Passive Income can be see as an extra way for you to generate income in hard times. The main benefit to you is that generally it is only a relatively small amount of time input for you initially and then after this you keep earning money.

How does it work!?

Its really very simple. You create something to sell (web template, photo, Flash animation etc) and then upload to a website that can sell your creation for you. Each time your creation is sold, you earn a commission. The commission you make varies depending on the website you are selling on and the type of product you are selling. It basically means that potentially you can make money while you sleep.

Here are some things you can do:

Website Designer

If you have skills in web design, why not produce website templates for WordPress that you can sell through template sites… or how about producing Magento templates - Magento is fast becoming a very popular e-commerce platform and, at the moment, there aren’t a great deal of really good templates out there. WordPress on the other hand is a completely different matter. There are TONS of brilliant WordPress templates, many of them available for a free download. If you are considering offering WordPress then you really need to find yourself a niche or do something completely different to everyone else.

Other options would be to produce a new online web application. Im sure that most web designers have heard of 37 Signals and there excellent range of online applications… well, this is basically how they started out.

Photographer

This one is more obvious. If you are a photographer then you can sell your photos online through stock photography sites. You earn commission on every image that you sell. If you are thinking of doing this then you need to make sure that your photos are of a very high quality and you have found a niche.

Graphic Designer

For a very small amount of time, you could add your design creations to t-shirts, mugs, hats, mousemats… pretty much anything. The good news is you dont need to print these items yourself! There are a few really good websites out there that enable you to create your own store online, for free, and then attach your designs to a range of products.

Writers

Writers or experts in their fields can make income from selling books… yep, without a publisher. There is a great site out there called Lulu that enables you to sell your creation directly through their website. Well worth a look.

Important to Remember

If you are looking at any of these ideas as an additional way to make income then you need to remember that the qualuity of your item needs to be very good. Nobody will purchase anything that looks half-finished or rushed. Its also very important to remember that you need to find your own niche. Its pointless basically reproducing something that has been done hundreds of times before.

Some ideas for you

Here are some ideas for you to make Passive Income:

• Website Templates (WordPress, Magento, Expression Engine, Joomla etc)
• Flash Animations
• Audio Loops and Sound Effects
• Icons
• Layered Photoshop Files
• Vector Illustrations
• Photographs
• Graphic art of apparel
• Books
• Instruction Guides
• Online Applications

That’s just a taster of some of the things you could do.

Sites of Interest

FlashDen - www.flashden.net
for: selling Flash, audio and videos

Theme Forrest - www.themeforest.net
for: selling web templates

Graphic River - www.graphicriver.net
for: layered Photoshop files, vectors, icons

iStockPhoto - www.istockphoto.com
for: selling photos, video, audio, illustrations

VectorStock - www.vectorstock.com
for: selling vector illustrations

ShutterStock - www.shutterstock.com
for: selling photos

Lulu - www.lulu.com
for: self publishing

Etsy - www.etsy.com
for: selling homemade items

Zazzle - www.zazzle.com
for: selling products

CafePress - www.cafepress.com
for: selling products

Would love to hear your comments and suggestions. Have you got a success story, other ideas, other websites? Leave your comments in the space below!

The main key to marketing in a recession isn’t necessarily to plump for the cheapest option but to make use of the most effective and the most cost effective marketing solutions. Every aspect of your marketing should be about finding value and this may lead to increased spending in some areas as well as decreased spending in others.

Research everything thoroughly because there’s less room for mistakes. Customer research is more important than ever. Consumers have been hit equally as hard by the recession and so they too are less inclined to make impulse or sudden purchases. They will be willing to put off purchases in order to ensure that they get the best deal.

Consider your market share because research has shown that companies still willing to invest in their marketing during a recession seize the opportunity to improve their market share and can take custom away from competitors. Instead of reducing marketing spend, ensure that it is all being used wisely.

Concentrate on those products and services that are more recession proof even if this means making some changes to your portfolio. It becomes more difficult to sell luxury items when people have less money to spend on luxuries. Also concentrate on selling to the family and the home. During a recession we go out less and stay in more so items that are used around the home in these circumstances will tend to fare better.

Offer even greater value in your products. Obviously you already price your products and services at the optimal level but ensure that you’ve squeezed every penny possible from the price and continue to offer recession beating price drops to help ease the financial burden that your customers face.

Marketing in a recession means concentrating on smart marketing rather than cheap marketing. As long as a particular method or avenue of marketing is still returning a positive ROI then there is realistically no reason to stop it.

For home workers, Twitter is a great way to meet new people, to chat and share ideas as well as share experiences.

The biggest problem with Twitter is frankly the website. There are tools out there that offer far more functionality than the Twitter website that can make your Twitter experience more enjoyable and less frustrating! If Twitter eventually brings in a ‘Retweet’ function, the website will become a million times better!

Anyway, here are my suggestions for tools for Twitter:

TweetDeck

A very popular programme that is available on all platforms (including iPhone). This is a desktop application that enables you to post new tweets, view messages, replies as well as having the benefit of having TwitPic built in.

TwitPic

If you don’t use TweetDeck, mentioned above, then you can use TwitPic’s website to upload and share photos.

Twhirl

This is an alternative to TweetDeck. This too is available across different platforms and will happily run in the background, updating you on new tweets. The interface isnt as nice as TweetDeck but this programme does have the benefits of monitoring multiple Twitter accounts at the same time.

Nearby Tweets

So you can see who is Tweeting near you, enter in your address and radius and it will show you the messages that have been posted recently near you.

Retweet Radar

This is a trend monitoring tool. Load up the website and you are presented with a tag cloud of all the popular topics doing their rounds on Twitter.

My Cleanr

This is a web based application to ‘clean your Twitter contact list’. It gives you the ability of removing inactive accounts.

Tweepular

I like this programme. Its very funky to look at and you get a moonwalking bird on it! This is an account management system that will let you bulk remove friends and even check if people you are following arent following you back.

Friend or Follow

Who are you following that’s not following you back? Who’s following you that you’re not following back? Find out!

Monitter

It’s a twitter monitor, it lets you “monitter” the twitter world for a set of keywords and watch what people are saying.

Twitter Counter

A tool that you can use on your website to show how many Twitter followers you have. Also produces a nice little graph to show how your Twitter follower count has increased (or decreased!).

There are loads of other Twitter related programmes out there… this is just my pick! Please share your links below!

If you are a writer or dont have a direct need to use a PC every day, you may wish to take a look at this online tutorial to make your own minimalist desk. Its a really smart design and cleverly incorporates a shelf to put all your papers on too!

Take a look: http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/04/diy-project-maggis-minimalist-oak-desk.html

I will be adding more posts about business cards over the next few weeks that will hopefully inspire you to get creative with your business cards.

Take a look at some of the designs below for inspiration. Some may be a bit over the top for your requirements but there are some great ideas! Don’t forget to leave your comments!

What do you think? Leave your comments below!

Here is my collection for May 2009.

Details of each of these offices can be found by clicking on the image.

To make this a little easier to follow, I have split the article down into different areas. Lets start with…

Project Management

For me, the best project manager is Basecamp. Its used by thousands of businesses all over the world. You can also get ‘addons’ made by other companies to integrate with other systems such as invoicing. The subscription is between $25 and $149 per month. Take a look at www.basecamphq.com

Another programme you may wish to take a look at is Huddle (www.huddle.net). Accounts are anything from FREE to $98 a month depending on the features you require and projects you are going to manage.

Invoicing and Accounts

One programme that I have found recently is called FreeAgent (www.freeagentcentral.com). Prices are from as little as $20 a month. This programme does everything for you - invoicing, book keeping, reporting, time tracking - basically everything!

Another programme well worth looking at is FreshBooks. This is from $0 per month through to $149 per month. The $27 a month account will probably be suitable for most freelancers and homeworkers though! The main added on benefit for FreshBooks is that it can be integrated to Basecamp which will improve your productivity and will save time. www.freshbooks.com

Office Suite

Really, there is only one worth mentioning here and thats Open Office (www.openoffice.org). Its a completely free programme that does everything from word processing, spreadsheets, databases - everything! The programme is available for virtually all platforms including Windows Vista and Mac OS/X along with a range of Linux operating systems.

Task Lists

Task lists are really a very basic ‘project manager’. I use them quite a lot by just creating a quick headline for my task to remind me of what needs to be done and when. The best task manager I have found and use is Remember the Milk (www.rememberthemilk.com). Full of features and also includes loads of extra integration options including being able to check your tasks via Twitter or your iPhone. Well worth a look and the basic version is completely free!

Thats it for now! I will be creating further lists in the future! If you have any suggestions that you would like to share, why not leave a comment in the box below!

PS… I have no idea why I used a banana image - I just liked it!

Last spring I spent some time looking around at garden offices for myself. I had run out of space in the house as I had just started running a shop selling t-shirts. I needed somewhere where I could setup ‘T-shirt HQ’ to make the t-shirts and process the orders. I came across some excellent garden office designs and I would like to share a few findings with you!

If, like me, this sort of thing is on a budget, check out the low-end offices here…

Budget Garden Offices

Above images are from the Garden Retreats range - http://www.gardenretreats.co.uk

Mid to High End Garden Offices

All above images are from the Garden Lodges range - http://www.gardenlodges.co.uk

Above images are from the Garden Escape range - http://www.thegardenescape.co.uk

The legality

In most cases, you will not need planning permission. You should always consult your council’s planning office for clarification but the general rules (for the UK) are:

• The garden building / office is not in the grounds of a listed building or in a conservation area
• The building is not within 5m of your house
• Garden buildings greater than 15 sq metres should be sited at least 1 metre from any boundary
• Garden buildings over 30 sq metres may require planning permission.
• The garden office / building should be in your back garden
• The height of the roof ridge does not exceed 4m at the highest point in your garden
• The footprint of the garden building does not cover more than 50% of your grounds
• The garden building must be used by the occupants of the main house

Well how about this one!? OK so most of us who work from home wont be able to do anything quite as fancy as this - not enough money, not enough garden etc, but you have to admire the originality of this office! It is truly a work of art.

Read on for some amazing pictures of my new favourite work place!

If you know where it is or know anything more about it, why not leave a comment!

Hmmm... what on earth is that...

...wait a minute...

Is this where the Hobbits live?

My word... its an office!

Now thats cool!

I wanna work here...