Every now and then I look to do a little Google query and search for ways to make money online.  Without fail, the same garbage comes up talking about passive income, and how you can do these data mining surveys and make money (when I looked into them, they were 30-to-60-minute surveys and paid a buck or two – I don’t know about you, but I value my time at more than $2/hr).  Then, just after the surveys, would be the inane advice of starting a blog.

Don’t get me wrong, blogging is an incredibly important part of maintaining a website, and it’s greatly underutilized by businesses (read about how a blog helps your business).  But it’s actually a whole lot more difficult to effectively monetize a blog that is designed to make money simply being a blog.

Let’s get into the truth about passive income as a writer.

What Can a Writer do to Truly Make Passive Income?

Truly passive income is almost non-existent.  What many people claim to be passive actually requires ongoing work to maintain relationships, market, and otherwise promote their works.  If you want passive income, something where you do the work once and it generates money for you the rest of your life, really the only way to do that is by investing your money.  Make money over here, then invest it into something that generates more money over there.  Other than that, there’s really nothing that can be done for true passive income.

There are, however, other ways you can get close to passive as a writer.

Writing a blog and selling ad space is semi-passive; you do the work once and then spend minimal time maintaining the blog and nurturing those relationships with people who purchase ad space on your website.

Authoring a book can also be semi-passive.  After publishing much of the work is done.  However, you still have to market your book, promote it, go to signings, and encourage people to buy copies (check out how you can make money with your book other than relying on copies sold).

Running a website that sells a product is semi-passive too.  Perhaps you have a few courses you have created, and you want to sell more of them.  As a great copywriter, you can run the site, drive traffic to it, and convert that traffic through your witty words of wisdom into paying customers.

You don’t even have to sell your own product.  If your site gets enough traffic, you can have affiliate programs set up with other businesses that will pay you 10-20% for everyone who signs up with through your site.

Is Blogging an Effective Solution to Make Money?

As a professional blogger, I have to answer this question.  Can you make money as a blogger?  Yes.  Is it possible to make semi-passive income as a blogger?  Also, yes.  Is it realistic to think that slapping up a few Google ads will drive enough revenue to pay your mortgage?  Nope.

20 years ago, blogs were huge.  10 years ago, they were still okay.  Today, most of the words on a website go unread.  Sometimes they’ll hit hard, and people will read what you have to say, but for the most part they’re playing an entirely different role behind the scenes and building your authority.

So, how does one make money as a blogger?  Two ways.  Your blog can be a big lead-in for something else.  Instead of monetizing with ads and getting your penny per view, you monetize by advertising your own product (or an affiliate product).  This means you have to be a better copywriter and convince people to click and buy.

The other way is to write for someone else.  A business that needs to show off their authority and bring in more traffic as they rank better on Google needs a blog to help do that.  If you’re a good writer, you can write for another website and get paid to do so.  Not at all passive income, but you can then take that income invest it in some mutual funds, and let them grow over time.

How Much Can You Make?

Consider this.  If you write a blog and get paid $100 for that blog, you’ve made $100 actively.  Now, take that hundred smackers and put it into an investment account.  Over the next 25 years it will grow to $550 (assuming 7% interest).

Writing a single blog can make you $450 in passive income – more if you leave it to grow longer.

Want to know another way you can make a bunch of money as mostly passive income?  Refer me to a business that needs a blog.  When they subscribe to a weekly done-for-you package, I’ll pay you $200/month as long as the business remains subscribed to my services.  That’s a little bit of work up front, and then passive income for potentially years to come.

Email me for more info, or set up a time to chat about how you can make passive income through referrals by scheduling on my calendar below.