The Passive Dad

Building Websites For Passive Income

Scott — Mon, 09 May 2011 13:00:26 +0000

Can a website be a source of passive income? Well, the the simple answer is yes……but some thought out research and seo needs to be done first. I’ve been silently working on several website projects over the last few months/year to see if web sites can be built, optimized, and left to run while providing a steady stream of income. Here are some of my general thoughts over the past year.

It was an extremely challenging proposition as I had many ideas for websites, from car parts to party supplies. I had days when I would find some wonderful keyword ideas using google adwords and then have my hopes dashed by finding several websites already in my niche. What to do? Well, that’s where keyword research and seo comes in play. I already had a little knowledge about keyword research and seo through creating this blog. I knew I ranked well for keywords like passive income or passive income ideas. What made me more interested is why I ranked well for other keywords not necessarily in my niche. I’ve found some great tools, and I will share them with you over the next few posts. Many of the tools are free and I found them priceless while building many of my websites. I also payed money for some tools, and some just flat out didn’t work for me. I’ll tell you all the details, good and bad.

Was I successful? Yes and maybe. I’ve had months where I’ve made $200 and months where I’ve made over $800 online through ads and selling products. The most interesting part about creating these websites, is the fact that the google ranking system is so mysterious and random. I’ve had a site rank in the first listing for a keyword for two months straight, only to be moved to the 3rd and 4th position for the following 3 months. I have tried to come to terms that I may never understand how I can change rankings so quickly.

What can I control? I can create other websites that have similar seo strategies around similar keywords for other niches. Can you do this too? Absolutely! This is not rocket science and I’ll give you some great tips and free resources that you can research and try for yourself. Am I still looking for that one site that creates $10,000 a month in passive income? You bet! But, in the meantime I’ll be working away at $100 a month websites that I can build consistent income.

What’s working for you? Do you have a niche site plan that is building passive income for you?

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Earning Extra Money: Think Out Of The Box

Scott — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:37:27 +0000

Earning extra money is possible, though it can take some creative methods to make it work. If you are in need of a few extra dollars a day or perhaps you need to earn a significant amount per month, the following ideas can help you to get started. Keep in mind that to earn extra money, you do not always have to invest a great deal of time in a new job.

• Consider working from home. Numerous small businesses start right from the home. If you have any skill or passion, make it a business to earn extra money.

• Sell your knowledge through an eBook or through online tutorials. Charge others to view that information to help meet their needs. Clickbank is a great place to start getting ideas and to even find some money making ebooks. In the past month I’ve really started looking at profitable niche ebooks and have set-up a domain that redirects traffic to one ebook. The goal is to start another passive income source that will grow over time. Need a couple ideas? Here is one ebook that I have had a little success with over the last month. It’s a Squidoo lens that I created for the woodworking niche.

• Take on a part time job working in consulting. Those who have years of work experience can work as a consultant for competitors. For example, if you work as an engineer in your full time job, help small businesses by consulting on their needs. I was able to consult part-time for one of the banks I used to work for. They needed someone who knew the software and was able to work late at night processing files. Perfect job as I was able to work and not have to deal with a commute or get dressed up for work.

• Build residual income by developing a software product, an iPod or iPad application or other electronic tools. Then, sell them to those who need them and want to use them. You will do the work just one time but will earn income over time. A great example of this is found over at Pat Flynn’s site. Pat has built a successful company that specializes in iphone apps.

• Find a work at home job. You do not always have to start a business to work from home. Numerous companies pay individuals to do customer service through telecommuting. Some ideas for work at home jobs are VA: virtual assistants, blog writers, and article writers. Check sites like elance for writing and VA jobs. Also check blog job boards like Problogger for full-time writers. I have used elance for writing assignments both here on Passive Dad and on my other niche websites.

To earn extra money for your needs, consider what you are good at. Then, find a way to turn those skills or that knowledge into an income for yourself. Often, you can do this right over the web, which allows you to work from home. Earning extra money like this can be a full time income or a part time opportunity. What are you doing for extra income?

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Where’s The Beef? Finding Passive Income Sources

Scott — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:48:45 +0000

Remember that commercial from the 80′s where the grandma yell’s this famous line?

Well, that’s the way I’ve been feeling for the past few months regarding passive income. Truth be told, I am making passive income, just not as much as my original goal. So…what can I do about it? Set a more realistic goal. I’ll share mine, if you share yours

Goal for February is $500 in Passive Income.

Current income sources:
Adsense
clickbank
ehow
big crumbs
squidoo

I am hoping to scale back on outsourcing content and work on building out current website project myself. I’ve learned much over the past 2 years about SEO and article marketing. I want to know what is working for you and what your goals are this month?

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Unit Pricing: The Real Indicator of Value for your Money

Traci K. — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:00:05 +0000

I was at Wal-mart with my husband last week shopping, and ended up in the laundry detergent and softener aisle. I don’t typically buy my laundry supplies at Wal-mart, but we needed detergent and it would ultimately save gas and time to just get it there. Because I was very unfamiliar with Wal-Mart pricing on these items, I think I spent well over 20 minutes staring at the unit pricing for different brands and sizes. The actual value of any product you buy can be broken down to the unit price of a given object. In the case of my laundry detergents, I saw that the better pricing was actually a major brand at regular price instead of even the sale detergent or the off-brand labels. Not only that, but the smaller packages were a better deal in general also! It’s been awhile since I found that to be true. What seems to be the best deal, isn’t always the best deal. This is when knowing how to determine unit pricing will help you.

If you aren’t familiar with unit pricing, it’s like the price per pound or the price per ounce of any given object. A lot of stores have the unit pricing listed on the shelf label in addition to the total price. Just in case you can’t find it on the shelf tag, finding the price is easy as long as you have a calculator or if you’re really good at doing math in your head.

I was shopping for dryer sheets this weekend, so let’s use that as an example. At drugstore.com, a 80ct. box of Bounce dryer sheets is $5.99. $5.99 divided by 80 (the number of total sheets) is $0.074 or about 7 cents per dryer sheet. 120 ct. box of Bounce dryer sheets is $7.49 or about $0.062 or 6 cents per dryer sheet. The difference is fairly minuscule, but the larger box is slightly cheaper when you look at the cost per dryer sheet. In our case, a box of 80 dryer sheets lasts us 3-5 months so buying more than that seems wasteful and doesn’t validate the $2.40 I would save per year.

Although to be fair, if I did this with everything I buy on a regular basis (just off the top of my head I’m estimating 30-40 things per month we buy regularly from milk, eggs, to meat) the potential savings add up to $100 and more per year. That’s just at a one cent per unit discount on things you’re going to be buying anyway although “savings” could be less or more. While this is an impractical attitude to take towards every purchase, it can have some benefit. If you enjoy math or this type of picky shopping, or you find yourself trying to decide if the smaller package or larger package is a better deal then determining the unit price may be for you.

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5 Tips to Start Planning for Retirement

Traci K. — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:00:58 +0000

There are a lot of different options when it comes to planning for retirement: 401k, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, Regular Savings, Money Markets, and even Stocks. All of these methods have time tested value, although some come with more risk than others. If you’re just starting to plan for retirement, this may seem like I’m talking in gibberish. Let’s simplify! Here are 5 tips if you’re just starting to save for your retirement.

401(k): If your job offers a 401(k) retirement plan (and ESPECIALLY if they match anything at all), use it. The bigger the company match, the better off you’ll fare. What this means is that if you have a company that matches 50% of your 401(k), and you save $2,000 for the year, your company will add an additional $1,000 or 50% of what you saved. It’s free money, it doesn’t get sweeter than that. Like any type of important long-term savings, put as much as you can in! The suggested percent of your total income to stash in all savings is 10%. If you can’t make that, do what you can. If you’re older, it’s more important to make that as much of an amount as possible.
IRA: If you don’t have a 401(k) through your work, you should consider an IRA. Deposits to IRA retirement accounts can be deducted from your taxes at the end of the year, although there is a maximum deposit amount per year for tax purposes. There are two types of IRA accounts: Traditional and Roth. Traditional IRA accounts mean that no taxes are taken out of your money before it’s sent to your IRA. So, when you pull it out to use it in retirement you will have to pay taxes on it. A Roth IRA means you’ve already paid your taxes on that income, so when you do use your savings in retirement you won’t owe taxes on it. I opt for a Roth IRA because the idea on paying taxes on (hopefully) $50,000+ makes me stomach lurch to my throat.
High-Interest: Another way to contribute to your retirement savings is by stashing your main emergency savings and/or long term savings in a high-interest account or CD (or other similar investment). These types of savings are low-risk so you won’t lose money, although the money you will gain is potentially lower than other high-risk options.
Make it Automatic: Just like any savings account, make the transfer of money automatic so you forget about it and it’s not part of your incoming income.
Diversify: Although this becomes more important as you get older, it can be helpful to have retirement funding in several different types of accounts. Most low-interest accounts like IRA’s, savings, and CD’s and Bonds are pretty consistent through time, but if you have some high-risk investments (like a 401(k) that’s also based on stock prices) then make sure you have other low risk investments and savings as well.

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8 Ways to Cut Entertainment Expenses

Traci K. — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:00:07 +0000

Entertainment expenses can take up a large portion of a family’s budget and time. How often have we picked up that new release from Blockbuster only to be a week late returning it – and paying the resultant late fee. Sometimes entertainment includes eating out (or snacking out), movie theater trips, shopping (without purpose), and sports and concert events. If your family is a devoted fan of your local semi-pro hockey team and you go to almost every game without fail, I certainly don’t advocate tossing your season passes to cut your expenses as long as you can comfortably afford them. However, there are some ways to cut down on entertainment costs, no matter what form of entertainment is your poison of choice.

Unlimited Movie Rentals without the Late Fee: Try subscribing to either Netflix or Blockbuster unlimited monthly rentals with no late fees. You can get anywhere from 1-3 DVD’s out at a time depending on the subscription package you buy. Of course, you could also try your library…as long as you take it back on time!
Stream Movies at Home: You can also stream movies to your computer at home, or through select devices depending on who you’re streaming through. If you have at least a DSL connection, you can typically stream without too much of an issue although you will see delays and even poor streaming from time to time. You can get all kinds of TV shows and movies free through sites like Hulu.com
Go Outside: Try getting out of the house! Go to a park, hike, picnic, play basketball, or take a walk. None of it requires money and it’s healthy for the whole family to get outside and play. Don’t forget to bring water!
Go to Afternoon Movies: If you are going to go out to the movies, go in the afternoon because the matinée prices are about half the price of the evening showings. Be sure to eat before you go so that you save on snacks and drinks because you feel full! Check your local movie theater listings as sometimes there are “$1.50” movie theaters that play movies that are on re-run instead of new releases at a very low cost.
Play Games: Traditional board games are still an option, although they seem to have fallen out of favor lately. There are lots of new games out in additional to other things like puzzles, drawing games, word games, and card games.
Volunteer: A great way to spend time together as a family is to volunteer. You can go to a local food bank, animal shelter, soup kitchen, or any other local charity organization that might need a few hours of help. It’s a great way to meet people and help others. For kids, it’s a great way to teach them about helping others.
Read a Book: Reading books are still a time honored tradition. You can read a book out loud to the family or curl up with a good book by yourself. Local libraries have tons of books for free, and there are tons of books to be found online for free as well.
Listen to Music: You can listen to music at home or go out to concerts. You can usually find discount tickets online. Save money by sitting further back. For many classical performance halls, the best acoustics are in the balcony or top levels and often are also the cheapest seats. Checking your local County and City web pages may also show a number of completely free live concerts available as well!

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Mint Online Budget Software Review

Traci K. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:00:16 +0000

Mint is one of the many new online budgeting software becoming very popular in the last year or so. I’ve been using Mint for about six months now, sometimes more regularly than others. Registration is fairly straight forward, although it is fairly lengthy including account and budget setup. Mint is completely free to use and syncs your information with your bank accounts by using your online login. Your information is kept safe as Mint uses the same type of security and technology as any type of well known financial institution (banks, tax companies, anyone who handles sensitive financial information). However, the concept of entering your bank account information into the Mint site may make you queasy. Don’t worry, it’s optional! For people like me who hate entering everything by hand, it’s a life saver.

When you log into the account after having linked your bank information or entering sufficient income, budget and receipts, your screen will give you a budget overview showing how much you’ve spent and where it went. If you’re just setting up your account, you can go to the Trends tab to see where your money is actually going. It will show you the last month by default, but you can compare to previous months as well. It may take awhile of editing individual stores and transactions to make sure they are counted in the correct category though.

Setting budgets is very easy, you simply follow the prompt to create a budget, choose categories and enter amounts. It’s all easy to edit through a very graphic interface. You can even set goals to pay off debts, or save for goals of your choice. The goal portion is pretty new to Mint, but very intuitive to use. It breaks your goal down into monthly goals and tells you about how long it will take to reach your goal.

Pros: Mint is very user friendly, very graphic and automatically pulls from your bank if you want to use that option. It’s great if you’re financially challenged, are new to budgeting, or need feedback and alerts if you go over budget. Mint offers text message and email alerts for a whole list of items varying from low balance to an exceeded budget amount.

Cons: Mint has a lot of options and a lot of things to customize. It can take awhile to set up and if you aren’t somewhat comfortable with computers it might be a challenge. Also, there is a fair amount of advertising. A lot of their “Save on..” options are offers from credit card companies, mortgages, etc. for related services. While they are kept to a minimum, they are prevalent.

I really suggest using Mint if you need help figuring out where your money is going, especially if you are comfortable using your online banking information. If you use email and text messages, it’s a great way to know quickly when you’re going over budget. This would definitely be great for college students trying to track debt (credit cards, student loans, borrowing money from friends) and learning how to budget for the first time. Overall, it’s an excellent program for anyone used to computer and online usage and some of their tools (like the goal tracker) are outstanding.

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The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris

Jessie — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 07:37:42 +0000

‘The 4-Hour Work Week’ is a rather idealistic sounding kinda book. OK definitely idealistic. But before you palm off this book as another one of those obscurely written, theory-based books that seeps out investment-speak- give it a chance! While it may not guarantee six-day weekends, it will deliver ideas and guidance to reducing the workload and gaining maximum finance by thinking and acting smarter.

The book is an inspiring study of time management, business, wealth, goal making, advertising and ‘lifestyle design’, a phrase coined by the author himself.

What stood out to me was that ‘The 4-Hour Work week’ is the real deal. While a lot of financial advice and self-help books maintain a good story, they often offer little more than just that. Ferriss focuses on the nature of happiness and defines it through its antonym, boredom.

His book is an uplifting philosophy deconstructing many principles that thwart the reaches of our successes. Interestingly, something I had never considered before was a concept that is prevalent in much of his work: Fear. An insightful point Ferriss makes is that fear is usually disguised as optimism – we justify our mundane careers with the hopes that things will improve, yet this is most likely a result of our innate fears to act or to alter our lifestyles. Ferriss describes this fear as a ‘losing’ outlook. Plans need to be executed. We spend far too much time on matters of insignificance yet procrastinate the really important things because they seem tiresome and tedious. This particular point rang true to me.

I found the ‘time management’ chapter particularly important. Ferriss applied the Pareto principle, that is, that we should eliminate 20% of the small factors that are wasting 80% of the time. He introduces the idea of automation, describing at length the various methods of creating and sustaining successful automatic sources of income.

What I love about this book is that Ferriss almost accidentally encourages the reader to step outside of their microcosmic world and to swallow the fear and conquer a new system, prioritizing tasks and minimizing the distractions that hinder short-term goals.

‘The 4-Hour Work Week’ gave me many business ideas that capitalize on our modern, technological lives. He tells of his positive experiences in hiring a virtual assistant for $4 an hour in India and how useful this has been in multiplying his effectiveness. I cannot wait to try this and until now wasn’t even aware of such things!

While I began this book with eye-rolls and skepticism, it opened my eyes to many opportunities. While it is impossible to properly condense the intricacies of his book into a short summary, this book is loaded with possibilities that are ready to be entertained. This book is effective, as it does not attach itself to a marketing agenda; instead, lifestyle shaping is at the very heart of this book.

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Book Review: Rich Dad Poor Dad

Jessie — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 07:35:33 +0000

While this was the type of book I’d joke about buying Dad at the bookstore, very aptly describing the fluctuating income as he siblings came and left the home, I bit the bullet and decided to give it a read to see what all the fuss was about.

‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ is by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter and it details the highs and lows of business, investment and finance in a personable narrative through the eyes of a son with two father figures in his life- Rich Dad and Poor Dad.

Poor Dad is an educated man who has always viewed education as the key to success but seemingly lacks common sense. He represents the average man, so perplexed by the thought of financial instability that he plods along life taking safe routes and is often reluctant to act at opportune moments.

Rich Dad, on the other hand, only made it to the eighth grade yet proves himself to be more business-minded, often sacrificing the safe option for the smart option. Throughout the novel, the two fathers yearn for success traveling very different paths, allowing the reader to compare and scrutinize their attempts and realize their outcomes.

The son reflects on the valuable lessons that have taught him sensible approaches towards education, investing and measuring success by both Rich and Poor Dad. The novel draws on themes of financial intelligence as an important concept, allowing for clear distinctions between assets and liabilities.

This book was a big hit for me in making me realize personal obstacles that were preventing me from pocketing maximum wealth. Fear, idleness, bad habits and skepticism are listed as factors that restrict a sturdy financial flow.

‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ gave me a wealth of ideas and solid advice in better money handling skills. Through the book, I now have solid aspirations and firm goals and will get active about decision-making.

The book made me understand the importance of friendships and the power of influence in shaping my own decision-making. I realized I am very luck to be surrounded by a like-minded network of friends with attributes that inspire me and often assist me in personal and financial advancement. Furthermore, the underlying and most poignant theme of all that struck a big chord with me was not to stop learning – be open to opportunities, stay up to date with world affairs and read newspapers. Ideas are everywhere!

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PearBudget Online Budgeting Software Review

Traci K. — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:00:42 +0000

There are a number of online budgeting software available to track your expenses and help you plan and keep track of your budget and income. One of the more popular online softwares I have run across lately is PearBudget. I am always searching for a better budgeting software, so I thought I would sign up for PearBudget and see how it worked. You get a 30 day free trial, although if you decide to keep using the software it is $3 per month. As far as these types of software go, that’s a reasonable price, although I am skeptical of the cost, especially in comparison to companies like Quicken Intuit services.

The registration for PearBudget was very simple. To start, it has you actually set up a budget by entering in categories, estimated spending amounts, and monthly income. It’s a very simple layout, and the prompts are very funny and engaging. I like the simplicity of the layout and they remind you that budgets are fluid: you can change it later and don’t need to have every bill and receipt with you right now. I would use this interface just to get a budget together, assign categories and fuss with numbers when you actually see your income compared to expenses. You can always print it off for use. Here are some screen shots from the set up process:

Once the budget is set up, you need to sign up for a free 30 day trial in order to save your budget information. Once the very easy registration is complete (no payment information required), it asks you to enter receipts. I must admit, I was disappointed that I would have to enter everything by hand for a service that is subscription based, but there is something to be said for simplicity. I remember my dad used to budget in a notebook and he would keep track of every single purchase in that same notebook (even cash). This is a very back to basics version lay out for budgeting.

Once you’ve entered in your receipts, you can view expenses versus income. The layout is again, very simple and clean. The information is easy to understand and keep track of. It’s easier to use than any other software I’ve tried, but it also requires receipts to be hand entered. I might try this for the next month as my husband and I switch to a cash system to try and control some spending bleeding. It will be more work, but it might be more helpful at managing our budget at this point in time. The expenses/receipts versus budget page looks like this:

If you’re new to budgeting, if you’re used to budgeting by hand, or if the idea of using an online software that pulls information from your bank account freaks you out this software is worth a try. Keep in mind, it will cost $3 a month later. You could always switch to a spreadsheet format, but the graphical displays and history provided online might be worth the $3 if you’re not very computer savvy or if you’re a visual person.

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The Passive Dad

Building Websites For Passive Income

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