[SD] Passive income strategies

[RBP]

[SD] Serious discussion tagged, please stay on topic.

I have been exploring ideas for passive income. Specifically, for me anyway, zero investment passive income. Building income, and hopefully wealth, through multiple streams.

What is passive income? Generally, it's a place you put some initial time and/or investment, then allow the income to flow back with limited or no active involvement. Most strategies are investment strategies, which don't work if you don't have free capital. Things like managed properties or stock investments. The trick is to devise multiple streams that (hopefully) provide some return over time. If they do, it's found money.

As some of you know I have one I have been creating and selling digital art online. One is fairly passive, RedBubble. You upload photos or artwork, do some social media work and get your family and friends to do some, then hopefully you have a few items that take off. From reading about T-shirt designers, they have a lot of duds, but when one hits it pays off royally. My other is Etsy, which is more active since it includes custom projects, but the time investment is minimal.

My other current strategy is idea licensing. The concept is that you can get provisional patents, or sometimes no patent at all, and license ideas to manufacturing companies. External idea licensing has become mainstream, and while it may not be super easy, one idea can pay large dividends. In many cases, as a consumer, you already know what improvements to existing products could be made. And many companies will pay you a royalty on sales for introducing that idea.

I have started reading more from an author named Stephen Key. His books are titled "One Simple Idea" and "Selling your ideas with or without a patent". I have 2 ideas in the hopper and will be working on more as I read through the business process to make it happen.

Is anyone using any passive income strategies? If so, what have you learned? Have any good resources for exploring passive income?

[RBP]

Stephen Key's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-2L31LrT3T-OBNLuP_AnHw

Here's a fairly short (15 minutes) example of a odd dude coming up with a $10M idea. Go to 2:20 for the section on his largest payoff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEVVJ111b8o

[RBP]

I would add blogging and pod casts to the list. Not passive, but can be investment free.

I don't know anything about the economics of either one.

[Pony]

Write a get rich quick book.

[RBP]

Write a get rich quick book.

There is definitely a far more open market for ebooks and self-publishing. That's worth being on the list, get-rich style or otherwise. Nice add.

[Godfather]

I'm not using any personally.

The one very savvy friend I have has a couple.

The first he started years ago when he was in high school. He went around to car dealerships and offered to manage their Craigslist & Kijiji posting. He wrote a little HTML script or whatever and posted all their used car inventories online for $100-400/month. For a while there he was raking it in while going to college, but I think they've clamped down on that now sadly.

His other strategy isn't exactly passive income, more of a hobby, be he is DEEP in the credit card rewards/bank rewards game. He follows several blogs and subreddits and is always signing up for bank promotions. I believe between he and his wife he has over 20 credit cards, managing them all with a large spreadsheet (while keeping his credit rating over 760). He'll jump on rewards cards that give you thousands of points just for spending x amount in the first few months, or bank accounts that pay $500 if you open an account and make a few online payments through them in the first couple months. We were talking at hockey last night. In the last 6 months he and his wife have made $3k in rewards cash (that's tax free income here too), and he has so many credit card points he's selling them, and has taken two sets of trips to Asia flying first class. He admits it's a real hobby and takes a lot of time, and obviously it's no good if you're strapped for cash as you often need to hold a few thousand between accounts to avoid the fees, but the ROE for a bank account that pays $500 in 6 months if you keep $5k in it is still higher than your ROE would be in the market placed in a moderately safe index fund.

[RBP]

I've seen the credit card rewards approach listed on passive income lists. Never knew how it worked. Thanks.

[Godfather]

Podcasting would be a dream job, I think the big ones make fuck loads of cash from ad reads... even if you have a good voice and some rough ideas on how to be entertaining, how do you get it off the ground if you're not a celebrity or have a good online following already though?

[RBP]

Podcasting would be a dream job, I think the big ones make fuck loads of cash from ad reads... even if you have a good voice and some rough ideas on how to be entertaining, how do you get it off the ground if you're not a celebrity or have a good online following already though?

That's the hard part for me. I don't understand social media SEO and marketing. Although I would say most podcasts suck, so there has to be a way in.

[Godfather]

That's the hard part for me. I don't understand social media SEO and marketing. Although I would say most podcasts suck, so there has to be a way in.

Same here man. I can really only think of a handful that I follow that aren't run by celebrities or at least mid-tier comedians or journalists.

A couple examples are My Dad Wrote a Porno, and My Brother, My Brother and Me. Both have really strong, funny concepts that drew in people but they were also early in the podcasting days. Now it feels like everyone who was on a reality show and C-list actors all have one, so I also have zero clue how you'd get your first few hundred fans to give you chance because it feels totally saturated...

[Hal-9000]

Podcasting would be a dream job, I think the big ones make fuck loads of cash from ad reads... even if you have a good voice and some rough ideas on how to be entertaining, how do you get it off the ground if you're not a celebrity or have a good online following already though?

Podcasts usually make their money from Patreon accounts where people send in X-amount per month for extra content and privileges. I understand the ad revenue usually arrives later and that's a sign the podcast has made it.

You gotta put in your hours though before setting up a Patreon. Most of the larger, more established podcasts typically have a backlog averaging about 75-100 podcasts before asking listeners for monthly donations.

[Hal-9000]

That's the hard part for me. I don't understand social media SEO and marketing. Although I would say most podcasts suck, so there has to be a way in.

Allow me to show you something. Below is the Patreon info for The Last Podcast on the Left. Started out with three guys loosely talking about serial killers, aliens, conspiracies, cults, leaning towards horrible crimes. One guy is a sound producer who reads the basic outline of the story, one guy is a struggling comedic sketch writer who does voices/humor, and one guy sits back and asks questions while making skeptical comments throughout the podcast.

They're more polished now, but in the beginning most of their podcasts were free for alls with them all cutting up, laughing, going on long tangents. At best they would loosely follow an outline and eventually reach the end :lol: No sound effects, no music, no production values really. Just three likable guys and subject matter that most net surfers find interesting. Given some time, I could produce better scripts for stories as they either read a book on the subject or use a Wiki page. Their podcast on Jeffrey Dahmer was my first listen and I expected all sorts of production values, mood enhancing music etc...Nope, just three guys using off-color insensitive jokes and imitations :lol:

They've grown so big that they call it The Last Podcast Network, meaning there are about another eight podcasts done under their umbrella using a constant rotation of friends coupled with these main three guys in varying incarnations. They have one about political stories, one about celebrity gossip, one about video game/comics/toy cultures, one doing movie reviews.

Here's the current patronage for just The Last Podcast on the Left itself. They drag down over 50k per month based on an average of 5 bucks per month given from patrons. Now they have ad revenue as well and they travel and do live shows. These guys started out on a laptop using crappy mics and the sound guy behind it all eventually upgraded their studio and equipment.

https://www.patreon.com/lastpodcastontheleft

[Hal-9000]

Same here man. I can really only think of a handful that I follow that aren't run by celebrities or at least mid-tier comedians or journalists.

A couple examples are My Dad Wrote a Porno, and My Brother, My Brother and Me. Both have really strong, funny concepts that drew in people but they were also early in the podcasting days. Now it feels like everyone who was on a reality show and C-list actors all have one, so I also have zero clue how you'd get your first few hundred fans to give you chance because it feels totally saturated...

Google true crime podcasts and get settled in for a long read. Ever since Sarah Whatsherlips crushed it with the Serial podcast in 2014, people have been clamoring for stories about death, serial killers, crime in general. And if you look at the first Serial season about Adnan, there really wasn't much in the way of production values. Just Sarah reading an engrossing story and creating a very listenable experience for the audience. Of course she chose a story that was changing in real time, with her podcast actually affecting Adnan's new trials. She picked a goldmine of a topic and spent a year writing concise sound bites that made me anyways, really look forward to the next one.

[Hal-9000]

One more example of podcast revenue. This is Casefile True Crime podcast. An Australian guy reads crime stories in a deadpan, at times hard to understand voice. He's done just over 100 podcasts. Most of the stories are Aussie based, but he's also done shows on Jonestown, The Yorkshire Ripper, East area Rapist.

He has a little over 2000 patrons and only offers two dollar and five dollar Patreon levels. He doesn't really offer much for either level. Let's say he's averaging 3.50 per patron. That's 7000/mo....


https://www.patreon.com/casefile

[Godfather]

That's a good point. I guess the podcasts I'm listening to right now are all past the patreon phase but you're right I've heard many smaller ones asking for patreon donations much like smaller youtube channels.

[Hal-9000]

That's a good point. I guess the podcasts I'm listening to right now are all past the patreon phase but you're right I've heard many smaller ones asking for patreon donations much like smaller youtube channels.

Site that I'm active on about the show Survivor is hosted by a guy who competed on the show in the early 2000's. He started podcasting about it with his wife in 2010. He now has a podcasting empire with two websites, multiple reality and normal TV show podcasts and interns who help him daily. He's one of the best podcasters in the business and his content output is amazing. He makes 8-10 podcasts a week during the off-seasons of reality shows.

He talks about the journey from 2010 until now (he's moved to LA, in a house, with two kids and the wife, converted the upper floor to a studio) and his patrons are what made the difference. He didn't derive income until 2013 I think. Now, he has ads on his websites, audio sponsors and his patrons. He's also created an audio book about every Survivor season from seasons 1-30 and sells each chapter for around 2.99. To give you an idea about his Survivor audio books, the one about season 20 Heroes vs Villains (highly watched and regarded season) is over 18 hours long :lol: Just him and another dude going thought the 14 episodes of the season explaining how it played out.

[Godfather]

:lol: Damn, super fan eh. Who is that? I used to watch Survivor but haven't in a few seasons.

My wife was telling me it's the same for a lot of other reality shows. Everyone who was on 3 episodes of The Bachelor is trying to start a podcast now too. Such a saturated market.

[Hal-9000]

:lol: Damn, super fan eh. Who is that? I used to watch Survivor but haven't in a few seasons.

My wife was telling me it's the same for a lot of other reality shows. Everyone who was on 3 episodes of The Bachelor is trying to start a podcast now too. Such a saturated market.

:oops:

I have an...overwhelming presence on his site. Oh yeah, he sets up comment sections for each podcast and encourages people to comment, while at times commenting himself. It's brilliant. He liked one of my posts and responds to me at times, and it's like a movie personality engaging me.

His name is Rob Cesternino and he played on season six The Amazon in 2003, then returned a year later for season eight All Stars. He used to work in an insurance underwriter's office 9-5 and then in 2010 decided to just start talking about Survivor with his wife using the laptop. Got increasing feedback until one point he realized his listenership was large enough to go at it full time and ask for money. He also had some web creation background and understood a fair amount about marketing.

He does podcasts on Big Brother, The Challenge, Survivor and about 10 scripted TV shows like Game of Thrones and Walking Dead.

In one week while Survivor is airing he creates:

Survivor Know it Alls recap with Stephen Fishbach (airs right after episode finishes in TV)
Exit interview with latest player voted out (next morning after episode airs)
The Wiggle Room (recap and jokes, fan made songs with Josh Wigler)
Why__Lost Survivor with David Bloomberg (set of rules and why current boot left the game)
Long form recap of episode with past Survivor players
Long form feedback show featuring voice mails, emails, Tweets, comments from fans (with Survivor personality guest)
Survivor B&B (recaps, jokes, guests, games)

Cesternino does this cycle every week for Survivor alone, in addition to his 10-15 podcasts talking about the other various shows.

[DemonGeminiX]

Gentlemen, I would like to remind you guys that this is a serious discussion thread, meaning that it is required to stay on topic while posting in this thread, and tangential conversation and generic whoring is not welcome in it.

The topic is Passive Income Strategies. Please, stay on topic.

[Hal-9000]

Getting back to RBP's question and comments about content, it does seem like the bottom is going to drop out on podcasting. There's just so much of it now.

I think the idea itself is brilliant. People's attention spans are getting shorter, with video scenes and news sound bites becoming more brief because of it.

Someone said - Hey, let's cut the video portion out of audio/video communications and release it on platforms both PC's and phones can access.

It's the most simplistic way to interact with media. You don't have to watch so you can cook, clean, commute, exercise, lay down, run ...while absorbing podcasts.

[Hal-9000]

Gentlemen, I would like to remind you guys that this is a serious discussion thread, meaning that it is required to stay on topic while posting in this thread, and tangential conversation and generic whoring is not welcome in it.

The topic is Passive Income Strategies. Please, stay on topic.

Podcasts aren't passive? Create an average of one hour of speaking content per week and let people donate monthly?

You're right. Podcasts are just less work than 9-5 jobs.

Okay, subject abandoned.

[DemonGeminiX]

Your idea of podcasts was perfectly fine, but talking about the dynamics and interactions you have on the Survivor forum was kinda veering off into left field.

[Hal-9000]

I was describing his marketing and site strategies to show how he became one of the largest podcasters in the biz. Never failing to put out content and his growing weekly output. These are tips he gives other people getting into podcasting.

Interacting with commenters is part of his strategy and the dynamic that grows the business, I think it does apply in this case. Not every podcaster will engage the fans directly.

Going to disagree here, but won't argue it.

[DemonGeminiX]

We'll let RBP decide.

[RBP]

We'll let RBP decide.

I appreciate the mod reminder. You were both correct. Hal was giving examples of podcasts, and you noted the potential to veer too far off and gave a reminder.

That is how SD is supposed to work.

[Hal-9000]

Touching on the podcast content idea, I bet RBP could get a following if he hosted a no holds barred discussion about relationships between genders. Set up an email addy and a voice mail line encouraging people to weigh in with their comments. People love to have their comments heard. The only downside would be figuring out what to offer to potential patrons as extra content for paying 5 bucks per month.