How to Earn Passive Income Online
The first thing to realise that this particular blog is NOT an example of how I make most of money. This really is a blog which started as a real blog – like an online personal journal – and grew into a sometimes useful source of information about what I’ve learned along the way of nearly three years of trying to make money online.
I do make a little from people who sign up using the products I recommend via my affiliate links but I don’t really count that as my main income source. I really maintain this blog because I feel like I need to give something back – I’ve come across some great blogs and resources on how to make money on-line – but they are the 1% in the whole “make money online niche” .
Not All Online Income is Passive
First off – let’s be clear – I want passive income not a work from home job. I wrote about the difference between passive income and a work at home job here. There are many freelance blogs out there – some are very good – but at the end of the day didn’t want to replace my unreasonable employer byt a gaggle of unreasonable clients! (BTW if you are currently a client of mine you are, by definition, not unreasonable
)
Most Bloggers Aren’t Developing Passive Income Online
You may have seen the A-List format of “provide great content and they will come” – Darren Rowse at ProBlogger.net is often quoted as an example of great way to make money for begginers – just create a blog like Darren’s! The sad truth thoug his that he certainly makes more money from his other sites – not his flagship site which beginners try to immitate!
In fact if you want to use your blog a spring board to a book launch, speaking career or similar – then its probably a fantastic way to get started.
I don’t want to write a book – certainly not one for a conventional publisher.
I don’t want a speaking career or to be world famous in New Zealand!
I want to make income which means I can be a digitial nomad, work anywhere from the world on and which iwll continue to earn me money whether or not I am actually doing any work.
How I Make Passive Income Online
I develop little niche websites focussed on a product or service that people (not Internet marketers ) want an answer to. It would take a while to figure out what a buying keyword was, and how to rank a site in the search engine rankings (SERPs) and how to know what to sell on the site.
I make money from affiliates, from eBay and Amazon and from Google Adsense. I make money in my sleep – mainly becasue I live in New Zealand and most of my buyers are in the North Ameria!
I have gone from not knowing what a keyword was and not understanding how to get a backlink to save my life, to earning more than US$2000/month online
The problem with passive income on the Internet? It takes a while to develop. Basically the big G (Google – no other search engine matters) is suspicious of new sites, it won’t really rank you properly and stably for around 6 months – maybe longer, a lot longer, for very competitive niches such as credit cards and weight loss.
That’s my plan really – a bunch of sites that will bring me in a $1/day. How many do I need – well I want to make around $1000/week so that’s about 150 sites. They won’t all work of course, I’ll get the keywords wrong on some, but that’s the number I’m looking at.
- What will the sites be? They will be small sites – between 1 and 10 pages usually focused on a particularly keyword and providing real information which will solve the visitors questions/problem – or at least point them to a place where they will find that solutions.
- The sites will be optimized for SEO to ensure that the search engines understand what the site is about – incidentally good SEO is good for readers anyway.
- I’ll promote the sites until they are on the first page of Google results for their keyword – the only visitors who will buy are those from search engines.
- I will monetise them using a variety of methods including Adsense, eBay and other affiliate products.
Shortcut to Earning Passive Income Online
Its taken me over two years to get to this point. I can save you a lot of time by pointing to this blog and my sidebar and sending you off to do a lot of reading. Your risk information overload though.
Or I can offer you a couple of short cuts – they will both cost you money – but save you a lot of time. It really depends whether time or money is more important to you – but here they are: and if you buy them yes I will get a small percentage from the affiliate sales – and thank you!
Earn Passive Income Online – the eBook
Janet’s new e-book Nomad’s Guide to Making Money Online - its not free (though rather underpriced in my opinion)- its based on Grizz’s Make Money for Beginners blog.
Earn Passive Income Online – the Course
If you feel the need for a supportive environment and a step-by-step teaching approach, particularly if you are really stuck on chosing the right keywords -the The Keyword Academy, run my Court and Mark, is the place for you. Try it out for free for the first month, yes there is an ongoing subscription model but from what I see most people consider the tools and techniques offered well worth the monthly fee. Cancel within the first 30 days if you want (you probably won’t though!) – and this is not one of those lame offers where the intro price doesn’t give you just he cut down version – you get access to everything for free for a month – if you can’t figure out the value in that time then I can’t really help you.
More Reading