Image courtesy of Will Scullin on Flickr

Passive Income - an income received on a regular basis, with little effort required to maintain it.

So, the introductions are over and it’s time to get down to some business.  I’ve been researching passive income through niche websites as well as several other business models for a while now and I am ready to start ramping up the business.  My plan is this: Start off by building niche websites and ramp up as quickly as possible by reinvesting profits.  Next, the plan is to progress into authority sites and measure return as opposed to the niche site portfolio.  Finally, I will diversify by adding a few key business models to the mix (but it’s too early to talk about these top secret diabolical plans just yet).

First up are the niche websites…

Niche Website Development

My strategy for niche website development is fairly straight forward and can be broken into 5 stages:

1. Keyword Research
2. Site Creation
3. Content Creation
4. On Page SEO
5. Backlinking

Going forward, I’ll be breaking each section out into several updates to give a complete overview of how I create my sites and the reasoning behind my decisions.  My goal for each site is very modest, a mere 75¢ per day on average.  I’ll go in depth as to how and why I arrived at that number in an upcoming post but for now, let me say that I like to keep goals attainable and ramp up expectations over time.

Starting off, I plan to build out around 25 new sites per month.  Again, I want to keep these numbers easily attainable.  If you are new to the whole niche site model and think 25 sites sounds like a ton of work, don’t worry!  If motivated, I could probably create all 25 sites in just one day, and you can too!  I’ll be showing you some tricks to make site creation amazingly easy (even if you are completely new to web design).

Finally, I want to talk a little about costs.  While the sites themselves will not be very expensive to create, there are a few tools I use that will set ya back a little scratch.  I’m a firm believer in using the right tool for the job and cutting corners will cost you far more in the long run.  I will tell you what I use, why I use it, and give you some alternatives if any are available.  I hope this doesn’t discourage anyone as anything worth doing will require some level of time and resources and I think niche sites are one of the easiest and least expensive business to get started.

Well, that about wraps up this post.  I plan to put out about 2 updates per week so check back soon for the next installment when we will start the process of researching keywords.  See you soon!

Image courtesy Rameshng on Flickr

Hello and thanks for stopping by!  My name is Dave.  Nice to meet you!  I decided to start this blog to chronicle my adventure into developing and maintaining online passive income streams.  I’m taking you guys along for the ride, mostly to help keep myself on track, but also to hopefully help some of you in your own quests in building passive income.

I guess, first up, I should tell you all a little about myself.  That way, you can have a better idea of where I’m coming from.  Speaking of, my “neck of the woods” is in the great city of Knoxville, Tennessee.  You may have heard of it before by way of a Quentin Tarantino flick, our first son of the same name, Johnny Knoxville, or simply because it sits squarely within the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.  However you may have heard of it, there are a few things I want to get out of the way up front…

First, we are from the south.  That means we tend to have our own dialect for some things.  As such, I may from time to time drop such gems as “a pig in a poke”, “leaning toward Riley’s patch”, or even “that dog won’t hunt!”  Should you need translation, feel free to ask!

Next, hillbillies and rednecks do really exist!  And in great numbers!  Fortunately for us all, I’m neither.  Yay!  Now we can move on.

I am, by trade, a commercial photographer.  Fortunately for me, I was also a web designer in a past life.  I spent my teens and early twenties engrossed in computers and all things internet.  Later, I worked as a remote contractor for a big web host for some time as well as dabbled in various web businesses.  Ultimately, it was this that led me to learn Photoshop, develop a desire to create my own images, and end up in my current vocation.

Now then, to make a long story short, photographers have been hit hard.   Between the down economy, an ever decreasing cost of entry for new competition, and a general opinion on the part of our clients that what we do should, for some reason, be free, has led many of us to “get creative” with our work.  In addition to my photography, I also own and operate a rental studio, teach through the University of Tennessee, and hold private workshops.  So if any of you want to learn photography as well, I’m your guy!

When I’m not working, I enjoy watching movies, long walks on the beach, and World of Warcraft.  Quit with the groans!  Yes, I’m an online gamer nerd.  I’ll try to keep the Blood Elf Paladin talk to a minimum.  Or not, who knows.  No promises.

Whatever I’m doing, I try to have fun and that certainly will be the case here!

So, thanks for stopping by!  I hope you enjoy the blog!  I know I am looking froward to what lies ahead and hope you are as well.

“Peace, out” until next time!