10 Ways to Earn Income In Between Sales

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Let’s face it. Not every day is a banner sales day.

If you mostly do craft fairs how do you make money in between fairs or in the “off” season?

If you sell your handmade items online there will also be times when there are few sales.

What are some other ways you can bring in money to pay the rent when sales are down?

Here are some ideas:

Blog  – It’s highly unlikely you could start a blog today and be earning income from it tomorrow but you can earn income in time. If you’ve been blogging a while you already  have a head start. If you are new to blogging it may take some time to build up enough content and enough traffic to earn money with your blog but if you stick with it – it will happen.

Some ways to make money with your blog are:

Sponsors (or selling your own ads) – If you have good traffic in a niche market, like crafting, you can sell ads to people who might like to advertise their etsy (or other online) shop or website.

Ad Networks– There are ad networks that will pay you to place ads on your blog.

Affiliate Links – pay you to promote another business. An easy one to get started with is Amazon.com. If you do book reviews, shopping or crafting you can place the items mentioned in a widget in your blog post and when readers make purchases using your affiliate links you may be compensated. Just remember that you need to disclose the fact that the links are affiliate links. To find more companies that offer affiliate marketing opportunities visit some of your favorite sites and look down near the bottom for something that says Affiliate Sign Up.

Sponsored Blog Posts – Blogging networks such as Mom Central, Social Fabric/Collective Bias, and Social Spark pay you to write a post about a particular product.

NOTE: When writing sponsored blog posts it’s important to stay on the right side of the FTC. You can find more information about it here: Blog Law – FTC Disclosures and You

 

CraigsList – This is a great place to sell items that you no longer want or need. If you’ve switched gears in your creative business and no longer sell screen printed T-shirts you can sell all of your screen printing supplies to someone who wants to give it a try. Everyone wins! As with any other online sales great photos are very important so be sure to include good photos. Be safe and never give your home address or phone number and be sure to meet people in public places to deliver goods sold.

Write an eBook – Have you created a process or product that is unique? Writing an ebook about what you do and how and selling it in your online shop or website can be a great way to earn a little extra money.

Coaching – If you’ve built your business and brand to a place where you think you might be able to coach others and teach them how to do the same thing you might consider hiring yourself out as a coach during the slow times. Heck, you might find that you like it so much that you want to add coaching into your regular income stream!

Direct Sales – Many of the companies that used to be “door to door” have now gone online and you can sell their products online. If you’ve build up a large network and social circle online this may be a great source of income for you.

Provide a Service – Entertaining, Party Planning, Personal Chef, Senior Care. Put some of your other talents to use and create an income with them.

Teach Classes- Show others how to do what you do. Whether it’s “How to Make Baklava” or “Social Media Tips for Small Business” turn some of the lessons you’ve learned or things you are good at into income by teaching others.

As you can see, there are a number of ways to earn income in between craft fairs or during slow sales times.

I’ll bet YOU’VE got some great income ideas that you’ve tried. Please share your ideas or experiences in the comments below.

By: Vicki O’Dell, The Creative Goddess

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