How to Create a $2k+/mo Passive Income Website in 30 Days (or Less)

[Lex DeVille]

Hey Lex, thanks man great thread. And thanks to Andy B and all the input by others. This is kind of thing I’ve been looking for. I recently tried the FBA model with little success. I found out the hard way that you’re at the mercy of Amazon fees and supplier issues, which is not the most control business model. I did however learn some skills that I could apply to this business opportunity. My thing is I find myself in analysis paralysis after my previous experience. After reading through this thread, I’ve researched a few digital product ides, but it seems like it will take ME more than a few days to develop. Is it not worth doing then? Or do I outsource it to a freelancer to create it for me? Regardless I’ll definitely give this a try and I’ll keep you all updated. Thanks again

If it will take more than a few days to develop, it's probably a waste of your time. Actually, let me rephrase that...it is probably a time waste. Not necessarily a waste of time.

 

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[scham043]

If it will take more than a few days to develop, it's probably a waste of your time. Actually, let me rephrase that...it is probably a time waste. Not necessarily a waste of time.

I hear you. I guess that came across “get rich quick” talkish. I know about investing time as I spent months and months researching for a product and then spending months and months on bringing the product to market. Not to mention the month and months spent on trying to rank my product to pg1. So I’m not worried about wasting time. I guess I just need to pick the a product to develop and see what happens. As you can tell I’ve been scared by my FBA venture lol. Time to lick my wounds and get back to grinding. Thanks for this.

 

[Alex_Spaceman]

If it will take more than a few days to develop, it's probably a waste of your time. Actually, let me rephrase that...it is probably a time waste. Not necessarily a waste of time.

Hello Lex! I found this astonishing thread, and dived deeply into it.

I'm not sure that this question haven't already been answered here, but I think that it's important to ask it.

How do you sell digital products on your website without being attached to your name?

I'm asking this because I used to sell content on LinkedIn, and it's important to have credible real account there to make people trust in your product.

And now I want to recreate the same flow using a website, but I hardly imagine how to do it without mentioning my name, photo and experience.

 

[Andy Black]

Hello Lex! I found this astonishing thread, and dived deeply into it.

I'm not sure that this question haven't already been answered here, but I think that it's important to ask it.

How do you sell digital products on your website without being attached to your name?

I'm asking this because I used to sell content on LinkedIn, and it's important to have credible real account there to make people trust in your product.

And now I want to recreate the same flow using a website, but I hardly imagine how to do it without mentioning my name, photo and experience.

I think Lex answered this in this thread, in the last 3 pages if I recall.

 

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[Two Dog]

Etsy usually shows total shop sales on the shop's home page near the bottom of the page.

On the product pages they display reviews for that specific product (if it has reviews).

For reviews, I estimate 3-5x sales volume.

So if there are 10 reviews on a product, I might guess 30-50 sales for that product.

Then I would go to the first page of those reviews and find the oldest review date to get a rough idea of how long the product has been up for sale. That tells me whether or not the sales volume is likely worth it.

The 3-5x multiplier is a good observation. I'm looking forward to reading through the entire thread.

I've always sold B2B software online, but have long been interested in selling physical products for the marketing spin. One of the many downsides of selling on Amazon, Etsy, CafePress, etc. is how easily products can be cloned. It really seems like the easiest way to minimize that is staying off platforms that make it easy for other vendors to quantify the item's success. Basically, hide the fact that it's selling well enough to bother copying it.

There's other ways, but all are definitely much more work than just listing a generic product for sale.

 

[Two Dog]

Thank you much for providing your entire process. I'm kind of shocked that you can sell a product for over $50 that takes so little effort to create. At the very least this will make a fun side project!

Well, if you haven't done something similar before, it probably won't take YOU "so little effort to create". ;-)

That's always the thing to remember about "how-to" threads and any success stories. There's a boatload of practice, experience and past failures that underly being able to do everything outlined in the initial post and make it work. I'm reminded of that every time one of my kids gets frustrated while trying to do something she hasn't tried before.

 

[Brass Pockets]

I saw the product on Etsy and thought I could do it better.

Cant describe how these words describe a journey, look for the improvement and reframe with the benefits offered

Really great thread Lex...and thanks to the other contributors here too

 

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[adnanazmi]

For the first site, I started with prices between $49.97 and $79.97. Now I've got prices between $49.97 and $297.97. I've also just added a recurring subscription product at $49.97/mo that has a one-time upfront price of $97.97 and generates $199/mo recurring from four customers.

Site two will all be recurring pricing that ranges from as low as $19.97 to $99.97 or possibly higher.

Site three will be one-off sales at first with prices starting between $9.97 to $29.97 and I may add bundles or a subscription model later.

I test pricing continuously to see what works best. These are all for a U.S. market. I get some sales from other countries, but if I wanted to run Google Ads to other countries, I might need to lower prices to be more attractive.

Hey Lex, absolutely love what you have done here. Just wanted to ask: What are the costs? per month? and upfront? roughly.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Hey Lex, absolutely love what you have done here. Just wanted to ask: What are the costs? per month? and upfront? roughly.

Upfront, this can be done for approximately $30 on Etsy.

Per month it varies. I've added quite a bit of tools and systems since starting this.

In terms of ads per month, I'm spending anywhere from $1k to $2k but wasn't spending that much when I started.

 

[Lex DeVille]

I set up a new passive income site yesterday. Here's what that looked like:

• Product is a downloadable PDF document
• $9.97 for the domain
• $5/day in ad spend
• 8 hours or so in time invested

I built the whole thing yesterday and launched with Google ads yesterday too.

Earned my first sale overnight.

I made this one simpler than my other site.

It's one page.

That one page has 4 CTAs that all lead to a ThriveCart checkout page.

The page has good copy, basic credibility markers like credit card logos, images, solid branding...

After purchase, the customer instantly receives the product.

Finally, they reach a thank you page.

That's the entire funnel.

No email opt-in. No lengthy site history. Not attached to my name.

For this site I'm testing price points under $9 to see if I can move higher sales volume faster with ads + a price so low anyone can afford it.

Ideally, I'll find a price that people will pay all around the world so I can expand my advertising worldwide instead of targeting the US. That will help keep costs down.

 

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[JNagtegaal]

I was reading this thread today and just came across what i think is a great example(please correct me if not Lex), really shows how far you can go in terms of branding on a digital product.

Storyteller Tactics Card Deck

54 storytelling recipe cards that help you influence and inspire. Kill boring PowerPoints. Get your audience leaning in. Have your message remembered.

pipdecks.com

Maybe someone can get some inspiration or idea’s from this!

 

[parabolic]

Cool thread Lex. Tons of useful information here.

 

[adnanazmi]

@Lex DeVille Lex why didn't you use Hostinger?

 

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[Lex DeVille]

@Lex DeVille Lex why didn't you use Hostinger?

Because I don't buy a new hosting service every time I buy a website. I use the hosting service I already have.

 

[windchaser]

Amazing thread! So much value here, thanks for sharing @Lex DeVille ! Definitely worth the Gold status.

Totally agree with the community building part. My last business was very dependent on it (one of the reasons it failed, actually) and I was usually feeling enslaved by "the algoritm".

Also, great advide about Google ads both by you and @Andy Black . I suck at Google Ads but you inspired me to go through that rabbit hole through Andy´s threads.

I will keep following your progress on this project

 

[Lex DeVille]

Okay, finally have something to update.

After launching the new 1-page site with the low-priced product, I'm starting to get traction on it.

It took a few days, but I used the Google ads data to narrow my audience and locations and also updated the copy on the page to be more pain-focused, more direct-response style, and a bit more intriguing.

After the adjustments I earned two sales, bringing my total up to three.

Total Sales: $20.00
Ad Spend: $16.27

Big numbers, I know, but you have to start somewhere and this one deals in low numbers on purpose.

Now that I have data, I'll get rid of all of the search terms that aren't performing and only keep those that get clicks or sales.

I'll increase my budget from $5/day to $10/day.

Current Page Layout
Below is the page layout for my entire 1-page website:

Section 1: Headline, Subheadline, CTA Button, Card Logos
The headline is huge and uses the "Want [thing they want]?" format to target their exact search term. The subheadline adds a benefit and reaffirms that we offer a solution for what they want. The button uses the, "YES! I Want [thing]" format with a second tiny line of text that says (Just $[price]). Below that are card logos.

Section 2: Website purpose
This section (H2) states that my website has one purpose. The subheading, in one short sentence, says that purpose is to sell [thing they want]. Then it shows a number counter (if you don't have sales you can use subscribers, page visitors, etc. - anything to create some movement on the page).

Section 3: How it Works
I used two boxes in this section to split the process into two steps.

• Step 1: Checkout.
• Step 2: Download (replace this with whatever is relevant for your product)

Section 4: Why Do This?
In two short paragraphs, I talk about the customer's pains. Then I bring the copy back to the fact that we solve those problems. Finally, I close this section with a CTA button (duplicate of the Section 1 button with card logos below).

Section 5: About Us
This section is split into two colums. On the left is a relevant image (with the site's name over it) that I made in canva (doesn't have to be an image of the product, but that's fine too). On the right is two paragraphs about our store. Both paragraphs just remind the customer what our purpose is and then call them to action with a CTA button at the end (same style as other buttons).

Section 6: FAQ
This section covers the limiting beliefs and reservations people might have that stop them from whipping out their wallet. It also mentions our refund policy. At the end of this section I have another CTA button with card logos and below that I added a line of typeform text that states the price and reminds the customer of key benefits.

That's it.

That's the whole website, and now it's generating sales on autopilot.

Going forward, I'll add a Moneyback Guarantee section at the bottom of the page with a fancy seal for credibility.

I'll also probably ask for a testimonial on the thank you page after the customer access my product (and maybe an automated email series to ask for testimonials.

 

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[The Questioner]

Congratulations on the progress Lex.

Did you find this product the same way you found the last one, that is, that you found something on Etsy where you felt you could do it better?

 

[Lex DeVille]

Congratulations on the progress Lex.

Did you find this product the same way you found the last one, that is, that you found something on Etsy where you felt you could do it better?

Yes, although I'm not doing much to improve it this time. Just leveraging a better price and better marketing. Everything else is kept as simple as possible.

 

[rsmallri]

Couple of questions:
1) Do you apply any DRM to the PDF?
2) Are you using the superliminal approach on the website because the target audience for this product because the target audience is particularly fickle or would you use this approach generally?

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Couple of questions:
1) Do you apply any DRM to the PDF?
2) Are you using the superliminal approach on the website because the target audience for this product because the target audience is particularly fickle or would you use this approach generally?

I have no idea what DRM or the superliminal approach are.

 

[rsmallri]

DRM - digital rights management, locking the PDF in some way to prevent others marketing

Superliminal isn't a real world but I was referring to the in your face style of the website.

 

[Lex DeVille]

DRM - digital rights management, locking the PDF in some way to prevent others marketing

Superliminal isn't a real world but I was referring to the in your face style of the website.

Ah, I see.

It doesn't matter to me if someone else tries to market the same product.

They won't know my approaches or process.

Even if they did, I could just switch products, niches, or industries in a day to something they are completely unaware of.

There are literally millions upon millions of possible product/niche/industry combinations.

I'm using direct-response style copywriting because it works.

 

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[adnanazmi]

@Lex DeVille would you recommend integrating multiple payment gateways to the website? It will take more time however

 

[Lex DeVille]

@Lex DeVille would you recommend integrating multiple payment gateways to the website? It will take more time however

I use ThriveCart which already has multiple payment gateways built in.

 

[Andy Black]

I set up a new passive income site yesterday. Here's what that looked like:

• Product is a downloadable PDF document
• $9.97 for the domain
• $5/day in ad spend
• 8 hours or so in time invested

I built the whole thing yesterday and launched with Google ads yesterday too.

Earned my first sale overnight.

I made this one simpler than my other site.

It's one page.

That one page has 4 CTAs that all lead to a ThriveCart checkout page.

The page has good copy, basic credibility markers like credit card logos, images, solid branding...

After purchase, the customer instantly receives the product.

Finally, they reach a thank you page.

That's the entire funnel.

No email opt-in. No lengthy site history. Not attached to my name.

For this site I'm testing price points under $9 to see if I can move higher sales volume faster with ads + a price so low anyone can afford it.

Ideally, I'll find a price that people will pay all around the world so I can expand my advertising worldwide instead of targeting the US. That will help keep costs down.

Only just saw this. Good work.

How simple was that initial landing page that generated a sale?

I ask because we typically like to start as simple as possible with our lead gen pages. If a client wants us to send visitors to a complicated page then my first thought is "How would this perform with a simple page?" ... so starting simple means we find out.

 

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[Fox]

I use ThriveCart which already has multiple payment gateways built in.

I used Thrivecart also, it is a little basic/simple but it does work well with payments.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Only just saw this. Good work.

How simple was that initial landing page that generated a sale?

I ask because we typically like to start as simple as possible with our lead gen pages. If a client wants us to send visitors to a complicated page then my first thought is "How would this perform with a simple page?" ... so starting simple means we find out.

It was pretty simple. Just the sections mentioned above. I've added a 30-day money-back guarantee seal and a countdown timer to test. As it gains traction, I'll build out more areas as needed.

Ideally, this will be as simple as possible. I want the process to go like this:

1. Click
2. Buy
3. Done

Currently, that's how the new site operates. No emails. No email collection. No backend support. Click. Buy. Done.

Once it generates enough sales to become a full-time income ($3k+ per month) I'll make another site and do it again.

So far, I've made 4 sales on the new site, and I don't even have conversion tracking set up or ads dialed in yet.

 

[adnanazmi]

It was pretty simple. Just the sections mentioned above. I've added a 30-day money-back guarantee seal and a countdown timer to test. As it gains traction, I'll build out more areas as needed.

Ideally, this will be as simple as possible. I want the process to go like this:

1. Click
2. Buy
3. Done

Currently, that's how the new site operates. No emails. No email collection. No backend support. Click. Buy. Done.

Once it generates enough sales to become a full-time income ($3k+ per month) I'll make another site and do it again.

So far, I've made 4 sales on the new site, and I don't even have conversion tracking set up or ads dialed in yet.

Lex if you don't mind me asking. How many of these passive income sites do you have right now? How many sales per month do you get for your top ones? And how many for your normal ones?
----
I think have a really good idea. Bottleneck is I live in a country that getting a payment gateway that supports international payments is a hassle (need to create a business, need some weeks of waiting time etc).
Nevertheless I have applied for some, and taken the necessary action...These guys don't reply on the weekends also.

I can live on USD300/m with my parents (minus the nagging). Planning on just getting to that for now so I can focus on building other systems. I really need this... I want it badly... Sorry for the rant.

Thank you Lex!!! ✨️

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Lex if you don't mind me asking. How many of these passive income sites do you have right now? How many sales per month do you get for your top ones? And how many for your normal ones?
----
I think have a really good idea. Bottleneck is I live in a country that getting a payment gateway that supports international payments is a hassle (need to create a business, need some weeks of waiting time etc).
Nevertheless I have applied for some, and taken the necessary action...These guys don't reply on the weekends also.

I can live on USD300/m with my parents (minus the nagging). Planning on just getting to that for now so I can focus on building other systems. I really need this... I want it badly... Sorry for the rant.

Thank you Lex!!! ✨️

I only have the main site and the site I built the other day. The main one gets around 100 sales per month with prices ranging from $6 to $197. I had another site, but I didn't like the way it was going after I started running ads so I got rid of it.

The main site's average monthly revenue since I launched it 6 months ago is $4,231/mo. That number doesn't include what the site generates on ebay currently (around $150 - $200/mo) and what it was generating on Etsy before I got suspended ($1,000+ per month).

 

[Two Dog]

The main site's average monthly revenue since I launched it 6 months ago is $4,231/mo. That number doesn't include what the site generates on ebay currently (around $150 - $200/mo) and what it was generating on Etsy before I got suspended ($1,000+ per month).

Is there a point where you think about selling the site itself?

With 50% margins and 40x MRR multiplier, it's possibly worth $75K+. ;-)