💰Multiplied revenue streams that fit marketers

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Top of the mornin’, Inbox Hackers. Feeling fresh and froggy? Then you’re in the right place.

Today’s Main Thing is all about creating multiple revenue streams. Why? One, the cost of living keeps getting higher. Two, marketers are in the best position to build a financial safety net for themselves because they already understand how to promote products and services. 

Let’s get to it…

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Building Multiple Streams of Income (without working yourself into an early grave)

I don’t know how young folks make it today. Cars cost what houses used to. Houses cost what mansions used to. Our first house cost us $89,000 in 1999. 

No question that times have always been hard for every generation unless you hit planet Earth with a silver spoon and a monogrammed smoking jacket.

When my Grandpa started out, he worked 16-hour shifts at Harmony Grove Cotton Mill. Many days he had nothing but a carrot in a sack for his lunch.

This is 2025. And times are different but still hard. People make more money. But things cost a helluva lot of money. 

And if you think politicians from either party are gonna make life easier on the average Joe or Jane, think again. If they do, it’s by accident. 

Best to focus on your own “personal economy.”

Spend less, earn more. And as I mentioned, marketers are in a great spot to earn more money by adding extra income streams. 

This should come easier to marketers (and business owners) because you’re used to marketing products and services already. It’s just a matter of marketing additional products and services. 

Warning... 

If you can’t do this without working 70 hours a week, you’re doing it wrong. No, I don’t believe much in passive income. Most of that income is generated by people pimping passive income courses. 

However, there are ways to add extra income streams without burning yourself out and making your family miserable because you’ve got too much on your plate. 

Let’s look at a few that are natural fits for people who are good at marketing.

Newsletters

Lots of extra revenue opportunities are available via creating newsletters. Already have a newsletter? Start another one on a related topic. 

Newsletters are not a ton of effort if you’re an efficient writer and super-curious about the topics you’ll cover. See the following monetization opps:

• Ad revenue via Beehiiv (easy to use ad network)

• Find businesses that will sponsor your newsletter directly

• Coach others on how to start a newsletter (focus on starting - it’s the hardest part for most people)

• Use AI to do the heavy lifting on a local events newsletter (Social media sucks at making local events easy to find. A single local realtor can provide decent sponsorship revenue according to Naptown Scoop founder.)

• Patreon-type support from your most engaged subscribers

• Gated paid content

AI Consulting

I believe the SuperHuman newsletter offers a course on how to earn money by coaching businesses on best uses of AI. So it’s a thing.

If you know the basics of AI, you could leverage that knowledge into at least a few thousand extra dollars a year by doing nothing more than phone calls. Simply answer business owners’ questions about AI.

Remember, just because you’ve read 200 articles about GPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini doesn’t mean most business owners have. 

You’re in marketing so, naturally, you’ve got a ton of AI knowledge compared to most people running a business.

Another revenue stream with AI? Cleaning up AI slop in content. Offer a human editing service for businesses that are using AI tools to write 100% of their blog articles or YouTube scripts. 

Most people who’ve let AI fully write content have found out it’s not good enough. Or not good, period. If not, you can easily point to the sucky parts of their content. Then offer to humanize it.

Even an average writer can do better than AI - if the human has any life experience at all and is willing to share it in stories that connect with the content.

By the way, most of the people I knew growing up, had at least one side-hustle. Though it wasn’t called that back then. My dad’s best friend did gunsmithing and mechanic work in addition to working a union job. His wife worked a factory job and sat with elderly people at night.

They had four kids, so they needed all the income streams they could get. 

Selling Your Art (whatever you consider art)

Even if this option brings in just enough money to be worth it, the biggest benefit is you get to use your creativity. This is huge for some marketers who don’t get that opportunity anymore. 

Easy to get burned out and jaded if you only get to do by-the-book marketing best practices.

Over the years, I’ve thought up a hundred ways to sell stuff that pops into my head. Most of them never got further than my brain. But I did try a few of them. I’ll list some to get your mind rolling…

• Funny t-shirt ideas (sell the ideas or print and sell the shirts)

• Create gag gifts

• Come up with funny or entertaining video ad concepts for local businesses

• Do a paid motivational wake-up call to people who need firing up in the mornings (one of the most fun gigs I’ve done)

• Sell an Etsy course on Etsy that teaches ways to sell more on Etsy

Another bonus of selling your “art” might be the tax write-off in the first couple of years if it isn’t truly profitable. Since I’m no tax expert and I do not give tax advice, you’ll have to navigate those tricky waters yourself. 

Mundane Local Services (that pay big money)

I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve read where people went from white collar work to blue collar work and wound up making way more money.

Author Dan Miller used to talk about a psychologist who switched to cleaning houses and offices. Then, she grew that side-hustle, that already paid better than being a shrink, into a large business.

That shows big money is available if you’re willing to get your hands a little dirty to create multiple revenue streams. Just know that some mundane local services keep you locked into a schedule that might interfere with your main business or job (and keep you from being able to take time off for a vacation).

Two examples are landscape maintenance and garbage collection. It’s a weekly thing you’re locked into. The better option would be doing simple plumbing tasks or handyman/woman work.

You do those services one at a time, not every single week. 

The best idea currently for a local service side-hustle is garage organizing for homeowners. Why?

• Drive by any neighborhood next Saturday. You’ll see garage doors open and junk is cluttering up 8 out of 10 garages.

• An aging U.S. population needs help with simple tasks like this and they have disposable income to pay good money to trustworthy side-hustlers who aren’t on drugs.

• The self-storage industry is booming. And without Americans, there would be no self-storage industry (true fact). That proves there’s a huge demand for organizing services.

Don’t like organizing? Offer junk removal. Serves the same purpose and same market. It actually simplifies what you have to do and makes the work go faster versus a full day of organizing.

I’ll close this out with 7 more side-hustle ideas specifically suited for folks with marketing chops:

7 Realistic Extra Revenue Streams Marketers Could Create

1. Sell simple templates to business owners (i.e., invoice templates built to generate repeat and referral business).
   

2. Offer copywriting coaching (scan through online ads to easily see who desperately needs your help).
   

3. Affiliate marketing partnerships with website designers (natural fit for marketers).
   

4. Strategy consulting retainers. Offer ongoing strategic advice and planning services for a monthly fee rather than project-based work. The Duct Tape Marketing folks are more bullish on strategy than ever, BTW.
   

5. White-label marketing services. Create marketing assets other agencies can rebrand and sell to their clients.
   

6. Create certification programs for specific marketing methods. Don’t think this is only for well-known marketers — get creative. Plus, most high-profile certifications are too expensive for rookie marketers — target them with a lower-priced certificate.
   

7. Speaking pays real good. Too bad public speaking’s more terrifying than Death. Overcome that and you’ve got a big advantage over 90% of marketers.

Alright, Monday Marketing News and insights are next…

Please share Inbox Hacking with a fellow marketing genius or business owner. Many thanks…

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin

“Writing is about hypnotizing yourself into believing in yourself, getting some work done, then unhypnotizing yourself and going over the material coldly.” ~Anne Lamott

BTW, each Wednesday Inbox Hacking edition has a “hack” you can use immediately - like this one…

If you have gated premium content, tease what that upcoming content will be. Instead of simply stating, “Become a paid member to read (unspecified) bonus content.” Example to mimic below: