I started working from home because I wanted a better life for myself and my husband. I wanted a flexible schedule to do the things I love. I wanted to know that if I worked harder, I would get paid more.
I love being a blogger. One of the main reasons is that I was able to stop trading time for money with passive income from my blog. There are only so many hours in the day. You can earn that much per week in most traditional jobs. Not a fan. I want to maximize my efforts. I still want to earn money passively when I’m on vacation or taking a break.
People love to talk about passive income online. However, everyone seems to have a different view of what passive is. For me as a blogger, this means doing the work once and continuing to earn money from that work for months or years with minimal maintenance. Sorry, folks. Passive income doesn’t mean never getting paid for doing nothing. You have to put in some effort.
Examples of passive income as a blogger
- I write a rockin’ blog post with an affiliate link to a product I love Years down the road I’m still earning commissions when people click and buy through that link
- I write a great ebook and put it up for sale on Amazon Kindle
- I create an eCourse that teaches bloggers how to improve their business
These things may require a little maintenance from time to time, but they can make me money day and night whether I’m sitting at my desk or at the baseball stadium. All I have to do is bring people into that funnel. It’s a pretty amazing gig.
It’s not about that no It’s all about automation at work. I’m still working. I am spending most of my time on the things that I do best and that I enjoy the most. I’m out there blogging and networking and bringing people to my site and bringing them to my customer base where I can encourage them little by little to buy through my affiliate links and buy the products I have to sell. I am scaling my business by creating more products and creating more authoritative posts that contain affiliate links to great resources. My income is not limited by time.
Passive Income Ideas for Bloggers
As a blog owner you have many opportunities to generate passive income.
Free email course – Please wait a minute. Free? I thought we were getting paid. We are. We are! For example, I have a free 7-day to find work from home series that subscribers to one of my newsletters can get. Every day for a week they receive a new email informing them of a specific work-at-home opportunity. Sprinkled throughout that series are affiliate links to some of my favorite work-from-home resources. This series only took me a few days to put together and it goes like clockwork to hundreds of new subscribers every day. And I earn a commission if some of those people decide to click and buy my recommendations.
Note: I currently use Seva for my email newsletter which allows me to create as many subscribers as I need for free and send them in an automated manner.
Ebook – My 7-day series could easily be offered as an ebook for sale as opposed to baiting customers, but at that point my main goal was to bring people into my community long term where maybe I could offer them a more comprehensive ebook a few weeks or months down the road. One of the work at home opportunities. At this point they’ve seen a little bit of what I have to offer and hopefully like what they see enough to take the next step of becoming a customer.
eCourse – If I have a step-by-step process to share, I’m probably going to offer it as an eCourse. That’s something I’m working on right now. Because it is more intensive and structured than an ebook, I am able to put a large price tag on this project. My funnel is getting a little smaller at this level, but many of the people who bought the e-book are more likely to be interested in the eCourse.
My product offers have come and gone over the years. I am now in the process of working these things back into my plan. Start small and only start with one if that’s what it takes to get you going. Don’t be overwhelmed, but always think ahead. You can offer as many digital products for sale as you like. The sky is the limit!
Passive income is available to everyone
If you’re sitting there thinking, “I don’t blog about blogging or working from home. I cannot offer eBooks or eCourses,” you are wrong. I don’t care what you’re blogging about, as long as you have followers, they’re probably interested in hearing more. HubSpot has two great posts I like to refer to when thinking:
Don’t overwhelm yourself. You regularly create content for your blog. Think of your upcoming product as a really long, in-depth blog post.
How do I pay for my product?
Bloggers often underestimate what they have to offer. This is sad in some cases. As someone who buys a lot of digital products, I urge you to value your offering more than you think it’s worth. Why? Because I can’t tell you how often I buy $7 ebooks, give them a 15-minute scan, and never implement a thing. $7 is not a big commitment to me. On the other hand when we get into the $49-range, I’m putting that puppy to work. I have to return that money. Even before I open the file I immediately see your product as high priced.
You’re not trying to sell everyone. You are trying to sell just the thing. If someone jacks up your prices, who cares? They are probably the person who will blame you because they didn’t do the work.
And speaking of not selling to everyone, don’t try to make a product that’s trying to talk to everyone. Don’t be afraid to specify. For example, I’m no longer buying “how to make money blogging” courses aimed at inducting newbies. Why? Because I can count on 75% of the content, if not more, to be about things I’ve already done – buying a domain, setting up hosting, setting this up, that and other things. I’m spending money on things made specifically for people at my stage of the game. And guess what? This creates many opportunities for you to create additional courses! You can create one for beginner, intermediate and advanced user. This is a lot of earning potential.
What ideas do you have for generating passive income as a blogger? If you’re still struggling to get started, do you have questions?
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