Isn’t it everyone’s dream to sit back and make money for doing practically nothing?

Yes, I know some of us need to keep busy and can’t imagine such a thing. We have been trained to believe that you only make money when you are working hard. Sleeping in or watching tv won’t pay the bills.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news to the “work hard” truthers, but there are plenty of examples where you can make money by sitting back and relaxing.

Passive Online Income

Okay, it’s not 100% easy. The fact is you have to do some research, have some type of skill, put a little time in at the start, and be willing to maintain. But we can agree the grind is much less severe than your normal 9-5.

If it was easy, everyone would be doing it – right? Actually, there are a lot of people making money online by blogging, podcasting, and vlogging. I was shocked when I discovered that the people I watch on YouTube walking around Disney World didn’t have second jobs. Filming and talking about their hobby wasn’t a side hustle – it was their job!

Sign me up.

The Premise of The Blogging Millionaire

A few months ago I suggested that we listen to The Blogging Millionaire. He gave us great suggestions about web analytics for beginners and he was the best intro source to the various ways to make money from your website. There were plenty of options when I searched “how to make money online” in Apple Podcasts, but they all handled single topics. Instead of jumping right into Affliate Marketing or AdSense, I thought it was important to have an overview recommendation.

As referenced in an earlier Listen of the Week, Brandon Gaille runs The Blog Millionaire. His claim to fame is that he went from zero to 1-million monthly visitors in 18-months. He has been featured on Forbes, CNN, AdWeek, Search Engine Journal, and many other credible sources.

Why Did I Pick a Podcast Focused on “How to Make Money Online”?

“How to Make Money” seems like a strong title, right? I don’t think we have to do much explaining on why this could be a very important (and profitable topic).

Last month, we focused on eCommerce and selling products online. This works great if you can produce actual items or sell goods. My goal was to help out some of my Ohio Valley business owners in transforming their shops to a digital format. This month I hope to help some of my fellow Ohio Valley residents with a great side-hustle.

In this episode, Brandon explains four ways to make money online. Here are some of the major items and small snippets of tips he introduces.

Promote Your Service and You Expertise

• How to optimize your landing page
• What to have on your contact form
• Why having messages sent to your phone is important

Online Courses

• Why test to see if there is a demand for your online course
• Facebook or Online Social groups and the importance
• Why your webinar skills needs upgraded and how many slides to have in your presentation

Affiliate Links

• Best programs and affiliate links to go after
• Why you should look at your most viewed posts
• How many affiliate links you should have per page

AdSense

• How to maximize earnings with the best size
• Using text and image recommendations
• Why manually optimize

Warning: this is not a step by step guide. You will have to do additional work to find out exactly how to set up some of these programs. I will be sharing podcasts, links, and tips throughout the month.

Of course, these typically only work if you have a website. If you don’t want to do it yourself, let’s chat. You can pay me once and pay yourself forever after.

The Podcast: “How to Make Money”

Listen to the entire thing. It’s not that long and there are no ads.