Today I'm going to digress slightly from my normal focus of writing about topics directly related to music licensing and I'm going to address the broader topic of turning your passions and interests into revenue.  Since most of my readers are musicians and since I'm a musician, I'm going to discuss ways to turn your passion for music into making money.

I've been making a full time income working for myself in the music industry for over three years. I consider myself very successful in the sense that I get to work for myself, when I went, where I want and how I want and make enough money to live comfortably.  My bills are paid and I have money left over to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle.

 I'm not uber wealthy, I don't own a huge house or a fancy car. But I'm very happy and a lot of my happiness is directly related to how I make money and how I spend my time while I'm making money.  I've created a lifestyle that allows me to spend the majority of my time doing things I enjoy doing. Since life is short and time is limited, this seems like a good strategy to me.

This article though isn't about me.  Today I want to share a few of the ways I've been able to create revenue streams both through my music and through activities related to music.  My hope is that I'll give you at least one or two ideas that you can apply to your own situation in your own life.

I believe strongly in the concept of creating multiple revenue streams that together will create a full time income. In addition to simply making your life more interesting by allowing you to spend your time in a variety of ways, this also has the added benefit of protecting you against potential declines in one or more of your business ventures.  The more diversified you are the better. If one of your revenue streams declines you can focus on others to make up the difference.

Some of these revenue streams are larger than others, but together here are a few things I've been able to do to that collectively has created a nice income: 

1)      Selling Music - This includes licensing, CD sales, downloads, etc...  I get checks every quarter for licensing payments, Itunes downloads, Youtube licenses, etc.  This is a very real revenue stream.  It fluctuates and is of course contigent upon how much music I actually sell and license, but at times is quite substantial.  As I've often said before, this revenue stream is all about planting seeds on a regular basis and waiting for them to come to fruition.  It's exponential.  The more seeds you plant the more money you will start to make from your music down the road.

2)      Performing - I've started to perform much more this year, compared to the last couple years.  I don't make a lot of money performing, but of all the revenue streams, this is probably the most enjoyable so I don't really mind playing for little money, in comparison to my other revenue streams.  And performing live is also an opportunity to sell CDs which contributes to the selling music revenue stream.

3)      selling Information, Courses, etc- For seven years I worked as a guitar teacher to supplement my performing and licensing income.  These days I sell information related to the niche of music licensing online via my ebooks, courses, etc.  I really consider this an extension of teaching guitar in the sense that it's making money through educating others about an aspect of the music business. The benefit of working online though is that it's much more flexible and scale-able than giving guitar lessons.  Instead of trading a half hour of my time for x number of dollars I can sell my expertise to an unlimited number of people potentially.  I also essentially get paid to research and stay abreast of an aspect of the music business that interests me.

4)      Affiliate Programs - Occasionally I will participate in affiliate programs where I refer my subscribers to other products and courses that I like and believe in.  Through affiliate programs, when someone is referred by me and they make a purchase, I get paid an affiliate commission.  This is a great method of earning revenue because I can earn money promoting programs that are already created and let someone else handle the order processing, distribution, etc.

If you have a website or blog related to the music industry you should consider joining my affiliate program for my product, The A To Z Of Music Licensing. It's a great resource for musicians and for every sale you refer you get 50% of the sale.  More info here:  http://www.howtolicenseyourmusic.com/affiliates.php

5)      Coaching - In addition to selling my own products I also do private coaching where I work with clients one on one over the phone. This of course is less scale-able than selling strictly information products. I'm still trading my time for money. But coaching is a great way to learn more about clients' frustrations and needs.  And I really enjoy talking to people.  Working online has way more benefits than drawbacks. But one downside to working online is that it's a very solitary way to work.  I'm typically working by myself and usually from home. I love the freedom, but at times I miss connecting with people and miss the social aspect inherent in traditional jobs. Doing phone coaching sessions are a great way to connect on a more personal level.

These are just some of the ways I've been able to generate a full time income for myself over the last few years.

If you're interested in more in depth information about how to create and launch a successful music industry related internet business, check out my program, The A To Z Of Creating An Information Product Business.  During this hour long audio program I walk you through a step by step process to create and launch your own information business online, based on methods that have worked for me and many other entrepreneurs.

The information in the program is easy to follow and I show you the exact steps I used to select my niche, create my products, launch my website and find customers and subscribers.

This weekend only you'll also get my ebook, A Songwriter's Guide To Music Licensing, for free when you purchase The A To Z Of Creating An Information Product Business. Learn both how to make money licensing music and by selling your expertise online!

Visit  http://www.howtolicenseyourmusic.com/the-a-to-z-of-info-products.php for more.