Are you trading time for money?  Is your income dependent upon how much time you spend at your desk?  You need to diversify your income so that if something changes in your life or in your business, you’re not a sinking ship.

IE 69: The Importance of Diversifying your Income

I want to tell you before we dive into today’s topic why I chose this topic of diversifying your income. I am 38 years old and in, what I would consider, good health. I am active, I eat a fairly decent diet, and I try to manage stress the best I can.

But while on a call with 2 clients recently, I began experiencing chest pains. After I got off the call, the pains got worse so I decided to head to the Urgent Care. When I got there, they whisked me right in (they take chest pains very seriously), and they hooked me up to an EKG machine. My blood pressure was through the roof and I was wondering if the worsening symptoms were from my own stress and fear.

I ended up in the ER before all was said and done and I am fine now, but one thing I didn’t have to worry about while all this was going on was our income. Because my income isn’t tied to some set hours at an office or trading hours for dollars, I could rest easy knowing that everything was going to be okay as long as I was okay.

How Much Time Do You Have?

I can’t tell you a story about how I started a blog one day and a month later I had 500K page views and was making a full-time income. That’s not my story. My story is one of hard work and a lot of years invested. I started my blog when I had 2 very young children and I was working full-time as a reading teacher in inner-city New York.

I was blogging every chance I got, including weekends, which didn’t always make my husband a happy camper. At this point, I make beyond what I ever would have thought possible with a blog but don’t lose sight of the fact that it was a journey to get here.

You need to take into consideration what your obligations are before you get down on yourself for not accomplishing what you think you should be. If you have young children at home or you’re homeschooling, your time is extremely limited. Maybe you travel a lot or you’re heavily involved with your child’s school. Whatever your life is like, take that for what it is and don’t expect to be at the same point as someone who can blog for 40 hours a week.

Oh, Those Algorithms

The very first reason that I want you to think seriously about diversifying your income is the ever-present and ever-annoying algorithm change.

If you are in online business, I know you have seen a hit to your traffic at some point due to the always changing algorithms on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. Even Google has algorithm changes!

For this reason, you can’t put all your income eggs in one basket. Listen to me, there is no such thing as passive income. Can you earn money while you sleep? Yep. Did I earn money while I was in the ER? Yes, I did. But it sure as heck wasn’t passive. I worked my tail off for that income.

That so-called passive income is dependent on page views. And last time I checked, it takes a ton of work to drive page views. I have to be on top of scheduling my social media posts and constantly creating new content to bring the readers over. There’s nothing passive about that.

Algorithm changes can also affect your income related to sponsored posts because you have to share your numbers with brands in order to pitch them and get campaigns.

What Do Brands Value?

Not only do the algorithms change, but brands change what they value over time. When I first began blogging, ads were where it was at.

Brands wanted ads on your site and they wanted them “above the fold.” Ads were spread down the sidebar and at the bottom. At that time, brands didn’t work directly with bloggers through sponsored content. This was a huge shift in the way brands interacted with bloggers.

And even since sponsored content became more mainstream, brands still handle it differently. Some brands like to build relationships with certain bloggers rather than seeking out new ones. This is why it’s important to pitch the brands directly. You become the voice for the brand.

How Are People Finding You?

Let me blow your mind a little bit. When I started blogging, there was no Instagram. There was no Pinterest.

And you know what? I think it was easier to be found without them.

Now, you have to find your audience and attract their attention. What I mean by that is, figure out where your target audience hangs out and show up there. Your audience might not be on Instagram or maybe they don’t ever venture over to Snapchat…like me. The point is that you have to know where they are because if you don’t, how will they ever find you?

Think about Facebook. It used to be where all the cool kids hung out. Not anymore. Now the cool kids are all on Instagram. I’ll be honest, when I first saw Instagram, I hated it. I have since figured it out though…because I had to. My audience is there and if I want them to find me, I have to show up there on a regular basis.

How to Ensure Disaster

If you want to be 100% certain that you will fail in business, then put all your eggs in one basket. Tell me, what happens when you put all your eggs in the ads basket and all of a sudden the algorithm causes your page views to tank so you lose that income?

I have literally known bloggers who had to let go of half of their team because their revenue was cut in half overnight. All due to changes online. If you don’t want to see that happen to you, diversification is the answer.

What happens when Pinterest marks your pins as spam and your traffic drops overnight? If the Facebook algorithm hasn’t already affected you, it will. It’s only a matter of time until some change somewhere gets to your business.

Types of Income

I want to share with you some of the ways I make an income and let’s see if you’re surprised by any of them.

Of course, I have the typical ads, affiliates, and sponsored work. I also have ebooks, courses, video trainings, a membership site, workbooks, and speaking engagements. I am currently planning my first event.

Other ideas for income are webinars, self-publishing a book, MLM, consulting, coaching, and more! There are so many ways to earn income online that I could never name them all. You have to start thinking outside the box. Forget how the typical blogger earns her money. Brainstorm ways that you can branch out to earn more.

One of the most important things you can do is to figure out a way to make money for yourself. Ads and sponsored posts are fine, but there comes a point where you need to stop depending on others for your income. You can create products or provide a service. Whatever you choose, you need to find a way to bring money in that’s based on you and not on someone else’s product.

Creating a product is one of the best ways to create more income for yourself. Yes, it is a ton of work. But once the work is done, you can continue to sell the product without putting in all those hours. You will still have to do updates to your products, so the work isn’t done forever.

I update my own courses all the time to be sure I am sharing with my customers and clients the most up-to-date information available.

Someone out there needs what you have to offer. If you never create something, you will never see how many people you could help. Maybe what you want to create is already out there for free. The fact is, people pay for convenience. They pay for having things laid out in a step-by-step fashion.

People want a transformation and you can provide that for them. What are you waiting for?

Action Steps:

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