“Not Already”
For me, this was my first thought every morning when my alarm clock sounded at 3:30 am. I would get up, stumble into the shower, and get on the road as quickly as possible to beat the traffic on my way to a job that was literally sucking the life out of me. After working a full day, I’d crawl back into the truck, and start my 2 1/2 hour drive to go back home ( assuming there were no accidents ).
For so many of us, this is an all to familiar reality. We face the grind every day, giving all that we have with hopes that we will please our employers just enough to keep our full time jobs, and hopefully earn enough money to pay our bills.
Now more that ever, people are looking to the internet in hopes of learning how to create an income stream. More specifically, we should be making an effort to create a passive income stream.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be rewarded for our efforts long after the initial work is completed?
There are so many opportunities available to us now, thanks to the accessibility of the internet, and it can be difficult to decide how to get started.
There are a few opportunities that have peaked my interest, and I’d like to share them with you today.
Affiliate Marketing
Affilliate Marketing is the process of promoting products that were developed by a person or enterprise other that yourself.
The objective is to market those products, and in turn make a commission on every sale that is made due to your efforts. The amount of the commission paid will vary, depending on the actual product you are promoting, and the policies of the product creator.
There are seemingly endless affiliate programs available, and the products can include anything from actual physical products to an array of digital products ( such as e-books, reports, training guides, etc. ).
Some Benefits of Affiliate Marketing Include :
It requires little or no investment to get started
It does not require you to have a product of your own
You'll have a good handle on what earnings to expect
In most cases, marketing and materials are provided for your use
There's no need for your own website
Generally speaking, the application process to become an affiliate takes only minutes. Once accepted, you will be given your own unique affiliate link. Any traffic sent to the marketing page by you will be identified by your affiliate link, and you will receive credit for any sale that is completed in relation to that link.
This form of marketing was appealing to me because it enables the affiliate to be up and running almost immediately.
If you would like to promote actual physical products, Amazon.com offers a great affiliate program with over a million products available to choose from.
If you are leaning more towards digital products, one of the easiest places to find the products to promote is clickbank.com.
Just visit the site, create a free account, and click on “marketplace”.
Create Your Own Ebook
I know that I often find myself searching for information online. If my car breaks down, I want to learn how to repair it. If my wife is looking for a new recipe, she searches for it on google.
There is an abundance of information online, and many people would rather learn how to do something for themselves, as opposed to paying somebody else to do it for them.
Almost everyone has some form of knowledge or skill that others may find desirable or helpful. If you have a special skill that you could share with others, then you could pass that information on to them in the form of an e-book by following these simple steps:
Create the content for your Ebook
This is where you will take the knowledge or skill that you would like to share with your customers, and write it out in the form of a book. Try to be as clear and direct as possible, and format the book in a way that will invite your audience to keep reading.
Make your point or instructions easy to understand, and try to remember that you are trying to teach your audience something that is probably new to them, so don’t assume that they already know something that may seem unimportant to you.
Edit your Ebook
Read your book and try to imagine that you are learning about the topic for the first time. Make any changes that you feel are necessary, and double check your grammar and formatting.
Design a cover for your book
There is software and tools that can help you to do this, or you can outsource this to somebody else. One of my favorite sites for something like this is fiverr.com. Just search for ” e-book cover design”. You can find this service starting at as little as $5. Remember, you want a cover that will help you to sell the book!
Market your book
Decide on your marketing plan and follow through. Try to direct your marketing to specific people or groups that are relevant to your subject matter.
There are many forms of marketing available to you, ranging from social media marketing to having your own website and driving traffic to it. Try to do as much research as you can and choose the method or methods that you are most comfortable with.
Build Your Own Website
Building your own website is much easier today that it has been in the past. You no longer need to be an expert, or know how to write code. There are a multitude of website building platforms and templates for you to choose from, and it’s relatively inexpensive to be up and running in no time!
Having your own website is a great way to have control over which products or services you would like to promote, and you are in total control of the design and feel of the site.
If you enjoy writing, you may even want to entertain the idea of having your very own blog. This is a great way to share information and promote your products and/or services.
If you choose this option, you will need the following services :
a domain name (name for your site,chosen by you)
a hosting service
a website building platform ( wordpress, wix, etc)
My personal preference is to have a single source for all of these services, simply because it’s just convenient to access all of these things from one place.
The source that I prefer is called SiteRubix. They offer quality support and training, the services are fast and reliable, and you can build your website for free.
There’s So Much Opportunity
The simple truth is that when it comes to creating an income stream online, there are so many more opportunities that are waiting to be explored.
I’ve given you a very brief overview of the ideas that I am trying to pursue in my business, and I will try to revisit each of these ideas in much more detail in future posts.
Again, I chose to move forward with these opportunities because I felt comfortable with my abilities to carry them out, but every single person is different and they choose to approach ideas and methods in different ways.
To truly find a way forward for yourself, it will require some more detailed research. You should try to find something that you enjoy doing, and something that makes you feel confident in your abilities. Take the time to seriously consider what you would like to do, and consider how you are going to approach carrying out your plan.
I hope that you find what you’re looking for, I believe that we all have the capacity for success if we can find the path that is right for us, and if we’re willing to do the work.
Thank You for taking the time to read, and I wish you all the best in your search for the right opportunity!