By: Melanie Blodgett. Photo by: Justin Hackworth
I’ve mentioned several times here that the key to making money online when you don’t have huge numbers on your own site is to diversify and to have multiple streams of income. While the first step is to secure paid positions, once you do that, one issue you may run into is having too many jobs and not enough time to execute them all. While it may appear that you’re making more money by keeping all of the positions, in the end all your work will suffer because you won’t be able to spend adequate time on each and that will hurt your potential to make more money in the future.
If you find yourself in this dilemma, here’s some steps to take to save your sanity:
1. Decide what your end goal is. For instance, if your goal is for your blog to be your main source of income – what’s going to get you there? If spending more time on your content is key, what are the most time consuming jobs that are preventing you from doing just that?
2. Take stock: make a list of all the jobs you currently hold and the amount each job pays.
3. Really break down the pay: look past the face value and consider the amount of time each job takes, the other benefits it offers, and how much you enjoy the job too. If it’s sucking the life out of you, let it go.
4. Decide which jobs are worth eliminating and if you don’t have a contract preventing you from doing so, quit. Make sure to deliver what you’ve already promised and give them plenty of time to find a replacement. If you are in a contract and you no longer like the job, consider outsourcing the work until your contract is through.
5. Look at your remaining jobs and be realistic about how much time you need to put into each. Break down your work week and decide if it’s feasible. If it’s not, repeat the steps until you have a schedule you’ll be able to maintain.
As I write those steps down, it seems so straight forward but I know it is not. There are a lot of factors to consider and it’s hard to turn down money when you’ve worked so hard to get it. But what you have to keep in mind is your end goal. Let that be your motivator.
