Creating a passive income on the internet is a dream for most people, but it can become a reality for
anyone who has a computer and internet connection. Whether you are just starting to get interested in
working on the internet and wish to find a way to have a passive income, or if you have been struggling to
make an income from it, there are a few things you should consider before jumping in the deep end of the
internet pool.
Some important questions you should consider to help you decide on your best approach are:
Do you have a product or service you wish to sell? This can be a product you have created
whether physical or intellectual.
Do you already have some sort of presence on the internet, a website, blog or social media
accounts?
Do you have a budget?
What is your internet experience?
What will you have to learn to be successful?
There are a few excellent ways to start generating a passive income without spending a lot of money, but
although it is possible to run a business without spending anything, this approach would usually be a very
long process and require a large amount of work. The best strategy is to establish a budget you can afford
and work within that. The greater amount you have in your budget, within reason, the faster and easier it is
to reach an income level that will support your lifestyle. But be aware there are many people on the net
who work on the principle that it is easy to separate a fool and his money so beware!
Getting a presence on the internet can be accomplished by starting on social media sites like Facebook,
Google Plus, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram, as well as using some of the lesser
known local social media sites. The problem with these sites is they are now becoming so crowded that
the competition is difficult to cope with and it is easy for your endeavors to get lost in the tide of
information presented. A few years ago these sites worked well. Now, with over 3.5 Billion people using
the internet regularly, it takes a bit of knowhow to use them effectively.
Being very selective and careful in where you place your investment dollars is the key to success. To
begin, you will require a web site, which could be in the form of a standard web page or possibly a blog.
There are many companies who provide platforms for you to launch and maintain your website and what
you choose really depends on what you are selling, the service you are promoting and your budget.
Web hosting sites like the free Google My Sites is a good option as it has the major advantage of being
free, and it is easily picked up by the Google search engines. But it comes with limitations.
Other sites like Bluehost and Wordpress are my preferred options. I like these sites because they are very
user friendly and have a good help service including a chat where you can talk to a company technician
who can help you with any problems you may encounter. The Bluehost package, for only a few dollars a
month, allows you to have a free domain name such as (I will use my name for an example)
www.RichardGadson.com, so you can have your own website. With that you can create up to 10 subdomains,
or web pages, where you can promote your products or services.
If you re promoting a cookbook for example, (whether you are the author or just promoting another
author’s work) your sub-domain could be OrganicCookingwithRichardGadson.com. The domain also
comes with several email accounts. These are very handy and can be tailored to suit any application such
as Richard@RichardGadson.com or RichardsCookbook@RichardGadson.com. It is always a good idea
to use your name in your website. This is because there is no doubt about who the site belongs to and
people will associate your name quickly with a quality product. That is assuming you only have quality
products. If you use inferior products and do not give value for time and money spent then you will have a
very short future on the internet.
If you have a product that you want to try, but without your name associated with it, you can still use one
of your sub-domains or create a new one by just not including your name in the internet address for that
page. For example, you may find a great selection of chef’s knives and make an arrangement with the
manufacturer or supplier to sell them, so you can use one of your free sub-domains to do this. Another
option is you may wish to create another eBook such as a dessert cookbook, and that could be on a subdomain
page of your main site, but with its own stand-alone web presence, linked or unlinked to your
main site.
When you start or join Bluehost and Wordpress or any of the other web hosting companies, they provide
full directions on how to set up your own internet website and business, along with a load of helpful
advice, so this book will not go into these physical details.
An almost totally passive internet income could be achieved by outsourcing all the necessary work and
only overseeing the operation, but that still requires some input, so there is no such thing as a totally
passive income site. Having stated that, it is possible, and very reasonable, to have an extremely low
maintenance income site, especially if you use and learn some of the tools and methods available from
your WordPress site where it is possible to build monetization into your WordPress site and increase the
earning potential of your sites with minimal effort. To make the most of these sites, you will still need to
do all the general day to day site upkeep tasks such as writing new posts, marketing, and site maintenance,
but the money-making approach you take can be quite simple and require little work on your part once set
up.