Passive Income Explained

For many people, passive income is the holy grail of internet marketing. After all, what could be more appealing than money coming in day in and day out with no work? Unfortunately, there are so many misconceptions around passive income that people often have unrealistic expectations that keep them from getting to having real passive income.

How does passive income work, really? What can you really expect if you want to embark on the journey of creating streams of passive income?

Passive Income Requires Upfront Work to Create

Passive income is a bit like a rocket. It takes a lot of energy to get it off the ground. Once it’s off the ground however, it requires far less energy. The expenditure is no longer on getting the rocket moving, but on steering the rocket.

The idea of having money coming in day in and day out is very appealing. But the reality is, there’s only two ways to create passive income: To buy it or to create it. And to create it is a lot of work.

Not having to work is great, but you must be willing to put in the upfront work if you want to reap the benefits. There’s no such thing as passive income for nothing.

Passive Income Vehicles Online

There are many ways to make passive income online. Here are just a few:

- AdSense websites. If you have a site with good search engine rankings and you’re monetizing with AdSense, then as long as your rankings stay your income will be 100% passive.

- Info Product. If you own an info product and have a sales funnel setup that includes driving traffic and converting that traffic, then the sales will keep coming in even while you sleep.

- Affiliate Marketing. Again, if you’re bringing in consistent traffic, whether it’s through organic SEO or through PPC traffic, so long as the traffic remains constant you’ll keep collecting a paycheck whether or not you put in any work.

Keep in mind these are just a few of the many options available to you. Nobody could possibly list out all the ways to make money online and new ways are being invented every single day.

However, it’s important to remember …

Nothing is 100% Passive

Even if you have an AdWords campaign bringing in $100 a day, you still have to check your stats at least several times a week.

If you have an AdSense website making you money from its rankings, you still need to check your rankings and your traffic about once a week or so to make sure nothing’s amiss.

The truth is, there’s no such thing as passive income that’s just “set it and forget it”. You’ll always have to do some degree of monitoring and maintaining.

Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, once said: “Never get involved with a passive income vehicle you don’t love. If you do, you won’t maintain it.” That’s more true than ever online.

The Truth About Passive Income

Passive income is one of the greatest rewards of internet marketing. It’s very achievable and very lucrative. That said, it’s important to realize that you do have to work very hard at it to create it. Once you’ve created the passive income, you still have to monitor and maintain the income.

Now that you know realistically what it takes to create passive income, if you’re still committed to creating this level of success for yourself, then go out there and start building passive income for yourself – Starting now.