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Sunday, January 16, 2011

Double Your Residual Income in 2011

Have you set your goals for residual income in 2011? I did -- my reach-for-it goal is to double my monthly residual income within the next 12 months. If it sounds a bit impractical, especially since it's taken me three years to build to my current level, here's why I think it just might be doable -- and how you can do it, too.

Why I Can Double my Writing Income in 1 Year

Since I already have niche websites, blogs, and articles and profiles on revenue-sharing content sites, doubling my current residual income should take much less time than it did to get to the point where I am currently. Three years ago, I was starting from scratch -- any niche sites I had were brand new and not on Google's radar. Now, I have the advantage of domains that are several years old, and hundreds of articles that have already been online for years or at least several months.

This means that any new articles I add to my established sites in the coming months should theoretically  earn more, and faster, than previous articles. As I've shown recently, I can increase my earnings on existing eHow articles by adding backlinks.

Furthermore, I am aware of what niches, topics and affiliate products have been profitable for me and those that have shown promise and need more exploration. I wrote plenty of articles for eHow.com that earned very slowly and, conversely, dozens that have been great earners -- all of these give me an idea of what works, and how to duplicate success.

My skills in setting up niche sites, creating attractive, informative blog posts, researching quickly, and incorporating adwords and affiliate links with quality content have all grown over the years, putting me in a better position than ever to leverage my abilities to build long-term residual income.

Hopefully, much of what I've just described applies to you, too.

The Plan: How to Increase Your Passive Income by 100%

Double the amount of residual-earning content you have online.

Will it be that simple? I think so -- but will it be easy? Probably not -- it takes effort, discipline and dedication to work every day toward your passive income goals. This is especially true when you have a primary full-time job, whether it's as an employee or a stay at home mom to young children.But if you break it down into monthly goals, weekly lists and daily action items, you may be better able to follow the plan.

For starters, add up the number of articles, website pages and blog posts you have online -- even if you don't have an exact number, get a rough estimate. For example, someone who has 100 eHow articles, plus 20 at Bukisa, a blog with 52 posts, a niche site with 20 pages, three Hubs and four Squidoo lenses, plus 10 ezine articles, is looking at a portfolio of just over 200 pieces of content currently earning residual income. Adding 200 more in the next 365 days should certainly be doable.

Focus on building the niches and sites that are earning the best, adding more keyword-targeted pages and quality backlinks to your best-earning sites and pages. Don't try to start three more blogs in the coming year -- work on building your current sites to perform better. If there's a niche you just can't resist trying, build a Squidoo lens and a Hubpage on it and use them to test the market before diving into a new property.

If You're Just Getting Started

If you are new to making money online from writing, you'll have a different goal -- there's not much to double at this point and you need to get started and build, build, build in 2011. Use sites such as HubPages and Squidoo to experiment with writing and marketing, exploring different niches. When you find something that interests you enough and shows promise as a money-maker, start a blog or niche site on the topic, adding a page or a backlink every day as you work to gain traffic and eventually, affiliate sales and advertising revenue.

For those who really don't know where or how to start, as well as those who are serious about taking their online income to a higher level, I recommend that you look into WealthyAffiliate and give it a try. This is the only service (other than web-hosting and ejunkie checkout) for which I currently pay money to use. They have an amazing collection of resources, including step-by-step action guides, all in one convenient location. I've attended several recent WA Webinars on affiliate marketing and backlinking and those have been very helpful to me.

Using the WealthyAffiliate Article Club method to build and promote a new niche site, I was able to earn over $1,000 in affiliate commissions from a niche site I built in 2010 -- it has been hugely successful for me so far and I have to attribute much of that success to what I implemented after taking the WA course.

However, if you don't have the money for that right now, don't worry about it because you CAN make a go of this on a shoestring budget. It make take longer and there will be more trial and error to find what works best, but it can be done -- it's how I started out and so did many other work at home moms.

Best of luck in 2011 -- will you try to double your residual income this year?

16 comments:

Alicia James said...

Hey Maria,
You are such an inspiration. I am working on setting goals for myself. I am glad to hear that your new niche site is doing so well.

Gayle said...

Thanks for challenging me Maria. All of us can do better--just the idea of estimating all the articles I have and trying to double them, could help all of us. Appreciate your blog!

Anna said...

I only dabbled in residual income last year. This year, I'm working double time to increase my content on both my blogs and various sites I write for as well as create several powerful back links. I love reading your blog - it is amazing to me what you have accomplished!!

Dustin | Passive Income Strategies said...

Hey Maria - It will certainly be an adventure at least. I am aiming for $21k in 2011!

Sharla said...

Maria,
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and ideas with us. What you have been able to accomplish so far has been inspiring and I have no doubt that in 2011 you'll be able to achieve the goals you set for yourself! Best of luck!

Kidgas said...

Maria,
My goal is triple my income in 2011 by doing what you suggest in this post. I plan to about double my content and increase my traffic through backlinks. It should be doable but if not, at least I have gotten a lot more stuff out there in play.

Amanda said...

I am working in increasing my residual income this year too. I am currently making money off the old ehow system and Suite101. I have just started my own blog and hope to make money using adsense and amazon affiliates. We will see how it goes. I would love to double my monthly residuals by the end of the year.

CM Herold said...

Yes! I'm going to double my residual income this year. Thanks for your tips.

Darla hanger said...

Awesome Maria, I will be looking forward to you increase!!!!! I think residual is the ONLY way to go! My froeclosure blog work doesn't seem to quite fit in with residual income - but I'm working on it!

MicroSourcing said...

That's the importance of maintaining blogs, since they become more valuable when they get older. Passive income increase by 100%, however, seems a little impossible.

Rahul said...

I have more things in my porfolio. But i am not earning $100 per month. I think this is because ehow has some serious high ranking and less writers. My last 10 hubs are not getting and traffic even they are 1000 words and long enough. I will do 100 more and leave hubpages forever.

Joey V. said...

Hi Maria,
First I want to say that I LOVE your hair! Is that a new do? gorgeous... :)

Anyway, I have a question for you. Do you suggest buying a three-word domain that is already set up or making your own?

Russell said...

I'd like to double my internet income this year. Now that I have a little money coming in from my websites and old eHow articles, I'm going to reinvest some of it by paying someone to write more articles for me.

Anonymous said...

Love your enthusiasm and quality writing. I have signed on as a follower and hope to gain some knowledge I seem to be missing! I've got tons of content online but so far minimal income. I feel like I'm missing just one tiny little piece and I can't figure out what it is! So I'll keep looking, reading, and learning and in the process double my residual income in 2011! I'm with you all the way!

CherWorksAtHome said...

Thanks for the info. Great Stuff!

Lorena said...

very good! This in intense :)