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True Passive Income is the key

by trader909
68 replies
Create something once, no customer support, that sucks big time.

Thinking things like kindle books, e-books, create once put into the market and monitor. Anything that needs customer support is too much of a time waste.

Passive income is one of the best feelings in the world, i.m.h.o.

Agree, disagree?
#income #key #passive #true
  • Profile picture of the author Simon Farmer
    Agree...

    Customer support is the worst. That is one of the bad points about being a ClickBank vendor.

    That's why you need a VA.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Levanduski
    Yes, If you can find a way to get passive income with no additional work or customer service you're set.

    The difficult part is finding and marketing that idea initially!

    Michael
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      Passive income is a wonderful thing - and one of the greatest myths in internet marketing.
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      • Profile picture of the author FailFailFailSucceed
        Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

        Passive income is a wonderful thing - and one of the greatest myths in internet marketing.
        Kindle publishing?
        Amazon affiliate marketing?
        Amazon FBA?

        on and on and on, how is that a myth?
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        • Profile picture of the author Tom B
          Banned
          Originally Posted by FailFailFailSucceed View Post

          Kindle publishing?
          Amazon affiliate marketing?
          Amazon FBA?

          on and on and on, how is that a myth?
          Kindle Publishing?

          Sounds like you need to keep publishing new books in order to keep making money.

          Amazon affiliate marketing?

          You need to keep sending traffic to Amazon in order to make money. Sites normally need maintenance of some sort. You can hire it out but then you're managing those people. Hardly passive.

          Fullfillment by Amazon?

          Who is making the sales? Nope, not passive.
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          • Profile picture of the author Tom B
            Banned
            People should be picking a business model that suits them. If you don't want customer support, then decide on something without customer support or have plans on hiring others that will do the support.

            Building a business around ideas of "passive" income will more than likely end in failure.

            Remember, once you are making enough cash, you can hire out a lot of your daily tasks leaving you only managing those.
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          • Profile picture of the author FailFailFailSucceed
            Originally Posted by Thomas Belknap View Post

            Kindle Publishing?

            Sounds like you need to keep publishing new books in order to keep making money.

            Amazon affiliate marketing?

            You need to keep sending traffic to Amazon in order to make money. Sites normally need maintenance of some sort. You can hire it out but then you're managing those people. Hardly passive.

            Fullfillment by Amazon?

            Who is making the sales? Nope, not passive.
            By your definition there is no such thing as passive income.

            You buy a house, you rent it for 10 years, you sell it for a profit. Long considered passive income.

            Is there no maintenance necessary to the house? Do you spend no effort paying taxes on the house, paying the mortgage, fixing plumbing?

            There is always maintenance necessary.

            If you write an article on "think and grow rich" that links to kindle book that article could generate income for a hundred years if you are lucky.

            Some actions you take will be successful at being passive, some will not but the idea is that atleast a percentage of what you do is passive.

            True on the FBA however, that's not terribly passive as you do have to constantly refresh inventory and list items.
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            • Profile picture of the author Tom B
              Banned
              Originally Posted by FailFailFailSucceed View Post

              By your definition there is no such thing as passive income.

              You buy a house, you rent it for 10 years, you sell it for a profit. Long considered passive income.

              Is there no maintenance necessary to the house? Do you spend no effort paying taxes on the house, paying the mortgage, fixing plumbing?

              There is always maintenance necessary.

              If you write an article on "think and grow rich" that links to kindle book that article could generate income for a hundred years if you are lucky.

              Some actions you take will be successful at being passive, some will not but the idea is that atleast a percentage of what you do is passive.

              True on the FBA however, that's not terribly passive as you do have to constantly refresh inventory and list items.
              Renting a house isn't passive. Maintenance, finding renters, evictions, etc... nothing passive about it. You can hire a maintenance company to do all of that to make it more passive. The minute you stop actively managing that asset, it will probably lose value.

              As for your article theory, let's not talk about what could happen. We could all die from a sun flare.

              Buying government bonds would be passive. Licensing copyright or intellectual rights would be more passive depending on how long the licenses run.

              You can look at books that were made into movies like Rowling. Those types of deals (which would fall under licensing rights) are what I would consider passive but hardly something people should try and build a business around. Doing it because they love it is something else.
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              • Profile picture of the author FailFailFailSucceed
                Originally Posted by Thomas Belknap View Post

                As for your article theory, let's not talk about what could happen. We could all die from a sun flare.

                Buying government bonds would be passive. Licensing IT rights would be more passive depending on long the licenses run.
                And you think you can count on govenment bonds? Our "dynasty" is only couple hundred years old, every dynasty in existence has failied including the longest running at 2k years old.

                Licenses end as well.

                Nothing is completely passive.
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                • Profile picture of the author Tom B
                  Banned
                  Originally Posted by FailFailFailSucceed View Post

                  And you think you can count on govenment bonds? Our "dynasty" is only couple hundred years old, every dynasty in existence has failied including the longest running at 2k years old.

                  Licenses end as well.
                  Again, let's not talk about what can happen. No investment is 100% safe. That isn't what we are talking about. We are talking about passive income sources.

                  I already mentioned licensing time period. Not all licenses end if you look at the example of movie rights to books.

                  Nothing is completely passive.
                  I'm glad you finally see the light but don't completely agree.
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        • Profile picture of the author jwmann2
          In terms of passive income, quality organic referral traffic from Google is the key I've found. It's free traffic. Otherwise, you're busting your a** all of the time to push sales and drive customers via email, forum posting, article marketing, etc.
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      • Profile picture of the author trader909
        Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

        Passive income is a wonderful thing - and one of the greatest myths in internet marketing.
        Myths........??? Nothing is 100% passive... but different degrees of it.
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        • Profile picture of the author Darrin Bentley
          Originally Posted by trader909 View Post

          Myths........??? Nothing is 100% passive... but different degrees of it.
          While that may be true, I would think another myth is being a SUCCESFUL business owner with a "passive only" income stream. I'm sure there are "different degrees" of successful IM's looking to employ this type of strategy. They either learn otherwise or end up dropping aspirations of making it in this business.

          Although I'm not qualified to give too much advice on the subject, I would think this (shortsighted) thinking would apply to any business.

          Build it and they will come! Once they come (and hopefully in droves), outsource, outsource, OUTSOURCE!
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      • Profile picture of the author DTGeorge
        Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

        Passive income is a wonderful thing - and one of the greatest myths in internet marketing.
        Right up there with Nessie, Bigfoot, and the exact amount of licks necessary to get to the center of a tootsie roll.

        Hint: it's NOT 42
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      • Profile picture of the author Curtis2011
        Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

        Passive income is a wonderful thing - and one of the greatest myths in internet marketing.
        Not a myth... just "different" than what people expect.

        There are some business models that involve doing all the work upfront, then chilling out as the system you built deposits checks into your bank account each month.

        After the upfront work is done, the income looks "passive" from there on out. But the upfront work of building the passive income system is the real challenge, and creating it isn't "passive" at all.
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        • Profile picture of the author CyberAlien
          Originally Posted by Curtis2011 View Post

          There are some business models that involve doing all the work upfront, then chilling out as the system you built deposits checks into your bank account each month.

          After the upfront work is done, the income looks "passive" from there on out. But the upfront work of building the passive income system is the real challenge, and creating it isn't "passive" at all.
          If it was completely passive, you wouldn't have to do anything. When you're making money, you always have to be monitoring your business - it doesn't matter if you're as rich as Bill Gates, you still know what's happening in your business and are monitoring it.
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          • Profile picture of the author Curtis2011
            Originally Posted by Chase Watts View Post

            If it was completely passive, you wouldn't have to do anything. When you're making money, you always have to be monitoring your business - it doesn't matter if you're as rich as Bill Gates, you still know what's happening in your business and are monitoring it.
            Well duh, but spending 10 minutes a week 'monitoring' it is about as close to passive income as exists. Even super rich folk who have people manage all their money for them still check in to see how the money is doing.

            A lot of people search for "passive income" when in fact what they are really seeking is two things, firstly to be their own boss and secondly to have their income decoupled from their hourly input of work.
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    • Profile picture of the author amo678
      Originally Posted by Michael Levanduski View Post

      Yes, If you can find a way to get passive income with no additional work or customer service you're set.
      The difficult part is finding and marketing that idea initially!
      Michael
      Hi guys I have built two sites so far and the amount of work really taking a lot out of me. I am currently using Austin's APC reloaded and its nice and simple, but to get traffic is a lot of work and I guess that goes for any passive income.In frustration I think I have struck gold, I made my first $300 yesterday and it is on auto pilot, In excitement I wrote my first blog about it few days ago here it is http://bank-on-traffic-review.blogspot.co.uk/ this has to be the true passive income method in the universe!!!!!!.
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  • Profile picture of the author trader909
    Thinking along he lines of books, you don't see JK Rowling emailing replies to questions etc..

    Low priced, high quality, volume.

    Avoid dealing with customer hand holding at all costs. DANGER TO HEALTH!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Devin X
    Banned
    Originally Posted by trader909 View Post

    Create something once, no customer support, that sucks big time.

    Thinking things like kindle books, e-books, create once put into the market and monitor. Anything that needs customer support is too much of a time waste.

    Passive income is one of the best feelings in the world, i.m.h.o.

    Agree, disagree?
    You have no idea WTF you're talking about. If this is the way you feel about business, then you're ill equipped to succeed. You sound like someone who just read "4 hour workweek" and believed that pish. Well let me tell you something: you got a reality check coming.
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    • Profile picture of the author trader909
      Originally Posted by TheRealDudeman View Post

      You have no idea WTF you're talking about. If this is the way you feel about business, then you're ill equipped to succeed. You sound like someone who just read "4 hour workweek" and believed that pish. Well let me tell you something: you got a reality check coming.
      "W.T.F."

      BIG MOUTH! Trash talker.

      You have no idea WTF you're talking about.
      Thx for your expert opinion here.
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      • Profile picture of the author Devin X
        Banned
        Originally Posted by trader909 View Post

        "W.T.F."

        BIG MOUTH! Trash talker.

        Thx for your expert opinion here.
        You're welcome. The truth hurts, but I'm happy to provide it for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author aizafini
    I think MLM can be passive income. But still depend on a good and establish long run company/program.
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  • Profile picture of the author FailFailFailSucceed
    The term passive doesnt actually imply that it's completely passive.

    Passive income is not a myth.

    This is just my opinion.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tom B
      Banned
      Originally Posted by FailFailFailSucceed View Post

      The term passive doesnt actually imply that it's completely passive.

      You can't have a converstation/debate on what you think a term means. We can only go on what the universal meaning otherwise it's a waste of time.
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  • Profile picture of the author MKCookins
    Agree!

    I believe one of the easiest ways to go about doing this is either promoting or creating products that have a recurring billing.

    This can be membership sites, coaching, web hosting, etc etc. You only need to get the person to buy once -- and if you have a quality product you will get paid again and again every month.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tom B
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      Originally Posted by MKCookins View Post

      Agree!

      I believe one of the easiest ways to go about doing this is either promoting or creating products that have a recurring billing.

      This can be membership sites, coaching, web hosting, etc etc. You only need to get the person to buy once -- and if you have a quality product you will get paid again and again every month.
      In membership sites (at least in the IM space), the average person stays around 3 to 4 months before cancellation.

      You need to keep funneling in people to keep the money coming in.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Mensah
    yeah recurring income without additional effort on the marketer's part is a great way to go because essentially you are working once and getting paid for life.
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Evans
      Originally Posted by Alex Mensah View Post

      yeah recurring income without additional effort on the marketer's part is a great way to go because essentially you are working once and getting paid for life.
      Almost like the realism of a perpetual motion machine.
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    • Profile picture of the author adfinikin
      I agree in that to be successful you need to have residual income coming in month after month and this can be done if you work with your team members that provide this income, and make sure that they too are successful.
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  • Profile picture of the author pewpewpewmonkeys
    Thinking things like kindle books, e-books, create once put into the market and monitor. Anything that needs customer support is too much of a time waste.

    Passive income is one of the best feelings in the world, i.m.h.o.
    Yeah, that's great and all, but non of that is "passive." *Creating* a product is not passive. *Marketing* that product is not passive.

    Thinking along he lines of books, you don't see JK Rowling emailing replies to questions etc
    What?! JK Rowling engages with her audience all the time. She answered TONS of questions for YEARS. She created extra websites for HP fans to go to. She drew out maps for fans who wanted to know the exact locations.

    More than that, JK Rowling wouldn't WANT to be passive. She revels in her work and truly enjoys it to her core. She's a true artist.

    Avoid dealing with customer hand holding at all costs.
    And therefore make less money. I have money. I spend my money for SERVICE. I'm more than willing to spend MORE for BETTER service.

    You buy a house, you rent it for 10 years, you sell it for a profit. Long considered passive income.
    Considered "passive" income by fools. Think of all the normal repairs that a house needs in a 10 year period. Think about what it takes in terms of time and money to find (the right) renters. And how about when a renter doesn't pay the bill...are you physically going to manhandle them out? It's not grueling hard labor from 8-5 every day, but it still takes work and is not passive.

    And you think you can count on govenment bonds?
    That's exactly his point. "Passive" = not successful
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  • Profile picture of the author trader909
    "truth hurts."

    But nice to see how professional you are.


    "you can take the boy out of the trailer park but................."
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  • Profile picture of the author mikelmraz
    It depends on what your definition of 'passive income' is. It also begs the question about people who are extremely wealthy. Considering some of them are just single people who acquired their wealth, wouldn't it be possible to earn a fraction of that amount passively?
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      take the boy out of the trailer park but.......

      .but...you can't take the dreamer out of the new IMer?

      The pushback you see in this thread is because so many new IMers think they can "choose passive income" and it doesn't work that way. It really doesn't.

      Arguing that it does won't change a thing.
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      • Profile picture of the author fin
        Kindle is definitely a passive income, but building it up to a full-time income is obviously the tough part.

        It's still nice to get a little each month for something written over a year ago.

        Some people would tell you blogging is a passive income. People just get to write articles and have fun while people land in their pre-built sales funnel and but their products.

        Others will tell you they believe they're making passive income when they can hire people to carry out all the small tasks and they can work on the fun stuff while still banking money.

        There is obviously a passive income scale between 1 and 100, so each individual person can choose to build a business in any way they want in order to make it as passive as possible.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Rosmer
    As someone whose had multiple streams of as close as most people will ever have to passive income for a number of years I'd have to say 100% passive income is mostly a myth. There is what I call low maintenance income, that's something you can get pretty easily and for example would include something that takes say an hour per week on average to maintain. For example, you purchase a house and rent it out even with a property management company in place there is some maintenance required, not a lot, but some. Same if you purchase for example a dividend paying stock, if you aren't monitoring it you're likely to get into trouble. It might take tiny amounts of time to monitor, but you should monitor it. While it's possible something will maintain for as long as you need it for without some kind of maintenance things break down or drop off.

    If you want freedom look for one of two forms of income:

    1. Extremely large deals that carry you for a long time

    2. Low maintenance forms of income that take little time to maintain (these generally involve being a middle man on a residual deal or alternatively building a team to maintain the pieces and then you simply attend to the team, though building such a team is pretty tough for most people and generally the learning curve alone will take years)
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    You want passive income? Get a brokerage account and sign it over to a manager.

    But wait, there will be a phone call. I can hear it now...

    "Your account balance is in the red. Please wire funds immediately..."

    Should have been watching that basket.

    Nothing is completely passive, my friend. Nothing.
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  • Profile picture of the author theemperor
    Originally Posted by trader909 View Post

    Create something once, no customer support, that sucks big time.

    Thinking things like kindle books, e-books, create once put into the market and monitor. Anything that needs customer support is too much of a time waste.

    Passive income is one of the best feelings in the world, i.m.h.o.

    Agree, disagree?
    Disagree. Customer support is a wonderful thing. With each email you can improve your product or marketing. And you can outsource much of it, or use FAQs and better manuals to avoid a lot of the repetitive stuff. And if someone wants a refund just give it and move on. Customer support is cool!
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  • Profile picture of the author MrJonny
    If you do the hard work now and later hire others to manage your sites, they can be practically passive.
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  • Profile picture of the author DTGeorge
    Originally Posted by trader909 View Post

    Create something once, no customer support, that sucks big time.

    Thinking things like kindle books, e-books, create once put into the market and monitor. Anything that needs customer support is too much of a time waste.

    Passive income is one of the best feelings in the world, i.m.h.o.

    Agree, disagree?
    I'll let you know as soon as I find that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

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  • Profile picture of the author KateD
    What about treasure bonds? aren't those passive?

    Sure, you still have to do the work to invest, but once it's invested, I believe that it's pretty much passive (unless you want to liquidate your assets to put into something else).

    KateD
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  • Profile picture of the author OrangeBull
    You want passive income, first be a multimillionaire and buy a successful business, second hire a manager to run the business, third hire a forensic accountant to watch the manager, fourth hire a lawyer to watch the accountant, fifth sit back and watch the accountant and the lawyer eat up the profits that the manager doesn't skim, otherwise, buy a couple of rental properties, hire a manager, watch the manager yourself, and that's about as passive as it gets.
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  • Profile picture of the author arkina
    I agree but I have yet to be able to obtain this. I feel like I work hard for everything I get! I feel like I need to constantly promote and update. I would LOVE to reach a point where I obtain a passive income, maybe someday by hard work will pay off!

    Originally Posted by trader909 View Post

    Create something once, no customer support, that sucks big time.

    Thinking things like kindle books, e-books, create once put into the market and monitor. Anything that needs customer support is too much of a time waste.

    Passive income is one of the best feelings in the world, i.m.h.o.

    Agree, disagree?
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  • Profile picture of the author Brains Gone Wild
    Customer support isn't for everyone. Admittedly, it can really taint a marketer's outlook on the entire business & industry. However, there is something great about helping people (especially newbies) to make money & to create freedom. Can't do that without offering value & support. There are tons of methods to making money without ever interacting with the buyers, if that's what you desire....
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Originally Posted by trader909 View Post

    Create something once, no customer support, that sucks big time.

    Thinking things like kindle books, e-books, create once put into the market and monitor. Anything that needs customer support is too much of a time waste.

    Passive income is one of the best feelings in the world, i.m.h.o.

    Agree, disagree?
    The most customer service i've done with my customers are:

    1) Refunds

    2) Help with marketing

    I dont mind any of them... both take 5 minutes out of my day to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ron Killian
    Customer service also builds the relationship and trust. Then they are more likely to buy more from you.
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  • Profile picture of the author KenJ
    You could play in a rock band. That doesn't need much customer support. But you have to be nice to your fans.

    The whole thing about customer support is to delegate/outsource it. You can set up your business in such a way so that the only ongoing input required is support. Most towns have VA services who will take your calls and deal with customer services. You just have to train them up once.

    But I quite like interacting with my customers. Even the ones who complain and ask for refunds. I'm a social kind of guy.

    KenJ
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  • Profile picture of the author trader909
    i think this is me.

    Customer support isn't for everyone. Admittedly, it can really taint a marketer's outlook on the entire business & industry.
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  • Profile picture of the author clever7
    I agree that you can consider some income streams as if they were passive in a certain way, but not completely. You always have to do something. The point is to work once and keep making money thanks to your initial effort, even if you have to do a few things to keep this income stream alive.






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  • Profile picture of the author AlfieWhattam
    Passive income is one of the sweetest things in life, and thankfully almost any online enterprise can be converted into such with the help of VA's following day to day systems
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  • Profile picture of the author danlew
    I definitely agree with this. But in order to have a true passive income, you need to work not harder, but smarter with great effort. Just keep doing that until you have finally reached the goal you have always wanted.
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    • Profile picture of the author The Stardust Traveler
      I would look at why the hunt for passive income is your focus.

      You do something you don't enjoy, to try and create your perfect vision of reality.

      Why not put effort into a project that actually interests you (an interest not just in making the money). Now you can live everyday without the ankle biting urge to think of ways to find a better, effortless source of income.

      Can this be a web based endeavor? Definitely. The web is a place for everyone and puts you just seconds away from unimaginably sized audiences. Give the right person the right message and you're set.
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  • Profile picture of the author troy23
    Great post and yes I agree with you.
    I created products 15 years ago and they bring in income month after month without fail. I did support at first, but then stopped it. I get the occasional query and I am happy to help. There are a lot of additional income streams to be had...YouTube Adsense being a prime example...set it and forget.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgant
    Passive is great. One stream I developed is promoting recurring commission products. Software is best because the stick rate is generally high compared to info-based membership sites. Supplements with recurring can be good, but again the stick rate isn't as high (generally) compared to software.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gary Huynh
    Passive income is only going to last for a specific amount of time obviously. You're not going to set something up once and reap it for the rest of your life. However, I've had things I set up years ago that still generate income for me with very little work. Yes, there's a few emails to answer here and there but that's expected.

    In my experience, promoting a product which people use monthly is the way to go. For example, I help businesses set up email marketing campaigns. They need autoresponders. Autoresponders are a fixed monthly expense which I get paid for. What other services/products do businesses use monthly? Leverage on that.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bkelly301
    My personal definition of passive income is money that is made after setting up some sort of income-generating system. That's opposed to directly trading time for money which would be active income. Maintainence is still needed to keep the passive-income generating system running properly, but that time investment isn't directly tied to a direct exchange for cash.

    At least that's what I consider to be "passive income", and it's what my work is geared towards.
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    • Profile picture of the author passiveincomebiz
      I think there are degrees of passiveness that can fluctuate depending on competition, changing market conditions, govt. regulations etc.
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      • Profile picture of the author BritishMike
        Beware of passive income!!!

        Here's what I did:

        8 years ago I found a couple of merchants who were looking for sales leads. I created basic pages around whatever it was they did (e.g. double glazing). I then set up PPC campaigns to drive traffic to my lead gen websites from Adwords/Bing/Yahoo. As long as my PPC costs were less than the agreed cost per lead I was getting, I could sit back and watch the money come in. In the early days I didn't have this process automated, so whenever a lead came in (it was emailed to me using a simple form script) I had to manually enter it into the merchant's website using an affiliate link and simple copy & paste. So not passive income, but it was like a very high paid data entry job. I wasn't getting hundreds of leads, maybe 20-30 per day but they were high value. I got so good at entering leads that it came down to about 3 mins per lead. A couple of years later I automated the system so that leads went straight to the merchant via a database I had created (so I could track them), and this reduced my workload to almost nil. I was sporadically checking my PPC campaigns but I believe in the mantra 'if it ain't broke don't fix it'. Soon the money was rolling in and I was spending hardly any time on the business. My work involved:

        - troubleshooting (if the database ever went wrong)
        - occasional checking of stats to ensure the PPC campaign was still in profit
        - the odd phone call/email to the merchants to see if they were still happy
        - preparing the figures for my accountant now and again
        - monthly invoices

        I would call this passive income, because I hardly ever worked....I should add that I was earning more per month than I did per year at my old job.


        BUT then the problems started...


        - I became bored of being at home with nothing to do. When you're earning money passively it's SO EASY to lose motivation. I found it hard to push myself to grow the business and just sat back. I became so lazy.
        - I became an expert on FIFA Soccer and other PS2/PS3 games. I would while away hours playing video games at home.
        - I became guilty that all my friends were out working hard and there I was, virtually unemployed but still a company director.
        - I started getting anxiety attacks and became mildly agoraphobic due to being stuck at home all day.
        - I was incredibly happy as I married my beautiful wife and we had 2 beautiful kids that I have been able to enjoy at home instead of working away. However at the same time I felt a huge sense of unfulfilment and lack of direction with my life. Looking back we should have travelled more before we had kids, but we didn't seize that opportunity. Now it's tricky with school commitments etc, as all parents will know.


        The upshot is that passive income, when achieved, is not the Holy Grail most people are looking for. I would advise anyone who manages to achieve it to have a plan of what you are going to do with your life once you're financially secure. For me, I have joined this forum and I want to create websites which create value as well as income. Something that keeps my mind occupied, makes me feel worthy but still affords me the flexibility of spending quality time with my kids.

        As you can tell from the length of this post I'm still not fully occupied, and I'm writing this from starbucks. But since I've discovered this forum I've had many ideas of what direction to take, and I plan to start something very soon. Maybe teaching people how to do what I did, but I've held back from this so far due to the fact that I don't want to be seen as some kind of internet 'guru', and I know that the make money online industry has a very bad reputation and lots of scammers - I don't want to be associated with that.

        Any advice would be gratefully received,

        Mike
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        • Profile picture of the author Internet Wizard
          Originally Posted by BritishMike View Post

          Beware of passive income!

          - I became bored of being at home with nothing to do. When you're earning money passively it's SO EASY to lose motivation. I found it hard to push myself to grow the business and just sat back. I became so lazy.
          - I became an expert on FIFA Soccer and other PS2/PS3 games. I would while away hours playing video games at home.
          - I became guilty that all my friends were out working hard and there I was, virtually unemployed but still a company director.
          - I started getting anxiety attacks and became mildly agoraphobic due to being stuck at home all day.
          ^^This^^

          I know that these are "problems" that most people think they would like to have, but I have been there myself and I know it is very real, and it's not a good place to be. For one, it's really easy to get fat if you are undisciplined!

          The thing is. We only have one life and most people think that they would be truly happy if they just had more money, but that that seldom turns out to be true.

          Having struggled financially myself when I was younger I know that there is a huge relief, satisfaction, and yes, even happiness, when you first become financially free. By "free" I mean free from normal money stresses and worries. Money is like "oil in the machinery of the world" and having some can remove a lot of the crap that people otherwise have to deal with.

          But going from having "enough to grease the machinery", to having a lot more, doesn't bring nearly the satisfaction that most people think.

          I am writing this from the jacuzzi in my garden. My biggest "problem" right now is that the ice cold Coke that I'm longing for is still in the fridge and I'm too lazy to get it, and the gardener is making a bit too much noise for my liking.

          Yet I don't feel fufilled and I'm still searching for something to fill that "black hole" in my soul... :confused:

          IMHO it is far more important to work with something that you truly enjoy every day, than it is to achieve completely passive income allowing you to do nothing. But I wasn't always this smart!
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          • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
            Originally Posted by FailFailFailSucceed View Post

            Wouldn't this qualify? Just had this conversation the other day.

            Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Power Station - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

            They pump the water up at night, then it generates the electricity during the day.

            Overall there is obviously way more produced than used otherwise why bother?

            Seems perpetual to me.
            You seem to have missed this bit (emphasis is mine):

            The Taum Sauk plant is a pure pump-back operation; there is no natural primary flow available for generation, unlike most other pumped storage sites. It is therefore a net consumer of electricity; the laws of thermodynamics dictate that more power is consumed pumping the water up the mountain than is generated when it comes down.
            It's only perpetual as long as someone keeps the pumps running at night and nothing wears out. Apply that to "passive income streams" and I'll admit that it's pretty accurate. In physics or in marketing, there is a certain amount of friction and inertia. Without continued application of force, the energy (income) fizzles out.

            Originally Posted by mikelmraz View Post

            It depends on what your definition of 'passive income' is. It also begs the question about people who are extremely wealthy. Considering some of them are just single people who acquired their wealth, wouldn't it be possible to earn a fraction of that amount passively?
            You're mainly talking about people who made their money the old-fashioned way - inheriting it. Or maybe someone like rock stars or pro athletes, who get paid millions during their active careers.

            Managing that income still takes some work. And it can't all be farmed out to managers. Just ask the Hall of Famer shaking your hand when you enter the casino, or the one cutting the ribbon at the megamart next to his trophy, or traveling from city to city signing autographs for a few bucks a pop...
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        • Profile picture of the author Micah Medina
          Originally Posted by BritishMike View Post

          Any advice would be gratefully received,

          Mike
          Learn a language. Play an instrument. Read a book. Work out. Live life.
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        • Profile picture of the author rtsai2
          Originally Posted by BritishMike View Post

          - I became bored of being at home with nothing to do. When you're earning money passively it's SO EASY to lose motivation. I found it hard to push myself to grow the business and just sat back. I became so lazy.
          - I became an expert on FIFA Soccer and other PS2/PS3 games. I would while away hours playing video games at home.
          - I became guilty that all my friends were out working hard and there I was, virtually unemployed but still a company director.
          - I started getting anxiety attacks and became mildly agoraphobic due to being stuck at home all day.
          - I was incredibly happy as I married my beautiful wife and we had 2 beautiful kids that I have been able to enjoy at home instead of working away. However at the same time I felt a huge sense of unfulfilment and lack of direction with my life. Looking back we should have travelled more before we had kids, but we didn't seize that opportunity. Now it's tricky with school commitments etc, as all parents will know.

          Mike
          I consider it a safety net so I can learn all I want and not feel like a total failure if I take it slow. I basically would have all my basic needs fulfilled, so I can work on being self-actualized by working on projects that amy be beneficial to the community

          Draw so your vision is seen
          Write so your voice is heard
          Inspire so people don't jump off cliffs
          Engineer so you apply math to understanding what makes a car charger etc.
          Plumbing so you gain an appreciation for building your own house

          ...
          I have a whole list that's more specific ;/
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  • Profile picture of the author hsinclair
    One the great things about passive income is that if you can set up multiple passive income streams it will actually be like having another person that works all day and actually pays you another salary.
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  • Profile picture of the author thedog
    Passive income rocks.

    You don't need to sell your own products, you can just promote a quality, high end product with a good commission, no support issues there.

    That said, I really don't mind getting support emails for my services, usually sorted with 1 or 2 emails.
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  • Profile picture of the author RedShifted
    I love when people argue over the phrase "passive income". Its a great way to waste time, intellect, and resources over something that most people don't GAF about.

    On topic. I agree, passive income is great. To me, it means making as much profit as possible, with as little work as possible.

    Like my 4 local lead gen sites. It didn't take much work on my end to put them together. You outsource shit, outsource SEO, leads come in, 90% of it is automated, and it takes virtually no effort to maintain. Unless you consider paying monthly fees for SEO "effort". I personally don't.

    Or ranking YT affiliate videos. You pay someone to act out a script, pay to spam it, or use your own software, thats about as passive as it gets. WHERE IS THE "EFFORT"? The videos rank, you make affiliate sales, very little maintenance required. Sure videos get deleted occassionally, but when your entire process is automated from beginning to end, thats what I call "passive income".

    There are tons of ways to make it.

    I'm also confused at how the word "passive" got mixed up with the word "perpetual".
    AFAIK, they are 2 completely different words, with 2 completely different definitions.

    Finally, to the one person who bashed "4 Hour Work Week".... I'm not sure how else to say this... but you sound like an idiot. Until the day comes where you can get a book on the New York Times Best Seller list for 4 years straight, you should probably keep your mouth shut. Its one of the most inspiring, educational, and well renowned books in the marketing community. So when people bash the book, or act condescending towards users who may have read it, its inevitable that people perceive you like a bitter douchebag.

    Thats just my opinion, and sorry if I offended anyone (not really).

    -SB
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