“Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.”
— Oscar Wilde
I get it. You’ve seen all the people touting the latest and greatest money-making scheme on the internet. Screenshots of earnings and plaques that signify certain income levels have become the norm. Clearly, it’s possible to generate an income on the web. We see it happening day-in and day-out.
However, that doesn’t seem to be what holds most people back from earning or side-hustling in the digital realm. No. Not at all. Most people believe that others can do it. They simply don’t believe that they can do it. I get it. I’ve been there and I can relate.
But here’s the truth. Most people are dabblers. They try something like it’s the flavor of the month, then throw in the towel and give up when things don’t seem to go their way. Persistence is the real key to success. That’s the truth no matter what you try to accomplish or achieve.
Of course, it’s especially true if you’re trying to make money. Because, let’s face it, there are complexities involved with earning a substantial amount of cash. Online or offline. But, once you understand the fundamentals, this becomes a walk in the park.
Most people don’t understand the basis for what causes the generation of cash as a rule. And, yes, there is a hard-and-fast rule. I’m not just talking about the online world. I’m also talking about the real world. No, not the strategies and the tactics. That’s secondary.
At the basis of it all is one thing and one thing online. Solving problems. The bigger the problem that you can solve, the more money you can make. Think about it yourself for a moment. When you have a big problem that you need solved, what do you do?
Let’s say you have ants in your house or a rodent infestation. That’s a problem, isn’t it? What do you do? You go online and figure out how you can solve that problem. Maybe you search for a professional to help. Or, maybe you jump on Amazon and you search for products that can solve that problem.
Either way, it’s a problem. And solving it is paramount. Especially if you have children or a family that you need to protect. In those cases, we would pay just about anything. But there are many levels of problems that need to be solved in every industry.
First and foremost, understand that if you solve a small problem, you’ll get paid a small wage. Let’s say McDonald’s has a problem. They need someone to flip burgers or work the cash register. It’s a small problem because it can be solved by just about anyone. In turn, the wages are small.
Now, I’m not knocking working at McDonald’s. I’m only illuminating this as a small problem that can easily be solved. Why? Because just about anyone with a pulse is qualified to work at McDonald’s. Now, what about bigger problems? What are the bigger problems that can be solved.
For example, there are industries that are complex. Like, for instance, SEO. Most people have a problem ranking. They don’t understand the complexities of SEO. It’s an incredibly large problem. Why? Because businesses are spending large amounts of money for visibility.
But SEO is free. And it provides massive organic exposure. And that’s precisely why I can charge $50,000+ per month to help businesses beat their competitors on Google’s search engines. It’s a massive and very complex problem. And I understand the inner-workings implicitly.
Now, I’m not trying to impress you at all. I’m simply making a point. If you can solve a big problem, you can receive a big payment. That’s it. Plain and simple. Just remember that this is the very essence and basis of what it takes to make a large amount of money online or offline.
There are so many people out there who make a massive mistake. And I get it. They want to earn but they don’t know where to turn. And when they do turn somewhere, they do it the wrong way. They directly exchange their time for money by entering into an hourly scenario where they get paid for their time.
But here’s the thing about that. Time is not on your side. It’s finite. Not infinite. Yet, we all have the same amount. The billionaire and the pauper each have 24 hours in a day. You can’t buy more. And once you spend it, it’s gone forever.
The difference here is that wealthy people understand this concept very well. They know that time is precious. And that exchanging time for money is a losing battle. Of course, you have to survive. And you might need to get paid hourly to do that. But just understand that getting rich or wealthy can never happen if you directly exchange your time for money.
Some of the money-making strategies you’ll see here fall into the realm of passive income. Just understand that passive income is a steep climb. Either you need money to invest into something that can earn you passive income, or you need lots of time to invest.
For example, you can buy income property if you have the money. Multi-family homes, for example, can produce cashflow every single month. But that doesn’t mean you need money to earn passive income. You can invest your time wisely to do it as well.
You can write books, create audiobooks, make courses, build sales funnels and more. All of these things can produce passive income without a huge investment of capital. But you do need to invest your time. But if you’re going to focus on anything, my advice to you is to focus on income strategies that don’t require you to be there to make money.
Sounds cheesy, but find ways that you can make money while you sleep and focus on multiple streams of income. Don’t just rely on one income strategy. Invest your time in creating and launching multiple ways that you can earn money so that you don’t have to rely on your time to earn.
Aside from solving problems, if you’re serious about making money, you have to understand the second concept that generates cash. And that is the value proposition. In other words, how much value are you offering to people in exchange for the money they’re paying you?
This is no small thing. it’s the basis for what we call the irresistible offer. Real marketers understand that if they don’t deliver massive value, they won’t generate cash as a rule. So, not only do you have to solve big problems, but you also have to deliver massive value while solving it.
This applies to both passive income and active income. But make sure you heed this advice. Don’t try to do the least amount of work for the greatest return. Ask yourself how you can deliver 10 times (or more) value versus what you’re charging people. Period.
The world’s largest store is open for business. And the best news about it? Just about anyone can partner up with Mr. Bezos to sell their wares online. In fact, well over 50% of the items sold on Amazon are actually sold by third-party sellers. People like you and me.
While not immediately passive, once your private label product is up and running on Amazon, the income does become largely passive. While there are many intricacies to building an Amazon FBA business, it is one of the best ways you can make money online today.
Why? You’re partnering up with one of the richest people in the world. And Amazon truly is a giant in the shopping world with over 100 million prime members spending north of $1,400 per year buying up simple everyday products. The demand is there. The question is, are you willing to put in the work and put in the time to succeed?
Fiverr is the popular Canadian startup that’s revolutionized the gig economy. Starting out with small $5 gigs, the platform has grown and morphed into larger-paying projects as well. The beauty? You can do just about any task under the sun and get paid for it on Fiverr.
What are you good at? Whatever it is, there’s a gig for that. List and sell your services on Fiverr to make quick, easy income from wherever you are in the world. It works. And it’s used by countless people from all walks of life. Sure, this is active income. But if you need some quick cash, this it the place to turn.
Peer-to-peer lending has helped drive economies around the world. Not just in the United States. Sites like LendingClub and Prosper allow you to invest into loans that help you earn an interest. Most of these loans are backed by algorithms that help to verify the ability of an individual to pay it back. They assess credit scores, income and other factors.
While there’s no guarantees in life, putting your money to work is better than letting it simply sit around and not multiply. Do your research and your due diligence. You don’t need to invest in every deal. Select and choose the ones that are right with your comfort and risk level so that you can literally make money while you sleep.
One benefit of the app economy is the access to work virtually anytime and anywhere. If you live in a location that supports Uber and Lyft, sign up to start earning money immediately. You can literally set your own schedule and work as you see fit.
Just turn on the app when you’re ready to start accepting rides and start earning an income. While this won’t make you rich, if you need to start earning immediately, this could be a quick fix. Be sure to combine this with other passive income ideas so that you’re not merely tied to exchanging your time for money.
Want to start a blog? Blogs like the one you’re visiting right now are massive behemoths with many millions of unique visitors. Those visitors help the founders earn an incredible amount of money online. You can literally promote just about anything once you’ve built up substantial traffic on your blog.
But, like anything else, this takes work. Don’t expect this to happen overnight or quickly at all. Building up a blog means consistent effort over time. You can’t just do it for a few months then forget about it. We’re talking about years of effort here.
However, after you in put those years of effort, you literally have a traffic source that can help you build an email list of hundreds of thousands of individuals. By providing insane amounts of value on your blog, you are literally creating a virtual machine that can help you earn a significant amount of money on autopilot for years to come.
Flipping items is big business. What most people don’t realize is that there are people out there willing to buy just about anything. You name it. People want it. Just because you think something has little value, it doesn’t mean the next person thinks that.
Yet, this isn’t limited to what you have around your house. You can take the Gary Vaynerchuck approach and scour local garage sales and flea markets looking for deals. Once you find those deals, you can easily resell them on sites like Ebay or Facebook Marketplace, along with a variety of other places.
ClickFunnels is one of the best software platforms out there for building sales funnels. What are sales funnels? They’re an innovative way to market products that don’t lead to confusion. You see, here’s the thing. Websites are dead. Yes. They most certainly are.
Why? Because they offer too many options for navigation, that by the time you get to a purchase page, you’ve lost the interest of the visitor. Since we have such short attention spans (7 seconds to be exact), you don’t want to lose the interest of a visitor. That’s why sales funnels are key.
Sales funnels offer one distinct path that you can take the visitor down. It’s like having your best sales person hold the hand of the visitor and literally take them down the aisles, selling them exactly what they need. In funnel world these are called up-sells, down-sells, one-time offers (OTOs), order bumps, and self-liquidating offers (SLOs).
And, the absolute best software for building sales funnels is a software platform called ClickFunnels. If you haven’t tried it, I’d first suggest giving it a 14-day free trial. And I’m sure you’ll be convinced that this billion-dollar company is the future of the internet and websites as we know it.
If you know how to write, consider earning an online income by writing for others. In other words, become a ghost writer. It’s a fast, simple and effective way to money online. Of course, you have to be a good writer. If you’re not, you’ll find it hard-pressed to charge people a fee that will be worth your while.
But, like any other skill, mastery in writing takes practice. Practice makes progress over time. You should especially do this if you love to write. If you have a burning passion to share your thoughts with others, start writing like the wind. Stephen King made it a habit to publish 2,000 words per day every single day without fail. What will you commit yourself to doing to improve your craft?
Years ago, I started on KDP as my foray into the world of writing. I jumped off the deep end and started publishing books on SEO and habits and marketing. The beauty about this is that anyone, literally anyone, can publish a book on Amazon’s KDP platform.
You don’t need any type of degree, past experience or anything else for that matter. Heck, I had never written or published a book in my life before I published my first one under my pen name, R.L. Adams! So don’t listen to the advice of anyone and just get to writing.
This is passive income at its best. 7 years on, I’m still receiving income from books and audiobooks that I wrote. At the outset, you won’t get anything. But stick to it and push your work out there. You’ll need an effective marketing plan, but like anything else, success in this takes persistence.
Care.com is a great resource for gigs like babysitting, dog sitters, cleaning and more. If you’re looking for active income, it’s a quick and easy way to find local work. You don’t need to go through a verification process with them, so don’t expect income immediately.
But, once you’re verified, and pass their background checks, you’re good to go. You can start accepted jobs locally. Effectively, it’s your active lead source for active income. If you love working with children or pets, this is the perfect solution for making some extra cash on the side.
Everyone knows about AirBnB. They’re a gigantic worldwide force when it comes to short-term “transient” rentals. Meaning, they’re perfect for furnished, less-than-30-day rentals. If you have a spare room, or an entire spare house, consider renting it on the platform.
You can hand-select the guests who stay at your home, and it’s entirely at your discretion. You can even rent out your primary home in its entirety. This is especially lucrative if you’re in a high-demand tourist destination. But works either way, for just about any destination.
People always need a place to stay. And this is largely passive income (okay, maybe residual income). You will need to find a cleaner, possibly a property manager and someone to check guests in. Sure, you could do most of this at the outset. But once you put a system and processes into place, this becomes a real passive income source.
As an avid web developer, I can speak firsthand about how lucrative this skill is. I started as a web developer long ago. In fact, my first ever company that I started after dropping out of law school was a web design firm. That was over 15 years ago now! But this is a skill that I have avidly retained and enhanced until this day.
Back then, I used sites like Elance.com (recently acquired by Upwork) to find my first clients. However, this certainly makes you a commodity since these days you’re now competing on price. So you have to find a way to set yourself apart from the cheaper labor that now exists around the world.
Still, as long as you deliver real value to clients, you can more certainly create a very healthy active income doing web development work. If you need help learning the web development skill, check out my course located here.
The beauty of the internet is that it has unleashed tremendous opportunity, unheard of or unseen before. This is on many levels. While there is a glutton of information out there, it’s more about how you use the information rather than having access to it.
One way to truly tap into this is to invest in multi-million dollar cash-flowing properties through sites like FundRise and CrowdStreet, amongst many others. But FundRise has certainly been around for a while now. Imagine this like fractional ownership where you invest a small share for very high returns.
The internet is filled with tasks that you could do on a daily basis to earn a bit of income. One of those tasks is to provide transcription services on Rev. No, not translation. Transcription. All you’re doing is listening to audio or video and transcribing what you hear. That’s it.
It’s fast, simple and doesn’t take much time. Unlike more complex tasks, this can be performed without much headache. Clearly, it helps if you can type fast. If not, it’s not the end of the world and still a good way to earn an active income while working from home, or remotely from anywhere in the world for that matter.
REITs or Real Estate Investment Trusts are a traditional way that you can earn money through real estate without buying the physical assets. These have been around for decades and you can easily search and find a viable REIT ETF by using information gleaned online.
REIT ETF stocks are far less volatile than traditional stocks as well. You can also use any of the popular trading apps to purchase REITs after researching the top REIT ETFs online.
Ecommerce is a beast. There is so much money being spent online, and growing exponentially, that it’s hard to ignore. Most people think that all the money is being spent on large ecommerce stores like Amazon and Ebay. But that’s far from the truth.
However, setting up an ecommerce store can be cumbersome and confusing. That’s especially true if you’re not very “techy” to begin with. That’s why having a Shopify store is a simple, turn-key solution to selling online.
Another great way to take advantage of the huge online economy to make money is to leverage an app called Turo. This is a great way to make some extra cash by using an asset you may just have sitting around — namely, your car.
Think about this as an AirBnB on wheels. You simply list your vehicle for rent and people start to rent it. Just like a home rental, you’ll have to meet the guests and give them your vehicle and collect it at the end. Sure, you can outsource this as well, but it all depends on just how much money you’re earning from the endeavor.
Today, many businesses understand the power of social media. Yet, many are unable to take advantage of it. Why? Because, like most of the world, businesses understand how to consume content on social media, but are unable to leverage it to generate leads and sales.
That’s why there’s no better time than today to become a social media manager. Social media management can certainly earn you a good amount of income. But keep in mind that this is active income. And you will need to directly exchange your time to earn it. But another big benefit of this is you can literally do this from just about anywhere in the world.
YouTube. It’s a free-traffic monster. But building a YouTube channel is no small feat. It takes time, dedication and a consistent approach to releasing high-value videos on a weekly basis. It’s not something you can do for a short time and then just forget about it.
So, if you’re the type of person who cowers in the face of hard work, this is not for you. But, if you’re able to do it and build up a substantial following, it can help you create income for years to come. Maybe even longer than that.
What’s the one thing that all businesses need or are in shortage of? The answer? Customers. Businesses need customers, and to get those customers, they need leads. That’s where you come in as a Facebook ads expert. Find a course or watch some YouTube videos so that you can learn how to run Facebook ads for local businesses.
Clearly, you should know what you’re doing before you start charging businesses for a service like this. But, with enough immersive learning, you could become an expert in no time. Not only will this help you get results for customers, but you can also use your new-found ad skills to find your own business customers as well.
Many stock photography companies allow you to sell your photos on their platforms. DreamsTime is one such platform. Others are iStockPhoto.com, Shutterstock and others. Each have different criteria and requirements to sell your photos on the platform.
However, in order to do this, you should be an avid photographer. It doesn’t mean you need to be a professional. But you should have a keen eye for photography. While not life-changing, this is an excellent source of passive income that you can add to your arsenal.
If you’re interested in performing some remote work, why not consider becoming a notary for notarize.com. You could work remotely from anywhere, as long as you become a certified electronic notary in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
This allows you to do notarizations on their platform, which will feed you a steady stream of leads. To become a notary in the Commonwealth of Virginia, you will need to live or work there already. So this does limit the opportunity slightly.
There are plenty sites that allow you to rent out your items to other people. Sites like RentTheRunway, BagBorrowSteal and others allow you to rent anything from bags to shoes and other luxury (and non-luxury) goods on a monthly basis.
This is great if you already have the items sitting around. It doesn’t make sense if you have to go out and buy the items, unless you’re looking at more of a long-term passive income stream from this. Do the research and due diligence on sites before you jump into anything like this.
If you have experience in business or marketing, why not consult for businesses? Some consultants make an extraordinary amount of money. However, you do have to understand how to identify your target market, know the problem that they have implicitly, and be able to speak directly to their pain.
Becoming a business consultant is not something you should consider if you have next to no experience in business yourself. Charging someone for a service requires that you understand what you’re doing implicitly. Be sure to be mindful of that if you jump into the fray.
Another way to generate some passive income online is to sell designs on CafePress or TeeSpring. These platforms monetize your designs by allowing customers to print them on a variety of items. Things like shirts, mugs, and so on and so forth.
All you have to do is come up with designs by hiring a designer to help you. You can find designers on a variety of websites like Upwork or 99Designs and Freelancer, just to name a few. It’s not difficult to find help. You just have to be willing to pay a small fee upfront.
When searching for designers, make sure that you look for someone who can create vector artwork for you. This is very important. Vector artwork can be enhanced and resized to any size without getting pixelated.
Have extra clothes sitting around your house? Why not sell it on a platform like PoshMark. PoshMark let’s you buy and sell clothes simply through a simple-to-use platform. All you have to do is upload photos of your clothes for sale to your closet.
The company gives you labels you can print out and once the item is delivered, you’re paid for the goods you sold. It’s fast, simple and effective. And it’s a great way to clean out your closet of clothes that you might not be using while earning an income at the same time.
Network marketing is not a bad word. Neither is multi-level marketing. However, it all depends on which one you join. There are reputable ones out there like Jaime Cross’s MIG Soap, HER Effect and Rodan + Fields. And there are ones that are not-so-reputable.
And, if you want to rank advance in your existing network marketing business, and you feel like you’re struggling, be sure to check out Rank Makers. It’s a valuable community by my good friend, Ray Higdon, who is an absolute authority in the field.
Another way to generate an income is to help others sell their items on Ebay. For most people, Ebay can be confusing and cumbersome. Most don’t have the time nor the energy for it. That’s where brokers and middle-men come into play.
Simply put, you’re just selling the item for them and taking a small percentage of the sale. It’s like brokering anything else. But this is a very simple and effective business you can do. And getting customers is easy by just posting on social media to your friends and network of contacts.
Sites like Udemy and Teachable allow you to sell your expertise to the world. They provide a simple and easy-to-use platform for pushing your content out into the real world. While Udemy is far larger, Teachable gives you a bit more control over the actual content appearance and pricing of your course.
Be sure to do your due diligence on both platforms before committing to one or the other. They are fairly different in some aspects and similar in others. But both are very reputable and can help you push your content out there and earn a passive income without being an expert at marketing.
Another way to generate a bit of income is by managing local vacation rentals. By making contacts with local vacation rental owners and posting them to vacation rental sites, you can create a thriving side business. This is especially true if you live in a tourist destination.
In fact, this is how Michael Joseph created InvitedHome. He started out by renting out his own home in Lake Tahoe. Then, when there was overflow of demand, he started reaching out to other owners in the area. Ultimately, it turned into a massive multi-million-dollar-per-year business.
Podcasts are a fantastic way to create passive income. Sure, it takes work to build your audience. But that much is a given. Yet, with consistent, high-quality content, you could build a thriving audience of listeners who will turn to you to help them solve similar problems that you might be facing.
To do this, you have to engineer the podcast the right way. Identify the problem your audience is facing, and share stories that will help them break the false beliefs that stand in the way of solving that same problem in their lives. Then, tailor an offer around it that you can sell based on that.
It might sound complicated, but it’s the basis of how Russell Brunson structured his entire business. You can learn more about this approach in his book called Expert Secrets. I’d highly recommend checking that out if you’re serious about learning how to sell your advice as an expert or a coach.
Websites are dead. And businesses need sales funnels. If you have a creative passion for building websites, why not turn to building sales funnels instead? You can build them easily through the ClickFunnels platform and sell them to local businesses.
You do have to understand the mechanics behind how sales funnels work. But the interface is very intuitive and easy-to-use. I’d highly recommend first joining the One Funnel Away challenge to get the mechanics down before you attempt to do this as well.
Audiobooks are a great way to generate passive income. This is one of my passions. But you have to create or write a book first. Then, you can turn it into an audiobook. I use Amazon’s ACX platform to do this. They have a relationship with Audible and your content appears there, which is the number one platform for audiobooks.
If you don’t want your voice on the audiobook, you don’t need to worry. On ACX, you can hire narrators. In fact, I hired narrators for each of my audiobooks and I allowed them to worry about it. It’s great if you just love to write and don’t love to speak.
Ever heard the saying that the money is in the list? Well, it most certainly is. The reason why it’s so important is that the list is traffic you own, not traffic you control. People can come from all types of traffic sources, but you don’t own those traffic sources. You have to direct them to a place you do own.
You own your list. That traffic is yours. And you can pitch and sell them just about anything. Of course, you shouldn’t spam theme. But when done the right way, your list can literally create a steady flow of income for you for years and years to come.
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