By Cheryl Davis
6 Revenue Streams Freelancers Should Explore
As a freelancer one of the problems can be relying too heavily on one source of income, only to find yourself in trouble when a client pulls out or a supplier goes bankrupt so it makes sense to look at other sources of revenue beyond your clients.
Having numerous sources of revenue can set your mind at rest and give you a healthier bank balance at the end of the day and there are so many options thanks to the internet that adding in extra revenue streams doesn’t need to involve a huge amount of extra work.
Since they work with a lot of freelancers we caught up with the team of Crunch.co.uk to get ideas on how freelancers can diversify their income. Here are a few examples they shared that you can considering doing on your own.
- Setting up as a virtual assistant
Working as an online virtual assistant for a few clients could bring you in an extra revenue stream or could even become your main business. This growth area has increased drastically over the past few years with more and more companies appreciating the value which remote workers can bring to their business.
Working as a virtual assistance means you will be supporting other businesses with online admin support, making appointments, possibly taking telephone calls, sorting out social media – it’s a very varied role and you can work as many or as few hours as you want to.
- Work as a consultant
If you have worked in the past why not contact your previous employers to see if you can help them out on a consultancy basis now you are set up on your own. You know their business well and they must have had a good relationship in the past so this could become a lucrative revenue stream.
Alternatively you can become a consultant in your freelance industry area and offer help and advice to other businesses on this basis.
- Set up a blog
As a freelance you need to raise awareness of your business and your own expertise so why not set up a blog – you can also monetise it to create another source of revenue. Your blog can cover all sorts of topics and areas which could potentially bring in money from advertising or affiliate marketing.
You can also guest blog for other blogs in your related industry as well, to get your name out even further to potential customers. If you don’t like writing then why not try a podcast or a YouTube channel for a video version instead – all of these options can offer worthwhile revenue streams.
- Sell online courses
As a freelancer you have an expertise which people are willing to pay for so why not take advantage of that and create some online courses to help other people to benefit from your experience and knowledge.
If you create online courses using video, with some extra learning resources, you can keep selling them over and over again from an online platform. It’s easy to do and gives you evergreen digital products which can be sold many multiple times.
- Sell digital products
As well as courses, you could use your expertise to write e-books or online guides related to your industry, which you can sell regularly to customers or would-be customers. The key is to create publications which are of value and provide useful information which customers can use immediately to benefit their own business.
- Become a public speaker
Another way to boost your own expertise and reputation is to become an expert speaker at a variety of events in your own industry. Not only will it enhance your personal credibility within the industry but it could also become a revenue stream in its own right as many events will pay speakers for their time.
As a freelancer one of the joys is the freedom to work when you want and how you want, meaning you can choose to work on several different income streams at the same time. While most freelancers rely on regular client work for their income, part of the problem with that is clients come and go for reasons beyond your control.
Making sure you have a number of different revenue streams can help to protect your business during the quieter times, as well as helping to boost your credibility and reputation as an expert within your particular industry.
The revolution of internet businesses makes it much easier to create a variety of online-based businesses without too much effort – once they are up and running, such as online courses, or digital products – they also require very little ongoing maintenance and can just continue to supply revenue behind the scenes.
Working as a freelancer can be scary and risky when you are relying on one particular skill to secure your income; however, with the freedom to generate multiple streams of revenue it can become an exciting adventure which also provides abundant income.