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So Where's the Passive Income?
January 21, 2007
I finished with my big batch of offline projects earlier this week, and finally feel like I've started my 2007 online year. I've got so many ideas and projects going on, and I know for sure that this year will be a fun and profitable year for me.
But I've been doing some reflecting, and one thing I've been asking myself is, "Where's all that passive income?"
Because I'll confess that the idea of passive streams of income is what enticed me to start online in the first place over two years ago.
There's something about the idea of working on something once, then having it keep working for you.
So I've been taking a good look at my online projects, and it's very clear to me that my major money makers have not been of the "work on it once, put it online, then sit back and watch the big bucks roll in" variety.
Blogging, for example, requires consistent, day to day effort. And while posts that were posted ages ago do continue to work, it's the compounding effect that really ramps up your earning power. Blogs that I've let go continue to make money, but it's not very much in comparison to the blogs that I work on consistently.
My affiliate sites are another example. I've discovered that my best-performing affiliate sites are the ones to which I continue to add fresh content on a regular basis. Not exactly "throw them up and leave them" types of sites.
So this year, one of my goals is to tackle the passive income approach. I know it's possible, and I've kind of boiled it down to three different angles:
1. More automation.
2. Creating or modifying a "system".
3. A really good content site.
I personally like the "system" approach the best, closely followed by the "really good content site".
The main problem I see with a really good content site is that it is incredibly time intensive during the start-up phase, which can last quite a while. Not only do you have to work on good content, there's also the promotion aspect of it.
But I'm up for that particular adventure.
Still, the idea of finding or modifying a "system" really appeals to me. And the big problem here is that while in the past year I've either come up with or bought lots of mini "system" ideas, I don't have a clue which ones might actually work, and which ones are a pipedream.
And yes, this means that I don't always believe the earnings claims for reports or ebooks that I buy. When I buy an iffy report or ebook, it's for the potential of getting a nugget of an idea, which I can then combine with other nuggets plus my own brainstorming.
So this year, I'm going to start putting all these little ideas to the test. As I discovered last year, all the little amounts do add up, and even a dollar a day off a site is a good thing - IF each idea doesn't take ages to implement, and IF once you put the site up, you don't have to do much work to maintain your dollar a day.
I figure, I'm bound to hit on some good ones. Which will hopefully be of the "wash, rinse, repeat" variety (sorry - I couldn't resist using that phrase. I see it all the time in the IM forums and on sales pages and I do love the image of it. Wash, rinse and repeat. Works for me.)
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Posted by BJ at 01:51 PM in Adsense, Affiliate Marketing , Make Money Online, Passive Income | Permalink
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Listed below are links to weblogs that reference So Where's the Passive Income?:
» Passive Income from Money Conciousness
There is a lot of talk in the blogosphere about passive income, with Belle, Dave Carlson
and Darren Rowse all writing about the idea. They seem to agree that while passive income is possible, blogging is not a good way to do it.
Ruben, in another artic... [Read More]
Tracked on Jan 29, 2007 1:12:26 AM
Comments
I've never believed those earnings reports. Load of hype IMHO. And as you mentioned, rinse, wash repeat doesn't work. Especially with adsense smart-pricing everyone. Google is finding that growth is going to come from taking market share away from Yahoo, not its content network, because content clicks are fraudulent at a more frequent rate. Which is Why I'm in the SEO Specialist services business - you still work hard, but the pay's a lot better.
Posted by: SEO Montreal Expert | Jan 29, 2007 1:24:28 AM
I don't think there's really a way to have a "passive income" ... you'll always have to keep an eye on the old sites / blogs / posts to keep them providing an income... and you'll always love to do that ;) It's something additive!
Posted by: francesco mapelli | Jan 30, 2007 6:49:48 PM
