As an established marketer, you're very likely to have things you can plug in right away to get more passive cash over time.
It's just a matter of putting the pieces of the puzzle together in a way that works.
The first step is to take stock of what you have.
What products do you have? What websites or domain names do you have available? What are your skills and what kind of Internet marketing experience have you built up? We sometimes become so complacent with what we have that we ignore our potential.
I know I've done it many times.
Sometimes I'll look through my list of products and say, "hey! I only promoted that once or twice and it's really great.
" I then find ways to give new life to old products.
I might put it on its own domain, generate affiliate interest, reuse the content in a new place, and so on.
It was a Jimmy D.
Brown coaching product that taught me to get everything you can out of what you write - use it everywhere you can to make as much from it as you can.
That's actually what I want you to do as a first step.
Go through what you have and think of ways you can turn it into a passive income stream - or to ramp up what it's earning you passively right now.
One mistake I see many Internet marketers making is only putting their products up for sale at the Warrior Forum.
That only gets you so far.
People really won't see your product anymore after a while (unless it so happens to rank in the search engines for a key term, which does work).
Put that thing on its own domain.
Give it new life, a new promotion, and a new chance to passively earn for you.
In some cases, you can take products you've created and use them as list builders.
This is something I intend to do right now, actually.
Put my older (yet still valuable) products up as a freebie in exchange for people's email address.
This will then turn into a passive income earner where it wasn't before.
Take a look at the sales letters you have running as well.
Are they as good as they can be? Sometimes, sprucing your sales letter up can have dramatic benefits (contact me if you need a spruce-up - I have low rates on sales letter rewrites and I can usually help with conversions).
Consider where you have your products for sale.
If it's just with a standard PayPal button, you're losing out.
Most products will do much better with affiliate support behind them.
Put them up through JVZoo or a payment gateway like that and you'll have a much better chance of getting affiliates to sign up to promote your product.
It goes without saying that networking is a huge part of the game.
It's much easier to get affiliates out there earning for you if people know you and the quality of your work.
If you're not getting enough affiliates, it's time to work on your approach.
This is definitely something I need to do - I have wonderful affiliates but could use many more for a better passive income.
Along with selling more products comes building a bigger list.
If you're not building a list as you sell products, you're really missing out.
It makes me cringe when I think of how long it took me to link the two.
I've even heard of people getting massive promotions done for them as Warrior Product of the Day but they didn't do any list building along with it - that's thousands of opt-ins, gone.
Do what I mentioned above as well - use older products as freebies to get more people to sign up for your list.
It all works together to help you earn more money.
Blogging for Passive Income I signed up for a blogging challenge run by John and Matt Rhodes in 2008.
I am glad I did! While I've never done enough with my workathomeformoms.
net blog to turn it into a huge earner on its own, it's been responsible for many wonderful sign ups to my list.
People have come to know and trust me through my blog.
Many marketers have a blog as home base, and you should as well.
People hesitate to create a marketing blog because they feel it's so saturated.
But, that doesn't matter to me at all.
No one else has my exact set of experiences to share or my unique insight.
I think it's great to have a blog no matter how many others do on a similar topic.
If nothing else, it acts as a sort of therapy for you to get your thoughts and feelings on marketing out there.
It can help you sell your products, build your list, build trust in you as an authority, and so on.
It's not something you have to spend a ton of time doing - just think about it.
Active List Building Along with letting some of my passive income streams die down, I also deeply regret not being more active about my list building.
Selling to and building a relationship with those on your list is so satisfying.
It can be a great passive income earner if you set up an autoresponder sequence that works hands-off once people sign up to your list.
Most of my own list members have come from sales of my products and through blogs - but there is so much more I could have done over the years.
Heed my warning, and make list building a priority for passive income.
Membership Sites Membership sites are another great passive income earner - depending on how you look at it.
Despite those marketers who try to sell you on these as being totally passive and easy, they aren't always.
They take a lot of tender love and care to keep going.
With that said, they are wonderful because you don't always have to go out to find new buyers.
The buyers are there as long as they subscribe.
As long as you provide value, they'll be satisfied.
Consider putting some of your past products into a membership site.
Think about a topic people will want to hear from you monthly on.
My current membership site is called Writing That Rocks - I provide two monthly issues on topics related to writing.
It's not something I've promoted very much outside of my own list, but it's a great little membership people love, and it has turned into passive income for me (if you do not count the time spent writing the new issues!).
In this case, 'passive' means I'm not finding new buyers for new products all the time - membership renews on autopilot.
This is true for most membership sites.
Its not a hands-off passive earner.
Upsells I've talked a lot about things I wish I'd done different along the way as a marketer.
One of those things is that I shied away from using upsells for way too long.
I always felt like I'd annoy people if I had them.
Well, some might be annoyed but I think many more are thankful - at least with the way I do them.
I tend to offer upsells that are very useful and on-topic.
They aren't overly pricey and they aren't just there to get people's money - they are there to be helpful.
When someone buys a product of mine these days, there is generally an upsell.
It's not something people are pressured to buy and it generates additional income, hands-off.
If you haven't added upsells or set up a true sales funnel at this point, give it a try.
You might be surprised by how much your income grows.
Cross Promotion By that same token, I've often been very shy when it comes to cross promoting my stuff.
I should not have been! There is no shame in letting people know about my other, very valuable, products and services.
In fact, people often thank me for letting them know those other things are available.
Take a look at the things you sell - do you just sell them to people as a one-off, or do you give them a chance to know that you sell other things they might like? You can even see this amongst popular authors on Amazon - the smart ones let people know that they have other books for sale as well.
This can dramatically increase your passive income.
You can even create a hub for your products so people can stay up to date on them.
Passive Income as an Affiliate You're an experienced marketer, so you've probably dabbled in affiliate marketing at this point.
If you're like me, you got frustrated with Google changes and all of that and may have let things dwindle a little.
Get back into the game! As long as you are doing things the right way (the way Google has liked all along) it's still possible.
I'm currently revamping all passive affiliate income after scrapping a lot of what I had out of frustration.
There are some things that have always worked and that I believe always will.
The first is having very high quality content.
Google wants to serve content that is exactly what their searchers want to see.
So, you just have to provide that for them.
Another thing that has always worked is staying on top of trends -including "launch jacking" as it has become known.
It's pretty easy to hop onto mid-mega launches as an affiliate, making sales through your blog or other web properties.
Give it a try for passive income.
Groundbreaking? My goal here is not to give you groundbreaking information.
Those who are newer or less experienced probably did find new things.
But, I ask you to not put this product aside even if you didn't 'learn' anything new.
The idea is - do you do these things? Do you have the current and future income you want to have? If not, it's time to put these things into place.
It's funny - as I was writing this I started to find the holes in my own business.
I hope it's helped you find the holes in your business, too.
Sometimes, even small changes can make a huge difference.
As I'm writing this, it's close to the New Year.
I have accomplished a lot in the past few years but there is so much more I'd like to accomplish.
I want more passive income, better sales funnels, and more products out there.
I want to be smarter about every aspect of my business.
I hope this product has helped you think about the same.