My 14 Streams of Income in 2021

I am passionate about many things. I love house music, baking, writing articles, and taking photos on my phone while traveling. But I try to make these things have one thing in common: whatever I do, I make sure there’s a potential for my passion for making income on the side. In this article, I listed 14 income streams I have developed over the past year and hope it will give some inspiration for your very own venture.

Watch the video version here:

1. Affiliate Marketing for Restaurant & Hotel Deals

While working in Shanghai, China, I had the opportunity to meet with a platform that promotes restaurants and hotel deals. They share the commission from the client when influencers help them sell the dining and staycation deals. As a promoter, I joined their affiliate program and started posting dining and hotel staycation deals on WeChat, the most popular social media platform in China. I post links and photos on my social media and share them with group chat. And whenever someone purchases the product through the affiliate link, I would get 5% as commission. Food has always been my passion and part of my career, so sharing food and hotel deals on social media seems natural. I post deals on my social media once every month or whenever I think about it. So not serious about this. For 2021 I made 232 RMB (US$36) from a total sale of 4954 RMB. (4.7%) I consider this a great side hustle since I only post a few times a month.

2. Cryptocurrency

This one is so funny because I previously wrote this article on Medium:

And now I am trading cryptocurrency. I started investing in cryptocurrency because I was interested in creating and trading NFT art. To mint the items, you have to pay some gas fee using Etherium. And then I started buying other potential cryptos. I use CoinMarketCap to track my investment and Trust Wallet to keep and trade the cryptocurrency. I invested in Etherium, Polygon, Stellar, and Binance Coin. My strategy is to invest in some smaller coins and see if one day my investment would gain a considerable return when one of the coins goes big. In total, I invested approximately US$1,000, and I plan to leave it there until one of the coins scales up.

3. Selling Homemade Cookies

I started selling homemade cookies and muffins to local coffee shops and friends in Dali, China, In December 2021. I love making cookies and other pastries. It’s satisfying to see other people enjoy what I make while profiting from it. Win-Win!

I made about RMB 2,500 (US$) in my first month selling cookies. I think it’s pretty good progress since 60% of the revenue is from wholesale to local coffee shops, which means sustainable and repeatable customers. I will create more flavors and gain more wholesale customers to make this a sustainable business in the future.

4. Selling Video Content

One day I received a message from Jaap, someone who works in GoEast Mandarin, and he proposed we should collaborate on a Chinese-speaking video for their YouTube Channel. In return, I would receive some money as a production fee. I posted some Chinese speaking videos on the Bilibili platform, introducing vegetables growing around my house in Dali, China. He loves the video and thought it would be fun to present it to their audience. So we made the deal, and that video on their channel got great feedback and views! I also put out a link and a blog post about this video and their language school, which is also part of the deal. Here’s the video of me talking in Chinese made for GoEast Mandarin — a language school in Shanghai, China teaching Chinese.

5. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the fastest ways to make money online. And a lot of shopping platforms have an affiliate program for everyone to enroll, such as Amazon, Aliexpress, and Walmart. The online signup process is straightforward. Once you enroll in the affiliate program, the affiliate program will give you a trackable unique link for the product you want to promote, and if someone purchased that product (or have bought anything in 24 hours after they clicked the affiliate link) I made $7 from AliExpress Affiliate in November 2021. In the future, I will post more product-related videos that enable me to include affiliate links in the description.

6. Print On Demand

On Oct 27, I received an email. It’s a manufacturing statement from RedBubble.com. I was like, I didn’t order anything? And I clicked into the email, it says:

You may remember that you recently made a sale on Redbubble and as promised this is to signify that we have arranged the order to be shipped to your customer.

And then I remembered me and my ex-colleague Joanna made some designs for T-shirts and other stuff and uploaded them to RedBubble.com.

Redbubble is a print-on-demand website (print-on-demand is a service that the platform handles everything after you upload the designs, including selling, printing, shipping, and collecting payment. It’s perfect for graphic designers or influencers to sell merchandise without worrying about all the hassle and no need to invest before selling)

I uploaded 67 designs to RedBubble around December 2020, and I made one sale in October 2021. So it took 10 months to make one sale. I have seen people making hundreds and thousands of dollars when they upload like 100 designs, and obviously, it doesn’t happen overnight. I made $2.68 with one design sold. (I Am Taken But My Brother Is Hot and Single) Here’s the breakdown:

Retail Price: US$17.65-Manufacturing Fee US$14.97 =Artist Margin US$2.68

I know many artists and graphic designers make tons of money with Print On Demand. It took me 10 months to complete one sale with no social following or promotion. I am sure it’s much easier for you if you already have followers on Instagram or other social media.

7. Selling Photos on Stock Images Websites

Did you know the photo you took from your phone and your camera could make you money? Meaning you have cash sitting in your phone, and you didn’t even realize it. Every time someone downloads your photo on the stock images websites, you will get a royalty. I signed up for two websites: Adobe https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/ and shutter stock https://submit.shutterstock.com/ and uploaded 28 photos I took 12 years ago in Australia with my old Ricoh camera. (Uploaded 40 images. However, the website has some minimum quality requirements for the photos, so not all the photos can meet the qualifications.) I strongly suggest reading the guidelines and requirements on the website before you go on a photography trip. And none of my photos meets the condition on the Shutterstock website, so my photos are only available on adobe contributor.

From the 28 photos I successfully uploaded to the adobe contributor website, I got one download, and that one download made $0.23!!

Now, the adobe contributor website does have a minimum requirement of $25 for payout, so it seems like I will have to upload more photos on the website to receive the money.

8. Medium Partner Program

I have been publishing articles on medium.com since July 2020. So far, I have published 14 articles. Not a very hardworking writer, I admit. At the same time, I was making videos for my YouTube Channel. After watching Shelby Church’s video talking about how she made $6,000 on Medium transcribing her YouTube videos into articles, I thought, why don’t I do the same?

I wrote one of my videos into an article and published it on Medium on Oct 29, 2021: The Real Cost of Living in China, this article received 265 views, and it made me US$6.77 until Jan 19, 2022. It’s amazing! It’s not thousands of dollars yet, but it’s passive income. I will be sure to write and publish more content on Medium. I was shocked at how my last article performed with no promotion from my side. One thing is that you do not need to be a paid member to join Medium Partnership Program. So start writing!

9. Freelance Translator Monthly Retainer

I have a retainer with one of the companies in Shanghai doing translation for their business documents, presentations for the board meeting, and marketing content. They pay me a monthly retainer, and we have been working together since 2018. The translation is easy for me, and I get the job done in approx 2 hrs/week. The monthly retainer is 5000RMB/month (US$763).

10. Part-time Barista at a Local Coffee Shop

One week after I arrived in Dali, Yunnan, I got a part-time job at a local coffee bar to have extra income, meet people, and connect with the local community. I met all the interesting people who went to the coffee store and the bar.

I work at the cafe two days a week, and the salary is 120 RMB/day (US$19). It’s not a lot, but I enjoy having an easy part-time job that allows me to get out of the house and meet local people.

My monthly salary from this part-time gig is around 1000 RMB (US$158). In Oct 2021, I worked a bit more because another girl was on holiday, so I ended up making about 1500 RMB(US$236) in Nov 2021.

11. Capital Gain (from selling fund)

My investment strategy is quite ordinary, and as an average person, I followed Warren Buffet’s advice to put my investments on auto-pilot with funds.

I have been investing in the Automatic Investment Plan since early 2020. In June 2021, I sold three funds that I have been putting money in the Automatic Investment Plan since early 2020 and profited 5,636 RMB (US$860).

Since then, I have not made any transactions for my investment and just putting automatic investment in the plan. In this unstable economic environment, it’s better to be safe than risky.

12. Music Streaming Royalty on TuneCore

In 2020 I started learning how to DJ and produce EDM on my MacBook, and since then, I have managed to create and release two singles (EDM genre) thru TuneCore. TuneCore is a Brooklyn, New York-based independent digital music distribution, publishing, and licensing service founded in 2005. I can release my music on 150+ stores in 150+ countries in 5 mins, including Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, and more with TuneCore. There’s also an option you can choose to open your music to TikTok and YouTube creators.

The best part? Every time someone plays my songs in their playlist on their phone, on their computer, I get a royalty. You can also make and sell samples and sound effects for other musicians. So far, I have made just a little more than a dollar from my music streaming royalty, but if you have an audience or are passionate about making music, this is a great way to release your work online and make income on the side.

13. Interest from savings

After a couple of years of hard work in Shanghai, China, I saved part of my income in the bank. It turns out the savings can generate some interest!

Every day it gives about 10 RMB interest, so I receive about 300 RMB (US$47) interest per month from my savings. The interest goes back into the saving pool and makes more interest the next day!

14. Bilibili Creators Fund

Unlike Youtube, Bilibili supports video content creators not only by allowing Uploaders (UP主: This is how they call video creators on Bilibili, like YouTubers on YouTube) to monetize their channel and videos on Bilibili, but also giving out rewards to Uploaders if they publish videos regularly.

Since I posted my first video on Bilibili in March 2021, I’ve made 300 RMB (US$180) with the Bilibili Creator Fund program. It’s more than what I expected, and as a video creator, this gives me more motivation than YouTube.

To summarize my 14 streams of income in 2021:

1. Affiliate marketing for restaurant & hotel deals
2. Cryptocurrency
3. Selling homemade cookies & muffins
4. Selling video content to other platforms
5. Affiliate Marketing
6. Print On Demand
7. Selling Photos on Stock Images Websites
8. medium.com Royalty
9. Freelance Translator Monthly Retainer
10. Part-time Barista at a Local Coffee Shop
11. Capital Gain (from selling fund)
12. Music streaming Royalty on TuneCore
13. Interest from savings
14. Bilibili Creators Fund

My takeaway:

The Freelance Translator Monthly Retainer is so far my highest income of all. However, this income is based on my time spent on the work. If I don’t have time to do the job or lose the client, the income will no longer exist. My goal is to develop more passive income to be financially independent if I no longer have the monthly retainer one day. Some of the platforms and websites I mentioned have a minimum withdrawal limit, and you can only withdraw the money out of your account balance that exceeds that minimum amount. So it will take some time before you can receive money from your work. I recommend choosing one and working hard until you see the result.

Additional info

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Hello, 👋 It’s Vicky. I’m a YouTuber & writer based in Yunnan, China, and looking forward to sharing my story with you.