How Streams Of Passive Income Saved My Online Business

After a devastating diagnosis and an 8-day stay in the hospital, my father was gone. What seemed to be quite benign symptoms had proven instead to be a cunning invasion of cancer throughout my dad’s body that ended suddenly and without mercy.

It was only because of the passive income streams I had carefully positioned and nurtured over the last several years that my online business survived during this ordeal. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning.

During the first part of June my mother called to say my father was having issues with what they thought was either his asthma or bronchitis. Throughout his life, he’d had trouble with bronchitis and asthma. We assumed a trip to the family doctor and a Z-pack prescription would turn him around as it always had before.

However, when I stopped by on Father’s Day, I noticed he was not quite himself. Cordial as always, but not very conversational. He also looked thinner than the last time I was over for a visit.

The next week, I got a call telling me that Daddy didn’t want to get out of the bed or his recliner, wasn’t eating much at all, and had made an appointment with his cardiologist. None of the other doctors he had seen could figure out his breathing issues. A new inhaler had not helped, and Dad wondered whether it might be heart-related as his energy levels had suddenly dipped. Because of Covid, he had not wanted to go to the hospital.

I stopped by Friday, July 3, to help my mother get Daddy out of bed, feed him, and see what else could be done. At that point, he mentioned not being able to swallow solid food very well and (what he thought was) his acid reflux was really bad.

The next day (July 4, 2020), I had a conversation with my sister, who agreed it was time to talk Daddy into going to the hospital. With a little nudging, he finally agreed.

Alone and without his family present, my Dad got a cancer diagnosis. While the cancer was in his liver, the emergency room doctor did not believe it was technically “liver cancer.” He was certain the source was elsewhere. He was correct.

Daddy was admitted and we were then allowed two visitors from 8 a.m. until noon.

The Day Streams Of Passive Income Took Over

At that point, I practically stopped working. Between driving to the hospital daily (1 hour and 20 minutes roundtrip), staying with my dad, helping to take care of my mom after visiting hours, and a complete lack of concentration, I had no time (and frankly no desire) to work.

But, because of my ability to generate passive income online, I actually made $2,100 more in July than I did in June.

My father was admitted to the hospital July 4. He passed on July 12. The next week was filled with funeral plans (a unique experience during a pandemic, for sure), family, and adjusting to our new reality.

Even now, a month after my father was admitted to the hospital, I still have to take full days away from my business and spend hours a week working to settle my father’s estate.

All the while, my online business is generating passive income because of the work I put into it on a regular basis months and years ago.

Why Generate Passive Income?

Although the name is “passive income,” the initial setup of these streams of income is not. You do have to put some hours in to generate passive income. Then, from time to time, you’ll want to do a bit of maintenance to keep them going.

This is one of those things everyone wants more of. That’s especially true when they hear others talking about the benefits, how much more income they have each month, and the enormous freedom passive income brings.

However, most people aren’t willing to take the steps to get multiple streams of income in place. This is not the first time passive income has saved me. Not to mention, the additional income that I hardly have to work for (after a few step-up steps), is amazing!

________________________

As long as I am able,
I will keep passive income as a
priority in my business.
You should, too!

________________________

How To Make Passive Income Online

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is about how to find time to create passive income if you already have a busy schedule. Let me ask you this:

If your child or older parent got ill and required weekly visits to the doctor, what would you do? You would find the two or three hours a week to drive to the doctor’s office, sit in the waiting room, see the doctor, and drive back home, right? You would make it a priority because — while inconvenient — caring for your family takes first place in your schedule.

Maybe that means you wake up early or stay up late to “create” more hours in your day. It could mean you outsource certain tasks or postpone them until this season of doctor’s visits is over.

The same mindset applies to incorporating passive income into your business in the beginning. If you make it a priority, passive income will start to grow.

Like planting veggies in a garden, seedlings and sprouts take more care than full-grown plants. You’ll want to allow yourself time to let your passive income efforts take hold and begin to mature. Once they do, they won’t take as much of your time.

5 Ways To Generate Passive Income Online

1. Create Printables To Sell On Etsy

Printables are ultra-quick to create because they are — by nature — only a single page or a few pages long. There are tons of ideas for creating printables that sell like crazy on Etsy:

• Worksheets
• Planners
• Journals
• Cheat Sheets
• Trackers
• And many more

Here are my favorite resources for learning to create printables.

• Create Tutorials — How many times a day do you do a how-to search? Why? Because you need someone to show you how to do something. People all around the world do the same thing. That’s millions of searches for tutorials and instructions! Amy Harrop has the perfect little course (called Instructo) to show you how to develop printables that provide instructions.
• One-Page Printables — Simple one-page printables sell like crazy on Etsy and other sites every day. Once you get the system down, these quick moneymakers can be created in under one hour!

Need to set up your Etsy shop? D’vorah Lansky has a fabulous course called Become A Digital Shop Owner. With this special link, you’ll get it for just $97 instead of the normal $197 price. No coupon needed.

2. Sell Low-Content Products On Amazon

What are low-content products? Think about journals, planners, calendars, and other products that have hardly any content in them. These types of products don’t require much (or any) content because they are mostly designed for customers to write in.

Resources such as the ones below help you create professional-looking, low-content products in no time.

• Weekly Planner Builder — Lynette Chandler of Thrive Anywhere has the coolest tool I’ve seen. With Weekly Planner Builder, you can create an entire year’s worth of weekly planner pages in under 5 minutes!
• KDP Journal Creation — Jenni Hunt walks you through her strategy of creating just one paperback journal to sell through Amazon’s KDP program, then quickly transforming the journal to fit numerous different niches.

3. Create Print-On-Demand Products To Sell On Amazon

The magic of print-on-demand is that no inventory is required. You can sell physical goods on Amazon, eBay, or other sites and never spend a dime on inventory. Only after a customer places an order will the product be created and shipped. Then the costs will be deducted from the sale amount and your account will be credited with the profits.

No muss. No fuss!

How do you learn to create and sell print-on-demand products?

• Merch By Amazon — This a program that allows sellers to list T-shirts and PopSockets with custom designs.
• Sell Mugs On Etsy Or Amazon — Mugs are another wildly popular product that people buy all year long. Discover what’s so great about mugs and how to get involved with selling them for high profits.

4. Create Your Own Digital Courses

It’s not as hard as you might think to create your own digital courses to sell from your site. And, because you have full control, you can make more money doing your own thing. Set your product up for automated sales or allow others to promote it and you’re golden!

• Turn Your Knowledge Into Cash — This free webinar walks you step by step through creating your own short digital training product with guidance from online marketing pro, Cindy Bidar.
• Start Your Own Affiliate Program — Once you have a product, you’ll want to invite affiliates to sell it to their followers. That takes a little doing, but Jessica Larrew is there to hold your hand while you learn how to set it up right the first time.

5. Become An Affiliate For Other People’s Courses

Here’s yet another simple way to start generating passive income. Selling other people’s products to your followers is a snap because most of the work is already done for you. There’s no product creation, no sales page setup, no customer service.

Sign up for other companies’ affiliate programs, get your affiliate links, and begin to share through:

• Blog posts
• Podcasts
• Webinars
• Social accounts
• Emails
• Freebies
• Forums
• And more

But there is one hang-up — you have to find the best ways to discover the right affiliate products to promote and learn how to promote them.

• Passive Income Jumpstart — This course shows you what to look for, what to beware of, and how to get started by finding the best-fitting affiliate products to promote to your people.

Which Streams Of Passive Income Should You Generate?

That decision is a matter of preference and what your audience responds to. It will take some experimenting to find the right combination of passive income sources.

Don’t be discouraged if you hit one or two roadblocks as you explore your options. Just like finding the right doctor or treatment for your family member, you’ll want to be patient as you begin this new journey.

The rewards for your persistence will show up as inboxes filled with sale/commission notices even when you didn’t directly promote anything that day. It’s an amazing feeling!

Have questions about creating streams of passive income? Talk to me below! 

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