5 Income Streams I’ve Personally Tried
And, My Personal Opinion (Good and Bad) About Each of Them
Multiple income streams are something I preach about as often as I can.
More income streams, more money, which is great. It’s a good way to protect yourself from income loss in the future and it adds more stability to your income, in general.
For example, if you lose your job, but, you also run an online store on the side, the online store income can keep you afloat until you replace that lost income stream.
It’s certainly better than losing the job with no other income coming in.
I have a lot of experience juggling multiple income streams. I’ve been doing it for over a decade.
Here are 5 income streams I’ve personally tried plus, my personal opinion on them.
Let’s go.
5 Income Streams — The Good, Bad, and Ugly
The income streams are:
- Freelance writing
- Dropshipping
- Dropservicing
- Social media management
- Virtual assistance
1. Freelance Writing
You write content for others. This can be:
- Blog posts
- Magazine articles
- Product descriptions
- Emails
- Sales pages
- Website copy
There are different kinds of writers out there (copywriters, content writers, etc.).
I did content writing and I still do it!
I’ve always been drawn to writing and love the whole process of it. It’s a cool way to express yourself, vent, teach what you know, inspire, and entertain.
I like the research process, outlining your draft, writing, proofreading, editing, SEO, all of it.
I won’t share specifics of how much I currently make from freelance writing but to give you a hint, it’s $X,XXX per month.
What you’ll like
- A fun and creative outlet to express yourself
- Lucrative
What you’ll hate
- Getting your first clients can be tough
- Deadlines
2. Dropshipping
You sell stuff online and source it from a supplier, who ships to your customer.
For example, your customer buys a blanket from your online store. When you get the customer’s order, you then place an order with your dropshipper and the dropshipper picks, packs, and ships the order to your customer.
This works.
I don’t do this anymore but, I did it for years and made a good amount of money from it.
From the time I started, I began earning around $1,000 a month from it within months.
What you’ll like
- It’s quick money
- Low startup costs
- You can earn a lucrative living (like quit your day job for dropshipping kind of money)
What you’ll hate
The products you sell matter. There needs to be something special about your product that isn’t offered elsewhere. A good place for inspiration is TikTok. Just look at the trending products that people are going nuts over.
Once you have a great product, marketing is equally as important. Without marketing, there are no sales.
Investing money in marketing might have to be done from the start.
When I did dropshipping, I used Instagram and didn’t pay for ads but, that was a “young” Instagram where visibility was a lot better. I was also doing dozens of loop giveaways at the time too, which helped me grow my following very rapidly.
Why I don’t do this anymore?
I was earning $XX,XXX per month when I was doing this but, money isn’t everything.
I have done e-commerce and dropshipping off and on for years and to be honest, I’m sick of it.
I prefer other income streams to this. It’s a lot of hard work and can be time-consuming so I can’t imagine doing this AND another income stream (unless it’s passive) if I’m being honest.
3. Dropservicing
Like dropshipping except with services, not products.
For example, you set up an online store selling graphic design services. When a customer places an order with you, you contact a graphic design professional to place an order, for them to deliver directly to your customer (or they can provide the deliverables to you and you provide to the customer).
It works, just like dropshipping.
What you’ll like
- Easy to start
- Low startup costs
- Can be lucrative
What you won’t like
- Finding customers can be challenging
- Marketing is 100% required
The big hangup here is that you’re not the pro doing the work. If customers ask you technical questions about the service, you probably won’t know the answer, so you’ll have to find out and then relay the information.
Another thing is, customers who buy services usually like to have meetings, either by phone or virtually. So, as you’re discussing the scope of the project as a non-professional, questions they ask you can be hard to address on the spot.
Then, speaking professionally about the service and selling them on it can be tough if you don’t have the experience yourself.
There is a workaround though.
I’ve seen agencies do this, bringing on freelance service professionals to handle parts of the process with clients. For example, doing the onboarding call, doing all meetings with the client, etc.
Essentially, the freelancer you hire to dropservice the work, will do everything. And, you’ll oversee the project and make sure it goes smoothly.
Solution, right?
Yes and no.
It works but then, you have to find good freelancers who can produce quality work and agree to do those services (like onboarding, etc.) without stealing customers from you.
It’s a lot but, it might be worth it.
Why I’m not doing dropservicing anymore?
I made $XXX total from dropservicing. I really didn’t like it. It was tough to get clients. I sold services on a platform like Fiverr. I would not go back to this, but, it works for a lot of people.
4. Social Media Management
You work with clients, helping manage their social media presence.
This could be creating and posting to their social media account, growing their account, getting them more followers, responding to comments, and related duties.
What you’ll like
- It’s fun, especially if you like social media
- Relatively low-impact work (in my experience)
- Can be lucrative
What you’ll hate
- Getting clients can be challenging
- Creating a portfolio or case study may be required
- Client calls and meetings
I did this off and on for a long time. I recently ended this service that I offer, though.
For me, as a perfectionist, I was very tough on myself.
I always want the best results for my clients, as expected, and sometimes outside influences impact that (seasonality, algorithm changes, etc.). It stressed me the heck out.
I never earned a full-time income from this but, I did makeup to $X,XXX/month, when I was working with clients more regularly.
Getting clients was super difficult.
If you’re very active on social media, it’s a lot easier but, that was not me. I always did this as a side hustle.
If it was my main thing, I would’ve made more time to promote this service. I did not pay for marketing or promotion to get clients.
5. Virtual Assistant
You are an online assistant to one or more clients. Your duties will vary based on the needs of your client.
You can wear many hats like:
- Online assistant
- Social media marketer
- Receptionist
What you’ll like
- You can pick the clients you want to work with
- You can set your own rates
- Low startup costs
- Can be lucrative
What you’ll hate
- Getting clients is hard
- It can take time to get a steady client base and make enough money to go full-time
- Inconsistency
Personally, I really didn’t like this. I didn’t get as high of a rate per client as I wanted. Client work in general, is not a favorite of mine.
I’ve found that people usually want to make sure they get their money’s worth, which is fine. This is especially true with service work that’s done entirely online like virtual assistance.
If you underpromise and overdeliver, you’ll be fine.
Like a lot of the services offered online, getting clients can be a challenge. Investing in marketing might be required.
I made $XXX/month from this.
TL;DR
I just talked about 5 income streams I’ve tried including what my personal experience was, a rough idea of what I was earning, and what you’ll like and dislike about each one.
Have you tried any of these?
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