The myth of passive income

According to the IRS, there are three categories of income: assets, liabilities, and portfolio.

Active is what it sounds like. You perform income-generating activities from which you earn income.

Portfolio is also what it sounds like. You invest money in things like stocks, real estate funds, or other investment vehicles, and at best your investment generates a profit or income.

Then there is passive income.

The sacred cow of network marketing companies and continuity / membership site experts.

The goal of every type of self-employed person who works too hard, earns little and prays for a miracle.

Intimate passive without work. You, on the beach, cocktail in hand, checking the sales in your PayPal account every few hours. Or, better yet, you, on your couch, in your pajamas, watching GOT or House. Again.

I googled a ton of content on passive income and while there are some solid possibilities, for example lending money for interest, many take a solid idea and execute it right away, like this one that admits that you have to do an advance load of work to get passive: “first you need to drag your ass and do something crazy, say write a quality 20,000 word e-book (crazy, not passive lol)” but this is where it gets crazy – “but then you can sit back and Enjoy watching PayPal sale messages appear on your iPhone every morning while the after sale sale is taking place after the sale … continuously and without any additional work.

There is a seriously delusional-flavored thought.

Let’s take a look at digital products. You type or create it once, set it up on a landing page, connect the cart, generate traffic, and go to the beach to pick up your moolah.

A well-made e-book or virtual program requires hours of research, writing, production, formatting, etc. Those hours cost your time and during those hours you are not making money. But okay, we all agree, there has to be work up front, right?

Good, but it doesn’t end there.

Now we have marketing. If your landing page is optimized, your copy is great, and your ads are spot on (which, by the way, requires daily monitoring), and your ebook / product / show is targeting the right audience, you could see recurring revenue from this. perennial type product.

Phew. We have done quite a bit of work so far and there are many “ifs” from a marketing perspective. (If your landing page converts because you have conversion copy and the page is SEO optimized, and you’re targeting an audience that wants what you have from you, and so on.)

And marketing doesn’t end if you want sales to keep coming.

What about affiliate partner management, returns, customer service? Even outsourced, there is still an active participation.

This type of income, as you can see, is far from being passive but it is leveraged.

Leveraged is good. This is how companies grow and, in our case, entrepreneurs, how we get out of the trap of limited income in the pay-for-service model only.

I don’t want to be Debbie’s disappointment, but part of my commitment to my clients and to you, my readers, is to bring the truth; illuminate traps, false gods and naked emperors.

Am I suggesting not to do an e-book, virtual program, or continuity program? NOT! (Well, you could in the case of the membership / continuity program, and I’m gathering some experts to discuss the good and the bad and who should and shouldn’t and when. I’ll have details next week here.)

I suggest you examine your attraction to a marketing idea before you jump in. No idea will “save” an unstable business – sales are the exception here – and an idea that promises to “change everything” in your business will probably not deliver on its promise. What it really requires will only be found in the type of mouse – that fine print at the bottom of web pages and print ads that the disclaimer gives you.

Always read the type of mice.

And start researching leveraged sources of income. Find out what it really takes to set one up and get started. It may not be passive, but it is income that requires less from you one to one or one to many. And that means more time to work on your portfolio or piña coladas.