First of all let’s try to understand the concept of passive income. And I extract the following definition from Wikipedia:

Passive income is income resulting from cash flow received on a regular basis, requiring minimal to no effort by the recipient to maintain it.

Truly passive income requires NO effort at all but we do know that some income source requires minimal effort and they can be considered passive income too. I guess the main point about passive income is in comparison to active income which is income you derive by trading your time, i.e. you have to spend your time earning it.

Most of us employees of organizations effectively trade our time for active income.

Given this definition, there are a number of passive income opportunities:

• Rental income from property investment
• Dividend income from stock investment 
• Interest income from bank deposits
• Income from Internet Business

What is listed above is by no means exhaustive. It is also possible to concurrently strive to have several sources of passive income.

What I want to delve into today is passive income from internet business.

There are a number of ways you can make money from the internet and I list a number of them:

• affiliate marketing
• drop shipping
• monetize from a blogging website
• selling courses online
• membership site for certain contents
• selling your own physical products online

And really, while the mechanics may be different or the tools used differ slightly; or the product source is different, the framework used or the way you go about conceptualizing your internet business and then marketing your products or services is the same.

I will include the framework here again:

Internet Business Is A Serious Business

Whatever form of internet business you decide to do, note there is no get rich quick here. Income from a successful internet business will progressively become more and more passive in nature once you carefully plan and execute steps 1 through 5.

Having said so, it is not entirely passive as you may have to update your blog or website contents regularly for instance. However, especially if your niche market selected is closely related to your interests or passions, this should be no sweat. You will still absolutely enjoy the freedom of being an internet marketer, work from anywhere according to your own desired schedule.

As to how long it takes to get the business rolling, it may differ greatly from one situation to another.

My best advice is to have the discipline to set aside a few hours a day to build up the business when you are still holding a full-time job earning active income. Typically it takes at least a few months before anything substantial happens as you are also learning many skills (website design, niche market research, search engine marketing, social media marketing, keyword research etc) in the beginning.

The path is however a fulfilling one!

For those of you just wanting to try things out, you may want to sign up for a FREE account with Wealthy Affiliate (not a single cent needs to be spent until you want to go serious, no credit card required for sign up). Wealthy Affiliate is an online training portal and the free section really gives you a great idea what internet marketing is all about.

Alternatively, I conduct exclusively a 2-day Internet Entrepreneur Accelerator Program (IEAP Course Outline) which you can contact me for more information.

Anspire Consulting provides a suite of digital marketing services including search engine marketing services.