It’s a variety of income streams that all add up to your income. Having a variety of income streams is ideal because if one of them dries up, you have other income streams to back it up.

However, having too many income streams can get you distracted and have a bunch of mediocre income streams instead of a few meaningful income streams.

There are plenty of side hustlers who want to turn what they do on the side into their main hustle. Here are some strategies you can utilize to make that happen…

#1: Build Up Multiple Streams Of Income

The more income streams you have, the more you can weather the storms. Too many people only have their job as their source of income. If that disappears, so does all of their income.

Multiple streams of income protects you from that fate and helps you turn your side hustle work into your main hustle.

#2: Identify The Income Streams With The Most Potential

As you build up more income streams, you’ll have to choose which ones you focus on the most.

If Income Stream A has the potential to make you 10X the money than Income Stream B, then you should put more of your time towards Income Stream A.

You can still put time towards Income Stream B, but understand that Income Stream A has more potential. Spend your time accordingly.

#3: Cut Down On Expenses

One reason why some people haven’t turned their side hustle into their main hustle is because of their expenses.

There are a variety of ways to cut down on expenses from getting rid of most monthly subscriptions to buying a multifamily property and having tenants effectively pay your mortgage.

The more you cut down on expenses and save/invest what you make, the easier it is to turn your side hustle into your main hustle.

If you can reduce all of your expenses from $5,000/mo to $4,000/mo, you’ve lowered the barrier you have to jump over to turn your side hustle into your main hustle.

#4: Grind It Out

The first three strategies are about working smart. But you still have to work hard.

This is where you have to grind it out. No matter how brilliant your plan is, you can’t sidestep the work.

Find time in your day to put in the work. The bookends present two great opportunities…before everyone else wakes up and after everyone else goes to bed.

The best strategy for my productivity has been writing down every task I want to do the night before. That way, I wake up each day with a plan rather than conducting my life and work on the fly.

I hope you enjoyed this article. If you did, I’d greatly appreciate if you could subscribe to my YouTube channel where I share strategies you can use to grow your audience and monetize your platform.

Other side hustles take more time but can yield sizable gains if you have a long-term perspective.

It’s important to have a mix of side hustles you can go to for quick cash and side hustles where you may not make much money now but there’s plenty of money to be made a few months or even years from now.

If you want meaningful income growth over the long-term and are willing to wait a bit, these are 3 side hustles you should pursue…

#1: Start A YouTube Channel

YouTube is one of the best platforms to create content on. Not only does the YouTube algorithm help you grow your audience, but video is the most engaging form of content.

You can very quickly get people to know, like, and trust you.

Blog posts like this one are also great, but a blog post is skimmable. YouTube videos are also skimmable, but you have to actively skim the video while listening to and seeing the YouTuber.

Skimming a blog post happens more unconsciously with a scroll of the mouse.

The long-term play comes when you grow your YouTube channel and start to get new customers. You can also make money from the AdSense revenue, but you’ll make far more money selling a product or service to your audience than through the AdSense revenue.

#2: Host A Podcast

A podcast is another great platform for making $1,000 and beyond. For most people, podcasting is a long-term play because they focus on listener growth and sponsors.

However, you can drastically speed up the amount of time it takes to make money podcasting by strategically interviewing the right guests.

Some of my guests have become clients, JV partners, and collaborators. The way you approach each relationship determines what you get out of it.

I go into each conversation expecting nothing in return. That way, I still have great conversations, learn from the best, and then if someone wants to proceed with one of my products or services, I’m all for it.

#3: Self-Publish KDP Books

Amazon is the dominant player in the self-publishing space, and you can make money on their platform by publishing books.

If you price your Kindle book at $2.99, you’ll make about $2 per book sale. However, the magic comes with how you leverage your book.

If you have a product or service that ties in with your book, mention it. Some of my readers have turned into clients because I mention an offer in each book.

It’s more common for a reader to become an email subscriber because I share a freebie on the first page of the book that requires an email address.

While it’s possible to make $1,000+ each month through the book royalties, there’s far more potential when you turn your book into a lead generator that boosts your authority, helps you get more speaking gigs, and grants you with other perks.

If you commit to any of these three side hustles for 6-12 months and continue learning, applying, and taking massive action, you can get it up to $1,000+/mo with massive upside potential.

Some people just use ONE of those 3 side hustles to make 6-figures and above.

A variety of successful speakers joined forces at the Side Hustle Paradise Summit. Some of those speakers are crushing it on YouTube, podcasting, and self-publishing, but other speakers were crushing it in other areas as well.

If you want to get access to the 30+ sessions, make sure you grab your Lifetime Pass here.

One of the most important skills you can develop as a side hustler is to discover your highest impact activities.

Discovering your highest impact activities lets you know which activities yield the most growth and income. If you focus more of your time on the few activities that yield the most growth and income, you’ll see more growth and income in your life.

Here’s a brief exercise you can use to discover what your highest impact activities are…

Step #1: Write Down All Of Your Key Activities

You can’t figure out your key activities unless you know all of your activities. Writing the complete list allows you to see which activities take away from the ones that provide you with the most growth and income.

And don’t just make it a business list. Include everything personal as well. Some things like family time shouldn’t be trimmed (family time should be considered a key activity), but other things such as surfing the web can get reduced or cut down to make room for key activities.

Step #2: Take Some Guesses Based On The Data

After you’ve listed your activities, look at the results from each activity and assess whether it’s a key activity or not. Create a shortlist of activities and prioritize that shortlist.

Not only do you address the shortlist before anything else, but you also increase the amount of time you spend on each activity on that shortlist.

After 1-2 weeks, take a step back and ask yourself how you’re feeling about the shortlist. Do you feel like you’re doing the right work or can you shorten the shortlist? Does something need to be added to the shortlist?

Depending on the activities on your shortlist, it may take months for the results to materialize, but you have to keep asking yourself if this is the best use of your time given what your goals are.

Step #3: Reduce, Delegate, or Eliminate Everything Else

If you’re not growing, you’re dying. With that in mind, if an activity isn’t helping you, it’s hurting you. Some activities are necessary but don’t help you as much as others.

Daily YouTube videos have been a boon for my YouTube growth. For anyone interested in what that schedule looks like and how you can publish more videos on YouTube, you may want to watch the video below.

Daily YouTube videos takes considerable time. To continue creating daily YouTube content, I had to delegate other helpful activities such as posting on Instagram.

My followers enjoy the Instagram carousels, but I don’t have enough time to create those carousels on my own. That’s why I recently delegated this part of my business.

Now I just write the caption, post the carousel, and use the proper hashtags. The more work you can reduce, delegate, or eliminate, the better.

Eventually I’ll delegate my inbox which is something every business owner should think of doing at some point. I’m not making that jump quite yet.

This post was inspired by Jacob Landis-Eigsti who was one of the Side Hustle Paradise speakers. He and over 30 others shared the top strategies you can use to use side hustles to diversify your income and turn your side hustling efforts into your main hustle.

If you want to learn how to add an extra $1,000 or more to your income, you may want to consider getting a Lifetime Pass to get access to all of the sessions.

It’s common advice to reinvest the dividend payments you receive so your return builds over time.

If you have $2,000 worth of stock that pays you $100 in dividend each year (5% yield), the common rule of thumb would be to reinvest the $100 back into the shares. That way, you have $2,100 worth of stock, and assuming the same 5% yield, you’ll make $105 instead of $100 the following year.

That does not include if the company decides to raise their dividend which is a part of the equation most people miss when calculating dividend income.

Looking at a company’s dividend history gives you an idea of how they raise their dividend. While Mastercard may have a microscopic dividend yield under 1%, they’ve more than doubled their dividend payout in the past 5 years.

Based on their payout ratio and overall sustainability, Mastercard will likely become a dividend aristocrat in the future.

But does it make sense to reinvest the dividend? For Mastercard, I reinvest every penny they give me because I like the company, and when it grows like this, I want to reinvest every penny they give me…

I’d take a 29.72% annual return for 10 years in a heart beat.

Now let’s look at a company like AT&T which has a juicy dividend yield of around 7% at the time of writing. While Mastercard is shaping up to be a future dividend aristocrat, AT&T is a current dividend aristocrat which has consistently raised its dividend each year for over 3 decades.

The issue with being a dividend aristocrat for that long and having a high dividend yield is that significant raises get more difficult. Since Mastercard currently doesn’t pay much in dividends, they have no problem growing it at an attractive rate.

AT&T on the other hand raises its quarterly dividend payout by $0.01/share.

Their 7% dividend yield makes up for the lack of dividend growth. Now comes the question…

Would I reinvest the dividend? The answer is no. I wouldn’t reinvest the AT&T dividend. Rather than reinvest into AT&T, I’d take the dividend and invest it somewhere else.

Remember, Mastercard had a 29.72% annualized growth over the past 10 years. Past results don’t guarantee future results, but Mastercard has a bright future ahead based on its existing business.

AT&T has a ton of debt, and while it has some opportunities as well, as an investor, you want the greatest return for your dollar. Based on the past 10 years of AT&T stock, I wouldn’t want to do DRIP for AT&T.

AT&T’s 7% dividend looks juicy, and Mastercard’s dividend yield isn’t even at 1% yet, but do you prefer a 7.22% annualized return over 10 years or a 29.72% annualized return over 10 years?

And yes, both of these graphs factor in dividend reinvestments, so everything’s getting accounted for in those graphs.

If you want to the annual returns for your favorite stocks, you can use this stock return calculator.

Each stock has their benefits, but you want to make sure you’re reinvesting dividends in a way that boosts your portfolio’s overall value.

AT&T provides far more upfront dividend income than Mastercard. Some dividend investors rely on their dividend income for their living expenses, and AT&T does a better job at helping you pay expenses.

However, if you have some extra money hanging around and want to boost your net worth, it would be better to invest it in companies more likely to appreciate even though they may offer low or no dividends at the moment.

That extra money hanging around can come in the form of a dividend payment from a company like AT&T.

I’m all for taking your dividends and investing them, but just because you receive a dividend from a company doesn’t mean you have to reinvest into that company. Sometimes, it’s better to take the dividend payment from one company and reinvest it into another.

If you are a dividend investor looking to use your dividend income to pay off your expenses, you may enjoy this video I recently created about the math behind making $1,000/mo from dividend investing. It includes the AT&T and Mastercard examples while providing some deeper insights.