The Dream of Passive Income
It's an amazing thing to be able to earn money from home. Never before has it been so easy to own your own business and successfully set your own income.
You often hear of people talking about the passive income dream. There's something about being able to lounge on the beach and read a novel while earning money without lifting a finger. It’s endlessly appealing to people.
But, is it actually possible to earn a passive income? Can you earn a full-time income from home, in your pajamas, by setting a business up once and never touching it again? Well, that’s not exactly the case, but it’s closer than you might think.
There are plenty of fantastic passive business models to choose from, including online business models, that you can put into practice today. You can earn a full-time income possibly working part time or even less than part time.
The difference between the dream and the reality is that you won’t be able to leave your passive income stream alone forever. You will have to monitor it and nurture it over time.
With that said, you absolutely can be sipping a piña colada on the beach while earning a full-time income because of the work you’ve already done. Doesn’t that sound great? It can absolutely happen for you.
There are many different methods out there that make this possible. For the purposes of today's lesson, I'm going to focus on ways to earn passive income with online marketing.
But first…
What’s The Difference Between Passive And Non-Passive Income
So, what’s really the difference between passive and non-passive income? We’ve already talked about the fact that even passive income isn’t truly, completely passive. You’ll do the work in the beginning to set the income stream up, you’ll check in, tweak, and monitor it here and there over time and you’ll reap the rewards.
This is quite different than a business model that’s totally hands-on. There are plenty of non-passive business models out there that require you to be present and actively working in order to earn.
There are a ton of examples you’re probably already familiar with. Most jobs, for example. You have to show up and work every day to get paid.
Freelance work is non-passive. You work for clients and turn the work in or you don’t get paid. Other services like graphic design, one-on-one coaching, and other businesses and jobs are like that.
When you get sick and can’t work, you don’t get paid. If you put more hours in, maybe you’ll get paid more. If you put fewer hours in you’ll get paid less.
That’s not to say that these business models aren’t worth it—they absolutely can be. It just depends on what you want and what your goals are. Some people focus on non-passive income methods for life while others use them as a way to get some seed money for passive income methods. There’s no “right” business model, it’s just what’s right for you. I will say that I think everyone should consider setting up passive income business models at one point or another.
Passive income methods are those you set up and they earn for you whether you’re actively working on them or not. You do the hard work in the beginning and see rewards for many months or years to come.
It doesn’t matter if you get sick—you get paid. It doesn’t matter if you don’t feel like working for a week or even a month—you get paid.
You have to check in and tweak your passive income streams over time. You have to keep up with any changes and nurture and grow your income streams. But your earnings aren’t tied to your work hour per hour.
You could work part time (even extremely part time), and still earn a full time income.
You can stack passive income streams because you can have more time to do so. This is how true wealth can build.
You can earn while you’re lounging on the beach, while you’re sleeping, while you’re traveling, while you’re ill, and while you’re building additional passive income streams.
That’s not possible with non-passive income streams.
Let’s break it down with examples:
Some examples of non-passive income streams:
· Freelance writing
· Assistant/secretary/virtual assistant
· One-on-One coaching
· Consulting
· Any job where you’re paid per hour
Again, I’m not telling you to stay away from any of these—not at all. They’re great to start with or even to take on as a career.
Just don’t put yourself in a box. Many wealthy people offer coaching and have fantastic passive income streams as well, for example.
Some passive income streams include:
· Niche websites set up to earn affiliate income
· Certain financial investments
· Self-publishing
· Automated list building funnels, and your email list autoresponder sequences
· Infoproducts (create once, sell forever)
· Membership sites (sometimes)
That’s really just the start of it—there are so many different business models you can choose from.
So, What Kind Of Business Are You Going To Build?
Now that you more fully understand the difference, what are you going to focus on?
As I hinted at earlier, your choice might depend on what you need right now. The fact is that passive income, as wonderful as it is, can take some time to build up. You’ll do the work now, but it might take weeks or months for those major, passive rewards to start really rolling in. Before they do, you’re doing a lot of work for no income.
What happens if you need money now? That’s where non-passive income comes in for a lot of people. They’ll start freelancing to get some seed money while they wait for passive income streams to take fruit. Or they’ll give themselves a quick bump in income by offering coaching or consulting.
Non-passive income can be great because you can get cash in hand much more quickly. It’s also sometimes much more of a sure thing. There’s no guarantee that your self-published book or affiliate marketing niche website will take off and earn for you but you can pretty much rest assured that you can get clients as a freelance writer or work as a virtual assistant for a while—or forever, if you want.
The choice is yours. Consider working on a passive income stream a little at a time. That’s exactly what I describe in my 5 Bucks A Day Method. It’s all about stacking smaller passive income streams that are designed to earn you $5 a day, until you’re earning your dream, full-time income from passive income streams.
When you build passive income, you give yourself freedom. You can travel, get sick, lounge on the beach, and sleep the day away and still earn fantastic money. You can build real wealth when you focus on passive income. That’s the dream so many people have, and it can be your reality.