How to turn your social media comments into passive income!

Published on / By M. Pattabiraman Twitter: @pattufreefincal

Published: March 21, 2021 at 11:07 am

Last Updated on June 3, 2022 at 11:02 pm

My favourite Twitter bio is actors Kevin Hart’s: “My name is Kevin Hart, and I WORK HARD!!! That pretty much sums me up!!! Everybody Wants To Be Famous But Nobody Wants To Do The Work”. You can replace the “be famous” with “make more money”, which would still be true. Another reality is, among the people ready to work hard for extra income, very few know where/how to start. In this article, I show how it is possible to earn passive income from our daily interactions with society, for example, social media comments!

A couple of days ago, I was asked an interesting question: “Where did you get the idea for your passive income products?” I never thought about that before; I never traced the origins of a product. As I did this, I realised the seed was a question asked by a reader on social media or a suggestion on email.

That is when I realised the secret to side-hustles, passive income, gigs – call it what you like – lie within our interactions. “Everyone wants an extra income, but no one (= very few) knows where to start” would be a reasonably accurate paraphrase of Kein Harts profile quote.

I have tried the (1) list your passions; (2) ask which of these would be useful to others; (3) choose one and give it a try; Accurate as it is, the problem with this approach is, it lacks a vital element—an element that is responsible for the creation of freefincal: proof of public endorsement.

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In mid-2011, I published my first retirement calculator on onemint. The comments/reactions to that post played a big role in setting up freefincal. This is also true for “Chinchi gets a superpower”. The seed for this book was my comments on Facebook group Asan Ideas for Wealth threads: “How do we get our children interested in money management”.  To be accurate: not in the comment, but in the reactions to that comment.

A couple of years later, I saw a random Twitter thread, and someone said, “If there is a decent resource for teaching money basics to kids, I will pay for it”. That is when I realised it, “why can’t I do this? I already have the outline.” So I dug up that old AIFW comment and expanded it.

The books by friends on how to profit from content writing and do not buy gaming consoles. Buy this instead also stem from demand perceived on social media. So the questions I wish to pose to you are these:

  1. Are you interested in passive income?
    • No: Share this article with an interested friend. Thank you.
    • Yes: Read on
  2. You have some interests; there some new developments related to those interests. For example, you are interested in physical fitness, and there is a new protein powder available on Amazon. You are interested in mutual funds, and there is a new NFO (there is each week); Can you explain or even outline these developments in a post or comment or article or short video?
    • No: Then focus on being able to do this and not making money. Look harder!
    • Yes: Read on
  3. How are people reacting to these? Do they find what you say insightful? Valuable?
    • No: Then strive to say something relevant, easy to understand.
    • Yes: Read on

You possibly have what marketers would call a “profitable niche”. If you can build on the content from such comments/threads and build a community, you may build active or passive income from this. No guarantees, though. You will have to roll the dice and find out.

Also just because people like what you have to say does not mean you can immediately package it into a product and make money out of it. Passive income needs constant nurture: Passive income is a crucial part of your retirement plan: How to get started.

Last week we discussed how to make the time to make more money. Public encouragement is a great motivation to create time! At the very least, the endorsement is an indication that people find value in what you have to say, and this is a big deal considering the general quality of what is posted out there.

A smart blogger, entrepreneur, a financial advisor would use this endorsement to tailor their content, business and income. Ideas are born from the problems others have. To be aware of this, we focus on helping others without expectation and not thinking about making money – particularly how much others are making!

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