Passive income opportunities abound on the internet today.
Some of them are legitimate and some of them are scams. But how do you tell the difference?
Sometimes, it is not that easy to judge and one can get taken in by the thought of instant financial success with minimal work.
Most good passive income opportunities are in the field of affiliate marketing.
And to get the income flowing, you will need to get set up properly for online marketing and put in some hard yards.
Nevertheless, we will discuss some of the opportunities here and aim to guide you to how to identify the good ones.
A fairly good rule of thumb is that if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!
Recognizing The Scams!
Okay, let’s talk about how you can recognize the obvious scams. There are several easily identifiable ones.
Very Small Entry Cost:
Many of the scammy programs have a very small fee to buy-in, somewhere between $5 and $50.
Do not be fooled by this because once you have joined, you will be slammed with multiple upsells.
Such upsells can range between $100’s to $1,000’s and your pocket book will soon be empty.
So that instead of generating online passive income, you have had constant expenses to meet since joining the program.
Multi-Level-Marketing is not Affiliate Marketing:
There are many Multi-Level-Marketing (MLM) programs that promote themselves as affiliate marketing.
MLM is NOT affiliate marketing – far from it.
You can recognize a MLM program because you have to pay a premium to join and make monthly product purchases to keep your position in the hierarchy.
Then you are required to enroll your family, friends and acquaintances to build your team and get commissions.
You will be out-of-pocket very soon.
Sales Funnels Promoted Online And In Social Media:
This is where the marketer shares with you that he/she is making $1,000’s per day by using “done-for-you” landing pages.
No work – plenty of dough! Definitely a scam – go here to find out more about one of these.
Free Book or Product, Plus Shipping:
These programs offer you something FREE where you only have to pay a small amount for shipping.
They are aiming to get your contact and credit card details.
They will often then send you stuff (without your consent) and charge your credit card each month.
You need to avoid being taken in by the Free Stuff but if, by chance, you succumb, contact your credit card company straight away to stop payments.
So, these are the most obvious and easily identifiable.
There are probably others that I have not yet come across, so remember what I said before – if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!
Are There Legitimate Passive Income Opportunities?
Affiliate Marketing is both ethical and legitimate.
Joining an affiliate program is generally free. Most retail organizations today have affiliate programs or are connected with an affiliate network.
The most recent worldwide pandemic of Covid-19 has facilitated major changes in the way we shop.
Over the past year, there has been more online shopping than ever before. The current estimate is that 2.14 billion people shopped online in 2021.
Thus, affiliate marketing is a sensible way for companies to promote their products.
In addition to its own website, the company can have thousands of affiliates promoting the products each on his/her own website (blog).
The focus for an affiliate marketer is to introduce a customer to a product, ultimately leading to a purchase.
Therefore, the company’s marketing expenses are more cost-effective because it has a team of affiliate marketers working on its behalf, to which it pays a small commission for a sale.
So, if you are searching for a legitimate online business that will generate passive income for you, look no further than affiliate marketing.
Of course, there is a lot to learn in this field, and you will need to find the right platform to guide you through. And we can certainly head you in the right direction.
What Do I Need?
There are three vital elements to getting started with an affiliate marketing business. They are:
- Education and Training.
- A Website.
- Guidance and Support.
A good education and training course will cover everything you need to know to become a successful affiliate marketer.
Such training will encompass the following aspects:
- Choosing a niche (which is a particular market segment about which you are passionate and can write).
- Choosing a domain name (this should reflect your niche and establish your brand).
- Setting up your Website (this will require purchase of the chosen domain, selecting a Theme, and hosting).
- Learning about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (discovering powerful keywords to use in your blog posts).
- How and where to find Affiliate Programs to join.
- How to monetize your website to create passive income opportunities.
You will need to learn all this and more to become a successful affiliate marketer. But do not fret because training such as this is available.
Where Can I Learn?
Not all passive income opportunities advertised on the internet are scams.
There are quite a lot of good ones, too. For instance, you can check out our review of Passive Income Geek here.
Other reviewers also recommend The Authority Site System, The Affiliate Lab and Project 24. We have not reviewed these so cannot comment on their effectiveness.
Our favorite and the system we most recommend is Wealthy Affiliate.
This is because Wealthy Affiliate covers all the training we have mentioned and even more.
In addition, you can get started absolutely FREE – no credit card required.
A FREE TRIAL Starter Membership at Wealthy Affiliate will give you a taste of what’s to come.
Our revolutionary new HUBS Training Center will start you off by choosing a niche and building your first website.
The objective is for you to try it out and decide on your own pathway.
If you decide to upgrade to Premium Membership at $49 per month you will have complete access to to the most comprehensive training and education progrem available anywhere.
In addition to two training courses with lessons and tasks (120 lessons in all), there is a multitude of video and text trainings on specialized topics.
As well as this, there are regular weekly live, interactive training sessions.
Premium Membership also gives you access to the whole WA Community. This is a community of worldwide online entrepreneurs who can help to guide you towards success.
Final Thoughts
So, I hope this article has given you the information you need to get going with your online passive income opportunities.
If you still have questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below. I will be sure to read them and respond.
If you are still unsure of whether you actually want to do this, then why not go to Wealthy Affiliate and set up your Free Trial.
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Just click on the image below to get started.
