Earn Passive Income
By Quoc Tran
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2011 by Quoc Tran
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Table of Contents
HYPERLINK \l "Introduction" Introduction
HYPERLINK \l "Chapter1" Chapter 1 American Dreaming
HYPERLINK \l "Chapter2" Chapter 2 A Long Process
HYPERLINK \l "Chapter3" Chapter 3 Why Not 9 to 5?
HYPERLINK \l "Chapter4" Chapter 4 $1,476.34 a Month in Passive Income
HYPERLINK \l "Chapter5" Chapter 5 How to Author with Royalties
HYPERLINK \l "Chapter6" Chapter 6 The Joy of Passive Income
HYPERLINK \l "Chapter7" Chapter 7 How to Think Passive Income
HYPERLINK \l "Chapter8" Chapter 8 What Rappers and Geeks Dream About
HYPERLINK \l "Chapter9" Chapter 9 Business: A Definition
HYPERLINK \l "Chapter10" Chapter 10 The Subscription Business Model
HYPERLINK \l "Chapter11" Chapter 11 The $50,000 a Month Business Plan
HYPERLINK \l "Chapter12" Chapter 12 Distribution: A Lesson in Business
HYPERLINK \l "Chapter13" Chapter 13 How to Generate Business Ideas
HYPERLINK \l "Chapter14" Chapter 14 How to Start Earning Passive Income
HYPERLINK \l "Chapter15" Chapter 15 Passive Income Ideas
HYPERLINK \l "Conclusion" Conclusion
HYPERLINK \l "Resources" Resources
HYPERLINK \l "ThankYou" Thank You
HYPERLINK \l "AbouttheAuthor" About the Author
Introduction
Workers in today's economy either have money and no time or time and no money. They either slave eight hours a day to pay off debt and live a mediocre life. Or they choose to live an unemployed life of excess time with no money. Neither of these alternatives is desirable.
Everyone has his or her own idea of the American Dream. My American Dream is to be financially free, not having to rely on an employer for my livelihood. Personally, I value freedom, choices, and experiences. These values aren't attainable in modern society without money and time.
I introduce to you my book, a short guide on attaining passive income. My objective is to explain the method I've used for earning passive income. By going through the directions and process with you, I hope you'll be inspired to achieve the same goal. Having money automatically deposited into your bank account each month is a great feeling, especially when there's no labor involved.
If you want clear reasons for why you should pursue passive income, refer to the resources at the end of the book. Read on for the chance to get your share of the American Dream.
Chapter 1 American Dreaming
For most people, success symbolizes being a millionaire; living in a luxurious house, driving exotic sports cars, traveling the world, and living the good life. These are desires many people dream about. They represent a better life. Many call it the American Dream.
However, not a lot of people will live to see their dreams materialize. The next best event they'll hope for is the long awaited retirement.
The problem with waiting until retirement to live out your dream, of course, is that you have to live long enough to enjoy the fruits of your labor. However, passive income does not have to be correlated only with old age.
As long as your monthly passive income consistently exceeds your expenses, you can free yourself from the time constraints of a job and start living life on your terms.
The American Dream, then, is to choose what you want to do with your free time when working for money is no longer a burden. To get there, we need to earn passive income.
Chapter 2 A Long Process
I was first inspired to earn passive income when I read Robert Kiyosaki's book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Since then, I have tried almost every business and investment vehicles to achieve financial freedom.
Robert tells us to buy assets and not liabilities. This concept left me clueless, as I did not know where to buy or create assets that generate money.
Several business vehicles I'm experienced with include multilevel marketing, affiliate marketing, creating my own informational products, and Internet marketing.
None of it worked.
Usually, after several months of market research, measuring viability, and analysis paralysis, I would hesitantly take action and carry out my plans. Then, my attempt would fail miserably, often repeatedly in a short span of time. I also lose a big investment of money in the process.
Failure is not only expensive; it is also very discouraging. It will stop you dead in your tracks, crushing your ego along the way, preventing you from rising up and going for another attempt at success.
Business failures aside, let me share the positive results with you.
Chapter 3 Why Not 9 to 5?
After returning from an 18-month trip around Asia and Australia, I returned home to Seattle without a job and moved back in with my parents. Already, my adulthood was off to a bad start.
All of my friends had started working on their careers, getting married, buying their first homes, or settling down. I, on the other hand, found myself lost, trapped in a world where everyone was advancing forward but me.
My family was encouraging me to get a job, so I could wake up in the morning and have a purpose. Sitting at home every day also made me feel stagnant. I felt inclined to do something about my situation.
I immediately polished my resume and applied to several big companies around Seattle, including Microsoft, Boeing and Expedia. The job hunt went on for a month with no results.
One day, while surfing online and checking my Kindle Direct Publishing account, I came upon a small revelation. I was netting $400 a month on Amazon Kindle, selling digitized books. I held off job searching and started focusing more on this cash-flowing avenue.
Chapter 4 $1,476.34 a Month in Passive Income
While living in Saigon, Vietnam during my 18-month trip around Asia and Australia, I spent part of my time writing books on dating, drawing on my personal experience about relationships. Since my roommate's books were selling well on Amazon, he suggested I considered publishing my books on Amazon for additional revenue.
Imagine Amazon as a physical store, like Wal-Mart. If you had the rights to place your product on Wal-Mart's shelves, you would not have to do any marketing or advertising. Many value-conscious consumers come to Wal-Mart and shop. The odds of shoppers buying your product at Wal-Mart are very high.
When it comes to selling products and services online, bringing in high-volume traffic to a website is an expensive and painstaking task. For amateurs, becoming successful could take years or a large budget for advertising.
Any market with low barriers of entry is usually saturated with competition. The Internet, for example, is flooded with marketers competing for the same expensive keywords.
However, distribution channels like Amazon's Kindle and Apple's App Store have built-in traffic and a buying customer base. It makes more sense to leverage these established distribution channels instead.
I started publishing my relationship eBooks onto Kindle's platform. I had a lot of books to publish. Publishing all those books manually was highly inefficient.
After publishing five books on my own, I decided to contract an outsourcing company based in Manila. The company was already helping me write online articles for several of my websites.
I hired a virtual assistant to help publish my books on Kindle. The work included writing content, product descriptions, reviews, creating book cover designs, and formatting text files for upload.
After two weeks, my virtual assistant became accustomed to the publishing process. For an entire month, my virtual assistant uploaded twenty-four books under my various pen names.
The first sale was a joyful sensation. Someone had actually bought one of my books. I realized this was a great way to make money: publish content, sit back, and watch book sales roll in.
Publishing books on Kindle does not require authors to print books, carry inventory, or ship orders. There is no need to spend time and money on advertising, customer service, or handling refunds. It is one hundred percent passive income.
Chapter 5 How to Author with Royalties
Follow these steps:
1. Go to Amazon and create an account.
2. Download Amazon's Free Kindle Reading App for PC/Mac.
3. Download Publish on Amazon Kindle with Kindle Direct Publishing; a free document that can be read on your Kindle Reading App. Amazon created this guide to show you how to publish on their Kindle platform.
4. Follow the above guide to create your Kindle Direct Publishing account (also free).
5. Start publishing your content.
What topics to write about?
Based on my experience with Kindle Direct Publishing, a big market share of Kindle book buyers are housewives and stay-at-home moms. Target this market for the highest chance of making book sales.
Focus on these topics for maximum sales:
• Pets
• Arts and Crafts
• Cooking Recipes
• Health and Fitness
• Self-improvement
• Do-it-yourself guides
• Gardening