Of course, this also brings up the topic of residual income, and most people see residual income as income that you earn without doing any work. While this is true, there is another thing you have to consider: when you earn residual income, this means you have already done the work necessary for you to earn that income without doing any more work. It doesn’t mean you don’t have to do any work at all to earn a residual income because there must be a starting point. It doesn’t matter if you are working toward online income or income from a traditional business—in order to earn residuals you have to first build the business to a specific level of success.

Before you even begin trying to make online income you have to make sure you choose the business opportunity that is suited best for your needs. That means you have to first evaluate what you are seeking from an online business and what skills you have to bring into a business. It is also important to determine how much time you are willing and/or able to put into building your business. All of these factors will have a direct bearing on which business is right for you and will allow you to generate the most success.

The best way to explain why you need multiple streams of income is with an example. This is a real life example. I am leaving out names and program names in order to protect the innocent and the guilty. Let’s call our subject John Doe and call his multiple streams programs A through D.

John Doe starts out marketing online with program A. He finds that it works very well for him at first. So well that he decides that he doesn’t need to do anything else. First mistake, but so be it.

John then runs into another opportunity that we’ll call program B. Well, this is something he actually creates himself from the experience that he’s had. He finds that program B is taking off like crazy and actually eclipsing the income he’s making from program A. He is in total shock.

Well, time passes. Program A is still doing well but program B is starting to lose a little bit of steam. So John decides to create a program C. This program doesn’t take off like he was hoping but does bring him some extra income, which is nice since program B is really starting to die out.

Suddenly, program A, which has been his rock every since day 1, is starting to die out. This was a total shock to John. He thought program A was going to be around forever providing him income since he’d been using it for years. This was not to be the case.

John now had to find a program D, which he did and which ultimately ended up being his biggest income earner yet. Program A is not almost dead, though still earning something. Program B is doing okay and Program C about the same. But it’s program D that has now become his bread and butter.

Imagine if John Doe had only stuck with program A his whole life, thinking that it would always be there and would always provide him with the income that he was accustomed to. He’d be broke right now. Instead, because he was diversifying himself, he doesn’t have to worry that program A is almost a long distant memory.

Yes, multiple streams of income will give you more income sources and more money, but it also serves as an insurance policy if one of those sources should go sour.

Honestly, a lot of what’s in RISE is known by the top Internet marketers, and they use these concepts all the time. It’s the new people climbing up in the world that will need this info the most.

So just what is residual income?

Residual income is income that you earn once and then keep getting that income over and over again, hopefully for the rest of your life.

Now, there are many ways to get this income. For one thing, you can become a vitamin distributor. Let’s say you get a customer who tries your vitamins. They really love them. So they now start to buy these vitamins from you probably for the rest of your life. Then, imagine you tell this person that they can actually recommend these vitamins to others and make some money for doing it. You don’t think they’re going to jump all over this opportunity?

Think about it. They’re using the vitamins and they love them. So they’ll have no problems recommending these vitamins to others. That’s one of the keys to a good residual income opportunity. You want to promote a product that has real value and people believe in. Health products are excellent for residual income purposes.

The point is, as you continue to sell these vitamins and get others to help you sell them as well, your income is not only going to increase but will also continue because of the satisfied customers.

So the theory behind residual income is that you make money, even while you’re sleeping. How is this possible? Well, think about it. While you’re sleeping, there are people in other parts of the world who are up and about. And since the Internet is a place where commerce goes on 24/7, you can conceivably be making money selling vitamins in your sleep.
Make no mistake about it; this kind of income generation takes some work to make it successful. A lot of people think they can just sit around on their tails all day and do nothing and still see the bucks roll in. Eventually, as your health empire begins to take off, you will see some sustained growth even if you do nothing. But in order to get to that point, you are going to have to put in little bit of time and effort.

In the next installment of this series we’re going to pick up our discussion with why residual income is important and how to choose a company that you are going to promote. The company you choose is very important because the product is what is going to sell the opportunity and not the other way around as some people would like to think.

See you next time.

Those looking for the cheapest and easiest programs on the Internet today, the obvious answer are affiliate marketing opportunities. The programs themselves are simple in execution: assuming that you have a well maintained website that is user friendly, search engine friendly, filled with interesting content, and also sticky in its ability to have repeat visitor traffic, then you will have a running start by simply signing up for a an affiliate marketing program that complements the content of your site and – once accepted – place a link onto your site.

The goal is to entice your website’s visitors to click the link and then visit the merchant with whom you signed up. If the web visitor makes a purchase, you will receive a small percentage of the sale total. If you have a well run website, you will have a lot of web traffic and the odds of sending a large number of potential customers to the merchant’s site will translate into a heightened opportunity of making some serious online money by virtue of the potential sales the merchant stands to make just off of your link.

Since links may be graphic links, text links, or even search box links, they are bound to fit into the overall design of your site and do present a seemingly seamless integration. If you sign up with a number of merchants whose products are germane to the web content you feature, you have the opportunity to maximize your income potential with the affiliate option.

One of the most commonly made mistakes is that of the creation of a website for the sole purpose of making it into a dollar mill by placing affiliate links on it. Search engines have gotten wise to these sites and have begun to rank them rather low, thus making them next to impossible for the web surfers to find. In the same vein, those who do have sites with great content sometimes go overboard by placing too many links onto a site.

One or two may be fine, yet if the links are starting to overwhelm the content and the message is getting lost, you will find that you will lose a lot of the visitor interest. Remember that your website’s visitors are taking a peek at the link you are providing because they trust you, but if you do nothing but try to hawk a plethora of products, this trust flies out the window and you will notice not only a sharp decline in your online visitors, but also a decrease in the click through rate.

Focus on your site’s message first and then on your affiliate links and you will find that a complementary approach will perhaps be the most profitiable one. In addition to the foregoing, monitor your click through rates and ensure that the company to which the affiliate links are leading remains reputable and dedicated to customer service.

From the onset it is imperative to realize that any website which promises you to make money while you sleep, get rich quick overnight, and become a millionaire doing this line of work is lying to you and most likely is trying to do little more than get you to pay $19.99 or some such amount in an effort to sell you a secret that allegedly will make all of your dreams come true. Think about it! If there truly was such a secret, the person in possession of it would not be hawking it on a badly designed website using stock graphics.

The only way to increase your online residual income opportunities is through dedication and hard work and just a bit of business savvy you can get yourself without paying one red cent. Begin by building a website that is user-friendly as well as search engine friendly. You may then use it to sell the product you may have decided to sell. Conversely, you also have the option of signing up with a multi level marketing (MLM) company which will not only build you a website already populated with all the links you need and commerce tools you will require, but the company will even hold the product for you in their warehouse pending the sales!

Maximize your income potential and begin your road to residual income by recruiting other individuals to do the same thing. Invest your time in training them, helping them to build an online presence, and also coach and encourage them as needed. You will be rewarded with a small percentage of their overall profits, which will continue to trickle in long after your training and grooming of this individual will cease. What is more, if you sign up with a MLM company that has a generous remuneration plan, you will find that the people they recruit will also pay a small percentage of their profits to you, and thus if you are a successful recruiter who finds, grooms, and then turns out other successful recruiters, you are in the fast lane to making some serious residual income!

Self promotion and the utmost care in choosing a product and company are key components to increasing your online residual income opportunities, as faddish products, companies with bad reputations or a less than generous reward and remuneration structure will rarely attract others either as customers or potential recruits. In the same vein, ensure that the market is not overly saturated with the product you are selling for otherwise even the best developed plan is doomed to fail.

Each and every time one of the people to whom you delegate the responsibility to moving a product does indeed close a sale, you stand to profit from that transaction without having to lift a finger. Imagine how much money you are able to generate with this concept!

Sure, in the past there have been those who have abused the system of residual cash income and thus have given the entire industry a black eye, but ever since then a plethora of companies – most notably Avon, Stanley Home Products, and a host of others – have rediscovered the secret of business delegation and the residual income has been steadily flowing in ever since.

The concept is surprisingly simple: Person A signs up to see a good or service and in addition to selling the product, person A brings in another person, person B, to work under them. While person A is concentrating on closing sales in her or his sphere of influence, person B is doing the same in her or his sphere of influence. Since person B would never have known about the business or how to do the job in the first place, a small percentage of person B’s profit is paid to person A. Before long, person B brings in a friend, person C, to do the same. In the same way that B owes A the small percentage, C will owe B some money. In addition, C will also pay a smaller amount to A, just for the fact that if it were not for A, neither B nor C would be making money right now.

Now imagine what would happen if person A brought in people B1 though B100! The possibilities – and the income – would be seemingly endless! Within just a bit of time, person A would no longer have to be selling the product to make money; instead, she or he can simply relax, sit back, and enjoy the residual income generated by persons B, C and so on.

Of course, you do not have to be content with just working for one company and building a residual income network! Instead, why not sign up for two, four, or eight companies? If you are a sales-minded person with a knack for people skills, you will be able to put your soft skills to work and build any number of profitable networks. The trick is to find companies that offer a worthwhile product with a future, a generous compensation plan, and at the same time one where you will not be so far down the line that you are entering in a market that is already saturated with agents who are working for the company. If you find yourself in such a position, you will find that your only real way of making money is by selling the product.

This business model of increasing residual income through delegation of sales responsibilities is, of course, known as multi level marketing, and by many considered the only real way of making money within the sales field.

First and foremost, take an inventory of your interests and then seek for programs that seem to be the closest matches. Remember that the more interest you have in a program the more likely you are to dedicate time and effort to make it work and thus the more likely you will be to make money with residual income.

Next, find a product that will provide you with the revenue stream you can live with. Some will have a steady income potential, while others are seasonal and thus will have spikes when income will be markedly high only to taper off for months at a time. Riding out the lows and profiting off the highs is vital to making money with these programs, if you are able to ride out the lows. Those unable to find a steady income stream that matches their expectations may wish to consider signing up for more than one opportunity, thus generating a number of income streams.

A vital step surprisingly overlooked by the majority of those in search for the most promising residual income programs is the market research. You do not need to commission fancy studies, but instead conduct your own market research for any given product you are thinking of making the main staple of your online endeavor to see if the market is already heavily saturated with others selling the same or a similar product of this kind. If this is the case, you will be wise to move on to something else instead.

As you research residual income potential, you will find that services – rather than products – have one of the highest potential for generating residuals. Whether you are selling insurance products or financial services, the fact that consumers who purchase such services usually develop a severe case of company loyalty works decidedly in your favor and you can count on much repeat business in the future.

Shifting gears, you may consider the product side of the equation by taking a close look at wholesaling. This is a highly competitive field, which in some cases might be a risk, but also one where you have the chance of making a lot of money if you are closely tied in to the consumer trends of the current market conditions and ensure that you have the wares to sell to retailers ahead of the trends.

It is evident that residual income opportunities abound online, and for those inclined to do so, these types of business opportunities will at times also translate well into an offline kind of business!