Now that you’ve done most of the work to nail down the opportunities for creating passive income from your business, it’s time to tie it all together. Review the work you’ve done, create your Passive Income Plan with the income stream you’ll implement first so you can quickly start making your business more profitable, and decide which income stream you’ll work on next.

What Have You Got So Far?

In Module 2, you identified and noted all the easy and simple ways you can add passive income to your sales funnel so it’s optimized to work as efficiently as possible.

In Module 3, you identified which of three possibilities for adding passive income to your website or blog – affiliate sales, advertising, or creating a dedicated recommended products page – is the best fit for your business and your audience right now, and can be implemented quickly and easily to make them even more profitable.

In Module 4, you selected at least one method for making passive income from your current customers that you could implement now.

In Module 5, you chose at least one low-risk next-level passive income source that involves a bit more work and planning than those you’ve selected so far, but will bring you significant future benefits, and which you plan to include in your business in the near future.

So, in your workbook, you should now have a list of passive income streams, covering different areas of your business, that you know you want to apply to your business. These streams range from ones that are quick and easy to apply, with immediate but relatively low returns, to ones that will take a lot of up-front work now and possibly significant financial outlay, but are key steps towards building a healthy passive income for the future.

Now, how do you decide which one to start first?

Here are some questions you should ask to help you decide:

• Which one is easiest to do? Do you have the skills or knowledge to be able to create and implement this passive income stream without any help?
• If you can do it yourself, can you do it well? Could someone else do it better? If so, would it be better to pay someone to do it for you? Do you want to invest any money in your passive income stream right now and pay to have the work done? Is there someone on your team to whom you can delegate the task?
• How long will it take you to do it? And how does that compare with the potential money it will bring? Bearing mind that one of the key reasons for creating passive income is to stop trading dollars for time, it won’t make sense to do something that will take you a lot of time but result in little revenue.
• How important is it to you to start bringing in a little money straightaway? Would you rather focus your first efforts on implementing something that takes a little more time, but is more worthwhile financially? Or is it logical to start something quick and easy, that will potentially start to bring in at least a little extra now?

Your replies to these questions will help you decide where to start, and what you might do next.

One possible order in which to do things could be:

• Start with the methods that are easiest and quickest to implement (for example, signing up for AdSense).
• Next, start working on tactics that require a little strategic thinking, like adding recommended products to emails.
• Then, dedicate your efforts to something that is ‘next level’ and involves more planning and work, like an evergreen online course.

Measure Your Results

Once you’ve started on your first passive income stream, looking at what’s working successfully at creating income will also help you decide which things to do next, or more of, and what to change. 

Ways to measure:

• If you can, pre-determine the level of income you want to achieve from passive income sources so you have something concrete to track and measure against. Set a goal, e.g. $1000 a month from affiliate income, $4000 a month from evergreen online courses – whatever you need or will make you happy.
• For upsells and cross-sells, you can conduct split tests to see which product combinations work best.
• Try different product offerings on a download page.
• Take note of how many people are using a coupon offered in a follow-up email.
• Split test keywords and copy for ads and affiliate links. Track and measure what happens to your conversions.

By looking at what’s easiest and fastest to do, and then looking at where you’re getting the best results, you’ll be able to create a complete Passive Income Plan that continues to grow with your business.

You’re now ready to use the ideas in this course to start your first passive income stream as part of that plan. Having a plan will help you generate the income you need for a better quality of life inside and outside your business.

Remember, adding passive income streams to your business can be a terrific way to earn more money; one that doesn’t involve trading dollars for hours, and gives you the opportunity to enjoy much greater freedom in your life and your business. However, there’s no such thing as a truly passive income, and in order for you to enjoy the freedom and flexibility passive income offers, you need to plan ahead and put in the work now to reap future benefits. So, start today and build your first passive income stream, and then repeat, and repeat, until you have created the income and the freedom you want