A lot of the writing jobs that I take are simple projects that take me all of ten to thirty minutes to complete.  They’re just 400 words or so… just slightly longer than blurbs.  Why do I waste my time with such articles?  Because they earn me passive income.

What is passive income?

Passive income is, quite simply, income that is earned with no additional work.   Examples of passive income are interest earned on savings, stocks, bonds, etc.    It’s basically money that you earn by not doing anything extra.

How do you make passive income by writing articles?

It’s pretty simple, really.   The actual writinfg of the article is real, active work of course.  Even though the articles are easy to write, they don’t write themselves.     It’s what happens AFTER I write the articles that earns me passive income.   There are some sites online that do not pay writers an up-front, flat fee for their work.  They only pay with residual income.  The one drawback to this is that writers don’t see immediate financial gain from their work.  The GREAT part is that the articles will earn them passive residual income, ad infinitum.   If I wrote a flat-rate article for any other website, I’d probably make $25-$50 for 500-600 words.  With the sites that pay passive residual income on my articles, I get paid for my articles each and every month.

Some writers poo-poo the idea of writing articles without being paid upfront.   I have to say that 99% of my articles earn money within the first month, and with several hundred articles earning me passive income each month, those amounts really add up.  Some of my articles have earned hundreds and hundreds of dollars, for 40o words that took me less than half an hour to write!

Here’s a few websites that will pay you passive residual income for all of the work that you submit:

• eHow
• Bukisa
• HubPages
• InfoBarrel
• Examiner
• Xomba

If you know of any other sites that pay passive residual income for articles, please leave a comment!

Of all the things in the world that I could do for a living, I chose to work at home. And here’s why:

1. My family. I make my living with blogging & internet marketing to help support my family. I am married to my high school sweetheart, and we have three kids. My work enables us to enjoy the better things in life. Last summer, we took a two week vacation to Southern California. A majority of the trip was paid for by earnings from just one of my blogs.
2. I am location independent, baby! This career of mine allows me to work from where ever in the world I can turn on my laptop. I can get my assignments done whether I’m at home or 5000 miles from home. There’s something very empowering about that.
3. I am my own boss. Well, kind of.  I do some freelance writing, so there will always be editors who might ask for a revision on a piece I write. But even so, I have the power to decide which assignments I will take. I can also decide to take a week-long vacation without having to submit a request to anyone.
4. The money is relatively easy. Relatively. I work pretty freakin’ hard most days. But considering that I can walk away from my desk to take an hour-long walk to clear my head whenever I feel like it, I think my job is scads easier than … oh, say, a trauma nurse or high school teacher.
5. Very short commute. My best friend spends at least an hour in her car each day, getting to and from work. My commute is about ten seconds from bed to home office.
6. The money is as good as I want it to be. If I bust my butt in ways that I know will pay off, I can make a nice chunk of cash. If I decide to slack for a while, I still get residual income on hundreds of articles and posts that I’ve written in the past. No matter what, I make money every day.
7. My kids. (Yes, I know I mentioned my family already.) Writing from home means that I get to spend a great deal of time with my kids. (Though I’ll have to admit that on a bad day, I would word that, “…i HAVE to spend a great deal of time with my kids.”) I was home every single day of my kids’ lives, and I have had the distinct honor and pleasure of seeing them grow into amazing little humans. I drive them to and from school. And if they get sick, I don’t have to ask a boss if I can go pick up my sick kid. I just shut my laptop and go get them.
8. I have wanted to be a writer since I was very young. My most prized gift ever was a used typewriter that Santa brought me when I was 7 years old.
9. I love interacting with other writers and bloggers online. I live in a very small town, and it’s nice to be able to log on to my computer and vent my frustrations or share my writing successes with other writers that I’ve met at eHow.
10. My kids think my job is pretty cool. 

I am using another site that is helping me bring in more easy passive income.  The people over at My Survey NFO pay members $1.50 (a whole 50% more than CashCrate) for referring new members.    The company has been around for decades, and their marketing research precedes the age of the internet.   They started in the 1940s, and used to mail marketing surveys to housewives.   Now, most of their research is done online, and business is so good that they can afford to pay members to refer new people to the site.

I started using this site about two months ago, and have already earned over $200 per month.  Not too shabby, in my opinion.   My favorite part, of course, is the fact that this is another “set it and forget it” stream of passive income:  I just put links on some of my sites and allow the money to build up in my account.    You can request a check whenever you want to (as long as you have at least $10 in  your account).  If cash isn’t your thing, you can also choose from a long list of really cool prizes (watches, tote bags, coffee makers, cookware, electronics…).

If you have a site or blog, My Survey NFO offers banners and text links.  Check them out… your bank account will thank you.

One of the easiest ways I’ve found to make money online is by using referral programs.   I’ve been using Cashcrate for over a year now, and can’t believe how simple it is to rake in an extra few hundred dollars each month.    I was referred to Cashcrate by a mom that I met over at Cafemom.     She claimed to be making $800 per month, consistently.  For several months, I ignored her claims.   I finally registered because the cynic in me wanted to see if she was lying.  She wasn’t.  The money was so easy to earn, it was almost ridiculous.   I probably missed out on several hundred dollars for ignoring her for so long.

At Cashcrate, you can earn money two ways: completing offers or referring others.  I tried completing offers for about a month, but found that I just didn’t have the time to do it.  Then I started referring others.  I wasn’t pushy about it.  In fact, I didn’t actively refer anyone at all.  I just put my referral link in the sidebar of a few of my websites.  My first month, I made over $950 in referral income alone.    Since then, the income I make at CashCrate has fluctuated from $600 to over $1,000.   The fluctuactions don’t bother me at all, because the income is purely passive income.  I don’t do a stinkin’ thing –ever– and the money just keeps coming in.   I do have a few referral programs that have earned me as much as Cashcrate, but Cashcrate is by far the easiest and most consistent earner.

Interested in earning money with CashCrate?  Visit their site for more information.