Yesterday we moved house and today I am still without a broadband connection or even telephone line. Luckily I have my trusty PDA and 3G otherwise you wouldn’t be hearing from me today.
This whole week has shown me I need to be more prepared for off-days but another thought struck me related to bloggers income. People often say that blogging is a passive form of income, but is it really?
If you are not familiar with the term, “passive income” refers to earning streams that do not require you to “work”. While strict definitions differ, in most cases people would agree if you can take a month off and still earn then you have passive income.
Examples of passive income would include book and music royalties, while your standard 9-5 job or freelancing would be examples of an active income.
The reason blogging is often put into the passive category is because if you use direct monetization through Adsense, banners, etc, you earn while you sleep.
So not all blogging provides passive income, some of us earn in other ways. If you are paid to blog then obviously you have to keep blogging to get paid.
I’m guessing even a popular blog that is monetized with ads will have to keep posting to maintain the income level it enjoys. A good spread of monetization strategies is a good idea for all of us anyway, but in theory the more sources of non-work income we have the more passive and stable we can make it.
The only truly passive blogging I can think of would be a group blog that is wholly maintained by paid writers, lead by a paid editor. They would have to be paid because volunteers would have little to force them to keep writing. The only work for the owner would be paying up and the occasional interaction with the editor.
Do you think blogging is good for passive income? How do you arrange it so regardless of what life throws at you there is always money coming in? Please share your tips in the comments …