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Thread: [SD] Passive income strategies

  1. #1
    Mr Magoo RBP's Avatar
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    Serious discussion [SD] Passive income strategies

    [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?
    I wanted to be a Monk, but I never got the chants.

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  3. #2
    Mr Magoo RBP's Avatar
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    Stephen Key's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-2...3T-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.
    I wanted to be a Monk, but I never got the chants.

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    Mr Magoo RBP's Avatar
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    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.
    I wanted to be a Monk, but I never got the chants.

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    Hal killed Tormund! Pony's Avatar
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    Write a get rich quick book.

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    Mr Magoo RBP's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pony View Post
    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.
    I wanted to be a Monk, but I never got the chants.

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    Basement Dweller Godfather's Avatar
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    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.

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    Mr Magoo RBP's Avatar
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    I've seen the credit card rewards approach listed on passive income lists. Never knew how it worked. Thanks.
    I wanted to be a Monk, but I never got the chants.

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    Basement Dweller Godfather's Avatar
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    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?

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    Mr Magoo RBP's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Godfather View Post
    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.
    I wanted to be a Monk, but I never got the chants.

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    Basement Dweller Godfather's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RBP View Post
    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...

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    transracial Hal-9000's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Godfather View Post
    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.

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    transracial Hal-9000's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RBP View Post
    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 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

    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

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    transracial Hal-9000's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Godfather View Post
    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.

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    transracial Hal-9000's Avatar
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    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

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    Basement Dweller Godfather's Avatar
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    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.

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