How Do I Make Online Residual Income?

Online residual income — also known as passive income — refers to money received for Internet users' views or visits to a website or to a website's contents. There is no exchange of money for an item or service between the viewer and the website or the website's content creator. Rather, the website's creator receives online residual income based upon the number of views by Internet users, either directly or thorough advertisements. For example, a writer who provides an article for an online magazine is often paid a small amount based on the number of readers that article attracted during the previous month. Another means of earning online residual income is based on the number of viewers a site can promise to an advertiser and their payments to the website owner for ad placements.

The Internet and the "Junk Mail" or "Spam" folder of your email service both provide numerous examples of promises of easy wealth for doing little more than signing yourself and others up for various schemes. Unfortunately, most sources of legitimate online residual income require the initial work of composing an article, writing a review, blogging with enough humor or ability to attract readers or designing a webpage that Internet viewers will want to visit. Without this initial investment of time and energy, your promised income may be imaginary or illegitimate.

When an online publishing company pays writers residuals based upon the number of article reads, it is often helpful for the author to publicize the piece. Friends and families who have proclaimed themselves fans should be emailed a link to the piece. Writers can also publicize their work among the Internet's varied and many social networking sites to increase readership. The more people made aware of the article title or topic, the more reads it will collect. The greater the number of times a given article is read per month, the greater the amount of online residual income received by the author.

Another means of garnering online residual income involves selling ad space on private website to Internet companies. This option usually requires that the seller own the website. The greater the number of views a website receives, the more it can charge businesses for its ad space. While this option sounds attractive, it can actually require more ongoing work than submitting any given article. In order to sell ad space on a website, a minimum number of Internet users must visit per period and the website content must change often enough to attract new visits and new visitors.