The Most 'Hands-Free', Passive Income Stream...

14 replies
Hi Warriors,

I was talking to an old colleague (he knows nothing about IM) who has the perception that 'running a business online' is completely hands free and passive. Like there is some secret online lotto formula and money pours through once you finally crack it...lol

It got me thinking, with all the endless ways of earning an income off of the Internet, what do you think is:

The most hands free, and most passive method?

I'm talking, literally doing the work once/minimal initial efforts, having little to no upkeep, maintenance or large costings and getting paid for it over and over for a long period of time.

To me, that is the ultimate online business model, focusing on marketing and increasing profits and not on the actual 'doing' of the business.

Would love to share some thoughts and experiences from those who believe they have this and those who are striving for it.
#handsfree #income #passive #stream
  • Profile picture of the author Long Beach Nathan
    I think YouTube as a traffic source to your website with an affiliate offer, and Amazon Kindle books are two great examples of this. You literally set it up and it runs for you like a machine 24/7, requiring little to 0 attention from you

    Edit: You could also combine the YouTube affiliate method with list building instead, and have a whole email sequence set up to sell them on several products in the niche. Just drive the traffic from YouTube to a squeeze page instead.
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    • Profile picture of the author sree94
      In my experience, if you can get a site to the top of Bing's index and can make money from it, you won't have to think about it again for a long, long time

      I have a site that I haven't built a single link to since March of 2012 and it has been in the #2 position in Bing for nearly 3 years now

      Their index is very slow to rank your site, but it seems to be even slower to slide your site down as well
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    • Profile picture of the author mrgoe
      Originally Posted by Long Beach Nathan View Post

      I think YouTube as a traffic source to your website with an affiliate offer, and Amazon Kindle books are two great examples of this. You literally set it up and it runs for you like a machine 24/7, requiring little to 0 attention from you

      Edit: You could also combine the YouTube affiliate method with list building instead, and have a whole email sequence set up to sell them on several products in the niche. Just drive the traffic from YouTube to a squeeze page instead.
      Yes, youtube gets its own traffic, it`s something that always ranks great, being a google administered product and can get you a lot of money.
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  • Profile picture of the author Slin
    Building an authority site, lots and lots of articles, just add one a day, after a few years you have a very nice income, at very low level of work a day.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Kohler
    As stated above, there are many ways to really have "passive" income. Of course, you have to write the book, build the site, and create the videos, but once everything is in place, it can then be truly passive.

    I think that spending your time on anything requires it to be a long lasting payback. Meaning, once you are done with the work, it needs to pay you, without going back to it again from that point forward.

    So, I think creating a product in a popular niche is the best. Whether it is a Kindle book, something you sell on CB, once it's done, you can leverage the efforts of everyone else that will want to promote it. It's also the best way to get free traffic.

    I purchased a product years ago that taught me that creating your own product is the best way to not only earn passive income, but consistent traffic. You just have to make sure its in a popular niche, has a unique twist (like every "new" weight loss/diet/exercise product that comes out every year) and give your potential affiliates the right tools to use.
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  • Profile picture of the author SoCal Digital
    I have been doing internet marketing and web development for 3 years and haven't made any passive income online.

    All of the revenue i have received is from putting in work with services, websites with great content, or reselling products.

    The more effort and time you put into things the more you will receive.
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  • Profile picture of the author gwpmike
    You need to have a product (or package of products), a sales funnel, a follow-up system and a traffic source or multiple traffic source. You drive traffic to the first page of your sales funnel which is your squeeze page/capture page. On this page, you need to have a form that captures the emails of your leads, and then follow up with these leads telling them about your product. They buy the product and then you repeat these steps.

    I am doing this with a system called Profit Pilot Pro. It includes a capture page, an autoresponder with built-in follow up emails and it drives the traffic to your capture page using a lead rotator system.

    EDIT: The actual product besides the lead rotator system is a package of PLR products, ebooks, software and training videos that you can sell however you want, even on your own website. PLR products are selling like crazy right now because everybody who wants to make money online needs a product to sell.

    Best regards,
    Mike
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    I would say web hosting affiliate programs. I would say porn, but alot of people download the videos off the site, store them on their gigabit hard drive, then cancel the membership lol.
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    • Profile picture of the author Des Lau
      Originally Posted by sree94 View Post

      In my experience, if you can get a site to the top of Bing's index and can make money from it, you won't have to think about it again for a long, long time

      I have a site that I haven't built a single link to since March of 2012 and it has been in the #2 position in Bing for nearly 3 years now

      Their index is very slow to rank your site, but it seems to be even slower to slide your site down as well
      Bing, interesting. Is the site monetized and is it providing enough of an income stream to rely on? I guess that's where I was coming from with my original query - a set and forget income that you can walk away knowing it's making money for you for a very long time.

      Originally Posted by Slin View Post

      Building an authority site, lots and lots of articles, just add one a day, after a few years you have a very nice income, at very low level of work a day.
      Sounds like a lot of work lol. 'lots and lots of articles and adding one a day' probably doesn't fall under 'hands free' :p
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  • Profile picture of the author ModernDomains
    List building and email marketing is fairly hands off once you set it up with say an autoresponder series.

    Also adsense sites can be fairly low maintenance once you set them up correctly.
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  • Profile picture of the author Raydal
    Just as in the natural world energy cannot be created or destroyed,
    so in marketing you either do all the work at the beginning or spread
    over a long time, but the work has to be done. All those passive
    forms of income takes work at the beginning.

    -Ray Edwards
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  • Profile picture of the author mikelmraz
    Authority site is probably the most hands-free. After it genuinely becomes an authority, that is. Once a site is large enough, everything else should be able to outsource, including maintenance.

    It should be built as a real business. Just think of people in the 'real' world who own multiple businesses. I guess it is the same concept except online?
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    • Profile picture of the author Des Lau
      Originally Posted by Art of Marketing View Post

      You are on the right track Randall.

      Services people really need like hosting and auto-responders and the classic adult niche.

      Does not have to be hardcore...you just have to be creative...finding ways to get people to join a micro continuity perhaps will keep them subscribed longer.

      -Art
      Yes, this is more on the lines of where I was getting at.

      Reselling hosting is a great example.

      Low capital investment, small learning curve, long-term retention and recurring business model.

      It is literally 'set and forget'.

      I'd say the same goes for software that is in demand on a one off or recurring basis.

      Adult industry, now that is evergreen! :p
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