Freelance Guide to Passive Income: Part 1

“Money” by Jenn_Jenn

Welcome to a series of posts on passive income! This is taken straight from a book I am writing, so enjoy And stay tuned for part 2.

What is Passive Income, and why is it useful?

Passive income is all about productizing what you do. And that’s why it’s such a great idea. Generally speaking freelancers are service providers. This means that whatever you make, build or create to generate income, it usually involves using your time & effort to create something bespoke for a client or company. This is a perfectly fine business model, providing you have the work to do.

We all have quiet spells. It’s almost inevitable. You might have noticed from occasionally, at certain times of the year, the demand for freelancers’ dips. And that’s usually bad news. It means there’s no cash coming in, so there’s no money to pay the bills, or fund marketing & promotion. It doesn’t matter whether you are a designer, writer, marketer, developer or photographer. It very well could happen, and at some point or another, it does.

Even if you are one of the highest profile freelancer’s in the world, one with an impressive (and huge) client list, you’ll still hit rough and quiet times. The current global economy is doing nothing to help things, with companies panicking and spending less money on marketing and the like (on the flip side, some companies now see freelancers as a better way to go compared to an in-house team, but lets not get into that)

Step in Passive income. If done well, Passive income can generate a modest (or even large, depends how much effort and time you dedicate to it) amount of income every month, consistently. Even if its just £100 or $200, that’s a phone contract and internet connection paid for every month, with money left over for Starbucks and Moleskines. Alternatively, that extra cash could keep you ticking over each month.

Im sure your already thinking of exciting ways to use that extra cash. Perhaps it could go into a Piggybank to fund your Apple addiction (not the fruit), or simply be put towards a few bills.

I know you might find it hard to believe that it could get any better, but it does. Did you consider what the word ‘Passive’ in ‘Passive Income’ actually means? Great question! The word Passive indicates that once you’ve taken the effort to create something, it typically requires little back in terms of effort or extra work. So, in other words, after you’ve set-up your income streams, you can sit back, watch telly, and start making some cash. *

* Its worth pointing out, that some of the income streams I’ve listed in the book might require a little work in maintaining them, but don’t worry I’ll point those ones out so you can decide whether they are for you or not

Here’s yet another advantage. Most passive income streams are free to set-up. Apart from the time you spend creating the income stream / products, they require little input. Some, naturally, require more time than others, and others still may require some funding to get going with. But, we’ll talk about those ones later…

Don’t forget too that all these passive income streams that you set-up, will also market your company. Let me explain. Suppose you set up a blog, whereby you post about branding for small business’. That’s great. You’ve followed the ideas in this book, and have even monetized your blog. Not only will you get some income from the montenization, you could very well pick up some new clients, due to the traffic coming through to your high quality blog. The visitors can see you’re an expert, and get in touch. How great is that? Its win-win.

Granted, it takes some hard work, and some time to initially set-up. But, most income streams are easy to manage, and will pay you well, almost consistently every month.

I know what some of you are thinking now. Your probably saying something along the lines of “Ben, your mad. This is just some silly get-rich-quick-scammy-spammy-pyramid-internet scheme”. But, I really cannot stress enough that it isnt.

Firstly, as we’ve already mentioned, Passive income involves little-to-no paying out. You usually don’t have to pay the sites you’ll use, and for methods that involve more work (such as setting up some cool sites we’ll talk about later) you’ll likely have most of the stuff you already need.

Secondly, Whilst passive income is going to make you some money, even while you work, eat or sleep, its going to take some work to get there. That might require you spending some time to set it up, or just planning and researching your method of attack. One things for sure, you wont be a millionaire tomorrow (unless you are today).

Thirdly, you get out of it what you put in. Let me illustrate. Imagine your a bit of a Gardener, and you love working in your Garden. If you planted a Sunflower seed tomorrow, would you expect there to be a Dandelion flower their next summer? No, because that would be daft. You cant get something other than a Dandelion flower. Likewise, as with a lot of things in life, If you put a little effort in you’ll get something back, but perhaps not as much as if you put a lot of effort in.

Fourthly, there are people out there who make passive income streams as a full time (or part time job). This proves that it does work.

What will we cover in this guide, and what wont we cover?

Good question. In this guide we are going to cover some general tips and tricks for setting up some great passive income streams. We’ll also look at specific ways in which you can do that, and outline their pro’s / con’s. I’ve created some bespoke ideas and plans too for some nifty sites & projects you could make. Those plans or outlines could be used as inspiration, or you could simply just follow them to the tee.

We will consider other resources and sites that might help you, as well of all the passive income related sites & links we can finf that will set you on your way to earning.

To summarize, we are going to consider a wide range of possibilities for generating passive income, in as simple and most useful way possible.

What wont we cover? Well, we wont be covering any previously mentioned “Get rich quick scheme’s” because that’s not what passive income is about. It’s a respectable way of generating a modest amount of income, based upon some hard work and good planning.

Stay tuned for part 2 soon!

Tags: Passive Income