6 Multiple Streams Of Income Ideas You Can Do From Home
At the start of 2020, I was unemployed. I had found out a week before Christmas (December 2019), that my contract as a product manager for a budding New York City startup was coming to a close. Circumstances out of my control, the company needed to downsize employees in order to stay operational, I was going into the new year with a big question mark — how exactly was I going to earn money?
It turns out that my impending unemployment would be minuscule problem in the grand scheme of what has been 2020, a mess of a year to be quite honest. With thousands of people facing unemployment around the world, the crisis of making money is one that doesn’t seem to be letting up soon.
Yet, when traditional jobs fail us and our employers are forced to let their employees go — it makes you think: why did we ever rely on other people to fund our lives in the first place? If not now, then when has a better case ever been made to start and pursue your own business, idea or make money from the comfort of your home?
So, whether you’re unemployed, have little amounts of income coming in or even have a full time job, but want to start pursuing your own endeavor — this article is for you. I’ve compiled 6 creative multiple streams of income ideas that you can start doing today from home.
All of these can be done with little to no investment, with the exception of needing a computer. For the remainder of 2020, let’s crush these last 6 months by building our own ideas and dreams to become financially independent and sufficient.
6 Creative Multiple Stream of Income Ideas You Can Do From Home
Start A Youtube Channel
In 2020, there’s no better social media platform to join and start creating on than Youtube. According to VideoNitch, “Almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every single day and YouTube gets over 30 million visitors per day.” From those figures, it’s safe to say that Youtube is a platform full of active users: both those creating content & watching it.
So, if Youtube is already busting at the seams with content creators — why would you even consider starting a channel? Well, the answer is pretty simple: You don’t have anything to lose.
Youtube is honestly a place where everyone can have a channel, share content online and get visible eyes on what they post. It works like a search Engine, so toss aside any ideas you may have about social media algorithms that block user visibility. While Youtube has its own algorithm, it’s far more inclusive and expandable to allow your channel to grow over time.
To start Youtube, there isn’t necessarily criteria that makes you worthy of being a video creator. Anyone can start a channel about their personal topics of interest, life experiences, guidance they want to provide to the world or just simply share things that they love.
And, don’t think that you need any type of fancy equipment to post videos. Many YouTubers start filming and editing on their phones. As long as your content brings value to your audience, whether that be informational, entertaining or inspiring — the production quality of your video will come second.
To start making money from Youtube and monetize your channel, you’ll need 1,000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time. Which essentially means that the upfront time of creating a channel is a heavy time investment. But, don’t let that deter you.
Once you create and post a video, its viewership is compounded over time. Meaning you could post a video now and in 3 years, people will still be watching it. Therefore, your videos won’t solely make you money for a month or two, but have the bigger potential to bring you passive income as long as it’s on the platform and YouTube exists.
So, while you won’t see quick cash from starting a channel — this is a stream of income that can build upon itself for years. Start posting videos on a regular basis, build a community of likeminded individuals and you’ll see the overarching benefits of Youtube that expand outside the realm of only making money.
Start A Blog
Now, you may be thinking — come on Shannon, we’re in 2020 — blogs are dead. And to that, I may have to disagree with you. In fact, I completely cast aside the idea that blogging will ever be dead in a digital world. While they may be less popular, that doesn’t mean they aren’t still a great source of revenue for many.
Think about it: How often do you use Google to search for information and topics of interest? How often do you find yourself typing in questions and looking for answers? If you don’t say multiple times per day, I’m not going to call you a liar…but you’re definitely not telling the truth.
The internet is the home to every answer you have ever looked for. Packed with articles, videos, photos — there’s no lack of information for us to consume on a daily basis. And, many of the written content we discover and read comes from some form of blog.
Blogging is a multi-faceted concept. You could blog purely for fun, to promote your personal brand or to hone in on a specific niche that generates revenue. I personally believe that the best type of blogs combine a mixture of the three.
If you’re going to start a blog to make money, it needs to be about a topic you’re actually interested in. Blogging takes a lot of time, research and effort, so if you’re sitting for hours about a topic you hate — you’re not only wasting your life away, but your readers are going to be able to feel the disinterest through your writing.
So, once you’ve picked a topic you’re passionate about — you’ll need to start churning out content pieces. Here are a few steps to take:
- Start with SEO keyword research to see what people are searching in your niche (pro tip: look for keywords with decent volume and low competition in order to help your article rank on Google)
- Craft your article title and outline the body of the piece.
- Write the article implementing your SEO keywords throughout.
- Add images, links to articles that relate to your topic, add a video and optimize.
- Proof read, add SEO metrics such image alt tags and an excerpt to show what your article is about.
- Publish and share! Twitter is a great place to share links, Facebook works too or even Instagram is you have 10K+ followers and can add swipe up links to your stories.
Those are just some quick and dirty tips for how to start producing content for your blog. So, now that you know how to publish content — let’s talk about making money.
To make money with your blog you can do the following:
- Sign up for affiliate programs such as Amazon Affiliate, Reward Style — you can see a full list from Covert Kit here.
- Use Google Adsense to integrate banner advertisements on your blog. You can read all about monetizing your blog here.
- Build your following and readership over time and eventually be able to create sponsored posts with brands and businesses.
- Develop digital or physical products that you can sell on your website: some ideas include ebooks, marketing plans, photography prints or merchandise.
Like YouTube, starting your blog is an upfront investment that won’t generate you money immediately. But, the effort you put in at the start will again, be compounded over time. Some successful blogs make thousands to tens of thousands of dollars per month. That’s life changing kind of money if you ask me.
So, while you’re sitting there at home, with your computer on your lap mindlessly watching Netflix — why don’t you take a binging break and jumpstart your blog, write a few articles and get started on monetizing your interests for a better future? I promise, Netflix will still be there waiting for you in a few hours.
Freelance Writing
Now, that you’ve started your own blog — you’re ready to jump into the world of freelance writing. If you’re not a writer by any means, you may be rolling your eyes thinking about the possibility of making money from your own blog or freelance writing for other clients.
Look I get it, writing isn’t for everyone. I happen to be pretty decent at it, so I tend to pursue projects that play to my strengths. But, I do truly believe that you can learn to write — even if you’re not going to be the next great American author. There are plenty of writing opportunities that only require a basic understanding of the English language.
If you’re good at telling a story, explore content marketing projects such as writing SEO articles for other blogs.
If you’re good with details, consider projects that need product descriptions for a company’s website.
If you’re persuasive and intriguing, try your hand at copywriting.
If you can listen and type at the same time with ease, try transcribing.
And, if you’re passionate about teaching and sharing your knowledge on a particular subject, create a set of ebooks.
Freelance writing isn’t all fancy prose and long exacerbated language that describes a subject in intricate, complicated details. It can be simple. It can be fun. And, it can be a creative path you can start pursuing as soon as yesterday.
For freelance writing projects, I’ve always found my starter projects on Upwork. I know a lot has changed with the platform, but I still believe it’s a good place to jumpstart your freelance career.
You could also try writing on, drumroll please…Medium! Kind of weird for me to be promoting this platform as you’re reading an article on it — inception much? But, I do think that Medium continues to be a great platform for beginning writers to find their style and voice. No this is not #sponsored, I just like this platform, geez. Come on guys, not everything is a marketing push.
Lastly, if you have some prior writing experience — you should check out https://www.writerswrite.com. These listings tend to air on the professional side, which means you’d probably need some form of portfolio to apply, which wouldn’t be the best for beginning freelancers. But hey, take a look around and see if there is anything that piques your interest and skill level.
Photography Projects: Product, Food, Lifestyle
Ah photography, the great equalizer of creativity. While videos require you to showcase your personality and writing asks that you synthesize your thoughts cohesively — photography allows you to solely focus on your visual eye.
With photography you can truly zone in, frame your subject and shoot away. It’s not a one take wonder like other creative outlets. You can photograph your subject in multiple ways, present the various selects to your client and have them choose their favorite image to use. Making this form of creative income, a bit more flexible than the others.
I’m going to hate myself for saying this, being a photographer and all, but with some forms of photography, anyone can do it. Just because you don’t have professional training or a fancy camera, doesn’t mean that you can’t take photos and earn money. You may not be shooting a high end commercial campaign anytime soon, but taking pictures of products here and there for a few hundred bucks? Not a bad gig.
Making money with photography when you’re not a professional comes down to a few niche buckets that you can pursue: food photography, lifestyle photography and product photography.
- Food photography will essentially require you to take pictures of food (duh)
- Lifestyle photography is usually scenes of people using some kind of product and showing its benefits.
- Product photography is capturing a product’s packaging and design to be used on social media and the business’ website.
Simple photography jobs within these 3 niches are often found online again through sites like Upwork. There are multiple posts each day for businesses looking for product photos of their Amazon listings and small brands needing images for their social media, website and marketing efforts.
Depending on the job level and price, the business may not be looking for high end quality photographs captured on a professional camera. They may simply be looking for a standard image, shot with decent light.
In the simple setups, you can easily use your phone to capture the images. Considering that today, the quality of the cameras on our phones are just as comparable to that of digital cameras. So, start small and see what kind of freelance photography jobs you can get without investing in equipment.
If you start to enjoy it — you can easily create a portfolio of your work, take on more freelance projects, eventually upgrade your equipment and start shooting bigger photography jobs. Every brand / business that sells online needs images to entice customers — therefore, if you’re willing to stick to the food, lifestyle and product sectors of photography, over time you can generate a decent amount of income from taking photos.
Social Media Marketing
If you can master the art of product photography and understand the inner workings of social media — then, you’ve got a match made in creative heaven. Good photography + plus understanding how to achieve ample social media growth is the secret sauce to a well rounded social media marketer.
Now, you don’t necessarily need to take photos in order to do social media marketing. I’m just trying to stack these creative pursuits on top of one another to make you the most amount of cash. But, you can totally stick to the growth aspect of social media and leave the content to someone else.
If you’re focusing on social media growth, you’ll need to have a good understanding on how to help a business increase their followers, visibility and reach on the relevant social platforms.
If you’re able to show growth on your own platforms and tangible steps of how you were able to achieve it — then all you’ll need to do is apply those practices to other businesses in need of your knowledge.
But, if you don’t necessarily have a portfolio to show off your experience, you can still do social media marketing for clients. You’ll need to sell yourself a bit more, really do your research on how social growth works and start with super small clients who are willing to take a chance on you.
In truth, you won’t make a lot at first — but starting small will allow you to build a portfolio and craft your strategy to apply to bigger clients down the line. Even if you make an extra $100 a month, that can pay for your utility bills or groceries. Remember guys, the small wins are just as important!
For social media marketing projects, I’d go old school to find work. Start in your community with businesses that you know need help with social media. A lot of traditional brick and mortar restaurants and shops still haven’t hopped on the social media train to market their businesses.
Create a strategy that has tangible goals for their business and give them value as to how you can be a resource for their growth. Estimate how many new customers you could bring in and how that will eventually translates to sales.
Social media marketing will take some time to learn, but once you start to understand the way it works — it can become an effective and lucrative side business. To get you started, check out Social Media Marketing for Beginners by Disruptive Advertising.
Selling Items Online
The final way you can generate income while staying home is to sell items online. You can go about this two ways:
- You can sell items you already have such as electronics you don’t use on Ebay, clothes you don’t wear on Poshmark or Depop and home goods on Offer Up, Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace
- Or, you can buy items at a lower price and flip them for more than you paid in order to generate a margin of revenue. To do this you can:
- Check out garage sale and selling apps in your neighborhood — purchase what people are selling and flip it for a bit more on Ebay or another selling site. Often on these apps, sellers are wanting to get rid of their items quickly which will allow you to buy at a lower price.
- Go on Ebay and see what is selling for under market price, buy and sell for a higher price on Facebook marketplace.
In essence, these are all interchangeable and it doesn’t matter which website you purchase from as long as you can find an item that is undervalued and able to be resold where you can generate a profit.
This method of making income is a bit more unpredictable than the other options on my list — but if done correctly, can become a lucrative and exciting side hustle. Flipping items is for someone who loves the hunt and wants to find treasures that are worth the coin.
While flipping won’t be quick income, you’ll need to find your items, take pictures & add information to post it for sale and then ship it out — it can be a good way to generate cash over time.
For a more detailed guide on how to flip on Ebay, check out this article by Side Hustle Nation.
Alright my entrepreneurial hustlers, those are my 6 creative multiple streams of income ideas you can start today from the comfort of your own bed — I mean home…
Drop me a comment if you found this helpful or if you’re already working on one of the above projects and have found success with it! Would love to hear about how you’re creating a life of financial independence for yourself.
If you want to connect, check out my socials for more creative stuff:
Instagram // https://www.instagram.com/shannonciricillo
Website // https://shannonciricillo.com/
Youtube // https://youtube.com/shannonciricillo
