A recurring income is one of the most important things you MUST secure in your business… I’ve learned that lesson the hard way and don’t want you to go that path…
So in today’s post, I will cover the best 2 sources of recurring income online IMHO. One of them is passive income which you can’t control, while the other is an active source of income that you can control and even build a big business out of it…
Let’s start…
Here’s an overview of what I’ll cover in this post:
- Why a recurring income is significant.
- Different types of recurring income.
- The one source of passive recurring income.
- The best source of active recurring income and how to learn more about it for free.
So…
Why a recurring income is significant
Recurring income is crucial for several reasons:
1. Financial Stability: Recurring income provides a steady stream of revenue, which can help stabilize your finances.
Unlike one-time payments, recurring income continues to flow in regularly, offering a predictable source of funds that allows you to plan your business with confidence, hire team members knowing you’ll be able to pay their salaries, …, etc.
2. Reduced Financial Stress: With recurring income, you're less reliant on sporadic income streams or the uncertainty of finding new clients or customers. This reduces financial stress and provides peace of mind knowing that you have a consistent source of income.
3. Freedom and Flexibility: Recurring income can afford you more freedom and flexibility in how you spend your time. Since it doesn't require constant active work to maintain, you have the opportunity to pursue other interests, invest in personal development, or spend more time with family and friends.
4. Long-Term Wealth Building: Recurring income streams have the potential to accumulate over time, leading to long-term wealth accumulation.
5. Scalability: Businesses that rely on recurring income models are often more scalable than those dependent on one-off sales. As your customer base grows, so does your recurring revenue, without necessarily increasing your workload in proportion.
6. Risk Reduction: Diversifying your income streams with recurring sources can help mitigate risk. If one revenue stream declines or dries up, you still have other sources to rely on, providing a buffer against economic downturns or industry fluctuations.
Different types of recurring income
There are many different types of recurring income such as getting a normal job that pays monthly or developing software that requires programming experience or huge sums of money to hire developers…
But since I’m talking to an entrepreneur now, I know that only 2 types arise as the most practical and very lucrative recurring income sources… one of them is passive while the second is active (of course, I mean after the initial work)
The best source of passive recurring income is promoting affiliate programs that pay monthly recurring commissions… while active recurring income is all about taking what you already know, love, and do and building a membership around it…
Let’s talk in more detail about each type…
Affiliate Marketing as a Source of Passive Recurring Income
Normal affiliate marketing relies on promoting products and making a commission once you sell a unit of these products (whether digital or physical)...
Most affiliates follow this model and it’s OK… however, smart affiliates tend to look for affiliate programs that have a recurring monthly commission where the effort they make to make the sale is the same as promoting one-time-commission products. The big difference is that with a recurring program, they continue to get paid month after month as long as the customer is in good standing and pays monthly.
The most common types of these affiliate programs are SaaS (software-as-a-service) and supplements.
Examples of Recurring Affiliate Programs
- Funnel Builders: ClickFunnels and Kartra.
- Hosting Services: Siteground, Hostgator, Bluehost,..., etc.
- Landing Page Builders: Leadpages and Convertri.
- Email Service Providers: ActiveCampaign and Aweber.
- Amazon Business Tools: Helium10 and JungleScout
- SEO Tools: SEMRush and SpyFu.
- Supplements: where customers reorder their needs every single month regularly (make sure that you receive commissions on recurring orders not only the initial ones!)
- Memberships: Digital products following a subscription-based model or physical products offered as subscription boxes.
The list goes on and on… and the above list is only an example that opens your mind to endless possibilities… However, my recommendation is to pick one or two (maximum) programs to promote… It’s better to go all-in rather than dabbling!
Memberships as a Source of Active Recurring Income
A Membership is a subscription-based business model that can be in the form of digital content or physical products.
This is when you charge recurring fees so that customers can access whatever you offer… this can be a weekly, monthly, or annual subscription…
But this means you only convert the customer once and they continue to pay every month? Yes!
Isn’t that considered passive recurring income as well? No! Here’s why…
When you are the one who offers the content or the service of the membership, you’ll be doing work every month to deliver new content or products to make your members happy and so retain them as paying members.
This means you are actively working on your membership.
What are good examples of memberships?
Look above for every example at the recurring affiliate programs examples… these are all memberships!
The only difference is that here you are not the affiliate… You are the product owner… the producer… and most of the time The Expert.
If you are an e-commerce brand, you can offer monthly subscription boxes where people subscribe to receive your box every month.
And if you are a thought leader, a coach, a consultant, or an expert of any kind, you can - and you should- pack your knowledge in the form of a paid membership where members pay you monthly to receive your new content.
Just make sure your content TRANSFORMS them from where they are now to where they want to be.
All big names in our industry have some sort of membership, such as Dan Kennedy, Brendon Burchard, Ryan Deiss, Frank Kern, Russell Brunson, Dean Graziosi, Ryan Levesque, Stu McLaren, and the list goes on and on…
Speaking about Stu McLaren…
Stu is known as the memberships guy because he’s the go-to source when you want to learn how to build a successful membership out of what you already know, love, and do. See my 2025 Membership Experience review.
Stu offers a free guide where he teaches you the basics of building a profitable membership… In this guide, you’ll discover how to:
Click here to download your free copy of this guide now.
Now you know how to create a recurring income for your business even if you are starting from scratch, which one would you choose? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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