I Built 9 Income Streams Without a Degree: What I Learned

this is my Revenue in 2022 it is my highest revenue to date and it's crazy to think that two years ago my full-time job was my only source of income it's a huge risk to rely on your full-time job as the only source of income so I embarked on the quest to be financially independent someday spoiler alert I'm not there yet here are my first two income streams freelance UI ux design and webflow development it's 53. 8 percent of my total income in 2022 I've worked on 20 over projects including apps websites and admin panels ninety percent of these projects are done solo a few of them are worked together with other product designers to speed things up I am the only one dealing with the client directly and it's my responsibility to ensure that the work is high quality being a designer that can do both design and development is a plus you bring more value to your clients you have the technical knowledge to ensure that your designs are feasible so let me just jump into the first lesson that I've learned in 2022 I've learned that multiple site projects yield creativity I tend to get bored if I only focus on one thing at a time some may argue that you'll lose focus if you do so but research shows that taking a break to work on something else can help us avoid fixating on existing Solutions which is probably why I tend to overthink less when I have multiple projects in parallel our brains are built for visual information did you know that you process images 60 000 times faster than words well that is why I create mood boards to overcome creative block using this tool it's called Miller note the sponsor of today's video my mood board typically looks like this a combination of images colors links keywords and even video visually laid out to inspire and kick-start my design projects I also use Miller note to manage creative projects visually like this app design project I can write notes create to-do lists and make quick sketches all my ideas are in one place when you're ready to share your work you can invite your team members or your clients to collaborate in real time there are hundreds of templates that you can use for free including UI ux design planning a marketing campaign mind mapping and more get creative by signing up to Miller note for free using this link okay now on to my third income stream YouTube ad Revenue it takes up 12. 7 percent of my total income in 2022 I've published 16 videos I could have published more videos but my busy schedule got in the way so I didn't stick to an upload schedule and I want every video to feel like you are receiving a thoughtful gift with a huge bar on it and I want it to be useful to you to inspire you in some way I can't simply upload for the sake of consistency and that is why I try to make at least two videos a month but I didn't force myself to upload every week my fourth income stream is brand sponsorships this is a new income stream and it was non-existent in 2021 I've rejected over 50 brand deals and narrowed down to only five brand deals in 2022.

when the size of your audience grows you will receive emails from Brands who want to sponsor your content and as my commitment to this channel I will only work with brands that I genuinely believe in and I generally use myself my fifth income stream is my full-time job which constitutes 10 percent of 2022's total revenue a lot has happened I've quit two jobs when my site income exceeds my salary I was officially self-employed starting August 2022. it was exciting and scary at the same time and I've shared why I quit my high paying job in another video and my sixth income stream is donations these are donations from people who have downloaded a free digital product from my website and it constitutes a 5. 8 percent of my total revenue in 2022.

on to my seventh income stream which is my favorite one pay digital products currently I have two paid digital products on my site which is the creative freelancer kit and the UI ux designer resume kids it totals to three percent of my Revenue in 2022. I'm really proud of this because it was non-existent in 2021 so when someone purchases a product from my site there are two types of fees involved one is a transaction fee from the store I'm using gumroad currently another one is a credit card processing fee or the PayPal fee depending on what the user pays with you can package your knowledge into a useful product and sell it online without having to pay a huge capital or bear huge risk and with lower cost you are able to price your product at a reasonable amount so that you and your customers are both happy on to my age income stream Affiliates it is 1. 7 of my total revenue every time someone uses an affiliate link on my site to purchase a product I get a small Kickback from it in 2022 my affiliate income is 12 times more than my affiliate income in previous year although my affiliate income in 2022 is low right now I'm still pretty happy about it on to my last income stream Investments I will not share the figures as it's really tiny let's just assume it's zero percent right now in 2022 my investments are mostly stagnant and I felt that it wasn't a good year for Investments but that's just my personal opinion I've moved most of my money into low-risk Investments I'm not a pro in investing so I can't give you any investment advice but I still believe this the best investment you can make is an investment in yourself here are some of the lessons I've learned from building nine income streams in 2022.