One Incredibly Simple Way to Generate Passive Income in 2019: Make Money While You Sleep!

If you run a blog or online business, you’ve probably wondered at some point how you can generate passive income. And if you’ve done any research on how to create some passive income for yourself, then you’ve probably been bombarded with way too much information.

Everyone wants to teach you how to earn passive income. The problem, though, is that a lot of the information out there on the topic is total crap.

Because first of all, if something seems like it’s too good to be true, it probably is. I’m not trying to disillusion anyone into thinking that they can make a million bucks out of nothing. It’s just not possible.

But also, so many people are just recycling the same thing over and over. And while there are a ton of ways to earn passive income, not all of them are going to work for you.

So rather than waste time trying to make something work that just isn’t within your realm of possibility, I want to give you a very simple passive income stream that can fit into basically any online business model.

It’s a system that I’ve been perfecting over the years.

Because I hate wasting time. And I’m constantly looking for ways to be more efficient.

But at the same time, I run a very heart-centered business. I want to be right there in the trenches with everyone I help. I want my passion to shine through. And I want to provide a ton of value with life-changing content.

And I’ve figured out how to do most of this on autopilot, freeing up my time to be present in my community, all while earning me some passive income in the process.

And today, I’m going to teach you exactly how to set up a similar passive income stream yourself.

Because to make your big, scary dreams come true, you need systems that allow you to focus your time and energy on the right things.

Before we dive in, I wanted to let you know about a free challenge that I run to help you get your own passive income funnel up and running in no time. It’s a highly targeted — and highly efficient — email course that will teach you everything you need to know to start making money right away. What are you waiting for? Sign up here for the passive income challenge and I’ll see you inside!

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This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. This means that I may receive a commission off any sales at no additional cost to you. I only promote products that I use and love. You can read my full disclaimer here.

What is Passive Income?

Before we dive into how you can earn passive income, let’s get clear on what I’m talking about here.

Passive income is simply money you make without being actively involved in the process.

You’re not going door to door selling sinks.

You’re not launching a product, running a sale, or actively promoting your products or services.

Instead, you have a system set up to promote it for you behind the scenes.

Now, a lot of people will tell you that passive income is a scam. It’s not unless you’re scamming people.

They’ll also tell you that passive income means that you use spammy clickbait tactics to trick people into visiting your site so you can rip them off. Again, this is only true if you do those things. Which you shouldn’t because you’re not an asshole.

I want to make this perfectly clear: It’s totally possible to set up passive income streams that legitimately helps your customers and clients while allowing you to earn an honest living.

How to Generate Passive Income

In order to create passive income, you need to have a product or service to sell. (Yes there are other ways, but I’m not going to go into them here because I’m helping you grow your online business, not your portfolio.)

And it doesn’t have to be your product or service, either. There are plenty of affiliate programs out there that will allow you to make decent money. Sharasale is a great place to start.

Whatever it is, it has to be something that will actually help your customers and clients. Because people know when you’re just trying to sell something versus when you’re trying to help them.

So be authentic. And be picky about what you’re selling.

Then, you need to decide how you’re going to passively sell it.

The two most common are through blog posts and email. (You can also use social media, but this is generally something you’re actively involved in, so it’s not really passive income unless something goes viral and brings you in money over time.)

Examples of Passive Income Streams

So how do you sell stuff through blog posts and email without being spammy?

One way is to point out a problem that you and your customers both have, and then let them know what you use to fix it.

For example, I was a book editor in my 20s, and I know how tough it is to edit your own writing. And in the online business world, we have to write a lot! I personally use Grammarly to help me out and it makes my life so much easier, so I love telling other people about it, as well. Yes, I get paid to recommend it, but it’s a fantastic tool. I’d still recommend it if I didn’t get paid to.

I also have a slight Target addiction. And I love writing about all of the awesome stuff I find there. So I put together fun articles about how I use Target stuff to organize my house or to make my life easier with some busy mom hacks.

As a professional organizer, I have products that I always recommend because they really are the best for the job. So I have no problem recommending them, I just make it clear that I’m suggesting them because I know that they’re the best solution, not because I get paid to promote them.

So I look at all of the different products that I love, and I find ways to work them into evergreen blog posts that continue to live on, making me money in the process.

I also promote my own products and services in my blog posts. But only if it makes sense in the post. I add links as I write the content — I never write content around the links (unless it’s a full review).

The Best Way to Create Passive Income

The best way to promote my own products is through email, though.

I send emails about my different promotions as they’re happening. But those are always what I’m actively promoting at the time.

To make passive income through my email marketing, I’ve built highly targeted funnels.

And I know that sounds complicated, but I promise it isn’t. I mean, it’s as complicated as you want it to be. My funnels have grown over the years as I’ve fine-tuned them, but I chose to go that route.

It’s totally possible to generate passive income through your email marketing with very little setup time or technical know-how.

But figuring out what type of email funnel to create can take some trial and error.

Luckily for you, I’ve already done that. Now I’m going to hand you the blueprint for what I’ve uncovered.

It’s your step-by-step guide to setting up an evergreen email sequence that is guaranteed to make you passive income.

How can I be so confident?

Because it allows you to get to know your audience’s needs, provide them a quick solution to one of their problems, give them a ton of value, and then pitch your products once they’ve seen how truly amazing you are.

I call it the Entrepreneur’s Wheel of Efficiency.

The Entrepreneur’s Wheel of Efficiency

Most people create passive income streams with the sale being the end goal.

And while, yes, that’s definitely an important part of the process, I think ending it there leaves so much on the table.

Instead, I like to think of passive income as a wheel, or a cyclical process.

Because while some people buy, most people won’t.

And that’s perfectly okay!

In order to be really successful, you always have to look at everything you’re doing and think about how you can make it better. To do this, you have to have the right mindset. (Check out my free Mindset Challenge, where you’ll learn how to cultivate a growth mindset and be the happiest damn person in the room!)

And the best way to make things better is to simply ask people what they liked and didn’t like about your offerings. Even if only 1% of people give you feedback, it’s still feedback you can use to go back to your products and services, to go back to your content and your offerings, and make them even better.

Then you start at the top of the circle again. And each time you go around it, you’ll only improve.

So let’s take a look at each step of this process to give you a better understanding of how it works.

Create Killer Content

I’ve already talked about how important it is to provide value in your content. But I want to stress it again.

Quality will beat quantity every single time.

Because you don’t want to put your name on something that was made in a hurry. And you don’t want to waste someone’s time telling them to read something that has less value than they deserve.

But creating quality content takes time. So you need to make sure that you’re spending your time creating the right content.

In other words, you need to spend your time creating content that you know your people will love rather than just throwing something out there and hoping it will work. Because if it doesn’t work, then you just wasted your time creating it. That’s time you’ll never get back.

So do some research. Ask your people what they want to know. Look at what other people in your industry are writing about. Dive into popular keywords in your niche.

And then use everything you find to create killer content that will blow your audience’s mind and keep them coming back for more.

Boost Your Website Traffic with Pinterest and SEO

Once you write your killer content, you need to get it in front of people.

But you don’t need to waste hours of your time doing this.

If you did some solid keyword research and wrote a quality article, then Google should pick it up. Once it does, that’s automatic traffic around the clock. This is another reason why it pays to invest a little time up front producing quality content.

Pinterest is also a great way to get decent traffic. To drive traffic from Pinterest, you need to make sure you’re creating pins that really stand out, using keywords in your pin descriptions, and getting your pins in front of the right people. And using a took like Tailwind, you can keep your pins circulating on autopilot, bringing you traffic while you sleep.

If you want to learn how to totally rock your Pinterest and SEO game, then I highly recommend signing up for Scriv’s blogging and business group. I would do it a disservice to try to teach what he’s already so good at. I’ve taken a ton of courses on this stuff, and his is by far the easiest to digest and implement immediately.

Email Marketing: Provide a Ton of Value and Create Raving Fans

So once you’re getting traffic to your site, you want to get these visitors on your email list so you can continue to provide them with a ton of amazing value.

Now, if you look up email marketing, you’re going to find a ton of information on the topic. Most of it’s pretty good. Some is total fluff. And some is totally misguided.

Here’s my take on it. If you want to have an online business, you need an email list. If you want to make money from your list, you need to make sure you’re attracting the right people and then showing them that you’re an expert on the topic and how you can help them out.

And honestly, if you do that right, you don’t even have to sell anything. Because these people will want to work with you. I hate selling. But I love helping people. Come at it in the right way and people will see that from the beginning.

Attracting the Right People

So first of all, you attract the right people by using the right headlines. This also extends to the content you write in general.

For example, let’s say that you sell high-end spiritual healing packages. If your headlines and content are attracting people who are brand new to new age stuff, they’re probably not going to buy your high-end packages, unless they’re just sitting on a lot of money. You need to attract people who are ready for your more advanced sessions.

Creating Challenges

Once the right people are on your site, getting them to sign up for your email list is a little easier. Provided you give them something that will actually help them.

A lot of people will tell you that worksheets and checklists are what people want.

And yeah. They do convert pretty well. But how much value are you really providing there?

A free 5-day challenge will always provide more value than a checklist or worksheet. Yes, you have to invest the time to create it, but once it’s done then you have a fantastic free offering.

People like the idea of a challenge because there’s additional support. There’s an expected outcome. And it motivates them to learn something they may not learn without that extra push.

Plus, you can get them a small win from the challenge. You’re not going to get that from a worksheet.

And you can set it up as a completely automated email sequence in pretty much any email marketing provider out there. I set all of mine up in ConvertKit, and they continue to provide phenomenal value around the clock.

This also gives people a great feel for your teaching style — which is perfect for coaches and course creators.

The problem, though, is that one challenge won’t address every problem your audience has.

This is why I have a ton of challenges on my site.

Segment Your List with Quizzes

To keep all my challenges organized, I use Interact quizzes.

Yes, quizzes are also great for getting people to sign up for your email list. I just find that their true value is in segmenting people based on their results.

So, for example, I run 5 different time management challenges. I created a quiz to help people identify what their biggest time management problem is. They’re put in a sequence based on their answer, promoting the challenge that matches. If they sign up for the challenge, they then get the full value experience.

This helps catch the people who don’t sign up for the challenges in the first place.

They are also great if you have different levels of programs and customers. It could allow you to segment your list based on how advanced they are on your topic so you can put them in the appropriate funnel.

But the great thing about this entire system is that it allows me to be completely hands-off in this process. Yes, I’m there to answer questions. But people are sent to my site around the clock. Once there, they sign up for my list, and they’re put in a certain funnel based on the challenge they signed up for or their quiz result. Then, they get an in-depth understanding on a certain topic as well as a preview of how I teach.

I just set up the automations in ConvertKit and then let it run its magic.

How to Sell Online: Turn Your Raving Fans Into Paying Customers

As I said a little earlier, if you are genuine in every step of the process up until now, then you really don’t have to sell anything. Yes, you mention your products and how they’ll help.

But you’ve already proven how awesome you are.

You’ve already taught them how to overcome one problem with your challenge. So joining your course or program is just the next logical step to take it even further.

This is how you turn raving fans into paying customers.

And you set this up to run behind the scenes, as well.

You just set it up so that they enter a sales sequence as soon as they finish the challenge sequence.

And you can completely customize this so that each sales sequence is perfectly aligned with whatever challenge they just completed.

This allows you to talk directly to this one customer and their particular problem.

And speaking directly to them helps build the trust and connection they need to buy what you’re selling.

Improve Your Content to Increase Your Profits

But not everyone is going to buy. And that’s totally fine.

This doesn’t mean that it was a total waste of time, though.

They may need a little more time to get to know you. Or maybe they’ll never buy. As long as you’re in business to help people first, then you should be okay with that.

What you can do, though, is try to see what held them back.

And I add this to my full funnels, as well.

I simply tag everyone who clicked through to the sales page during the sales sequence.

After the sales sequence, I create an “if this then that” rule. If they bought the course, they’re taken out of the automation. If they didn’t buy and they don’t have the tag that they clicked through to the sales page, then they move on to the next step of the automation.

If they didn’t buy and they do have that tag, though, then they’re put in a short sequence that asks them to fill out a quick survey about why they didn’t buy.

No, not everyone fills it out. But a lot of people have. And I’ve found some amazing nuggets of wisdom in there.

And again, it’s completely automated. I just get an email from Google when someone fills it out.

Then, I take the feedback I get and use it to make my products and services even better. I even use it to make my funnels and sequences better.

This puts me back at the top of the wheel, putting my new and improved content back out there to cycle through with the next round of people who come to my site looking for help.

How to Create Your Own Passive Income Stream Today

Want to create a passive income stream just like this for yourself?

I would love to teach you how!

In the Passive Income Challenge, I walk you through this entire process.

I help you map out your money making funnel so you know it’s done right.

I give you some of my best content creation hacks so you can put it together in half the time.

And I give you the tools to provide your readers with exceptional value, to create raving fans, and to turn those fans into paying customers.

I can’t wait to see you inside!