When you think of a lucrative career what titles come to mind? Investment banker, Chief Operating Officer, Lawyer, Doctor. Writer rarely enters the thought but then again just look at Stephen King, JK Rowling, EL James, Russell Blake, Joanna Penn, Bella Andre. These are writers making more than some investment bankers. They’ve broken barriers and given the rest of us mere mortals the opportunity to do the same.

It’s time to start looking at writing as a career that provides multiple income streams.

Traditionally, we got a job, stayed in it for fifty years, retired on a modest pension, and counted down the days till the end. While that still happens today, it’s more common to see people change jobs or even careers every five to ten years, and then retire on a piss-poor pension that barely covers the necessities.

Fortunately, we have more options today to make a difference to our bottom line, do what we love, and never formally retire – if we don’t want to. With the rise in use of technology around the world, it’s never been easier to be a writer and to be wealthy.

It’s simple. It isn’t easy.

If you’re prepared to work smart, commit to a few years of uncertainty and basically writing for free, you can create a future where your writing provides you with multiple streams of income. That’s my plan. Wanna join me on the journey?

Why multiple streams of income?

Being 100% reliant on one source of income is dangerous. Get laid off, quit, get injured and aren’t able to work, need to stay home to look after a loved one, and you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. Who’s going to pay the bills if you’ve got no money coming in? Unless you’ve been stashing away 50% of your income for the past ten years, you might have a hard time making ends meet.

Multiple streams of income means earning an income from multiple sources. Well, duh. It provides you with a higher level of financial security than just your day job. Originally, multiple streams of income would include your job, real estate, shares, a business, maybe a moonlighting gig.

As a writer your multiple income streams can include:

• fiction books
• non-fiction books
• blogging
• niche sites
• freelancing
• copywriting
• affiliate marketing
• advertising
• sponsored posts

I’ve mentioned 9 streams. Imagine if each stream gave you $500 per month. Five hundred dollars isn’t going to pay the mortgage and give you security but if you have nine of these streams trickling through each month, that’s $4,500 on top of your day job. Now wouldn’t that be awesome? You might even trade in the day job and work for yourself.

Stop starving, start living

You can start earning as a writer from day one. As an author, my main aim is to make a significant living from my books. That’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to take a lot of work, sacrifice, patience and tenacity to get there. I’ll get there.

At the time of writing this, I’ve made enough to cover my toner cartridge for a laser jet printer, not much else. That’s fine. Freelancing has got me enough to cover the cost of my book covers. Blogging, well, the aim is to start making some money from it this year.

I’m aiming to reach $500 per month each from freelancing, blogging, and books within 12 months. That’s $1500 per month that will make a huge difference to my lifestyle. What would an extra $18,000 per year give you?

Baby steps will get you there

There are bloggers who are making more money per month from their online businesses than is easy to imagine. But it shows that it’s doable. Just check out these three to see where they’ve started and how far they’ve come.

Horkey Handbook
Pinch Of Yum
Money Can Buy Me Happiness

Now not everyone is going to be making that sort of income but what would an extra $1000 or even $500 per month mean for you? These writers didn’t start from six figures per year. They started with $1 and build their businesses up from there. If you want to make money that’s exactly what you need to do, treat your writing like a business.

Do you want to be a freelancer?

Check out Gina’s 30 Days Or Less To Freelance Writing Success course. I’ve read a lot of books on freelancing and even tried a course or two, Gina’s has been the most useful and practical. She outlines everything in a simple manner and provides real life examples that got her to where she is today. Check out her course here.

You can read So You Wanna Be a Freelancer? for more info!

Do you want to be a blogger?

You can easily set up a blog in as little as half an hour. I use Bluehost and recommend their services. You can check out my post on How to Start An Author Blog. You can use the information to start any type of blog.

Do you want to write books?

I suggest you check out The Creative Penn for everything that’s book writing for both fiction and non-fiction. Joanna Penn provides a wealth of information.

I’ve started a ‘How To Write A Novel’ Series here, check out these four so far:

Part 1: How Do You Write A Novel & Can Anyone Do It?

Part 2: Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

Part 3: Should You Write What You Know?

Part 4: How Well Do You Know Your Characters?

Do you want to make money through affiliate marketing?

Michelle from Making Sense of Cents, created an awesome affiliate marketing course. She’s a champ when it comes to affiliates. Her income has exceeded six-figures per month. Now that’s something to write home about. Her course is packed with useful information that you can put to practice write away and hopefully start earning.

Do you want to create multiple streams of income so that you can have the financial freedom to do what you want, when you want?

*This post contains affiliate links which means I might receive some moolah. Moolah is good, it means I can keep writing, keep producing and keep communicating with you – and I won’t have the debt collector showing up on my doorstep!