Most Americans have one stream of income (a job) and less than $1,000 in savings. If you’re a part of this majority, you’re one layoff away from a catastrophe.

I hate to be so dramatic, but it’s quite true.

Your eggs should never be in one basket. Just ask any millionaire.

Regardless of whether or not you want to become a millionaire, I beg you to have multiple income streams. The worst thing you could ever do to yourself is depend on any one source for your financial livelihood. There’s just too many unknowns — too many things out of your control.

Today, there’s no excuse for not diversifying your income. It’s just too easy (after some initial hard work) and fun to make money online.

In this post, I give away my favorite ideas for making money online. This is by no means a definitive list. In fact, it’s a highly curated list of income streams I have tested or have thought of creating myself.

Information Products

Education is the second largest industry in the U.S. following healthcare, with $1.6 trillion spent annually in the U.S. alone and $5.5 trillion globally, as of 2015.

Times are changing rapidly, and with it, people need and want to develop new skills to better themselves.

What do you know how to do that you could teach someone else to do?

Create a course.

According to a report by Degreed, nearly 85 percent of people said they learn things for work by searching online, at least once per week, and nearly 70 percent of them learn by reading blog articles weekly and asking for recommendations from peers and mentors.

A course can be a big upfront investment that has a big monthly (recurring) payoff. Since launching my course in April, I’ve made nearly $10,000. Aside from making updates to the course, my only investment was the initial time I spent making the course (about three to four weeks of work because I repurposed a lot of my previous client work to make the course). And of course, I had to purchase a domain name and website hosting — both of which were a minimal investment.

Course Tips and Tricks

Take other people’s courses to get inspiration for things like formatting and making sure your content is better than others.

Start with the content first. Open a G-Doc, and start outlining your course. Don’t worry about technology until you have your content down.

Launch your course before you finish. This will put a fire under your ass to get it done.

To make a course successful, you’ll need an audience and/or marketing chops to drive people to it.

Learn how to make a killer landing page that evokes emotion in people and drives them to buy. You can see my course landing page as an example.

Research course ideas on Udemy, Gumroad Discover and Product Hunt

Course Technology Options

WordPress.org + Restrict Content Pro (This is what I use for Full Stack Marketer)

Podia** (The best!!)

You could also use email automation software (I prefer Mailchimp) to deliver your course over a weekly drip sequence.

Course Resources