The One and Only True Form of Passive Income

The One and Only True Form of  Passive Income

Passive income. It's been something I've chasing for going on seven years. It's the holy grail of making money online. We all want to setup that passive income stream to where we can just sit around in our underwear and watch the money roll in.

I think I've always known that idea of passive income didn't exist. I'm a big believer in the old addage, if it sounds to good to be true it probably is.

That said almost every Clickbank Product, and every online money making guru is hocking some program that promises their software or system will make you money while you sleep.

I watched a video from Alex Becker, last night. He's one of my favorite online Guru's and a very successful SEO and online marketer. I watched a video of his last night where he compares the idea of chasing passive income to someone wanting a diet where they eat Arby's all day and get fit and wind up with a six pack. It's just not going to happen.

As I said, I think in the back of my mind I always knew this, however none the less, it's something I've been chasing for years and to some extent something I've been frustrated I've been unable to achieve. For me I bust my butt everyday. Everyday is a grind. No money making venture I setup is ever good forever, earnings slow down and I'm either forced to abandon a project and move on to something else, or at the very least, I'm forced to tweak my methods and re-strategize and change my plan.

As much as I would love to find this holy grail of passive income it was somewhat of a relief to find out from someone I look up to and admire, and who's efforts I respect, to hear him say, essentially, this idea isn't profitable.

The One and Only True Passive Income

If you're looking for the one and only true form of passive income it's essentially making enough money that you can hire someone to manage that money for you and earn you say 15%. Then you can sit back and do nothing and just collect interest and enjoy. This is basic the concept of "FU Money". Having enough money that you don't have to listen to anyone, you don't have to work for anyone, and you can live your life on your terms.

Now before you get discouraged this amount you need to earn probably isn't as large as you think. No you don't need to be a billionaire. Assuming your willing to live reasonably and not run around buying Rolexes and Ferraris, you can probably do this with about a million Dollars. Now that's no chump change, don't get me wrong. But that said don't set a goal of I want to setup this income stream for life that requires I do nothing and just continues pooping out money for the next 30 years.

The internet is constantly changing and you need to constantly change and adapt your business to continue making money, that's just the reality of it. If you're chasing a business model where you can setup a website, an online shop, etc and just have it spit out money forever your going to be frustrated and sorely dissapointed.

My Experience Chasing Passive Income

So when I first started affiliate marketing and making money online I wasn't necessarily chasing a passive income, I was looking to make money on the side to supplement my day job.

You can't help but get hooked on the idea of passive income however as every single make money online program promises you riches while you do nothing. Youtubers show themselves holding up 100k Adsense checks that they received for doing supposedly nothing.

Every penny I've ever made online has been a hustle and a grind. I'm happy that I've figured out how to crack the code and make money online, but heck, it's a lot of work, and I want that passive do nothing income. The truth of the matter is it doesn't exist and I'm actually relieved to find that out.

Yeah it kinda sucks to have that bubble burst and truly realize I'm not going to be able to sit back around playing with my dogs, watching Judge Mathis, and vacationing while money rolls in, but it's a relief to realize that basically I am doing something right and I'm not doing something wrong because I actually have to work for my earnings.

Why Passive Income Doesn't Work

I've had some forms of income over the years which I have to some extent considered passive. A couple years back I got into Kindle Publishing. I was working a Saturday shift at my job at the time, typically a very slow day. I decided to write an e-book about making money with Storage Auctions like the television show Storage Wars. Storage Auctions were something I was involved with and making money with at the time and it was a very popular thing with that television show on tv.

I thought Kindle Publishing was going to be the holy grail of passive income. I sat down on this Saturday afternoon and pumped out a 50 or 60 page ebook on the topic. I got a cover made on Fiverr and published it on the Kindle Marketplace and began selling it on Amazon.

Money started rolling in. Not a ton of money but a couple hundred bucks a month. Slowly over time however my monthly royalty check from Amazon got smaller, and smaller, and smaller, until the point when I was maybe selling a handful of books a month pulling in maybe $20 to $30.

Now this was partially due to people losing interest in storage auctions as a whole and just a decline in the niche, which in itself proves that passive income doesn't exist as fads and interests wane and change over time.

Another important factor in the decline however is when I had just published my book, I went on a tangent online promoting the book. I advertised it on my blogs, I paid bloggers to read and review my book, and overall just did a lot of promotion of the book. As soon as I decided to sit back and turn it into a passive thing the money dried up.

Sure to some extent you can write a Kindle Book and it's forever going to be on Amazon available for purchase and technically can bring you in a "passive income" forever. That said you'll find that as soon as you stop promoting a book the sales will also slowly stop. This means this is not a passive income stream as it requires constant attention. Now that's not to say this isn't a good money making method, it's just not that completely passive holy grail everyone is searching for.

The same can be said of blogs, e-commerce or anything else. I've had some blogs which began making a couple hundred bucks a month. I thought to myself, if I can get one blog to make $300 a month, what if I start another blog then I have $600 a month. And if I start a third I have $900 a month. Essentially I would abandon a successful site to move on to the next. Well the fact of the matter is readers like fresh content as does Google. So as soon as I would move on to a new blog leaving the old one behind, the old blog which was making say $300 a month would slowly continue it's decline to bringing in only $10 or $20 a month.

Almost everything requires attention. As great as it would be to setup some type of blog or online business which grows successful and stays that way without any effort, as great as that would be, it doesn't exist. The internet is constantly changing, whether it's a Google update that changes search algorithm ranking or just a change in people's interests, everything changes and nothing is going to sit there pumping money out forever without any attention or modification

Setting Out Seeking Passive Income is Setting Out Not To Work

Setting out seeking a passive income is essentially setting out looking for a method to be lazy and not work yet earn money. If you set out looking for passive income I can almost gurantee your setting out for dissapointment and failure.

Realize that anything good requires work and effort and ongoing work and effort. Now that doesn't mean that you can't work smarter and not harder and that doesn't mean that some income streams or money making methods aren't more passive than others. Nothing however is going to be something you setup in a couple hours which will produce money for the next decade to come.

I have to say I've always known truly passive do nothing income didn't exist but it's thrown in our face on a daily basis so at times I tend to get down on myself that I can't crack this passive income thing and make money doing nothing. I really have to bust my but and grind for my money and everything I do and always wished I could have this easy money.

In watching Alex Becker's video he says do you want to spend $1 and make $2? Do you want to spend $1,000 a day and make $8,000? He basically starts to go into how you can essentially "invest" money in Facebook advertising and make 8x your money back. For a second I got excited like he's going to give away this secret I've been searching for for years. However he quickly says, yeah we all would like to run a FB ad and make 8x our money back, it's not going to happen, at least not anymore, and goes on to tell why making money requires work and how the internet is always changing and you need to be adapting to that change so your income doesn't dry up.

What This Means For You

Quit chasing the easy buck. Quick looking for some $47 system you buy that pumps out thousands of Dollars a month until you retire. You'll wind up throwing a lot of money down the drain wasted on online marketing courses and softwares.

Don't set a goal of setting up one passive income stream that makes you money while you do nothing. Learn to work smarter and not harder. Try new things, if they are a failure drop them, if they are a success rinse, repeat and scale.

Keep multiple income streams so when one dries up you have 3 more going and another 3 in the works.