An Income Challenge to You, Savvy Freelancer!

You are now reading the blog post I’ve been putting off. You will soon find out why.

If you will recall, a couple of weeks ago I wrote about one of my greatest fears. As a result of that fear, I resolved to create multiple streams of income.

Well, I have gotten so desperate motivated to do so, that I even explored a couple of MLM opportunities. And then, I had a “duh!” moment, when I realized that, instead of going into something new, I should instead simply scale up something that’s already working.

The Epiphany

That is, instead of creating another stream of income, why not make an existing stream bigger and flow more vigorously?

I’m talking about something I’ve been doing since 2008, something that’s been showing results, but which I’ve been neglecting for the past year: affiliate blogging.

In the past, at one point, I made $1000 in affiliate commissions in a month. I’ve also won an iPad 2 in an affiliate contest. Just the other day, I made an affiliate sale from a blog post I published in 2010.

But since becoming a work-at-home employee, I’ve been neglecting my affiliate websites, and that stream of income has almost dried up. Still, on average, I make $200 a month on my affiliate blogs. Not a lot, but at least it covers my hosting and other costs.

The Destination

So here’s the challenge I made for myself: By the end of six months, my affiliate earnings should increase to $1000 a month.

Now you see why I’ve been putting this off? I didn’t want to put this goal out there, and then admit failure later on. But there it is.

I know it’s a modest goal, but I’m comfortable with it. It’s large enough to make a significant impact in my family’s finances (that would cover my teenager’s university costs and my other daughter’s braces), yet small enough that it feels achievable.

What would an extra $1000 a month mean to you?

The Roadmap

In 2009, I bought The Super Affiliate Handbook by Rosalind Gardner. Ros has been making a good income from affiliate blogging in non-internet marketing related niches. Sure, she sells books and ebooks, and gets paid to speak at internet marketing events, but her main income still comes from affilite blogs in niches like travel and dating.

I bought the handbook, because Lynn Terry, one of my early mentors, followed Ros’ system and within six months was steadily earning a full-time job — enough to close her service provider business forever.

So why didn’t I get the same results, or even close to it, as Lynn did? You see, I bought that book and didn’t read it all the way through. I printed it out, put it in a binder… then put the binder away.

I don’t know what I was thinking! Maybe I thought I already knew everything. Maybe I got busy with clients. Whatever the reason, I put my hard copy of that ebook away… only to pull it out again almost four years later.

This time, I read it in earnest. And boy am I kicking myself. Despite the successes I’ve experienced in affiliate blogging, I realize I’ve been omitting so many things and doing other things wrong. Who knows how much money I’ve lost because of my recklessness?!

To reach my goal, I’m going to give Ros’s advice a shot. I’m going to put it to work for at least six solid months. (If you’re interested in Ros Gardner’s ebook, you can find out more here. I bought it for $47 but today it’s only $27)

In fact, I’ve started implementing some of her advice, and today I got an email from an affiliate manager who’s come up with an idea for me to profit even more as their affiliate. I can’t wait to see what other results I get from following Ros’s affiliate blogging advice!

Your Challenge, Do Accept!

Here’s my challenge to you: In the next six months, create or scale up another stream of income. Let those income streams gush forth!

Are you up to the challenge? If it isn’t top secret, share with us what income stream you want to create or expand. How much additional income do you want to earn, and how do you plan to do it? Do share!

PS: As I was going through the Super Affiliate Handbook, I find I have a few questions and wish I could get Ros to answer them. Turns out I can! In 2010, Ros created Affiliate Blogger PRO, an exclusive forum where members can interact with her directly and see inside even her affiliate blogs. I am so stoked!

Photo by meiburgin