So you want a passive, recurring, 24/7 income, even while you sleep? How can you create one? Here I detail the top 3 ways to make a 24/7 online income. You might define the “top” or “best” way as in the the fastest way, the easiest way or the quickest way to make money.
Well, my definition doesn’t fall into the ‘get rich quick’ category (although that’d be ideal, but it’s not the real world) – the ‘top’ way is simply, a smarter way! Work smart, work hard – online.
You’ve been smart enough or are planning to be, online already with your blog. Let’s say your BLOG is the “shop”, (a digital shop) so your “products” would be the digital products or services you’re selling from your shop.
Digital products absolutely provide one of the easiest ways to make a 24/7 online income. So let’s look at why digital products can be your #1 choice to make money from your blog:
Why digital products?
- Convenience – accessible worldwide, 24/7 to any audience, anywhere at anytime
- Higher profit margins can be achieved because of the scalability of the digital nature of the product, thus is a lot less labour intensive = much less costlier to manufacture/market/sell.
- Automation by software, deliverable online to any device – requires minimal physical input or manual labour.
What are the benefits of digital products?
- Recurring incomes
This means customers buy once, then they come back to buy more, or continue paying subscriptions/fees, monthly or annually – one or two clicks, pay, download, done!
Upfront, there’s alot of work and time involved to create the product (of course the reader has been directed to your blog or is already subscribing to your mailing list before your product launch). From there, the sales and distribution process is all automated by software, so just sit back and watch the $$$ rolling in!
Importantly, the purchase and payments process needs to be simple, clean and pain free for the customer. They shouldn’t need to enter in more than their name, email, and payment details. Quite often, a slow or unsafe site, or cumbersome details required from the buyer will put them off from completing the purchase.
Remember, the customer relationship is of utmost importance, it’ll be win win when your product is a solution to their problem and they trust you enough to buy from you. Multiple times would be ideal, and even better is if they’re making recurring payments monthly.
- Scalability
Scalability is when your product is reproduced economically and efficiently to meet the sales demands while making increasing profit margins! Ideally, your recurring income is growing through snowballing sales, being managed efficiently through software automation, incurring minimal cost to you and delivering maximum benefit to your customer. Hence digital products are ideally scalable.
Digital products are only created once, able to be sold limitlessly, in limitless quantities repeatedly! The best part is that no extra ‘manufacturing or delivery costs’ are incurred each time the product is sold. So how much BIGGER is your profit going to be? Exponentially bigger!
This is a much smarter and much less costlier way than, say, if you’re physically present, teaching a class of 30 people every week, and its only you the teacher; you’re limited to your own effort, the space and time, and how many students that you can take in every week.
Not so with digital products, they’re easily and highly scalable, not limited by time, effort, physicality, space or even by you. The software does all of the work post product creation!
THE TOP 3 WAYS OF MAKING MONEY ONLINE
1. Digital products or services
“A digital product is simply a product or tool that can be created once, and sold many times. It is delivered digitally to your customers, and has infinite inventory”
A digital product for example, can be a pdf document, a pdf book, audio book, an online teaching video, an online course or any digital item as opposed to physical items such as a book which costs to publish, distribute and to ship.
You want to sell products that solve people’s problems, that can enhance or help their lives in some way, and even better, the customer thanks you for recommending them to it!
Some top digital products are:
- Affiliate marketing
is when you recommend someone else’s product or service from your site and you get paid a commission from the product owner if your reader buys through the link on your site.
Handy tip: I would only recommend the products I’ve tried and approve of myself, and not just link the products that’ll pay the biggest commission, because when customers try the product and it doesnt meet their expectations, they’ll trust you less for recommending it to them, potentially damaging your reputation and relationship with them.
I also wouldn’t hard sell or say outright, “buy this now”. The reader can make up their own mind, my job is just to recommend through trust.
- Online Courses
You’re knowledgeable, have experience and can teach therefore have authority on the subject. You charge a one off fee for the course/booklet/manual.
Handy tip: 1) offer free short courses at first, maybe in written form, for example through emailing, so your readers get a taste for the great education they got then 2) they’re more likley to pay for the next one or recommend others to it.
- E Books
Consider pubishing an e-book to teach eg detailing steps you took to grow your online income or to tell your story. Charge a price per book downloaded.
- Printables
Saves your customer time from searching for or making their own form or list etc. One click, print, done!
- Templates
These make life easier for the reader/customer. They don’t want to do any work! Plus, it can get all too technical. So eliminate any work they need to do – they simply download and use! Volia, it works for them saving them time and effort.
2. Software
“Software is a general term for the various kinds of programs used to operate computers and related devices.”
Examples are sites such as info sites, Dropbox, WordPress or apps like Square Point of Sale, – anything that’s helpful for your readers’ business, or solves a problem they have.
Customers pay a monthly subscription or membership fees usually monthly, to use/have access to the software/site. Initially, for new users, there’s a free trial with no obligation to buy.
Just be aware that, the #1 issue would be the programming costs involved in hiring programmers and if you’re unknowledgeable in this area, you could sink in alot of money that you might regret later, for a product that doesn’t work as expected. We learnt from this mistake a few years back:(
Additionally the marketing costs for product awareness can add up too. Not to mention the costs of bug testing and bug fixing later!
Unless you can create an amazing low cost product, for eg a smart phone APP that’ll solve a huge problem, then that product could be a winner – imagine the sky rocketing sales without incurring the extra costs!
3. Membership sites
“A membership site is a gated part of your online business where only members who subscribe can access the content you've placed behind the gates.”
These sites are for exclusivity, offering benefits of learning, freebies, community, and perhaps even prestige! Members pay a monthly or annual fee for membership. Memberships can also offer value: the members may receive monthly reports, courses, printables, templates, for free, as they’re included in their membership.
The key to a successful membership site is to keep your content fresh, relevant and engaging, offering benefits to the members that aren’t offered outside of their membership. Beyond this, why people stay subscribed is for community – they want an emotional, relational connection with other members of your club. This takes time to think through – the purpose of the membership, your values, who you are – all comes into play here.
Of the 3, which one would your BLOG “shop” produce? What’s going to be your #1 profitable model? Why?
There are a lot of ways on making money online whether it is by blogging, affiliate marketing, article writing, freelancing or whatever it is, there is only one thing you must bear in mind. You must provide value to your potential client or audience. If you are able to provide your audience needs or giving solution to the problem of your clients, you will surely make money.
Providing value, solutions to your audience’s problems or needs is key indeed!