Would you like to ignite your wealth with passive income? I hear you saying “Well, maybe. What is it?” First let’s look at what passive income is not.

What Is Active Income

Active income is where you trade your time for money directly. So if you work 40 hours a week and get paid a salary or a certain amount per hour, that is active income.

When you sell items online at places such as eBay or Craigslist, you are spending time to set up and sell one item. You need to invest your time in packaging and shipping the item.

What Is Passive Income

On the other side is passive income which is where you earn money no matter what you do. You can earn money while sleeping, or cooking.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t any work involved because there is.

You need to have a good business plan, and sow the seeds. For some passive income businesses, there is a lot of setup work as well. However most passive income models are great with part time effort.  Then you can scale upwards over time.

The bottom line is that you’re not directly trading your time for money like you are with Active Income.

So once the business is set up, you can enjoy true freedom. You are able to create a completely flexible schedule if you replace your full income with passive income.

What Are Good Ways to Get Passive Income

Some business opportunities pay better than others. And some require more work than others. You should look at your life and what you’re comfortable with.

Once your business is set up, you can then build up the business reinvesting money and then sell it for a large amount.

Other businesses require some regular maintenance. I’ll talk about that further in each section.

And I’ll discuss a variety of passive income business models. Some I’m not as in love with. I think it’s important that you’re aware of them so you can find what works best for you.

Affiliate Income

Affiliate income is where you get a percentage or a bounty for selling someone else’s product or service. There are a few different type of affiliate programs you can use.

For example,  InnerOrigin is an affiliate program of sorts. You recommend products to your friends and family, and you get a percentage of any sales when they sign up.

We call it being an “advocate” rather than an affiliate. That’s because InnerOrigin advocates for a healthier and happier lifestyle.

You’re not just referring the products to your friends. You’re advocating for them to learn more about a lifestyle.

You wouldn’t need to set up a website or drive any traffic. All you need to do is share your link.

Please let me know if you’re interested in learning more about this business model.

Other Affiliate Programs

Other affiliate programs are online. You may have heard of the Amazon affiliate program or even seen blogs where people recommend goods that you purchase from Amazon, or similar sites.

They receive a small percentage of whatever you bought. It doesn’t increase your costs when you buy.  The affiliate company makes less per sale. However, because they have people like you out making recommendations, they make far more sales than they would on their own.

You would need to set up a website usually with reviews of products. Then you’d need to drive traffic.

Once your site is optimized and in the search engines, you will get regular visitors. You would probably want to continue making content to keep the website fresh.

To find other affiliate programs, you can identify potential programs that match your passion by typing in “‘product name’ affiliate program” into your favorite search engine.

Network Marketing

If you’re familiar with Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad fame), he always recommends signing up with a company to do network marketing for two reasons. The first is to learn how to get over your fear of selling. And the second is to learn how to follow a business system.

Network Marketing usually strikes fear in most people because they’re afraid to sell to their friends and family, and then ask them to refer their friends.

And how many of us have been invited over to a party only to find out it was a party to sell things? And you buy something because you want to support your friend.

The way you earn money passively is if you recruit additional salespeople. Then you earn a percentage of whatever products they sell. Some people are able to build up really big networks and can make a lot of money.

You need to be really good with people, and you need to be open to learning sales techniques before this becomes passive income.

Real Estate

There are a number of programs out there to teach you how to identify good properties that you can buy and lease out. Some people really like this business model for a retirement income.

There is a lot of specialized knowledge required for this type of passive income. And unless you hire a property management company, you’re on the hook if your tenant calls at 3am with a broken water pipe.

Content Creation

Have you ever wanted to write a book?

First you need to decide if you want to publish your book digitally or if you want a physical book. There are many sites that can help you generate an e-book. And there are sites out there that will print your book on demand.

Or perhaps you have some specialized knowledge that people would love to pay you to learn. You could teach but that’s active income, and you’re limited by the number of people in the classroom.

You can turn this into passive income by creating a video of yourself teaching and set up the program on Udemy or SkillShare.

Don’t be shy!

Just think about talking to one person who will really be helped by your knowledge.

To make these work, you would set up your product, and then do things to drive traffic. You could write articles that point to the content. You could also get interviewed by someone who would then recommend your product.

(Both Udemy and SkillShare have affiliate programs. So if someone recommends your course, they’d get a percentage.)

On Demand

You can set up stores at sites like CafePress that print t’shirts, mugs and many other items. Then you would set up a website that would act as a storefront.

You could show the images of the product, and when someone wanted to purchase, they’d be taken to the on-demand print shop.

There are many of these online services available.  If this interests you, do some web research to find the best one for your needs.

Like content creation, you would need to do regular tasks to direct people to your website.

Advertising

You may have seen some websites that have ads on them.

The largest one is Google Adsense. There are many others that have special banners and are what is called Click Per Action (CPA) ads.

Another kind is in-line ads that almost look like news stories. They’re called Native ads.

So how do you make money? And is it a lot?

Some people can, however, it depends upon how much traffic your website receives. Also, you need to test your ad placements to find the optimal position to get more clicks.

Most people find that it takes 150,000 views to earn $100. For most people, this can take a few years, and you need to spend a lot of time creating useful content that brings in high quality traffic.

How to Evaluate Good Programs

The first thing when evaluating is to ensure you have the right expectations. Passive income does not mean that you are getting money for doing nothing.

It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme.

The vast majority of people think they can earn $100/day and then quit when they realize there’s work.

Don’t give up your day job right away. First, aim to make some extra money on the side that will make your day-to-day life much more comfortable and enjoyable.

Next, do some research into the company.

Do they have a lot of positive reviews?

There will always be negative ones. So try to read those as well to see what the person is grousing about. Then make up your own mind.

My Final Thoughts

Passive income usually requires some initial set up time. For some, like InnerOrigin, it’s just signing up online.

For others, it will require time setting up a website and doing regular tasks to send traffic. And for still others, it will require time to create. You could create a course, a cool shirt design, or a network of people.

You should consider setting up more than one passive income stream over time. That way your income is consistent across all of them.

Sales conversions come in cycles. Some months are always better than others. If you can ride the cycles, then you’ll be able to have the extra money you desire. Or you can even have enough to replace your job’s income.

So find something that you’re passionate about to fund your lifestyle. Both for now and your future self.

So set aside some time each day to build up your business. Slow and steady wins the race to wealth with passive income.