Many people wonder: What’s the secret to making passive income online?
Most of the time I’m not a fan of using the words “passive income” because I’ve never found a business that runs 100% on autopilot.
With that said, I think it is important to create multiple streams of income. This diversification prevents any “single point of failure” from ruining your Internet business.
{Click here to learn the technique I use to make over 90% of my online passive income.}
So today I’m going to talk about how to build passive online income. Specifically I’ll detail the six revenue streams I’m currently using…
There is a lot that goes into building multiple streams of revenue. The best strategy is to start with one and go from there. That’s what I did back in 2006 with my first legitimate Internet business. From there, I’ve build six different revenue streams:
Each of these “income activities” requires a different approach. To make it easy, I’ve broken them into four key areas:
- Income Strategies: What I actually do to make money
- Traffic Generation: How I promote this particular web property
- Time: The amount of time “units” dedicated to this project on a weekly basis. 1 unit = 25 minutes. (This is an idea I got from The Pomodoro Technique.)
- Future Activity Scale (FAS): On a scale of 1 to 10; what’s the likelihood that I’ll expand this particular source of income
Okay, so that’s the four key metrics we’ll be focusing on. Now let’s take a closer look at each one…
Description
Affiliate marketing has been my primary source of income for the last five years. My strategy is simple – I focus on a single niche and work hard to turn it into a full-time income.
(I’ve already written a lot about this topic on this blog. So I recommend checking out this post about affiliate marketing strategies. Here you’ll get an excellent overview of the process I use.)
Anyway…the following is a diagram of my “authority” affiliate marketing strategy:
Income Strategies
There is a lot that goes into how I make money with an “authority” marketing site:
- Email Broadcast Messages: I have a list of 77,000+ subscribers in a single niche. The primary way I generate income is by sending 2 to 4 broadcast messages on a weekly basis. These emails are a combination of content and direct affiliate promotions.
- Recurring Revenue: Some products pay you every single month. So I often get paid on emails I’ve sent years ago. Pretty awesome, right?
- Thank You Page: I promote a single affiliate product on the thank you page that subscribers see after joining my list. This one action brings in at least $2,000 every month. (Read more about thank you pages here.)
- PDF Downloads: I include a few affiliate links in my free report that subscribers download. This income doesn’t amount to much each month. But it’s always nice to get a random affiliate sale from one of these links 🙂
Traffic Generation
Here is how I drive traffic to this web property:
- Article marketing: I did most of my article marketing when it was a lot easier to generate traffic from sites like EzineArticles.com. This technique still works, but it doesn’t give a great return on your time investment like it once did.
- YouTube Marketing: Another technique I used to promote my affiliate site is video marketing. The process was simple: Narrate every ezine article, add a few slides/images and then use Windows Movie Maker to create the video. I love this strategy because I’m still getting hundreds of visitors each day from videos I created four years ago.
- Web 2.0: Sites like Squidoo.com and Hubpages.com are another great source of traffic. The trick is to make sure you’re creating UNIQUE content. (They’ll delete your account if you’re posting articles that are published on other sites.)
Time (Units)
I dedicate 5 time units to this source of online income. That’s a little over two hours a week. Really…the only thing I do is write a few emails each week. That’s it!
Future Activity Scale (FAS)
I put a ‘3’ for the likelihood I’ll expand on this business. Why? Because I’ve lost all my desire and passion for this particular niche. So I do my best to give quality content to subscribers, but I’ve made the personal decision to walk away from this market.
The only thing I might do in the future is test different promotional strategies on this site. For now, I’m just happy with having a site that practically runs on auto-pilot.
Description
Back in 2008, I wrote a massive eCourse before deciding to “walk away” from my affiliate niche . The eBook topic tightly focused on a common question people have in my market. It was a lengthy process, but the effort was worth it because this product generates a significant amount of passive income.
For more on this, read my Free PDF: How to Create a Profit-Pulling eBook Empire in 2011
Okay, here is a diagram of this strategy:
Income Strategies
Here’s the breakdown of this income:
- Direct Sales: Only a fraction of my “eBook income” comes from direct sales of this product. That’s because I give 75% of my profits to affiliates. (More on this in a bit.)
- Thank You Page: I’ll admit it. Sometimes I get lazy. I use the exact same Thank You Page advertisement that I do with my authority affiliate site. As the expression goes: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
- Autoresponder Sequence: My eBook customers are automatically placed into a 50+ email sequence. This basically runs on its own. Only once in awhile will I add a message or two. (Read more about autoresponder sequences here.)
- PDF Links: Again this is similar to the strategy I follow with my authority affiliate site. Sure I’ll get the occasional sale. But it doesn’t add up to much.
Traffic Generation
Here is how I drive traffic to this web property:
- Affiliate Program: Like I said, I give 75% of my profits to affiliates who promote this eBook. Plus I offer a lot of sales tools. These two factors have resulted in a solid amount of traffic on a daily basis.
- Authority Affiliate Promos: I produce a lot of sales for this eBook through my affiliate email marketing list. Usually I’ll send 1-2 broadcast messages each month that promotes this course.
Time (Units)
I spend a whopping total of 1 unit of time each week on this source of income. Actually that might be an overestimation. I busted my butt putting this product together back in 2008. Now I get to enjoy the fruits of my labor.
Future Activity Scale (FAS)
The likelihood of “working” on this project is around a ‘2’. I no longer have any passion for this niche. I don’t think it would be fair to customers to create anything else because my heart wouldn’t be into it.
The only thing I might do is hire a professional copywriter to re-write the sales page.
Description
This source of online income has become a bit of an obsession lately. The idea here is to create a string of small websites in various niches. When combined, they’ll total up to a sizable amount of passive income.
Each niche site requires hard work for a few months. And then the goal is to hire an outsource worker to run it on autopilot.
Right now, I’m spending a lot of time learning and experimenting with this process. So I don’t consider myself an expert on this subject. Hopefully this will change in a few months. (You can read more about my niche sites here.)
Here’s a diagram that explains the strategy I’m following:
Income Strategies
- Product Review Pages: I follow a straightforward plan with this online income strategy – I write review pages about particular products. The difference from “other review sites” is I use lots of content, diagrams, and anecdotes on each post.
- “Possible Income Sources:” I just started with this source of revenue. So I’m thinking about branching out into different income strategies. Moving forward I might try cost-per-action (CPA) offers, email marketing, and Amazon physical products.
Traffic Generation
Here is how I drive traffic to this web property:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): I’ve had to re-learn a lot about SEO in the last few month. Specifically I’m learning how to get backlinks that result in high search engine rankings. (Read more about a tool I’m using here.)
- YouTube Videos: I apply the same SEO strategies to video marketing. The only difference is I create a keyword targeted “video advertisement” that promotes my niche site. The tool I’m currently using is the Animoto software tool. (In a future post I’ll describe this process.)
Time (Units)
I dedicate 24 units of time each week to this source of income. Right now, I’m not making much money. However I’m learning a lot about SEO. Ultimately I think this effort will generate a sizable amount of passive income.
Future Activity Scale (FAS)
I’ll give this an ‘8’ for the likelihood I’ll continue with this strategy. Eventually I’d like to hand this process over to an outsource worker. But for now, I’m happy to do everything myself because I’m getting a lot of hands on experience about what actually works.
Description
Sidebar: There’s a reason why I put this at #4 on my list of passive income sources:
Most of my revenue does NOT come from the “make money online” niche.
Frankly, I don’t like the “gurus” who only make money by teaching others how to do the same. In my opinion that’s deceptive because they’re not showing how it’s done in a real-world setting.
I do generate income from the Steve Scott Site. But it’s only one piece of the puzzle that I’m describing in this post.
Anyway, I’m sure you’re familiar with this blog since you’re on it right now. Steve Scott Site is my authority blog in the ‘Internet lifestyle’ niche. The overall strategy here is to create a lot of content and attract followers. My hope is to help followers buy products that I firmly believe can help their Internet business.
Here’s a diagram of how this strategy works:
Income Strategies
- Advertising: I try to minimize the number of advertisements on this site. The trick is to make sure each ad packs a powerful punch. That’s why I only recommend products I’ve written or have personally used. Right now, I have a single ad on the side bar and one at the end of each post. (You can read more about these in this post about graphics for blogs.)
- In Content Links: Most posts don’t include a single product promotion. However I’ll occasionally throw in an affiliate link if I’m talking about something that’s relevant to the topic on hand.
- Review Pages: A quality review page can lead to a lot of future income. The trick is to only write about sites/tools you’ve personally used. As an example, here is a recent review I did of the Build My Rank site.
- Blog Conversion Pages: These are the pages that tightly focus on one of your main topics. They’re different from normal blog posts because you limit the number of places readers can exit from this page. (Read this post for more details on increasing blog conversion rates.)
Traffic Generation
Here’s how I drive traffic to this web property:
- Blog Commenting: I do my best to reply to every comment I get. Plus I regularly interact with readers on their own blogs.
- Social Media: Right now, I focus on Twitter with a little bit of Google+. I have a Facebook account, but haven’t done much with it. Honestly, I’m not the best at social media.
- Networking: I like to reach out to other bloggers and establish relationships. Plus I answer every (non-soliciting) email that I receive. Heck sometimes I’ll even respond back to the “cold call emails” just to be polite. Overall, I think email is a great “future traffic” strategy.
- Search Engine Optimization: Search engine traffic can be a great way to promote a site. That’s why I’ll often “re-optimize” old posts and target specific keywords. Done correctly, search engine traffic can be a great way to promote a source of passive online income.
- Repeat Traffic: There’s a lot of power to repeat traffic. It’s something that can never be impacted by a Google algorithm “dance” or a change to a social media site. Keep followers happy and you’ll have continuous, permanent traffic. That’s why I work hard to create compelling content that builds my readership.
- Email Marketing: Sad to say, I haven’t done much with my email list. However I do use this list to recommend articles I’ve recently published. (Moving forward, I WILL create a great amount of content just for subscribers.)
Overall, there is a lot that goes into my traffic generation strategy. So if you’re interested in this topic, then you’ll want to check out the post that details the 7 actions that increased blog traffic by 25.3%
Time (Units)
I dedicate 30 units of time each week to the Steve Scott Site. Most of this time is spent on creating content. In addition, I network over email and interact with social media. Both activities are crucial to the long-term success of this blog.
Future Activity Scale (FAS)
Without a doubt, this site is something I’ll continue with in the future. That’s why it has a ’10’ rating. ‘Nuff said!
Description
This is the first information product I’ve released in the “Internet lifestyle” market. So I’ve worked hard to make sure it’s a good one!
Affiliate Marketing without the Bulls**t had a successful launch. Now I’m actively fine-tuning the sales page and building a solid affiliate program. Basically I’m following the same strategy I used to create income for the Authority info product. So I’m pretty sure it’ll work.
Here is an overview of this process:
Income Strategies
- Direct Sales: I generate direct sales of this eCourse through advertisements on this blog. Right now, I’m exploring other ways to promote this product.
- Affiliate Sales: I haven’t really promoted my affiliate program. But it’s already generating the occasional sale. Hopefully this will increase once I formally “announce” this program.
- Affiliate Marketing: I do very light affiliate promotions with my customers. Once in awhile I’ll recommend a product, but I’m never aggressive with this email list.
- Recurring Revenue: Moving forward, I’d like to recommend a product (or two) that has recurring revenue. In all likelihood, it’ll be a promotion for a tool or software that I regularly use.
Traffic Generation
Here is how I drive traffic to this web property:
- Steve Scott Site Visitors: We’ve already covered this. I use two advertisements and “in-content links” to promote my eCourse.
- Affiliate Program: I’ve built a solid affiliate program in the past. Now I’m trying to replicate this success with my new product. As of today (11/15/11), I’m working on building a program that will really help affiliates make easy sales.
- Networking: Emailing and interacting with people is another way that I subtly promote my site. I never push my product on people, but many have found it through the Wise Stamp signature file I include at the end of every personal email I send.
Time (Units)
I only spend about 5 units of time each week on this source of online income. Usually I’ll spend this time writing email for my customer list or creating a sales tool. But, right now I’m having a professional copywriter re-do my sales page. After that, I’m going to spend a lot of time putting together some killer tools. So this amount of time should increase sometime in the near future.
Future Activity Scale (FAS)
I chose a ‘7’ for how much I’ll work on this project in the future. It really is an important source of revenue. But it’s also something I hope will run on autopilot within the next six months. That will give me more time to dedicate to other future information products…
Description
I was hesitant to include this strategy in my list because I haven’t made any money yet. The idea here is I’m going to launch a series of smallish reports that sell for around $5 to $10.
Basically these mini-eBooks will focus on specific Internet marketing techniques and will be around 5,000 to 15,000 words in length. The best part is customers will get good information without having to spend a lot of money. Simply put, I hope to provide great value at a low cost.
Here is how this strategy works:
Income Strategies
This is a straightforward income model:
- Direct Sales: Like I said, the price point will be around $5 to $10. So I’m hoping to sell a large quantity of these reports to make up for the low price point.
- Affiliate Links: I’m going to follow the same strategy I use with blog posts – I’ll only include affiliate links if the subject matter directly relates to something I’ve personally used. That’s it!
Traffic Generation
Here is how I drive traffic to this web property:
- Steve Scott Site Visitors: Probably I’ll advertise these report like everything else – With a few in-content links, a banner advertisement, and maybe a blog conversion page. I want to keep this low-key. So I’m not going to beat anyone over the head with these offers.
- Affiliate Program: I’m also toying with the idea of letting affiliates promote these smallish reports. This might be done through Clickbank.com. Or I could try DigiResults and give away 100% of the profits. Right now, I’m not really sure what I’ll do.
Time (Units)
I dedicate 10 units a week to this source of income. Unfortunately this task comes secondary to the other things I’ve discussed in this post. Hopefully I’ll be able to increase this time by early 2012.
Future Activity Scale (FAS)
I’ve given this task an ‘8’ because it’s definitely something I’m going to expand upon in the future. Just right now, I don’t have enough time to really work on these reports. This is what Stephen Covey would call an “Important, but not Urgent” activity.
So that’s it! I’ve broken down all six sources of my passive online income. These are the exact things I do on a daily basis to make money on the Internet.
Overall, I hope you noticed two things:
#1 – I diversify my online income
#2 – I diversify my traffic generation
I think both are incredibly important to the long-term success of your Internet business. So I recommend you take some time to think about how you’re making money online.
If you have one source of income then start working on the second. And if you have two, then get cracking on the third. So on and so forth… till you’ve created multiple streams of online income.
Okay, this was a pretty long blog post. Hopefully I answered any questions you might have about passive income.
If not, feel free to ask a question below. Or simply leave a comment to let know what you think about this post…
Take Action. Get Results.
I think that this can be the best online strategy ever, we all know that nowadays online business is in-demand, but I think that being an SEO or internet marketers is not an easy task, maybe this is the best way to raise one site to its fullest potential.
Kate,
True, these are not easy tasks; there is a lot going on. I Do think that it is important to diversify, though. When you lay too much on any one single method, you are simply asking “fate” to take that method away.
I would like to say that the best way for people, who have a limited budget, to start making money online is to launch a blog. In this way, you will have to invest your labour only. Once you begin to make money on blog you will have more money to invest in its promotion and make it more popular in the end.
Terje,
Actually I kind of disagree. A blog is in itself is not a very good way to make money online. Perhaps I’m putting a little too much on the “semantics” of this, but a blog should be part of a plan. It should be incorperated into something like releasing a product, having an online business of another sort, getting involved in very specific niche marketing or things of that nature. JUST having a blog really is not a good way to make money.
Now I think your real point was that it can be a good idea to use free methods at first and then use the income you create from those to fund your further operations. Sure. I don’t disagree with that at all. That is a fairly sound business practice rather than just pouring money down a black hole. The point of trying to make is simply that logging in and of itself is highly unlikely to ever make someone a decent amount of money.
I also agree with this – not that I’m making huge amounts of money or anything, but a big part of what has been successful for me is finding where my passion lies. There’s so many different models of making money online, and it will be different for everyone. With my current lifestyle, the passive models work best because I’m not in a situation where I can consistently blog and find & write good content. Right now I’m making pretty much all of my money through Amazon and CJ affiliate marketing since I found I disliked promoting info products. However, I have plans for several other things, but in the meantime I’m sticking with this one way because I can neglect it and it will still make me money. For instance, my computer has been out of commission for a week and I won’t get it back until Friday. I am able to check blogs and email on my husband’s computer but that’s about all I can do until I get mine back… and there’s not going to be any drop off in sales as a result.
So it really just depends on the person and their lifestyle.
For sure Bethany, Blogging is a time sink. Even now I don’t get as money foe my time as I could be doing other things. But a blog like this also builds authority, so in the long run it has positive effects.
But as a pure “money maker” not really. I could slap adsense and ads on and make a few bucks….but not much.
Niche Blogs, affiliate marketing and even web 2.0 stuff are a great way to get started with little or no money and at least get something in your pocket.
And like you said, if it isn’t your full time gig and you miss a day here and there, the world does not come to an end. 😉
Good luck with getting your computer back too. I know how frustrating that can be!
Great strategies Steve. Very brilliant post. 🙂 I would have to second Terje’s comment. A blog is definitely a way to make online money easily. I look forward to more posts. Have a good day. Ciao.
Hi Steve,
Awesome awesome post. You have laid out very clearly on how you earn your income online and the best thing is you provide the traffic generation strategies and time need.
Which is your favorite way of earning? I would say there is no easy method but it clearly doesn’t seem complicated at all. We need to work hard and learn from the best and that would be you of course.
Thanks for sharing.
Lye
Lye,
I guess one of my favorites is Email Marketing. I I think this is a great tool and I love the way it is not reliant upon other people. YouTube, Google and even article marketing sites can change their business practices and leave your traffic high and dry. With e-mail marketing if you treat your list and followers the right way they can be with you for a long time.
It can certainly be difficult to build a list of first and it is definitely not the one that makes the most money up front but as long-term solutions go I think it’s definitely one of the best.
But that being said, even there it is important not to have all your eggs in one basket.
Steve,
This is a really massive [M]VP! Looking at the length of it, I decided to go through it later this week. That’s because I need to get some stuff done for my website launch scheduled for tomorrow. See you later…
Cheers,
Mark
Just finished up my “commenting” rounds and i went to your sight! I do imagine you have a LOT! going on now. Good luck with the move my friend! Those things are always a pain, and something is bound and determined to jump up and bite you and make the process take longer!
But it will all be worth it when it is all said and done.!
Your post is,as you said by yourself, very long, but it’s difficult for reading, because all the tips you mentioned are really very important and topical. So probably you helped many people with your post
You always over deliver with your posts Steve.
What a fabulous breakdown of what you do with each area to create income. I applaud you for the time you put in to share this with us all. Sure, it’s a heck of a long post but jammed pack of great advice.
If someone doesn’t take something way after reading this post that can help them with their own business then they are definitely in the wrong place.
Thanks Steve, you rock!
~Adroemme
Boy, messed up my name didn’t I! 🙂 lol…
Adrienne
At least I am not the only one who messes your name up :). It seeems every time I start to type it I go “Addrienne” and then have to step back and correct my mistake. (you would think I would have learned by now!)
Glad you liked the post and thanks for the nice comment!!
lol… I do that too Steve. I’ll have too many n’s or as in this case, my hands found their way to the wrong keys. See, I continue to be a work in progress. Sometimes I can’t even type my own name right! Ya just gotta laugh at yourself.
Long and useful post. I am not sure I’ve understood everything here because of the amount of info in the post.
I noticed that you’re very careful with your time… I think that’s an important prerequisite here. I wonder how you manage to dedicate time at the outset and do it without getting distracted…
Mouh,
Yes, I am very stringent with my time. I feel that productivity is very important. But I also set aside time for learning each and every day, because that is important too. While starting out with time for learning was even larger, obviously because there is so much more to learn.
And of course I made a lot of mistakes which are generally the best teachers themselves. Getting distracted just wasn’t in the schedule… LOL
Hi Scott,
These are excellent ways you use to build your online businesses. I’m also a big fan of diversifying my income. This is why I have more than one ebook that i sell. Although all are on one website, but still it is better than selling one ebook. Thanks for sharing what works for you my friend 😉
Dia,
my long-term goals so quite a few e-books out of here, both the quickie type and a couple of large “anchor” one’s, site definitions stands all the benefits of having multiple e-books. I just need to free up the time to get them done.
Thanks for dropping by and leaving awesome comments, as always
Steve
Great post Steve – it’s really interesting to see how your business models have diversified and developed over the years. As you know, I’m very much into authority sites myself, so will certainly be keeping a keen eye on your progress!
Cheers,
Tom
Tom,
It certainly is a process, I think it is a good point the this is years of work to get to this point. I’m totally new authority site kick and think that getting involved in too many side projects before you have a lot of experience under your belt just dilutes your focus. But I know you know that… 😉
Great post Steve, this should be a classic.
It gave me a lot of motivation to diversify more. And it’s always good to read about passive income because the people around me with normal jobs don’t believe that this works, and thus demotivate me. But you and I know better 😉
Good luck in your future endeavors!
I really think diversification in everything is key. if any single traffic source were up and disappear tomorrow it would hurt me but I would still have income and a place to build. The Internet is a funny place and I have seen small income streams literally vanish overnight. I may be paranoid but that doesn’t mean someone isn’t out there trying to get me. 😉
Very interesting post, Steve.
I’m curious about something. You said that many people have found your infoproduct through the Wise Stamp signature file you include at the end of every personal email you send. How does it work? How do you do it?
Cristina,
It is really easy. It is just a plug in you download and set up your “footer” information on it. Then anytime you send an email it automatically adds the footer onto the bottom. Usually a couple of links to site/sale whatever. After you first set it up, you literally don’t have to think about it again. But you may email someone about something completely different and who knows, they may get interested in what your site it about and boom….instant traffic.
Hey Steve
Rocking post…what I find ‘funny’ is that in some ways our posts and comments are becoming an ongoing dialogue about similar topics!
Some great stuff there….I wish I had more time as I’ve just taken a copywriting course and I’d love to write a page for you to split test against your existing page!
Some ideas for you to throw into your thought process:
1) You already have the basis for some small info-products in the material you produce here. I think every one of these high value, high detail posts that you produce could potentially be a PDF for sale. Add some extra value by throwing in resources, links and blueprints/checklists/action steps and you got yourself a PDF that’s worth a few dollars.
2) Those small info-products should also go on Kindle (and maybe Nook). And sell for a couple of dollars. The point being NOT as a revenue generator – but as a mechanism to send very targetted traffic to you. So you need to have upsells in the Kindle versions – or maybe a mechanism to send them to your website via they get the worksheets/checklists/resources etc in return for subscribing to the ‘buyer’s list.
3) Here’s the big one: Set up a product sequence. Can’t remember if you subscribe to One Spoon or not, but the newsletter post tomorrow is gonna be about Product Sequences. If you don’t subscribe, send me an email and I’ll send it you. Basically you should be setting up sequences that lead people through this process:
Targetted traffic, to
Free subscriber, to
Buyer of low cost product, to
Buyer of medium cost product, to
Buyer of high cost product.
Of course at every new conversion level you have a drop off rate – that’s normal and natural. But this is the way to leverage the buyers of your low cost products for your business IMO.
And btw – 77,000 Subscribers! WTF? I thought I was doing well with 8000 subscribers in my bass guitar website. I know your heart is not in that niche….but 77,000 subscribers….you gotta either sell that list/business for BIG BUCKS or leverage it by outsourcing the creation of some quality products in that market and selling them.
It’s actually way past time we hooked up on Skype….we’ve got a ton of stuff to share!
Paul
Paul,
There certainly is some similar “track” to our methods. Maybe it is just a natural progression.
1) Again you are tracking my thought process. ;). My first of these “quickee” posts is going to be a handful of email mail marketing posts I have done, with some added content and put together in a linear fashion. Perhaps with a blueprint, like you mentioned.
2) I have put my site and one of my (old free) ebooks on Kindle. But only as an after-thought. You make some great points and I will definitely look at that as a resource mechanism to sell, and up sell. But how can you get traffic to those ebooks on Amazon in the first place. It seems there is a lot of junk there and I am not sure how to (easily) get people to check it out and get those first rate ups. I am sure I could do it if I set my mind to it, but it seems like one of those things that take effort and my time is limited as is… Definitely food for thought, though, and I will go back to this more when I reach that point.
3) I will check out your product sequence post tomorrow. I do have my own pretty set in stone ideas on “buyer sequences” mainly through email marketing. I just don’t do it much here…because I don’t have much to push/sell here.
The 77K is a culmination of years of work. I don’t know if I -could- sell the list. That is sort of a breaking of trust. But I guess if I was going to get out entirely; a huge check would salve my conscious.
I know I should do more with my list that just AM, and sell the one big product over there, I have now. I am convinced that If I stopped working here, and my side projects I could do all of that and probably triple my resulting income. (It is still where I make a majority of money, even with only “maintenance” work) But still, that would take time away from these other projects. I may head back that way, but right now I find these new things “interesting”
Amazing 😀
Thanks for sharing your strategy man, I like it. Glad to know that niche marketing is one of your three main focusing areas now. I know I will have many things to learn from you.
The idea about SSS info products is awesome imo. It’s kinda a WSO store from the Warrior Forum lol! But I know you will offer us with much more targeted content (as I can see from your focusing areas now).
So, best wishes with all of your campaigns. I’m still looking forward the next post in your niche marketing challenge series. All the best man!
Duy.
Duy,
Glad you liked the post! 🙂 Yes, in some ways these mini-offers are like the WSO’s. Hopefully it will be better than a few of the “bad” ones I have seen. But in general that is probably a decent analogy. I should probably be doing niche affiliate update fairly soon. I want to give it a break after hitting a hot and heavy early… Since I’m pretty sure everybody doesn’t want to hear about it. And of course takes some time to see some actual results.
thanks for dropping by and leaving a great comment
Yeah, I understand that man 😉 Take it easy because you have a big community to take care of! Have a nice day.
Hey Steve,
Wow! Such an amazing post full of great info to learn from. I loved it. Love the tips and insights you’ve specifically shared. Most people market online, but don’t really know how to make it into a passive income which won’t involve their presence 24/7. Thanks for sharing a part of your strategy on making money online! Keep it up! 🙂
Woh Steve,
It is another WOw POST. You raised up 2 important points, diversification of income and traffic, i.e. no single point of failure.
I especially love the affiliate site, info product and of course your own products involved recruiting affiliate army. I think the real asset is your email list you build up, which gives you high leverage with just 1 push button to get paid, and also the affiliate army, who do the promotion for you and generate buyers for you, helping you to build a buyer list.
Leveraging on affiliate army is something that I would love to tap into. Any tips on this? Do you basically convert your existing customers to affiliate to promote for you? or do you find other JV partners?
Cheers,
Ming
Thanks Ming,
Glad you liked the post.
For Affiliate armies…JV partners are surely an option. I know many people do that a lot. Personally, though, it is something I’ve avoided.
Existing customers is definitely part of the strategy. You people learn from them like your content they may contact you and want to help spread the word. Despite offering high commission and tools for their success (something I am still in the process of building properly) you give even more reason to do this.
Mainly though I find it you do this best with networking. I have often been an affiliate FOR many of the people I get to become my affiliates. It tends to be a few step process.
1. Sell their products
2. Get on their radar. Send them a personal message. Either with something that will help them, or a question. If they have a blog, comment a few times. Retweet, FB like…all that Jazz. YOu want them to at least recognize your name so you are not a cold caller.
3. Do this with a dozen (at least) of the affiliate leaders in the niche.
4. Get all your tools together. Banners. Ad boxes. Pre written email messages,
Killer landing page. You want to make it Ridiculously easy for people to be your affiliates. The more you can help them…the more they can help you. Make it your goal to help them make more sales and put money in THEIR pockets, and they will make those sales putting money in yours.
5. Contact the affiliate leaders and give them a free copy of your product. Tell them you would appreciate it if they could talk about/promote your product. Some might not find it right for their site. This is fine. You only want people that are really interested. Some will give you links and many will promote you in THEIR email marketing. Trust me, if they have a product out, chances are they have a large and responsive list of their own.
the rest is just rinse and repeat. Keep a good affiliate program open and make sure it is usable by people who like your product and keep contacting “thought leaders” within the niche.
Pretty strait forward I think.
Thanks for the awesome tips Steve.
That really makes sense. Organizing the tools, resources and techniques to make them easily promote your product will definitely help a lot. Just have to take time to get those done.
This is really fundamental and yet powerful stuff to attract affiliate. Networking, build up relationship, get most of the promotion tools done, and contact them. I would imagine you have put tons of effort into it to make this happen so that your product is pretty much on autopilot.
Appreciate your tips. Thanks Steve 🙂
Hey Steve,
Awesome income strategies, especially Recurring Revenue, I love the idea of building and doing the work once, but getting rewarded about it every month.
As for traffic generation, I’m not quite at the YouTube level yet, however I did start writing at EzineArticles.com just 2 weeks ago and so far I have 2 articles posted, they were both accepted on first submission. 🙂 I haven’t seen much traffic coming from Ezine yet but I think its due to the articles being new.
Thanks a lot for sharing your strategies with us Steve, take care. 🙂
Sayed,
Unfotunately ezine is not as powerful as it once was. Years ago articles there would send you tons of traffic. Now it is spotty at best, unless you spend time backlinking to THOSE articles too.
Really (IMO) ezinearticles (an article marketing in general) is as much about simply having the dofollow link these days. Still worth doing…but as a part of a strategy.
I would mix it up too. Make sure to get a few links from Squidoo, Tumblr, Hubpages etc. and not JUST ezinearticles.
Good luck!!!
Oh wow thanks Steve, I’ve heard a lot about Squidoo but never tried it before, I will test the others too.
Thanks for your reply.
Squidoo can actually be pretty fun and addicitve. Here is a free product that Tiffany Dow made a while back that can give you some idea on how to make the most of squidoo.
http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-special-offers-forum/162728-free-warrior-special-offer-tiffany-dow-trains-you-52-weeks-making-amazon-associates-squidoo-lenses.html
It is specifically designed for “amazon associates” sales using squidoo lenses, but many of the principles apply.
Thanks a lot Steve, I’m going to study her guide, I also downloaded the Zip file she offers. Looks really good.
Thanks again Steve. 🙂
I’ve been blogging for 8 months and have great traffic, but I’ve only started learning about niche sites in the past few weeks, and I’m still an ultra-beginner. I’m not sure I totally understood everything in this article. There was some big conceptual take-aways — be stringent with your time; look to niche sites for income — but even simple terms like “web 2.0” throw me off. I guess I’ll have to keep digging through your site for the answers!
There is a lot to learn out there. I have been doing this for years and I still find new little tips every single day. really the best thing you can do is what you are doing. get out there and learn as you go! 🙂
Here is your lesson for today. 😉 When people talk about “Web 2.0” generally they are talking about sites that interact with users rather than “old” style static websites.
In general this means: Youtube, Twitter, Flickr, Craigslist, wikipedia, digg etc.
In relation to backlinking etc. some good ones are: Squidoo, Hubpages, Tumblr, wordpress, blogger, ehow, stumbleupon
and of course a whole lot more. It is just so easy to call it “Web 2.0” but when you have been doing this for a while it is so easy to forget that most people may not have heard these terms.
Hope that helps a little
Ahhh, I understand!! Thank you for that explanation. I keep seeing the phrase “Web 2.0” everywhere and now I know what it means!!!! I’m glad to see that I’m already using some Web 2.0 resources — YouTube, Twitter, FB, StumbeUpon. The next step is to build backlinks via Hubpages, Squidoo and Tumblr! 🙂
Hi Steve,
This is really an awesome post. I like how you explained every source of income and the strategy you use for each one.
No wonder stevesscottsite.com has such great rankings and interaction.
I use mostly blogging (with a little bit of SEO), commenting, networking , social media (Facebook primarily) and recently guest posting which is really a powerful technique if you guest post on high authority blogs.
Great point with growing a stream of income and then keep building. The idea is to add more and more eggs in “your basket”.
Paul Wolfe made some good points. You are more than qualified to create some info products (ebooks or perhaps some video boot camps). Only this post is a little ebook 🙂
Thanks for sharing your gold nuggets Steve,
All the best,
Radu
Steve,
You packed in more information than any reader can swallow. Just with this post, I think anyone with the ambition would be able to run with it an earn money in no time. The best thing is that you have really made things sound so simple. I guess, if you have done it long enough, it will really be simple.
My take is that I am a bit overwhelm reading this, but I would just like to explore the area of making and selling my own info product at the moment. I think that I can handle coming up with great content. What advise would you have for someone like me who is going about with his first information ebook?
One of the best take away from this post for me is how to create simple youtube videos using past articles. That really inspire confidence for me to get going.
Thank Jimmy, Glad you liked it! The ideas for making money online ARE simple. Ity is only the execution that is complex. To really get it done takes a lot more work and effort than people realize.
For first ebook advice I would simply say to try to make it impressive. YOu want to set the standard high. Even though, it is likely it will be slow going for a while, it is something that you want people to remember when you come out with subsequent books.
Hi Steve Great post.
I’m working now on building a chain of niche sites to Amazon products.
I was wondering what theme are you using in these niche sites?
I’ve been searching for good affiliate theme for wordpress and found many of them, but I thought maybe you have experience with a theme that works good in your niche/review sites
Thanks
What a very well, detailed strategy. I can certainly appreciate your methodology behind your marketing. Having multiple streams of income is key to making consistent profits on the internet.
Hey Steve, a really well thought out article. I am a bit puzzled however over the total units of time you dedicate weekly to your business.
I tallied your total units to be 75 equaling 31.25 hrs per week which, is just under 9hrs short of a full-time work week. So, you want to know something? I have concluded that there exists a strong possibility that a high number of experts in this industry touting auto-pilot and little maintenance to their passive income are actually grossly exaggerating! Do you think so too? I wouldn’t be surprised.
Thanks a bunch for your transparency, honesty and most of all the value added to the online community of passive income earners! 🙂
See you at the top?
-Dan Sacapano