Hey, it’s Jerad with Practically Passive, and here are five things that I learned building a passive income revenue stream. Now, over the last couple of years I’ve been working at building passive income revenue streams for myself, because having that extra income just was really nice. I had things that I already enjoy doing, and I took that and went online with it. Whether it be mobile technology or photography, there are things that I liked to mess with, or learn about or teach. I took that and put it online, and I’ve been growing passive income revenue streams ever since with those. And of course, I’ve been trying really hard this year, as my goal in 2018, is to completely replace my income with passive income revenue streams.
Now I am more than halfway through the year and though I am not necessarily on track right now to completely replace my income, I am on track to exceed the median household income in the United States. The median household income in the United States is $62,000. That’s the average household income if you average out everybody in the United States. Of course, there’s a lot that are lower and there’s a lot that are higher, but that’s the median or the medium amount of income that a household will receive.
For the first six months of this year from January to the end of June, my passive income was just over $32,000. With that milestone having been made, I want to just hit the ground running even harder for the second half of this year, to try and make sure that I achieved my goal. Of course, what I’m doing here with Practically Passive, is sharing all of that process with you. Now, originally I was going to wait until this year was over before I shared anything, but as I’ve said with many things, there’s no better time to start than now.
Five things that I’ve learned while building passive income revenue streams
1. Passive isn’t really Passive:
I’ve known this because I’ve been doing it for a while. But there are a lot of people out there saying, build a passive revenue stream, so that you can go and lounge all the time and not have to do any work, or whatever. Maybe you read the Four Hour Work Week, and though there is definitely work talked about in that book, you focused more on the idea of traveling the world and doing all the fun things. So passive income definitely takes work.
The reason that it’s called passive income isn’t that it’s completely passive. There’s really no such thing in the world that’s completely passive. Everything takes some sort of action. And I’ve definitely learned that through this process of building passive income revenue streams, it takes time and it takes work, there’s effort involved and it takes dedication. And without those things, you’re unable to build a passive revenue stream. And, of course, you want to get to the point where you can step away from time to time and utilize that income, it takes time to build it to that. I, at times, have thought that it should be easier than it is, but it’s really not. It is challenging.
It takes time and effort, and there are way more people making next to nothing off of passive income. Or maybe they had a successful week or two, or something like that. But to say that they’re still making income off of something that they did a year ago, a year later, there aren’t a whole lot of people that can say that. To have a consistent passive income that is on par with the median household income of the United States, is definitely something that not many people achieve. I’ve learned that passive income revenue streams are not truly passive, because nothing in this world is truly passive. Even the decision to be passive is a decision that takes action. So with that said, passive isn’t passive.
2. Persistence Wins
Whenever I have been persistent and consistent, I am winning. I am producing content, I’m staying on top of things. I’m staying plugged into the industries that I’ve chosen to play in, and produce content for. When I am being persistent and staying on top of all of that stuff, my income increases. Sometimes when I step away or I’m not so persistent, it kind of decreases a little bit, but there’s still passive income that keeps me going all the way through. There might be that month where I don’t have any time to work on anything. For example, in July of this year, I lost an employee that really handled editing most of my videos and a lot of my stuff that went out, that had to do with my passive income revenue streams.
And so, in July and pretty much all of August, I really haven’t had a whole lot of time to work on that stuff, because I’ve had to pick up the slack with other work for my business. When I get those deposits throughout the month for the different passive income revenue streams that I have, it’s like, okay, I didn’t really do anything this month. I’m getting paid for work that I did a while ago. Why am I not putting all of my effort into that, so that those numbers can continue to increase? Because doing the work that I had to do during July and August to pick up the extra slack, was work that was active income. Where I get paid only for the work that’s being done, and then the job’s done and I have to move onto the next one. So persistence definitely wins, and it’s easy to get sidetracked. Because life happens, and everything else around us definitely is pulling at us at all times.
3. Choose Niche Topics
I have had a struggle trying to keep things niche for a while. I end up going down the path of talking about a large variety of things. There are all kind topics within the same industry. Maybe they’re all photography related things, but they’re not niche within photography. For example, with different brands of cameras. I use mostly Sony cameras right now, and so I ended up talking a lot more about Sony cameras than I used to with Canon cameras back in the day when I was shooting Canon. So that changes my audience. My audience consists of people that are mostly interested in Sony cameras now. So I have to really decide if I should niche down and focus only on Sony cameras, which is going to alienate all the other people out there that might want photography related news and information and education, that are not Sony shooters.
State of Tech is mostly about mobile technology. And I’ve talked a lot about iPhones, Android, Tablets, Windows computers, and Apple Computers, so I’ve kind of bounced all around in there. There’s been a little bit of something for everybody, but there hasn’t been a lot of something for a niche audience. So I need to figure that out. What I’ve found out is that, when I do focus more on a specific niche in that industry, I tend to get better traction. Because people sign on to stick around for more information as long as it remains relevant to them.
Otherwise, I’m just creating information that is informative and it’s consumed, but then they don’t subscribe, or they don’t sign up for more. They don’t stick around to watch more. Because they came for a video on some android phone topic, and then the next video after that was an iPhone, and they don’t have an iPhone. So they leave, they go somewhere else. You have to keep that path of their interest, and it has to be niche topics. Because most people are not carrying around an android phone, and an iPhone, and a windows pc and a Mac laptop. I mean, it’s just too disjointed there. So, whenever I niched down and focus on more of a specific topic, I’ve seen a lot more action there and growth in my passive income.
4. The Revenue is in the Value
You could put out content until you’re blue in the face. If there’s no value, you’re not going to have any passive revenue growth from it. The reason that my videos do as well, considering I don’t have a huge subscriber base on my youtube channels … so for example on my youtube channels, I make a pretty decent amount on State of Tech and Ditch Auto, considering the fact that both channels barely have more than 30,000 subscribers. Most channels that have 30,000 subscribers are making maybe a couple hundred dollars a month if they’re lucky. But I’m making thousands of dollars a month, because my video views are high. And the links that are in the description of those videos, for things that add value to whatever it is that’s being talked about in that video get clicked.
So, there’s a lot of value that I’m adding in my videos there, and that’s why I’m able to earn as much as I am based on having smaller followings. So the revenue is in the value. If you’re not providing any value, nobody is going to stick around for more content. Nobody is going to click on any links. Without that kind of action happening on your content, Google, YouTube, whatever platform it is, is not going to recommend it. And people aren’t going to recommend it to each other either. So make sure that you’re adding value. If you’re not adding value, you’re wasting your own time. You’re also wasting other people’s time. But you’re really wasting your time as well, because we should only be putting out what we find we can add value to. That’s why I’ve waited as long as I have, to start this blog and this youtube channel around passive income.
I didn’t want to start it until I knew that I could really add value. Over the years I’ve felt that I’ve kind of tuned in my added value BS sensor, I guess you could call it. Like, if I’m not adding value, I can sniff that out pretty quick. It’s why I’ve had such a struggle with doing podcasting and stuff like that is that, unless I’m adding value with that podcast or that blog, I’m not going to do it. I might be able to get away with it for like a week or two, but just that filter kicks in and it says, don’t. There’s no value there, or there isn’t enough value there, so don’t do it. You’re just going to be more noise, and I don’t want to be noise. I want to be value.
5. Income from Passive Income Revenue Streams Feels Better
I mean it does feel good when I get a check from a client after completing work. It’s like, “Ah, okay, I got that work done, I got the check.” But it’s a means to an end. And that means that that job ended, and I have to find another one. I have to find another client to do work for, and it’s a constant chase. But when I get those deposits throughout the month, every month from YouTube/AdSense, from Amazon, from the different affiliate programs that I have going, that just feels good. Because that was work that I did a while back, and I’m still paid for it, so it feels good. It feels like I’m getting appreciated for my work, because there’s ongoing pay there. It’s lasting longer, its legacy money. I really like that, and it feels better.
So if I just can continue to remind myself of that, because it’s easier to do a job for a client and get paid, because you get probably a bigger payment. Or when you go to work at the end of the two weeks or whatever, you get that paycheck. You know that, that’s coming. You know what to expect, because what you signed on for when you started the work, is what you get paid for at the end of the work. But with passive income, it’s building something and it’s a little more volatile at first. You’re not 100% sure how long it’s going to take in order for you to reach some sort of level of passive income, that can change your life. And for me, it has taken a little bit of time. I haven’t focused on it really that hard, compared to how hard I could focus on it. But it’s taken a few years to get it to that point.
Now if I really put my head down and focused, I feel that I could build something that would replace my income in six months. But I have to run a business at the same time. Most of us are going to have to work. We have responsibilities, we have families, bills and all of that stuff that we have to take care of. We can’t just shut everything down and go work on our passive income revenue streams, we have responsibilities. So, when I get those deposits throughout the month from my different passive income revenue streams, it just feels good to receive those. It feels good, because that’s income from work that I did that’s continuing to pay me. It’s not one time and done. It’s continued passive income. It’s not active, it’s passive, and I like that and it feels good.
It’s Time For You To Get Started!
So those are the five things that I’ve learned over the years of building passive income revenue streams. If I could just commit to remembering those things daily, it definitely will alter my priorities for the day, and put them more towards working on my passive revenue streams. So let me know what you think down in the comment section below. If you’re watching this on YouTube, click that subscribe button so that you can be notified when I put out new videos. Make sure to put your email address in the subscribe box here so you can be notified when new content goes up, whether it’d be blogs or videos. I want to make sure that you’re getting notified. Because I’m putting out stuff every day during this month, and I want to make sure that you’re notified so that you can chime in, and share your thoughts. Be a part of this movement along with me, to gain more freedom in our income.
Thanks so much and I hope to see you back in the next one.