Having a passive source of income is arguably the fastest path to wealth creation. A good source of income will guarantee that you’ll constantly be making money day in day out, and you will never be broke. We’ve all heard the stories. People making money working only a few hours daily, even while they sleep. The idea of making easy money in this way is obviously very appealing, but can it really be done? Well, it can, and this article will show you how you can do it online. Here are my 5 best ways to make a passive income online.
WHAT IS PASSIVE INCOME?
Before we get to the how, let’s first tackle the what. So, what exactly is passive income? Well, passive income is income that you get over and over again as a return for work you did once. When explaining what passive income is, most people usually leave out that second part. Passive income comes from work that you put in. There is no button that you can push and money starts flowing into your account every month. You actually have to put in quite a bit of work to get the train started. That is the secret sauce.
Depending on the method, the more work you put in, the more money you stand to make.
Another important thing that people seem to forget about when it comes to passive income is that once you set it up, it does not mean that you can completely ignore it. Although passive income can give you a constant revenue stream with little to no effort after that initial work input, it is important to keep in mind that if you want to optimize it and get the most out of it, you need to closely track it and learn from it.
Tweak it constantly, getting rid of what isn’t working and doing more of what works. The best part is that you can create multiple passive income streams, optimize all of them, and keep raking in a lot of money month after month. This is the key to true wealth creation.
HOW TO MAKE PASSIVE INCOME ONLINE
Now that we have a good understanding of what it is, here are some ways through which you can start generating your own passive income:
1. WRITE AN EBOOK
Writing a book is a great way to make passive income online. All you have to do is put in the work actually writing the book, and when you have a good, high-quality product, you can start earning some good residual income when you sell it online.
Obviously, the better your book is, the more likely it is to sell more copies. Also, the more work you put into marketing it, the more copies you will end up selling, and the more money you stand to make. Again, it all boils down to the amount of work you are willing to do in those initial stages.
Writing a book sounds daunting, but it shouldn’t be. It is not hard to write an eBook, and you do not need a literature degree to make it work. All you have to do is organize your thoughts coherently, do your research, and put in the work. The best-selling eBooks online today are in the 100-200-page range, which can take anything from a few weeks to a few months to write depending on how hard you plan to be writing.
Before you write that book, you need to be passionate about the subject. Your readers can read your passion in your words, and they can tell if you are only doing it for some quick cash. You can write about literally anything, as long as it is passion that is fueling your words. In the end, the most important thing is to help other people with your writing.
So, how can you write your own eBooks and start selling them? Well, here is how to do it on Amazon:
– Select a niche you are passionate about and do a lot of research on it
– Write the eBook in Word or Google Docs. Edit it well and make sure it reads coherently
– Format the eBook to ePub. The ePub format distorts most conventional texts, so make sure not to include tabs and multiple spaces, text boxes, page numbers and also do not number your table of contents. Use H1 and H2 headings to create quick links to different locations in your text.
– Set up your Amazon Kindle account
– Upload the eBook. Make sure to include a creative cover to attract buyers. Everyone judges books by their covers.
– Select the price based on what other similar authors are selling their books at and the number of pages your work has.
– Go live on Amazon.
– You can also publish your eBook on your website and promote it to your readers, directing them to your Amazon listing and driving your sales even higher.
2. START A BLOG
Blogs have become massively popular with online entrepreneurs. And for good reason. They can legitimately generate you a lot of income if managed correctly. However, you should know that starting a blog and making it successful takes a lot of time and effort. Plus, a typical blog will not generate you a lot of money, especially not in the first few months. It often takes years of consistent quality content creation before you can expect to see any sort of predictable revenue.
If you want a source of passive income that will start netting you four or five figures by next month, this is not it. In fact, I do not think such a venture even exists. As a general rule of thumb, be ready to put in lots of dedicated work before you see a penny for your efforts.
Anyway, when it comes to blogging, the process is almost the same as writing eBooks. You still have to pick a niche and create quality content for it. The only difference here being that there are many platforms that will let you create free blogs where you can start building your audience. Once you are comfortable with everything that blogging entails, and you are sure that that is the path for you, then try the paid option, which will open you up to more opportunities.
The most important thing when it comes to blogging is to always have your readers in mind when creating your content. A clear understanding of your target audience is essential because it drives the entire direction of the blog. You should also consider doing heavy SEO, or pay someone to do it for you. Search Engine Optimization is what gets your content ranking highly in search engines. You need to tailor all your content with SEO if you want to rank highly and reach a bigger audience.
Social media marketing is also important. Market and promote your blog every chance you get. Your blog is only as good as your audience, and if you reach a larger audience, you have a better chance of succeeding.
Finally, do not forget about the content. Make it of extremely high quality, and you should always provide value for your readers. Do this and you will soon be getting lots of traffic. When you have a popular blog, you can take advantage of it and promote your own products such as eBooks to your audience, or even monetize that traffic through affiliate marketing. Combine multiple sources of revenue in this way to get an even bigger passive income source.
3. CREATE AN ONLINE COURSE
Online courses can be extremely profitable if you have a technical skill that you are willing to teach. Platforms like Udemy give everyday folk a chance to reach millions of interested learners and to teach them what they know. However, although it can be a great source of income, you need to actually be good at what you do, and even then, it still takes a lot of effort on your part to start out.
You should look at popular niches and find out which courses are doing well, and if you can capitalize on those niches or some other related niches. You can also opt to go rogue and pick a totally unique niche that has not been tapped. The beauty with teaching online courses is the fact that you can teach almost anything you want, as long as you are good at it.
Once you have picked your niche, you will have to create your course.
The general rule of thumb is to assume that your learners know nothing about the subject. So, for example, if you are teaching a course on “How to become an Affiliate Marketer”, assume you are teaching it to your 80-year-old grandma or your 5-year-old nephew, who know nothing whatsoever about affiliate marketing. Your role is to get them from that point to achieving the same level of knowledge as you, or at least make a genuine attempt to do so.
Most of the hosting platforms usually provide the tools you will need to create the course, but you may still need to invest in things like a high-quality camera or microphone if you want to deliver your courses well. Once the course goes live, it will stay on the platform for as long as you want, and you will make money from it in perpetuity (well, almost). However, every once in a while, you will need to check on it, tweak it, update it, and answer questions from your students. As we all know, a good teacher is always available to respond to questions the learners may have.
4. DEVELOP AN AP
Well, I have to admit that this route is not as simple as the rest on this list. However, if you do it right, it can bring in massive amounts of cash within a relatively short time. To make a half decent smartphone app, you need to have a really good idea and some developing skills, or a bit of money to pay someone to do everything for you.
Back in the day, when every app could do something new, people made millions overnight by making fitness trackers and day planners. Sadly, the app gold rush is over, and today, there is an app for everything. However, you can still make quite a bit of money in the app space.
The most important thing is to develop a good app and develop it well. Just like book covers, the design of your user interface will play a huge role in ensuring the success of your app. Even more than that, your overall user experience, or the experience your users have when using the app, can make or break your app business. This is why it is important to take your time with development. Do not rush things. Research, fine-tune, iterate, and make consistently better versions so that by the time you hit the market, you have something undeniably good on your hands.
Also, do not forget to do a thorough market and niche research. Your app should solve specific problems for it’s particular niche. It should do something for people that no other app is doing. For example, I recently stumbled upon a really great app for runners. There are many apps that have been tailored specifically towards runners, but this one was different. Instead of just tracking your steps and heart rate, it also created a community bringing together lots of runners. You could share your route with other enthusiasts, get advice, and even get training buddies to run with. It added that little something extra and that is what I believe made it such a hit within it’s niche.
Another great strategy is to look at existing market-leading apps and create a better version of them. You can start with something as simple as a flashlight app or a calculator app and make yours the best calculator or flashlight app in the world.
Once you have the app, monetization should come easily. Ads and in-app purchases can make you millions if your app is popular. You will then have a wonderful source of passive income that puts a smile on your face every time you look at your bank account balance at the end of the month.
As mentioned earlier, even if the returns are great. It does not mean that all you need to do is sit back and the money will keep coming in. On the contrary, apps need more constant fine tuning and paying attention to customer feedback than most other methods. Iterate and keep making it better, because development never stops.
5. AFFILIATE MARKETING
This is hands down the best way to make a steady stream of passive income online.
Affiliate marketing is a business model that allows you to make money promoting other people’s products. You generate leads for a particular merchant’s products, and when the people you recommend buy them, you get a commission from the sales.
Affiliate marketing can potentially make you a limitless amount of money, but only if you do it right. You may have come across several cases of affiliate marketing gone wrong. This is where some internet marketers grab a product or two that pay good commissions, then spam everyone in their email lists constantly until they make a sale. Not only is this unethical, but it also gives the entire industry a bad name.
So, what do I mean when I say affiliate marketing should be done the right way? Well, to do things right, first of all, means to only promote products you have used, are happy with, and ones you absolutely believe in. This builds trust in your audience, and with trust comes credibility, and better sales.
Second, you should be creating value as you promote your product. Affiliate marketing is not just about selling. Do not just slap a banner ad on your site and expect to convert. If you are promoting a product that you have used, you should be able to talk about it and share the ins and outs of it with your audience. Give them the scoop and help them have an easier time using the product. What lessons did you learn? How would you have done things differently? In fact, sometimes it’s all about creating a post that does nothing but give lots of information and insight to the reader, cementing your place as a knowledge resource on that particular subject. When your audience is done reading your content, and they realize that they have actually learned something from you, they will be more likely to buy the things you recommend because you clearly know your stuff.
Third, you need to create a resources page. Here you will place all your products, services and other helpful websites that your readers need to check out. The point of this page is to give your readers additional resources that they can look into for more information related to the niche. Make things easy for them by placing it all on one page and letting them choose what they want to learn more about.
Building a successful affiliate marketing business is easy if you do things the right way. Pick a niche, set up a site for it, build an audience by constantly posting quality and valuable content, and start monetizing with affiliate links when your reputation allows it. It’s as simple as that.
When your business takes off, remember to stick to your niche, do your SEO well, and diversify with products from different merchants to cushion yourself. The most important thing in this business is to be persistent, patient, and always ready to learn. Understand that affiliate marketing is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It takes time to build, just like any other brick and mortar business. However, the results are well worth the wait.
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FINAL THOUGHTS
The Internet has made it possible for anyone to make a fortune online, from anywhere in the world. There are several ways to do so. Some of the best include writing a book, starting a blog, creating an online course, developing an app, and becoming an affiliate marketer. Of these, I believe that affiliate marketing is the best, because not only is it extremely easy to set up, but it also offers you an uncapped earning potential, and it allows you to be your own boss. As long as you do it the right way, by offering true value instead of just selling, and only promoting products that you believe in, you can make a comfortable living off it.
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I hope you enjoyed this post. Please leave me comments or questions below.
To your success!
Mike A