Make money while you sleep!
Ah, what a wonderful notion. And yet, so often those words are the beginning of a scammy come on.

However, many small businesses and entrepreneurs do make money through passive streams of income:

• Webinars
• E-Books
• Online courses
• Software applications
• Kindle books

If you have any suggestions on how other people in the forum can come up with their own e-products and distribute them, please share!

I know that many of us are limited by geography, or the number of hours in the day, or by the cost of our products/service when delivered one-on-one.

Creating virtual/digital/e-products can be a liberating opportunity for any entrepreneur, so please share any suggestions, resources, or ideas you may have!

@rich-brooks Creating residual income with information products is very profitable.  Start by repurposing content you’ve already created–it can be delivered in many formats and tweaked.

If you’ve already done free webinars, look to taking a deeper dive into a topic and charging for it.   A lot goes into the setting up and staging of this, but it can be worth the effort for someone in for the long haul.

Great comments folks! YES, I rely on passive income for my business (www.brainjacks.net). I have recorded video webcasts, ebooks and ecourses. The video webcasts are just what @joanmuschampfagnani suggested w/ residual income. I have been teaching and training for more than 15 years and have recycled some of that content- I have binders FULL of content and I will be uploading weekly again starting in May. I use a video subscription service w/ Viddler and they are pretty awesome. Packages start at $100/month to have your own store on their secure server and your digital media is ‘safe’.  For ebooks, I have taken a popular program of mine, TACT (Teens and Conflict Together) and have created it both in print and ebook formats- newest version is out in a few weeks. Also, children’s books my family and I write together. As a small business owner, it is important that I keep many irons going- I am an artist/creator first and social next- I am also very frugal and want to offer credible/quality products at a reasonable price. I know people who also upload conference handouts and sell those for a couple bucks- if you were unable to attend a conference, their sheets with all their information and presentation slides are available for you to purchase! I never would have thought of that, but why not?  Am looking forward to hearing what others have to say-

@rich-brooks I help my clients start with content they already have (as @joanmuschampfagnani mentioned)–preferrably something that has already attracted some attention and feedback so you know you’ll have a product people want. Kindle books are high on the list because the e-reader market is exploding and it’s great to be able to say “I’m a published author.”

For @tonytaylor and others who don’t know where to begin: do a you have a series of similar-themed blog posts or a presentation you could expand into a short book? Length of your book is not as important as the value of the information in those pages.

Suzzane did you state tha you utilize Viddler for you web cast. Are their other website that one my utilize for a less price?

@rich-brooks

Rich, just to clarify, is it ok for folks to include links to products they’ve created in this thread? I know I’d like to check out what other people have created, but just wanted to get clarification on what’s allowed in this thread beforehand.

hi there @tristen sorry i didnt find this sooner! to answer your question, you can embed different modules in your own website- however, digital rights management becomes an issue. with Viddler, it is a little more difficult to copy and distribute my works- this helps to ensure i retain copyright and with an extra effort for an infringement, i would hope that it wouldnt be an issue. because some of my work can be used for accreditation with professional associations (eg: International Mediation Institutions and Registered Social Work Programs) it is important that i ensure my digital goods are copyright protected, for me, my work and for the industries. i hope this helps. Suzanne

The problem of protecting intellectual property is a huge one.  How we long for the days when our products could be sold in a place where we have more control on the actual physical thing.  We often find that the trade off for a activities can be difficult to deal with.  Perhaps in the future we will have found a way to leveraged collaboration and perhaps a return to some kind of honesty amongst people.