This post was written by Derek.
For those of you that manage your own blog, that title almost sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it? Blogging takes time, time, and more time. In order to succeed, you have to write fresh new articles for your site at least every other day, comment on other blogs, write for other sites, update your Facebook page, update your Twitter account, maintain your Digg, StumbleUpon, and Technorati accounts….and that’s just to name a few things. All of this for ONE blog!
How is it then, that I can say that blogging generates passive income!? Well, you just have to do it right.
Virtual Assistants
You may not have noticed, but many of the tasks of a blogger are very tedious and can really be done by a first grader. For my Twitter account, I really just follow those that have an account related to finance, and I mostly follow everyone that follows me. It’s really very simple; I could hire someone to do that for me.
Virtual Assistants are a dime a dozen. There are a ton of people out there that would be love to stay home in their pajamas, tinker around on your site (per your direction of course), and then get paid to do it. For all the people that are just looking for a few extra bucks at the end of the week, $8-10 an hour should be plenty.
Now that you have a Virtual Assistant, the only time you need to work is to write the articles and respond to the comments. You are now working for 6 hours a week instead of 15, Yes, this means that your VA is probably going to have to work 7 hours a week (I shaved off 2 hours because much of my time is spent looking at Google stats…..it’s a waste of time, but I really am a sucker for stats), and you’ll owe him/her about $250 a month.
Obviously, if you don’t make $250 a month with your site, you probably aren’t ready for a VA. I’d say once you have a month of $500 or more, it’s probably time to hire one. This way, you can free up some time for the next step.
It’s Time For Another Site
While your VA handles all of your busy-work, it’s time for you to begin another site.
Niche Sites
A niche site is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a site with a certain niche that will easily be found when someone enters a search in Google (or any search engine for that matter). Perhaps you notice that there are a ton of people searching for, “Honeybee Stings” and there aren’t many sites competing for this phrase. You could start a site, post about 20 articles, put up some ads, and then just let it sit there and create some income. This is quite passive and requires no VA’s.
Also, once you create one, you can go on and create the next one (and the next one etc etc.). This will eventually create enough passive revenue per month, and you can do absolutely nothing if that’s what you want to do.
Another Blog Site
If you enjoyed setting up and writing your main blog, I would encourage you to do it again (after all, niche sites aren’t for everyone). While your VA handles your first site, you can build the second one. Since you have done this whole, “build a website” thing before, it should take you much less time than when you started fresh on your first site. Within a few months, it should be up and running and producing a following (which also means it’s producing a revenue as well).
At this point, the revenue that’s produced between your first and second sites (you could also start more and follow the same process if you need a greater revenue) should be substantial enough to hire some staff writers. These writers can write the majority of your articles so that your only job would be to respond to the comments of the readers! At most, this would be 3-4 hours a week.
Your Time to Become Ultra-Wealthy
Now that your sites are basically running themselves, you can now write that book you’ve been talking about. Your mind will be fresh, you won’t have to worry about money, you can just write what you’re passionate about. Without the monetary pressure, your writing should be superb, and the sales of your new book will be through the roof!
Yep, the sale of your book is now another source of passive income. The money just keeps coming in even though the book was only written once!
Are you beginning to see the power of one simple website? What do you think of my plan to make blogging passive? Do you think it can be done?
I don’t know, Derek. I’m exhausted at the thought of starting yet another blog! 😉 I keep thinking I have this idea for a simpler site, but I just don’t know if I have the time. And as for the VA, I can’t guarantee that much income each month yet. Maybe someday, though. Thanks for these tips!
It does sound exhausting doesn’t it!? If you can start one blog though, you can start 10 more. You just have to hire a little help and be smart with your work. After I finish my eBook, I figure that I’ll have enough money coming in per month to pay a VA and start my niche site. Once I have that set up, I can just move onto the next one! 🙂
Good luck to you Little House! I bet you’ll need that VA sooner than you think!
Great job done by you..:)
Thanks Passive Income! It’s very exciting about creating passive income. If I do it right, I can travel anywhere I want and still have income coming in. There’s nothing worse than being bound to a location, especially if you hate your job.
your concept is very good.
Thanks! I am just starting to impliment this plan, so I’ll let you know how it works out! 🙂
You almost make it sound simple. You’ve given me a little inspiration and confirmed some ideas. Thanks.
What about the quality of the content on all these sites? Will thse site have any unique voice to appeal to and retain readers if you are paying other people to write the content?
Maybe that doesn’t really matter if you have chosen your niche carefully and the posts are well SEO’d and get links from plenty of other related sites/blogs?
There is definitely some strategy to it for sure. I think if you can find others that think the same as you and share the same passions, you can outsource your writing because the message is the same.
You make it sound SO easy! Please do let us know how it works out 🙂
I am sure he will.