HomeGames & TechPassive income and productivity

Passive income and productivity

Freelancing and small home business owning can be pretty heavy on time consumption. Being successful takes time and effort. You need to build up your client base, and consistently perform to make a steady income. It comes with a lot of perks too though, like working your own hours, time off when you want or need it and for most the ability to work from anywhere.

Working online, picking projects that you like, and ones that will challenge you is something that not everyone can do. But occasionally it pays to create multiple income streams. In fact, ignore the ā€˜occasionallyā€™, there probably isnā€™t an occasion when it doesnā€™t pay to look at passive income streams.

Here are some tips and tools that can help you be more productive and set up your passive income streams.

Productivity

Of course, in order to have time to create your passive income streams, youā€™re going to need to be more productive in the time that you currently have. It is essential that you look at the jobs you do the most often that would be better off if you handed them over to automation.

Social Media

A lot of people spend far too much time on their social media. If you donā€™t have someone to manage it for you, then, understandably, it is time-consuming for some. But you should be looking to add some tools into your productivity box to make it faster and easier. So rather than dedicate hours per day, you dedicate hours per month and 30 minutes per day.

Editorial Calendar – there are certain times of the year that the same thing happens. Motherā€™s Day, Valentineā€™s, Christmas, Eid, and so on. So you can already prepare your content for those periods well in advance. Using something like Canva, you can create your social media images. Remember to always include your social media tags and URL.

Your Calendar – You have probably planned the next few months of your business, or at least how you want it to go. So the next step is to combine your calendar and the editorial one. Create more images if you need them.
Automation – Once you have an editorial calendar and your calendar, then you can find an automation software that works for your needs.

  • Buffer
  • Social Bee
  • MissingLettr
  • Social Oomph
  • Sprout
  • Planoly

All offer great tools to help you create and automatically publish content for months in advance. Most have free options so you can try it for a week or more to see if you like it.
We all know that real-time engagement is a mustā€¦ or is it? If you dedicate 30 minutes a day to respond to any tweets or Facebook comments, you will be able to stay on top of it for the most part. For private messages on either then consider setting up a chatbot to do the heavy lifting.

Email Marketing List

Building an email marketing list is going to pay off. But you need to have this as simple and automatic as possible too. While it should be something you actively promote, your website should also have pop-ups too. These attention-grabbing boxes will encourage people to leave you their email address, and in exchange, youā€™re probably going to give them a discount of some kind.

There are a few options, most of which will integrate with almost any website builder youā€™ve chosen to go with.

  • SumoMe – as well as share options, has excellent pop-up options to aid you in the email growth list. They pride themselves on looking great on mobile devices and ease of use.
  • MailChimp – one of the most widely used email marketing solutions, fast set-up, many free options and a lot of customization too
  • HubSpot – great for CRM and email marketing automation even includes a landing page builder
  • Zoho – as well as a lot of other tools, you can create super smooth email marketing campaigns, and it is free up to 2000 subs

Products

If you are working and creating online, then you already have a good idea of what your strengths are, you now need to work that into a product. Think about the services that you personally buy the eBooks or software. What about the odd jobs that you purchase from other online creators?

Here are some ideas that you can use to start building those passive income streams.

Course – If you know it, then you can share it. Online courses are a big thing right now, and that will probably continue for some time. It requires a lot of time investment in the early days because of course, you need to write it, film your webinars, use video translation services to make it as accessible as possible, and then market it. But, once you have laid the groundwork for the course, you can sell them, add them into your automated marketing plan and let it run.

eBook – You can design eBooks so easily in Canva now, and once you have done that pop them on your website and start selling. You can also put them on Amazon too. You need to make them worth buying and have a great hook. People will typically pay what you ask for something if they believe in the value of it. Or you could skip that and go for the cheap and cheerful approach on a single eBook and having a more expensive option, and upselling from one to the other.

Affiliate Marketing – the lie is that people can sign up and install this and then it will suddenly bring in thousands. Youā€™re going to need to work out which affiliate program makes the most sense for you, and really focus on driving those sales.

Teespring – this is quick to set up, and all youā€™ll need is a couple of designs or slogans in mind. You donā€™t pay anything to set it up, they make money when you do. Everything from leggings to mugs and more. Once you have set them up, you can simply add the links into your automated tweeting and leave it to run. Of course, keeping your store stocked with fresh goods is going to be a good idea, and staying up to date with current trends is a must.

Dropshipping – this is an eCommerce store that allows you to open a store without any products at all. You pick out products, set your prices, market them and sell them on your own website – without spending your money on stock. When an order is placed, you suppliers will ship the item, and handle things like inventory and packing too. You just get to take some cream off the top of the sale. You can create a website yourself, and in fact, make dropshipping style websites will make that as easy as a couple of clicks. If you are interested in taking this one further, then check out:

  • 3dCart
  • Oberlo
  • Sunrise Wholesale
  • SaleHoo
  • Megagoods

Youā€™ll want to have a good look around for other options too. Always remember to look for a no-risk platform, because the last thing you want is to be out of pocket.

Blog – There are a few ways to blog, but if you are looking to stay almost 100% hands-off then once you are set up, and loaded with Adsense – it is time to sign up with come content for cash suppliers. Advertisers will pay to guest post on your website. And for each post, you host youā€™ll get paid. It is not the most lucrative, but if you are getting between 0-10 posts per month for around $15-$150 dollars depending on your traffic, that’s not a bad shout. Youā€™ll need to upload the content, but apart from that you neednā€™t do anything else.

Buy A Blog – if you arenā€™t interested in creating your own blog, then consider buying one. There are many blogs that have been set up and make a nice monthly income. If you look for one that requires no experience, always check the google analytics and ask the seller as many questions as possible.

Creating a passive income take groundwork. First, you need to see what makes sense for you. The chances are if you have been creating content for the last few years, you already have more than enough to turn it into eBooks, Podcasts and webinars. If you are experienced and knowledgable in your field, then courses and training printables make sense.

Free up your time with productivity tools, then put that spare time to good use and create more ways to make money.

It is important to really research the different options that you have available, and try wherever possible to commit to things that wonā€™t cost any money to start – and run for as long as possible. Multiple income streams like Adsense and affiliate marketing might only make a few dollars or pounds per month, but over the course of a year that will start to add up. Combined with your other efforts, youā€™re on to a good thing.

Pip Ellwood-Hughes
Pip Ellwood-Hughes
Pip is the owner and Editor of Entertainment Focus, and the Managing Director of PiƱata Media. With over 19 years of journalism experience, Pip has interviewed some of the biggest stars in the entertainment world. He is also a qualified digital marketing expert with over 20 years of experience.

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