Revealed: My 6 Income Streams From April Of 2024

Most people who ask “how do you make money online?” expect one clean answer. One app, one side hustle, one magic platform. But when Alston Godbolt sat down at the end of April 2024 to tally up his results, he found six separate income streams contributing to his bottom line. Not a typo. Six. Some were active, some ran mostly on autopilot, and some were things most online creators overlook entirely. If you have ever wondered what a real, functioning multi-stream online income actually looks like in practice, this breakdown is for you.

Alston has earned multiple six figures across affiliate marketing, digital products, and YouTube content creation. He created this transparency report to show exactly which income streams were active in April 2024, in the honest, no-inflated-screenshots way he approaches everything. These are not projections or theoretical blueprints. These are the six things that actually put money in the account that month. Read through every one of them, because the last stream on the list surprises most people.

What You’ll Walk Out With

A clear picture of what six active income streams look like for a real online creator in 2024
How the YouTube Partner Program pays creators and what affects your CPM
The specific digital products Alston sold in April, including a $2.99 front-end offer with upsells
How three separate membership tiers serve different buyer levels from beginner to premium
What a white-label SaaS product looks like and how to offer one starting at $9 per month
Which affiliate programs generated actual commissions that month, and why some of them are from years-old content
How passive dividend investing fits inside an online income strategy without requiring daily attention
How to find the right starting point for your own first income stream at finder.platformproof.com

Income Stream 1: The YouTube Partner Program

The first income stream Alston listed is the YouTube Partner Program, commonly shortened to YPP. To qualify, a channel needs at least 4,000 watch hours and 1,000 subscribers. Once those thresholds are hit, YouTube places ads at the beginning, middle, or end of your videos and pays you a share of the revenue those ads generate.

The specific amount you earn per video is calculated using what is called a CPM, which stands for cost per thousand views. YouTube calculates your CPM based on a range of factors, and the number varies more than most beginners expect. Two of the biggest factors are your niche (the general topic area your channel covers) and where your audience lives. A channel with most viewers in the United States will typically see a higher CPM than a channel with most viewers in regions where advertisers pay less. Alston gave a concrete example in the video: one video might earn you $5 per thousand views while another on the same channel earns $10 or even $15 per thousand views. The gap exists because different advertisers compete for different types of viewers at different prices.

YouTube pays out on the 20th or 21st of every month for the previous month’s earnings. This regularity is one reason creators treat YPP income as a foundation rather than a bonus. It is not massive income early on, but it is consistent, it is earned from content already recorded, and it compounds as a library grows. Alston has made a separate video diving deeper into how CPM works and what you can do to influence it in your favor.

Income Stream 2: Digital Products

The second income stream was digital products. Alston specifically mentioned three separate product types that generated revenue in April 2024, so this one stream actually contains multiple sub-streams inside it.

The first digital product was a live workshop called Profit From Post. It ran as a 2-day event, with an optional third day available for those who purchased the upsell. The workshop focused on teaching participants how to monetize their social media accounts. Alston described it as two hours per day of live instruction, community discussion, and real-time feedback. If you have been watching creators run these kinds of events and wondered whether they are worth the time to build, Alston reported that this one went well and the live interaction format created a lot of value for attendees.

The second digital product was the Affiliate Marketing Mastery Bundle. This is a bundle of workbooks, planners, and templates built around affiliate marketing. Alston priced the front-end entry point at $2.99 and was running paid Facebook ads to drive buyers to it. The low entry price is intentional. At $2.99, the friction to buy is almost zero, which means more people enter the funnel. Once a buyer is in, Alston presented upsell offers on the back end to increase the average order value. He was clear about this in the video: what you see as the front-end price is often not the full picture of what a seller earns per customer once the upsell sequence runs. This is a core principle of building a sales funnel, and the $2.99 bundle is a live example of it in action.

The third digital product was one-on-one coaching. Alston’s standard coaching rates are $197 for a single one-hour session or $497 for three days of coaching access. At the end of April, he ran a limited promotional price of $50 for a one-hour session, capping it at ten spots. Those spots filled up quickly. The discounted offer was his way of delivering high-value coaching to people who might not yet be at the full-price stage, while still putting those sessions to work as both income and case study material.

Income Stream 3: Memberships

Memberships were the third income stream. This is where a creator builds a recurring-revenue community that pays every month rather than a one-time product purchase. Alston runs three distinct membership tiers, each aimed at a different stage of the affiliate marketing journey.

The newest membership is called YouTube Affiliates Academy. It has a singular focus: teaching people how to do affiliate marketing specifically through their YouTube channel. Alston described it as having one clear goal and staying locked on it, which he said is producing real results. He mentioned finding case studies of small channels seeing strong affiliate outcomes despite limited subscriber counts. He was also running Facebook ads to this program around the time of the April report.

The second membership tier is called House of Affiliates. This program has been running for about a year and focuses on helping members earn their first $1,000 with affiliate marketing. The main traffic channels emphasized inside House of Affiliates are social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. If you are brand new and have not yet made a dollar online, this is the entry-level community designed for you.

The third and most premium membership is called Social Savvy Monetization. This tier runs on the Skool platform and offers a more hands-on experience than the first two. Members get access to one-on-one coaching, weekly live coaching sessions for real-time help, and more comprehensive course material. If you are past the basics and want active mentorship and accountability with Alston’s involvement, this is the tier that includes all of that. The price point is higher to reflect the deeper access and time commitment it involves.

Running three membership tiers rather than one is a deliberate architecture. A beginner can start at House of Affiliates, move up to YouTube Affiliates Academy as they gain traction on video, and eventually step into Social Savvy Monetization when they want high-touch support. Each tier has a clear value proposition and the ascension path is built in from the start.

Income Stream 4: Software as a Service (SaaS)

The fourth stream is one that surprises most people who associate Alston’s brand with content and affiliate marketing. In April 2024, he was also generating income from a software product called Godbolt Systems.

Godbolt Systems is a white-labeled version of GoHighLevel, a well-known all-in-one marketing platform. White-labeling means Alston licenses the underlying software, brands it under his own name, and offers it to his audience at a price he sets. The entry-level plan is priced at $9 per month, with middle and upper tiers at $17 and $30 per month. The platform gives subscribers access to email marketing tools, the ability to create and sell digital products, and course creation functionality, all in one place. For someone just getting started building an online business, paying $9 per month for a tool stack that would otherwise cost much more individually is a real advantage.

The SaaS income model is attractive because it is recurring. Every subscriber who stays active pays again next month without any additional selling effort. The setup work happens once and the monthly revenue compounds as the subscriber base grows. It also gives Alston’s community access to professional tools at a beginner-friendly price, which creates real loyalty. Godbolt Systems was linked in the second spot of the video description for anyone who wanted to sign up.

Income Stream 5: Affiliate Marketing Commissions

Affiliate marketing was the fifth income stream. Alston noted that the full list of affiliate commissions he earned in April is long, so he highlighted the top examples rather than listing every program. What makes this section interesting is how diverse the sources were.

Tailwind was one of the commission sources. Tailwind is a Pinterest pin scheduling tool that has both a free tier and a paid upgrade. Alston recommended it for automating Pinterest activity, and over time people who joined on the free plan upgraded to paid plans, triggering commissions on those upgrades. This is a good example of how affiliate income from a tool recommendation can have a long tail: you mention the tool once, people join free, and commissions arrive months later when they upgrade.

Morning Fame and TubeBuddy also generated commissions. Both are YouTube-focused tools that help creators find keywords, optimize their SEO, write better descriptions, and analyze channel performance. Alston recommends these as part of his content creation workflow, and because YouTube creators are a consistent part of his audience, these affiliate relationships stay productive month after month.

Skool is a newer source of affiliate income for Alston. Skool is a community and course platform that has been growing quickly. Alston launched a dedicated YouTube channel focused entirely on Skool content, uploading daily with a mix of case studies on creators doing well there and keyword-targeted tutorial content. He put a link to that channel in the video description for anyone interested.

Amazon Associates was another consistent commission source. Alston did not list every product, but mentioned security cameras, soundbars, and stand mixers as recognized items he had earned commissions on. He noted that security cameras were among the very first topics his blog and YouTube channel ever covered, and those old recommendations continue to generate income years later. This is one of the clearest arguments for creating evergreen content: the work you do today can keep paying out for a very long time.

Finally, web hosting affiliates rounded out the list. Alston runs a separate YouTube channel focused on helping people start different types of blogs. Setting up a WordPress blog requires web hosting, and when viewers follow his tutorials and click his affiliate links to get started, he earns a commission on each signup. The hosting affiliate category is one of the highest-commission niches in the affiliate marketing space, and a library of how-to content around blogging keeps generating clicks long after the videos go live.

Not sure which income stream fits where you are right now?

Answer a few quick questions and get matched to the right starting point at finder.platformproof.com.

Income Stream 6: Stocks and Dividends

The sixth and final income stream was stocks, specifically dividend income from stock investments. Alston was careful to frame this as not investing advice, but he did explain his personal strategy clearly enough to understand the approach.

He focuses on exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track broad market indices, specifically mentioning S&P 500 ETFs as the type of vehicle he uses. Rather than picking individual stocks, he invests a set amount every month into these index-tracking ETFs. When dividends or returns are generated, he reinvests them automatically rather than withdrawing them, which compounds the growth without requiring active decisions each time.

The appeal of this approach inside a broader income strategy is that it is the most passive stream on the list. Once the automatic investment is set up, the only action required is the regular contribution. It is not going to create overnight wealth, but when layered on top of five other income streams that are already working, it adds a meaningful compounding layer that grows independently of how any single content piece or product launch performs.

The Real Numbers Across All Six Streams

Looking at all six streams together, a pattern emerges about how they are structured and why that structure holds up under real-world conditions.

Three of the six streams (YouTube Partner Program, affiliate marketing, and dividend stocks) are primarily passive or semi-passive. Once the underlying asset is built, whether that is a YouTube video, an affiliate recommendation, or an investment account, income arrives without a corresponding increase in active work. These are the slow-build streams that reward patience and consistency.

Two streams are active but scalable. Digital products and memberships require real work to create and sell, but the work is front-loaded. A workshop like Profit From Post or a membership like House of Affiliates can serve many more customers without proportionally more time once the core infrastructure is in place.

One stream (SaaS via Godbolt Systems) is a recurring-revenue business operating on top of existing software. It benefits from the work Alston has already done building trust and an audience, but the monthly billing structure means it grows independently from individual launch cycles.

What Alston’s April 2024 report demonstrates is not that you need six streams to succeed. It is that diversification across active, passive, and recurring-revenue models makes an online income more stable and harder to knock down. If YouTube ad rates drop in a given month, affiliate commissions and membership billing continue. If a product launch underperforms, dividend reinvestment and SaaS subscriptions keep running. Each stream covers a different vulnerability in the others.

How to Start Building Multiple Streams Without Burning Out

A common mistake when seeing a breakdown like this is to try to start all six streams at once. That approach leads to shallow execution on everything rather than depth on anything. A better path is to build sequentially, starting with the stream that fits your current skills and resources, and adding layers once the first one is generating consistent results.

Here is a practical order that mirrors how most people in Alston’s community progress:

Pick one traffic channel. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or a blog. This is where your audience lives and where affiliate commissions, product sales, and coaching interest will come from. Do not split your attention across three platforms at the start.
Add one affiliate program. Find a tool or product directly relevant to what you are already creating content about. Tailwind makes sense for a Pinterest-focused creator. TubeBuddy makes sense for a YouTube creator. Match the recommendation to the audience.
Create one digital product under $10. A low-price entry product like the $2.99 Affiliate Marketing Mastery Bundle reduces friction and gets buyers into your customer base. Back-end upsells can be added once the front-end is converting.
Open a simple investing account. Even $25 or $50 per month into a broad-market ETF starts the compounding clock. This stream runs in the background while the active streams grow.
Test a coaching offer. Once you have demonstrated results, a one-on-one coaching slot at a discounted rate is a fast way to generate income and refine your teaching before building a full membership program.
Build toward recurring revenue. A membership or SaaS product is the highest-impact move in the list, but it works best after you already have an audience and social proof. Build the community after the product, not the other way around.

Find Your X

Six income streams can feel overwhelming if you are staring at them from a standing start. The question is not “how do I build all six?” The question is “which one fits me first?” Your skills, your schedule, your existing audience size, and your comfort with different types of work all point toward a specific starting place. The Finder tool at finder.platformproof.com asks you a short series of questions and matches you to the right first stream based on your actual situation, not a generic recommendation built for everyone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need all six income streams to make real money online?

No. Most people who make their first $1,000 online do it with a single stream, usually affiliate marketing or a simple digital product. The benefit of multiple streams is stability over time, not faster first results. Start with one and add the next only after the first is working consistently.

How many subscribers do you need to make money from YouTube ads?

The YouTube Partner Program requires 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months. Once those are hit and your channel is approved, YouTube begins placing ads and paying you based on your CPM. CPMs vary widely by niche and audience location, so earnings per thousand views can range from under $2 to $20 or more depending on your channel’s topics and viewer demographics.

What is the best affiliate program to start with?

The best affiliate program is the one most directly useful to your specific audience. If you teach blogging, web hosting and WordPress tools are natural fits. If you teach YouTube, TubeBuddy and Morning Fame are relevant. If you teach social media scheduling, Tailwind for Pinterest is a strong option. Starting with a tool you actually use and can explain honestly almost always outperforms trying to promote something unfamiliar for a higher commission.

How does a $2.99 product make real money?

A low-price front-end offer like the $2.99 Affiliate Marketing Mastery Bundle works because it removes the buying decision barrier. The real revenue comes from the upsell sequence on the back end. After someone purchases the front-end product, they are presented with higher-priced offers for related products, coaching, or membership access. A single buyer who goes through the full upsell sequence might spend $30, $100, or more in total. The $2.99 price brings in a large volume of buyers; the upsells determine the average order value.

What is white-label SaaS and how does Godbolt Systems work?

White-label SaaS means licensing an existing software platform, rebranding it under your own name, and reselling access to your audience. Godbolt Systems uses GoHighLevel as the underlying technology and offers it to subscribers at $9, $17, or $30 per month. The platform includes email marketing, digital product delivery, and course creation tools. Because the software is already built, the main job is customer acquisition and support, not software development. The recurring monthly billing creates a predictable income layer that runs independently of content output.

Is dividend investing worth including in an online income strategy?

Dividend investing adds a stream that is completely independent of platform algorithm changes, ad rate fluctuations, or product sales performance. S&P 500 ETFs track the broad market, which reduces single-company risk. Reinvesting dividends rather than withdrawing them compounds the position over time. It is not the highest-earning stream on this list in the short term, but it is the most resilient to the variables that affect every other digital income stream. Even small monthly contributions add up significantly over a decade.

What is the difference between House of Affiliates and Social Savvy Monetization?

House of Affiliates is aimed at people trying to earn their first $1,000 online through affiliate marketing and social media. It covers the fundamentals of TikTok, Instagram, and related platforms. Social Savvy Monetization is the premium tier with one-on-one coaching access, weekly group coaching calls, and more comprehensive course materials. The core difference is the level of direct access and accountability available. House of Affiliates is the starting point; Social Savvy Monetization is for people who want hands-on guidance from Alston as they scale.

Can Amazon Associates still generate commissions from old content?

Yes, and Alston’s experience with security cameras is a direct example. He started creating content about security cameras years before April 2024, but those videos and blog posts continued to send traffic and generate Amazon affiliate commissions years later. Evergreen content, meaning content that answers questions people are still searching for, keeps working long after the recording or writing date. This is one of the strongest arguments for investing in a content library rather than only chasing trending topics.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “Revealed: My 6 Income Streams From April Of 2024,” YouTube, 2024 (https://youtu.be/DchivpO_WU8)
YouTube Partner Program eligibility requirements: 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours (YouTube Help)
GoHighLevel platform, the underlying software behind Godbolt Systems white-label SaaS offering
Tailwind, Pinterest pin scheduling tool referenced as an active affiliate commission source in April 2024
TubeBuddy and Morning Fame, YouTube SEO tools referenced as affiliate commission sources
Skool, community and course platform used for Social Savvy Monetization and as a new affiliate commission source
Amazon Associates program, referenced as ongoing affiliate commission source from security camera, soundbar, and stand mixer recommendations

Helping 1 million working adults make their first $3,000 online with the skills they already have. Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof.