Passive Family Income » passive income ideas

Why you May NOT Want to Use eHow

John S. — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 11:35:49 +0000

Writing articles and publishing them on eHow is one of the best opportunities I have found to create a legitimate work from home opportunity. Even if you spend just 3 or 4 hours every week adding articles to your eHow library, you should be able to build a couple hundred dollar passive income stream in less than 1 year! Provided you spend some time researching your topics, paying attention to keywords, and publishing high quality authentic content, you should have no problems generating income using this tool.

While eHow can be a great way to build a long lasting passive income stream, there are some reasons why you may want to consider NOT publishing content using this tool. Don’t get me wrong, eHow is a legitimate opportunity that I plan on using for many years to come as a way to diversify my income. There are however some really valid reasons to not use it that you should at least think about before you get started.

Reasons NOT to Use eHow

Here are a few reasons you should consider on why you may want to think twice about spending the time to build passive income using eHow.

Purged Articles – Just this past week, eHow went through and cleaned up their article library. As a result, several eHow authors had articles deleted from the system. I myself lost only 2 articles, but there are other writers who have reported losing well over 50! Ultimately, this makes eHow a more reputable site but comes at the cost of having your articles purged at any time that is out of your control.
eHow Goes Under – While their are no current signs that would suggest eHow going under or shutting down, the risk is still there. Who knows, 5 or 10 years from now things could be a lot different. Just remember that by using a site like eHow, you have given up some control compared to launching your own site(s).
Stolen Articles – There is a strong possibility that fellow writers will steal your content or the research you have already completed. Sure, this could happen anywhere on the internet today, but eHow articles just seem easier to duplicate compared to others. The reality is that there are some lazy people out there looking to take the easy way out. The reports of stolen eHow articles and research should be of concern to eHow writers.
Burnout – Publishing a mass number of articles for a few consecutive months could leave you burned out. I personally believe that burnout from writing is more common when you use a structured site like eHow or HubPages. When it is your own site and content, I feel that you are more motivated and interested to keep producing quality content.
Terms Change – The terms and guidelines set out by eHow today are really not that bad compared with other similar sites. But who knows, they could change their guidelines next week and it could have a negative impact on your passive income stream. For example, if tomorrow they decided to remove the ability to add affiliate links to your articles – what impact will that have on your bottom line?
eHow Format – I personally enjoy writing eHow articles using the step format of a “How To” article. However, there are times when I find myself struggling to force some of my content into this structure. Anything that does not provide steps or a guide to help the reader figure something out is not a good fit for eHow. Be sure to keep this in mind when you are planning out your strategy.
Payment Structure – One of the great mysteries of eHow is their payment structure. Nobody really knows how they split the ad revenue that is generated. You could wake up next week and see your earnings completely fall off and not really know why. At least with maintaining your own sites you can do some analysis on why this happened and take corrective measures.

Final Thoughts

I must admit that I am addicted to using eHow! I think it is one of the best opportunities to establish a passive income stream with basically no money out of your pocket. All you really need is a computer, internet access, and a creative mind to earn a very nice income. I also believe that building and controlling your own sites should be the ultimate goal of anyone looking to make money online. As long as you stay diversified and remain conscious of the risk factors, eHow can be part of an overall strategy to become financially independent!

What other risk factors do you see using sites like eHow or Hubpages?

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

SMART Goal Setting – Recap 2010

John S. — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:47:16 +0000

Over the past several weeks I have been publishing my SMART Goals for the upcoming year. In order to take my passive income business to the next level, I decided to layout my goals which will serve as a guide. I plan to review each of the goals that I set at the end of every month at a minimum. As time goes by and things change (as they always do), I will adjust my goals accordingly.

2010 SMART Goals

As a recap, I set 4 SMART goals for next year which I believe will increase my monthly earnings income as well as take my business to the next level. If you missed my goals before, here they are again -

My Plan to Reach $3,000 in Monthly Income

After publishing my final goal (generate $3,000 in monthly alternative income), I was asked several questions by my readers for more specifics. In some regards, my SMART goal to earn $3,000 per month in alternative income may not have been as specific as it should have been. As a result, I am going to provide some additional details on my overall plan.

While every fine detail has not been documented below, here is a breakdown of how I plan to hit that $3,000 mark by December 31, 2010.

Projected Income Streams

I have identified 6 income streams that I plan to focus on during 2010. In order to reach my goal to earn $3,000 per month in alternative income by the end of next year, I have broken down the total into 6 different categories. I have set a goal to earn $500 per month in each of the categories below.

Niche Site #1 – My first niche site that I plan to expand and grow has been live for about 4 months. I will focus a lot of attention on this site in the first few months of 2010 and build on the content that I have already published. Of all the niche sites I plan to run, this will be the easiest and quickest opportunity to start earning income next year.
Niche Site #2 – The second niche site in my portfolio of income streams has been live for 11 months. This site has been seriously abandoned over the past 8 months as I had focused on other ventures. My plan is to really start adding content early on and begin to grow this niche as I believe it has real potential.
Niche Site #3 – The final niche site that I want to build is only in it’s planning stages at this point. The content of this site will be focused on local information in the area that I live in. While the potential number of customers is limited to the region that I live, I think the earnings potential is tremendous based on analysis that I have done. I am most excited about building content for this site compared to the other two mentioned above.
eHow – I already have a SMART goal set to increase my eHow earnings by over 100% by June 30, 2010. If I am successful, that means I will have built a $500 per month passive income stream.
Online Store – This is the wild card in the whole mix to be honest. Setting up an online store is completely new to me. However, it has the most potential of any other income source to really take off. As additional motivation, I joined the Build Your Business Competition last week. Lot’s more to come on this income stream in the future.
Miscellaneous – I have not defined every income source I plan to build over the coming year, which is why I have created the miscellaneous category. I am still working out a plan for what else I want to focus on. This category will probably include several smaller income streams like any money generated from Twitter, HubPages, Info Barrel, etc.

Helpful Tools

I have written a lot recently about focusing on building a passive income stream through Info Barrel. Nothing has really changed. I still plan to build solid income streams through a variety of third party sources including Info Barrel, HubPages, Squidoo, eHow, and more. I also recognize the fact that I don’t own these sources of income outright and could lose any of these income sources at any time.

I plan to leverage both the income potential of sites like Info Barrel, as well as use them to build traffic towards my niche sites and online store. The strategy is nothing new as many other bloggers have been using it for some time. I just wanted to stress that I am not abandoning these sites, just leveraging everything I can from them to grow the internet real estate that I own!

Final Thoughts

I believe that I have a good mix of income streams that I will be focusing on next year. Each one of the sources will focus on building internet real estate, which I believe is the quickest and most effective way to create alternative income. While I believe there is tremendous potential in setting up these online income streams, I will also be working to grow some traditional passive income sources like certificates of deposit and dividend paying stocks.

I look forward to the coming year and working to put into action the goals that I have laid out. While I fully anticipate several challenges that lay ahead, I believe I have a solid plan to work through any roadblocks that may come along.

Have you defined your SMART goals for next year? What are you waiting for?

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Can Covered Call Income be Considered Passive?

John S. — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:56:45 +0000

There are many stock investors today who earn their income by trading options. These investors have several different options trading strategies available to them that are considered low to moderate risk. One of these low risk methods for trading options is known as “writing covered calls”.

The main requirement of writing a covered call is that the investor must already own at least 100 shares of a stock. The term “covered” means that you already own the shares of the security and can transfer it to the buyer if the contract is “called”. There are many more details involved in trading covered call options, which we don’t have time to cover here. If you are interested in trading options, please do some research on your own before you get started.

The great thing about trading these types of options is that you can earn covered call income just from owning a stock. There are some valid concerns that you need to be aware about, but overall it is one of the least risky options trades you can make.

Depending on your investment strategy, some investors earn a steady monthly income just from selling covered call options. These are seasoned traders who understand the stock market as well as the positions and companies that they own. Some dividend investors can even “double dip” and earn a steady income from monthly or quarterly distributions made by the company as well as income generated from selling covered calls against the same position.

All of this sounds great? What better way to build passive income then to start buying up dividend paying stocks and selling covered call options against those positions every month?

Can covered call income be considered a viable passive income stream? Let’s take a look.

Passive Income Basics

There are plenty of different definitions of passive income depending on who you talk to. To most people, the term refers to a form of revenue or income source that requires very little effort or time once established.

There are some people who believe that passive income does not exist, while others tend to exaggerate the definition a little too far. Regardless your opinion, I think we can all agree that building income streams that require as little additional work as possible on your part is something everyone wants.

I tend to believe that there are many forms and levels of passive income. The key is to continuously look for improvements to reduce the time and effort it takes to maintain an income source while maximizing your returns.

For additional information, be sure to check out – What is passive income?

Is Covered Call Income Passive?

Based on the information outlined above, I would say that selling covered calls is NOT passive income. While in many cases, covered call income can be a great way to increase the value of your stock portfolio, there is just too much time required to make it passive.

Those who trade covered call options spend a lot of time researching existing stock positions and covered call contracts. They also need to be aware of what is going on in the stock market and global economy. Once an existing covered call contract expires (if it is not called), then the investor must spend the time to identify a new covered call contract to sell in order to keep the income stream flowing. All of this activity is way to much time and effort for this to be considered passive.

Important Disclaimer

I enjoy trading options in general and use them to help build my portfolio income. While I believe that options trading is a viable way to earn money, I recognize that it is a difficult stretch turning it into anything that resembles a passive income stream.

If you are interested in learning more about selling covered call options, I would recommend the following eHow article as a place to start – How to Sell Covered Call Options. I would also be happy to discuss topics around options trading with anyone interested.

Are there any forms of portfolio income that you consider passive? What are your thoughts on earning covered call income?

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Tips for Making Money Online for Free Using Twitter

John S. — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:20:22 +0000

Are you just starting out on your passive income journey and are looking for legitimate ideas for making money online for free? Maybe your working to pay off debt and want to accelerate the process? Either way, it is imperative that you take advantage of any FREE tools that you can get your hands on.

There are plenty of free passive income opportunities that can be used to start generating income. Most of these opportunities are found online by leveraging tools that can be used at no cost to you. For example, you can head over to eHow and create a free account and begin publishing “How To” articles within a matter of minutes. The service is no cost to you and you have the potential to earn passive income based on the articles you publish.

Using Twitter as a Passive Income Tool

Most people by now have probably at least heard of the Twitter phenomenon. Individuals, businesses, and celebraties are just a few of the groups of people taking advantage of Twitter for various reasons.

So how can we use Twitter to create passive income? One option that I recently came across is called the Tweeder Method. The basic concepts around the Tweeder Method are to leverage the free Twitter platform, along with several of the other web applications that use this social networking tool.

One of the keys to creating passive income using the Tweeder Method is automation. That is where other API tools and applications come in. SocialOomph for example offers a free service that will let you schedule future Tweets minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months in advanace. The important point is that once the Tweet has been scheduled, it is automated.

The concepts that the Tweeder Method are built off of resemble niche blogging or bum marketing. The only difference is that you are leveraging a social networking tool instead of a blog or website. You pick a niche topic, find and link up with other users, and market a product or service that is specific to your niche.

There are obviously more details to the Tweeder Method then I mentioned, but the ideas are nothing new. The only differences is the platform and tools that are being used.

Other Twitter Strategies

The Tweeder Method is just one of many strategies being used today to take advantage of the power and popularity of Twitter. Pat from Smart Passive Income has been using Twitter to build traffic to his site along with other strategies to generate income from what this FREE tool has to offer. The point here is that there is no right way to leverage Twitter.

Ignoring the power of Twitter and how it can be leveraged to your advantage may be costing you money. There is no simple recipe to immediately generate income from Twitter, just as there isn’t one for building a blog or website. See what other’s are doing to leverage Twitter (like Pat is) for building income. If you think creatively, I am sure there is some strategy or plan out there that can take advantage of what Twitter has to offer.

Own Your Content

As much as I love to leverage free online tools, it is still important to own your content. Using sites like eHow or Twitter should only be tools to help you build passive income streams. At the end of the day, it is critical to build and own your content and not rely on other companies and websites for all of your income.

Do you take advantage of Twitter to build passive income? What other FREE social networking tools do you use to generate income?

Disclaimer Notice – Please understand that I benefit financially from any products or services you may decide to purchase as a result of clicking on one of the links contained in this article.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How to Buy Internet Real Estate on Sale

John S. — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:34:22 +0000

Have you ever bought something from a store that you didn’t plan on? My wife and I do it all the time. Every week, we check up on the advertisements that come out from our local grocery and department stores. This is one of the factors on how our family can live comfortably on a single income.

We are not buying items that we don’t need or won’t use just because they are on sale or on clearance. Instead, we purchase items we will use and have a need for. Each purchase is carefully calculated to ensure we are not just buying to buy (within reason of course).

This same shopping philosophy can be used when creating passive income. While there are some free passive income opportunities available to start, the majority of them require some up front costs to launch. One example of how I recently saved money launching a new passive income stream is detailed below.

Passive Income Tools on Clearance

One of the favorite and more successful passive income streams used by many people today is niche blogging. This form of passive income building usually requires the purchase of internet real estate. There are actually some FREE resources available to setup a niche Blog like Blogger, but there are many advantages to owning your own site versus using a free one.

Over the past several weeks, I have been working on researching keywords for a new niche site I plan to launch sometime this year. I had just completed my research and had the details mapped out on my plans for this site. My plan was to go-live with the site sometime later in the year, once things slowed down at my current job.

Then I came across a deal that was being offered by Go Daddy for setting up a new hosting account. For less than $5 per month, Go Daddy was offering the chance for me to get this site started for very little out of pocket expense. In fact, they were also offering a few other additional features that helped make my decision very easy.

In addition to the cheap hosting costs being offered, the current deal also included -

$1.99 Domains – For a limited time, Go Daddy was offering $1.99 domains when you purchased a non-domain related product. Since I needed to purchase a domain name for my site, I decided to jump on this deal!
WordPress Installation – I use WordPress for all of my sites. If you sign up for a WordPress Hosting account through Go Daddy, they will do the complete installation for you! I actually don’t really mind doing this setup, but I know that this is one area that people dislike the most. In less than 24 hours from my purchase, I had a fully functional installed WordPress site for less than $5 per month! I would highly recommend this service to anyone who dislikes the WordPress setup.

I had never intended to go-live with my new site for a couple of months. However, when the recent deal from Go Daddy came out, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. My total cost per month for the domain name and hosting account will run me $4.42 per month or about $.15 per day.

Low Barriers to Entry

As an investment, the barriers to entry for internet real estate are very low compared to other opportunities. The potential return on investment is very high for the little amount of money typically required for start up. This makes it much easier for the average person who does not have a lot of savings or capital to get started. All that remains is your hard work and dedication to make it a success!

So what are you waiting for?

GoDaddy.com! Resources

Blogging made easy – WordPress Hosting from GoDaddy.com!

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.