Posts Tagged ‘Passive Income’
Passive income guide: Part 2: Methods - Stock
Friday, March 27th, 2009
In this post, we’re going to consider our first major method of generating some passive income. Stock. I’ve come up with ideas for every freelancer I can think of. That’s all you web designers, web developers, photographers, marketers, writers and any other types of freelancers I’ve missed. Many freelancers have more than 1 skill, so why not go crazy and combine 2 or more mediums.
This is the bit you really want to know about and read. But don’t forget, nothing is ever plain sailing. That’s why in I’ve commented on each technique, giving its advantages, amount of time you’d spend, possible initial outlays, ways you’d monetize this (in case its not clear) and any other tips I can think of that specifically apply to that Passive income generator.
Look out for the next installment when we’ll talk about eBooks and books.
Stock
No, where not talking about cattle here, but selling stock online. Each day, people search for (and buy):
- Stock photo’s – Photo’s
- Stock Website templates
- Stock Music tracks & audio
- Stock illustrations
- Stock icons
- Stock videos
- Stock logos
- Stock flash do-hickies
- Stock fonts
- Stock 3D objects
See where this is going? If not, basically, there are sites on the internet that will take your stock, i.e things you’ve created with your own skills and equipment, list them on their site, and sell them. You earn a varying amount of commission on your submissions. Why do people do this? Well, mainly to either save money, save time, to fill a gap or just to be lazy.
It’s a life saver for those last minute jobs where you might need a website template super fast or for those odd jobs which don’t pay as well as possible, so you pick up some cheap templates to save input and money. Often, people who buy stock don’t have the skills to create what they are looking for, hence the genius of selling stock. There is a demand for it, and you can pick and chose which type of stock you create, depending on your skills. You can even create your own stock site & niche. For example, you might sell people html login forms or pre-made jQuery scripts.
Selling stock is a good place to start out in generating P.I Here’s why:
Advantages
Fairly low risk
Most stock can be created either cheaply or free.
Applicable to most freelancers
Almost all freelancers can make some form of stock. Web designers can create templates, photographers can sell stock photos. Even writers can get involved by creating blogs and ebooks (which we’ll talk about in their very own post soon!)
Established Websites Available
There are hundreds of stock sites out there. Choosing an existing, established site will bring you more audience to sell to.
Can be pretty quick
Other than writing books and stuff, stock is typically a relatively quick method to implement, and can see you making returns as soon as your file or assets are approved for sale online.
Proper Passivity
Most stock is the pinnacle of passiveness. You upload you stock, and your off. That’s it, very little management, and using an established, large stock site will also reduce the time you need to spend marketing your files. Brilliant! See Envato’s Collis talk about Stock here: http://www.freelanceswitch.com/money/how-i-make-2000-every-year-without-doing-very-much/
Disadvantages
Risky
Whilst stock can give you good returns, and doesn’t usually involve much monetary outlay, it will required time. And this will effectively be unpaid time. So you need to make sure whatever type of stock you are creating, that there is a genuine need for it. If not, you’ll be throwing your time into the wind. Speaking of which….
Sucks up Time
Speaking of time, I recommend you either make stock when your not busy (but not in preference of marketing e.t.c) or in your own personal time / weekends as a ‘personal experiment / project’ so as not to upset your clients.
Unpopular file, very low returns - Research!
Like with many, many things in life, you get out of something what you put in. So research the market your targeting before you make anything. I highly doubt the stock buying web designer market will be on the look out for any comic sans icons at all. With returns on some sites as low as $.30 per file, you have to do everything in your power to make a popular, desirable file.
Cheapens the industry?
I know this is a bit more obscure. But creating cheap web templates, icons and more can cheapen the work of your normal consulting business. Having said that, there will always be “Financially-efficient” people about, so you might as well make some money out of a market which would not normally be even able to afford your services.
Quantity rules
When it comes to selling stock, it pays to create more files to increase your income. But this takes more time. Getting the right balance here between: quality, quantity & price is vital.
No guarantee of acceptance
Some stock sites have a system by which each file is reviewed by a team of editors. Even after spending the time creating a great file or image, you could find your work turned down from your chosen stock site. There are many reasons for rejection, so make sure you keep up to date with the sites file requirements and specifications, keeping in line with their terms and conditions.
Lots of Competition
You’ll face tough competition in the stock sector. So, you need to establish yourself as a high-quality stock maker with an eye for crafting perfect stock files. And out-do everyone to sell well. At very least, you will need to carve a niche or have some easily definable benefit over stock makers, such as offering after sales support e.t.c.
Where to sell
Envato Network
The Envato network of sites is pretty spot on. They have a site for almost every conceivable stock format now, from Videos to Vectors, and with a large audience base and reasonable reviewer system, you could do very well.
GraphicRiver: Graphic River is Envato’s Graphic branch. This site thus sells vectors, textures, general graphics, icons and other related paraphernalia. The sites audience is building up (been the newest addition to envato’s stock network) and looks set to be a real player within this niche of the stock market.
Themeforest: Themeforest does the web. Here you’ll find HTML templates, and themes created for various popular cms & blog platforms. You can also sell .PSD design’s here, and the site has a large audience now. A high quality template here will sell typically for $6 - $20 (dependent on quality), with sellers earning between 40% - 70% (depending on how much you sell, and whether you decide to be exclusively linked to selling your stock with Envato)
FlashDen: The place for flash files and components. Top sellers here can sell to the value of thousands of dollars a week. Top earners have made literally hundreds of thousands of dollars overall. Not bad eh?
VideoHive: It doesn’t stop there though. If your into video production and effects, you’ll want to check out VideoHive.
AudioJungle: Lastly (for now) we have AudioJungle. Here’s the place to be selling your audio loops and jingles, with the same benefits as the other Envato sites. Great stuff.
Just one of the awesome Envato Stock sites, Graphic River.
iStockphoto
iStockphoto accept audio, vector illustrations, flash files, videos (and of course photos). They offer 20% cuts (40 if you go exclusive). As with the envato sites, I’ve heard of top earners achieving into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not bad for creating stock 
istockphoto’s homepage.
What now?
Where do you go from here? Well, first up, research into the above sites and pick one that suits your work the best (or maybe pays the best). Then research into popular / requested files. Will you make genuine money out of this? If so, then you can crack on with planning and creating your assets for sale. Have fun, and I’ll see you in the next installment of the series, in which we talk about eBooks. Fun Fun Fun
Do you have any tips for other PFF readers? Share them in the comments section
Tags: freelancing, making money, Passive Income
Posted in Passive Income | 7 Comments »
Freelance Guide to Passive Income: Part 1
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
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
Posted in Passive Income | 3 Comments »
