Building Multiple Streams of Income
Ever since my wife quit her job to stay home and raise our kids I’ve been on a quest to create as many streams of income as possible. I currently have this blog and a small portfolio of web sites that earn me a nice little side income.
In addition to the obvious benefit of extra income, my online efforts offer us some protection by diversifying our income sources. While my online income can’t replace the salary I receive at my full-time job (not yet anyway!) it would buy us some extra time and breathing room if I were to lose my job.
If you haven’t already started building multiple streams of income for yourself, perhaps it’s time you started. Take baby steps and add one small income stream at a time. And keep reminding yourself that as you build those income streams they will slowly join together to form a raging river!
Ideas For Building Multiple Streams of Income
Working part-time at a second job is probably the first idea people have when brainstorming ways to make extra money. You can also earn extra money by pet sitting, mowing lawns, delivering newspapers, or doing odd jobs around the neighborhood.
The downside to these methods is that your earning potential is limited to the number of hours you can work. If you’re too tired, sick, or just plain busy to deliver papers or mow lawns…you don’t get paid.
I prefer to search for more passive income ideas. Enter the internet.
I launched my first web site back in 2004. It was nothing fancy, just a small static site consisting of about a dozen pages about wine. Right now that site is averaging about $2 a day in Google AdSense revenue. That may not sound like much, but that’s for a site that I have barely touched in years and do almost nothing to promote.
I have other sites too in addition to this blog and they are online 24 hours a day, 365 days a week. Even if I’m sleeping or away on vacation, they are running and making me money. That’s about as close to passive income as you can get.
Have you ever considered launching your own website to make extra money? Why not?
You’d probably be surprised how easy it is to get started, and it requires almost no start up costs. You can get your own domain and web hosting package for about $100 a year.
Now don’t get me wrong. Making money online does take hard work and patience. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something.
But, the beauty of the internet is that once you go through the initial effort of setting everything up, it can be relatively easy to maintain.
Over the coming weeks and months I’m going to be sharing a lot more about my adventures in web site building. I’ll tell you what worked for me and what didn’t. I’ll give you the lowdown on the various ways to make money online. And I’ll give you a step by step guide on how to start building your own roaring river of income.
Stay tuned!
UPDATE - Although i’ll still post about the subject here, I decided that creating websites was really a topic all to itself. So I’m launching a new site where you can learn how to make a website. I’ll discuss the technical side of it, how to find a niche, keyword research, monetization, and a lot more. I’ve already registered a domain but I’m not ready to announce it just yet. I want to get some of the core topics all written up first. It’s already launched…check it out at http://howtomakeawebsite101.net
PS – if you’re looking to create some streams of income for yourself, you should check out Couple money where Elle wrote up a great review of the Empire Building kit. It may sound a bit pricey at first but when you think about all you get it is actually quite a bargain.
I look forward to reading more about your websites Mike.
Have you thought of putting more time into your wine website? It sounds like it gets a solid amount of traffic, maybe you should revive it somewhat??
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Yes, I do plan to grow it some more but it always gets pushed off. Right now I have more ideas than I can commit time to!
Looking forward to the series, too. $2 a day isn’t bad! That could pay for your internet access by itself.
Kevin@InvestItWisely´s last blog post ..Weekend Reading- Beginning of Fall Edition
You made it through the spam filter this time!
Yep, looking better!
Kevin@InvestItWisely´s last blog post ..Weekend Reading- Beginning of Fall Edition
You know I am excited about this series! I have just started thinking about branching out from my blog.
Evan´s last blog post ..An Alternative Idea to Government Stimulus
Well you already have a good understanding of SEO and linkbuilding so that gives you a good head start. And your motivation and willingness to take action is even more important.
What, no link to your wine website? I’d love to see it.
Very nice article. To me the most important point is to go slowly on new endeavors. Most things require some start up costs and trial and error. If big mistakes are made instead of multiple streams of income a person can end up with multiple rivers of expenses and debt.
Carol@inthetrenches´s last blog post ..Skin Care Recipes from Molly on Money
Hi Jenna,
I’d rather not share all of my sites but i guess one can’t hurt. It’s a bit amateurish and could use an overhaul, but it gets the job done.
http://virtual-wine-guide.com
Carol, you’re right! That’s why I love the internet…the cost of entry is low and you can get started for next to nothing.
Great article! Ebay require a bit more work, but it’s kind of fun on the good auction… It’s very exciting watching as a item on eBay gets in a bidding war!!!
Like Evan, I’ve been thinking of branching out a bit too.
I’m also trying to bring in multiple streams of income. My main goal right now is to pay down my student loan debt. The more income the better! Doing something online is probably the best way to go about doing this.
However, I’ve also considered setting up a veggie stand in front of the house. This year alone we brought in over 50 pounds of tomatoes. Maybe next year I’ll give this one a try.
I just discovered your blog and I’m looking forward to reading more.
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A veggie stand is a cool idea if you have lots of leftovers from your garden. Just be careful you don’t need a permit or something where your town starts hassling you.
I’ve sold a few random items on ebay but I don’t think an auction business is for me. I just can’t be bothered with the time spent packing and shipping stuff. I’m too lazy for that kind of stuff.
My husband just met this client who’s doing the same thing, but to the extreme; he owns 1700 domain names and most of them are generating revenue for him through his adsense account. My husband is now helping him revise the design on a couple of the more prominent sites so that they look more aesthetically pleasing. In return, he’s going to receive 30% of the revenue. Not too shabby considering the client is generating hundreds of dollars a month on a couple of these sites. Definitely something to look!
Little House´s last blog post ..Renters Win- Home Owners Lose…Book Review
Mike,
Really interesting. We have always had multiple streams of income; consulting, investing, real estate, book royalties etc. Your point that it requires time & effort cannot be overlooked.
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Yup, but all the time and effort is worth it in the end.
Wow…1700 domains is a lot! Imagine if the each average just $1 a day!
I found a product online that I sold on ebay at a markup. It worked out well, because I use the same verbiage and the same pictures week after week. Unfortunately, the online site that I bought this product at stopped carrying the item. But it was pretty easy with the same product over and over again.
That said, I do like blogging better, I’m not making much, but I’m having a ball!
Oh, I wanted to say I liked your analogy of the multiple streams running into a raging river. Most analogies have the streams running into a large pond/lake that represents net worth. But the river is more accurate, because even after you have the money, you still want it to make you money via interest or dividends… So I offically
like the river idea better!
Thanks bro!
Gabe, I think your idea of the road site veggie stand is great! You might like my recent posts about Farmers Markets. They may have one in your area. http://inthetrenches2009.blogspot.com/2010/09/famers-markets.html
Carol@inthetrenches´s last blog post ..Famers Markets
Mike, is there a strategy for Google AdSense? $2/day for a site you barely touch definitely is passive income, but is it because of the type of site it is (I’m sure lots of people look up information about wine). And do you have multiple “monetization sites” like these?
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hi Briana,
Yes, there is definitely a method to the madness. I’m working on a couple posts that will go into more detail. And yes, I do have other sites.
Look forward to the rest of this series as I’d love to do something similar – branching off from my main PF sites, and having a few more passive sites that I can generate income from.
Peter´s last blog post ..Is College A Good Investment Maybe
Thanks Peter. I’m hoping a lot of people will find the series helpful.
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I’d say that this is what I like the most about creating multiple stream of income: you are not affraid of losing your job anymore.
In fact, some times, I dream that I get fired so I can concentrate on my blogging income instead of doing it part time. I know that I could live with what I currently make online so it’s a great security for my family (my wife quit her job too in order to take care of our kids
).
Excellent article! I also believe that building an online empire is one of the best ways to generate “semi-passive” income.
Dave´s last blog post ..Your Best Asset to Wealth and Success
Similar story here! One thing I learned when it comes to online content is quality articles and lots of patience!
You should revive the wine site! If it is already pulling in considerable traffic, it should be relatively easy to get search engines to notice new content.
Looking forward to the series!
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Howdy Mike! Your post is up on Yakezie.com now. Cheers
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Quite often in articles about creating more than one income stream, authors don’t mention the obvious fact that ‘getting a second job’ and many other possible ways of generating additional income, are rather unsatisfactory because they are so limited by the number of hours you can spare for them. It’s refreshing that Mike has succinctly stated the difference between passive income, the sort where you set it up initially then it goes on earning for you and the active sort where , if you stop, the income stops.
I’m all for passive income. Take a look at my blog: http://passiveincomerocket.blogspot.com if you like to see more useful stuff on this topic also http://retirementagemyass.blogspot.com for the preparation for retirement aspects.
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I’m also building up my passive income streams by writing blog posts that have Google Adsense on them, but more profitably writing pages on Squidoo. It takes a lot of time up front to do keyword research to find the right topic to write about, but once my pages are written they make decent money every month. I’m continuing to create more and more pages, and each one is a new revenue stream for me.
kim @ Building Residual Income Streams´s last blog post ..365 Days of Building Residual Passive Income Streams updated Fri Mar 9 2012 4:25 pm EST