Why Working Hard is Not Enough
“It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but, I figure, why take the chance?” – Ronald Reagan
Recently, my wife and I had a chimney repairman and a landscaper come out to the house. From my window, I could see both of them doing their jobs. Let me tell you – these guys worked hard.
Both of them started very early in the morning and put in a full day’s work. The chimney repairman was dangerously perched at least 50 feet above the ground for most of the time. And the landscaper was practically breaking his back carrying heavy bags of mulch.
The point is, these guys put in an honest day’s labor for an honest day’s wage every day. They don’t sleep on the job or goof off. They work their butts off.
But when it comes to real financial success, hard work is not enough.
Do you know the big secret neither one of these fellows (or most other people) ever figured out? It’s this: You don’t want to be in a position where your income is limited by the number of hours you can put in.
Each one of us is given 24 hours in a day. It doesn’t matter if you are a chimney repairman, landscaper, CEO, or Internet entrepreneur. We all have the same 24 hours to work with.
Most people simply work and get paid, work and get paid, work and get paid. You put in 8 hours on the job, you get paid for 8 hours. You put in 40 hours a week, you get 40 hours in salary. That’s what we’re used to. But the sad truth is, you’ll never get ahead doing what everyone else does. (A lesson in itself.)
You need to think about how you can turn more and more of your energy into planting ongoing revenue seeds. First, you build one ongoing income stream. Then another and another and another. As Michael Masterson says in Automatic Wealth, “Although you never know what will happen with any individual income source, if you get enough of them started, one will turn into a river.”
Let me give you an example.
I created Instant Sales Letters in February 2000. Every single day, we get orders for this product – and at $40 to $55 a pop, it adds up. Last year, this one website brought in six figures for me. I created the product once, and now I get paid for it over and over again. (Of course, I have added to the letters and revised them several times. You always have to keep your products up-to-date.)
Now think about that. Work I did once keeps paying me every single day. That’s a good deal.
Once that first stream of income is rolling in, you can expand into another stream. For me, that was a result of people asking me how I grew Instant Sales Letters and made it so successful so fast. That’s when I started teaching Internet marketing based on what I had done myself. So my second stream was a product called Instant Internet Profits. This was a complete guide I created that documented everything I did. It sold well and kept selling. And just a few months ago, I totally revised it based on everything new I’ve learned in the last few years.
After Instant Internet Profits, I went to work creating additional products. Some sell better than others, but together they bring in millions and millions each year.
My thinking is squarely on how I can get the most leverage and ongoing income from any activity. For instance, if I do a teleconference series, I will sell the LIVE calls for “x” amount and have the calls recorded to create a product I can keep selling for “y” amount. Going even further, I could take excerpts from that product and use them as articles or free e-books to be passed along to get additional business.
Do you see how it works? Try to get paid over and over again for activities done once. Make that your mantra.
One more example.
Instant Sales Letters is one of our hot products, so now I’ve started selling it on CD-Rom at Amazon. In the first month, it brought in an extra $386. Nothing too crazy – but not bad for doing the work (once) of putting it up there.
To take this further, I have also licensed one section of this product to a company that pays me $1,000 each month for it.
Now, here’s the warning. Don’t get fooled by an idea that nearly everyone gets. It goes something like this: “Well, if I can create 10 different products, and each one makes $1,000 a month … I’ll make $10,000 every month.” Yes, that’s a nice thought. But what happens is you get sidetracked and lose focus if you try to work on more than one project at once.
Believe me, I fall into this trap too. Your best bet is to focus on product #1 first. And only after you have that securely in place should you move along to product #2.
I realize that because there are so many opportunities available online you want to grab a bunch of them. But if you do, you’ll end up running around like a headless chicken.
As you can see from the above examples, my multiple revenue streams consist of information products. But this advice will work just as well for any kind of passive revenue stream.
[Ed. Note: At just 32 years of age, Yanik Silver is recognized as an expert on creating money-making websites. He will be revealing one of the most profitable “hidden” Internet income opportunities around in the Secrets of Easy Internet Money teleconference series. And be sure to check out his website.]