Online Side Hustles – How I Made £1045 in March 2024

March was a good month for my online side hustles! I surpassed my initial target and made of 4 figures in earnings. It always feels like a good month when I earn 4 figures! Plus I spent a week of March chilling on the beach and hit some of my stretch personal goals. All round it was a good month and I’m still holding onto that “new year, improved me” motivation.

Let’s get into my March side hustle earnings report.

How does this income report differ to my 10k side hustle challenge update?

I have decided to not only post a 10k side hustle challenge update this month but to also share my side hustle earnings report. And yes they are two different things. My 10k side hustle challenge updates only include income that has actually been paid out. Meaning I have the money in my bank account. Now with most of the side hustles I do, there is often a delay from when you actually earn the money to when the money is paid out. Sometimes this can be as long as 90 days.

To get an honest picture of how I’m doing, I like to track both earned and paid income but in two different trackers. I track earned income daily, as in I make a note of when I’ve made money. And then I track paid income in my budget tracker as that money can actually be used.

Let’s use surveys as an example. Most survey sites require you to have a minimum balance to cash out the money. This is typically £5-£10 but sometimes as high as £50. So in some cases it might take months before I actually see the cash I am earning. This doesn’t reflect the effort I’m am putting in. Therefore, I like to track the survey earnings as I take the survey. Say I’ve just answered a 2 minute survey and got paid 20p. I would add that 20p to my side hustle total for the day. But I wouldn’t track that 20p in my budget until it was paid out. You see the difference?

So whilst they might seem like the same thing, this post and my 10k side hustle update are slightly different. But both are valuable numbers to track in my opinion.

Ok massive explanation done with, let’s get into how much I made from side hustles in March…

_{{This post includes referral links – meaning I may earn a small commission if you use the link at no extra cost to you!}}

Playing Games = £0.19

Slow month with playing games this month but 19p is more than 0p and I didn’t spend much time at all – maybe minutes – on this category in March. I played a few rounds of free bingo on Ladbrokes one day and won 6p. Then I make sure to do the daily spins on EverUp which brought in 13p this month.

Website Ads = £1.65

One of my biggest focus’ this year is building my blog up. I’ve been messing around with this blogging thing for 4 years now and it’s time to decide whether I want to start taking it seriously or move on. So whilst £1.65 isn’t a lot at all, it’s amazing to me that posts I write are making me residual ad revenue every single day.

Watching Ads = £3.17

I am still absolutely loving Weare8 and make a point to check it every single morning as part of my morning side hustle routine. I made £3.17 on this app in March by watching a few ads and answering a couple multiple choice questions afterwards.

Sharing Data = £3.95

I share my Amazon ad data with their app Amazon Shopper Panel and they reward me with £2 per month as a thanks. I also share my streaming data on YouGov and made £1.95 in March from it.

Online Tasks = £7.07

I am still working on cashing out from cashback.co.uk – I have one more level to turn green. But I did manage to complete two more tasks whilst checking the site and added an extra £5.50 to my balance. After seeing tonnes of people talking about Inbox Pounds but I’ve never used the site so I spent a hour one afternoon looking into it added £1.57 to my balance. I need to spend a little more time on this in April to hopefully cash out someday soon.

Cashback = £25

The minute my TSB bank switch got paid out I was looking for the next one to complete. And hey presto, Santander had just announced their new incentive for new customers – £185. Plus, after seeing it on Instagram, I checked TopCashback and they were offering an additional £25 for completing the switch through their link. No brainer! So in March I made £25 from cashback. You won’t see the Santander switch in this earnings report as I only started the process in the last few days of the month but not finished all the steps. I will track the earnings on the day I complete all the steps.

Surveys = £47.70

Surveys are my bread and butter side hustle and one I have been consistently making around £50 from in the past 6 months. Like always my favourite survey site, and the one I make the most from is Prolific. I made £37.13 from answering surveys on Prolific in March. I also made £3.33 on Swagbucks, £0.66 on Branded Surveys, £0.57 on Eureka, £0.44 on Survey Spin and £0.37 on Survey Pop. Some of those figures also include daily polls and pennies earned from playing trivia on the Swagbucks app but I’m too lazy to separate the earnings in that much detail so I’ve clubbed them together.

I also tried out a new-to-me survey site in March that I’ve seen shared on Instagram. I made £5.20 on Viewsbank over the month with minimal effort as they send you the surveys via email so you don’t even have to go looking for them. I’m liking this site so far and can see it becoming a fast favourite of mine!

Mystery Shopping = £60

I did two Amazon mystery shops through the site iShopForIpsos, both of which paid £30. Now obviously I had an expense in order to complete the task but I like to align my mystery shops with purchases I’m already planning on making. In March this looked like a bottle of disaranno for Mother’s Day which I would’ve bought anyway.

Housesitting = £100

I spent a weekend housesitting at the start of the month and got paid £100 for it. This sit was for a family friend so it didn’t come through a website. Although I am currently playing around with Rover, no success so far but maybe in the future!

Interest = £150.60

Interest is the only category that I track when it pays out in both versions of my side hustle trackers as I find it complicated to work out daily as I move money around so much. March was a really good month for bank interest as the 7% Regular Saver I started last year matured and paid out £133.80. I also earn interest from my easy access savings accounts; £14.46 from Chase, £2.17 from Starling and £0.17 from Monzo.

Market Research = £175

I’m in a really good market research phase of side hustling right now which is great! I did 4 projects in March with a total earnings of £175. £110 came from a study and a follow up (from a Feb study I did) through Trend, £35 from a study with Indiefield and £30 from one with Vocal Views. Let’s hope my lucky streak continues into April and May!

Affiliates & Referrals = £233.05

Really good month for affiliates and referrals so thank you to anyone who used one of my links – it really does mean the world. I made £2.29 in affiliate income from the Trusted Housesitters scheme, £35.66 in free shares from Trading212 and £110.10 in free shares from Robinhood, plus £50 from a Nutmeg referral which I didn’t even know about.

Freelance VA = £240

I racked up £240 in earnings from working as a freelance VA in the month of March.

Total = £1047.38

Really happy with this total! My initial target was £833 so surpassing this feels great! Plus I didn’t feel like I was spending every hour of every day trying to make pennies. I am really trying to focus more on the side hustles that have a better return on time investment!

Some of these earnings have already been paid out (check out my 10k side hustle challenge month 3 update to see which) but I’ll be waiting up to 3 months for some of the others to clear my bank account.

How did your March side hustles go? Did you hit your goal?