9 Awesome Income Streams That Ignite My Financial Potential

‍I am always fascinated by the idea of multiple income streams and remote working since I started following this topic couple of years ago.

And I have been planting seeds not only in my mind but also in actions building them that include trying many ways to build income streams some of them don’t work and some of them do.

In this article, I am going to share with you my 9 streams of income in 2021. It’s not millions but it’s got huge potential to grow in the near future. I am going to explain how as well.

1. Freelance on a Monthly Retainer

When I still have a full-time job working as a marketing manager in an international five-star hotel in Shanghai, I put effort into establishing and managing relationships within my professional social circle.

And someone in that social circle has offered me to do some freelance translation and copyrighting for their brand.

After I received several requests like this, I quit my full-time job and work on a freelance basis.

Even when I started my marketing agency I maintain the relationship with those clients I had when I freelanced and managed to turn irregular freelance gigs into retainer agreements which is more stable.

I have a retainer with one of the companies in Shanghai doing translation for their business documents, presentations to the board meeting, and marketing content.

They pay me on a monthly basis and we have been working together for more than 3 years.

How much did I make in June 2021:
I get the job done in approx 2 hrs/week and the retainer makes me 5000RMB/month (US$763)

How I plan to escalate my earnings with this:
I am pretty happy about the retainer so far, but I plan to reinvest the earnings into other investments like Automatic Investment Plan in point 3.

2. Part-time Barista at a Local Coffee Shop

one week after I arrived in Dali, Yunnan, I got myself a part-time job at a local coffee bar, they sell craft beer at night as well and the job came with free lunch that’s cooked by a local Ayi (maid)>

And I get to meet all the interesting people that came to the coffee store an the bar. The coffee bar was owned by the Gym owner which is just upstairs, so free gym as well.

How much did I make in June 2021:
I get paid 120 RMB per day of working and I work 2 days a week. In June I worked 8 days so I got paid 960 RMB (US$146) for June.

3. Capital Gain (from selling fund)

I have been investing in the Automatic Investment Plan since early 2020.

I studied the market trend the combination of all the different funds as well as the stock market, and last year I made 12,000 RMB (US$1830) in 3 months! This year I was being lazy and not looking very closely at the market so not as aggressive as last year.

How much did I make in June 2021:
In June I sold 3 funds that I have been putting money in the Automatic Investment Plan and profited 5,636 RMB (US$860)

How I plan to escalate my earnings with this:
My plan is to reinvest the profit and the capital back into other funds with the Automatic Investment Plan after looking into the market more closely.
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4. Music streaming Royalty on TuneCore

I have actually produced two singles (EDM genre) thru TuneCore, and my songs are streaming in 140+ streaming services worldwide.

Every time someone plays my songs in their playlist on their phone, or on their computer, I get paid. So how much did I make in June 2021?

How much did I make in June 2021:
Well unfortunately the report doesn’t come out yet, but I will put how much I made on TuneCore from December 2020 to June 2021, I made $0.79….

And actually, to release one single I paid $10. So not a great investment, but hey, I am proud of my music-making skills and people actually listened to my music on Apple music and Amazon Music (No1 ranking streams from India, US, and Germany)

If you’d like to help out a struggling musician or just want to listen to something different today, my 2 singles are available here:
🎵“1st Time to Mars” is available for streaming on:
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2NwqFre
iTunes: https://apple.co/3soX01K
Apple Music: https://apple.co/3kp2Q0n

🎵”Dark Nights” is available for streaming on:
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3o5sJmf
iTunes: https://apple.co/36igfBJ
Apple Music: https://apple.co/3p4LcRb

How can I escalate the earrings of my music:
Upload the music to SoundCloud. Promote more on YouTube and other social media…etc.
Sign up for the tiktok usage right as well.
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5. medium.com Royalty

I haven’t published many articles for the last couple of months and focusing more on producing content for my Youtube channel instead.

However, when I made YouTube videos I also transcribed the video content into articles and published it on YouTube.

One of the videos got a lot of views (more than 14,000 views) and the link to the article which I included in the video description got views as well.
Some articles on medium.com also brought me views to my videos on YouTube. So it really it complements each other’s traffic.

How much did I make in June 2021:
That article alone made me $1.15 in June from the Medium Partnership Program, which is pretty impressive!

How can I escalate the earrings:
Transcribe more video content into articles and publish them on medium, and write and publish more articles each month.

6. Ebook on Amazon

In 2015 I made a recipe book about Keto diet recipes. Because recipe book is the easiest book I could make without writing too much content, and Keto was a hot topic back then (it still is).

To break down, the recipe book includes three parts:
Part 1: Ingredients
Part 2: Instructions
Part 3: Comments from the author and other creative writing.

According to copyright law. The ingredients and the instructions are not copyrighted.

This means you could copy ANY recipes on the internet and make a special recipe book and no one will sue you for copying the ingredients and instructions. However the comments from the author is copyrighted.

For example:
Dish: Sunny side up egg
Ingredients: 1. One Egg
2. Vegetable Oil
Instruction: 1. Turn the gas stove on and place a frying pan on the heat
2. Add oil into the pan (I prefer using olive oil because its fruity flavor and more healthy)
3. Crack the egg onto the frying pan
4. Use a spatular to remove the cooked egg from the pan
If you prefer more cooked egg, you may use a lid to cover the pan while cooking.
The bolded part is copyrighted, the rest isn’t. <add copyright gov link>

SO I what I did was to find 25 Keto recipes on the internet, add some of my personal comments, add the book cover (I use the Pages I think), and published it on Amazon KDP.

I don’t think I sold enough recipe books to withdraw, and I can’t even find the original manuscript on my computer (I’ve gotten 3 new laptops since 2015).
But it was great experience learning how to make the ebook and letting myself know that I could make an ebook and publish it just like that.

How much did I make in June 2021:
I made $0 from the Keto recipe book in 2021…

How can I escalate the earrings:
Find inspirations from the popular content that have published and turn it into an ebook to publish.
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7. Interest from savings

Since I started working in Shanghai as a marketing manager, I started saving part of my income in the bank account in case of emergency.

The interest rate at banks in China is around 2%, and it depends on what kind of saving program you enrolls, mine gives interests to the capital every single day (on weekends or holidays it keep counting and gives out interests on the day of the first working day)

How much did I make in June 2021:
Every day it gives about 10 RMB interests, so one month is about 300 RMB (US$46)interest.

How can I escalate the earrings:
Keep adding more money into the saving pool and make more interest over time.
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8. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the fastest way to make money online. And a lot of shopping platforms has the affiliate program for everyone to enroll, such as Amazon, Aliexpress and Walmart.

The sign up process is very easy and can be done online. Once you enrolled into the affiliate program, the affiliate program will give you a trackable unique link for the product you want to promote, and if someone purchased that product (or have bought anything in 24 hours

How much did I make in June 2021: 0

How can I escalate the earrings: Keep making Youtube videos with links in the description!
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9. Bilibili Creators Fund

I posted my first video on Bilibili on 21st of March, 2021 (video streaming platform in China, similar to YouTube), and I have posted 35 videos in 3 months since then.

My first 31 videos was about a kitten that I rescued and how I took care of the kitten and how it was after the kitten was adopted. The recent 4 videos were vlog about my life in China and my life moving to Dali, Yunnan.

Unlike Youtube, Bilibili supports video content creators not only by allowing Uploaders (UP主: This is how they call video creators on Bilibili, like YouTubers on YouTube) to monetize their channel and videos on Bilibili, but also giving out rewards to Uploaders if they publish videos regularly.

Bilibili also host many themed online campaigns for Uploaders to participate and to upload videos that matches the theme, and the participated Uploaders can share the rewards pool once they have posted videos in the stated time.

I have seen regular campaign on Bilibili for uploads to split the 200,000 RMB reward pool.
There are also many foreigners living in China become popular Uploaders on Bilibili.

How much did I make in June 2021 from Bilibili Creators Fund:
The minimum amount for withdrawing from Bilibili creators fund is 100 RMB. I have withdrawn 202.39 RMB on May 14. After that, I have not posted any video for a month and still be able to accumulated around 50 RMB (US$7.7) in the Bilibili creator fund account.

To summarize my 9 streams of income in June, 2021:

Freelance Retainer (5,000 RMB/US$763)
Part-time Barista at a Local Coffee Shop (960 RMB/US$146)
Capital Gain (from selling fund) (5,636 RMB/US$860)
Music streaming Royalty on TuneCore (US $0.79)
medium.com Royalty (US$1.15)
Ebook Royalty ($0)
Interest from savings (300 RMB/US$46)
Amazon Affiliate ($0)
Bilibili Creators Fund (50RMB/US$8)

The total is US$1,800.59, and I am super happy about this. After all, my cost of living in Yunnan, China is much lower than this amount.

My plan is to keep working on these income streams and adding more to the list. It’s like planting seeds and watering them with my time and love, and harvesting the fruits over time.