turn down a lot of Instagram content as it’s just not a good fit.

The final area I made money on over the past tax year was blogger outreach. During the year I made around £3,000 doing outreach for a company I have been working with for a number of years. I have experience with outreach through previous marketing jobs which is how our working relationship started. It’s nice to know each month I have an almost guaranteed amount of money coming in for the outreach.

Things I’ve learnt while making money online

When I first started getting paid on my blog I was just excited that someone wanted to give me money. But I have learnt that it’s very important to have rates for content as a starting point. Yes there have been times I’ve accepted a bit less because it’s a great fit or a good opportunity. But those rates are important for consistency both in what you offer, but also for the blogging community in general.

I’ve also learnt that time is limited so don’t feel like you have to say yes to everything. There will be some months where I have to turn down work purely because I have too much on. And this is okay to do. You don’t want to push yourself to burnout just for an extra £100.

Do you make money online? Did you make much in the last tax year?

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