Back and looking for ideas!

18 replies
Hello Everyone!

A few months back I decided I wanted to try making some money online and while I wasn't extremely successful I managed to make about $80 writing articles. I stopped doing that because I really wasn't looking to trade my time directly for money.

I know there's no way to make a solid income right off the bat, but I'm looking for a more passive income. I still have the $80 in paypal that I can use to cover some basic costs. Instead of directly writing articles I am looking for something like creating a page advertising a product, or something of that nature.

It's been a while since I did any of this and was wondering where you all think is the best place to begin. I am willing to put in the work with advertising, writing etc, but I'd like to stay away from things that pay me per action. What is the best way for a beginner to generate a small passive income?

Thank you all so much for your help and support, I hope to become a much more active member of this community!

Drew
#back #ideas #income #passive
  • Profile picture of the author pizzacashmon3y
    Build sites, SEO them, and sell products.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alast
    Essentially if you have no income, then you should only do IM on the side (unless you don't need money for whatever reason). You will need to invest in a domain name (roughly $10), hosting ($2-3/month), and an autoresponder (Aweber, $19/month). So your initial 'investment' will be roughly $20-30 for the first month.

    Before you decide you waste your money on those things, you need to have a solid plan. Write out a bunch of emails for your autoresponder, promoting valuable products (not necessarily in price, but quality). Give both free and paid products, and most importantly, enter that niche having done your research. There's nothing worse than reading information from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about.

    Get a free template (or paid if you want) and build your website with WordPress. It doesn't have to be a blog, but something which provides valuable content for readers. Write a series of articles (or outsource them), and then learn a method to advertise your website. Make sure the website you create has a form (opt-in) where members can get a free product in exchange for their emails. They will then be transferred to your email list, and the autoresponder will use your emails to give then both free and paid products.

    Here's some tips I have learned:

    1. Don't go into the IM niche, it's extremely saturated and will be near impossible for you to make decent money through it.
    2. Don't waste money on paid advertising without a solid, workable plan. There is a huge learning curve and an extreme potential to lose large amounts of money.. fast.
    3. Don't rely on SEO. Google changes their algorithms which can screw with your website.
    4. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket.

    So basically, provide quality products to clients and scale it up. Build trust with your list!
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    • Thanks Alast!

      Ive been working at this IM venture for the last two months or so. Havent had much Success. but alot of great ideas. you mentionrd something about promoting a good quality product....

      Ive registered accounts with Click, Warrior JV, Warrior Plus, JV Zoo and so on. I have come across a few good product or at least what I thought were good products. But no movement. how do I first identify a good, promotable Product and then actually make MONEY with it. That is where the disconnect is happening for me.

      Any help will be greatly appreciated.
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    • Profile picture of the author nba2kbeast
      Originally Posted by Alast View Post

      Essentially if you have no income, then you should only do IM on the side (unless you don't need money for whatever reason). You will need to invest in a domain name (roughly $10), hosting ($2-3/month), and an autoresponder (Aweber, $19/month). So your initial 'investment' will be roughly $20-30 for the first month.

      Before you decide you waste your money on those things, you need to have a solid plan. Write out a bunch of emails for your autoresponder, promoting valuable products (not necessarily in price, but quality). Give both free and paid products, and most importantly, enter that niche having done your research. There's nothing worse than reading information from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about.

      Get a free template (or paid if you want) and build your website with WordPress. It doesn't have to be a blog, but something which provides valuable content for readers. Write a series of articles (or outsource them), and then learn a method to advertise your website. Make sure the website you create has a form (opt-in) where members can get a free product in exchange for their emails. They will then be transferred to your email list, and the autoresponder will use your emails to give then both free and paid products.

      Here's some tips I have learned:

      1. Don't go into the IM niche, it's extremely saturated and will be near impossible for you to make decent money through it.
      2. Don't waste money on paid advertising without a solid, workable plan. There is a huge learning curve and an extreme potential to lose large amounts of money.. fast.
      3. Don't rely on SEO. Google changes their algorithms which can screw with your website.
      4. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket.

      So basically, provide quality products to clients and scale it up. Build trust with your list!
      Wow, Thanks for the advice. I tried a similar approach a while back in the internet marketing field and it flopped. First off, I couldn't get aweber because they don't accept Paypal as a form of payment. Does anyone know a place where I can get an autoresponder with paypal instead of a credit card?

      Anyways, I could figure something out about that. The real questions I have now are more about a niche. I feel that by far my best niche would be in either Football or Basketball. But if I want to avoid writing daily news stories about pro sports, the other option I see is writing guides and tutorials.

      Would there be anyway to monetize this option?

      I think my IM website flopped because I honestly didn't really know what I was talking about. I could really get into a sports website, but I don't want to start something that doesn't have any potential.

      Secondly, how do I know if a product is any good? Should I just stick to Clickbank and use gravity?

      Thanks a ton for the advice! It was very helpful!
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      • Profile picture of the author Alast
        Originally Posted by nba2kbeast View Post

        Wow, Thanks for the advice. I tried a similar approach a while back in the internet marketing field and it flopped. First off, I couldn't get aweber because they don't accept Paypal as a form of payment. Does anyone know a place where I can get an autoresponder with paypal instead of a credit card?

        Anyways, I could figure something out about that. The real questions I have now are more about a niche. I feel that by far my best niche would be in either Football or Basketball. But if I want to avoid writing daily news stories about pro sports, the other option I see is writing guides and tutorials.

        Would there be anyway to monetize this option?

        I think my IM website flopped because I honestly didn't really know what I was talking about. I could really get into a sports website, but I don't want to start something that doesn't have any potential.

        Secondly, how do I know if a product is any good? Should I just stick to Clickbank and use gravity?

        Thanks a ton for the advice! It was very helpful!
        Why not promote products which teach players how to enhance their skills? i.e. how to jump higher in basketball. I'm sure you could find plenty of products related to sports on Clickbank.

        To know if a product is any good, you should ask for a free review. Make sure when you ask them, you do it in a professional manner. Refer to this method: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post3641838

        You don't need to use Clickbank, but it is very reliable and trusted affiliate program. If you want to try something else, do a quick search of affiliate marketing websites and go from there!

        As far as I'm concerned, you will need to use Aweber or something similar. I'm not sure if there's a responsible autoresponder which takes PayPal - you will need to do a bit of research!
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    • Originally Posted by Alast View Post

      Here's some tips I have learned:

      1. Don't go into the IM niche, it's extremely saturated and will be near impossible for you to make decent money through it.
      Go for a tiny niche, like a rare medical disorder or condition, maybe even something which can easily be monetized by high paying Adsense. So much easier to dominate a tiny niche and be the big fish in tiny pond, rather than tiny fish in a big pond of carniverous (and well financed) pirannahs.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bill Hugall
    The IM niche is just fine, but it takes learning. Picking a niche you are familiar with will make your life way easier.

    Make sure (as mentioned above) that you have a solid plan in place for all your free and paid efforts. Make sure you learn about tracking. This will tell you what efforts have been wasted and which ones bring in the $
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  • Profile picture of the author wrcato2
    You can get an auto responder from 12 second commute. I think the service is 49 bucks a month though.
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  • Profile picture of the author nba2kbeast
    Oh! Another major question I had from my last website was how to sell these products. Many people told me to put them in ads on the side, while others told me to create a squeeze page and send them the ads directly? Which of these do you think is the best option?
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  • Profile picture of the author wrcato2
    You can do either one of those and do fine. However, I can think of a dozen ways to sell products from your site especially your own products.
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  • Profile picture of the author jbsmith
    Seems to me one obvious path to explore would be to use your ability to write articles, but apply it to solving a specific problem or filling a desire for step-by-step information around a specific topic - turn that into a product and then you gain the leverage of work once, sell over and over again. This way you stop selling time for money, gain the advantage of having your own products that other people will sell (through affiliates & partners), and can raise your profile/brand over time to build a strong following.

    Jeff
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  • Profile picture of the author dewayneboyd
    Originally Posted by nba2kbeast View Post

    Hello Everyone!

    A few months back I decided I wanted to try making some money online and while I wasn't extremely successful I managed to make about $80 writing articles. I stopped doing that because I really wasn't looking to trade my time directly for money.

    I know there's no way to make a solid income right off the bat, but I'm looking for a more passive income. I still have the $80 in paypal that I can use to cover some basic costs. Instead of directly writing articles I am looking for something like creating a page advertising a product, or something of that nature.

    It's been a while since I did any of this and was wondering where you all think is the best place to begin. I am willing to put in the work with advertising, writing etc, but I'd like to stay away from things that pay me per action. What is the best way for a beginner to generate a small passive income?

    Thank you all so much for your help and support, I hope to become a much more active member of this community!

    Drew
    I have a lot of articles receiving passive traffic in the jobs and career niche. BLS.gov is like a dictionary of long-tail keywords in this niche. But be aware you'll need to write thousands of articles based on long-tail keywords before you can expect to get passive traffic. Passive income is possible, but it typically is a lot of work in the beginning.
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    1,574,810 unique visitors and counting. And that's just one of my websites.

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  • Profile picture of the author smoor2012
    Actually I would agree with the advice on writing ebooks about how to write articles since you had success with it. You can sell ebooks over and over again.

    Not everybody is good at writing. You seem to have a good idea. It is food for thought.
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    PM me and I will respond as soon as possible

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  • Profile picture of the author Rory Singh
    If I were a beginner, I would find myself a good job that pays for all my financial needs. Then I would find a good direct selling company that deals with 'big' ticket items. Then I would learn how to 'drive' targeted traffic to my high converting offer. I would work online when I am not working my job. I would master this process and become my own self reliant entrepreneur who never has to go outside my home to ever make money again.

    That's what I would do if I were a beginner.
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  • Profile picture of the author spearce000
    Sports is a good niche. As you a) know about football or basketball and b) have good writing skills, why not write an e-book on some type of sports technique and sell it on Clickbank, Amazon or PayDotCom?


    Coaching videos are also good sellers as players are always looking to improve their technique. Again you can sell them as a download or as a print on demand DVD.
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  • Profile picture of the author nba2kbeast
    Thanks for the advice everyone! Writing an eBook sounds interesting but I've heard they need to be 40+ pages. Is this true? I mean I'm not sure what I could write 40 pages about unless it was explaining just about every tactic of basketball.
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  • Profile picture of the author jbsmith
    40 pages is basically 20-25 articles at 1.5 to 2 pages...not really that challenging - if you have a decent outline.

    Key is to pick an outcome that many non-pro basketball players want to achieve - let's say you find the biggest desire is to sink more 3-pointers, or to double their shooting percentage from within the paint...that becomes the topic of the ebook.

    Within the ebook you may have 10 pages on psychology (getting into the right mindset), then 10 pages of tips that you research from pro basketball players, another 10 pages could be spent on 5-6 drills that you find are most effective at improving shooting percentage followed by 10 pages around specific tactics (how to hold the ball, timing, when to shoot, etc...)

    I know very little about basketball (other than what I see on TV), but I use these only as examples on how to structure the ebook (or any type of info product) around an ultimate goal and then outline it in terms of steps to help them get there.

    Each step or phase of that step is really just like writing an article, something you have done before - correct?

    Should be something you can pull off within a couple of weeks frankly.

    Jeff
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  • Profile picture of the author cody123
    I agree with Alast. You'll need more money to get yourself up and on the internet. A one-page site, a valuable free offer and an autoresponder will get you started. From there, get yourself on forums, social media, etc. to get visitors to your site.

    The key is to provide massive content, over-deliver, build your list then build trust and a relationship with your list.

    Then you'll start making money.

    Time and patience and lots of research and work....
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