Whether you want to start working from home or you are a freelancer who needs to supplement your income during dry times, building passive income is the way to go. There are a few strategies to help you start building a new income source by monetizing a website, which is a great online home business opportunity.

Find Your Passion

Your passion for a topic is more important than the popularity of a topic. If you are passionate about a subject, the labor involved in writing content several times per week will feel less like a chore. Some topics are always popular, such as earning money, saving money on common expenses, weight loss, fitness and technology. Unfortunately, popularity does not always equal revenue. The competition is high for popular topics and it can be difficult to gain an audience.

Choosing a less popular topic is not always a bad idea. For example, you may be a cheese enthusiast, but you might be hesitant to build passive income based on the topic. You will have an advantage because there are probably few people managing a website on the same topic. Once you build a website with plenty of relevant information, people who are looking for information on cheese are probably more likely to stumble across your website. Additionally, the topic is evergreen and can serve as a reference as long as the internet exists.

You should stay away from trendy topics, such as specific television shows or movies, unless you are comfortable with changing your direction as soon as the hype is over. If you enjoy trendy topics, consider making a secondary niche website and use a stable topic as your primary project.

Diversify Your Monetization

Diversification is critical to starting and maintaining passive income. To start, you should join the affiliate program related to your web host. This is an easy way to have a simple and relevant ad on your page and potentially pay for your web hosting costs. Ad revenue from major search engines is a popular monetization option, but it typically accounts for very little passive income if you do not have a high-traffic website.

Check out major online retailers and find their affiliate programs. Part of your content may be reviews on products you have tried and recommend to other cheese enthusiasts. This way you can include affiliate links for cheese graters or a good serrated knife to use when cutting soft cheeses. If you are willing to make videos for your reviews, this is another way to earn a passive income and can help you build trust with your audience. It is easier to build trust when people can see you using the product and know you are a real person.

Eventually, your monetization strategy should include self-publishing. You may want to publish a series of short books or even sell an infographic from your website. Use information not found on your website or condense your website into a quick reference booklet to sell. A guide to cheese and wine pairing or tips on storing stinky cheeses without having a smelly refrigerator are just a few ideas that might interest your audience enough to buy your books.

Branch Out

Look for additional monetization opportunities even if they are not strictly online. You may have local stores and other small businesses without their own website, but would be willing to buy space on your website to advertise their business. Ideally, the businesses you contact would be relevant to your niche. Local pizza shops, mom and pop grocery stores or privately owned Italian restaurants all use cheese. You might charge them a flat fee to run their ad for the entire month.

Bartering can also help you on your passive income journey. If you want to sell advertising space to local businesses, but they do not have the budget to pay, ask if they are willing to promote your website instead. Business owners who are willing to put up flyers or keep a stack of business cards with your website address on them in exchange for advertising can help generate traffic to your website.

Passive income is an excellent opportunity to build a potentially lucrative income source for many years to come. With time and dedication, you might make a part-time or full-time income from something you enjoy.

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