Guest Post By Rodney Laws, Editor at Ecommerce Platforms, where you can compare the best online store builders
We all dream of giving up the 9-5 office job and working for ourselves. The ability to control our own income, make more money, of building a business and reaping the rewards — it’s an enticing prospect.
Passive income is one way to achieve that. If you’re interested in this and want to make 2022 your year, read on to learn how.
What is passive income?
Passive income is essentially a way of generating profits without needing to actually put work in on a daily basis. Also known as hands-free business, it’s an increasingly popular option for entrepreneurs that is fuelled by the growth of the internet.
While passive income is a desirable choice, it’s not a walk in the park. It requires hard work and persistent effort to create a business that generates income of its own accord.
And even then, passive income is never entirely passive. You will still need to dip into your business to ensure everything stays working as it should to make more money.
Is passive income right for you?
Embracing passive income is a rewarding lifestyle change that gives you freedom, both in your finances and your life as a whole.
But it’s not easy, especially if you’re used to a regular paycheck from your 9-5. For many, that comfort of a regular source of income is hard to give up — it takes guts. So if you’re serious about embracing passive income in 2022, a positive mindset is crucial.
Read Shanda Sumpter’s story for an example of the kind of attitude you should embrace. Shanda is a self-made entrepreneur who embraced financial freedom and created a career based on her own gumption, rather than relying on a paycheck from someone else, and her advice is: “you just got to keep going until you get what you want […] You complete what you start. That’s it. It’s really that simple.”
Sure, there will be people who criticize you for your decision to embrace the passive income life. But if you keep at it, work hard, and stay focused — it is this that helps you achieve your passive income dream.
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Do your research and find the right option for you
There are myriad options open to you if you want to embrace passive income. Here are just a few of the most popular to make more money:
Sell ad space on your passion blog
The most simple way to embrace passive income is to sell advertising space on your blog.
Simply sign up to Google AdSense, and it will connect you with relevant brands willing to pay you for ad space. You then get paid for every ad that is clicked on or seen by your audience. This is perfect if you’re a keen blogger writing about something you’re passionate about.
Of course, it’s not as simple as that in practice. You need a lot of traffic to generate any real profits, and that takes time and effort.
But if you’ve already got a good amount of traffic coming to your blog (or you’re well-versed in increasing traffic for websites), selling advertising space is an option worth considering.
Get paid to review products with affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a popular passive income option. In its most simple terms, affiliate marketing involves getting paid to promote a business’s products or services. Simply subscribe to a brand’s affiliate program and create content that endorses their products.
For every sale that arises as a direct result of your content (via a trackable link), you earn a small percentage of the profits.
If affiliate marketing piques your interest, first think about the kind of product you want to promote.
Big-ticket items such as white goods or electronics offer the greatest profit percentage. But if you’re not interested in these kinds of products, writing about them will be a chore, negatively impacting your reviews into the process.
Find something you are passionate about instead — while it might not offer as much profit immediately, it will be more sustainable than writing about something you dislike.
Sell your knowledge through an online course and make more money
They say that “knowledge is power”, but knowledge is also money — in this case, a valuable source of passive income.
If you have a specific skill that other people want to learn, why not monetize it with an online course and make more money? Instead of selling your time (and defeating the purpose of passive income), create a digital course and sell it via a website. You could even complement this with an ebook or a blog with paid ads to increase your passive income a little more.
Again, this isn’t a walk in the park. You need a useful and teachable skill first, and then you need to implement a lead generation strategy to get it seen. This takes time, but if your skill is in high demand, it’s well worth the effort.
Don’t neglect your brand
So you’ve decided that the passive income life is right for you and you’ve chosen an option that suits your background, passion, and skillset. Now it’s time to enter the foray and start building your passive income business.
But if you want to stand out against the crowd, you need to go beyond simply ticking boxes — you need to create a personal brand. This Thinkific piece is a good start and identifies the key steps you need to take.
Start by researching your target market. Identify your niche market and consider what things they care about. Use this to inform your branding — the language your target market uses, the references they know, the accounts they follow on social — they all count.
Once you understand your market, embody this in your business website. Use free themes to help you visualize your website and identify what does — or doesn’t — work in terms of aesthetics.
Finally, be consistent. Regularity is what drives repeat traffic by building trust, so ensure your branding is consistent across all your channels: website, social, email, and so on.
Passive income is a viable business option for people looking to ditch the 9-5 and work for themselves, and themselves alone. It’s not easy, but it’s well worth doing when you reap the rewards.
Follow the tips above and take your first step towards a passive income lifestyle that works for you in 2022.
