Every entrepreneur has heard it before: diversify your revenue streams. Whether the economy is robust or weak, diversifying your revenue streams is the best way to safeguard yourself financially. While your main business can and certainly should remain your primary focus, side jobs and supplemental income strategies can help you feel more secure as an entrepreneur.

Financial security sounds great, but you’re a busy entrepreneur. Fortunately, implementing passive income strategies isn’t as complicated or time-consuming as you may think, and they allow you to earn passive income, which frees up your time and energy to focus on other money-making opportunities.  

Passive Income 101 

Millennial Money Man founder Bobby Hoyt wants you to know that anyone is capable of earning passive income. He defines passive income as “money you aren’t currently and actively working to earn.” 

Eventually, these approaches will earn you money while you snooze, but before that can happen, you need to get them up and running. 

According to Hoyt, earning latent income requires at least one of two things: monetary investments or time investments. If you already have money, you can put it to work using tactics like opening a high-yield savings account, micro-investing, or refinancing your house.  

If you don’t have the privilege of being flush with cash, making time investments might be more up your alley. You’ll need to put in some groundwork in order to get the ball rolling, but after your initial investment of time and energy, you’ll begin earning income in your sleep. 

Getting Started with Affiliate Marketing 

Two popular strategies that require time investments are starting a blog or starting a YouTube channel. Hoyt acknowledges that, while these two are not get-rich-quick schemes, you can eventually get to the point where you’re earning money through means such as Google AdSense and affiliate marketing, the latter of which is one of the most successful passive income ideas today.   

Business 2 Community contributor Nick Veneris notes that “how much an influencer can make varies widely, but surveys indicate that about 9% of affiliate marketers generate more than $50,000 in affiliate income.”   

Essentially, this type of marketing and promotion is an online referral program. If you have an audience (even a small one), you have influence. Affiliate marketing allows you to earn a paycheck when someone buys a product or service that you’ve recommended to them. 

Despite being cost-effective and largely risk-free, many people still fail at it. That’s why it’s important to have a plan for how to get started. 

There are several steps to getting started. Before you launch a campaign, the steps are selecting a niche, choosing an offer to promote, finding a traffic source, and setting up a landing page.   

Because they have an audience, bloggers, YouTubers, and social media influencers are primed to start earning money through promotions. Even if you’re just starting to grow your following, you can set up your content so that it is in a good position to earn passive income using this strategy. 

Using Social Media to Market Your Business 

In order to earn money through affiliate marketing, you need eyes on your content. You can recommend fantastic products and services, but if no one is hearing or reading your recommendations, you won’t make any sales. As with your primary business, it’s essential to use social media to market your side job and supplemental strategies. 

Maryville University suggests using influencers to create a successful social media campaign to help drive sales — and sales in your case constitutes income you generated by not lifting a finger. The key to a successful social media campaign is knowing your target audience. Researching your target audience will help determine the kind of content you create, the social media platforms you utilize, and how you go about building relationships. 

As an added bonus, the better you know your target audience the easier it will be to select offers to promote. Getting to know your audience can even help you narrow down your niche, which will, in turn, generate more income. 

More Ways to Make Money Online 

Of course, affiliate marketing isn’t the only way to make money online. In fact, it’s far from it. If running a blog or YouTube channel sounds too time-consuming, there are other interesting ways to make money online such as taking surveys and watching videos. 

You can earn as much as $50 per survey on websites like Survey Junkie, LifePoints, and Swagbucks. Swagbucks also gives you the chance to earn money while watching videos. Although these strategies require minimal effort, they’re technically not passive since you get paid per survey or video. 

For semi-active income, you could also become a Kindle writer. Self-publishing on Amazon’s Kindle platform can make you up to $2,000 on books that take just days to write. According to Side Hustle Nation founder Nick Loper, “it’s never been easier to create a book of your own and put it up for sale on Amazon.” Some Kindle writers, like Amanda Hocking, are now millionaires. 

Whether you decide to try your hand at self-publishing, take surveys, or pursue affiliate marketing, side jobs and supplemental income strategies are vital for diversifying your revenue streams as an entrepreneur.