Creating Incomes Streams to Make More Money

This guest post comes from Kolton Green, CO-Founder of Financial Money Tips, a personal finance blog intended to help readers increase knowledge on financial assets and avenues. You can follow Financial Money Tips on Twitter @moneyperk.

It just makes good financial sense to have money coming in from several different areas. If your only source of income is from just one job, what will you do if that job goes away? Hey, it’s happening to people every day. If you are able to have money flowing towards you from many different places you are creating a system of wealth and financial security that will help you no matter what happens.

Don’t think that you need to come up with one amazing money making idea. Just start small and pick out a few simple things that will allow for money to trickle in. It is going to start slowly, but overtime it will build up. Once you have a few trickles going pick out one of them and work on it more carefully. Invest some time and energy into that one side business and watch as that trickle turns into a stream.

[Kevin] I agree! We usually don’t invest entirely in one stock; why would we invest entirely in one job?

When your first stream is moving along and taking care of itself you can move on to the next one. Keep doing this and soon you’ll have up to a dozen different streams of money all flowing to you.

If you think that you can eventually have several streams of income so you don’t have to work your regular full time job anymore, be careful with that thinking. It is possible to get your income streams flowing so strongly that you don’t need to keep you ‘regular’ job, but don’t quit right off the bat. You need to get your income streams established before making any moves like that.

[Kevin] Or at least be in an industry with demand, have skills you can fall back on, and have a good stash of savings at your disposal.

So here are a few ideas to get you started thinking about alternative streams of income. Consider these a jumping off point; there are many more opportunities than just what you see here. The goal is to have them spread out into many different niches and markets to insure the money keeps flowing in.

• Teach – Do you know a skill or have knowledge that others would be interested in learning? This doesn’t have to be related to the financial world, it could be anything. Could you teach fly fishing, investing, how to knit, skateboarding, guitar? There are an endless number of skills that people would be willing to pay you for.
• Consulting – Maybe the idea of teaching for a large group of people makes you nervous. No problem, try coaching or consulting. As a consultant you can work with a small group of people or one on one, helping people to develop the skills that you have to offer.
• Affiliate Marketing – There are several websites that will pay you pennies every time someone clicks to their website from a link on yours. People can literally make thousands of dollars a day without doing any work after the initial set up.
• Residuals – There are hundreds of markets that offer residual income. Insurance sales, merchant services, and multi-level marketing are just a few examples of these. Of course, this means that you need to make some sales, but with little effort you could have a stream of continual money flowing to you from residuals.
• Online Stores – There are many ways to sell things online. You could sell things that you have lying around the house on eBay or you could sell your old books through Amazon. There are also sites where you can create a store for your homemade items like etsy.com. Find a niche market and start selling!
• Blogging – Is there a topic that you have a lot of information on? Are you a good writer with a lot of online contacts? You can easily start a blog for free and monetize it. All you have to do is keep writing and watch as the money comes rolling in. It is simple to create, easy to do, and take very little work and upkeep.
• Freelance Work – There are dozens of websites where people post freelance job opportunities. These can range from writing to computer programming to virtual assisting. There are thousands of jobs out there and most often you can sign up for these websites for no cost. Start bidding on the jobs that sound fun, interesting, or easy and see how the extra income comes in.
• Mystery Shopping – This might sound too good to be true, but it is a great way to pull in a little extra cash. Doing mystery shopping isn’t going to make you rich, but it can be an added income stream to help you make ends meet or at least pay for your groceries every month.
• Vending Machines – Buying vending machines takes a small beginning investment, but quickly you will see how this simple investment can bring in a steady and impressive income stream. All of the vending machines in business complexes are actually owned by a third party and it’s easy to get involved.

As mentioned before, this is merely just the beginning of the opportunities around us all. After you have established multiple income streams it is smart to reinvest the profits into the stock market or a type of retirement account such as an IRA. This will allow for you to invest income you have created; not earned. Personally, it is much easier for me to invest extra income and treat myself with my earned income!

[Kevin] Dear reader, how have you been increasing your side income? What are your current strategies? I don’t believe these income streams are necessarily passive — blogging for one takes a lot of time :), but it definitely feels good to have something you can call your own. I would love to hear your stories.

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This was a guest post by Kolton Green, CO-Founder of Financial Money Tips, a personal finance blog intended to help readers increase knowledge on financial assets and avenues. You can follow Financial Money Tips on Twitter @moneyperk.