How Zen Habits Makes Money

Probably my favorite blogger going around, Leo somehow manages to continually pump out useful content on a swathe of topics related to personal development.

I love that he continues to advance himself with everything from meditation to raising his kids, but what I really love is the amount of passive income he’s generating now! Hahaha.

You knew that was coming.

I will say though that Leo has only really come into his passive income fortunes in more recent times.

I remember reading Zen Habits back when it started and although he was doing great with his first ebook and (I think, but not certain) affiliate links to other ebooks, he wasn’t really maximizing his income.  He even tried ads at that time on his site.

The lessons I learnt from watching Leo expand his passive income streams were huge.

For starters, he never focused on the income.  He just focused on creating fascinating and life-changing content.  You can tell from his website’s design that this is still in number one focus.  (You may start to understand where this site’s focus and design are inspired from :).

Selling his own information products was something he quickly realized was his ticket to freedom.  Not affiliate marketing as much, and definitely not ads! 

Corbett Barr has said something very similar to this (ie info product income trumps affiliate marketing income), and this is coming from the guy who literally wrote the book on affiliate marketing, the Beginners Guide to Affiliate Marketing!

This point alone has always driven me away from creating an affiliate-dependent blog.

But anyways, back to Leo.  So it’s the San Francisco Leo Babauta, not the former Guam-living Leo, that has got me all excited.  You see, Leo’s finallyprogressed from selling $10 ebooks to selling multi-tiered membership sites!!  Our boy has become a true passive income man.

Most of his recent offerings have been monthly membership sites where there is a recurring fee, from $10 to $50.  Brilliant.

And the best thing of all, the products are naturally suited to a monthly fee, because they are gradual release info products, paired with monthly happenings like webinars, forums and whatnot.

Partnering up with other entrepreneurs to create and market these info products has been crucial to Leo’s fast rise (in money terms).  Like he did so successfully when he paired up with Mary to create A List Blogging.  Love it. Or more recently with something like his Simple Fitness Course (which I cover later in this article).

Now what can us ordinary Joes learn from Leo?

I mean, here’s a guy that can promote a course to millions of people simply by writing a blog post and getting a few of his other friends on the net to do the same.  How can we learn from him?

Simple.

1. Create epic content

2.  Have an A class reader experience (think decluttered, content focused…hello Real Passive Income Ideas)

3. Guest post like crazy

4.  Network online

5. Create your own info products

6.  Partner up with experts

And before you know it you will be crushing your own niche.

The important thing to remember is you don’t need a million readers like Leo to be successful.

I think I read it first over at Scott Dinsmore’s Live Your Legend, that you just need 1000 loyal followers to make a full time living online.  ie a 1000 regular readers who love your stuff and are camping out for your next $67 ebook or $10 a month online course.

You do the math.

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