At least 45 percent of people in the U.S. alone have a side hustle. And many want this job to be remote for their own comfort. That’s where the digital marketing and SEO industry might be a perfect fit for those looking to earn passive income.
The best part is that with the rapid growth of technological innovations, the pool of options available to make money from SEO is only growing.
Even though getting SEO passive income might be a great opportunity, many find themselves lost. Where do you start? What skills do you need? It isn’t as clear-cut as it appears.
Yet, everything gets much simpler when you learn the real-world experience and apply it for yourself. That’s why, in this post, we’ll explore ideas for earning SEO passive income online in 2024 and how to succeed at it.
Why SEO digital marketing is ideal for passive earnings
In today’s digital world, SEO passive income is now more accessible than ever.
Anyone who is willing to learn and invest some effort can start a side hustle from the comfort of their home with low investment. It could be creating digital products like ebooks, fonts, digital arts, SEO templates, an online course, or anything where you can connect with like-minded people.
Today, it’s even possible to get paid to blog from anywhere in the world.
The best thing is that it only requires that initial investment of time and resources at the beginning, but after that, you don’t really need to do much.
Yet, the growth rate will keep climbing. But this only happens when you can combine SEO tactics to improve your visibility.
This makes it easier for people to find you, engage with your site or social media channels, and buy from you. And since SEO digital marketing is so easy to scale and increase profits, many people end up trying several products and seeing success with them all.
Challenges to expect when you try to make money from SEO
There are many differences between traditional and digital marketing, but both serve as a good way to make money. Still, this is not always easy, and you will meet a lot of obstacles on your way.
Here are a few of the hurdles you might face when you try to make money from SEO:
Stiff competition
There’s hardly any niche you can think of where you won’t find any form of competition. Say you make an ebook or a really cool font.
You’ll still have to vie for the attention of your target audience with the other marketers. This is true no matter what platform you are using to market and sell your product.
Even if you build your own business website, you still have to figure out how to make your site rank higher than the others in your niche.
Information overload
When was the last time you tried to learn a new SEO tactic? For every single question you ask, there are probably a thousand different answers, suggestions, and ideas.
Worse, you probably don’t have the time to test them all. All these can overwhelm and tire you out before you even begin.
Superficial research
On the other hand, you can’t ignore thorough research as this can lead to avoidable issues later on.
Whether it’s finding out your target audience preferences and pain points or deciding how to better position your brand for more visibility, weak research can hurt your business and ability to make income big time.
Fast-paced trends
If you want to make money from SEO, then be ready to adapt quickly and efficiently to the constantly changing trends.
Today, you might draw more web traffic using podcasts, tomorrow, images could be the in thing, and by the next day, short videos are all the rage. It’s enough to make one dizzy.
So, you’ll need to be flexible and able to smartly combine several things and jump into relevant online trends.
Daunting project management
Even for experienced SEO digital marketers, managing projects effectively can be a hassle, especially when there are many tight deadlines to meet.
If you are working on a new online course and then hire a few other people, you will need to track the project’s progress and ensure a seamless workflow.
Of course, if you follow Under30CEO recommendations and use Google Workspace to boost your strategy, chances are you will have an easy time with it.
Time involvement
It does take time for most organic SEO efforts to start paying off. You will need to be patient while you put in effort, time, and time again.
Sure, you could skip a lot of the waiting time with some creative white hat SEO services, but even that still won’t bring in overnight success in most cases. So, patience and consistency are the secrets to enjoying a big payoff.
Still, as the results start trickling in, it doesn’t take that much longer for it to become a torrent, and income may keep growing even years later.
5 strategies to get passive income through digital marketing in 2024
Create digital SEO products
There are tons of people who need help with the SEO aspects of their websites or are looking to learn more about it. You could provide the solutions they need by creating digital SEO products like ebooks on how search engines work, courses, templates, and lightweight SEO plugins or tools like those on the WordPress platform and Chrome store.
Start and monetize a Blog
Blogs have been a good way to make SEO passive income through digital marketing for ages, and even now, it is still lucrative. Unlike the first option, this one requires a little more time and energy, as you can’t just make a blog site and then leave it empty.
You could write content yourself or hire freelance writers who could do the work for you. Still, make sure you control the quality of their work. Besides, you can do guest posting. What for? It is both a good way to build relationships in your niche and create a backlink profile for your blog.
Help people and companies with link-building
Believe it or not, backlinks are a big deal when it comes to SEO. They are also notoriously difficult to build, which is why a lot of marketers outsource their link-building. And you can help them. How? First, you need to build a network of websites.
To achieve this, contact websites that have a “write for us” section and learn their requirements. Then, contact potential clients and offer your service. If you do a great job, with time, word of mouth will do its thing.
Monetize social media videos
It’s no longer news that people are making serious money through YouTube, TikTok, and other streaming platforms.
It doesn’t even need to be a continuous upload thing, either.
It isn’t a secret that when you choose the right topic for your, say, YouTube video, it can continue to generate views and income even years after being uploaded.
A quick tip: Be sure to optimize each social media video for search engines so it’s easy for people to find it.
Become an expert consultant
Skilled SEO specialists and consultants are hotcakes and stand a chance to make good money by sharing their knowledge with others. You could do the same.
You can start by offering your services to small businesses and then work your way to bigger companies. It could be something like helping them optimize their social media or email marketing strategy, etc.
To get some experience, you can start with free consultations or set a small fee. But when you gain experience, get a collection of case studies, and understand the market, you can increase the price tag for your services.
In conclusion
It is now easier than ever to start up a business online that lets you make SEO passive income through digital marketing. But like everything else in life, your result will vary based on how much investment you are willing to make and how willing you are to learn.
If you prepare ahead for the challenges and understand how to use SEO to your advantage, you can expect big things to come out of your efforts.