An Honest Passive Income Case Study: My 7 Diverse Streams and Growth Plan

They say the average millionaire has 7 streams of income. Naturally, I attempted to build that.

2020 showed us that life as we know it can change in a heartbeat. Many people lost their jobs or business and struggled to get back on their feet. That’s why it’s so important to diversify your income.

It’s never a great idea to rely on one business model or one stream of income and it’s never been easier to side hustle or create multiple streams of passive income online.

Today I’m covering my streams of income beyond my 9 to 5 with 100% transparency. Some of it is going well. Some of it… not so much but I’ll discuss some plans to scale as well so you don’t have to learn the lessons the hard way.

Here are my 7 sources of income I’ll be covering today:

• Google AdSense
• Book Sales
• Affiliate Marketing & Referrals
• Course
• Medium
• Coaching
• Sponsorships & Partners

YouTube (Google Adsense)

This is my most successful to date. I often use my channel and videos to promote my additional sources of income. I literally have a business (my full name, LLC) and I view YouTube as the hub of that brand and business.

YouTube is my favorite income stream to work on and it’s where I spend 90% of my “extra” time. For 2021, I made a commitment to double down on content and produce 2 videos a week instead of 1. If you’re just getting started, 1 a week is perfect.

It’s certainly not passive to create each video but it is passive in the sense that I do it once and people will (hopefully) still be watching it one year or even 10 years from now.

This is why it’s important to make evergreen content. I want my videos to be just as relevant years from now as it is today and very search friendly so that new people will discover it.

That’s why I titled this article (based on a YouTube video) the way I did instead of “January 2021 passive Income Roundup.”

In February I made a grand total of $501.62.

I made less in January 2021 than I did in December 2020, despite releasing twice as many videos. That’s because most YouTubers get a boost leading up to Christmas because advertisers spend more before the holidays.

Almost all of that revenue is from Google Adsense, the ads you see before, during, and even after videos. YouTubers get nothing if viewers click skip after 5 seconds. If viewers watch the full ad or watch for 30 seconds, the creator earns a few pennies.

Books Sales & Audiobooks

I’ve self-published 2 books: The Money Resolution shares the year I committed to changing my financial life and has all the tips and steps I took. My second book Money, You Can Hack It takes the 101 tip model and ramps it up with creativity and a bit more research.

Both of these books are available on Amazon as paperbacks, ebooks, and even hardcovers (new!). I recorded the audiobook for my first book and I’m slowly working on recording the second.

I also sold 7 units of my audiobooks but made just $8.40 because most were purchased by Audible members so I earn a lot less when purchased with credit.

In terms of sales, my cut of all sales in January was: $282.69.

I also gave away 310 free digital copies of my first book the first few days of the New Year as a promotion, since I made it exclusive to Amazon. That book has been expanded and updated for 2021.

Amazon Associates

Amazon Associates is perfect for anyone with any sort of audience on just about any platform that wants to get started with affiliate marketing. How does it work?

Essentially, you create custom links to products on Amazon and put them on your blog, site, YouTube description, and so on. If people click on that link and make a purchase, you get a small percentage of that sale as a commission.

It doesn’t matter what they buy or if they buy right away. You get a small commission of anything they purchase in a 24-hour window.

I spend very little time creating Amazon links. In all of my descriptions, I link to my books using affiliate links. I also include a small section at the bottom linking to the gear I use to make my videos. That’s it.

You can also earn “bounties” if people sign up for a new Amazon Prime account or Audible trial. I made a video sharing how to get Prime for less so occasionally I’ll earn money from people using my personal link to sign up and save.

December 2020 was my best month yet at $29.05. However, just like YouTube, it came down a bit in January to $19.58.

As a bonus: My most popular video to date is my video about the web plugin and app Honey. In that video I mention and show my referral link. I’ve had a handful of people every month signup using my link. In 2020 I cashed out $40 in Amazon gift cards. In January 2021, I cashed out a $10 gift card.

I earned $29.58 from affiliates and referral links in total.

Course

I wish I had exciting news to share with this one but I’m a brand new course creator. I hear this happens to almost all course creators their first time around…

I’ll cut to the chase. I thought I earned a couple of sales in January. However, course sales were $0 in January. I have made $169.75 all-time since launch in early November 2021.

All told, I have 11 people that have enrolled in the full course and 12 people that have checked out the free preview which includes the Introduction and Module 1.

I decided to host my first course on my own website via Kajabi and I have a relatively small audience on YouTube to promote it to.

By choosing to not launch it on Udemy or Skillshare, etc., I knew I was going to limit my exposure to the course. However, I get to keep 100% of the profits and collect email addresses to help me build my email list.

Did I mention it’s free to try out?

Medium

I learned about Medium in mid-2020. Instantly I thought it feels like YouTube for writers. I’m probably oversimplifying and I’m still learning myself but I really enjoy the platform.

I started posting articles in October. Over half of my articles have made their way into publications, helping me with exposure and revenue but I’m still very small and earning very little. That’s okay. I love it!

I know that consistency is key if I want to earn income so I’m attempting to write 100 articles in 2021.

In January I made a whopping: $1.26. That’s half of what I made in December.

Documenting this is my reminder to myself to write more often. I also started a publication but am still trying to understand that part of Medium. Tips welcomed!

Coaching

While coaching is trading time for money, it does meet my definition of passive income which is earning a disproportionate amount of money for the time put in.

I made $0 from finance coaching in January. I’ve met for free with 10 people in total since mid-2020 to help them sort out their financial situation and come up with a plan to improve theirs.

I worked with just 2 people in January — both for free. I want to really give and get comfortable helping others before charging anyone.

So far so good. I view myself as a thought-partner more than anything else. I’m getting better. Clients are seeing success. I’m honing in on my strategies and the right questions to ask.

I get fired up talking money with real people and feeling helpful. Eventually, I’ll monetize it but I’m in no hurry.

Sponsorships & Partners

I have worked with 1 partner across 3 YouTube videos. However, they don’t pay me directly. They offered to but I’m much more interested in growth and exposure.

With that in mind, the partner and I agreed to have them spend money to promote my YouTube videos on YouTube. That has led to thousands of views, but very few subscribers.

I’m enjoying the experiment though and am happy with the partnership.

Totals

All in, for the month of January, my income from these passive income streams was:

• YouTube: $501.62
• Book Sales: $282.69
• Affiliate Marketing: $29.58
• Course: $0
• Medium: $1.26
• Coaching: $0
• Sponsorships & Partners: $??
• TOTAL: $815.15

Luckily, that exceeded my goal of $750. It’s a great start. If I earned this exact amount for 11 more months, that would be close to $10,000 of additional income. $9,781.80 to be exact, most of it passive after doing the work or setup once.

There is technically one more source of passive income I didn’t include on the list which is dividends from investments. I plan to include those in the future.

As a personal goal, I’m aiming to earn $20,000 in 2021 and I’d be happy to continue sharing progress towards that goal if readers are interested in the journey.

There you have it — my 7 sources of “passive income”, exactly how much I made, and a little bit of behind the scenes and thought process.

I self-published a book. I created a YouTube channel to launch it and I scaled a brand and business from there over a 2 year period. Everything is interconnected and year 3 is off to a fantastic start.

This was a realistic look at a passive income journey. Yes, it’s hard work. Yes, it’s more satisfying than traditional income, even though I earn far less money.

I’m an open book and enjoy honest conversations about money, especially if it helps people.

My big goal is to eventually work for myself full-time. If I can do that, I can help more people and show people how I did it so they can help themselves.

Help people. Then help yourself. And repeat.

For more, watch my recent YouTube video where I explain this all more in detail. You can also snag a free review copy of my newest book, “Money, You Can Hack It.”

Frankie Calkins (M. Ed) is a Digital Marketing Manager by day. On nights and weekends, he’s an author, YouTuber, and finance course creator. He lives in Seattle, WA. Contact: [email protected]

This article is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.