Hi, Just read a post in a forum that started with: "Yes, and what makes me sick is the term passive income." Personally I love passive income. The most "normal" passive income I can think of is interest on your savings, of which I have none, but I would love to have it.. ;) Another form of passive income is the income you get over and over from work you did once or a few times. An example: You build a website. You put adsense on your website. You submit your website to searchengines. You promote your website. If your website is of any interest to others this might give you a passive income from adsense without any further work. Another example: You join a free 2 level (or more) affiliateprogram. You promote the affiliateprogram successfully. As long the affiliates you sponsor work and the program doesn't change or disappear you have a passive income. Last example: You join a Multi Level Marketing (MLM) Company. You use their products because you want to. You sell some products to other people that want them. You show other people how to do the same as you. As long as the company excists and doesn't change anything, you will in time be earning a passive income. How fast and how much depends on the effort you put in. Any other views?

I think  you're confusing the term "passive" with the term "residual" income.

Passive means you  NEVER do anything...just pay your money and it grows with no further effort on your part.

That can happen..but how long will it last?
And can you be sure that it won't go poof?

There are people all over the internet who have found out the hard way about this. They've invested in "passive" income schemes and the admin of the program apparently invests in the stock market or in a higher paying "passive" income program, and it works out really well..for a while.

Then the payments get further and further apart, then they stop.
Or, even worse..you may go to the site and find that it's no longer
there. They couldn't afford to keep paying out more than they were
getting paid and their hosting payment wasn't made and they went
bye bye..and so did your money.

Residual income is another story.

You DO THE WORK...
That's not passive. You do work for it.

Then through your efforts and the efforts of others
you brought into the company, you earn residual income.
This is the same type of income a songwriter or artist
earns when they make a record and it sells a million copies.
They earn a percentage of the sales, and they earn every
time a radio station plays their song.

But as a former recording artist myself, I can tell you, it's
NOT passive income. It's very hard nerve wracking work
and you have to travel and be in the limelight..no matter
how you feel, and you have to do it over and over and over
until it's perfect. Yeah it's fun..but it's still work.

These are two different things.

And again, I say there is no such thing as "passive" income.
It's just someone's way of getting you to sign up and think
you don't have to do anything. But ask someone who claims
to be earning passive income..and again, as I said before
they will tell you how they're promoting their program..where
they're promoting and you'll see THEY ARE WORKING.

Becky

Hi Becky, I disagree of course.. ;) The "passive" you mention is HYIP (at best) with very high risks. I like this article which I feel support my point of view. Passive income From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia There are three types of income - earned, portfolio and passive income. Most types of passive income are derived from real estate/property, while other types of passive income are derived from royalties from patents or license agreements. An income stream falling into this category is one where money is received usually on a regular basis, without continuing effort. This does not mean no effort at all; most passive income streams require great effort to start with. Some examples: * Interest Income paid from bank deposits. * Rental income from real estate/property. * Royalties from writing a book. * Dividends from shares holding * Selling digital files like software / ebooks or scripts or offering a service that doesn't requires the merchant intervention. Another example of passive income comes from network marketing.

I also found an article that said that residual income was one of 3 different passive income types. Anyone else?

My point was that a lot of people are confused about the terms
passive and residual because they've been told you don't have to
do anything to earn the income. just sign up, pay your money and
sit back and wait.
Then when you mention your business opportunity, they tell you they're earning passive income and they don't have to promote, they don't have to build, etc...while at the same time they're going around sending their link to everyone they know...trying to recruit people into the program. Yes passive income does exist, there's no denying that, but it's not what most people think it is. And if you're not aware of the terms and conditions of most "so called" passive income programs..hyips, autosurfs, etc... and you sign up without understanding what you're getting into you're taking a big risk of losing everything you invest and then some.

And just like you said, passive income doesn't mean no work.

If you just put a link on your site and leave it, and never do anything else you'll find out how far "passive" takes you.

Becky