Many years ago, my graphic designer/web designer husband was downsized out of his corporate job. We opted at that time to turn his side business into a full time business. We were blessed to land a very good client fairly quickly due to my teaching career connections. This company fed us steady work and became a huge portion of our income. It was fantastic.
Until it wasn’t.
The company had a major and unexpected shake-up. All of the people who kept us very busy were either let go or reassigned. We lost a huge portion of our income almost overnight. It was financially devastating because we were not prepared for it.
After that paradigm-shifting experience, we vowed we would never be that dependent on any one client or income stream again.
Truly Owning the Online Business You Build
Michael Hyatt wrote a piece in 2014 about building your online business that profoundly impacted how I do my work. He said:
What that means is that when it comes to your platform, you can’t afford to build your house on a rented lot.
In the article, he explains how algorithm changes on Facebook, Twitter, and such can drastically impact your business. If your business model depends heavily on any other platform, you are building your business on potentially shaky ground because you do not control it.
The same holds true for online businesses that have been devastated by Google algorithm updates, the most notorious of which were Panda and Penguin. I knew people who went from making thousands of dollars a month online to zilch due to one algorithm change. It can and does happen.
In the time since, we’ve seen the steady rise of deplatforming. This wasn’t really a thing in 2014, but it certainly has been the past few years. This includes social media as mentioned above as well as Instagram and YouTube. People have built YouTube followings and been demonetized or deplatformed with no recourse.
The bottom line is if you don’t control the platform, you are at the mercy of whoever does. This includes being at the mercy of the choices they make which you may not agree with.
Diversifying Your Online Income Streams
Because of my experiences, I’ve never again gone all-in on any one platform or organization. I have my own website with my own domain and hosting I pay for. I have all of my printable products on my own website in a WooCommerce shop.
I continue to research and look for additional ways to diversify my income. For example, the income related to my work online last month is coming from eight different sources. This does not include the work my husband does as well. The income he generated came from several other sources.
In this post, I will share a portion of what I’ve learned along the way these past fifteen years. If you are someone who is interested in building a small online business that is both diversified and profitable then this is for you.
Please note the word small in the post title. If you are looking to build an online empire, I’m not the person for you. My goal has never been to build a business that involves employees, travel, massive ad revenue, etc. I don’t have the time in my life to pursue something like that. My work fits in around homeschooling, homemaking, marriage, parenting, church, sleep, and trying to maintain some kind of personal life. I’m not getting rich off what I do here.
I do, however, make enough from the various income streams I’ve set up that it definitely makes a difference in our family life. It increases each year as I become more savvy and increase my skills. And, most importantly to me, it is diversified enough that while losing one stream would hurt us to varying degrees, it would not impact us in the same way losing our primary client did many years ago.
First Steps To Set Up Your Online Business
I have a category on this website where I am slowly adding posts about blogging and owning your own business. In particular, the post My Essential Blogging Tools touches on many of the important aspects of my own online business and also includes links to services and companies I use and recommend.
If I were to shorten it down to a bullet list of what I would advise you to do in order to get started, it would be this.
- Establish your own website with your own purchased domain on hosting you pay for. Do not set up your primary online presence on WordPress.com, Blogger, Wix, Shopify, Substack, Locals, Minds, Patreon, etc. You do not own them and therefore you do not control them. If you are going to invest in building something, purchase a domain and pay for your own hosting. Your own website also means you have something other than a social media page or group to depend on. I have used InMotion for hosting for reasons I explain in the essential blogging tools post. (I recently changed hosting, but it was not due to anything wrong with InMotion. I needed additional services they didn’t offer. I still highly recommend them.)
- Set up a way to collect the email addresses of people who are interested in your site. You want a way to keep in touch with people who like what you write and create. I have used many different services. I now use MailerLite. It fully integrates with WordPress and WooCommerce and provides lots of options at a great price.
- Set up an automatic off-site backup of everything you create. It isn’t enough to keep your files on a thumb drive or remote drive that sits on your desk. You MUST keep your files somewhere else such as a DropBox or other remote storage solution. I use and recommend iDrive.
If You Don’t Have Time To Do More
Even if you don’t have time right now to do more, I would still recommend buying your domain and setting up hosting. Put up a few helpful posts. (Turn off the dates so people can’t keep track of how long it’s been since you posted.) Doing this one thing gives you a place online. You have a place you own.
Your domain and website will also begin to “age” in the eyes of Google and not be brand new when you start to run with it in the future. This is important if you decide at some point you want to add AdSense or sign up for another ad service.
Even if you can only write one modest post a week, at the end of the year you will have 52 posts. One quality post a week is enough to keep your online home active.
Selling Digital Products On Your Own Website
The best way to make money and keep control over what happens with your products is by putting them on your own website. I sell my products in my WooCommerce shop. I chose to focus my efforts on sending people to my website shop via Pinterest and SEO rather than sending them to other marketplaces. In the big picture and in the long run, I wanted that link juice pointing to my website rather than other platforms. Yes, it also means I have to deal with the occasional headaches related to my own shop. But the trade-off is worth it in my opinion.
Selling via WooCommerce gives me the opportunity to block sales to particular countries or states. For example, I have a plugin that stops people from ordering in the EU so I don’t have to deal with VAT. There are also plugins available that allow you to block sales to particular states. So for sellers who are concerned about reaching a tax nexus in a particular state, it is possible to track your sales on your site and stop selling to a particular state in order to avoid reaching a nexus that year.
But perhaps the greatest advantage to opening your own shop is that you receive your money instantly and there is no fee taken out other than the percentage required by PayPal or Stripe. I have buyers dropping money into my PayPal and Stripe accounts all day, every day with my own shop. This is a huge advantage over selling on other platforms.
I am an entrepreneur so I have tried quite a few different online marketplaces over the years. Some have closed and some I chose to leave for a variety of reasons. Overall I have not personally had success with them to the point that it was worth the time to continue to add and update my products there. I have not tried platforms like Shopify because of the monthly fee and the fact that I did not want my shop to be dependent on another platform.
Affiliate Income
There are a staggering number of affiliate programs available. I could write an entire post simply about this!
The most commonly used one is Amazon because it is easy to use and everyone shops there. Amazon has changed their terms in recent years so it is much less lucrative than it was in the past. But it is still a way to add a small income stream to your online business. If you create products, teach, homeschool, or love books there are definitely ways you can link to Amazon products and try to capture affiliate revenue.
The best way to add affiliate income is to promote things you like and talk about when writing. Do a little checking and find out if your favorite online stores have an affiliate program. Does your favorite homeschool curriculum source have a program?
Affiliate income is a huge topic and there are literally thousands of companies to sign up with. It is definitely a way to add a bit more income to your life with a little effort.
Advertising Revenue
People have strong opinions about advertising on blogs and websites. I have used ads and taken them off more times than I can count. It’s not an easy decision for some bloggers. Google AdSense is the easiest option and best way to go when you are starting out. Again, this could be an entire post or discussion. You won’t make much, but if every little bit helps in your situation then by all means find an ad company to apply to and put them on your website.
If your site grows in terms of traffic, you will have the option of applying to MediaVine or AdThrive, two of the largest and best companies. However, be aware that ad revenue is down dramatically across the board and there are more changes rolling out this year regarding cookies that will make it even more challenging. That’s not to say there isn’t money to be made with ads. There is. But when you are starting out, it will be small bits here and there.
Generating income through advertising is also an option for people who want to create products and not deal with state sales tax and nexus laws. Some website owners do very well offering many free printables that generate large amounts of traffic which then translates into ad revenue.
Product Reviews
If you are good at writing reviews or are willing to do a little learning, this can become a another income stream. You can contact companies regarding writing reviews for their products earning anywhere from fifty dollars to thousands of dollars for one post depending on the size of your readership and mailing list. If you want to pursue this, start by writing really great reviews of things you own or like so you have examples to show the companies when you send them your ideas.
Selling a Course
If you can write and produce a video course, that is an excellent opportunity for a steady income. There are many ways to create and host them so it would take some research as to what would work best for you. But once you set them up and make them available, they are there to add to your income every week as you sell them.
Consultations
If you like working one-on-one with people, then offering consulting services could bring in money for your website. If you are particularly skilled and knowledgeable about a particular topic, you can offer your expertise at an hourly rate. Even just selling one consultation a week at $50 or $75 would add $200 or $300 to your family income. That can make a big difference.
Subscription Services
There are many platforms now that offer recurring subscriptions. They include places such as Patreon, Locals, Substack, Minds, Clouthub, SubscribeStar, etc. If you can draw an audience and charge each person a small amount each month, it can bring in another source of revenue. The downside is that you are building an audience on another platform so you need to make sure you are also connecting with them in some way via your homebase website. But these services do offer another option!
Mailing List
Some bloggers do very well selling to their email list. They send out emails with affiliate links to services, links to their own new products, affiliate links to events, affiliate links to subscription services, etc. A mailing list can be another source of income. Don’t be shy about settling up a mailing list. This is one area where I failed early on. Don’t make my mistake.
Get Started!
Those are just a few ways to create income from a small profitable and diversified online business. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to use my comment area. Or keep going and check out My Essential Blogging Tools where I discuss in-depth the various services and products I use and recommend.
Lastly, if you would like professional help in setting up and/or maintaining your online presence, my husband would be happy to talk with you. David is easy to work with and very knowledgeable which you will see by the reviews we have at David and Sallie.
Best wishes as you begin your business journey!
Morning Hope – Proverbs 3:1-12
I absolutely love the points you made in your post! It is absolutely true. I have been selling on TPT since 2012, but have never made it my only source of income.
Currently, I do Virtual Assistant work, do Facebook and other digital marketing (posts, lead magnets, and ad campaigns) for local businesses. I’m working on pitching a local children’s play area with custom printables and products based on my TPT experience.
I’m currently learning how to effectively (and cheaply!) drive traffic to my blog and hopefully future WooCommerce shop via Facebook and Pinterest advertising. I also want to get into affiliate marketing. I, too, just hopped over to TeachersDojo and am excited for the possibilities there.
There are SO MANY great options to not only make money online, but to serve readers and fellow educators. I love making money, but I also love getting feedback that students enjoyed my work. That’s so incredibly gratifying and makes me continue to learn and grow.
Thank you for such an encouraging post!
Hi Rachel,
You brought up some other great ways to generate income through an online business. I know many people who do Virtual Assistant work. Thank you especially for mentioning that.
I want to see people succeed and generate the income they need for themselves and their family if they have one. Hopefully this post will spark more ideas for people!
Sallie
Thank you! I subscribed and look forward to reading your posts. As a Christian homeschooling mama who taught public gifted education for several years, I can relate to a lot of what you’ve written. Glad I found your blog! Thank you for your voice in this as well.
So good, Sallie. I see a book here 😉 You’ve definitely done a kind service with putting all this good advice in one post, and free to read. My first reaction was, what if you could provide a place like TDojo?!?!
An aside: my struggle is I want to interact with people in person, even though all you’ve written here is fascinating, and definitely of interest to me. I’m in need of serious professional coaching OFFLINE. But that is a different discussion.
Thanks, Cristy. I hope it does help people.
I’ve thought about doing real life consulting, but that imposter syndrome thing always gets in the way…
You too, huh? (smiling)
I’m glad for all you do online, Sallie. You and David, both.
Excellent, concise information. 🙂
How have you liked TD so far? Easy to use? It looks pretty bare in my niche, so I’m trying to figure out if adding a store there is worthwhile.
Hi Dianna,
TD is super easy to use. Very quick to add products. Much easier than TPT, to be honest. I haven’t had time to get the extras set up yet and I still have quite a few products to add.
Their biggest challenge is simply going to be getting people to promote and use the site. But they certainly have made the effort to set things up well for sellers.
Sallie
Sallie,
This article is very timely. I retired from teaching two years ago, and have been selling on TpT for three years. It is a great mind stimulating activity. It gives me great pleasure to know that I can use my years of expertise to help make others have an easier time. My husband is retiring at the end of this school year. We are in the process of creating a blog site. We have been thinking about other streams of income including drop shipping. I look forward to reading more of your posts!
Sarah
Hi Sarah!
Welcome! I’m glad you found the post timely and helpful. There are lots of ways to supplement a retirement income via online opportunities, especially via a blog. The nice part is it is relatively low overhead and you can invest as much or as little time as you choose.
Keep me posted about the blog you set up so I can stop by and see what you are doing!
Sallie
I’ll go check out Teacher Dojo. I’m at the point I need to fish or cut bait on actively pursuing a store. Right now I’ve got a few lonely products on my site, but I’m not actively adding more. I could change that pretty easily….
Hi Ticia,
There are a number of options and it really depends on what you are selling and where you want to promote. TPT is a great platform, but it is huge and much harder to get noticed and found now in search results. TD is new and there is less competition, but there is also a lot less traffic.
There is no right or wrong answer. Both platforms have their positives and drawbacks.
Shopify is another option, but that is on the pricey side per month unless someone is going all in one what they are doing. At $29 per month, it’s not worth it for very small sellers.
Sallie
Thanks so much Sallie. This is great advice.
Mary
You’re welcome, Mary! I’m glad you found the information helpful!
Sallie
This is really eye-opening and insightful. I’ll definitely be checking out Teacher’s Dojo. Because a lot of my products are compatible with the British teaching curriculum there’s also http://www.tes.com
So glad I found you on TpT forum and followed you to your blog!
Hi Kat,
For some reason I missed responding to your comment. I’m glad you found the information in my post helpful.
Thank you for sharing the other link!
Sallie
Thank you, thank you, thank you for putting into words what I’ve been thinking about for the past 4-5 months. I’ve been struggling to find other TpT sellers who are not so attached to the platform that the mere mention of TDojo or selling elsewhere makes them defensive. On my own, I decided to start a WooCommerce shop as well, but I’ve been questioning that decision the past couple month. Your post affirmed to me that I made the right decision for my business to diversify my income streams and sell independently.
I would LOVE to hear more if you are thinking of writing more posts about this topic, and especially about using WooCommerce in the very specific niche we have of digital, educational products. There’s so much out there on e-commerce and even digital products, but a fair amount of the research I’ve done doesn’t seem to apply to our target market of teachers (or librarians in my case).
Regardless, thank you for saying this, because it really needed to be said for folks like me to know we’re not alone in being concerned about having all our eggs in one “basket.”
Hi Collette,
Thank you for your comment. I apologize it’s taken me several days to respond.
You are correct in that there are many people who are very loyal to TPT and don’t wish to expand beyond that platform. I think each person has to do what she thinks is best for her situation.
Your website looks great! I can tell you have already put a lot of work into both it and your WooCommerce shop.
I would encourage you to learn about SEO to try to take advantage of that from the beginning. I would guess you will get many readers and buyers through both Pinterest and search engines so it’s worth it to become knowledgeable.
Honestly, blogging and selling online is just a never ending learning experience. The more you learn, the more you realize you want or need to learn. LOL!
Pick one thing that you think will help your site/sales the most and give you the best return on investment (ROI). Then do a deep dive to understand it. Implement it as best you can with where you are now and the resources you have (financial, time, energy) and then go on to the next thing. That’s how I typically work.
I hope that helps!
Sallie
Dear long lost friend…. this post is so helpful, I will come back to it and digest it slowly and follow your links. My teaching job isn’t able to support my family, so while job searching for something else, I am also looking for “side gigs” to supplement. I have done some freelance writing for an online edtech company, but that is finished. Your work is lovely! It is wonderful to see all these great things you have going on!
Warmly,
Kirsten
Kirsten!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello! I have thought about you many times since leaving Facebook, wondered how you were doing, wondered how your daughter was enjoying college, etc. It’s nice to see you here. 🙂
There are so many ways to try to make money online that sometimes it is overwhelming. I’ve made many mistakes over the years and also made some decisions that worked out well. It’s definitely is possible. It’s all about finding the right fit for your strengths and the market. Feel free to ask any questions once you start digesting more of what you read.
Hugs,
Sallie
Hi Sallie,
I am a TpT seller and started my website last year but had to take a break from everything in June of last year. I am hoping to get back to my store and website. Do you have any suggestions on how to protect your digital files on your own website. I have Woo commerce but my clip art files seem to be to large and I have read that it is easy for those who know how, to download your products without purchasing. I am just wanting to make sure I do it right. Thanks so much for any suggestions you can provide.
Hi Rachelle,
I am so sorry it has taken me so long to respond. I’m going to ask my husband, David, to answer this because this is more his domain.
I do know that with Woo no one should be able to access the files, but he will be able to explain it better. I’m pretty sure they are encrypted in the process.
Sallie
Hi Rachelle,
When it comes to files on a WordPress website, there are two different “uploads” folders when you use WooCommerce. All your “regular” WordPress files go in the main “uploads” folder in a structure that gets sorted by year and by month. This would be things like blog post images and general graphics. For WooCommerce “products”, there is a special “woocommerce_uploads” folder. So first of all, someone would have to be aware you’re using WooCommerce in order to know to put that in the URL, plus they’d have to know the year and month you uploaded it in order to put that in the URL as well. So they could know the name of your site, and the name of the file, but they’d be guessing quite a bit what to put in between the two to get to your server location.
That said, WooCommerce’s checkout page gives a download link after purchase, but if you hover over the download button and look at the link URL, it’s quite coded. It has coding that uses the order number and user name plus a ton of digits. It’s not the actual product file link.
Some other product systems with downloads don’t have hidden links or coding mixed into download links and there are plug-ins that can be added to “mask” the real product locations. But with WooCommerce, it’s quite safe that your product files are not going to get picked up without a purchase.
Does that answer your question?
Regarding how large your files are, there are ways you can make WordPress work with larger files. One is to add a special line of code to your HTACCESS file. We did it by way of an image optimizer plug-in called EWWW Image Optimizer. This plug-in installed the code in the HTACCESS file which allowed us to increase the maximum file size upload to 128MB in order to get Sallie’s bigger products uploaded.
YOU ARE AMAZING AND SMART PERSON!!
Hi Lucci,
Well, I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the years while doing some things right. The benefit is that you learn a lot when you make mistakes. LOL!
Thank you for the kind comment,
Sallie
This was right on time! I started my TPT store in July and will have almost 60 products uploaded tonight! Just from doing research and being in TPT focused groups, it is clear that one cannot solely rely on TPT for full income just starting out! It is imperative to have multiple income streams! Thank you so much for this information!
Hi MJ,
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. Your website looks fantastic! I can tell you are putting a lot of thought and effort into what you are doing and creating. I hope you are able to find what works best for you and are very successful moving forward!
Sallie
Thank you so much! I had to build my website myself after the person I hired took my money and never delivered! It’s been a steep learning curve but every challenge thrown my way so far has taught me an invaluable lesson!
Im currently trying to tackle Woocommerce and adding my products to my website. Do you have any articles on how you set-up Woocommerce? If not, were there any articles you found on your own journey of setting up your products on your store that you found were extremely helpful?
Again, thank you so much for this information!
Hi MJ,
My husband, David, actually does all of my website design and back-end work so he’s the one who set it all up. I basically tell him how I want it to look and he tweaks it until I’m happy. LOL!
So there really aren’t any specific articles I can point you to. But I know there is a lot out there for pretty much every topic. To really fine tune things, you need to have a fair amount of knowledge about coding stuff (which I don’t but David does).
I hope that helps!
Sallie