The concept of multiple streams of income is a very wise one that will give you some security. If you are just starting to work from home to build your own business, you should consider this because it makes so much sense on so many different levels.
Mainly the theory is that if you have different sources of income (for example different affiliate programs), that if one source is not doing so well one month, it won’t matter as much because you still have income from the other sources to tide you over.
Another aspect of this is that some affiliate programs pay lower commissions and only by virtue of sheer volume it adds up to a tidy sum; and/or it is also a good idea having commissions from other sources to create a more substantial income. This is how lots of different affiliate programs can work for you. At face value you may think you don’t want to go through all the trouble and expense to keep a program that pays $5 or $10 commissions – however if you have volume from taking massive action to advertise, $5 or $10 times 20 or 50 is not so bad at all! ($100-$500).
It is notable here that ‘residual’ income is the kind of income stream you want for the most part; this means you make the sale one time and then each month you earn commissions directly and indirectly from that source (mainly from your own effort but also possibly a percentage of your customer’s sales as well).
Possibly a combination of residual income and one-time-only (OTO) sales would be a good mix for your business. Sometimes you can make more money with OTO if you need money fast – but then again you are constantly having to ramp up your advertising and marketing to keep those one-hit-wonders coming. Either way you need to build and sustain your momentum at all times.
Still another way to look at the concept of multiple streams of income is as completely disparate sources – For example you may have a couple affiliate programs, and additionally to earn more money you may provide some service to your peers such as ghostwriting, editing, blog or link posting, research, etc. Naturally if you have any skills with web design – even just basic like being able to add or remove banners from websites, then that too could be a source of income that would all add up with the rest to create a substantial monthly income.
In all cases when you first start out to build your business, you may not know exactly what you want to do. As you acquire knowledge and skills to do affiliate marketing, (the easiest thing to do) then you may discover that you really like, or at least don’t mind some facet of your operations. This can be something you can pursue that can represent an additional stream of income for your home business.
Just don’t ever say ‘I can’t’ – because you can. If you just refuse to be put off or intimidated by technical terminology or concepts, you will find that most things are not that difficult to learn. With the way software and systems are today, they do most of the real technical tasks and you merely need to learn how to operate them from a menu-based interface. Keep an open-mind in this regard and remember that “there is no ‘can’t’” – there can’t be when you need to do what is necessary to run your own business.
… but you ‘don’t know how’? You can learn. You have search engines that can find just about anything you will ever look for – (they are truly amazing); if you encounter a term or concept you are not familiar with, just run a query and you will have the answer within minutes. You will find many free resources online that you can research even to deeper levels; and if you really find that you need training, there are many ways you can do that online as well, many times for free, so ‘just do it’.