This means that you can set up ways to make money through your blog and then sit back and wait for the money to come in without having to put any work into the process.

Keep reading for a few ways that you can get started.

Image link credit

Write and Sell an E-Book

If you are already blogging, you are already confident in your abilities as a writer. And if you have a large enough following, you know that people respect you for what you have to say, for the knowledge that you can share with them, and for the valuable content that your blog provides.

So why not go a step further and write up a short e-book that you can then promote to your subscribers and readers for sale?

Whether you are a blogging expert on public health policy, thanks to your masters of public health from a reputable university, or you are known for your ability to teach others how to create art online with Adobe programs, all you have to do is put your e-book on your blog and wait for the sales to come in.

Sell Ad Space on Your Blog

If you are able to prove that you get a lot of traffic to your blog on a consistent basis, you can start selling ad space to fellow businesses on your website.

This is one of the many popular methods that bloggers use to generate passive income, as you can simply place the ads within the headers and the margins of the site without them getting in the way of your content.

Just be sure to keep the ads to a minimum, display them in a tasteful way, and focus on getting ads from businesses that would appeal to your readers.

With NoPassiveIncome, I’m doing great with BuySellAds:

Sign Up for Affiliate Marketing Programs

Finally, you can sign up for one of the many affiliate marketing programs that are available to bloggers and website owners just like you. These are really easy to sign up for and set up, and all you have to do is place ads for those companies on your website.

Depending upon the affiliate program that you sign up with, you can make money every time that a visitor clicks on one of the links, or when that person clicks through and makes a purchase.

You can also work on incorporating your affiliate offers in a tasteful way throughout your content so that more people are encouraged to click through, find out more, and make a purchase.

Just make sure the affiliates are related to your blog’s content so that readers will not be turned off by them.

Here’s a great guide you want to read about affiliate marketing: How to Make Money With Affiliate Marketing – A 7 Minute Guide

By following the tips above, you can use your skills and education, such as your masters in public health online degree or your web development background, on your blog to start earning more passive income easily.

Give one or all of these strategies a try and see which one works best.

What’s your experience with passive income?

Are you earning something from your blog?

Please share your experience in the comments below, thanks!

Essentially, it includes rental income while investment income, such as interest, dividends, and capital gains also fall in this category. As an investor, you may not really be sure about the tax treatment of this form of earning. Some may even take it less seriously and fail to report it, which can get you in a major fix with the IRS.

Therefore, it is vital to be aware of all the rules related to passive activity income so that you may assess your investments, deductions, and taxes correctly and steer clear of complications. You might also consider resources like https://www.paystubsnow.com/ to help you understand your financial situation better.

Here are some significant things that every taxpayer must absolutely know about passive income and taxes.  

Understand the Meaning of Passive Activity

Even before you start assessing your non-active business-related earnings, it is essential to know what all comes under the coverage of passive activity in the first place.

According to the IRS, passive activities refer to any business or trade in which the taxpayer does not participate materially. For instance, you may be a silent partner or an investor who has nothing to do with running the show directly.

It encompasses rental activity as well, including rental real estate and income from equipment leasing with only limited exceptions.  

Know the Coverage of Material Participation 

The term material participation is significant when it comes to deciding whether an earning is to be regarded as passive income. Anything that involves material participation is not passive income.

There are certain criteria that are to be fulfilled in this context. For one, you must work a minimum of 500 hours a year on the project or business. Or this time span is to be more than 100 hours, while no one else works on the same project more than you. Further, if you have worked as a sole participant in the business in the project for a year or contributed almost all of the work, it is regarded as material involvement.

Similarly, if the work in multiple activities combined exceeds 500 hours, it again counts as material participation. Material participation in a minimum of five of the last ten tax years is also considered and so is that in the three previous tax years for personal services businesses. 

Learn About Legitimate Tax Deductions

While you have to pay taxes on passive income, the good news is that you can claim deductions as well.

These are the ones that the IRS legally permits you to deduct from the income. Though you may do some research to learn more about these deductions, the best approach is to consult a tax attorney who can guide you in this context. 

Generally, the tax benefits you can get on the rental property include the following 

• The interest you pay on the mortgage every year 
• Repairs to the property, which are necessary, ordinary, and reasonable in amount 
• Travel expenses incurred for running and maintaining the rental property 
• Depreciation losses for writing off the cost of the property over a specific period of time 
• Deduction for the home office, while ensuring that it meets the minimal criteria 

Learn More About the Taxation of Real Estate Passive Activities 

The tax rules for real estate passive activities differ. For example, real estate rental may be considered as an active business only if strict tests to be a real estate professional is fulfilled.

This requires a minimum of 750 hours of service, in addition to more than half of the personal service being provided to come in the real estate category only. Additionally, active participation requires limited activities, such as approval of new tenants, approval of payouts, and setting rental terms.

The kind of tax treatment will depend on whether you come under the category of active or passive business.  

Generally speaking, the objective of the specialized rules and tax treatment of passive activity income is to prevent the taxpayers from claiming immediate tax losses improperly on their investments. Rather, the IRS intends to limit the deductions for losses only to such businesses where they were involved actively and directly with the operation or management activities.

In a nutshell, the idea is to encourage the taxpayers to engage in profitable activities even as they wipe out the related losses that might incur. From the taxpayer’s perspective, it is essential to abide by the rules so that you always stay on the right side of the law.  

Are you interested in how to make money passively and wake up with an influx of cash in your bank account, without worrying about how to spend it all at once? Below is a list of the top six ways to make some money without putting in all your efforts and still enjoy the rewards. They’re not ideal for everyone, and some won’t make as much money as others, but they’re all worth a try if you want a little extra cash. 

Affiliate Marketing

Are you a blogger, or do you have a website with a large amount of traffic? Affiliate marketing is a relatively new way to make money, but it does require you to have some form of a following.

The main premise is that you use your platform to promote other companies or affiliates. When someone uses your affiliate link to purchase a product or service, you then get a percentage.

Essentially, after the link has been put onto your website, you can leave it there for as long as you wish without worrying and make money from it. Plus, you don’t necessarily need a blog or website either, people use affiliate marketing with YouTube and podcasts, too. 

YouTube Ads

While YouTube ads aren’t entirely a passive income cash flow business, they’re easy to manage and don’t take up too much time.

If you’ve got a YouTube channel and you’re uploading anyway, you may as well make the most of having an additional revenue stream.

Invest in Property

Property has long been considered a fruitful and lucrative way to make returns on an initial investment. Unlike stocks and shares, property may fall in value for a small amount of time, but it ultimately does keep increasing over time.

Over the last decade, property has continued to make headlines for rising house prices and an increase in tenant demand. However, before you decide to invest in property and hand your money over to a company you don’t know anything about, we would recommend doing your research. Ensure you’re investing in property in a good place that has high yields and tenant demand.

As long as you take a hands-off approach when it comes to investing, your income stream can be passive, leaving you to focus on your main projects or career.

Start a Blog

Blogging is a relatively old way to make money now, as people have been doing it for the past decade or so, and some of them have even found fame from doing it. There are so many bloggers out there who regularly attend events and make a lot of money from blogging.

Some people even start their own YouTube channel after starting their blog, but others stick to writing down their feelings and opinions rather than showcasing their life online. What’s great about starting a blog is that it is your own, and you can do what you wish with it.

You’ll most likely get gifts and money sent your way for advertisements too, which is useful if you want a little extra cash on top of your day job. 

Trading Online

Some people who like to live life on the wild side may choose to trade online, as it’s a risky way of making money. There’s also the potential for you to lose all your money, so it’s definitely not for everyone.

If you’re interested in trading online, research the stock market and trading strategies before diving into the deep end. It takes time to understand the ins and outs of trading, but once you get a hold of it, it can be a great passive income stream. Just remember to be cautious and not invest more than you can afford to lose.

Put your Photography Online

Any avid photographer should make the most of being good with a camera and sell their photos online.

Whether you offer them printed or even on a T-shirt, there are hundreds of options and ways to sell your photos online. After you’ve taken the picture and set up your store, all the income after this is passive.

This means you can go about your day without worrying about selling or managing your store, and you can just enjoy the returns. 

Write an eBook

Are you a writer with a passion and drive to sell your work? Write and sell an ebook online and see your passive income skyrocket (as long as your writing is good).

Writing an ebook and selling it can provide you with a passive revenue for years to come. Plus, it’s fun to just get started and write about something you enjoy.  

“Passive income” refers to an income gained from a business in which you are not actively involved. This business can be in the form of a blog, such as this one owned by Peter Foyo (a master of revenue growth and passive income opportunities), in the form of real estate, or even in the form of an Amazon seller’s account.

It takes hard work and dedication to grow a revenue source that will continue to pay in the future, but once you have that source up and running, you may just discover that you earn more by doing nothing than you do by maintaining the traditional nine to five.

Ideas to Get You Started

If you’re tired of working your life away and having nothing really to show for your efforts, or if you just want to spend more time with your family and less time with your coworkers, it may be time to try something new.

There are dozens of sites out there that offer passive income ideas that anyone can do, but to make things easier on you, this post offers a roundup of the top five.

Start a Blog

You don’t have to be a great writer to start a blog—you just need a few good ideas and/or the answers to a few of life’s most pressing questions. For instance, everyone wants to know how they can earn more, save more, and spend less.

Blogs that feature money-saving tactics often generate the most revenue, as do relationship blogs and fitness-related blogs. If you’re not good with money, are bad at relationships, or don’t really feel comfortable giving fitness advice, sit down and think about what truly interests you. If you’re passionate enough about a topic, and if that passion translates through to your writing, you’re bound to do well.

Write a Book

Again with the writing, but on the internet, content truly is king. If you find that once you start writing a blog about a given topic you can’t stop, don’t stop. Keep going and create a book.

Publish it to Amazon and receive a royalty for every book that gets sold. Your book doesn’t have to be the best on the market—there just has to be a market for the information presented in it.

Consider Drop Shipping

With the explosion of online shopping, drop shipping has become a popular way for people to earn income on the side. All you have to do is set up a shop, list products offered by another manufacturer, and hit publish.

Every time a person places an order, the order goes directly to the manufacturer, who ships the product on your behalf. You pay for the product at wholesale price and gain the rest of the profits.

Create an Online Course

If you have ideas to share but a limited audience near you, record lessons and offer the entire course at a fee.

If your idea is enticing enough, and if your marketing materials are effective, you can generate a nice chunk of change without doing much more than creating the courses and marketing materials. A site like Teachable does all the heavy lifting for you.

License Your Photos

If you have an eye for visuals as opposed to a way with words, share your photos with sites like Shutterstock. If your image is selected by a user, Shutterstock will pay you royalties.

If you’re looking for a better, more relaxing way to earn an income, consider attempting one of these top five ways to earn a passive income.

Each of the above ideas requires little capital to begin with but can yield substantial monetary rewards.

Creating a passive income via blogging isn’t easy. But it’s doable, especially if you find an in- demand niche.

Most people believe that blogs are just online diaries. However, nothing can be further from the truth. Many people use blogs as sources of information on various topics, from beauty and fitness to financial advice to real estate.

This being said, let’s look at 5 ways you can create passive income with your blog.

1. Sell a Template

Are you really good at making people listen? Can you make anyone curious to see what’s in the email you just sent them?

Many people would kill for those skills, and you can help them out by showing them a template you use for financial planning, email marketing, etc.

The template doesn’t have to be fancy. They just have to work. For example, there are bloggers who sell financial planning templates made in Excel, or copywriters who sell email templates made in Docs.

2. Sell a Book

One of the most popular ways to get recurring income and work only once for it is by writing a book. The beauty of this passive income idea is that you also get to keep 100% of the earnings if you sell it on your website.

All ebooks platforms get a cut. But if you sell it directly on your website, all earnings will be yours.

On top of this, publishing a book builds credibility and often opens doors for other business opportunities as well, such as being hired to speak in events or sharing your story on podcasts.

3. Promote Other People’s Products

Affiliate marketing is perhaps the most popular source of passive income. There are thousands of websites out there specifically for this kind of purpose: to blog in a certain niche that attracts an audience that would be interested in certain products.

For example, many health & fitness bloggers end up promoting protein powders, supplements, and gym equipment.

The secret is to introduce the products you’re trying to promote naturally in your blog content. For example, if you’re trying to promote a set of kettlebells, write about how you sculpted your arms in less than 6 months.

4. Sell a Course for In-demand Skills

If you’re really good at making things go viral, or if you are really good at coding, creating a course might be your best option.

But keep in mind that before you start working on it, you should do some market research and compare what you can offer with what others are offering as well.

There are many online courses out there on everything from teaching you how to sing to how to become a professional photographer.

5. Sell Branded Products

Mugs, t-shirts, and toys offer an excellent opportunity. If you have a strong brand and a following that loves being associated with you, selling products with your logo on them can be a viable passive income source.

Just think about celebrities that sell products with their names on them. The products may include perfumes, cosmetics, and clothing.

It puts into motion the same concept, just on a smaller scale. The more popular you get, the higher the chances you will make a steady stream of income from it.

How to Get Started

Bloggers are no longer just people who share their thoughts online or have published diaries. Many of them are now transforming their passion into a source of income by offering services or products to their audiences.

If you invest in a particular market, your investment can give you a huge return all while you sit at home and watch the money roll in.

Of course, it takes skill and practice to get this good, but it is possible.

And it all begins with choosing a trading instrument.

Your trading instrument is essentially any asset that can be traded – it could be TV’s, chairs or even contracts. It’s an asset that has some sort of financial value.

So, when choosing which asset you will trade, you can’t just go with something really expensive, or something you like.

You have to consider how much that asset is worth, and if it’s valuable in the current market.

Firstly, Ask Yourself if You’d Be Able to Trade It Comfortably

You may have your heart set on a particular instrument, but it simply may not be popular enough.

Can you trade that instrument comfortably?

Is there a market for that instrument?

If you want to earn a passive income, it’s probably best to use an online trading platform, so you should take a look at those too.

There aren’t that many quality trading platforms available online, so you should be asking yourself which is right for you.

What is Plus500?

What is XTrade?

How can different platforms benefit me? Is one platform better for one type of instrument?

As with any kind of investment, it’s important that you are personally – not just financially – invested in the item you will be trading.

The more you understand something, the more you’ll be able to glean about its future.

If you’re an expert in one particular type of instrument, it makes sense to choose that instrument right?

You’ll be able to better predict where the market is headed, and how well your asset will do in a particular season.

Photo Credit

Then, Take a Look at the Current Market

You have to take a look at the highs and lows of the market, in relation to your chosen instrument.

The price of that instrument could currently be very high; or, it could be very low.

If a war suddenly broke out in your country, and the government needed firearms, guess what would skyrocket in price? Bullets.

It’s an extreme example, but you get my point.

You should analyze the history of a particular asset, to see how it has fared in similar times.

So, in order to earn the biggest amount of money, look for an instrument that is needed, or popular.

Look for an instrument that will become popular in the next few months, to get in on it cheaply before the price goes up.

Investing in Christmas tree stock sometime in August would be a great way to prepare for the upcoming holiday rush.

Again, this is an extreme example, but the principle remains!

You have to buy something, before it becomes popular.

Do you have any experience with trading?

How did you choose your own trading instrument?

Whatever your thoughts on the subject, sound off in the comments below!

The Traditional Get Rich Idea

Traditionally we are taught to take a certain amount of money out of our paychecks every month and slowly after years of discipline and saving when we are old we can be wealthy and enjoy the luxuries.

The Hope and Pray I Get Rich Method

After saving each month my 10% and investing it in various stocks after 25-30 years I should have well over a million dollars, well at least that’s what everyone wants you to think and here is why!

1. No one wants you to be different. Remember back in high school and you tried something new or wore the wrong clothes? Everyone poked fun at you, because you weren’t fitting in. The same reasoning is found today financially.
2. Everyone wants you to work long hours 5-6 days a week because it’s what they do. People do not like change and the fact is no one wants to see someone do better than themselves, because most people are selfish. Just a plain cold truth.
3. Everyone is afraid to talk about what if the market crashes? Like it did not to many years ago? Having a business that can operate world-wide will be affected but not as much as the stocks that you might have invested in!

What Everyone Wants to Hear Compared to Reality

Everyone wants to be wealthy and prosperous, and there is nothing wrong with that however, they do not ever start the process of learning and achieving their goals to become wealthy. Any site that says getting money online is easy is lying to you. If you don’t believe me picture this.

You are walking down the beach and you are enjoying your day off, one of the very few you have to yourself. When someone approaches you and says “It looks like you need some money” he then hands you his briefcase and you find a million dollars inside it. He then turns and walks away without warning or a thank you.

You may be interested in reading: What is Your Business Model – Authority Site, Niche Sites or Something Else?

Please. Get a life, it’s not ever going to happen. So what makes people think it would happen online?

So what is Getting Rich Quickly?

Getting rich isn’t easy otherwise more people would be millionaires! Becoming rich through your internet business is going to take time, hard work, networking, planning and dedication!

The Smart Passive Income Blog owned by Pat Flynn took two years to earn him a six figure income. If you think about how long that took it wasn’t very long. Considering that he is now working from home choosing his own hours to work as well as making passive income.

Two years. That isn’t a very long time! Getting rich quick is exactly what Pat did, considering that it takes most people decades if not a lifetime to even become close to their goals! Take a look at the people around you, who can you point out that made an average wage all the way to six figures a year in two years? I bet very few people even know a person that did, but most of us won’t be able to name one friend or family member who has.

Most people when they start an internet business believe that they are going to put a week or two’s worth of work into their blog and they are going to achieve the top rankings and all of a sudden become a millionaire. I wish it were true, as the saying goes ‘if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is’.

Do You Have What it Takes to get Rich Quickly?

You do not have to reinvent the wheel or even have a new software product that is going to revolutionize the online world, all you need to do is present something better than what everyone else is doing. Which is way more simple!

A lot of Ebay businesses are doing just that, offering something that the competitors aren’t. Such as free gifts should they purchase a their product. Offering something that is unique and useful to a customer makes it more appealing to purchase. Make your internet business stand out and success will find you.

Why I Love Hearing Complaints Especially when someone says “I hate that…”

As an entrepreneur we have to think outside the box. Understanding someone’s complaint is more than just agreeing with them. When you hear someone saying “I hate that…” it means a demand is not being met and this might be the opportunity for you to fill that gap. Offering a product or service will make both you and the customer happy because you are solving a problem in their life, and fulfilling one in yours (earning an income).

There are two different types of earning money online which is offering affiliate products, or offering your own product. Although between the two there are more things to consider, to read more about the different types of products you sell on the internet, click the link.

Getting rich quickly isn’t easy, it’s a process of learning, building, adapting to your audience and re-evaluating yourself and your business based on the market.

Why I’m asking you about something like that?

Let’s start with short introduction…

I plan to write about something else, but last week something happened which changed my plans. Last week there was 1^st anniversary of CommentLuv – great WP plugin from Andy Bailey (I mention this plugin some weeks ago here: How to Stop Spam in Comments – AntiSpam Tips for Bloggers). To celebrate it Andy “squeeze” prize of it (developer’s license costs between 20-30$ instead of 97$!). And a lot of bloggers start to promote it – recently I found a lot of blog posts about it and I also received a lot of emails about this promotion.

I totally understand it – a lot of bloggers want to get money via it. But what do you think – how many of them (of us) will earn “real” money from this promotion, let’s say more than 100 dollars? Few of them (us)? Maybe a dozen

What I want to say is that it’s very difficult to make money promoting other things, especially when almost everybody in your niche is doing it. And blogging niche is one of the most crowded niches. But bloggers in this niche are trying to make big money. In most cases without success…

I know only few bloggers which make a lot of passive money blogging (Pat Flynn, Daren Rowse, John Chow, Jeremy Shoemaker – if you are interested you can read 5 Most Powerful Blogs About Blogging And Making Money Online), and other bloggers make money via other niches (or blogging isn’t their most important source of income).

Do you want some examples – okay, here you are:

Steve Scott – he earns money not from his great blog, but from niche site(s) (see his income report). On his blog he writes not only about blogging and making money online but also about authorities’ sites. But he didn’t reveal what his niche is

Justin Cooke and Joe Magnotti – owners of Adsense Flippers.com  – they earn money mostly from niche sites. They earn money via selling niche sites and via Google AdSense ads.

Josh Escusa and Trevor Welsh from WSOtesters.com – they also make most money via site sales and Google Adsense (placed on niche sites).

Dean Saliba, Michael Chibuzor, Mitt Ray, Bamidele Onibalusi and thousands of other bloggers – they make money via writing for others. They are content creators for others – you can find their posts on other blogs, on popular websites and even on some big portals. They run blogs (and sometimes write guest posts) for promoting their writing services.

There are also some bloggers which promote their own services – not only writing but also website design, SEO or marketing services – and they earn money on it, not on blogging about it…

What’s more – I also make some nice money on my niche sites, but from this blog I earn maybe 100$… And I spent lots more…

So please think about it – is your time and effort invested in blogging (about blogging) worth it? Or maybe it’s a huge waste of your time? There are a lot of possible ways of making money online, for some of them you even don’t need a blog! If you don’t have ideas about it please read some of my posts listed below:

Online Passive Income – 5 Money Making Ideas for Bloggers

How To Make Money Online – 10 best ways for doing it!

How to Earn Money Online with Niche Sites

What is Your Business Model – Authority Site, Niche Sites or Something Else?

Do you still think you can make money blogging? Of course, it’s possible… But do you really make passive income via your blog? I don’t. And I suppose you also don’t do it (but maybe I’m wrong).

Please share your own point of view and ways how you earn money online in comments below this post.

You may be a little bit confused – even my domain name tells you, that there is no passive income at all… So, where is the truth?

OK – I’ll reveal you a secret. There is not passive income in Internet! And please read this article very carefully – more than 99% of bloggers doesn’t earn a decent income from their websites (blogs, niche sites and other sites)!

Each time, when you want to earn money online, you must work – sometimes more, sometimes less. And in this post I’ll show you, what online passive income is, what skills you should have as a blogger and five money making ideas for bloggers. These concepts don’t need a lot of time, sometimes you can forget about your online business for some months (so they are ALMOST passive, but not passive!), and, for this reason, they are ideal for bloggers.

But before revealing you these 5 concepts, please let me tell you, what does passive income means for me.

So, passive income means an income generated regularly without any effort. Only effort is (if any) needed at the beginning, when you setup an account in your bank

Examples of passive income:

-interest of deposits

-rent from real estate (if they don’t need active management!)

-royalties (from written books, screenplays, software programs)

-pension (when you retired, you will get some money as a regular, monthly pension)

Online passive income means for me:

• Hard work on the beginning (maximal one month of effort, but you may work 16 hours a day )
• Automation for almost everything, for example purchase, payment, etc. (you should simplify everything as much as possible!)
• Little time for maintaining it (monthly it should be less than one working day)
• Possibility of delegating tasks to somebody else (so you may go for your monthly holidays)

Now you know what passive income (normal and online) means for me. Does it mean the same for you? But let’s go to another aspects of blogging for money

As a powerful blogger:

1)      You are excellent writer (if you are not good writer, please read 10 Article Writing Tips, How To Write Killer Article

2)      You know, how to get a lot of traffic (if not, please read: 8 Helpful Tips, How To Promote Your Blog)

3)      You have a big email list (if not, please read this post 12 Action Steps To Build A Profitable Email List From Scratch by Michael Chibuzor)

4)      You are aware of it, how your blog may be successful (if you are not aware of it, you must read my guest post 3 Vital Tips For Creating A Successful Blog

With above mentioned assumptions, now you are ready to learn 5 Money Making Ideas for Bloggers. All of them, when properly used, fulfill my requirements about online passive income. Here you are:

1. Prepare an online product (for example an eBook)

You can earn money by selling it by yourself, or by creating affiliate channels for selling it. In this case you will share some profits with your affiliates (as commission).

2. Create niche site(s)

Your income will be generated by placing contextual ads on this site. Best choice for contextual advertisement  is Google Adsense, alternatively you may choose Chitika for instance

3. Product site

It is a mix of points mentioned above. You can create online product (it may be eBook as well) for example WordPress Plugin. But you can promote someone’s product too (in that case, you will get commission from product creator. And you sell this product via your optimized website.

4. Use your email list

If your list is enough big, you can try to monetize it through affiliate links, sponsored emails, or paid reviews

5. Make a paid membership site

It’s very simple model of earning – you create great content, limit it only for paid access, and invite your readers (which trust you, that it is worth for paying for it).

If you want to learn more, you may read How To Make Money Online – 10 best ways for doing it!

And how about you? What does “passive income” means for you? Or maybe you have another useful concept how to earn money online?

I’ll tell you a secret – You are WRONG!
In this post I’ll try reveal to you, how much time you need to spend on your blog to have a good one. Of course there are differences between blogs…
On the one hand – there are blogs about hobby, puppies, family, etc. which are updated twice a year and are read only by blogger’s friends and family. This type of blog wouldn’t be part of interest of this post

On the other hand – there are professional blogs, which are made mostly for earning money (directly or indirectly), with thousands of readers and followers.

To show you, that blogging isn’t passive , let’s assume, that you are building your professional blog from scratch – you don’t have readers, email list, you want to do it by yourself and you don’t have a lot of money for promoting your blog…

So, let’s try to assess time effort needed for profitable blog

Setting up a blog takes a little of time (comparing to other issues) – for me it took about 1 working day. It was time for installing a blog, set up plugins, change some settings, etc. But it was without specifying how it should looks like and implementing changes in WP theme.

Initial blog posts: How many initial posts do you need? Is 15 enough?  – this amount depends of course on your requirements, but 10 articles is in my opinion minimum. So let assume -5 to 10 working days for preparing “starter pack of articles” for your blog

Finding, registering into affiliates programs, setting it up – 5 working day

Preparing and configuring your Email list (for example Aweber), let say 1-2 days are enough

Preparing bonus (valuable e-book) for signing for your email list – 5-20 working days

Above you can find activities executed only once. But there is a bunch of activities, which you have to execute repeatedly. Most important of them are below:

Writing articles – beside time, which you spend on writing, you should spend some time on researching and planning your articles. Even if you are an English writer, and your native language is English, average time of preparing good post for your blog may take since two hours to one working day. Some of your killer articles may took longer (for example on 100 websites for each blogger I spent about 2 working days). So, assuming that you want to write 1 post a week, you must reserve about 4 working days in the month only for writing articles for your blog. Passive…

Adjusting (adapting) your blog, plugins, internal links, advertises and affiliates. At least once a month you should spend about one day on analyzing statistics, earnings, positions in Google (and other search machines) and optimizing your blog. Weekly it will take you 2 hours of your time.

Contact with your readers and blogosphere (social media, emails, writing comments on your blog (reading+ answering)). Let’s assume that it takes altogether about 1 hour a day (only on working days). Monthly it’s about 20 hours, that’s two and half working days.

Promotion of your blog
It’s most time consuming part of your blog, especially at the beginning (first year of blogging). Do you remember that you don’t have a lot of money and you have to do most of the things by yourself? Ok, let’s try to estimate your time needed for blog promotion.

I’ll focus here only on most important and common ways of getting traffic, so depending on how you promote your blog, time needed for it may be different.

Writing guest posts. It’s very valuable source of traffic, but if you want to do it in proper way, you have to spend some time on finding appropriate blogs, find what blog posts are needed and writing good one. 1 guest post will take you about 1 working day, and you need at least 1 guest post a week.
 
Making comments on other blogs.
Maybe it’s not as valuable as writing articles, but it gives you a little traffic. 10-15 minutes a day makes about 1 working hour a week

Submitting your blog to directories is maybe an “old” way of getting links, but it’s still working. You can submit your blog to general directories, niche directories and also to blog’s directories. Adding to 5 directories in the week may take you about 1 hour of your time.

Submitting “SEO” articles (with links to your site) on articles directories.
How much time it will take you depends on so many factors, that’s impossible to proper estimation of needed effort. Quality and rules on articles directory, your writing skills, and even topic of your blog has influence on that time. But on the beginning of your blogging way you should spend weekly at least half a day on it. But of course – the more the better

Post on forums.
Some of bloggers underestimate this type of traffic, but it’s really valuable. But again – you must spend at least one hour a week for one year to see results.

Email list
Did you forget about it? Preparing great email with link(s) and proper “call to action” phrase once a week will take you about 0,5h

Tweeting each of your articles and activities (Twitter, Digg.com, stumbleupon.com , reddit.com, delicious.com) – 0,5h a week

So, let’s try to summarize time needed for blogging in table below

So, the question is – is it really passive income? Maybe I overestimate the whole process of blogging? Do you make some things faster (or longer) than me? What’s your opinion and experience?