Starting Your First Extra Income Stream

A few posts ago, I wrote about how building income streams cheaply can help you dig your way out of debt and build a financial cushion. If you take it seriously, it can even help you get off the “credit grid” entirely.

In that post, I suggested that you make a list of all of your interests. (You did do that, right?)

If you haven’t done that yet, get out a pen and a piece of paper and write down everything you can think of that you’re interested in. At this point, it doesn’t really matter how obscure or silly an interest might seem. Just write it down. You don’t even have to show it to anybody if you don’t want to.

There’s a very important reason for this exercise. This list will serve as you “idea bank” for your first (and maybe second and third) internet-based business.

Now, this doesn’t mean that every interest on your list will translate to a successful internet business. Over the next few posts, we’ll look at what makes a profitable business idea, and what just makes a time-waster. Knowing the difference can save you months of work and get your extra income stream flowing much more quickly.

In case you’re worried about the technical stuff (like building a website and getting people to visit it), don’t stress. We’ll get to that soon enough. And when we do, I’ll lay it out as clearly and simply as I can. With the right tools and instruction, just about anyone can build an income-producing internet business.  It doesn’t take special knowledge, a degree in computer science or a lot of money. It just takes the willingness to learn and an extra hour or two each day.