Blogs and passive income sources

Blogs are examples of potential passive income sources.



Blogs are also prime examples of how that passive revenue often requires some aggressive marketing and promotion.



In it's most extreme form, passive revenue refers to income derived from sources, without actual work taking place.



In practice, passive income is often the result of reseller affiliations with Amazon.com and other retailers. Another typical source of passive cash income is from offering one's own products on the blog or website, with a do it yourself ordering system and shopping cart.



It's great in theory to have income arrive, as if by some magical force, into your eagerly waiting mail box. The reality is not quite so simple.



Darren Rowse at Pro Blogger has taken a indepth examination of the potential and opportunity for passive income from blogging. So far, Darren is somewhat disappointed with the real world results.



Darren picks up the theme from Dana Carlson's Business Opportunities Weblog, where Dana expresses the idea that "almost passive income" can result from blogging.



Perhaps, there is a way to gain passive revenue from blogging while approaching the concept from a practical standpoint.



Darren Rowse expects that passivity requires work, in a seeming contradiction in terms:

I suspect if I let my blogs go in terms of upkeep that within a month or two I would see a downturn of income. It might be slow at first but I suspect that with most topics over time the income levels would drop off. In order to keep things moving forward I currently give at least 6-7 hours per day (7 days per week) to my blogging. I can see a day coming where I'll be able to lesson these hours, but at this stage there is little passivity about what I do.



Having said this I hope to increase the passivity of the income I earn from blogging in a number of ways in the years ahead.

I understand what Darren means in his analysis.



Like any other venture, you only get out of it what you invest in terms of time and effort. Do little, and the return is minimal.



If a person expects potential buyers of products from a blog to appear in a puff of smoke, then a complete lack of sales should arrive as no surprise.



No one will purchase a product of which they have never heard.



That means one from a blog where no marketing or promotional efforts have been put forward.



The marketing of a product requires constant hard work and time investment, at least in the short to medium term. A traffic flow to the blog must be developed, in order to create a customer base from the blog readership.



Outside visitor traffic from search engines and directories must be created. The search engines require some level of optimization techniques be applied to the blog.



Articles and forum postings on third party forums, blogs, and traditional websites must be written to establish oneself as an expert in the field.



Perhaps an e-mail newsletter, combined with a site RSS feed from the blog should be considered.



Press releases can create publicity for the blog based product through the traditional media in the form of articles and interviews.



Of course, regular interesting and informative blog postings must be added frequently to the blog itself.



All of these efforts point to a passive revenue source.



They also point to the necessity of some some aggressive marketing and promotional effort.



After that groundwork is completed, perhaps some passive income will begin to trickle into your pocket.



With even more work, that trickle can morph into a substantial revenue flow.