You’ve likely heard about the premise of "passive income," the idea that an ebook can help you in making money online without any ongoing effort, through the creation of a website. It sounds too good to be true, but could it really be possible?
The Concept
The idea is to invest some time and money into creating a website from scratch. Then, over time, you can generate enough recurring traffic that you can manage that website hands-off, pulling in a stream of revenue without investing any further time or money into the initiative. Think of it like buying a rental property, then pulling in rental income consistently every month, with minimal maintenance or further investment needed.
So is this a feasible model?
Monetization Strategies
First, let’s take a look at some of the ways of making money following ebook information:
Digital Sales
You could start by selling a purely digital product, such as an ebook. Here, you’ll spend some initial effort creating the asset, then sell it in unlimited quantities for a fixed amount of money. Assuming you’re able to generate new traffic consistently and sell the asset for the same price for a consistent percentage of your visitors, you could create an ongoing revenue stream from scratch.
Resale
You could also sell products that someone else is already manufacturing or storing. In this model, you’ll mark up the price by a fixed percentage, and forward any orders you get to the wholesaler, who can then fulfill them. It’s a mostly hands-off approach, but you’ll still need to dedicate some serious time to set up the partnership.
Advertising
If you have enough traffic going to your site, you can host advertising on your site in exchange for money. Usually, the money you make is based on how many click-throughs you get on those ads, so you’ll need to strike a balance between how enticing and obvious your advertising is, and how much you want to focus on providing quality content to your users.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate linking is a similar strategy, except here, you’ll include links to specific products or external web pages in your blog (or another area of content on your site). You’ll make a percentage of whatever sales your traffic influences, so in high enough volumes, this stream can become significant.
Lead Generation
Finally, you can use your site as a means of lead generation for some other service; for example, if you have a consulting operation, you can use your content and website to convert visitors into interested prospective customers, who you can then sell your services for profit.
Any of these methods is a feasible way to generate revenue if you have enough traffic to support it.
Traffic Generation
The key, then, is making sure you can build a website that generates enough traffic to your site. You can do that by:
Choosing the Right Niche
If you want traffic, you first need to have significant interest. You won’t be able to compete with some of the long-established brands that target general audiences, so your best bet is to choose a specific niche, catering to a highly specific audience with a relevant topic of focus. It should be sizable enough to generate decent traffic, but small enough to scare off the competition.
Providing Ample Content
No matter what your monetization strategy is, content will help you get closer to your goal. Make sure your website is stacked with detailed, well-written content catering to your target audience.
Relying on SEO or Other Marketing Strategies
SEO is a cost-effective, long-term strategy for generating traffic to your website. It takes time to be effective, but if you’re willing to put in the effort, a high-ranking position in search engines could be all it takes to direct hundreds to thousands of people to your site every month. Alternatively, methods like PPC advertising and social media marketing can generate similar results.
Building and Maintaining Your Brand Reputation
If you want your site to generate revenue for longer than a few weeks or months, you’ll need to spend time managing your reputation. You can do that with social media management, content marketing, and personal branding.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line here is that it’s possible to create a website that generates passive income for you—at least in some respects. You can’t make money without first investing significant time or effort, and there’s no such thing as an income stream that’s truly “passive.” All forms of revenue will require some kind of ongoing maintenance and updating.
If you’re willing to put in the time, and you have a solid niche in mind, you can generate a semi-passive revenue stream with a website you’ve built from scratch.
Read Also
Generate Income from Leads with MotoCMS 3.0 Landing Page
How To Maximize Your Adsense Earnings With Smart Optimization
How to Make Money Fast Online Working Less [Free eBook for Web Designers
7 Ideas to Raise the Money You Need to Start a Business
Making Money on the Internet Seems Unreal to You? We Will Prove That It’s Not!