So you believe in passive income?
Volume III: Learn the real truths about passive income. Not what’s told and sold to you!
A quick tip: If you’re in a rush and want a quick insight, scroll to the bottom of the blog and read the tip.
Make money while you sleep. Isn’t that the pitch?
Setting up a pipeline that continuously supplies water while you put up your feet and relax right! Ha ha ha ha ha ha. It reminds me of what people used to think about computers before they made their way into offices. Some wise old folk reckoned that it’ll automate things and you would start going home earlier. So no extra hours. Today we find how ironic that assumption was right! With more pipelines come more maintenance more support and more grievances and the list goes on.
Let’s understand what the so-called concept of “Proposed” passive income is all about.
The “Proposed” concept of passive income is to start something which runs 24 x 7. As in, it continues to function independent of your presence and which keeps trickling wealth slowly but steadily amassing into larger sums over time. Even while you sleep as they put it. Like a youtube channel or a blog. These can be viewed/visited at any time by anyone right? So you put the video on your channel and it starts making money gradually as time passes. Same with the blog right. Sadly in reality though this isn’t quite how it works.
Let us take an example. Let’s say Jack am going to go with Jack as he is a master of none. So let’s say Jack has started a video channel on youtube and also a blog and he puts up about 5 youtube videos and an equivalent no. of blogs. Then he waits for the cash bells to start ringing. Very sorry to say, that’s never going to happen. No, I’m not saying it’ll fail because of the lack of digital marketing that’s required or the absence of SEO for these articles. I’m simply talking about the concept of passive income. The concept is simple. Jack will fail as he has misunderstood or did not completely understand the concept.
So what is the actual concept?
Let me put it in simple words. Passive income has been subconsciously bound with relaxation. As in setting it up and putting your feet up and relaxing. “Put your feet up” is not a sign of relaxing but lethargy. So putting your feet up should not be combined with making money. It is so easily misunderstood. When you have a ton of debt and you put your feet up it, it really doesn’t relieve any stress, does it? That’s because your bank accounts don’t change just because you’ve put your feet up. So working on income flow is what changes your bank accounts. Once you’ve set up that income flow you’ve got to keep working on them so technically they’re not passive income flows. No putting your feet up stuff. Sorry for the spoiler alert. Let’s get back to Jack for instance. Let’s say that after uploading his videos and blogs he works on digital marketing and SEO to promote and increase viewership. Not enough still. He would need to keep blogging and keep uploading videos week on week. He would need to keep on working on this and that’s how overtime maybe 6 months to a year is when he would see some traction. That is HOW your readers/viewers hunt for your earlier posts and videos and increase your market. That cannot be done with a one-time setup. So the bottom line is that passive income is not really a one-time setup. It needs to be set up and worked at regularly and slowly with blood, sweat and tears.
Is that all then?
Not really. Now that you know that passive income sources are not really one-time setups you need to understand that there are costs to it as well. So not only are you incurring some maintenance costs like digital marketing, domain charges etc but also your valuable time. Hang on though. I’m not discouraging you from getting into other income streams. All you need to realize is that you need to set these income streams one at a time.
So when do you know you can start working on the next passive income initiative? Simple, when you start making money that justifies your charges. Not clear? Then think of it more on the lines of cost vs revenue. Until then keep plodding along one initiative to make sure you’ve pushed it enough to gain traction. Pushing a wheel to continue motion does not take much effort as compared to a wheel that needs to be pushed into motion.
A Quick tip
Remember passive income, in a nutshell, is neither a one-time setup and nor an instant cash inflow model. You need to set it up and keep nurturing it till it’s fully mobilized. Until your maintenance costs don’t justify the revenue, you are supposed to keep working on them aggressively. Once you’re in revenue you may start another initiative and keep working slowly and regularly on the one which has already been turned into a cash cow.
Hope this makes some sense if not total sense.
Namaste!
