Smart Passive Income #122 to #124 - Income Report & eHow & Marketing

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Pat's income for July 2009 is "down" to 9.000,- USD. While it is still an impressive number, compared with his income for June 2009 its a only one third ...

... and he wrote another post on eHow ...

... and finally the big secret on success: MARKETING (... its important, and there are lots of different methods, ... and we do not want to do it ...)

Smart Passive Income #120 & #121 - Release & Blogging

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Pat released his app iCaption, as well as an audio guide for his web site ...

... and he posts three questions you have to ask yourself to become a successful blogger:

• Can you commit? 
• Why will people come to you?
• Is you blog worthwhile?

Smart Passive Income #119 - Financial Success

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Pat asks how to know when you have reached financial success?

The answers he came up with:

• When you are able to spend lots of money on charity.
• When you don't have to worry about your bills.
• When you don't have to live from pay check to pay check.
• When you are dept free.
• When you have enough money to retire.
• When you have payed off your house.
• When you have payed off your children's education.
• ...

Smart Passive Income #118 - New iPhone App

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Pat shows screenshots of his - soon to be posted / remember we are in July 2009 - new iPhone app called iCaption. I don't really understand its concept. Everyday they app shows a new picture which the user is allowed to comment, or can vote on existing comments ... What's the incentive to buy that app? If that app was a success, Pat is really a marketing genius!

Smart Passive Income #117 - Online Classes

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Pat plans to open another stream of passive income - an online class. Paying customers get access to special class material & videos on (he actually did not say) ... everything is in preparation, he even hired two designers (Pat seems it necessary to emphasize that this time they are from the US ?!?) ...

... comments indicated that even he has called that post "part 1" there was no other part ... could it be he stopped his idea? We will see, more than four years of blog posts to go ...

Smart Passive Income #115 & #116 - Going Paper - Testimonials

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Pat wants to go paper - he tries to find a publisher for his new book idea. ... which is quite the opposite of what he prayed so far about passive income ... well lets see what happens ...

I don't like testimonials 

First of all, have you ever seen negative ones? They are always positive and tell how life changing the product was ... How do you even know the are for real or just fake ... Only because they come with a name and sometimes place (e.g. Bart Simpson, Springfield), does them make trustworthy? Even a photo could be from anyone ...

Pat likes them and it seems a valid marketing tools ... otherwise people would not use them, would they?

There are written testimonials, video testimonials, or blog testimonials ... when you use them, add a name & place, and let them say how your product changed their life ... and let them look "real" e.g. using hand-written notes, poorer quality video or audio ...

... interesting note, Pat refers to a page generating such small notes/testimonials ... the domain is for sale ...

Smart Passive Income #114 - Outsourcing

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Pat is confronted with the question if outsourcing is irresponsible. The question should better be:

Is outsourcing irresponsible for rates you would not even lift a finger?

Pat finds the question interesting ... but sadly comes to no conclusion ... no comment ...

Smart Passive Income #109 to #113 - Buying a House & Loans & iPhone & Fishing & Income Report

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Pat wants to buy a house but has problems getting a loan - even when earning more then 20.000 USD a month - strange ...

... but his second iPhone app is doing fine ;) ...

... even so fine, that he finds time to go fishing ...

... and did even catch one ...

... and his income for June 2009 reached 26.500 USD.

Smart Passive Income #107 & #108 - iPhone App Nr. 2 & eHow Experiment Summary

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Pat released his (their) second app on the AppStore. Baby Maker! morphs two photos into a new one "showing what a baby would look like" ...

... and he summarizes his success with eHow. Remember his eHow experiment. He decided to write five articles per day for a month ... stopped during his experiment and decided to spend time better writing for his own blog ... Nevertheless, from his first articles he made more than 100 USD per month totaling to 880 USD after six month ... not bad for "doing nothing" (quote Pat).

Smart Passive Income #106 - New iPhone

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Pat has an iPhone 3G ... the new iPhone 3G S (remember we are still in June 2009) has just arrived ... he wonders if he should by a new one?

... that's an actual question for every arrival of new hardware or software version:

• if your old one is broken, buy the new one ...
• if your old one is missing features you need, buy the new one ...
• if you really would like the new one and can effort id, buy the new one ...
• if you do not need the new one, stay with your old one ...

... and then there is the other question arising with each apple product: "Should I buy now or wait till the next release???"

Smart Passive Income #105 - Blog Recommendation

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Pat links to another blog ProBlogger (which is still alive four years later with many more entries ...) and suggest reading especially the following five posts:

• 13 Tips for Marketing Your Business With Your Blog
• 5 Ways to ‘Systemize’ your Blogging
• One Blog or Many?
• How to Write Great Blog Content
• How to Write Your “About Me” Page

... and they are really good articles!

Smart Passive Income #104 - How to be a successful Blogger

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A reader complains that he does not make any money from his blog (could be me), Pat offers help!

• First realize that there is a problem.
• Don't write about different topics, narrow your focus.
• Write for followers, not occasional readers.
• Don't be anonymous ...

Smart Passive Income #102 & #103 - More Personal Information & Idea?

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More personal information - Pat announced that he soon would be a father.

Back to business, he discusses his poll about "What is holding you back?" Because most answered that an idea would be missing, he address this problem asking three quesitons:

• What do you do?
• What would help make what you do easier?
• Has it be done?

Don't look far, or into topics you do not know anything about. Stick with what you know, try to improve where you see problems. If it has been done already, good, that means there is a market (we had that already before). If not, there is potential ... but you might ask why it has not be done before ...

Smart Passive Income #101 - Criticism as Free Advice

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Pat sees criticism as free advice. Even if it is negative, its a chance to improve. However you can't please everybody and you shouldn't.

Smart Passive Income #97 to #100 - Privat Information & Philosophy & Income Report

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More private information ... Pat will/did attend a wedding ...

I cannot really decide if that provides more contact surface for identity theft of for SEO optimization?!?

... Pat philosophizes about what would happen if google shut down. ... it actually happened recently ... seems there was much less traffic till google was reachable again, but we are still alive ...

... and Pats income for May 2009 is more than 21.000 USD ... congratulations once again ...

... and he redesigned his homepage ...

That was his 100th entry, as far as I counted. But today I stumbled over a couple of entries I missed ... argh ...

Smart Passive Income #95 & #96 - No Time & Mastermind Meeting

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Pat is working on new material and has no time for blogging ...

... but he found time to attend his mastermind meeting - a fancy lunch where a couple of entrepreneurs meet talk about their latest business and learn from each other ...

Smart Passive Income #94 - Dog Sitting - Private Information - Marketing

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... another post (Pat calls them random fun posts) about details of his private life ... on how to find a dog sitter ...

Not only is this a good way to keep your readers interested, it should also help to attract new readers who stumble upon your blog by chance when they were looking for dog sitters (or the any other private-life topic). If your blog is only about business, it will only show up in search results concerning that specific business. If you blog about unrelated things from time to time, this could broaden your audience ...

Smart Passive Income #93 - Celebration - 5 Free Tips for Bloggers

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Pat celebrates his 100th post (I counted only 93, I could be wrong or some posts got deleted since ...). Nevertheless congratulations!!!

On this occasion Pat shares 5 tips for bloggers:

• shorten your affiliate links (lots of free tools out there)
• check who is linking to your page (lots of free tools out there)
• create an avatar picture/icon for your comments
• use a favicon for your website
• use free pictures for your posts

Smart Passive Income #92 - Virtual Assistant

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What's a Virtual Assistant?

An artificial intelligence following your bidding ... unfortunately we are not really there yet ... in the meantime we have to redefine the term to "somebody doing your bidding" ... and because we should incorporate the "virtual" ... that somebody is located somewhere else and you communicated with him/her using any means of telecommunications ... nowadays the internet ...

What tasks would/could you delegate to an assistant?

Anything you do not want to do yourself? Small things, you have not time to do? Tedious tasks which take much time and which you could spend better? Tasks you are not qualified for and your assistant can fulfill better?

What tasks would/could you delegate to a virtual assistant?

Basically the same but limited to tasks which do not need to physically at your place. Your virtual assistant situated at the other end of the world will not be able get your laundry, etc ...

Why you should use a virtual assistant?

Typically your "normal" assistant will be a "normal" employee which you have to pay for a 9-to-5 job. A virtual assistant is available on a per task or hourly basis ... and you are not limited to a local pool of possible assistants, but can pick assistants from all of the world.

Why you should not use a virtual assistant?

If you have a problem delegating (nearly everybody has) and do not trust that somebody else will do a task at least as well as you could, this will multiply when delegating that task to somebody you have never met, and is thousands of miles away ...

Your local assistant is bound by the same laws you are, your virtual assistant might not ... which could end up that confidentially issues and intellectually property rights might be handled differently in other countries. Even if they laws are similar, would you want to travel to a far away country for a law suit?

Pat uses virtual assistants for multiple purposes and is happy ...

Tim Ferrris does, too ...

Will you? You will not know till you try ... but please, be careful ...

Smart Passive Income #91 - Personal Information vs Identity Theft

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People are natural born peeping toms - at least they/we like reading about other the lives of others. So Pat posts about his first dance with his newly wed wife.

Seems to be a nice marketing strategy but is it safe nowadays? Could identity theft be an issue?

Smart Passive Income #90 - Analytics

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Pat's conclusion from studying the analytics of his website:

It takes time!

Smart Passive Income #89 - Polls

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Seems back in 2009 Pat hat regularly polls on his homepage, which he summarized in his "6-month-passive-income" entry:

Would you like to work 40 hours for 50.000 USD per year, or 60 for double, or 80 for ten times that money?

Seems people do not care ;) ... all three choices got nearly the same amount of votes (ok the second one got less, the third one most) ...

What's most important? Family, Money, Health?

Family one with three quaters, money and health share the rest equally ...

Do you work 9 to 5 and love it, want to quit, are unemployed, work for yourself and love it, or hate it?

... due to the poor choice of colors (I am color blind and can't see the difference for the colors chosen for work 9 to 5 and want to quit and work for yourself and hate it), I have to guess:

Half of the people work 9 to 5 and want to quit, 30 % work for themselves and love it, the rest is equally shared between unemployed and working 9 to 5 and love it ...

What's holding you back form making money online?

For nearly 40 % it's the missing idea, 25 % do not have enough knowledge, 20 % do not have enough time, followed by scared people and missing money ...

What would you do with an extra four hours a day?

Nearly equal shares (in order from most votes to less votes): sleep, organize, watch TV, other ...

Actually the two answers are with the most votes are "being scared and lack of knowledge" ... seems there was a slight problem with copy and paste?

What would you do with extra 1.000 USD per month?

The winner with nearly half of the votes is paying pills, followed by about an a quarter each saving and investing, a minor vote for vacation and none for a new car ...

What do learn from this polls? ... time for another poll!!!

Smart Passive Income #88 - List of Projects

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... actually I did not really get the meaning of that post.

That it is important to have a list of current projects?
That it is important to categorize them?
That it is important to have projects?

Hah! So if there is any reader of my blog out there ... though I suppose the clicks on my blog are only search engine ... Please let me know how you would interpret that post from Pat!

Smart Passive Income #86 & #87 - Unique Selling Point

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Pat explains the importance of a unique selling point (or proposition). In his words "find out what makes you stand out from the crouwd and milk it" ... which is actually a marketing strategy populare since the early 1940s.

• make a concrete offer to the customers: "buy this for that benefit"
• it needs to be unique in a sense that no competitor can or does offer it
• it needs to be strong enough to attract new customers

Pat invited his readers to post their unique selling points, which he categorized into

• stories as a USP
• direct comparisions
• the truth as USP
• numbers as USP

Smart Passive Income #85 - How to motivate Yourself - Ask the Reader - Get them Involved

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Another idea Pat has is to involve his readers, by asking questions. He asked how to motivate yourself... hoped for 50 responses and got 31. So I will head over and add a comment ;)

... well I am back ... seems he closed the comments section for that blog entry. I actually wanted to say that his blog really motivates me! True, I do not agree with everything he says, but even so it makes me think, and provides real inspiration!

Smart Passive Income #84 - Is your Idea good for Passive Income

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How to know your ideas are good for passive income?

First remember the definition of passive income: Create a product once, setup an automated process to make money without further intervention ...

• Do people need your product?
• Does your idea scale? Does it matter if you sell it once or a million times?
• Do you handle every order yourself (e.g. shipping, payment)?

Smart Passive Income #83 - Find new Ideas

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After iPhone apps, Pat addressed how to find ideas:

• record your ideas
• record ALL of your ideas
• if you google your ideas and get hits, don't worry, that means there is market out there!

Smart Passive Income #81 & #82 - iPhone Apps

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Pat stated a new company creating iPhone apps. He sees iPhone apps as perfect passive income products. You create them, ... and Apple does everything else, sending you monthly checks ...

He even goes a step further, he does not create the apps himself, but hires somebody to do so ...

Late 2013 he has about 22 apps in the Appstore ... after the initial release they rarely get updated ... so they are really passive products ... the homepage for his new company has not seen an update since April 2010 ...

Pat's app in alphabetical order:

• Amazing Human Calculator FREE ... calculate fun facts about the human body
• Amazing Human Calculator PRO ... calculate fun facts about the human body
• Ask Santa! ... app to contact Santa Claus
• Baby Maker! ... morph photos to know what a baby would look like
• Balance Test - How Balanced Are You? ... check your balance skills
• iCaption (Funny Pics - FAIL, Signs, plus more!) ... share photos and get them rated
• Idiot Finder Trick ... simulate an "idiot" finder
• Loser Scan - Trick Your Friends and Family! ... simulate a "looser" detector
• Male or Female Detector - Gender Finder! ... simulate a gender detector
• Shake Nation 100 ... shake your iPhone, to see how fast you can shake ...
• Shake Nation 1000 ... shake your iPhone, to see how fast you can shake ...
• Shake Shake Pop Lite ... shake your iPhone simulating a popping a bottle
• Shake Shake Pop ...  shake your iPhone simulating a popping a bottle
• Smell Finder - Detect Bad Smells (Trick App!) ... simulate a smell detector
• Sonic Pet Trainer - Dual Dog Whistle ... simulate a whistle
• Talent Finder Trick App ... simulate a "talent" finder
• Tap Nation 100 FREE - FASTEST TAPPER IN THE WORLD! ... check how fast you can tap
• Tap Nation 500 - FASTEST TAPPER IN THE WORLD! ... check how fast you can tap
• Ugly Finder - Trick Your Ugly Friends! ... simulate a "beauty" finder
• 100+ Robot Sound Effects (High-Quality FX) ... robot sounds ...
• 500+ Pro Sound Effects (Professional Sound FX) ... more sound effects ...
• 9 in 1 : Detector Trick Deluxe! ... simulate "various" detectors

Smart Passive Income #78 to #80 - eBook Marketing Techniques

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Pat continuous his "how to publish an ebook" series with marketing tips.

• Start marketing your ebook as soon as possible, even if it is not finished yet. ... let your fans know about your progress ...
• Use promotional pricing & discounts
• Spam (Pam calls it front-line marketing and he advises to be very careful) ... if you look in your letter box and find it 99 % filled with "marketing material" you could think that marketing actually equals spam ... and because it is so much easier to create and distribute virtual "marketing material" ... there is a reason why most legal systems have laws to prevent them ... please be even more than very careful with this kind of marketing and when in doubt please contact your local legal counsel!

Pat considers further markeing thechniques like Google adwords, Facebook or private advertising on other blogs. The first and the last are not for free, might generate traffic to your site but actually create no sales ... On Facebook you can buy advertisement space or go for "front-line" marketing ...

Pat's third post about ebook marketing addresses the use of affiliate programs for your own products ...

Smart Passive Income #76 & #77 - Monly Income - Pricing eBoooks

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Pat's income for March 2009 is still growing, and has reached more than 25.000 USD.

Back to ebooks, Pat discusses pricing. Check out the prices of books with content similar to your own. If you are going for higher prices than your competitors have, you need to communicate the reasons to your customers. Same for going cheaper, you do not want to loose credibility (Why is the book so cheap? Because it is not worth more?) ... and like before Pat calls selling to cheap "loosing money" ...

Depending on your distribution scheme you might have the possibility and want to "play" with the price and see which price is best ... Nevertheless, to get reliable data from that, you need an high enough number customers, otherwise the changes you see might be pure statistic fluctuations ...