Let me guess, you’ve heard about the benefits of adding a passive income stream to your business, and you want in!
(“Toes in the sand while my business runs on auto-pilot!? Sign me up!”)
Still, there seem to be a lotttt of steps needed to get the passive income ball rolling, and if you’re being honest, you don’t know where to start.
What you REALLY want to know is the absolute surest step to getting started with generating passive income, so you can make the best use of your time and energy.
Which leads me to . . .
How do you generate passive income? Create content.
(Yes, even before you have your exact idea for a passive income product!)
Why is this the best first step you can take? Let me explain.
1 | Content attracts people who are interested in your topic
(And therefore are likely to be interested in your fabulous paid passive income product on that same topic in the future.)
If you plan to sell anything, you are first going to need someone to sell to.
When you’re offering 1:1 services, you can do your marketing in-person and get enough clients to run a solid business.
Passive income products tend to be a lot cheaper than 1:1 services so with this business model, you’re going to need to sell at scale, not just in-person.
That means you’re going to need to do your marketing at scale, and consistent content is the quickest way to build up a following of people who are legitimately interested in learning more about your area of expertise!
When the time comes to launch your passive income product, your audience will be made up of people who are genuinely interested in your topic, because they spent the time searching for info on your topic.
That means they’re action takers and bootstrappers, and they are more likely to seek out additional resources in the future to get the job done!
Which leads rather nicely into my next reason for getting serious about content creation!
2 | Content establishes authority and trust
You may feel like you are giving it all away for free, but the hand-holding you provide now will keep those same action takers coming back again and again, making you the obvious choice for future queries.
Some of them may use your content to DIY their thing start to finish, and that’s totally cool.
But they’ve seen the way you hold nothing back, and when and if they are ready to level up, they aren’t going to think twice about grabbing your paid passive product if they think it will allow them to skip weeks, months and even years of expensive trial and error.
If you want to be seen as the expert on your topic, you need to be providing REAL answers…and not just one time on some dusty old FAQ page.
Sticking to a schedule for your content lets people know they can trust you to keep showing up for them and that they don’t have to go it alone.
They will trust you have their well-being (and not just your bank account) in mind when you do share the good news about your passive product.
Bottom line: you can be a total expert on your topic, but if you aren’t putting yourself and your answers out there on the regular, people looking for what you’re offering aren’t going to find you very useful.
Or worse…they won’t find you at all.
3 | Content helps people find your site (and stick around)
You want to make it as easy as possible for people searching for information on your topic to find you.
How do you manage that? Creating consistent content around your topic is the surest way to let Google know that you are highly relevant to that person’s search!
Once Google decides you are highly relevant to a topic people search for, you are suddenly going to rank muchhhh higher in those search results!
(Meanwhile, your competition who is not creating consistent content on the topic, will be nowhere to be found.)
Getting people to your site is just one challenge, and the second? Getting them to stick around for as long as possible!
One of the ways Google and other search engines or social media platforms determine the usefulness and relevance of your site for certain keywords is by paying attention to what visitors do once they get there.
If a bride-to-be discovers your site in their search for a “Seattle Wedding Photographer,” the last thing you want them to do is quickly scan your portfolio, check out your prices, and then return to their search and click on another link.
(That’s called ‘pogo sticking’ and it tells Google that your site didn’t satisfy the searcher, meaning Google will rank your site lower in the results for future similar searches.)
Having tons of compelling content on your site for the searcher to peruse through and maybe help them prepare for their wedding is going to make them want to stick around and get to know you for more than just your prices.
Because no matter how cutesy your “About” page is, it isn’t going to be nearly as useful as your content when it comes to genuinely helping people with the topic you’re an expert on.
4 | Content helps you promote your free opt-in gift
If you’re following ANY of the biggest names in online business, you’ve probably heard them consistently preaching one thing. “The money is in the list.” (Your email list that is!)
An email list is the absolute most valuable asset in any passive income-style business.
But how do you build your email list? With a free opt-in gift!
But once you’ve created a free gift, how do you get people to actually give you their email & download it?
You could drop a link to a free resources page into your bio or your site’s main navigation, but if you have yet to put out any useful content, people aren’t going to take your free thing very seriously!
Your own content is the most relevant and organic place to be dropping hints about opting in to your email list through the use of freebie opt-in gifts.
If they found your blog post or YouTube video extremely useful, they are going to want to get their hands on whatever other free thing you have to offer.
Even if it means giving you access to their inbox!
The more useful content you have, the more opportunities you have for plugging freebies that relate to that content.
SO hopefully I’ve convinced you that creating content is the BEST first step when you want to add a passive income stream to your business … but what about after that?!
What happens next that actually starts bringing money into the bank?
Those next steps are all outlined in my passive income roadmap. You can grab a free copy here: https://paigebrunton.com/passive
(… I hope you see what I just did there. Free content > opt-in gift. Just practicing what I preach y’all! 😉)
Ready to start earning passive revenue and scaling your business? Get our Passive Income Ultimate Guide.
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