The truth is that you can stop struggling to get by. Soon, you’ll be able to take your spouse out for a nice dinner and still afford to pay your bills on time. Building a passive income online is your ticket to financial security!

You won’t earn thousands of dollars overnight; legitimate methods of building passive income aren’t get rich quick schemes. Building passive income online will take hard work, hours of research, and patience to surmount the learning curve. But, if you’re willing to work hard now, you’ll earn big rewards later.

Here are five ideas that’ll help you build passive income online:

1. Start a blog. Throughout the startup phase, building your blogging empire will take up quite a bit of your time. You’ll need to respond to reader comments, interact with other bloggers, and create daily posts just to earn dimes. But, once you’ve established an online presence with your blog, you can expect to earn in the range of $100 to over $1,000 per month, just for sharing your thoughts and opinions.

* Bloggers earn money through several different avenues. However, some of the most common and basic methods of earning passive income through a blog are Google’s Adsense program and other comparable pay-per-click systems, private advertisers, and affiliate commissions.

2. Write articles for ad sharing websites. Ad sharing websites allow you to post articles to their website directory and earn ad revenue each time a visitor clicks on an advertisement next to your article.

* Taking part in work at home forums is an effective way of getting leads to some of the highest paying ad revenue websites. Some examples of successful ad revenue websites are eHow.com, Bukisa.com and Suite101.com.

3. Flip blogs for quick cash. Once you get the hang of it, flipping blogs can be a quick way to make money within just a few hours. Simply purchase a domain name (new or aged), find a unique WordPress theme, and post content on your new blog. After you’ve successfully set up the blog, place it for sale on an auction website, such as Flippa.com or Sitepoint.com.

4. Sell stock photography. If you’re a brilliant photographer, put your artistic skills to use and sell stock photography online. Capture images of scenes you think will sell well. Then, visually enhance the photos in Photoshop, if necessary, and place them for sale on websites like Fotolia.com or iStockPhotos.com.

* Sales may be slow at first, but remember you’re building passive income that treats you to some nice checks month after month. Once you’ve built up an inventory of several dozen photos, sales will begin to pick up.

5. Become an affiliate marketer. As an affiliate marketer, you’ll promote other people’s products online for a commission. Each time you make a sale, you’ll be paid up to 75% of the sale price. Most people who succeed in this field focus on promoting products through article marketing and email marketing campaigns, but there are several strategies you can quickly learn.

* Writing two articles is unlikely to result in a sale. Write 20 articles and you’re chances increase exponentially. Write 200 articles and you’ll get the ball rolling on some nice commissions.

In time, you’ll be able to pay costly bills and plan vacations without dipping into your paychecks. The key to ultimate success is the ability to remain focused on the end result. Allow your desires to fuel your drive toward financial security. An optimistic mindset and persistence in working to achieve your goal will see you through to online success.

How does a squeeze page get readers to part with their name and email address? It literally “squeezes” the reader until he feels he has no choice but to give up the contact information you’re requesting – because he wants your irresistible bribe or lure that much! He may not even want to subscribe to yet another list – but he will subscribe to yours.

There are things you must and must not do, in order to create this highly desirable outcome:

DO…
…research and get to know your target niche down to the smallest detail, starting with:
• General Subject – E.G.: Cooking
• Niche – E.G.: Mexican Cooking
• Sub-Niche – E.G: Corn dishes

…include bullet points to list the main selling points. Remember…
• Bullet
• Points
• Work

…include a call to action.

DON’T…

…put any other link but your sign up box on your squeeze page. (It’s not there to make a sale or divert them to an affiliate product – it’s there solely to convert readers into registered subscribers!)

… make your squeeze pages overly long. Include just enough detail to get the job done and inspire the reader to sign up. Something as small as a one-page sign up box will work better than a six page sales letter.

…forget your only job is to MAKE YOUR READER BEG FOR MORE.

That’s the single most important secret of squeeze page success!

Click here to follow future SETTING UP A SALES FUNNEL course

Before implementing any particular technique, it is important to try it out and see how well it works before actually making it the main marketing technique. When the effect is good enough, the site owner can then introduce another marketing technique and go through the same monitoring process. One of the most commonly used marketing technique that brings paying customers to a site is using joint ventures. Joint ventures include collaborating with list owners in the hope that they will benefit from the collaboration and thus market the membership site. List owners do not like to get involved in the marketing process and they only promote the site if all the marketing material has been provided for them to post. Leaving the marketing part to the list owner may make the joint venture too involving and they may prefer to work with other membership sites that have already created their material.

Another marketing plan for membership sites is article writing. Article writing is a very simple marketing plan because all the site owner needs to do is create articles that answer people’s questions and post them in article directories with links that lead back to their membership site. If done regularly, site owners can relax after some time as the articles will generate traffic for their site for years to come. Forums and blog pages are another commonly used marketing method and well preferred because site owners do not have to create content but simply give their views and comments on other people’s blogs. When people read these comments and they are useful, they will click on the link to the site to learn more information related to what they are looking for.

Every internet marketer who sticks with it longer than a few months ends up with a general idea of what a “sales funnel” ought to look like. The trouble is…
A. You often find out about sales funnels too far onwards into your marketing journey. The sales funnel you hastily create as a result ends up more as a “patch” or afterthought on your marketing strategies, instead of a vital component in your initial long-term plan.
B. And this is the biggie – everyone tends to think in “Perfect Diagram” mode.

What is “Perfect Diagram” mode? It’s the phenomenon that occurs after a lifetime of reading textbooks and picture books. People imagine simplistic, textbook perfection

When in reality, until you become a seasoned, experienced internet marketer, if your first sale funnel could be rendered or “translated” realistically.

So… are you really doomed to mess up your first sales funnel, so that it looks like something from a carnival Hall of Mirrors, or a psychedelic scene out of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland?”

Of course not. This only occurs because people do not understand all the different components that go into creating a successful sales funnel. Take care of learning about the different components, set each one up properly – and your funnel will be 50% perfect!

So… what do you need to do, to take care of the OTHER 50%?

You need to have that long-term marketing plan – so your sales funnel can play an important part towards bringing your goals to successful fruition.

There are dozens of reports and posts out there, dealing with “making a long-term marketing plan”, so that’s not going to be our primary focus today, though we will cover the basics. Instead, we’re going to take a good look at every single funnel element, so your plan won’t have any invisible gaps – the sort that quickly cause problems like unnecessary leaks and bottlenecks.
You need to know how to effectively use:
* Squeeze pages
* Entry points
* Freebies
* Low end offers
* $1 offers
* Upsells
* Downsells
* Cross sells
* OTOs (one-time offers)
* Repackaging
* Repurposing
* Recurring income products and services

You’ll also need to know how to perform specific functions:
* Incorporating affiliate products into your sales funnel
* Leading the customer up through different price points
* Collecting opt ins
* Building buyers list and prospects list
* Separating the two lists

We’re going to cover those too – as well as intersperse them with 2 Sales Funnel Super Tips – and 12 Sales Funnel Mistakes – and more.

Click here to follow future SETTING UP A SALES FUNNEL course

While some of the licenses are easy to obtain others may require a lot of homework. Let’s go through them one at a time.

Local Business Licenses: This is necessary for all businesses and will enable you, as a business owner, to legally operate a business under a city’s/country’s jurisdiction. To obtain this license you need to have your basic paperwork in order. Find out the kind of license you need to obtain and get the corresponding application. The application should be duly filled in and should be submitted to the respective government office along with the required fee. Local business licenses need to be updated or renewed as per relevant rules; so be sure to file for renewals.

State Business Licenses: Businesses offering products and services regulated by their state law need to file for these licenses. These licenses are required by people like realtors, hairdressers, lawyers, auto mechanics, private investigators etc. who require a certain amount of certified training or education. To obtain these licenses contact your local government offices to see if you need this license and then get the application. Fill it and file it with the respective state office along with the required fees. Renewals are necessary in this scenario too.

Sales Tax Licenses: This is required by almost all states for all retail businesses. It will allow you to charge sales tax from customers on their purchase. To obtain this license you will need to get in touch with your State Franchise Tax Board.

Federal Licenses: – Federal licensing is required for businesses, which are regulated by the government to a large extent. Businesses like these include inter-state trucking companies, meat-preparing companies, companies selling firearms etc. Legal help may well be required while you undergo the application process so consider consulting an attorney.

Permits: Permits are needed to keep a check on the community’s health through laws referred to as “ordinances”. That means that your business will need to comply with such ordinances in order to be legal.

The procedure to apply to these permits is the same as for Licenses. Some of these permits are mentioned below.

Sellers Permit: This will be required in case you will be purchasing wholesale merchandise for resale. The State Franchise Tax Board usually issues this permit.

Building Permit: This permit is required if you’re planning to build a commercial space. You business will strictly need to be in compliance with local laws otherwise you may have trouble getting other important permits.

Health Permit: -If your business includes any kind of food preparation, you will need a health permit. You will need to call the governing health department for an inspection in order to get this permit.

There are other permits like the Home Occupation Permit that you will need to obtain if your business is home based.

Finally, if you are unwilling to comply with an ordinance you can always apply for a “variance” which will allow you to violate or circumnavigate the former.

There are many ways to follow up, all of them being important in their own unique ways. One of these is to follow up with potential and past customers. This can be done very easily through sending out a regular customer newsletter.

To send out a customer newsletter, or do any form of email marketing for that matter, it is recommended to have an autoresponder service. This will make sending the newsletters very easy. They can even be loaded into the system several months or even years in advance.

It is no secret that people lead busy lives and they cannot always remember to do all the things they want or need to do. Simply sending out a little email, reminding them that your business is still there may be all it takes to stimulate a sale.

Following up with customers can also make them feel special and appreciated. Offering them a special customer appreciation sale is one way to do this. This can, again, be done through email marketing. Another twist is to send your customer an actual card in the postal mail.

As you can imagine from your own buying habits, when you feel appreciated by a business, you are more likely to buy more product from that business. When you feel ignored or unappreciated, you are more likely to avoid that business.

One reason that some business owners fall behind on following up with their customers is due to a lack of time. If this sounds familiar, setting up some systems to keep things flowing can make life easier.

This could include buying pre-written newsletters and hiring a virtual assistant to personalize them before loading them into an autoresponder, or having a ghostwriter create custom-made newsletters.

If you have a service-based business, it is also very important to follow up with potential clients on quotes and proposals you’ve submitted. When a person contacts you for potential work, they may be at a starting point where they are just trying to sort out their project.

Following up will let them know you are interested in working with them and remind them that they need to hurry up and hire you before someone else does.

That doesn’t mean you have to be pushy at all. Just sending a quick note to let them know that you currently have space on your calendar for them, but also reminding them that your spaces fill up fast, is all that is needed.

Once a business owner implements a regular follow-up routine into their business, they will open up the potential for repeat business and more profits.

Most of the times, you will already know that a market exists for your product. The problem is in knowing how big that market is and if it is big enough to support your business. If a product that is launched has little or no market, you will be out of business.

Market research is crucial in gaining a good understanding about your potential customers and competitors and the risks involved. Let’s look at what market research essentially involves

Customer Analysis

This is necessary for understanding the buying habits and lifestyle preferences of customers. Customer analysis can be based on data obtained through credit card purchases, magazine subscriptions, card memberships, surveys and voter registration of potential customers. This method, which is also called “data mining”, will help you make confident business decisions.

Choice Modeling

It is a general-purpose tool, which involves detailed methodologies like Orthogonality and Experimental Design used for making predictions about the decision-making behavior of customers. It is one of the most suitable methods for predicting a consumers’ willingness to pay for a service, a product or an upgrade.

Competitor analysis

So what if you are trying to sell a conventional product and others in the market are offering similar products too. Competitor analysis is needed to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your potential competitors. It can be done by first constructing a competitor’s array, which will clearly enable you to define the nature of your industry, your competitors, your customers the benefits expected and your key success factors.

Typically a competitor profiling will include research on the competitor’s background, finances, products, marketing, facilities, personnel and its corporate and marketing strategies. Media scanning is a great way of understanding the beliefs of your competitor and the kind of market they are trying to target. This is done through a thorough scanning of your competitor’s ads to find out about the new product offerings, branding strategy, positioning strategy etc.

Costing

This is an important factor and should be taken into due consideration. After all this research the last thing you can do wrong is to price your product inappropriately. Pricing should be accurate as a product that is of good quality and cheap may lure more customers while you incur losses and a highly priced product may drive them away putting you out of business.

Besides all this research, a Risk Analysis can be undertaken which is a process to assess the circumstances that may come in the way of the success of your business.

Most businessmen undertake a peripheral analysis and then sit back and wonder what went wrong. A detailed assessment of the market is essential and should not be taken lightly. It’s worth the money you will invest in your business.

Part of being ready to start a new business or continue a fledgling on line business is to have a plan. But if you just jumped in after reading a few guides about “Making Money On line” and went running around from one project or sub-project to another, never seeming to get any of them completely done, you have to ask yourself NOW; will I ever do any better? Do you think you may do or be doing better by now if you had a plan.

You may have read hundreds of reports and purchased a hundred more internet marketing associated ebooks, applied some of the strategies defined, advertised your business in Adwords and produced several blogs for search engine sake, but so far there has been little or no profit, right? You have to be thinking, “I must be doing something wrong”, so you continue to hunting for the next big time, never before seen guru promise of millions overnight.

Well, to be honest, you are doing something wrong! But it’s not something you can attribute to lack of information or even bad information, it’s due to a missing link – your reasons for owning your own on line business with the benefits of those reasons inspiring you to construct a proper, well defined and goal oriented strategy.

1. Are you in the habit of creating a plan to accomplish your goals?

2. Do you think you have the self discipline to stick to a plan? If not do you think you would be willing to learn do discipline yourself to learn how to stick to your plan?

3. Can You Sacrifice Certain Wants and Needs to Succeed?

4. Are you willing to give up the time necessary from things you currently do in your life to succeed in your on line business?

This may mean giving up:

• Some of your favorite T.V. shows
• Foregoing some of your favorite hobbies
• Foregoing other favorite activities – sports, charity work, etc.

If you answered no to any of the above questions, you need to step back and take a serious look at your reason(s) for wanting to own and run your own on line business. (Or any type of business for that matter.)

If you have not sat down and written out not just your reasons for running your own business, but the benefits of ending up with a SUCCESSFUL on line business then you have 2 choices.

1. Go outside. Find a wall. Brick would be nice but any hard surfaced wall will do just fine. Stand about 2 feet from the wall. Reach forward with both hands and lean into the wall. Now lean in closed enough so you can pound your head against that wall until you realize this exorcize is exactly what you are already doing by not knowing the reasons why you want to own and run your own on line business.

2. WRITE DOWN YOUR REASONS including the benefits of what each reason will bring you once you HAVE made your business a success. (I’m not providing a guide here. This is all on you. Take the Responsibility. Put as much time and effort into this exorcize as you need to. Let your imagination run a little wild. Be realistic but remember you are capable of doing far more than you think you can. So don’t hold back.)

So you’re back? How did you do? You should have a clearer picture now as to how to proceed to get your business headed back in the direction you want it to go and therefore less frustrated and re-energized about your business. Remember; professionals go these kinds of excorsises on a regular basis whether they are frustrated with the way business is going or not. Are you a professional?

TAGGING: WHAT IS IT?

Developing search-engine friendly copy has become even easier with the introduction of tagging widgets on a variety of web publishing interfaces. Tagging is simply a process of breaking down your submissions into keywords. Keywords of relevance are usually general in scope, and will make your copy fit into a variety of indexes and categories with a few simple tweaks.

Consider tagging to be a condensed version of your main idea. This is an effective approach when you are trying to make sense of the process, and the best way to do it is to start with your heading and title. Your title will serve as the main source of indexing by search engines, and you can make it stand out even more by adding relevant tags.

As a general rule, you’ll want to make sure you are also using the appropriate tags and meta-tags in descriptions and heading titles. Some search engines use these areas to index anything you publish, and it’s important that they are relevant and free of spam.

Still, tagging within a social bookmarking site offers multiple benefits. Many social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Technorati make use of tag clouds that break out each article and section it off to different categories. Using keywords such as ‘internet’ or ‘computer’ for example will automatically list your article or submission in both areas. It’s just another way for users to find articles or entries of relevance; whenever they click on one of these tag clouds, a full listing of articles with those tags will show up on their screen.

A growing number of portals and websites are offering tagging systems to index content. This is especially helpful for blogs and other larger resources where context is highly important. Think about the millions of articles and entries on the web today, and how difficult it would be for someone to find your specific article if they could only find you with a few keywords. Tagging helps to create context and relevance within different categories, and once a user has reached the social bookmarking platform; it makes it much easier to find you.

More people are becoming comfortable and familiar with using tag clouds to group and find the information they need; your website can reach a much wider audience when it’s easily found in a variety of areas, instead of just under one content page or index.

As each social bookmarking site indexes and aggregates the incoming data, patterns of tags start to emerge; the more popular a particular theme or idea becomes, the larger the tag cloud. You’ll notice this as you review different tag clouds, and you’ll see some words standing out far more than others. This means that more people are submitting articles with the same tags, and more people are viewing them. It’s an easy way to monitor and review how well specific topics are doing at any given time.

TAGGING: HOW TO DO IT

Tagging each entry you submit will become a habit, but you do need to make sure that the tags are relevant and free of spam. Only use keywords that actually apply to your entry; if you start using extra words simply to gain exposure or search engine placement, another user may report it and you may be forced off the network.

Think of tagging as labeling all of your data; you are creating an easily index-able system so that search engines and social bookmarking sites can find and place your article. Breaking down your article into a ‘notes’ form is a very effective strategy for rising to prominence!

You’ll need to break down your main idea into general topics, then narrow it down to more specific keywords. Titles in your article are a good way to start, and you do not need to include words such as ‘the’, ‘it’, or ‘a’. If you do, the tagging system will usually just take them out. Be sure to pick keywords that classify your submission the best; while there are no limits to the number of tags you can add, it’s important to limit them to only those of relevance.

PINGING: WHAT IS IT?

Pinging has quickly become a popular activity with the social networking boom, and in most cases it is an automatic process. Pinging is the process of identifying your IP address and making sure that it is a valid address for search engines. Pings identify the web address to various hosts, and once the address is verified, it can be networked and updated in search engines and indexes.

Bloggers make use of pinging when in cases where posts are not updated automatically. Pinging allows the user to update search engines and various indexes that a new blog posting has been submitted. This is necessary for indexing purposes only, and can help search engine spiders and indexers ‘pick up’ your submission much faster. Old search engine strategies required manually entering sites and submissions for pinging; today, however, most publishing platforms take care of this process automatically.

Many internet marketers have built up an enormous amount of experience and skill in the art of search engine optimization (SEO), web design, article marketing, press release writing, social networking, etc. and they take their expertise offline in the form of a consultant or a legitimate marketing business. Some of these end up being multimillion dollar businesses with great reputations and have clients that are fortune 500 companies.

While others do it on a local level, by doing basic optimization (SEO) for offline businesses, web design, article marketing, etc. for several hundred to several thousand dollars per deal. This can be a great way to supplement your income as an internet marketer, by utilizing the skills and knowledge that you already possess and turning them into cash.

It really is a win-win situation for the marketer and the offline business, because having exposure on the internet can help a business significantly and for some businesses, even just getting one or two new clients (from the internet) can make a huge difference. And as a marketer, one can get paid what you deserve for your skills… Without having to freelance online for pennies.

In any case, you can see why so many internet marketers are getting into the offline niche and perhaps you see a reason or two why you yourself should jump on the bandwagon and get your offline business started!