Let me be straight with you. I'm writing this at 11pm after a full day at work, a gym session, and three hours of side hustle work. I'm 34. I have a good salary. I have debts. And I'm building online income streams because I've seen enough of the world to know that one income source is a liability, not a safety net.
The economy right now — inflation still sticky, layoffs in tech, AI disrupting every industry, cost of living absolutely punishing anyone trying to buy a house in Sydney — it feels like everything is uncertain. And in that uncertainty, a lot of people are either paralysed or chasing the wrong things.
This article is about what's actually working. Not theory. Not "10 ways to make passive income" clickbait. What Jeff (my AI) and I are actually doing, and why we're doing it in this environment.
First: Ignore Most of the Noise
Every time the economy gets rough, the internet fills up with people selling courses on how to survive the economy. Dropshipping gurus. Crypto recoveries. "AI business" frameworks. Most of it is people monetising your anxiety, not solving your problem.
The businesses that work in uncertainty are boring. They're not exciting to post about on TikTok. They're not a new business model. They're the same things that have always worked — they just need to be executed now, with the tools we have today.
What We're Actually Doing
1. Print on Demand — Low Risk, Asymmetric Upside
Jeff has been generating Etsy designs with AI. The math is simple: make 50 designs a week, list them on Etsy, pay Printify when something sells, keep the margin. No inventory. No upfront capital. No warehouse. In a bad economy, people still buy birthday gifts, teacher appreciation mugs, funny t-shirts, and niche hobby products.
The risk is zero in the traditional sense. You spend time (or AI time), not money. The upside compounds — more listings = more chances to hit a winner. We're targeting $24K/month net by Month 6. That sounds ambitious, but the math works if you list enough products and find what converts.
Key insight: In uncertainty, businesses with zero inventory risk and no capital outlay become more attractive, not less. Print on demand is one of the few internet businesses where you literally cannot lose money — only time.
2. Affiliate Content Sites — Building the Asset
This site — Internet Bacon — is an affiliate content play. We write real, useful content about making money online. We link to tools we actually use. When someone clicks and buys, we earn a commission. No products. No customer service. No fulfilment.
The key in this environment: focus on tools that have recurring commissions. Beehiiv pays 40-50% recurring for a year. Semrush pays 40% recurring forever. These aren't one-off commissions — they're income streams that compound as long as the customer keeps paying.
A content site takes time to build. But it's also one of the few assets that appreciates over time — more content = more search traffic = more commissions. You're building something that works while you sleep.
3. Consulting / Services — Highest Immediate ROI
I'm a commercial director at a construction robotics company. I know Tier 1 builders. I know how renovation projects work. I know sales. That expertise is worth money to people who don't have it.
In any economic environment, people pay for expertise that makes them money or saves them money. Consulting is the fastest path to meaningful income because the margin is 100% — you're selling time and knowledge you already have.
I'm not actively building a consulting business right now — too much on my plate — but if I needed income fast, that's where I'd go first.
What's NOT Working (In My Observation)
Dropshipping from China
Margins are being squeezed by tariffs and rising shipping costs. The era of buying something for $3 and selling it for $30 with a Facebook ad is largely over. The people still making it work are operating at scale with established supplier relationships. If you're starting from scratch in 2026, don't start here.
Social Media Trading
Options trading, crypto trading, forex — the "make money from your phone" trading content is at peak saturation. Most people promoting this are making money from selling courses about trading, not from trading itself. Avoid.
Generic Faceless YouTube (Without a Niche)
"Faceless YouTube" is a real strategy — we're actually building a meditation/ambient audio channel (Mindful Mindset) — but the generic version where you just post stock footage with a voiceover doesn't work anymore. The channels winning have genuine depth of niche. If you can't be the best source for a specific topic, YouTube won't surface you.
The Framework I Use for Evaluating Online Income Ideas
Before I start anything new, I run it through these four questions:
- Can I start with under $500? If the startup costs are high, the risk profile changes. Bootstrap first.
- Does it compound? Does more effort today create more passive income tomorrow? Or is it purely linear (more work = more money, but stop working = stop earning)?
- Can AI do 80% of the execution? In 2026, if AI can't help you scale it, you're trading time for money, not building a business.
- Is it inflation-proof? Digital products, software tools, and skills-based services are. Physical inventory businesses are exposed.
The best businesses right now: Etsy POD (✅ all 4), content/affiliate sites (✅ all 4), AI-assisted consulting (✅ 3/4 — not fully passive). Dropshipping (❌ 2/4). Social media trading (❌ 1/4).
One More Thing — The Psychological Side
Building online income during uncertainty is hard partly because of the environment, and mostly because of psychology. You start something. It doesn't work immediately. You pivot. You get distracted by a new opportunity. You don't go deep enough on anything to hit the tipping point.
I've done this. Multiple times. The thing that's different now — for me — is having Jeff. An AI that doesn't get distracted. That runs the overnight tasks while I sleep. That keeps the momentum going when I'm flat from a full-time job week.
The human + AI combination isn't about the AI doing everything. It's about removing the points of friction that cause humans to quit. Jeff handles the execution. I handle the judgment and the vision. We're documenting it here, in public, as we go.
The Bottom Line
Economic uncertainty is real. But it's also the best time to build alternative income — because you're motivated, the barriers to entry for digital businesses are lower than ever, and the tools available (AI, print on demand platforms, affiliate programs) are genuinely powerful.
Start something simple. Go deep on it. Use AI to scale the execution. Don't quit before the compounding kicks in.
That's it. No secret formula. Just work, done consistently, with the right tools.
— Ian