When thinking about the economy, do you think things will get worse before they get better? I guess I’m being a pessimist but it seems to me that things will get worse way before they get better. I have a feeling their will be more layoffs, more foreclosures and more people looking for jobs this coming year than there has been in a long time. Good luck graduates.

In California, the unemployment rate increased to 8.2 percent that leaves over $1 million people unemployed in the state. I’m not one of them, yet. But I won’t be surprised if a layoff does occur. With the threat of unemployment over my head, yet again within a year I decided to start looking at other ways to generate income. No I don’t mean robbing a bank. That’s a little too risky for me.

As most of you are aware I already have an online baby boutique that is bringing in a steady amount of income. Not enough to quit my day job. Hoping to change that really soon. But the store is a retail business, if things get worse, people will spend less which will eventually affect me as a retailer as well. So I will need more than just one extra stream of income to sustain a healthy life style. You know what they say, “don’t put your eggs all in one basket.”
So what else is there?

Monetizing this blog is one of them. Jessica @ jessicaknows.com has a great post on her experiment with monetizing her blog. Be sure to check out her post, I know I will!

Paid product reviews is another, I have been writing product reviews for Mom Select, Mom Bloggers Club, NewBaby.com and some others to test out new products and offer giveaways to my readers. Check out this week’s giveaway, 40 minutes of entertainment for your dancing princess. I never really thought about using a paid service and if you do does that make you less reputable because you are getting paid to write about the product. Are you forced to say you like the product?

Freelance work, I’ve been a passive web freelancer for years now. I don’t really actively seek out this type of work, but when it comes my way I’ll do the work. Case in point I’ve had 3 freelance web jobs in the past year that just fell in my lap. So I could dust off my portfolio site and start branding myself as a freelance web designer.

Develop a social networking site on Ning and hope it takes off as well as twittermoms.com or mombloggersclub.com and start charging for advertising. Or start charging for advertising on this blog. I wonder how much traffic advertisers look for before they will pay for advertising. I have some ideas for a Ning site, but that just adds another project to my hectic schedule.

Freelance writing is an avenue that I have been dying to tap into, but never took the time. And according to US News and World Report, a freelance web writing business was on the list of the best small business to start. To see what else was on the list check out Best Small Business to Start.

Develop a Directory site; this is actually already in the works so I won’t go into my personal plans. But this is another avenue of generating income. You can charge for listings and also generate advertising revenue for this type of site. Directories have so much potential and can generate a lot of traffic if promoted and marketed well. Plus if built right they can be self sustaining.

I can’t forget affiliate marketing, I hear many people survive on affiliate marketing websites alone. We started an affiliate program with LaLa Baby Boutique and I have signed up with some affiliate programs for BizzieMommy.com. I will have to research affiliate marketing before this will become a viable significant stream of income. But every little bit adds up and helps.

Tune in next week to see what else I’ve learned about generating multiple income streams.

photo credit: pfala

Tagged as: affiliate marketing, freelancing, multiple streams of income