Passive income has become a buzz phrase in the online space, synonymous with easy living, exotic travel, enjoyably boss-less work, and freedom from obligation and stress.

As with any concept or idea that is naturally appealing to a great many people, an industry has built up around it, selling advice that is often helpful and true, but just as often false and harmful.

Is making money online difficult, or easy; as many cyber gurus claim?

Big Promises Of Easy Wins

A cursory search of Google will immediately turn up an infinity of content that espouses ‘easy’, ‘painfree’ ways of making passive income.

If you believed everything you read, heard or viewed online you would be certain that creating passive income is not difficult, but instead very easy. You would begin to feel like you must be one of the last losers alive on Earth who is not raking in tens of thousands each month from a set-and-forget passive income side-hustle.

The Myth of Easy Income

There are a lot of reasons to be skeptical about this idea that making a passive income is a cinch.

First of all, it is certainly not the case that most people have a passive income. In truth, the vast majority of people earn their living in more traditional job roles. Most (even those that work predominantly online) are tied to a work location. Most people have a boss.

If it were so easy, far more people would be doing it.

Another key factor to bear in mind is the root motivations of the people who most loudly espouse the ‘passive income is easy’ notion.

The Biases of Make Money Online ‘Gurus’

The online space is still very much a Wild West of ideas and information. Everybody and anybody can have an opinion online, and often it is the loudest shouters that get the most attention.

Self-proclaimed gurus that teach how to earn passive income usually make it out to be a relatively simple and pain-free process. But this not necessarily true. And these ‘gurus’ are not necessarily to be believed.

Gurus often have conflicting interests. Many are much more interested in making their own money than in teaching people and adding real value.

It is in a gurus interest to convince his audience that if they invest in his ideas they will achieve the success they want and that it won’t require back-breaking work. It is not in their interest to give the impression that making passive income is difficult.

Passive income gurus have an agenda. They are trying to make money for themselves first and foremost. They are selling an idea, not a reality.

Making Passive Income Is Difficult!

Generating a passive income takes hard graft. Churning out multiple copywriting articles per day is tough and taxing – even if you are doing it from a beach in Thailand! Having a scatty and inconsistent income stream can be stressful,