Passive/Supplimental income ideas to stave off starvation when biz is slow.

Take some of your better pieces and post them on sites like istockphoto.com or shutterstock.com. SMB's use these sites all the time for animation, photo and illustration resources. They pay by the piece and you get paid by the download.

Affiliate income is one way to enjoy "pennies from heaven" to get you through rough cash flow patches in your business.

If you already happily and proudly endorse products or services provided by specific companies because you genuinely consider their work to be extraordinary, find out if these companies offer an affiliate program.

If so, you can earn affiliate income for orders that flow to their doors when you use your unique affiliate link to endorse them to your clients, colleagues, and other people in your network.

I am sure you can "Google" the term "Affiliate Income" and have an abundance of resources pop up to help you explore what is possible.

Check this out and see if this option delivers the extra income you need. Good luck!

i solved this problem for a while by being a live in caregiver for a quadraplegic. i got housing and a 50$ a day salary. it was pretty sweet. for those that have the right stuff to do this kind of work, i highly recommend it. it's rewarding, and if you have an active patient(preferably with a job) that is pretty self sufficient once they are in their chair, you have normal working hours available to do your primary pursuits.

Hi Justin, just a quick note on iStock. I have some photos on there as well, and yes, it's some extra income, but very, very passive. Since their prices are so low (great for the buyer), your percentage is pretty low as well. It will take a heck of a lot of images on that site to make any kind of money. But I'm sure some do. I do know photographers that won't let go of their photos for such a low price, and that's understandable as well. But again, when I need to buy an image, I go there first because of the great prices.

good luck!

Hi Justin, People are hungry for information, and I've been very happy with my forays into the world of info-products. These could be e-books, reports, videos, teleseminars or audios delivered online or by phone.

I bet there are other multi-media designers who could learn from your experiences (whether it's running your business, getting clients, managing projects, or actually doing design work--especially if you're familiar with a niche software product). And I know there are lots of small business owners dead set on doing it themselves who could use practical tips and ideas to help them get started.

All you need to do is have someone interview you (or interview another expert in your field) and you've got an audio product. Have transcripts made and you've about got an e-book.

These days, it's pretty easy to set up a little ecommerce system using PayPal or, even better, 1shoppingcart. You can use your current Website to start, or create a simple blog site to get going.

Then just start marketing your products to your clients, your list, or other designers. Before you know it the trickle will grow to a steady flow.

You can check what I'm done on my site at http://www.success-stream.com/products.htm

Best of luck!

Stacy

Definitely, a second vote for info-products. We've done over six figures in info-product sales in the last two and half years, and it's currently providing about a third of our revenue.

It definitely takes work to create a quality product, and you have to hit the nail on the head for your customers to really want it. Plus, you want to have a regular list of either blog or ezine readers with whom you have a good connection.

But, if you build those up, you can definitely have some decent income from it, and the people who buy actually end up becoming your best clients- and so your pipeline gets fed, too.

If you have more specific questions about it, please ask.

I agree that creating a product is the way to go. It's just like anything else - find what people need a create a solution! My product is microsoft word templates for ebooks - http://www.EBookTemplatePro.com

It doesn't bring in a lot of money, but I haven't really promoted it either and a little extra income is always nice.