Online Business Realm

How To Use Pinterest Ads To Make More Sales

Many businesses overlook Pinterest when setting up a strategy for online marketing. With the introduction of Pinterest ads, the opportunities are endless. Pinterest could be one of your largest generators of traffic and sales.

In this article, I'll share five ways your business can get the most out of Pinterest ads.

What Are Promoted Pins

Pinterest is a visual social sharing community; users visit Pinterest ready to be inspired and seek out products to purchase.

Pinterest is a fantastic way to promote your brand and drive traffic to your business. With promoted pins, that is taken to the next level. Promoted pins look exactly like regular pins, BUT have additional capabilities to increase the number of views, as well as the ability to target an EXACT audience.

How To Create A Pinterest Ad

When you are logged into your Pinterest account, you will see an addition symbol in the upper right-hand side of the screen.

Click that symbol, and then select the option that says "Create Ad."

Next, you will choose what type of ad you want to run.

The two different options are, "Boost engagement with your Pins" and "Get traffic to your website".

The engagement option is best if you are wanting to grow your Pinterest account and following.

The website traffic option is best if you want to direct people back to your product pages on Pinterest. (This is the best one for making sales)

After you have chosen the type of ad you want to run, you will be presented with the options to name your ad and set a budget. This is where you will decide how much you want to spend each day and for how long you want the ad to run for.

After you have set a budget and named your campaign, click the red button at the bottom that says "Pick a Pin." Select the pin that you want to boost and then continue to the next step.

Creating A Targeted Audience

This is where all of the magic will happen.

In step three of the process, you can create a targeted audience for your pin to reach. Make sure that you think about this carefully and figure out what audience will respond the way you want them to the best.

Here is a list of ways you can sort your audience by:

• Interests
• Keywords
• Locations
• Languages
• Devices
• Gender

Depending on the product or service you are trying to sell you will want to tweak these options to best fit your target customer.

After you have nailed down your target audience you will see a section to type in your Max CPC bid (This means how much you will be charged each time someone clicks on your promoted pins).

You will want to choose a number in between what other advertisers are bidding. In the case above, I choose the lowest number and as you can see it is letting me know that this is a low bid.

Business Information

Pinterest Ads are only available for Businesses or commercial reasons. With that being said, you will need to provide Pinterest with your Business name and address in the next step.

The final step of the process will be to provide Pinterest with your billing information. You will be able to pay for your ads via Credit Card.

Here Is A Video Tutorial Showing You How To Setup Your Pinterest Ad Accoun5 Tips To Run A Successful Pinterest Ad Campaign 1.) Adjust your Campaign As You Go

A great feature within the Pinterest promoted pins feature is the ability to adjust your campaign as you go. If you see that something isn't working, you can change it while the campaign is still running.

Find images that draw the readers' attention. The images should be HIGH QUALITY, vertical images.

Colorful images always work better, and believe it or not if it has a shade of BLUE it is shown to work better as well!

After you have started your campaign, don't keep dong the same things. Change up your creative ideas and explore the split testing options that allow you to run different images within the same campaign.

2.) Use The Correct Keywords

Begin thinking of creative keywords that are related to your pin. Think outside of the box, because Pinterest users are always looking for different things that stand out. On the other side of this, try not to go so crazy, if you target irrelevant keywords your ads are likely not to be approved by Pinterest.

When coming up with keywords, go for very specific, broad, and general terms. This will allow your "net" to be extremely wide capturing all of the potential audience.

3.) Don't Be Afraid To Bid High

As mentioned earlier when talking about your CPC or how much you are willing to pay per click, make sure you don't go too cheap here. Don't be afraid to start your campaign with an aggressive bid. These will also be more valuable clicks as your ad will be closer to the top of the page when someone searches for a particular term.

Once you start seeing conversions, optimize your bids to achieve your ideal CPA and increase how much you are spending to maximize the number of conversions. As with everything else within the Pinterest Ad campaign, you can adjust this as your campaign is still running.

4.) Include A Call To Action In The Pin Description

You are not allowed to include a CTA on your image, BUT you can include a non-salesy pitch in the pin description. Pinterest does not allow for direct "Buy Now" options, BUT you can add text that says "Sign Up Here" or "Download This Free Guide". Just make sure you are not over the top with your sales pitch.

Remember that users are coming to Pinterest for the visual imagery and creative ideas not to be hit in the head with a sales pitch.

5.) Do NOT Include Hashtags

With platforms such as Instagram, it is commonplace to see a wall of hashtags and terms related to the image. Pinterest users frown upon this strategy, and it just looks spammy. With that being said include some elegant copy in your Pin description and leave all of the hashtags for other social platforms.

In closing, there's a lot still to learn about the promoted pins feature and what works and what doesn't. Try different things and experiment with different images, to see what works best f or your products and services. With Pinterest, it's all about the imagery and creative nature of the pins that you are promoting. If you have images that are colorful and unique, they will perform well. The Pinterest platform will only grow in the future, and if you are learning these strategies now, it will only improve your outcome later.

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How To Monetize Your YouTube Videos

In this article, I am going to show you connect your Google Adsense account to your YouTube channel and monetize your YouTube Videos. Let's talk briefly about what this guide will help you do. When you open a YouTube channel and begin creating content one of the things you may want to do is monetize your content with Google's built in ad platform called Adsense. It can be a tedious process that can cause many headaches. This guide is to help you eliminate those problems that may come up.

What You Will Need:

1.) An active youtube channel with at least 5-7 uploaded videos.

2.) An active Google Adsense account that has been approved by Google.

3.) A website/blog to provide to Google Adsense when setting up your account.

I'm going to assume you already have an active YouTube channel with content already uploaded. (Make sure that all the videos on the account are yours and you are not using anyone's content). If you do this, you will be at risk of having your YouTube channel AND Adsense account permanently banned.

---> One of THE most common mistakes when linking your Adsense account to your YouTube channel is not having a website to provide to Google Adsense when setting up your account. When you are signing up for Adsense they will ask you to provide them with your site, if you do not have one, your account will not be approved. Also, you need to have some content on the site and not just a URL to provide them. To learn how to set up a WordPress website/blog in under 10 minutes CLICK THIS LINK.

Google Adsense Frequently Asked Questions:

- You must be 18 years of age to sign up (You can use your parent's information if they are ok with it).

- To get paid, you must have an active bank account to provide Adsense when signing up. (They will not send a physical check).

- To receive a payout you MUST have made $100 total. (This means that you can make $50 in January and $52 in February and be paid the $102 the following month).

- You WILL NOT see your earnings from YouTube on the Adsense dashboard. This information will be under your YouTube analytics under "Estimated Earnings".

- When signing up for Adsense, you need to choose "Individual" and not "Business". (Unless you are a corporation).

Google Adsense Sign Up Process:

For this to work properly, you need to make sure you follow these steps to set up your account correctly.

Step 1: Go to www.adsense.com and click on the sign-up button on the home page.

Step 2: Once you are here it will ask you to either sign in with your Google account or create a new one. If you have an account, you can sign in, if not create a Gmail (Google) account to use.

Step 3: When you are signed into your account the next step will be to provide Adsense with your website URL. It should look like this

---> http://www.websiteaddress.com

Step 4: Select your primary language for your content and then click Save and Continue

Step 5: The next screen will be the contact information form. Fill ALL of the fields out with appropriate information. (Example: Name, Address, and Phone Number). When you are done filling this form out click the Submit my application button at the bottom of the screen.

Step 6: On the next page it will ask you to read the Terms of Service and accept them. Once you have read it check the yes box and click the accepted box.

Step 7: After you have completed these steps you will be presented with the thank you for applying screen where it says that your application is being reviewed, and they will contact you when you have either been accepted OR rejected. (This process usually takes anywhere from 1-3 business days). If you did this correctly, you would be contacted either way.

Once you have been accepted to the Adsense program, you can now link your Adsense account to your YouTube channel and start monetizing your videos.

How To Link Adsense Account To YouTube Channel

---> Remember that you will need an active YouTube channel with at least 5-7 videos uploaded.

Step 1: The first thing you need to do is Verify your YouTube Channel. To do this, you need to go to your creator studio. It will look like this:

At the top of the page, you will see something that says "Account Status." Underneath that, you will see your YouTube Channel's associated email address or your name and next to it a button that says "Verify." Click the verify button.

The first step will ask you to choose your country of origin and how you want them to check your account. You can either choose the Call OR Text option. Once you have chosen your desired form of verification and provided them with your phone number, you will be sent a verification code to insert into the box provided. After you receive the code and enter it into the provided box, you will be presented with the congratulations page saying your Channel is now verified.

When you have completed the verification process go back to the creator studio and make sure you see the word "verified" next to your name under account status.

Step 2: The next thing to do now that you are verified is to enable your channel for monetization. Still, under the creator studio click the "Enable" button next to the Monetization feature. Once you click the enable button, you will be presented with another page that tells you about monetization and the terms of service. Click the "Enable My Account" button on this page. After accepting the YouTube Partner Program Terms of service, your account will be enabled for monetization. You will then see a confirmation page that shows your account is activated for monetization, and you can put ads on your videos and start making money.

How to monetize your videos once you have been approved

To begin making money from your videos, you will need to activate monetization on EACH of your videos. Follow the steps below to enable ads on your videos.

Step 1: Go to your video manager within YouTube. (To get to your video manager click the channel icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen and go to the creator studio. On the right-hand side of the screen you will now see a link that takes you to your Video Manager).

Step 2: Under the video that you want to monetize click the edit button. You will now be presented with all of the options to edit your video. Click on the monetization tab under the video preview. Once you are there, click the slider next to the words that say "Monetize With Ads." You will then be able to set the types of ads you want to show on this particular video. (I recommend checking all of the different ads types, BUT as you get more familiar with what is working for your channel you can select the ones that work best). Click save and you are done.

Step 3: To confirm that your video is monetized go back to the video manager and look to the right of that video you just monetized. You should see a green circle with a WHITE money symbol inside of it. If the video is not monetized, it will show a GREY money symbol with NO green circle. (Please remember that there is a chance that your content does not get approved for monetization if you are not using your OWN content).

Where to find your earnings

To see how much you have made, you will need to go to your analytics section of your YouTube channel. It will be located within your creator studio, and the link will be on the right-hand side of the screen. When you are at the Analytics overview page you will need to click on the "Estimated Revenue" or "Revenue" links to see how much you have made. THIS INFORMATION WILL NOT BE IN YOUR ADSENSE DASHBOARD. Also, sometimes it takes a few days for YouTube to provide you with these stats. With that being said just be patient and wait a few days to see how you are doing.

Important Things To Remember If You Are Having Problems

- You must have a website associated with your Adsense account to get approved.

- You CAN link multiple YouTube account BUT have to have both of them verified.

- If your Adsense account is NOT approved, I recommend going through the steps one more time and make sure you followed EVERY one of them exactly.

- You MUST have some videos uploaded to your YouTube channel to enable monetization.

- You WILL NOT see any earnings in the Adsense dashboard from your YouTube earnings. All of this data will be under your YouTube analytics.

- If you change your YouTube channel name, it will NOT have any effect on your Adsense account OR your ability to monetize.

- If you use songs, pictures or videos that are not yours, you will run the risk of getting your Adsense account shut down, and your YouTube channel banned for life.

- All information on your Adsense contact form needs to be CORRECT due to tax purposes.

- Google will take out taxes from your finalized earnings (You may make $167.00 in one month, BUT the payment will be for $112.00).

- If you do not have a bank account, you cannot sign up for AdSense

After following all of these steps, you should be running ads and making money from your YouTube channel. If you are having any issues with any part of the process, feel free to email me at [email protected], and I will try and help fix your problem.

In closing, if you have followed these steps exactly you should have no problem running ads on your videos and begin making money. Remember, Rome was not built in a day, and you have to be patient. This is not a get rich quick scheme if you create great content and build a YouTube community you can make a decent amount of money each month with this method

How To Start A Patreon Campaign To Support Your Content

With Ad revenue not being what it once was, creators are looking for new ways to support themselves. Patreon is a platform that allows your fans to help you by pledging either a specific amount per month OR piece of content. In this article, I will walk you through the steps to start a Patreon campaign the right way.

In this article, I am going to show you how to setup your Patreon campaign.

First, sign up for a Patreon campaign here. There is an orange button that says "Become A Creator," click on that to begin.

Fill out the sign-up form OR just link your Facebook account.

You will then be taken through a list of questions that best fit your content you are creating. It will also ask you to select if you will be getting paid per month or piece of content. (I recommend per piece of content). After you have finished answering the questions, you will see the Patreon Page Editor.

Description:

Your description is going to be the place where you talk about who you are and why people should pledge to support your content.

Get detailed here, tell people what you are creating and what you will do with the money when they pledge to you. I recommend including images and even video on this section of your page. This will break up the reading a little bit and make your page stand out. If you are creating video or audio content this is also a perfect place to insert examples of what you are doing.

Goals:

Next, you need to add a few goals to your page. I recommend around 3-4, and making the first one easy to obtain. There is something about seeing a completed goal and the progress bar full, that gives the impression that you are doing something BIG.

Make the first goal something simple like "Upgrade Equipment". This also provides you with a good bar to look at and have some fun realistic goals to reach.

Rewards:

When your fans pledge to you they are also going to get something in return. The rewards section of your Patreon page is where you list the different levels of compensation you are offering. Start out with something small. I recommend going around $3-$5 for the first tier of rewards. Make this level something small such as "I will thank you from the bottom of my heart, and give you a virtual hug". After that get creative with your rewards tiers and make them relevant to your content.

Good Reward Examples:

• Special Patron's only content (Video, Audio, Blog Content)
• Early Patron access to your content
• Patron page on your website with their website and links to their content
• Shout out's on your videos or audio content

Profile Image And Banner

It is important that your page looks exciting and pops off the screen when prospective patron's visit your page. Have a profile image and banner image that represent's you and your content well.

Also, there will be a button to the right of your profile picture that says "Add Links." This is where you want to add your social links for people to get in touch with you outside of Patreon.

Thank You Video:

I believe this may be the most important aspect of your patreon campaign. Create a personal video message from you telling the person that just decided to pledge to you thank you. Make this video very personal, and do it on your couch or somewhere that lets the patron know that they are getting to see you behind the scenes.

The easiest way to upload your video is to upload it to YouTube as an unlisted video and then copy and paste the link where you see the Video URL option under your Thank You page settings.

Tips For Running A Successful Patreon Page

• Update the patron feed monthly if not weekly keeping your supporters informed with current events.
• Communicate with each patron as they pledge. A personal email/message can go a long way.
• Choose per piece of content as opposed to monthly.
• When you have pledges that do not go through for a number of reasons, just contact those patrons and let them know their payment didn't go through. Normally they don't know their card or account has expired or isn't working properly.

In closing, just remember that these people are taking money out of their pockets and giving it to you each month OR each time you create something new. With that being said you should treat them like family and have them be A PART of what you are doing. Patreon is a new way of supporting yourself and there are new methods being learned each and every week, just know that you can always go back and tweak your page to see what will get the best results for you specifically.

7 Ways To Use Snapchat For Business And Grow Your Brand

There is no denying it; Snapchat is on the rise. It has always been a powerhouse in the 12-18 age bracket, BUT in the past 12-18 months, it has been on the rise with 21-45-year-olds. If you are not utilizing Snapchat for your brand, you are doing it wrong. In this article, I am going to list seven ways to use Snapchat for business, and how it can grow your brand.

1. Deliver Private Behind The Scenes Content

You can use Snapchat to provide behind the scenes "special content" to your community. Exclusive access to you and your business is extremely valuable. The Snapchat platform allows for such an intimate look at what you are doing as a person and as a business. It's just another way to provide content quickly that can bring extreme value to your community. Think of something unique to surprise your community with that will be exclusive to Snapchat. Think of releasing content on Snapchat as a preview before the masses have even seen it.

2. Contests, Perks, And Promotions

Everybody LOVES social media giveaways and prizes; it's just human nature. Especially if the item or perk that you are giving away is extremely valuable. Think of how you can utilize Snapchat's platform to run special time-gated community giveaways that will have your followers coming back for more. Some brands even do scavenger hunts through Snapchat and send their community on a wild goose chase to locate an object related to their business. Get creative with this one and build an engaged community.

3. Partner With Snapchat Influencers

Just as with Instagram you can utilize people who have HUGE followings on Snapchat to grow your Snapchat follower base and for brand awareness. What better way to use a platform than to promote your business with some of the most influential people on Snapchat. Get in touch with this people and build partnerships that can help both parties. When you partner with influencers, you will spread your brand awareness to a demographic that might be had to reach through traditional media, and other social networks.

4. The Snapchat Takeover

This one is fun and useful. Allow someone else either an influencer OR someone your audience would recognize and have them take control of your Snapchat account for a day or two. Allowing someone else to do this will bring their following over to you AND will bring a fresh face and sound to your Snapchat account for a short while. It's a good mix up, and will allow you to utilize other talented people who have new and unique ways to reach people that you may not have.

5. Tell An Interesting Story

Most video, even on YouTube should be short and to the point, and this is certainly the case with Snapchat. With Snapchat, your audience is looking for brief content to consume while in line, at the Dr's office, or short breaks in their day. Provide them with short content and they will eat it up.

Snapchat works because the videos are limited to only 10 seconds at a time. Utilize those 10 seconds well, and pack them with as much value as you possibly can.

6. Provide Access To Live Events

The NBA has done a great job with this during the playoffs. They are utilizing Snapchat to provide the audience with clips from the games going on that day. It's a great way to allow the community to get involved with what is going on currently AND brings awareness to the current state of your brand/business.

Use Snapchat for product launches, trade shows, or events such as the 100th customer to shop with you or 100th client to sign up for your product or service. This gets your audience excited as you are providing a different, more "real" view of what is going on at the event.

7. Learn How To Use Snapcodes

The one downfall of Snapchat is how difficult it is for people to find your brand and become a follower. Snapchat has what they call "Snapcodes." Learn more about Snapcodes here. You will need to familiarize yourself with this feature and how you can edit and share your Snapcode with your current following through your blog and social platforms. You can also create Snapchat direct links that will allow people to click on them on mobile and then be sent to your Snapchat profile to follow you from there.

Some Snapchat Stats

• There are over 110 million active Snapchat users daily.
• Over 400 million snaps are sent each day
• Snapchat Ads are viewed over 100 million times each day
• Snapchat is worth 20 million dollars
• 60% of all smartphone users are on Snapchat
• 60% of Snapchat users are between the ages of 18-34

If you want, you can follow me on Snapchat here.

How To Start A Successful Blog Today

The blogging space is full of what I call "Noise." This just means there are a lot of blogs out there, and very few are valuable. I'm not trying to be harsh it's just the truth. If you want your blog to be successful, you are going to have to work extremely hard and have patience. If you have GREAT content and a consistent posting schedule you will be fine.

There are a few things you can do the "right way" when you are starting your blog that will help you get a head start on your competition. Below is a list of things that you can do as a new blogger, that will get you on the right path.

1. A Domain Name That Looks Professional

If you haven't started your blog yet, I highly suggest you get a domain and hosting package from a web hosting service such as Bluehost. It is simple to build your blog with their built-in one-click WordPress install tool. In as little as 5 minutes you can have a FREE professional looking domain name and a hosting service.

You don't want you URL to look like this — www.yourblog.weebly.com

You WANT it to look like this — www.yourblog.com

Free services such as WordPress native blogs and the Blogger platforms are great, BUT they have their branding in your domain name. If you are serious about building your brand with a blog, you must have a specific domain name. If you want a successful blog, this is important.

2. Update Your Permalink Structure

When you are creating a new blog post the permalink is the URL that your blog creates after you publish. It will be set as something ugly that looks like this:

http://www.onlinebusinessrealm.com/*&$=786

Not what you want to be shown when people go to your specific posts.

Before writing your first blog post go to the Settings tab in your WordPress Dashboard and navigate to the Permalink section.

Under Settings —> Permalinks change the structure to be "Post Name".

3. Change The Favicon For Your Website

A favicon is a 16X16 icon that shows up next to your URL in the browser, and it also shows up next to the tabs or when you create a bookmark for the site.

If you choose not to upload a favicon, it will show up as blank or some ugly little globe object from WordPress. Yes, this is just a small thing, BUT it all adds up, and it will make a difference in making your site stand out.

To update your favicon, you will nee a 16 X 16 pixel icon (formatted as favicon.ico). If you are a WordPress user, most of your templates will have a section to upload the favicon directly from the appearance tab.

Go to favicon.cc to create a favicon that will work on any platform.

4. Don't Go Crazy With Plugins and Widgets

One of the best things about WordPress is how easy and fun it is to customize your site using plugins and widgets. I would recommend you do some research on which plugins would best suit the needs of your site before installing any. Here are a few listed below that I recommend for all blogs/website.

• WordPress SEO by Yoast — A fantastic SEO plugin that helps you optimize each post for search.
• BackupBuddy — The most user-friendly site backup plugin for WordPress that can back your site up automatically.
• W3 Total Cache — The speed of your site is IMPORTANT, and this plugin will optimize your site to run as fast as it can.
• WPForms — WPForms is the most beginner friendly contact form plugin for WordPress.
• OptinMonster — A simple to use lead generation plugin. (Free).
• OptinSkin— A more in-depth lead generation plugin. (Premium).
• Disqus — A WordPress commenting system. Disqus Looks much better than the native WordPress systems.
• Floating Social Bar — The best social media sharing plugin for WordPress.

It is, of course, subjective to what are the best plugins for the job, but this is a great list to get you started. Just make sure you have a backup plugin, cache plugin, and some type of SEO plugin.

5. Format Your Blog Posts

One thing I see newer bloggers do is to create posts with great content, BUT they are no fun to read. Make sure you are breaking your content up appropriately with headings and pictures. Your posts should include headings, subheadings, bold keywords, italics, lists, white space, pictures, diagrams, charts, infographics, and links. It will take some practice, BUT if you can learn how to construct an eye-catching blog post, you will be ahead of most people already.

6. Be Original

The last thing I'm going to touch on is just being "you". Originality is key in the online blogging space, and you need to find what makes you different. Yes, there will be other blogs out there about the same thing you want to write about. Question: Why is your blog any different? The Answer: Because of YOU. You are what makes your blog different; it's your perspective on the topic, your creativity, the value that you add.

Here are some other tips to get you started:

• Be Honest — Your blog needs to be real – it needs to FEEL real if you want people to read it. You don't have to be a professional writer, just come at each post as if you were speaking with the individual who is reading it.
• Transparency — Always be honest, and be transparent when it adds value to what you're writing. Let your audience in your world when it could bring them value.
• Time — After you have started your blog, you'll learn that blogging takes a log of time. Once you have your design set up, don't tweak it too much; spend the time on your writing.
• Social Media — In the beginning, the only person reading your blog will most likely be your mom. I recommend using Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest and Instagram, among other social networks that fit your niche. BUT don't get so caught up in this that you have no time to write good content. There has to be balance.
• Ignore Negative Criticism and Trolls — This may come as a shock to you BUT there are going to be people out there that do not like what you are creating, and they are going to be mean to you. This sounds juvenile, but it's so true. You have to learn to keep your head down and focus on the people who are positive about what you are doing. Pay the trolls no mind; your site is not for them. Delete their comment and move on.

In closing just Be Interesting. Write awesome content. Especially if you want people to share it with others.

Logo Design for your business is critical. It is the face and the first thing people see when they encounter your brand.

When it comes to getting a logo designed for your company there are a few ways you can go about it.

• You can design the logo yourself if you are a decent artist and proficient with design software such as Adobe Illustrator.
• You can go the inexpensive route and go to a site such as Fiverr to have a freelance artist design one for you.
• You can go the more professional route which I recommend and run a competition on 99 Designs for different graphic designers to compete for your business.

Create a logo that clearly illustrates what your company stands for or does, and stands out visually when looked at. There are many different things you need to take into account when choosing a logo design. It should be clean and functional, you need to be able to look at it and tell what the business is about, and you need to think about your target audience.

For all of my online ventures, I have chosen 99 designs. They allow you to run a competition and have hundreds of designers compete for a chance to design your logo. After a set amount of time, the competition ends and depending on the type of package you choose and you can select the designs you like best to go to the final round. Once you have decided which design you like best you can communicate this with the designer and he will hand over all of the necessary files.

The Right Way to Launch a Contest

1. Head over to 99Designs and Sign Up for an account
2. Once you've signed up for an account, start a new "Logo Design" contest and fill out the Design Brief. Make sure you provide as much information as you can because the more you can convey what you want to the designers the better

Using and Protecting Your Logo

After you have decided on a logo design that fits your company's mission at a glance, be sure to trademark it to protect it from use by other companies. You can apply for a trademark at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website.

What is Passive Income?

In this post, I am going to list ten different ways you can make passive income online, but first, I am going to explain what passive income is before I start. Passive income is an income received on a regular basis, with little effort required to maintain it. You will have to work hard NOW to receive the benefit later. You will continue to gain income for the rest of your life, even while you eat, sleep, and travel the world. I will also tell you that I do 7 out of 10 of these methods with a lot of success.

1. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the ability to earn income by promoting someone else's product. With this method, you are not putting in the time to create an actual product, but promoting someone else's by using a video, blog post, or some other method of content creation. When you sign up for an affiliate program, you are provided a unique link that you can use to direct people to the product you are trying to promote. Anybody that buys that product through your specific link will earn you a commission. One of the most well-known affiliate programs is the Amazon Associates program, with this program, you can link to any item listed on Amazon and receive a small amount when someone purchases it from your link. Sign Up For Amazon Associates Here

2. Write An Ebook

This is possibly the easiest way to make a passive income online. You are leveraging the popularity of the Kindle Store to sell your books. You must do your research before you begin writing your book to see what people are searching for and what keywords you need to use in your title and description. You write a book and then list it on the Kindle Store and watch the money roll in. However, the process is not as simple as it sounds. If you want to be successful on the Kindle platform, there are a few things you need to know.

• Formation for the different Kindle readers can be a pain. Make sure you know the formatting rules before writing your book.
• To make a significant amount of money through this method, you will need to price your book above $1.99
• As with any product, CONTENT IS KING when writing an ebook
• Reviews and ratings are important to rank higher in the Kindle Store

If you already have informational content, this is a great way to repurpose it and package it into an ebook you can sell.

3. Google Adsense Advertising

This method is straightforward, if you have a blog or website, sign up for the Google Adsense program and start running ads on your site. When a visitor is on your site, and they click an ad, you will get paid a small amount by Google. It's that simple. A very easy way to make money online, but the sum of money you will receive per ad will depend primarily on what niche you site is in and how many advertisers are bidding on that topic. I would not recommend relying solely on Adsense, BUT it can be a great way of complementing your other passive income streams. Sign up for the Google Adsense program here.

4. YouTube Videos

Starting and growing a YouTube channel alongside your brand/business is always a great idea, and it can also be another source of passive income for you. Video marketing is becoming King in the online business world, with that said if you are not creating videos associated with your business you are doing it wrong. Once you have your channel up and going, all you do is associate your YouTube Channel with your Google Adsense account and begin making money from the ads that run on your videos.

Here is a video showing you how to setup Adsense with your YouTube channel

5. Create An Online Course

We are all authorities at something. Use what you know well and create a valuable course and sell it online. The initial work in creating the courses can be tedious and take a long time, BUT once you have the course done, and you are ready to begin selling it will be on autopilot. It may take 3-5 times longer than an ebook to create, buy you can also charge 3-5 times more. Before building your course do a little research to make sure people are searching for what you want the course to be about. There are two different ways to go about selling your online courses.

1.) Selling on already established sites — Udemy, Thinkific, and Teachable. These are the most popular course marketplaces that will host your course and provide you with a platform to build it.

2) Selling on your website and hosting it yourself.

A great tool to create online courses is Screenflow for Mac and Camtasia for Windows users.

6. Selling Stock Photography

Selling stock photography is a method that many people are not aware of. If you are a photographer OR even if you just have a good eye for great photos, this is a great way of making some extra cash. Sites such asGraphicstock, iStockPhoto, and many more are always looking for people to provide them with great pictures on their marketplace. The concept is relatively straightforward. You take pictures, upload them to the marketplace and each time one of your images sales you get a commission.

7. Membership Sites

A membership site is a website that has a password protected members-only area. Access to some or all of the content on the site is restricted to only paying registered members. Creating a membership site is a great way to generate passive income and scale your brand/business. You create the content upfront OR monthly and then are getting payments each month from your members. The best way of doing this is to build FREE content first to get your audience "Hooked" on what you are creating. Then after you have their attention, find a way to get them to pay for your other content. The best part about this method of passive income is that it is "recurring".

8. Rent Your Extra Space

Airbnb is an idea that has only been around fo a few years. It has exploded around the globe, and people are utilizing it's benefits worldwide. It allows you to travel all around the world and stay in places that are much less expensive than the standard hotel. They do this by staying with other Airbnb members who rent out part or all of their homes to travelers. By using Airbnb, you can make money by renting out space that you already have, that's not being utilized. This works especially well if you reside in a tourist city (New York, Chicago, LA).

Paula Pant from the AffordAnything tried her hand at Airbnb to make some extra money, and it ended up netting her an additional $19,000.

9. Build An App

With the explosion of the Smart Phone and tablets, there has never been a better time than now to make an app. Think about the number of people today who have smart devices. It's almost everybody! People are download apps like mad, and will continue to do so in the future.

Apps can make people's lives easier. If you can build an app, that solves an existing problem. You are golden. Simple and unique apps can make a lot of money.

You may be saying to yourself; I don't know how to code. That' completely fine, there are many ways on the internet to either teach yourself how OR you can pay someone to build your app idea for you and then sell it yourself.

Check out this post from Nathan Barry on how he made $19,000 on the app store WHILE he was learning to code.

10. Peer To Peer Lending

With peer to peer lending, you can invest in possibly hundreds of loans that people are applying for. Lending Club provides you with the opportunity to earn interest rates in excess of 10% each year. This is almost ten times more than what you would earn on a more conventional loan.

Obviously, with this method you are at risk of some of your loans going bad. That's just common sense, BUT with this system, you will be invested in over 100 different microloans that for the most part will be paid off. LendingClub advises starting out with an initial deposit of $2500. You can invest as little as $25 in a single loan, and can buy into 100 different loans with a deposit of that amount. This way you don't have to worry about a single loan going bad and ruining your investment portfolio.

You must be willing to work to create a business online that produces passive income.

Before you start, ask yourself, "Am I doing this JUST for the money — To generate passive income you have to gain the trust of your audience. If they see that you are just in it for the money, this will turn them away. You have to be passionate about your content, and it has to bring value to whoever you are targeting.

Be prepared to put in the work upfront.

There is no such thing as a "Get rich quick" method online. It will require you to put in some blood, tears, and sweat. Patience is key to creating a sustainable online business and passive income streams. If you are getting frustrated by the amount of work/time you have to put in, this may not be for you.

The Online Business Realm podcast is a place for you to call home while you are on this crazy journey to start your online business. As you grow your online business, I hope you gain value from this site and that it will help you create a successful business that can support you and your families.

When it comes to creating an online business you need to remember a few things.

• You have to be patient — It will not happen overnight
• You will create things online that DO NOT WORK — It's ok to fail
• If you put in the time upfront creating VALUABLE products and experiences you will benefit greatly later on.

An online entrepreneur's ultimate goal is to build an online business that takes advantage of automated systems, which allow transactions, cash flow, and other forms of monetization take place without having actually to be there in person.

It all starts with a website.

A website will be the first step to any successful online business. It's the first thing most of your potential customers/community will encounter when it comes to your brand and business. I like to consider it the FACE of my online business.

There are a few free options for website creation such as wordpress.com, Weebly, Tumblr, and a few more. I would not recommend this for a number of reasons. The number one reason being that your main URL will most likely have some extension of the platform. Example: www.yourwebsite-tumblr.com. You do not want this in the long run because you are trying to build a brand and this will not help with that, not to mention you will have much fewer options to customize your site to fit your needs.

I use and trust Bluehost for all of my sites including this one.

I have used Bluehost since the beginning of my online business career and have been completely satisfied. Their customer support is fantastic, and the platform is extremely flexible.

I have a full tutorial on how to setup a Bluehost website/blog here

Thank You So Much For Being Here

I'm here for you as both an instructor and as a friend.

I want to hear about your journey and the things that are working for you online. I want this Online Business journey to be something that we can do together. I will do my best to respond to all of the comments and emails and treat everyone the same. I just want you to be able to start a business that not only changes you and your families life BUT people all over the world.

Now, take a look around the site and see if there is anything that looks interesting 🙂