Again

Step 1: Come up with an idea that helps solve a problem

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

— Thomas Edison

Or steal an already existing idea from someone and make it better!

Now, I’m not advocating for plagiarism. A prime example of taking an already existing idea and making it better is Facebook.

Was Facebook the first social media site that promoted the individual and connected them to the world? Absolutely not! Remember MySpace?

Facebook took that idea and made it better. Now it’s one of the most valuable companies on the planet. However, let’s temper our expectations here. We’re not looking for the next Facebook. We’re looking to build a company that can first help provide for ourselves and our family — anything after that we can build it into is just gravy.

So what kinds of problems can you help solve (that are already in existence)?

Are you an expert in human health/fitness? You could help build a training routine/diet plan.
Are you an expert in self-improvement? You could build a self-improvement module of various tasks one could take and books to read that would help improve someone’s life.
Are you an expert in interior design? You could build a catalog of tools, furniture, and design ideas that one can implement into designing their own house.

There really are so many different ideas that can be generated here. The most important part to consider is coming up with an idea that helps a group of people (audience) solve a specific problem.

Step 2: Build a site that acts as a digital “brick & mortar” to sell your products/services

I’ll be brief with this one.

Blogging is the way of the future. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the evidence that proves how much blogging has grown (both in size and revenue) in the past few years.

By setting up a blog, you’re essentially putting your “brick & mortar” store on the world wide web. If you don’t do this, you aren’t going to have a place to launch your products.

Step 3: Use an Email Service Provider (ESM) to build an email list and passively sell your products

Even after almost 30 years, the introduction of new technology, and the advent of social media, email is still king.

Why?

Because with email, you have a direct connection with the people you’re looking to sell to.

With various social media tools like Quora, Medium, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, you’re able to communicate with your audience, but you’re subject to the surprise eradication of your content. You also don’t guarantee that the information you wish to convey is sent to the individual directly.

With email, you have direct access to your entire audience (an audience that lives on your email list). You’re able to send messages and pitch products or services to who you want when you want to.

Don’t you ever get annoyed by all the promotional emails you get daily? I know I do at times.

If they’re so annoying, why do companies still use them?

Because they work!

In order to achieve passive income, once you start to create your online business and promote it with content, it’s important that you get those readers to become email subscribers. You do this by getting your readers to opt-in to your list.

There are many ways you can do this and I won’t go over the strategies in depth here for I’ve already done it with this resource.

Why an Email Service Provider is so important

An ESM is so important because, without it, you don’t have the means for passive income.

With an ESM, you’re able to pre-schedule out emails after someone joins your list and sent them “pitch” emails, promotional material, and urgency marketing campaigns on auto-pilot.

For example, take this scenario:

A reader sees, clicks on, and reads your article describing how to gain six-pack abs.
At the end of the article, they’re prompted with a pop-up or footer that notes if they give you their email, they can get a FREE “6-pack abs in 6 weeks” guidebook.
From there, they’re sent into a welcome email sequence that introduces them to your business.
After, let’s say, six days of automated emails, they’re prompted with a “Total Body Transformation Workout Schedule” video module. Now, since they’re a loyal subscriber, they’re pitched the video module at $100 (when it’s normally $400 — a 75% off deal, but only for the next 48 hours).
The newly acquired email subscriber can’t resist such a deal and buys the module.

You can see with this scenario, that after writing one valuable article, you have the potential for automatic, passive sales.

It’s all within reach, but only if you have the right strategies and automated tools in place!

Summing Up

Generating passive income is one of the hottest topics you can find on the web today.

And rightfully so — it’s essentially the 21st Century version of The American Dream (at least for me).

The ability to build a business that offers value to a community and sells the products or services you’ve built on auto-pilot, thus giving you the Freedom (with a capital “F”) to explore the world around you.

Who wouldn’t want that?

Now, there are various ways to generate passive income:

Investing
Real estate (through renting to tenants)
An automated online business

The method we cover here is through an automated online business. Generating passive income through an automated online business is real and possible as long as you have the right automated tools in place.

It also isn’t an undertaking that needs a substantial audience in order to keep it afloat. Using the 1,000 True Fans model, you only need around .0004% of the market in order to sustain a viable passive income.

Once you capture your market share, building your passive income machine is as easy as 1, 2, 3:

Step 1: Develop an idea that helps a community solve a problem

This doesn’t even need to be an original idea — you can take an already successful existing idea in the marketplace, add your spin on it, and make it better.

Facebook is the best example we have of someone taking an already existing idea and making it better.

Step 2: Build a digital “brick & mortar” so you have a place to launch your products/services

If you’re going to sell a product or service to an audience, you’re going to need a place from which to sell them.

Enter your blog/site.

Blogging is an industry that we used to think of as a joke some 10 years ago. Now, it’s a goldmine that has people entering the space daily.

When you own a domain and site, you have a place from which to store and sell your products. You need this in order to build a successful passive income machine.

Step 3: Use an ESP to sell your products on auto-pilot

An Email Service Provider is the most crucial tool you’ll use in order to make your product building and selling efforts go on autopilot.

With email, you have the means for direct contact with your audience and direct means to pitch and sell them new products as you develop them.

You can have someone join your email list and set into motion the automated sequences that will provide them value and sell them your products/services.

Creating passive income shouldn’t be just an idea you see as you scan the web — it should be a reality that you fit into your life.

Sure, it’s going to take hard work and time, but once you have all the pieces in place, you’ll open up that time so you can get back to what you’ve been searching for this whole time…

Your freedom.