There are plenty of blog posts, videos, and tutorials online about how to generate passive income - all seemingly overnight. While there is some truth to the tactics and methods prescribed by these sources, the reality is that it takes months (or years) of hard work, consistency, and targeted efforts to make this happen.
But I knew I had to give it a try. I’ve always had the goal of traveling the world and experiencing other cultures, and I knew that for that goal to come to fruition, I needed to make something happen. I didn’t have years to wait or thousands of dollars to spend on strategizing. Instead, I came up with a list of a few online business ideas that could offer a relatively fast turnaround in terms of making money. I figured that this would determine if my dreams could become reality within a realistic time frame.
By Zach Zorn - Money Nomad
I started by researching the Amazon FBA program. FBA stands for "Fulfillment by Amazon." This program enables a seller to sell in a hands-off manner. Amazon takes care of packaging, shipping, customer services, and returns for sellers, freeing up time in exchange for a small fee.
Participating in the FBA program allows you to list your products as Prime eligible, allowing sellers to earn more sales. With the FBA program, sellers purchase products at a discount in bulk from overseas, put a logo on them, and then ship them in bulk to the Amazon warehouse. You then create a product listing that goes on Amazon, and every time a purchase is made, Amazon handles the entire process. As a seller, you are not directly involved in each sale with creates mostly passive income and little work, until you need to restock.
In just one month of selling on Amazon, I grossed over $5,200 in sales - bringing in $2,200 in profit. I have the full story listed on Money Nomad if you’re interested in reading more. Over the next few months, I earned $23,000 in sales, with a total of $10,000 of profit. I skyrocketed from having no e-commerce experience at all to making over $2,000 every month with minimal effort.
Flipping My Website
After I launched my lucrative "career" on Amazon, I moved on to a new project since I had free time to work on something else. $2,000 per month is definitely not too shabby, particularly for the amount of work involved, but I knew I needed another source of income if I wanted to become my own boss and be able to travel the world.
I spent some time researching other online investments and quickly stumbled across Empire Flippers. Empire Flippers is an online brokerage for websites and various web-based businesses. I learned that affiliate marketing is quite a lucrative endeavor, with many website owners earning thousands of dollars every month. I didn’t have time to build an affiliate website from the ground up, so I invested some cash in purchasing a website that was already established.
Affiliate marketing works by directing a website's readers to top retailers like Amazon and BestBuy. Simply put, as a website owner, you place links within articles that send people to those websites. If a reader clicks one of those links and purchases the product, the website owner who offered the link receives a small commission. The buyer doesn’t pay anything extra! It’s a fantastic source of passive income.
This website I bought was already bringing in over $1,800 per month in sheer profit. On New Year’s Day in 2018, I purchased it for $49,000 from Empire Flippers. This was a significant upfront expense, but since the website had several years of successful passive affiliate marketing history, I knew it was a risk I was willing to take.
Within just four months of owning the website, I learned everything I needed to know about affiliate marketing. I resold the website for $75,000 in April of that year, making $30,000 in profit in just four months. Since then, I have bought another website as an investment, and begun building niche websites from the ground up to provide myself with additional revenue streams. With these income streams, I can now call myself my own boss and feel confident that I’ll be able to bring in enough money to support myself each month. These ventures have allowed me to set my own schedule and to visit countries all around the world - including places like Italy, Greece, Cancun, various islands in the Caribbean, Panama, Tahiti, Costa Rica, Cabo, and more. |
Enough About Me - Here’s What You Can Do
1. Start by creating an Amazon Sellers Central professional account.
2. Next, sign up for Jungle Scout or Helium 10 - these tools will allow you to search inventory on Amazon to determine which products have high demand with little competition.
3. Once you know which products are lucrative to sell, head to Alibaba and search for the products you found. Select a manufacturer that can supply you with products in bulk. You should look for similar products to the ones you found, but that have different features, designs, or colors. Add your brand name or logo to these products.
4. Have the products shipped to your house. Inspect them carefully, ensuring that they are of the utmost quality.
5. Create a product listing within the portal for Amazon Sellers Central, and ship your items in bulk to the Amazon warehouses.