Comment by scheff | Hacker News Reader

Comment by scheff | Hacker News Reader

I'm about to write a book on precisely this topic. I have been looking hard at addressing this issue over the past 10 years so that I can focus on what's important (Startups!). And I believe that I have finally found the best passive income source, given the limitations that people like ourselves are working with.

I'm still in the process of experimenting with my method to see how far I can take it, but the basics of it work already.

A lot of what people define as "passive income" is questionable. Most, if not all, passive income investment strategies require you to hold down a job, or other income, while financing assets that some day, HOPEFULLY, will be paid off enough that you don't have to work ever again.

Most of those plans take too long for my satisfaction. There are other means and methods if you learn and apply yourself. My book will hopefully detail and compare my method with a majority of others.

The obvious ones to look at, if you can invest time and/or money -

* Share trading * Property investment * Property flipping/options * Google AdSense (or similar) * Affiliate marketing * Tim Ferriss' muse / 4HWW * Network marketing/MLM * Website flipping

All of them have varying degrees of learning curve and time commitment to make happen. Few people will tell you how much commitment you need to make, they just focus on dangling the carrot.

I always question people who write books, produce DVDs, hold seminars or sell any kind of knowledge concerning how to get rich or make extra money.

If you or any of these people are so good and know all these 'secrets' to success and money - Why don't you just get rich off of it and retire? why would you let everyone know you secrets? Won't this just crowd your space? Why do you need to sell this product to make money? Some of you claim that you just want to give back or help others and you have such success, then why are you charging me $20-$500+ ?

So I am always skeptical. I think that this is generally snake oil.

I used to question most of those people too (and still do), but someone explained it fairly well in response to why patio11 did this with his drip marketing class: it's simply a scale out strategy. Given the available time an expert has, one could make $X as one person just doing it; with consulting and teaching others, you might reach 5 people in a year; but by turning that learning into intellectual property that can be distributed (as a class, a video, a book) you might be able to reach 100x the people.

That said, there are certainly gurus who are merely selling hope, often because the easy money has been made and they can wind down what they've learned because the edge no longer exists.

You know what I can't figure out though? Why is Mark Cuban shooting a commercial to pimp lame shoes?

It's good to be skeptical. I have seen people get fleeced by get rich quick schemes, and have concentrated on not being one of those victims.

Just to be clear - the strategy I'm proposing is NOT a get rich quick scheme. It's "create a passive income stream", with the focus on "passive". The definition of passive income is simply "I don't have to work for this money."

There are several reasons why I'm writing a book. 1. because it's not a simple strategy - it requires explanation and details. 2. I know that a lot of people here would be looking for the same solution that I have found, and they shouldn't have to go through 10 years of exploration and experimentation to find it, like I did. 3. My knowledge and time is worth money. People who recognise that are willing to pay money to access it.

But the key reason why someone like yourself might pay someone like me money to learn from my book is the same reason that I have done the same for others. Without paying for that knowledge, I would not have this opportunity to earn passive income.

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