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Link: canonical Passive Income * Home Back to Start * About Who is Pat? * Archives Hall of Records * Podcast iTunes Broadcast * Videos How To Vids * Income Reports How I Make a Living Online * Resources Tools of the Trade * Contact Get a Hold of Me Are you building an email list yet? If not, here is your quick start, step by step guide. * * Subscribe to my Feeds * Get Updates via: (Email / RSS) Subscribe to my RSS "Don't know where to start?" "It's all good! Click the red link below to let me help you figure out what you should read and do first..." Getting Started with Smart Passive Income 44 SPI 025 : More Online Business Success Stories from People Who Don't Teach People How to Make Money Online - Part 2 The Smart Passive Income Podcast Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. In this session of the Smart Passive Income Podcast, we continue what we started in SPI Session #24 and bring in 4 more fantastic and inspiring success stories from people who are making a living online and generating a passive income without having to teach others how to make money online. As I mentioned before, many people think that the only way to really make a living online is to talk about making money online, but these interviews prove that you don't need to do that. This Session's Success Stories Feature: Jordan Cooper of FM Britain - Some of you might already know Jordan Cooper. He has a blog at NotAProBlog.com and you may have read his guest posts on Problogger or Copyblogger. What you probably didn't know about Jordan (I didn't!) is that he generates significant passive income from a website in a niche totally outside of the blogging world that involves a video game that I'm sure most of us in the United States have never heard of before. He's a stand-up guy (and comedian!) who offers some golden advice in this interview. Cara Faus of Health Home Happy - Cara's success story is definitely one to admire. She's not making millions, but she's changing several lives and is able to support her family while doing so. In this interview Cara shares how GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) and her daughter inspired her to create a membership site that is helping hundreds of people - primarily through her own grain free meal plans. David Risley from PCMech.com - I'm sure many of you know who David Risley is. His website at DavidRisley.com consistently provides some of the most useful blogging and make money online advice on the web. "But Pat! I thought this session was about people who make money outside of that industry! What's the deal?!" The reason I included David in this series is because like myself, like Darren Rowse from Problogger.net, and like most of the other people I know who run successful websites that teach people how to blog and make money online - he first had success (and built proof) outside of this niche, and I recommend that anyone who wants to teach people how to make money online to do the same first. David shares his journey from the beginning which eventually led him to his very profitable blog at PCMech.com, a technology-based website for normal people. David being David, he shares some awesome advice for those of us who are just starting to get our feet wet online. Cornelius Fichtner from Cornelius-Fichner.com (among other things!) - I met Cornelius right when I was first starting to do business online. We are both members of the Internet Business Mastery Academy and I've been hooked on his story ever since. It's been long overdue, but I'm really happy to have Cornelius on the SPI Podcast because he's doing extremely well online. In the interview, he also shares a HUGE mistake that he made when he first started out that he cannot undo. Those of us doing business online, even if we have a business already, should definitely not miss what he says. In each of these interviews, we talk about: * What they were all doing before they started their online businesses, and when and why they decided to go online. * Monetization techniques. * The stuggles they experienced while building their online businesses. * What they each love most about doing business online and earning a passive income. * And more... A big thank you to all of the guests on today's session for their stories and inspiration! Oh, and just for fun, there's a surprise guest appearance during this session - a 5th guest - someone who is a very very very special to me. :) Right click here to download the MP3 Please subscribe below to the podcast to get automatic updates: * Click Here to Subscribe via iTunes * Click Here to Subscribe via RSS (non-iTunes feed) Click Here for More from SPI Session #25 Posted on: August 31, 2011 93 I Will Be Speaking at Blog World Expo LA 2011! Blog World Expo LA 2011A month ago, I submitted a proposal to speak at the 2011 Blog World & New Media Expo in Los Angeles later this year. Last week, I learned that my proposal was accepted!!! Sometime between the 3rd and 5th of November at the LA Convention Center, I'll be conducting a presentation and I can't even describe how excited I am! It's weird to think that exactly 3 years ago I was still employed as a Job Captain in the architecture industry, and now here I am, about to speak at an event along side many of the bloggers and online entrepreneurs who I've always looked up to, who have been a major source of inspiration for me since I started my journey online. I'm deeply, deeply honored. I'm speaking in the monetization track, so I definitely have a lot of exciting examples from my personal experience to reference. Click to continue... Posted on: August 29, 2011 65 The Engagement Factor - What You Need to Know The Engagement FactorIncreasing traffic and increasing conversion. It seems like that's what everybody is talking about these days - but what about increasing engagement? Is engagement even important enough to be something that we should increase? To me, absolutely - and I'm sure that's part of the reason why this blog has grown as fast as it has. What is Engagement? There are metrics to measure "engagement" like time spent on a page and bounce rate, but the kind of engagement I want to investigate goes beyond the numbers. To me, engagement is all about involvement and participation. When people participate in something they feel included. They feel like part of the team and that they're contributing in one way, shape or form. And here's the kicker: that participation, involvement and contribution often lead to massive support and constant sharing of you and your brand. That's huge. Why? Because a recommendation from one of your friends for a product is far stronger than any recommendation the owner of that product could give you. This is why social media is so important to businesses - friends sharing with friends exactly what's hot and what's not. It's powerful stuff. Let me tell you a quick story. Click Here to Read More About the Engagement Factor Posted on: August 26, 2011 195 Taking Control - An Incredible and Inspiring Success Story ($2,325.91 in a Day!) with Benny Hsu Photo365 Success Story"This wouldn't have been possible if I never found your blog. Thanks Pat!" This is the type of message I aim to receive from every reader of SPI, and recently Benny Hsu from Get Busy Living sent me this very message, along with a success story that had me smiling from ear to ear. Benny is a personal development blogger whose message can easily be summed up by this quote from his blog: "To me it means taking control of our lives, instead of waiting for something to happen." And he's definitely living his message. His recent success story involves publishing an iPhone application, which is something he's wanted to do for a long time. "I've wanted to create an iPhone app for over a year but it wasn't till I found your blog in November 2010 did I think I could do it." His new app is called Photo 365. It's an app that allows you to document your daily life by taking one picture a day, and it organizes the photos into a sleek little calendar so you can easily get a snapshot of where you've been and what you've done. The concept isn't new, and Photo 365 isn't the first iPhone app of it's kind, but he did something right and within the first 11 days Benny has earned a total $6639.32, and he's on track to earn a lot more since Photo 365 is now the #4 paid photography app in iTunes, and the top 44 overall app in the entire app store! Yesterday, for example, his $0.99 app was downloaded 3,343 times and netted him a total of $2,325.91! This was so incredibly inspiring to me, not only because of the income or because he's been able to rank higher in iTunes than any of the 26 or so applications that my own iPhone app company has published (which is awesome and I'm definitely proud of him for that!), but mainly because he wanted to do something, saw an opportunity, took it, and is now being rewarded for his hard work and execution. I responded to Benny's initial email and asked him if he'd be willing to share more details of his story with the SPI audience, and he kindly agreed. Click Here to Read More about Benny's Success Story Posted on: August 22, 2011 94 10 Ways to Bring New Life to Old Blog Posts New Life to Old Blog PostsOne of the "issues" with blogging is that when you pump out new content, old content gets pushed aside. Some of our best posts, posts that we've devoted hours to with information that is still relevant and useful, simply get lost in our archives. Whether you're just starting out now or you're a seasoned veteran blogger, here are 10 ways to bring new life to some of your older posts. 1. Keep Search Engines in Mind As You Publish New Posts As much as you should always be writing for your audience, it can be beneficial to also think about search engine optimization when publishing new posts. By doing so, over time, your posts will have a better chance of picking up natural search engine traffic as it begins to rank higher in the search engines. You could even take this a step further and introduce a backlinking campaign for a specific keyword for any of your posts to see even better results. So how do we optimize posts for search engine rankings without compromising the quality of the title and content within the post? * Pick a target keyword or keyphrase and include it somewhere in the title of your blog post. You'll have to do some basic keyword research first, but always remember to keep the title interesting and enticing for your readers at the same time. * Make the URL of your posts search engine friendly. If you're targeting a specific keyword or keyphrase in a post, changing the URL to just the keyword gives your post the highest keyword density possible, which helps. For example, if you wrote a post entitled 25 of the Best Golden Retriever Training Tips in the World, and your target keyword was "best golden retriever training tips", I would structure the url as domainname.com/best-golden-retriever-training-tips. * Pictures should include the keyword in the title, alt tag, and filename. If you embed any pictures into your blog post, you can change the filename of the image to match the keyword before uploading, and make sure to make the title and alt tag of your image match the keyword as well. * Videos should include the keyword in the title, description and tags. Including a YouTube video in your post with a title, description and tags that match the keyword will help as well. Want to see an example? Check out my conversion strategies post that utilizes all of these tactics. This post now ranks #2 in Google for conversion strategies and new natural search engine traffic finds its way to the post every day. Click Here to Read More Ways to Give Life to Old Posts Posted on: August 17, 2011 127 Niche Site Duel - One Year Later (Earnings and Traffic Update) A lot of you have been asking me for a Niche Site Duel update and I'm happy to share my latest report with you today - exactly one year after posting my very first announcement about the challenge. One year after deciding to build a niche site from scratch, I now own the #1 ranked security guard training website in Google which has earned well over $5,000.00 since earning its first dollar in March. I have also been approached by several investors who were interested in purchasing the site from me for upwards of $25,000, which I declined. On the first of this month (August, 2011), I went live with a brand new design, which I outlined here in my July Income Report. The design looks much more professional, but nobody was quite sure what would happen to my rankings, traffic and earnings. I now have 2 weeks of solid data since the update to share with you. Note: I try not to link directly to my niche site from SPI. If you'd like to visit, you can check it out at SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com. Rankings and Traffic I'm glad to say that none of the related keywords I've been paying attention to have dropped in search engine rankings. Actually, according to the Scroogle Scraper (which is a search engine used to search through Google anonymously without any record of previous searches, which can skew the rankings that you see), many of the more highly trafficked keywords that I've been paying attention to have risen. keyword - ranking: Click Here to Read More about the Niche Site Duel Update Posted on: August 15, 2011 77 SPI 024 : Online Business Success Stories from People Who Don't Teach People How to Make Money Online - Part 1 The Smart Passive Income Podcast Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. In this session of the Smart Passive Income Podcast, I'm happy to showcase 3 success stories from people who are making a living online and generating a passive income without having to teach others how to make money online. Many people think that the only way to really make money online is to talk about making money online, and this session (and the next, which will feature 3 more success stories) is here to show you that you don't need to do that. In fact, I wouldn't recommend it because the make money online industry is very competitive and the techniques that are a little out of date in this industry are still crushing it in others. This Session's Success Stories Feature: Keith Snow of HarvestEating.com - The cooking and food niche is extremely competitive, but Keith shares with us exactly how he found a niche within a niche (Local and Seasonal Foods) and is utilizing the power of giving away information for free to drive people into a membership site and increase product sales. What I love about Keith's story is his attitude towards his customers and also how he's utilizing the power of the internet to grow his business even further. Raffael Schulz of Hochzeitsportal24.de - Raffael has an interesting story for a number of different reasons. He has one of the top wedding websites in Germany (I know a lot of you are from outside the U.S. so this story will definitely be one to listen to), he quit his job in order to work on it and he knew nothing about weddings before. Raffael shares how he got into this business and exactly what kinds of monetization strategies (there's a bunch!) he's using and which ones perform the best. Daniel Himel of EnduranceNation.us and MarathonNation.us - Daniel Himel quit his well paying corporate job to build a business around something he was very passionate about - endurance training for the Ironman race. He then applied what he learned to marathon training and he crushed it even more. We're talking 7 figures a year here and some fantastic business strategies that you can apply to your own online businesses and membership sites too. In each of these interviews, we talk about: * What they were all doing before they started their online businesses, and when and why they decided to go online. * Monetization techniques. * The stuggles they experienced while building their online businesses. * What they each love most about doing business online and earning a passive income. * And more... Thanks to all of the guests on the show today and look out for 3 more success stories in session #25. Read More About Online Business Success Stories Posted on: August 12, 2011 120 How to Make Your First $100 Online How to Make Your First $100 OnlineThis is a guest post by Srinivas Rao of The Skool of Life and co-founder of BlogCastFM, one of my favorite podcasts that I fully support for your online education. I am in Boston right now working with a client and with the beauty of technology and the wonders of WordPress I was able to schedule this post ahead of time - but that doesn't mean this guest post is any less important. In fact, it could be one of the most important posts you read because when you think about - before you make a million dollars, before you make tens of thousands, or even just one-thousand dollars, you still have to make a hundred bucks first. Once you can do that, the sky is the limit. In this post, my good friend Srini illustrates some very actionable items to help those of you who have yet to earn your first 100 dollars online, earn it. Please enjoy, and for the more experienced people out there, please share or add any tips you may have to help people earn their first $100 online. Here is Srini... Given that many of us are looking at our online efforts to supplement, increase or even replace our incomes, 100 dollars may not seem like a worthwhile goal. So Before I get into the "how-to" of making your first 100 dollars online I think it's worth spending a bit of time talking about why you should focus on your first $100 before anything else. Most of us set goals of 1000 or 2000 dollars a month in income, and when it doesn't happen at the pace we hope it will, we have a tendency to give up completely. As a result we never make a dime. The nice thing about $100 is that it's a realistic achievable goal, and when you accomplish it, you'll get the confidence boost you need to set some bigger goals. There a few other reasons it's a worthwhile goal to start with: * It's something you could accomplish within in the first 2-3 months of blogging, possibly even in your first month. * It doesn't require tons of traffic. It doesn't require tons of sales, and it won't eat up a ton of your time. * In fact if you have an offer that is 10 dollars and 10 people buy it you've succeeded in making your first $100.00 online. So let's talk about how to create something that you can sell for $10.00 Click Here to Read More About Making Your First $100 Online Posted on: August 10, 2011 129 Why I Switched to the Thesis Theme and What Happened When I Did Switching to Thesis I've been getting a lot of emails asking me about my switch to the Thesis theme for the SPI blog. I'll start from the beginning. :) Even before I wrote my very first post for The Smart Passive Income Blog, it was really important to me that I sported a high-quality WordPress theme. The design of a blog, both on the front end (what people see), and the backend (what the search engines see), play a huge role in the success of a blog. Since I bought the domain name, SPI has undergone 9 total design changes. Yes - 9. I blame my roots in the architecture industry, where hundreds of design changes on a single project is completely normal. In chronological order: * 2 free themes, which I immediately scrapped because they looked too plain. * 2 premium themes, which were good - but I noticed a lot of other bloggers using the exact same themes and I wanted something more of my own. * 2 completely different custom-designed themes. The 1st theme was from a brand new designer on Elance who had no feedback or reviews. Lesson learned. The 2nd design (also from Elance) was great and became the first version of the black/red/chartreuse SPI blog that you see today. * 1 not-so-good re-design that transformed SPI into a 3-column theme. It was not well received and I reverted back to the previous 2-column design not so long after. * 1 upgraded tweak which is what you see today. And a couple of weeks ago, I completed my 9th design change - which didn't change anything on the front end, but everything on the backend. I switched to the Thesis Theme Framework. Disclaimer: Please note that the links for the Thesis Theme in this post are affiliate links and I do earn a commission through any purchases that you make. If you do make a purchase, I appreciate it greatly! If you wish, shoot me an email or let me know on the Facebook Page so I can thank you personally. Why I Switched to Thesis I switched to Thesis because the SPI blog was having a number of issues I knew Thesis could solve: Click Here to Read More About the Thesis Theme Posted on: August 8, 2011 73 Are You Taking Advantage of Recurring Posts? Recurring PostsAre you giving your audience anything specific and regular to look forward to? In other words, is there some type of post that you publish consistently over and over again that becomes a true unique element to your brand? As many of you know, I religiously publish income reports each and every month here on SPI. Although I know a lot of people look forward to these because I share my income, the lessons I've learned, and the decisions I'm making with my online businesses, there's so much more than that when it comes to the strategy of a recurring piece of content. Whatever that recurring content may be, it gives your audience something concrete to look forward to, something that they already know about, they just don't know what the outcome or result will be `this time'. Click Here to Read More About Recurring Posts Posted on: August 3, 2011 << Older Entries Hello my name is Pat No, I'm not a millionaire, but I am living off of passive income made online. I'm here to show you what I've learned... Pat's eBook Guide Enter your name and email below to get Free Instant Access to the most comprehensive guide available on how to Publish, Market, and automate your own killer eBook. 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