Wouldn’t it be great to sit on the beach in sunny Florida with the waves gently lapping at your feet while enjoying a nice iced-tea? Today, this is a common dream for many young entrepreneurs. Everyone would like to work less and earn more, but at what expense? You hear it in the news all the time or more importantly you see them on the internet how someone like Jeff Bezos earns 230,000 per second, which the only natural reaction is WOW! Now, you may wonder, how did he do that? I want that type of income. That’s an extreme case of someone being super successful in a billion dollar company.
How about those ones you see on the internet?
Here are a few misconceptions about earning a passive income that you really can’t afford to believe. If you are serious about using a passive income to better your life and make it a little more comfortable, then read these tips.
1 “Set it and forget it” income stream
This is one of the most dangerous myths out there that is part of the “MLM” multi-level marketing schemes. They claim intro fees and minimal work and you’ll reap the rewards in a short period of time. We all like the idea of not working as hard as the next guy, but making a quick buck online most of the time leads to you getting scammed out of your hard-earned money.
If you are setting up a blog or an online store, this isn’t a set it and forget it, model. It is not as simple as it seems, you will have to spend countless hours growing your brand through customer relations and marketing. If you aren’t doing your part to stay on top of your industry changes and customer expectations, then your passive income stream will dry up quickly.
“PASSIVE INCOMES REQUIRE AN ACTIVE PRESENCE”
2 You only need a week to get started
It’s easy to assume that you can quickly go to wix.com or weebly.com and toss together a blog or e-commerce website and start generating a passive income stream. In reality, you’ll have to do a lot of research and work before you even earn a penny.
Bloggers or e-commerce startups will first need to find the right niche and choose a good hosting platform for your website so it loads fast. Now go buy your domain name and make sure it will connect well with your customers and fits your brand. After that, you’ll need to learn about browser caching, SEO, SEM, permalinks, PPC and more. Oh, by the way, don’t forget about writing good content with a minimum of 300 words on each page so Google will rank your pages well. Last, you’ll need one great image on each page with that stunning content.
Needless to say, you won’t be able to do this in a week and it won’t start making you money for the first week or month. Be willing to learn which opportunities will grow your business organically and reach out to other companies like yours and trade ideas on how you got started. This isn’t a race, it’s a marathon! Quality will win over speed any day when building your business online or offline.
3 You only need one income stream
Another myth about passive income streams is that you can generate all the money you need to live monthly off that one income. This is like putting all your money into one stock and hoping that it will end up like Google. If that stock does great, you’ll be set for life, but if it doesn’t you’re going to struggle tremendously. The key is to diversify! Don’t have just one income stream. Create several income streams.
4 You need a good business idea
Many read ideas about creating new businesses that make a lot of money. They easily get caught up in the idea that you have to create a business in order to make money. This isn’t necessarily true. You can make passive money by putting your money in a savings account or retirement account. Most investors will say that you can expect a 5% return on your investment from a retirement account each year. This may not sound like much money, but over time this will grow as the overall value in the account increases.
5 You need the next great idea
Everyone has seen “field of dreams” at least once in their lifetime. The phrase in that movie that made it famous was “if you build it, he will come”. Many startups bank on that concept. They think just because they have a good or great idea that the customers will magically come out of the woodwork and buy their products in plenty. This is rarely the case! Even if you have done the market research, your website or product alone isn’t going to be enough to reach potential customers. It takes more than a great idea to be successful!