Every online dream begins with the vision of opening your
email box and "like magic" the money comes rolling
in. It's true - building a passive income is your key to earning
more money without working harder. While it's unlikely you'll
earn millions overnight, building a passive income is a smart
way to supplement your existing income. Here are some ideas
for how you can build an automatic income source for your
online business.
Affiliate Product Programs
Affiliate programs allow you to earn income selling other
people's products. There are literally thousands of affiliate
programs that you can sign up for in every category imaginable.
Whether you are interested in selling ebooks, toys, magazines,
or kitchen utensils, I guarantee there is a shop in that category
with an affiliate program.
Here are some criteria to use when selecting an affiliate
program. Choose a quality product that you personally believe
in. You need to actually try and buy the product yourself.
This allows you to personally buy into what's great about
the product so you can write a killer personal testimonial.
Additionally, try to find products that offer higher than
average commissions. Why work your buns off selling a 5% commission
product, when you can sell one that offers 30, 40, or even
50% commissions?
If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You
can investigate a company by checking them out with the better
business bureau in the business' native state. http://search.bbb.org/search.html
Creating Your own Infoproducts
What is your secret to success? success sells, and if you
have your own personal method to getting there, others will
pay to hear it. That's why ebooks on how to succeed are topping
the sales charts. Ask yourself, "what you know that is
special, unique, and could help others?" the answer to
that will make a successful infoproduct.
Do you know how to:
Fix something, find something, save something, do something
more quickly, do it better, do it more efficiently, do a greater
amount of it, do it with greater quality, do it less expensively,
do it more easily, do it more often, be happier doing it,
do it automatically, or more effectively, take existing knowledge
and apply to a new situation.
Creating Your own System or Software
Franklin Covey has created a whole income by showing others
the secrets to his prioritization and organization. He packaged
his methodology and sells the tools, classes, and equipment
to help people achieve those same results. http://www.franklincovey.com.
Do you have a unique form, software, or process that you use
that makes your work easier? Document your process, find a
developer to package your software, or package your process
as an infoproduct, cd, teleclass, or ecourse.
Reseller of Services
As a businessperson, your customers will often ask for recommendations
for reputable service companies. This puts you in the perfect
position to earn commissions reselling those goods and services.
Make a list of all the services your customers use. For example,
as a web developer my customers use hosting, merchant accounts,
shopping carts, newsletter broadcasting services, and domain
name vendors. Here is a list of the top 50 reseller programs
to get you started. http://www.webaffiliateprograms.com
Partner Commissions
Do you recommend consultants services to others? often my
customers need assistance with proofreading, multi-browser
compatibility testing, copywriting, virtual assistance, and
animated graphics. I have sought out partnerships with
companies in these key areas. When I refer a client to them,
they pay me a referral fee and vice versa. Who do you know
that you could create similar deals with?
Advertising Sales
You may be sitting on valuable real estate and not even know
it. If your web site gets lots of traffic or you have a popular
ezine, you may be able to earn income through advertising
sales. Some ideas for how to package your advertising packages
can include banner ads, text ads, sponsorships, partnerships,
paid classifieds or business directory listings. Another ideas
is to create "co-branded" paid or free ebooks with
advertising space.
Referral Network
Think about who your audience is, and then ask yourself, what
other types of professionals have the same target audience.
By creating your own referral network, you can charge businesses
to become a member and agree to promote them to your audience.
This is on the idea of how the 1-800-Dentist concept works.
Dentists pay a fee to be part of the dentist network. When
someone phones 1-800-Dentist asking for a dentist in their
area, they look at their list of dentists and match you up
with one bearing the qualifications you are seeking. Then
1-800-Dentist gets a small commission from the dentist for
sending them a qualified customer.
For an idea of how this can work in a web application, you
could create a preferred network of web developers. Web developing
companies pay a small fee to be included in your referral
network. Then offer an area on your site where people can
search to find a web developer in their area. When a visitor
signs up with one of the web developers in your network, you
get a commission.
The Pay Per Inclusion Club
If you are an expert in your field, you can create a community
where others can learn your secrets to success. By offering
a free level of membership, you can allow visitors to poke
around and see that you know your stuff. Then you can offer
them a paid membership to your member's only section. Internet
marketing challenge is one such community built by internet
marketers geared toward the aspiring entrepreneurial crowd.
CoachVille by Thomas Leonard is another community built for
the business/personal coaching audience.
Summary
According to think and grow rich, the wealthy of the world
are people who have a brilliant idea that has changed the
world. I believe that those who resell those brilliant ideas
will become rich. Take advantage of the power of passive income
and you too can be working less and earning more!
Trevor Marshall for more great fundraising related
articles and resources check out http://FundraiserAdvice.com
