Wouldn’t it be great to have multiple income streams that added an extra $500 or $1000 to your account every month? Think about it. Life wouldn’t cause you as much stress if you didn’t have to worry about coming up with enough money for your living expenses.

Building multiple streams of income used to be something that only rich people did. Now it’s something everyone needs to consider. Jobs are no longer secure, unemployment is high, and health care costs have skyrocketed. Relying on one income nowadays is risky.

Creating many streams of income is ideal, but you need to find the ones that are right for you.

If you’re ready to start earning additional revenue, then check out this list of ways to put extra money in your pocket. 

Ways to Create Additional Income Streams.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is selling other people’s products. Essentially you use your marketing skills to send people to a merchant’s website to buy their goods or services, and then you receive a commission.

To find affiliates, you need to contact a vendor or look on dedicated websites such as Clickbank. Finding a company to work with should be relatively easy since there are companies worldwide who want to find as many places as they can to sell their products.

This form of income will require you to be at least somewhat tech savvy because you will need a blog or social media presence to make this work.

The upside is that once you become established online, your business can grow as your marketing skills grow. You don’t need much money to become an online entrepreneur, but it can be very time consuming until you become established.

Start A Business

Start a business on the side while you work full time. You could launch a lawn care business, jewelry maker, sell crafts, sell T-shirts or printables on Etsy, clean houses, design websites, or do whatever you’re good at or interested in doing.

Flea Market Flipper

Buy used things at a flea market or garage sale, repurpose them, and then sell them. You control the amount of time and money that you want to invest in this income stream.

Investments

Ready to invest on your own? Trade King is an online broker that allows you to invest in index funds.  They make the research and investing easy.

Lending Club is a peer to peer lending platform where people come to get loans, and investors provide the funds for those loans. According to their website, “Lending Club Notes can earn between 5% to 7% per year. You build the portfolio that fits your investment goals. Each Note represents a fraction of an underlying loan: you can invest in portions of loans in $25 increments.”

MotifInvesting.com is an investing platform that allows individuals to invest affordably in a portfolio of stocks and bonds.

Real Estate

Do you watch the real estate gurus on TV? You know, the house flippers that make it look easy to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Buying rental property may not be as glamorous as flipping, but it could provide you a lifetime of income. Being a landlord is my favorite way to earn extra income, click here to find out why.

I currently own four rental properties, but buying that first one was scary. I had been reading about real estate investing for over a year but was afraid to take that first step. After reading an article that said: “there is no such thing as failure, as long as you learn from your mistakes,” I decided to give it a try.

Bigger Pockets website is a community of like-minded people investing in real estate, and they have a lot of free information as well as forums where you can ask questions.

Photography Business

Do you like taking pictures? If so, there are many opportunities for you to create more income. You could have a photography business on the side where you take wedding and graduation pictures.

You might also like: 22 Exciting Small Business Ideas For Women

Influencer

You could post your pictures on Instagram and build up a following and become an influencer. According to Pixlee.com “Influencers are Instagram users who have an established credibility and audience; who can persuade others by virtue of their trustworthiness and authenticity.”

Advertisers pay influencers to post pictures with their products or say something about their products. Some even make thousands of dollars per job.

Sell Photos

Another way to earn money from your photos is to sell them to a photography website such as Istockphoto or Shutterstock. These sites give you a platform to sell your pictures for either a flat fee or a percentage of each one sold to a client. A single photo can be sold multiple times and pay you for years to come.

Zazzle.com is a free marketplace that allows artists, graphic designers, and photographers to sell their work online. According to their website, you can “Sell your artwork on hundreds of retail-quality products and set your royalty rates. It’s easy and FREE!”

Related: The 9 Best Apps To Sell Your Photos

 

 

Social Media

Only have a few followers on social media; you may still be able to make money. Izea is a website that pays you to post advertisements on your account. Go to their website to learn more.

Virtual Assistant

Zirtual.com currently has openings for virtual assistant positions for people residing in the United States. They have a list of job requirements that you must meet on their site. The pay range, according to their benefits page, is between $13 to $18 an hour.

Write an Ebook

An ebook will require a lot of your time in the beginning, but it can provide an income stream for many years. The cost of publishing is minimal, and you can market the book yourself.

Website Testing

Usertesting.com will pay you $10 to watch ten to 20-minute videos and give your feedback. You complete a set of tasks while speaking your thoughts, as you visit apps or websites.

Sell Food

If you have a garden, you could sell vegetables at a farmers market or homemade pies. Don’t have room for a garden?  It only takes two weeks and a small room to grow some tiny vegetables and herbs known as Microgreens. They are 40 times more nutritious than the mature version.

Selling these tiny plants on a part-time basis could net you a few hundred dollars a month. Once you master the skill, you could even profit from teaching others how to grow them. Need help getting started? You’ll find everything you need to get started in the  Indoor Grower’s Guide to Gourmet Greens.

Conclusion

Take some time and think about your options for creating additional income streams. Choose one thing to pursue and focus on that.

Make sure you have your first income stream up and running well before you pursue the next one. If you don’t like what you’re doing, or it’s not working out, then drop it and move on to the next idea.

Related: The 5 Best Investment Apps for Beginners