This is a guest post by Mark Johnson about passive income who blogs at TheBusinessNoad.com and through this post he wants to talk about the common myth related to earning a passive income online and what people should look after in order to make money online; really.
There is a widely held belief on the internet that it is possible to build a passive income online. Whilst this notion is not wholey un-true, it isn’t totally true either. More-over though, it is a dangerous idea, which I believe prevents many people from successfully generating an income online – the very thing that they were attempting to do.
So in this post, I wanted to explain the truth behind the myth, and to show you what the real options are if you want to make money online.
Each strategy has it’s own pro’s and con’s, but any strategy can work if you are prepared to put the work in… If you want a truly passive income that doesn’t require any ongoing effort, then I for one, can’t help you.
Passive Is Fuzzy
Every money making strategy can be made passive to an extent, but no strategy can ever be truly, 100% passive. What you are really looking for is a business (yes even an Adsense website is a business) that can be streamlined in such a way that your role in it is fairly minimal, or at least so that your ongoing work is simple and not too time restricted.
Any business, regardless of the ultimate goal, will take time to set up. You will have to put in the work up front, especially as you presumably won’t want to invest too much money before you are actually making a profit.
The Right Way To Look At Income Generation
I find it easiest to view the different options on a scale of how passive the actually revenue generation is. For instance, at one end of the scale you have Adsense websites. Once you have built the traffic, turning it into money is basically automatic… Although you would still want to tweak your Ad blocks to improve your click through rate.
At the other end of the scale is something like running a retail business, whether on eBay or via your own website. You need to put in the time to handle orders – most of the work goes into the process of actual sales.
But in the case of eBay, your traffic needs are pretty much sorted. And even with your own website, you can afford to do a little paid advertising, which is fairly easy compared to the SEO route.
The Best Way To Make Money Online
The best option really depends on you. Personally, I think starting an eBay business is perfect for most people (that’s how I make the majority of my income online). It is entirely possible to start up and be making a modest profit within a week or two… Compare that to the Adsense option, which will take months.
Sure there is more ongoing work, but it is pretty simple to outsource the actual processing of orders. One of my businesses is outsourced to the extent that all I actually do is order new stock, and list it when it arrives. Everything else is handled by other people.
Of course, you can also outsource a lot of the work involved in building an Adsense empire, but with a business that takes at least 4-6 months to make any money, you have to be pretty confident in your SEO strategy before you commit that sort of expense.
Summary
At the end of the day, the best way to make money online is to pick an option that works for you and stick with it. Be prepared to put in a lot of work up front and you can worry about streamlining later on. No business starts off passive, they all take a lot of work…
But on the other hand, if you have enough imagination, most businesses can be made a lot more passive once they are well established, so don’t let your dream of earning a passive income limit your options.
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Article Written By Mark Johnson
Mark Johnson is the founder of "The Business Nomad". Check out his blog about SEO, link building and making money online and learn how to break free from the 9 to 5 and start living life on your terms.
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Ebay businesses make sense, but what about Amazon affiliate schemes? Do you have any thoughts on them?
I have found that a lot of people like Amazon and a lot of people don’t like them. I guess it is a toss up and you would be wise to do your research. I have heard of other companies that have trouble paying its affiliates out. So just be smart and do the research.
Hi Mark, you are right that the best way to make money online for a person really depends on the person who wants to make money online. Adsense sites or ebay are not the only ways to make money online though as people can sell digital products (e-books), make money off of advertising (other than Adsense) and bloggers can also take advantage of being an affiliate for their blog theme, a piece of software that relates to their blog and so on. As technology advances, I think we are only going to see more doors open up when it comes to making money online.
I agree that no money making opportunity is ever truly “passive”. No matter what we pursue as an income generation, we always have to work at it and be bigger and better than the last time we worked. Passive income is sometimes deceiving. Great post!
It is very difficult to use Adsense as a main method to create passive income, it maybe could take years to be successful. Ebay business is a good idea, however I am trying Amazon affiliate now as I heard many positive reviews about it.
Good post, Mark.
@ Tuan : i dont like amazon for the reason it pays only 4% of total sale , and its very low … Adsense is still the best way to monetize as it puts the max paying ads on your site ….
I don’t know where I read this, but I do like it: “If you’re not making money while you sleep, you don’t have a business you have a job.”
Many believe they can throw up a website and traffic will show up full of people who will place orders. But we all know there is a lot of work involved, at least up front. I have no problem with that, but whatever model I use must include some sort of method for automatic order placement and fulfillment. Outsourcing is great, depending on cost, but may be prohibitive for certain models. Some systems have it build in, such as software downloads with computer generated emails and unlock codes.
I have been chained to a product that required my attention for each order, and I really don’t care to do that anymore. Working on a business each week is fine, but having to do specific tasks at specific times is not.
I like the way you say that the definition of ‘passive’ is a little fuzzy. The goal, at least for me, is to enjoy more control over When I put in the work.
Nice post, Mark.
Rick
Hi Mark,
I agree with you that Adsense really does take a lot of time before you could make any money. There are many other ways to make money online aside from Adsense and eBay, but I’m glad you’ve shared your make money online experience from Ebay. Thank you for sharing!
We can definitely earn passive income online. There are so many ways actually but to maintain that income I really doubt it. We should not set that this is I wanna earn each month but rather you have to work hard to achieve that. For those who earn passive income it’s not an over night success and I’ll tell you they really strive hard to reach that point. When it comes to blogging it’s pretty hard to earn money and most of the time you have to wait for half a year to years only if you are really patient because as you’ve said it’s really hard to earn in Adsense might as well to reach the minimum payout which is $100.
Hi Mark,
I think that the passive income is the ultimate goal for any online marketer or entrepreneur. People who start any online business should realize that there is no such thing as automatic income, but with an online business you can create a passive income or residual income business within 3-5 years, and it is 5 times faster than with any other type of business.
One of the short term passive income strategy as an affiliate marketer is to sell memberships on different programs. This means you attract a customer once, and you get paid for 3-6 months on average.
Regards,
Peter
“pick an option that suits for you” The problem is that you have to find that option first. There are many different sectors of making money – paysites, affiliates, auctions, services … and each of them has many ways to do it.
The hardest, but true thing is that you have to try. Don’t rely on guides, you can read em but just to obtain some information – you can’t consider it as a ready-to-go guide. Nobody started making money online from the first day.
Hi Mark
I just started blogging a few months ago and have just sourced the products I will review and sell on my site. Besides these products I will also do affiliate marketing with Amazon as they have the products that suit my niche. I agree that you have to find what suits you.
Patricia Perth Australia
very nice post i would like to know more about click bank and other affiliate sites . every busniess has it pros and cons and running any business at the start is not any easy job at the start but once you have tasted the success then you are in the game and can earn big bucks
Sticking with it is a good point.
eBay? Wow, no thank you. I use to work with them but got fed up. I’ve had a credit balance for year. Two weeks ago I sat on hold ALL DAY and I do mean all day in their chat system to get them to send me refund. After 12 hours, i stepped away from the computer and they answered. They waited three minutes for me to return. The next day I finally got through, it will take two weeks to 30 days to get my refund. I bet I have to go through their cue again, I bet they don’t issue it.
The other thing though that keeps people from making money is failure to start. I think fear keeps them from every getting started. Yes, its not passive. You can set up offers that keep churning out money but in the beginning there is going to be work and lots of it.
How do you know when to start monetizing your blog. I don’t have a steady stream of readers and i am working on building that up but at what point should i start to think about it?
It is good to earn the money through ebay and I think it is the fastest way to earn the money. It is novice introduction for me and I am here to work on every type of way that can be source of income for me.
By reading this post I have made my decision to go for such income.
If you think you are going to make money by being passive you are in for a big surprise. Being aggressive in your marketplace is essential to your success. You should always be pushing yourself and your competition.
starting mini sites is a good way to make passive income … sites that get small traffic , and makes money through adsense , you dont have to invest more time ….
Is the ebay similar to amazon affiliate program ? I mean, sellling physical products as an affiliate and receive commission? The best methods to monetize are: adsense, clickbank (e-books) and amazon.
Every monetization plan is going to be different depending on what the particular niche and site design are. Adsense isn’t perfect for every site, aside from that, Adsense TOS doesn’t allow certain ads/offers on the same pages as other ads.
I thought a long time back that eBay success is a myth. After learning internet marketing, I realized it’s an awesome way to acquire continuous income. I saw in YouTube that eBay is still the perfect online business…