Never Underestimate The Power of Passive Online Income
Use these 4 pillars of passive online income — and potentially earn while you sleep
Making money while you sleep has a great ring to it, don’t you think?
The truth is that it’s very possible and easy to maintain if you know what you are doing
For many of the self-employed including freelancers, passive income is an essential way of stabilizing what can be an erratic form of generating a wage. If you are a freelance web designer or writer, once you stop working, you stop earning. It’s as simple as that.
Make no mistake, passive income does require work upfront, but if you get it right, you can be earning from that piece of work long after you finished making it.
Even if you have a full-time job and are happy working for someone else, you can still create passive income streams in your spare time to help boost your existing cashflow situation.
Here are four techniques that I like to call “pillars of income”. There are many out there, but these are the ones I would recommend as successful methods in 2020 and onwards.
Writing on Medium
Medium.com is an awesome place where people go to read quality articles written by some great people with fantastic stories to tell.
For a $5 a month membership you can gain access to all the articles behind their paywall.
If you choose to become an author, you can put your articles behind the paywall using the Medium partner program and get paid by the amount of time other members read them.
One thing to note is that you will need to get your article into a good publication to give it the most exposure and hopefully get it curated by Medium.
You can also send your article for free to non-members using what they call a “friends link”. Using this link is a good way to send free external traffic to your articles to give them a little boost.
If you produce quality work, then some articles may go viral and increase their earning potential. Even the non-viral ones can still add up over time if the work is quality and preferably “evergreen”.
Medium publisher “Feedium” published an article called “50 Humongous Medium Writers With Over 10,000 Followers”. This article shows the reach and following you can gain by being successful on Medium.
I would suggest, you take this method seriously, but treat it as a long game. Just write consistently and not get obsessed with stats. Some articles will fall flat on their face. You just have to take it on the chin and keep writing. Write once a week, then try to write more over time. The more articles you write, the more chance of success.
These articles also have the potential to rank high in Google and thus send traffic your way for years to come. Just remember, quality counts always.
💡 Tip -Apply research and source authority to articles to get them published in the bigger publications.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing has been around since the early days of the internet. It has proven time and again as a great way to create a passive online income. If you implement the right techniques and strategies, you can generate good money.
In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is a passive way of earning commissions by promoting products, brands, and services. If you can get a person to buy through your web link, then you will receive a commission percentage of that sale.
Affiliate links can be shared on:
- Websites
- Blogs
- Social media platforms
- Adverts
- Emails
- Videos
Some brands use affiliate networks to manage their affiliates. Two examples are CJ Affiliate and ShareASale. You apply to be accepted. If you are successful you can earn collectively under one roof for different brands and get paid monthly or when you hit a certain threshold. Other brands may run their own programs.
💡 Tip -Big web hosting companies such as Bluehost and website builders like Wix tend to have great affiliate programs with higher payouts.
According to top competitive intelligence website SEMrush,
“Just like any business, affiliate marketing needs motivation and hard work. Make sure to understand your audience and identify which product or service they could be interested in — once you have narrowed this down, make sure to choose an affiliate program that gives you favorable conditions.”
Affiliate marketing can work out well because once someone has clicked on your link, a cookie is then put on their computer. This can range from 24 hours to a lifetime. This means that if your link has a 30-day cookie then as long as the person buys that product or service within 30 days, you will receive a commission.
If you can provide a steady stream of traffic to your affiliate links, then this method can trigger a sale when you are nowhere near your computer. Just keep things ethical and honest and do not spam your links.
YouTube
According to Shopify,
“YouTube stars are today’s self-made celebrities”
You do not need a million subscribers to make money on this platform. If you have a clear understanding of your target audience, passive income is very possible by:
- Teaching
- Entertaining
- Reviewing products and services
YouTube is the perfect vehicle to reach a large audience in a short period of time.
The most passive method of making money would be to utilize YouTube Ads. This is done by signing up to the YouTube Partner Program and get paid via Google AdSense. Once you create videos, they can be monetized with clickable ads that show up during the playback of videos.
The only caveat to this is that you need to reach 1000 subscribers to qualify for monetization. Do not be put off by this. If you make a committed effort upfront and produce quality content, you will soon reach this target and start earning passive money. Like Medium, consistent quality always wins.
If a video goes viral, the earning potential can increase rapidly with increased traffic.
💡 Tip -Go beyond ads and sell merchandise with your channel. As long as you provide the designs(go to Fiverr.com), companies like bonfire.com will produce and ship the products for you
💡 Tip -Create a Patreon account so that fans can subscribe to you and support your efforts for a small fee. They can also receive your exclusive content as an extra incentive.
Online Courses
Online learning is expected to reach more than $240 billion by 2021 according to The Balance Small Business. This has created a need for information and instruction and has also provided the perfect opportunity to get paid for teaching. The Balance Small Business also states that:
“Many people don’t think they know enough about a topic to teach it, but the truth is, you don’t have to be an expert to create and sell an online course. You simply need to know more than most”
Online courses can be made on any subject. If you are a freelancer then you may want to create a course based on your specialty to keep in line with your other pillars of passive income. Collectively these can complement your main business model and create a greater authority for you in your niche.
Make no mistake, quality online courses do take a lot of time and work up front, but you only have to create a course once to generate a passive income stream.
The other benefit is that online courses have a worldwide reach to students in any time zone, without any additional effort.
The more difficult aspects of creating courses are getting the pricing right and targeting your audience correctly for online traffic. This may be something that will require some trial and error at first to perfect.
Two platforms that make it easy to deliver online courses are:
- Udemy
- Skillshare
The benefit of using these platforms is that you can upload your course and they will take care of the selling to members. They also take care of payment processing to make things easier for you.
One negative when using these platforms is that you will be up against competitor course tutors and providers which may harm your pricing depending on your niche.
💡 Tip -You may want to add course updates as time goes by to stay relevant. Outdated information and links can lead to bad reviews from students. This will involve a small-time commitment but well worth the effort to keep things fresh and worth paying for.
Final Thoughts
Make no mistake here, passive income does not mean lazy income. You will get out what you put in, as is the case with everything in life. The great thing is that these methods require the work upfront and then pay on autopilot if your work is good and honest enough.
Work hard, be professional, and treat these pillars like a business. You can then reap the rewards of your labor. Just focus and make it happen.
“Some people want it to happen. Some wish it would happen. Others make it happen” — Michael Jordan
Are you thinking of creating any passive income streams?
Have you had any success in the past?
Let me know in the comments below.
