5 Income Sources By 2023

My main goal over the next few years is to create a nomadic eco-community in Sweden, and for that I’ll need to save around 50,000 euros to buy forest land. I can’t say I’m the kind of person to wait patiently for a paycheck at the end of the month, so my plan includes diversifying my income sources. Five by the end of next year, to be exact. But I’m going to detail six of them in this blog post for posterity, because I want to give myself some room for new opportunities.

Freelancing

My priority is doing freelance work with Embarque. Content marketing, technical writing, and business strategy.

I love working with Julian, the founder, and I learn a lot by researching content for a variety of companies.

Because 1) I receive client and editor feedback and 2) results are monitored, it also helps me become a sharper writer: it’s the perfect environment for deliberate practice to learn how to write more and better.

Writing 3 articles per week already allows me to save enough money to reach my goals in the next five years, but I’ll also be tackling more technical work soon, doubling my rate in the process. I’m exhilarated by the speed at which Embarque grows, and I’m looking forward to spending more time participating in its development in the following year.

Software-as-a-service

I’ve been doing it for years but only managed to make a few thousands dollars from it. Now that I’m getting the hang of the two sides of the coin―programming and marketing―I have a few new ideas to play with.

I’ll be launching a technical blog on web development in January to document all the new web technologies I’ve been researching over the last few years―think decentralized web and progressive web applications. Applied to product development, I believe it can lead to the creation of a unique value proposition I have yet to reveal.

I might also delve into AI-powered tools, but my mindset will be to prioritize depth over breadth: releasing micro-product experiments on a weekly or monthly basis, focusing on a single one at a time, before deciding to pull the plug on the project or not.

Even if each product only brings a hundred dollars in monthly-recurring revenues, it will still be a huge win because my costs are close to zero. I can even sell the app down the road if I have too much on my plate.

Code template product

Since I can code things myself and that I happen to be a technical writer, why not combine both by selling high-quality code packages? I could build some software logic, package it into a git repository, throw in well-written docs and video tutorials, and sell the thing.

Each product could live in its own landing page with public blog posts advertising what’s inside. The target audience would be busy software engineers or bootstrapped founders, and the value proposition would be high-quality documented and maintained code in a modern language one can easily adapt to its own needs to drive operational business costs down.

If each package is in-between $25 and $50 a pop, the return-on-investment can quickly surpass the effort of writing a book. And I’m already going to code the thing anyway!

Paid community

When I think about how to raise 50,000 euros for a community project, it’s obvious I need to tap into my experience running an online writing community for two years.

The idea is simple: I announce I want to create an eco-community, and I give people a place to interact and watch my progress in real-time in exchange for a one-time donation. Of course, as the initiator of the project, I would donate each month myself and make it public, open startup style.

The project would be marketed on a dedicated website, with payment buttons placed around, and the community would live on Discord. Using a mix of daily posts, weekly newsletter, and live streams, I believe the value proposition in terms of informational content will be big enough to justify a one-time donation for lifetime access. Since it’s a physical place we are talking about, I could also create donation tiers where people would get gifts and special invites to events on-site.

Course Creation & Book Writing

Course creation and book writing are kind of related nowadays. The idea here would be to leverage all the content I’m producing on a daily basis into bigger bodies of work, focusing on short practical advice, with both depth and breadth.

I’ve already tried publishing a book once, and I did. But I’m not sure the amount of work is worth the result anymore.

How to find income sources ideas

I look at where I am now, where I am heading, my skills, my interests… and somehow I end up with the list above. It’s the result of years of experimentation as an entrepreneur, and I’m sorry to tell you I have no advice to give you to come up with your own―except one perhaps: go on your own journey, follow mastery, do not trust your passions, and believe in the process.