How to Build a Passive Income Business Online (3 Successful Models!)

3 Models of Successful Entrepreneurs

Intro

Isn’t it the dream many are searching for, the ability to bring in a passive income while sleeping, playing golf or picking your kids up from school. While some sceptics will say this is not achievable by just anyone, I disagree.

I’ll take my own situation as an example. I used to be a draftsperson in a Civil Engineering firm, until I was determined enough to leave my work cubicle forever. I had no experience in affiliate marketing, and now, after gaining the correct knowledge, I’m thriving with my own online affiliate marketing business.

So if you have the passion and desire to move on from your current situation, don’t hesitate about one of these money making opportunities.

3 Passive Income Business Opportunities

You’ve landed here because you want to learn how to make an income online, correct! Well I’m not going into every possible online opportunity that exists on the internet, but I will give you 3 of the best methods for creating wealth that are popular.

Not only have these ventures become prominent in recent years, but they can also be very lucrative if you invest your time into them. I’m not going to tell you that you’ll be bringing in huge dollars within a few weeks. I’ll leave that for the scammers out there that don’t care about your interests.

I’d like to see as many of my readers succeed, which is why I don’t promote flimsy products that don’t have much substance to them. I will only recommend programs, products and courses that I’ve used myself, and thought worthy of promotion.

I hope these options give you some inspiration, and knowledge into how you can build a passive income business online.

Mindset and Expectations

Before exploring these choices, I just want to give you a bit of tough love. If you’ve been looking for that perfect opportunity that will bring in thousands of dollars with little work, then you may as well stop reading now.

Firstly, there’s no such opportunities that exist online, to the contrary of what the scammers will tell you. Secondly, all successful online entrepreneurs have worked hard for the money they make online, me included.

That doesn’t mean your life will be non existent, apart from hard work. But it does mean working hard in the beginning to get your venture off the ground. Gaining website traffic is always the hardest part, and this is where the foundation of your business will be critical.

Creating a foundation in your first 6 to 8 months helps tremendously. It will show search engines that you’re serious, and that you’re not giving up like 90% of others looking to create an online career.

So, now that you understand that these are not ‘get rich quick’ opportunities, these sustainable online options are available to anyone willing to give them a red hot crack.

Model #1 – Affiliate Marketing

As I’ve mentioned, this is the model of online income that I choose for a number of reasons. I’ve considered, and even attempted other forms on online ventures, but this is the model that suited me and my preferred lifestyle.

The Process

So how does affiliate marketing work. Basically, you’re playing the middleman (or woman), between a customer and a company that sells products or services. Should you be able to initiate a sale, you’ll earn a commission.

For instance, let’s say you create a website advising people about all things fishing. You provide your readers with fishing information, and also have product reviews. You may recommend a type of fishing rod, and you want to promote these.

You’ll apply to fishing store’s affiliate programs, and wait for approval. Once approved, you’ll have access to their affiliate membership section, where you can grab your unique affiliate links. It will be possible to have an affiliate link for individual fishing rods that you want to promote.

These affiliate links can be attached to the product you’re promoting. Should a visitor clicks on your promotion of the fishing rod, they will be directed to the company’s website. If the visitor makes a purchase of the fishing rod, or anything else they decide to add to their shopping cart, you’ll earn commissions on the fishing rod, and usually the whole order.

The Benefits

There are pro’s and con’s to each of these options, so what benefits will affiliate marketing give you.

• There’s less responsibility on you as a promoter, as you will be directing visitors to the merchants website.
• No need for storing inventory as you would selling physical products.
• No requirement for invoices or shipping.
• No customer complaints. If the customer is unhappy with a product or service, they complain to the company you’re partnering with.
• No need for customer service/returns, this is also done via the merchant.
• Scale up and fit into your lifestyle. You can keep this venture small, or learn advanced techniques to skyrocket your earnings.
• Choose any niche, and branch out if desired.
• Work anywhere with an internet connection.

This is such a viable option to make money online, and don’t think that commissions are restricted to minimal amounts. Sure, some affiliate programs such as Amazon will only pay out about 7%. Although the larger the retail cost, the larger commission you get. There are also some very big ticket items, especially if you get into the luxury goods categories.

Then there’s other affiliate programs that can offer as much as 40%-60% on some products or services. It all depends on the type of services that you promote.

This is my preferred model of passive income online, and it gives me the flexibility to work less hours when needs be. I’m no longer tied to a desk, and can choose where I want to work for the day. It’s awesome.

Click below to read the review of my top recommended affiliate marketing course.

Model #2 – Online Store Drop Shipping

Another method that can bring in a nice income, even more so than affiliate marketing, is the drop shipping model. Having said that, there’s much more responsibility and effort that needs to go into this type of venture.

The Process

It all starts with a platform that gives you all the features to begin an online store. The most popular is Shopify, but there are others such as BigCommerce, Volusion and LemonStand. It is possible to setup an online store from a typical website, but these other platforms make it so much easier, as they have inbuilt payment gateways, and other features to help with shipping, invoices and taxes.

The most common method of drop shipping is to partner with AliExpress, an Asian website that allows you to purchase cheaply, so you can sell at a higher price. Basically, you advertise AliExpress products on your store website at an inflated price. When someone makes a purchase from your store, you then purchase that same product through AliExpress, and have it drop shipped directly to the customer. You then earn the difference between the cost you sell it at, and the AliExpress price.

This means you do not need to store loads of inventory, and the customer receives their product without you even seeing it. You can automate a lot of the store actions, such as costing (including shipping), invoices, email captures, and even sending out discount coupons.

There’s a lot more to learn when it comes to an online store, because you have customer service and returns to think about. It’s a venture that will require more of your time than affiliate marketing.

The Benefits

As always, there’s great benefits to any online journey like this. So here’s the benefits you’ll get with your own online store.

• Bigger Profit margins
• Able to automate most tasks (although you need to keep on top of everything to make sure your customers are happy).
• You can easily capture customer data such as email addresses. This is perfect for future promotions.
• Easily price cut to beat your competitors.
• Offer discount coupons, all integrated within the platform.

Unlike the affiliate marketing model, which basically has no disadvantages apart from slightly lower income, there are some disadvantages to the online store method. In my opinion only, customer service, customer complaints, returns etc are all something I could do without. Having said that, many people don’t mind this at all, because they’re making larger profits. It’s also just part and parcel of the shopping business.

Another thing to be aware of, is that the setup costs are larger. For this reason, you really need to be making money much earlier that the affiliate marketing model. This is where paid advertising comes in. Just about all courses will teach you how Facebook advertising works, but it means laying out more money that you need to recoup.

Click below to read the review of my top recommended online drop shipping store course. I’ve done the whole course myself, and it’s brilliant. In the end, I just decided that affiliate marketing was my thing.

Model #3 – Selling on Amazon

As opposed to the other 2 models of wealth creation I’ve gone through, selling products on Amazon does not require you to have your own online asset. By this I mean, you will not require your own website, but it always helps to have a website for authority purposes.

The Process

So, the way this works is that you will have your own store on the Amazon platform. Unlike Shopify where you’ll have your own domain URL, here you’ll be selling from within Amazon itself.

What is similar to the online store method, is that you’ll be sourcing products to sell, possibly on AliExpress, or via other manufacturers. You can also use Private Label Rights products to create your own branded products. You can then sell these through Amazon.

You will have just as much work to do as the previous model, because you still need to organise your own shipping, invoices etc. Amazon deals with shipping in various ways depending on what you’re selling, and whether you use air or ocean freight. Although what’s great is that you can use FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) to help with much of this.

You may be interested to learn that Amazon also has its own internal algorithm for ranking products. That’s why it’s essential to get the correct education for selling on Amazon. It’s no use having everything setup correctly if nobody can see your products.

The Benefits

Much like drop shipping from your own online store, the benefits are similar.

• Great profits if you’re able to get this right.
• Learn the ranking factors to beat others, and get your products ranked highly.
• Capture email data for future promotional opportunities.
• Automation of specific tasks.
• Vary your own pricing to compete against competitors.

Again, a few disadvantages in regards to shipping, customer service, returns etc. However, these can be a non-issue for many people who just love the idea of running their own online asset.

The profit margins can be great, you just need to be careful about getting the right balance between price and value for money.

Click below to read the review of my top recommended Amazon selling course. I haven’t attempted my own Amazon store, but I have gone through this course, and would recommend it highly for anyone interested in going down this path.

Wrapping Up

Creating an online venture is such a great idea to get you out of that crappy job you’ve been complaining about. If you’ve been wondering how to build a passive income business online, I’ve now given you 3 models that are not only proven, but offer great lifestyle alternatives to the regular mundane office job.

The fact that all 3 of these can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection is awesome in itself. What you need to keep in mind though, is all 3 of these require fairly hard work to get established in the beginning. Nothing comes to those who don’t work for it. Put in the effort, and you’ll see brilliant results.

I really hope I’ve inspired you to consider any of these options. They are all legitimate opportunities, and with over 2 billion people shopping online, will be around for years to come.