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My Unsexy Income Streams Are Low-Key Easy to Recreate

by | Feb 9, 2022 | Money

Multiple income streams is the greatest life hack.

I’m an ex-banker.

Too much risk turns me into a toddler that can’t sleep. I just can’t do it. I need diversification in everything I do in case the world doesn’t work in my favor.

I’m not going to lie.

It takes time to become a multiple income stream badass. But it’s possible with a touch of creativity and a good dose of consistency.

The income stream the biggest bloggers swear by

Everyone is a content creator. Some just haven’t realized it yet — Pomp

We all have skills.

You already use them to earn a living, so you’re not special. Many people sell their skills once to an employer. The income stream I found by accident is online courses. It didn’t start that way.

One day at work I got asked to share my knowledge of LinkedIn. I did it. Then a reader from LinkedIn emailed me and said “can you coach me?”

I was terrified so I told him a stupidly high price.

He said yes. Crap.

That one student, later, became thousands of students.

Everyone can teach a skill. Platforms such as Skillshare, Teachable, and Udemy let you do it.

There’s one decision you’ve got to make

  1. Low-priced courses to thousands of people
  2. High-priced courses to a small number of people

Contrary to what most think, both models work.

One of the biggest bloggers on the internet, Benjamin Hardy, swears by online courses as a key income stream. Nicolas Cole does too. So does Ayodeji Awosika. So does Niharikaa Sodhi. So does Zdravko Cvijetic.

So does anyone who knows their stuff.

Why can’t you teach a skill?

One I never see mentioned: Audits

I had no idea until recently that this is an underrated income stream.

If you have a skill in a field, people want you to audit them.

Maybe you audit their business processes. Maybe you audit their Twitter profile and give them feedback. Maybe you audit their diet plan. Maybe you audit their journalling skills.

Charge per audit. Give the buyer a detailed report of your recommendations.

Follow up to get feedback on your audit. If they find it good, ask them if they’d like you to be their coach/teacher. Or funnel them into an email list closely related to an online course.

Audits are evidence of your usefulness.

If you get a positive data point, use it to create leverage.

This one gets me in trouble with the nanny police

I love eBooks as an income stream.

They’re not like a book you sell on Amazon. They’re simple, quick to write, and solve a specific problem. You can sell them on Gumroad. Oh, and Gumroad sells books for between $20-$100. Boom!

You promote eBooks on Twitter.

All you do is auto-reply to all of your tweets with a link to the book.

Stupidly simple. A monkey could do it.

This one makes people angry. They say it’s too hard. It isn’t. You just have to apply a touch of creativity and quit shutting down good ideas.

eBooks CAN work.

Blueprint: Go where people are online. Help them for free. Make the first comment a link to your related eBook.

Content royalties

There are platforms that pay for content. You know this already.

The old school one is Youtube.

You post videos and they share the ad revenue with you. Or there are other platforms (wink wink) that share a percentage of the subscription revenue with you. More are joining the race.

Think Vocal, Substack, Quora.

You may not make $7M from these platforms in 30 days and get a yacht. But it’s an income stream that can add up when combined with others.

Unsexy income streams simply means proven. Proven is better than unproven.

Uncommon coaching

Famous writer Mark Manson started making money online as a dating coach for frat boys with too much testosterone.

We all start somewhere.

Being a dating coach may not be sexy, but it helped Mark learn how to coach. That skill bled into his writing. Now he’s sitting on a mountain of cash.

If you can show social proof with a skill, you can coach others.

Guess what? If you don’t have a desirable skill you can coach others on, you can go on Youtube for free and learn one.

Learn how to code. Master the basics. Then instead of coaching people on coding mastery, teach people who are 1–3 levels behind your new coding skill. Too many people forget this.

Coaching doesn’t require you to be a master.

Mantra: two steps ahead is all I need to be.

Templates

Sell any sort of template. Use Gumroad.

  • eBook templates
  • Notion templates
  • Journal templates
  • Tweet templates
  • Calendar templates
  • Headline templates for bloggers

Most of the templates I’ve sold have come from documenting my system for online business and writing.

Once a process is documented it’s the perfect candidate for a paid template. Or a free template you give away in return for a person’s email address.

Templates equal shortcuts. People love to pay to save time.

Higher priced consulting

Consulting is similar to coaching. The difference is consulting is billed to businesses instead of individuals.

When you bill a business you can charge more. Why?

Because they claim your fee as a tax ride off. And because their business earns revenue to pay for your fee, whereas an individual you coach is likely using their salary to pay you, so they have less to spend.

Easy hack: direct message business owners on LinkedIn. Make friends. See if there are opportunities to consult for them.

Ask five times, get one client.

Web 3.0 offers more income sources

Web3 is the blockchain revolution.

A newer income source I created was my own cryptocurrency. People can invest in my blogging through a platform called BitClout.

Essentially I am a stock.

The concept is you buy my stock. It goes up as my work gains more traction. As a creator of a crypto, I have the option to give you a share of the money I earn or perks for owning my coin.

I can also sell my creative work.

All I do is take a piece of my online writing, make it into an NFT with a platform called OpenSea, and publish it on the blockchain. Once your creative work is on the blockchain, no more copyright issues.

Proof of ownership is obvious. It’s verifiable.

You can then sell NFTs of work and make it an income source.

Takeaway: add one Web3 income source to be ahead of the curve and access the exponential financial opportunities.

The wankity wank income stream

I’m about to become a wanker.

Businesses all over the world have boards. People sit on boards, offer advice, and come up with ideas. You can get paid loads of cash for doing two-tenths of f*ck all.

You can also access the wank factor. “Oh Roger, I sit on the board of Lady Marmalade Insurance.”

That’s not why I’m doing it. There will be no board brags to mates in Mercedes Benzes. But it is a nice income stream.

If you write enough on LinkedIn, these opportunities will hit your inbox. Or you can proactively approach any chairman of the board on LinkedIn.

Not for everyone. But one to consider.

One income stream I’m about to add

Affiliate marketing is a gold mine. Let me explain.

Many of you reading this would be better off starting out by selling someone else’s digital product. You’ll learn more that way. Plus you can borrow someone else’s credibility and sell proven products with much less risk.

It blows my mind that more people don’t contact me and say “Hey Timbo, can I steal your courses, audience, and learnings and just sell your stuff mate?”

Affiliate marketing is the most unsexy income stream of them all. Few people understand the point…

Once you make $20 online your entire psychology shifts.

That’s what affiliate marketing does. Hardly any time investment, yet it rewires your brain.

It all boils down to this

Learn skills. Then monetize those skills. Build your skill stack while simultaneously expanding your income streams.

The most unsexy income sources are the easiest to recreate. Do it.

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