Now that you’ve taken the time to do some market research, you should have an idea of what topics you might want to write about, what topics are
likely to be profitable, which keywords are likely to help your products (your income streams) get discovered. This research stage works wonders for all passive income streams. Don’t skip it. If you cannot viably prove to yourself that a specific niche is profitable, then don’t bother with it and expect a large return on investment. Find one that is profitable or underserviced.
Now that we’ve got that part out of the way, let’s begin to focus on what income streams are available to you. Moving forward, I will provide you with some actionable steps and first-hand advice concerning passive income streams that can be handled at home, with limited budgets, and with little to no experience.
Income Stream #1: Publishing eBooks In the traditional publishing world, a book publisher would be taking a huge risk. They have to pay editors, book designers, cover designers, etc. to help put together an author’s book. Then to make the books cheap enough to sell, they have to print off at least a thousand copies, often more, just to keep the cost per unit down and the potential profit worthwhile. Then they have to spend the money to advertise and distribute the book. If the books don’t sell, the bookstores ship them back, and the publishing company takes a loss.
All of that has changed, though. With the rise of eBooks and print-on-demand technology, we are now able to keep the cost per unit at a reasonable amount (as low as nothing). There’s almost no need for huge publishing companies at all. Practically anybody can publish an eBook now with little to no cost. You don’t even have to be that great of a writer to earn money with publishing, so imagine what you can do if you are a great writer.
There are many ways to go about publishing for the sake of a passive income stream. The most common for small publishers and self-publishers is eBooks being sold through popular retailers like Amazon’s Kindle store, Apple’s iBookstore, and Barnes and Noble’s Nook store.