We all want to be financially independent and in control of our time and money. However, we will all choose to achieve this goal via vastly different mediums. Some of us will work for 45-50 years while saving 10% of our take-home income.
Others will buy as much real estate as possible, achieving financial freedom earlier than most. Finally, some will go the business route, starting an automated business that will set them free.
I want to talk about going the business route and the many options available. There is almost an infinite possibility of businesses that can lead to your money success. In fact, I write about many of them in my article “21 Passive Income Ideas.”
Start a Home Business
Let’s take a deep dive into the world of blogging. I truly believe blogging can be one of the most passive income ideas out there—as long as you love to write. Many bloggers do not like the process of writing, so it can be a chore to create content for their blogs. Some bloggers even hire ghostwriters to produce some of their content.
I have nothing against those guys; however, I am gearing this article towards the writers out there. Writing a blog is as simple as it goes; however, monetizing your blog is a business. If you want to monetize your blog, then you best do your homework.
I have been blogging for a little over a year and have over 550+ posts. After about three months, Google accepted me into their Google AdSense advertising program. With all 14 months combined, I have earned $50+ from my blog.
Yes, that’s right, only $50+ from my blog directly. However, I am ecstatic with this amount because I remember earning less than $1/month. You see, there are many things I do not do with my blog that could expand my audience.
I am taking the slow route to build a blog. I am in no hurry to build an audience with “weak hands.” This means building an audience just to have a large audience. I want to build an audience of people who listen to what I say and enjoy my motivational passive income ideas.
What is a Sales Funnel?
I plan on writing for the rest of my life, so what’s the point of building an audience as fast as possible? The power of compounding is at play here. The more words I put into the internet, the more chances of like-minded people finding me. Once someone finds me, they will have 500+ articles to get to know me. When this happens, my blog will be HUGE. I can wait.
Now, back to some things I can do to increase the size of my audience and earn more money. After reading “How to Blog for Profit,” I understood how important it is to position your blog as a business. I just don’t want to do those things—at least any time soon.
First, there is Search Engine Optimization or SEO. I don’t do any of this, which is probably pretty dumb. SEO consists of using keywords and search terms to push traffic to your blog from search engines such as Google and Bing.
Most bloggers write content specifically to rank on specific keywords and searches. I don’t want to do this at all. I want to write what I want to write. A couple of people have clicked my articles from search; so it can happen. Eventually, I will rank from natural selection. I plan on reading a book on SEO just to familiarize myself with the concepts.
Are You Too Old to Start a Business?
I could also advertise on Facebook and Google. I have tried Facebook ads, but I don’t like the traffic it brings. It brings people who click into your website for like 20 seconds. When I ran ads for a couple of weeks, my website’s average time was 44 seconds. Today, with no ads, it is 3 minutes and 30 seconds. So no, thank you for the ads.
I read a book on Facebook Ads called “Help! My Facebook Ads Suck,” which I recommend to any new blogger. There is a lot of work that goes into running a good ad campaign, but I’d rather be creating. I have a plan for when I will start running ads, but that will be in like 4-5 years.
I could also start doing more affiliate marketing. I wrote an article about affiliate marketing called “What is Affiliate Marketing?” I think I do the appropriate amount of affiliate marketing. All the book reviews I write have affiliate links so readers can check out the books on Amazon. Then I write about products I use every day, like my badass Chromebook and Amazon Kindle Oasis. So, I will only market products I strongly believe in and use daily.
Sponsorships are where you and a company work together to produce sponsored content. For example, if an author asked me to read their book and write my five takeaways. I won’t get any sponsorships until I get like 100,000+ page views a day. I am at like 7-10 page views a day, lol.
So there are a ton of ways I can increase the income from my blog, but again, what’s the rush? To me, great content is king. As long as I write content that my sons will want to read in 5-10 years, I will be okay.
4 Steps to Become Rich
Many blogs only get a one-page view, then the person leaves. The reader basically searches for specific content, gets their answer, and never comes back. I want people to at least check in once a week to see new articles.
Why do I write every day? Writing is such a challenging endeavor that I enjoy doing it every day. Two books set me on the path to start writing every day: “On Writing Well” and “The Practice.” Both authors told me that writing is my job and I must do it every day, so I do just that.
Where I am different from most bloggers. Most bloggers are trying to get traffic to their blog via SEO to monetize it via Google AdSense. That is nowhere near my priorities. You see, the articles are the assets!
Josh, what does “the articles are the assets mean”? I mean that you are writing a book every time you release an article. You are building an extensive portfolio of information, all with your particular spin on the subjects. If people like your words, they want your opinion on what they read.
Become an Entrepreneur BEFORE You Start a Business
Each article you release is like its own dividend-paying stock. It may make you pennies or dollars over time. As you build a base or more pieces, you can repurpose those articles into anything you want.
I use my articles as eBooks and release a new book on Amazon every day. Here, I am gaining a nice size following, and I am earning some cash. From January 4th, 2021 (when I released my first book) to August 20, 2021 (Today), I have reached close to $300. Not bad at all.
Remember, I am repurposing my content in my books. I do have to create cover art and book descriptions, but that is fun and easy. I then put my books up for free on Amazon for five days each. This gets people reading and following me. They also click my affiliate links inside my books.
So you see, there are three ways I can monetize my articles, all without being cheesy or over-the-top. The most important part of it all is that I love writing. Watching my collection of articles grow in size is impressive. Watching my collection of ebooks is just as exhilarating.
One of my books went on the Top 100 Free book list on Amazon at 109. About 1,200 people downloaded it in two days. Eventually, almost every book I release will hit those numbers. It just takes time.
6 Types of Income Streams
I genuinely believe I am building a $1 million business through my writings. There is just so much I can do with my articles and books. Some examples include;
- Lease the content to creators who can repurpose it into YouTube videos.
- Sell books to creators for use as email freebies.
- Create my own book club and charge $10/month for unlimited access to my books
- Make fancy book anthologies
- Make an online course showing people everything I know
- Etc.
My goal is to get to 1000 books before I even think about monetizing anything. That is just my personal goal, no real reason behind the number. I absolutely love the challenge of reading, writing, and creating. If done correctly, I will never run out of content to produce, ever!
My advice for those starting. Blogging is notoriously difficult for most people. Creating your spot on the internet where people come to visit is no small task. Be prepared to blog alone for at least one year. Don’t expect to make any real money until five years into your blog.
Suppose everything happens faster; good on you. But you must build the right mindset going into the considerable challenge. It can be a huge mental hurdle to overcome when you start and don’t have any visitors for one or two months. But, when you start seeing organic traffic coming to your little blog, it is incredible.
- Write a Book in One Week
- 3 Reasons Why I Love Writing
- Create an eBook Series
- Write 1000+ Words Everyday
Even better, when your older content is getting read, it makes you feel great that you are adding value. If you are a true writer, I highly recommend you start a blog. If you add value to someone else, the money will follow right behind. I will be writing more updates to my blogging career as it progresses. For now, check out some of my other articles on writing above.
- Build Passive Income: 21 Passive Income Ideas (book)
- Free PDF Downloads: Download FREE PDF books here
- Financial Mindset: Become CEO of Yourself (book)
- Retirement Planning: Retirement Planning at Any Age (book)
- Investing: How We Plan to Retire on Dividends (book)
- Cryptocurrencies: My First Book on Cryptocurrencies (book)
- Real Estate: Financial Independence through Real Estate (book)
- Business: Retire Rich, Retire Comfortable with a Business (book)
- Everything!: The Biggest Book on Passive Income Ever! (book)(Web Edition)
- I bought a Kindle Oasis: Check it out Amazon
- Read My Books for Free: Free Kindle Books Schedule
- Sign up to Access our “Hidden” Free Kindle Book Schedule
- My first Children’s book: A Child’s First Book on Passive Income (book)
- Book Reviews: 54 Takeaways from 54 Books (book)
- Want to Build Passive Income from Books and Affiliate Marketing? (Learn here)
- Writing: Can Grammarly Make You a Better Writer? (direct)
- My Favorite Chromebook: The Ultimate Chromebook (direct)
- Follow us: On our Facebook Page and Join our Facebook Group
- Amazon Author Page: Check out my author page on Amazon
Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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