The following is a guest post from my of my good friends that is very successful with social media and building businesses so please take a moment to read her article. I am sure you will pull some great nuggets out of it!

Hang around Internet marketers long enough and you’ll hear the term “passive income” tossed around a lot. I’ll agree, passive income is some of the sweetest income to make, but what is left out of the equation is too large to ignore – not enough people online are talking about “active income” passive’s super pumped, pesky twin which usually is the precursor to any “passive income” made.

If passive income is the Holy Grail, let’s take a look at active income as the quest that knights went on before reaching the grail. It seems too often we read books from super successful people like Tim Ferriss and think “wow, he got rich off automated income” leaving out the “after working like a dog to get where he is” part. So instead of just focusing on the end result let’s take a moment to study the path of active income that often paves the way for you to sit back on a beach somewhere sipping a Mai Tai as your bank account grows like crab grass.

Forms of smart active income that lead to passive income

1. Start with freelancing, finish with a high-end membership course.

Freelancing is a great way to get out of your job pronto and still be able to pay the bills. This line of work is for people who are highly motivated and highly skilled in at least ONE area. But if you have the dedication and skill, freelancing can be a great path to eventual passive income. So say you are an amazing writer and you decide to write a Blog about copy writing while pursuing your freelance career doing the same thing. You can build an audience and a community around people who are interested in this skill while showing them how you’re making a living as a copy writer. After a while your community should be solid and you may introduce some products that will help your readers build their own writing skills, maybe offer a seminar or an e-Book. Give it some time as your community continues to grow and you should be able to stop freelancing and instead make a full time living from a membership course that will give lots of value to your community while letting you cool your heels finally.

2. Build a product, sell the product, end up with other people building and selling said product.

The product can be anything from an exercise machine to a vitamin line. You create it, market it, lay the foundation for a business empire and after a little success you can start automating the process. Farm out the production, hire a sales team and even pass off management duties so that your “product” becomes a true source of passive income that you only have to check in on from time to time. Note: this takes a lot of systems being in place and for more info on this model I suggest you read The E Myth.

3.Work really hard to build up a passive income affiliate network.

Something that it seems like many bloggers do to create passive income streams is to build up networks of mini sites and then promote solid affiliate products via these sites. The sites have to be geared towards a specific niche and they’ll take a lot of time up front to set up and populate… this isn’t a get rich quick scheme. But if you spend the time, do the research and build 10 sites making $500 a month each you are in business. Then just rinse and repeat until you’ve made your passive income goals come true.

4. Work really hard to build up a community and then profit from offering info products.

Similar to the membership model we talked about first, this type of business is started with a community. You must give and give of yourself and your knowledge at first to have a good shot at success later on. Also it helps to really care about the community you are building, so if you hate knitting don’t start www.knittingrocks.com because your phoniness will show through fast and you won’t be able to build a solid base (as you can see the link has been disabled, hence my point!). Once the community is built you can profit from ads, affiliate products or even build your own unique offerings that can make you money for the life of the site. All you must do is keep up the community (which is the fun part in my mind) and passive income will follow, with a lot of elbow grease in the beginning, of course.

So next time someone tells you they make “passive income online” be sure to remember that the path to passive income is paved with action. Don’t beat yourself up if your income route is more active than not, there is nothing wrong with working hard at a job or business you love.