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Daring Adventures with Passive Income

patrick-wied.at

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Re: Daring Adventures with Passive Income

#11

Post by sown »

kposehn wrote: post #8

I think that one of the classic problems with the notion of passive income is the belief that it cannot have any ambition. A case in point is that my wife and I created a web site 3 years ago. This site has not been touched in over a year, and that was the first and only update to the site in over 2 years. It has been consistently banking $2,500-$4,500 per month for the entire time it has been online. I put in maybe…

> You first have to do market research, come up with an angle, partner with a merchant or five, write a content plan, build it, market it, etc.

It seems like you could make a website about that without some kind of selling angle because those were the first questions I had. I can't think of anything I know to write that anyone would be remotely interested in reading; i have no life, can't relate to normal things like bars or restaurants or whatever people do in their spare time.

Re: Daring Adventures with Passive Income

#12

Post by steveplace »

helipad wrote: post #10
kposehn wrote: post #8

I think that one of the classic problems with the notion of passive income is the belief that it cannot have any ambition. A case in point is that my wife and I created a web site 3 years ago. This site has not been touched in over a year, and that was the first and only update to the site in over 2 years. It has been consistently banking $2,500-$4,500 per month for the entire time it has been online. I put in maybe…

What is the site? Sharing is caring.

In this case, it isn't. Sharing would remove their competitive edge.

Re: Daring Adventures with Passive Income

#13

Post by girasquid »

sown wrote: post #11
kposehn wrote: post #8

I think that one of the classic problems with the notion of passive income is the belief that it cannot have any ambition. A case in point is that my wife and I created a web site 3 years ago. This site has not been touched in over a year, and that was the first and only update to the site in over 2 years. It has been consistently banking $2,500-$4,500 per month for the entire time it has been online. I put in maybe…

> You first have to do market research, come up with an angle, partner with a merchant or five, write a content plan, build it, market it, etc. It seems like you could make a website about that without some kind of selling angle because those were the first questions I had. I can't think of anything I know to write that anyone would be remotely interested in reading; i have no life, can't relate to normal things like…

Step back and examine your life, and you'll find tons of stuff once you think about it. For example, poking through your history I discovered that you've been through an acquisition: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4329721. It probably wouldn't make you a boatload of cash to retire on, but there are probably some folks out there who are interested in learning about Surviving The Acquisition, or What To Do When You're Being Acquired.

If you don't feel like you have anything yet - go learn something, and document the process. Others who are learning usually appreciate that, and there's always something you can teach someone.

Re: Daring Adventures with Passive Income

#14

Post by unreal37 »

The author makes a good point about support being a big hassle, but I think misses the lesson from it. When you're selling something for $7.50, customers demand a lot of support if something goes wrong.

But who says they are entitled to that support? You should craft a carefully worded answer to support emails around "support being through the existing web site and documentation". And quote a nice high hourly rate if they want custom services.

Zero support should be the model for software priced under $100.

Looking at ThemeForest, most authors respond to all comments in the forums for their template, but politely say they cannot assist with customization or make even small changes to their theme for people.

Re: Daring Adventures with Passive Income

#15

Post by weaksauce »

kposehn wrote: post #8

I think that one of the classic problems with the notion of passive income is the belief that it cannot have any ambition. A case in point is that my wife and I created a web site 3 years ago. This site has not been touched in over a year, and that was the first and only update to the site in over 2 years. It has been consistently banking $2,500-$4,500 per month for the entire time it has been online. I put in maybe…

Now you probably wouldn't want to link to the site here but would you feel comfortable expanding on what type of site it is? Does the site update content regularly either via users or scraping? What are your visitor numbers for that kind of revenue? Is it direct sales of physical products?

Re: Daring Adventures with Passive Income

#16

Post by kposehn »

steveplace wrote: post #12
helipad wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the site? Sharing is caring.

In this case, it isn't. Sharing would remove their competitive edge.

Hit the nail on the head there.

Affiliate marketing is intensely competitive - the reason I can make a fair amount of money in the field is because we pursue every advantage at our disposal. The plethora of competitive intelligence tools in the field and the low barrier to entry make it extremely tough.

However, there is a high barrier to success as well.

Re: Daring Adventures with Passive Income

#17

Post by kposehn »

girasquid wrote: post #13
sown wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You first have to do market research, come up with an angle, partner with a merchant or five, write a content plan, build it, market it, etc. It seems like you could make a website about that without some kind of selling angle because those were the first questions I had. I can't think of anything I know to write that anyone would be remotely interested in reading; i have no life, can't relate to normal things like…

Step back and examine your life, and you'll find tons of stuff once you think about it. For example, poking through your history I discovered that you've been through an acquisition: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4329721 . It probably wouldn't make you a boatload of cash to retire on, but there are probably some folks out there who are interested in learning about Surviving The Acquisition, or What To Do When Y…

Well put.

Re: Daring Adventures with Passive Income

#18

Post by steveplace »

kposehn wrote: post #16
steveplace wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case, it isn't. Sharing would remove their competitive edge.

Hit the nail on the head there. Affiliate marketing is intensely competitive - the reason I can make a fair amount of money in the field is because we pursue every advantage at our disposal. The plethora of competitive intelligence tools in the field and the low barrier to entry make it extremely tough. However, there is a high barrier to success as well.

Yup. That's why I moved to my own products and have affiliates work for me, as the stuff I create can't be replicated.

Re: Daring Adventures with Passive Income

#19

Post by steveplace »

unreal37 wrote: post #14

The author makes a good point about support being a big hassle, but I think misses the lesson from it. When you're selling something for $7.50, customers demand a lot of support if something goes wrong. But who says they are entitled to that support? You should craft a carefully worded answer to support emails around "support being through the existing web site and documentation". And quote a nice high hourly rate if…

Support becomes an upsell. I've seen that model used in a lot of software I've bought, seems to work very well.

Re: Daring Adventures with Passive Income

#20

Post by kposehn »

weaksauce wrote: post #15
kposehn wrote: post #8

I think that one of the classic problems with the notion of passive income is the belief that it cannot have any ambition. A case in point is that my wife and I created a web site 3 years ago. This site has not been touched in over a year, and that was the first and only update to the site in over 2 years. It has been consistently banking $2,500-$4,500 per month for the entire time it has been online. I put in maybe…

Now you probably wouldn't want to link to the site here but would you feel comfortable expanding on what type of site it is? Does the site update content regularly either via users or scraping? What are your visitor numbers for that kind of revenue? Is it direct sales of physical products?

- It is an SEO site - It has not seen a single update in 4 months - It gets 2-4k users per month - Direct sales of a physical product through a merchant partner

The big advantage for a lot of my affiliate sites is I have exclusive terms and other deals. With the one I pointed out, I get paid 40% more than any affiliate would, have my own branding of the product, provide no support and invoice the merchant at the end of every month.

They've paid on time, every time for 3.5 years. I have other more successful (and much less successful) sites as well, but this is probably the lowest-maintenance one I have.

I'm happy to shed some light on this for people because I feel that here I might be able to help fellow entrepreneurs.

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