The 6 BEST Income Streams to Build in 2025

In this article, I want to share with you the six income streams that I use to make about $100,000 a month at age 25. Over the last five and a half years, I've built and tested out dozens of income streams and businesses, and these are the six that I found actually work. So for each one, I'm going to talk about how hard it is to do, how much money you can make with it, and how hard it is to maintain once you get started. again it's taken me five and a half years to reach this point, so don't think that you'll just get there tomorrow. But if I had had a article like this when I got started, I would have gotten to where I am a lot sooner.

Now Instead of this being just a regular article where I go over idea number one and then I talk about how much you can make and how to do it, I want to introduce you to a concept that will make you a lot more money in life whether or not you use any of these exact income streams. And you'll see how it plays a huge role in all of my businesses, and that concept is called opportunity stacking.

How I Built 6 Streams of Income In 2025

We all know that switching businesses or side hustles generally doesn't get you anywhere. Because each time you switch to trying something new, you start all the way back at zero. But that can be confusing because at the same time, that first income stream or business that you start probably won't be the last one that you end up with. And as your goals evolve and you get better at business, you'll want to go after bigger opportunities, and that's where opportunity stacking comes into place.

When you're ready to go even bigger, instead of trying to become a real estate agent and a personal trainer and do dropshipping all at the same time, switching businesses entirely and resetting your skills at zero each time, opportunity stacking allows you to build up on top of what you can already do, and you'll see how I've done that time and time again. Because by the way, the best business and income stream for you to start today might be the business that gets you to just $10,000 a month. And that business might be the foundation for the one that gets you to 20 or $30,000 a month and so on.

Etsy Dropshipping

The first income stream on my stack, it's not the most fun business, but it works. And that's Etsy dropshipping, which makes me around 20 to $40,000 a month, depending on the season. I started this business on My laptop in my bedroom at my mom's house and eventually grew several shops into the six and even into the seven figure range.

Etsy dropshipping is simply using Etsy's marketplace to sell online instead of having to build out an entire website and then run ads to the products on that website. An Etsy shop is like having a website inside Etsy's marketplace where you can sell all sorts of products. You can sell digital downloadable products, or you can sell print on demand products. Which is a similar model to traditional dropshipping, except you'll work with a supplier like Printify who provides you with white label products like T shirts, pillows, socks, posters and mugs that can have designs printed on them. Printify integrates directly with Etsy's marketplace, making this extremely easy.

Your job is simply to pick one of these products, upload some kind of design to it, whether that's an image, text or an AI design, and list it for sale in your shop, with a nice looking mockups. It shows up in your Etsy store and when one of Etsy's 450 million monthly visitors finds your item and decides to buy it, the order will go straight to Printify.

That design you uploaded will be printed on the product and shipped directly to the customer without you ever having to open up a website, run any ads, open a physical store, hold any inventory, or do anything besides making the art and posting it on the product. This means essentially all you're doing is just marketing products. It really doesn't get that much easier than selling on Etsy because they remove so many of the obstacles. You don't have to build out or host any website. You don't have to worry about your brand's trust level because you're selling on the back of Etsy who's built up their reputation.

You don't have to worry about marketing as much since Etsy drives so much traffic to the site. You don't have to buy anything upfront because if you sell print on demand or digital products, you only pay pay to fulfill the item after an order is made. And it removes all the traditional fees and hosting costs of other businesses. You can post products directly in your shop without having to learn how to code or design a website or anything like that. And each listing only costs you 20 cents, and that's after you've used the 40 free listings you get if you sign up using my code.

But that's not even the cool part, because the reason that Etsy is so easy is because they drive hundreds of millions of monthly shoppers to their site. So all you have to do is position your products in the Etsy search algorithm so that they'll show up each time a custom customer searches for that type of item. And on top of that, you're also able to see exactly what's working for other sellers in your product niche.

So if you sell resume templates or T shirts, you can find other shops selling that exact same product to get ideas and hints about what's working and what keywords are getting searched for and how to get sales on your own products. Etsy makes it so that you can validate your ideas beforehand so that you can avoid wasting time.

I had just gotten my real estate license before I opened up my first etsy shop in 2019 and the first product that I ever listed for sale that actually sold was a real estate checklist which I had made for my own real estate clients. Even though real estate never took off for me, this was the first opportunity stack that I encountered. I learned the skill of real estate and even though I didn't love that business, I put that skill to use and built upon it to get my first few sales in my Etsy shop. Then I continued to build up my Etsy dropshipping skills by selling mugs, T shirts and posters, and grew several shops that went on to make six and seven figures.

Almost anyone can use Etsy to start making at least their first two to three thousand dollars a month online within the first few of taking it serious. And if you took it really serious like I did, you could get up to that 20 to $40,000 per month range like I have.

This income stream can really apply no matter who you are or what skills you're starting out with, and for that reason it's easier than almost all the other options. If you've got a couple hours a day and an Internet connection, then this is something you can do. The barrier to entry is just the one time $15 startup fee to open your shop and a few hours a day making products that provide value to other people.

So although the income has naturally gone down a little over time, even shops that I haven't touched in over two and a half years will still make dozens of sales even to this day. It makes it super easy to maintain, which is why this income stream gets a 10 out of 10 from me. Since it's such a strong opportunity, it's been the foundation that allowed me to grow a lot of other income streams on top of it.

Software

Now the next income stream that I Stacked on top of Etsy dropshipping, which makes me around $2,000 a month at the moment, but will make me a lot more in the future, is software. This might sound overwhelming to some people, but you'll notice that although these different opportunities do become more difficult, since I've already learned skills from previous opportunities, they actually become a lot easier.

Software sounds super complicated, like I don't know how I'll be able to build it or monetize it. But the thing is, when you have a skill like Etsy dropshipping, in my case, it's a lot easier to build software products around it. When I was in the trenches of Etsy dropshipping and I was uploading products like a madman to grow the business, I realized that I could automate a Large time consuming part of the process if I had software for it. This showed me a specific problem and gave me a specific software solution.

So I found the mockup automation tool that basically generates product mockups for my Etsy shops automatically, which saves a ton of time. Then when I learned how to make changes to the code, it got even faster and better. Then I learned how to put together a product uploader which would automatically upload all of the product designs that I had to the products in my Etsy shop, which saved me even more time. Then I had this product uploading tool professionally built by a developer and I give it away for free here on my Blog.

And now I have even better software products that I'm using to fill in all the other gaps. I have a platform called Pre List that allows you to bulk edit all of your product listings right in Etsy. And we're adding the product uploader tool in so that users can bulk upload and bulk edit the listings all in one place, a huge time saver. And I have a platform called Listing View which allows Etsy sellers to conduct market research to see hidden stats like Keywords from competing Etsy shops. It's basically a product research and keyword tool. Also I have a design plugin for Figma that makes it even easier to make Etsy dropshipping product designs.

The platforms aren't perfect and they're still In development, but they are out for pre launch for users who want to secure the lifetime early pre pricing before the price doubles once all the features are fully rolled out. Now you're probably wondering how this can be applicable to you, and it all depends on your opportunity stack. If you want to use software as an income stream, it becomes so much easier to do when you have a specific need for it from one of your other opportunities.

These software platforms have helped me grow my Etsy Dropshipping businesses a lot faster, which has made me even more money and bought my time back to work on things like this my Blog. But the point is, if I hadn't mastered Etsy dropshipping, then I wouldn't be as good at software.

The difficulty of software really depends on your skill level and the opportunities that you're stacking it on top of. I wouldn't have any idea what to do with software if I hadn't run a successful Etsy dropshipping business for over five years. There's a much steeper learning curve with Software, but it also comes with a Much higher earning potential.

Sure, it's harder to reach your first hundred or $1,000 a month, but once you get there, software is typically recurring and it compounds a lot better, which means your overall earning potential is a lot higher.

That's why even though I'm not making a ton of money from it right now, it's still set up to be my biggest income stream. You have to keep building and improving your product to keep your customers happy. But since updates are only made once and then they're distributed to all your users, it is fairly passive, but nothing like an Etsy shop. It really depends if you're stacking this on top of something else, but if you are, I would give this business an 8 out of 10.

Making Content

Now because I had spent years growing my Etsy dropshipping businesses and my software products, I had something really special and unique to share with the world, so I took it to YouTube. This income stream alone makes me around $17,000 a month. It's probably the best that you can stack on top of any other opportunity, and that's making content.

I mostly make content for YouTube, but content unlocks so many other income streams than doing anything else. It's like marketing on steroids, and it's free.

Now, not everyone wants to get on YouTube, and I get it, but honestly, it's probably one of the single best opportunities that you can stack on top of anything. I'll talk about the income streams that it unlocked for me, but overall content is like adding a ton of leverage onto anything that you do, it unlocks some of the best ways to make money.

For example, if you can get views on your videos, then you'll get paid simply by getting those views. YouTube, for example, pays me 15 to $20 per thousand views just in ad revenue because I talk about Etsy dropshipping and making money online, which is a Valuable niche to YouTube. It's not a ton of money, but It is a nice bonus just for making the content.

Now, YouTube AdSense is not the point of making content, it's all the other income streams that it unlocks. And by the way, this content game really works when you have something to make content about. Of course, the editing and the way that you talk to the camera all matter, but the underlying value of the material you're talking about is what matters most.

I grew pretty quickly on YouTube because I had something to share that was worthy of people's attention. And I was showing them how to Grow a six or seven figure Etsy Dropshipping business and I was giving them all of my software away for free, and that's what helped me grow.

With content, you can really earn a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars each month, there's really no limit. It's a lot easier to make your first thousand dollars a month than in software. But once again, content can be hard if you don't have something to make content about, it's also the lowest financial barrier to entry since it's free.

But most people feel uncomfortable about what others will think about them if they make and post content, so they never do. With the mental barrier to entry being the only real challenge here, it's also one of the easiest income streams to start.

The downside to it is it's one of the most time consuming to maintain. If you want to keep growing your following, you have to show up every single day and make content regardless of how you feel. It's really not a passive income stream, but you don't do it because it's passive. You do it because it unlocks so many other income streams that you can do. I'd give making content 9 out of 10, assuming you're stacking it on something else.

Now, as I mentioned, making content unlocks new branches of income that weren't available before. It basically takes off opportunity stacking, and it supercharges it.

Affiliate Marketing

So the next income stream on the list that makes me around $13,000 a month is affiliate marketing. In its simplest form, affiliate marketing is promoting another company's product or service in exchange for a commission, and they usually give the user some kind of signup bonus.

So, for example, I have a Printify affiliate link, when you sign up using my link, you can use the code "Alek" to get two months of free Printify Premium if you want to try it out, which is a value of about $60. Then if you're successful and you start making some sales, I get piece of Printify's profit as a commission for helping you make those sales.

You can promote these affiliate links by creating websites, blog posts, or faceless social media accounts, but that's not exactly what I do. Instead, I stacked affiliate marketing on top of my Etsy dropshipping business and my YouTube channel. And now I can promote the products and the tools that I use and need to run the business.

So once I convince you to start Etsy dropshipping and you want to sell T shirts in your shop, then you'll need to use Printify to print and ship all your T shirt orders to your customers. When you sign up using my link, it tracks every time you make sales. And when you do, I get a small percentage of Printify's profit for sending you over to them and helping you become successful.

This type of affiliate marketing works a lot better for me since what I teach actually works. It means you guys get more sales and I get paid more money. This income stream is super easy to do because all you have to do is sign up with an affiliate platform, and then figure out how to promote your links.

This once again circles back to opportunity stacking because the more time that I spent grinding away my first skill of Etsy dropshipping, It allowed me to teach it on YouTube, which allowed me to promote the products that I actually used to run the business. If I wasn't good at Etsy dropshipping, even if I was good at promoting the affiliate link, the strategies wouldn't work for you and I wouldn't get paid. That's the reason this is one of my all time favorite income streams, because It's a direct indicator of how much money you guys are making based on what I teach.

If you can stack affiliate marketing on top of something you already know how to do, then it's a super effective way of taking your income to the next level, not to mention that it's free to start. It took me one month to make my first $1,000 because I was stacking this on top of my other opportunities. And right now I'm making about $13,000 a month. But some affiliate products can make you over $100,000 a month if you're in the right businesses.

If I was just starting affiliate marketing from scratch, it would be a little bit more difficult, but that's the case with any of these other income streams. It's super easy to promote Printify because They've helped me make millions of dollars online, but if I started promoting something like Raid Shadow Legends, it probably wouldn't make me as much money.

The best part about affiliate marketing is its peak passiveness, when you get someone to sign up affiliate deals can pay you month after month from the same user. And since your links will typically live in a website or social media content, it can stay there indefinitely, getting views long into the future.

There's also hardly any upfront risk since the company is the one that owns the business and you keep making recurring revenue month after month, which makes it a super passive and easy option to maintain. Overall affiliate marketing, 9 out of 10.

Sponsorship Deals

The next income stream that you can stack is sponsorship deals. This one's a little bit less standalone since you do need to be making content to get the sponsorship deals. But I'm still going to cover it because it's a great way to monetize if you are making content. A sponsorship is simply an agreement between you and a business that you agree to promote and you make content and mention the business in your videos.

Of course you have to have some sort of platform where you're getting consistent eyeballs, but even if you have just A small audience, companies will pay you to promote their products. If your audience is really niche around a specific topic, sometimes you can get paid even more even if you don't have hundreds of thousands of followers.

Now I've only ever taken one sponsorship deal, who you can probably guess was from Printify, who I used to print and fulfill all of my Etsy dropshipping print on demand orders. Really doesn't feel like a sponsorship because I already make videos talking about how I've used Printify to grow my businesses? How much money they save me? And that's the reason I took the deal.

If you're making content consistently, eventually you'll have brands reaching out trying to throw money at you to promote their products. This makes it super easy to get to $1,000 a month assuming you're consistent with content. And again, it stacks and that's what makes it even easier.

If you just tried to go out and get a sponsorship deal with no following, it'd be pretty hard to do. If you're good at negotiating your deals, you can make thousands of dollars per video. It just depends on your niche and your sponsor and how much they're going to make from your video.

When you get paid, it's really not that passive, you'll usually get a one time flat fee for the video and there's usually no recurring revenue, but it also means there's no maintaining it either. But when you combine affiliates and sponsorships, it's almost like getting paid to make the content upfront and you get passive income on the back end after you've posted it. Sponsorships that seamlessly blend into your content and brand make a ton of sense. So if that's the case, I give This income stream an 8 out of 10, since 7 isn't allowed.

Selling Info

Now At the very top of my opportunity stack is the most recent income stream that I've added that's making between 30 to 50 thousand dollars a month, and that's selling info, specifically my six figure storefront course. An info product is basically anytime you can package up something that you know how to into a sellable form.

Now to be very clear, people have been doing this for decades with books and seminars, masterminds, courses and coaching. Because by the way, you don't need to have a big social media following to sell info. You can sell your information on marketplaces like Udemy or skillshare, where people can search up the type of skill that they want to learn, and if yours shows up and they watch it, you get paid a commission for providing that lesson.

Now obviously it's easier to sell info when you have a following on social media. And it's obviously a lot easier to put a product together when you're stacking it on top of a bunch of other skills because that info product is probably teaching one of the skills on your stack.

My program, the six figure storefront, helps people grow their shop on Etsy. Since I've done it and grown shops to over a million dollars, I'm able to share specific knowledge on exactly how I did it. Then, since I've used YouTube content to grow a following, I'm able to distribute the course a lot better than if I was using a marketplace like skillshare.

If you're stacking opportunities, you can really make a lot of money selling info. I know people making multiple six figures a month selling info products. Just like all the other income streams that we've looked at this one worked so well for me because of how I've stacked it. You could start selling info or coaching and make your business, but you have to remember what your foundational skill is and build off of that, that's how you make the most money. That's why making $1,000 a month selling info should be super easy if you have any kind of underlying skill or any kind of following online.

The difficulty for selling info is that you first need to have a skill to sell and second, you have to be willing to sell it. Not everyone wants to be a course guru. It's sort of a medium difficulty because it takes a long time to put together a solid product that provides a ton of value. But when you're teaching something that you know like the back of your hand, it does become a lot easier. If you build out a good info product, you can continue to sell it over and over, only needing to make updates a few times a month, making it super easy to maintain. I'd say it's a 9 out of 10 passiveness.

Conclusion

Now, hopefully you made it through this article because this mindset shift I'm about to give you will completely change your view of how you can make money online no matter where you're starting from. If you took my opportunity stack and replaced my original skill of Etsy dropshipping with something else. You could follow a very similar path no matter what you do.

If you know how to edit videos, your stack might look different, but the opportunity potential is the same. If you knew how to day trade, or maybe you're a software developer, or maybe you want to learn Etsy dropshipping. Regardless of what you do, you can follow the same structure, seeking higher leverage opportunities on top of your original skill.

Now I want to leave you with this, when I was sitting in my bedroom on my laptop at my mom's house working on my Etsy business, I didn't know if it was going to work out. I thought it might be a huge waste of time. But in the back of my head, I knew I had it in me. When I was making $30,000 a month from Etsy, I wasn't sure that my software would make me any money. When I got into YouTube, I wasn't sure that I'd be able to do it and get to $100,000 a month and beyond.

The point is that I just kept working on my skills, building on what I already knew and seeking opportunities after I had mastered the previous one. Now even though we've probably never met just know that I believe in you and I'm rooting for you good luck.