I returned from my trip to Nicaragua this week. To be honest with you, it totally refreshed and motivated me to work harder on my online businesses. I enjoyed the time I spent there so much that I want to make it a regular thing. As such, I started a new campaign yesterday. I am going to attempt to complete one campaign a week for two months.

After that has been complete, I will evaluate how I am doing.

I am trying to diversify my passive streams of income as much as I can. I do not want to have to depend upon eHow and Today. What would happen if these sites suddenly closed up shop. Hundreds of writers would have to start all over. Many would chose to quit altogether.

As for me, I choose the path less traveled!

How much passive income do you need? Are you trying to replace your current income, or are you simply trying to supplement what you already make?

When you decide on how much you want to make each year, it helps to break things down into manageable chucks. I prefer to look at things on a daily basis. If, for example, I wanted to earn $10,000 this year to help pay my mortgage down. I would not focus on the $10,000 amount. That would seem entirely too difficult. Instead, I would divide that amount by 360 days (assuming for a few days of slacking). $27 a day is a realistic income goal. Once you know your target, you can begin to develop a plan to get there. For instance, here are a few easy methods to help you see the potential:

1. eHow - Once you have around 100 articles published, you can realistically earn about $2 per day. Some days will be higher, some lower.

2. Article Marketing - If you would create a new blog, or Squidoo lens, every month, it is conceivable that you could make one sale a month (with a commission of $40). Do this twelve times, and you would be making about $16 a day at the end of the year.

3. Blogging - Create a blog in a niche that you enjoy. Produce quality content and get a small page rank. Once you have done this, sell advertisements on your blog. You could easily sell four 125×125 spaces for $10 a month (with a PR3 site). This would add another $1.35 to your daily totals.

4. Paid Posting - Create a small blog network of your own and try your hand at paid posting. It is extremely easy to make $8 per day doing these types of posts. It is even easier if you have a number of blogs in which you can make the posts relevant.

While some of these ideas are not truly passive, they can help you reach whatever income goals you desire. Develop your own plan and get to work!

How many passive streams of income do you have?

If you are like me, then you have four or five solid streams and a few experimental streams going on at all time. As an example, here are a few of my current streams of passive income:

1. eHow - This is a great place to earn residual income.

2. Today - I like how easy it is to create a post on this website. It makes for an enjoyable writing experience.

3. Squidoo - This is a new idea to me. I will report back on my results later.

4. Amazon - If you can generate some traffic, you can get a few sales.

5. Blogging - Owning your own blog allows you to capture 100% of the ad revenue generated by interested buyers.

6. Paid Posting - If you have a blog with some page rank, you can earn really good money doing paid posts. I do not do too much of this as most of the opportunities are completely unrelated to anything I care about.

How many passive streams of income do you have?

Have you ever tried to make money with article marketing, otherwise known as bum marketing? Did you achieve any success at all? If you had to guess your hourly wage, would you be earning more than minimum wage? I would venture a guess that most people would not!

I have had some limited success with my article marketing experiments. In the past 3 months, I have made about 20 sales from articles written and submitted all over the internet. Additionally, I would guess that these sales ALL came from one or two articles? Unfortunately, I did not put a tracking code on my affiliate links, so I may never know where the sale came from, which really stinks. I would love to repeat the success of those few articles.

When you start an article marketing experiment, do you track each and every article and its performance? Do you obsess over stats or simply let them do their thing?

I work extremely hard for the income I earn. Typically, I work 60 hours a week at my day job… you know.. the one that actually pays the bills. Additionally, I tend to spend about 10 hours a week working on various income producing activities on the internet. I must admit that I am completely exhausted! I am tired of working so hard without truly seeing the benefits of my work. This has me thinking about my lifestyle.

If I had less stuff to pay for, would my life be any easier? If the house was paid for, could I work less hours; or is my personality such that I would continue to work hundreds of hours if I did not have to? Would I continue trying to earn income online, or would I give up like so many others before me?

If you had plenty of money, where you could work only when you wanted to, what would you do with your free time? Would you continue trying to make money online?

Do you think about the future at all? Do you plan out where you want to be in a year? What about two years from now? Does your life have any direction, or do you choose to live life as it happens?

All of my life I have been the wait-and-see kind of guy. Taking risks was too risky. Playing it safe was always the best approach.

Lately, I have been think that perhaps this is not the best approach for me. Instead of owning my own business, I work for someone else. Instead of creating something new each day, I perform the same routine tasks day after day after day. What would have happened if I had taken a risk? Would I be in far worse shape now?

Probably not. I may even have something of my own by now.

What about you? Are you a risk taker?

Last night, I finally got to watch a few games of the NCAA tournament. In the past, I would really get into it. I would stream it live from cbssportsline and update my brackets after every game. I am sure that I spent entirely too much time obsessing over potential upset and ’sure-things’.

This year I have spent more time obsessing over the earnings potential of certain keywords versus others. I have analyzed micro-niches and spending patterns on my various blogs. I track my traffic patterns; when, where, who and how my visitors arrived. I have pondered how to get those visitors back and, more importantly, how to them to buy stuff or clickads.

It seems as though my thoughts have shifted from thinking about now versus thinking about the future. Amazingly, it is just as much fun. Of course, I will still play fantasy football. I would never give that up.

What about you? Have you shifted your focus this year? Are you achieving your goals?

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Lately, I have read numerous blog posts in which eHow writers have been making some really good income. In fact, my friend Norm, over at The Cheap Bastid , knocked down over $190 and 7,000 page views on one day. While my earnings were not quite so incredible, I did reach a personal milestone yesterday.

I normally earn between $1 and $3 each day. Yesterday, I earned over $10! For me, this is pretty significant. It symbolizes the true potential that eHow brings to the table. It also represents the power of passive income.

In March, I have not had much time to create new articles. In fact, over the past 2 months I have found my free-time shrinking to about 30 minutes a week, instead of an hour a day. The cool thing is that the articles I wrote months ago are still doing their thing for me. Pennies a day has now turned into dollars a day. Next up….tens of dollars a day….

What about you? How are you doing on eHow?

Creating passive streams of income is hard work. Really, really, really hard work. There are times when all I want to do is go to bed early. I do not want to fire up the computer and work. After all, I spend 12 hours a day in front of the computer at my day job, why would I want to add even more time to that once I get home?

Realistically, it is all about potential. The potential to make some extra passive income is there. The potential to pay my mortgage each month from a little effort 6 months ago, makes it worth it. Will I ever make $1,000 a month in pure passive income? I honestly do not know. I will tell you one thing though; if you do not try you will never make it.

Like Yoda always says ‘do or do not. there is no try’. This is my attitude as well. My blogs may suck, my sales pages may not convert, and I may be wasting my time.  I will go out in a blaze of glory….if nothing else.

The last few days have been spent researching ideas for a new affiliate marketing campaign. I looked at a few different products, finally decided to purchase something geared more for someone of my vast experience. I have posted my decision analysis on experimental blogging , if you are interested.

A lot of people will rush into things, bouncing from one shiny idea to the next without truly working on achieving success. I needed a plan and I think I have found a great template. I spent the last 5 hours reading through the materials. I must admit that I am impressed. Usually, those types of things really disappoint me. I will obviously need to re-read the materials again as I was powering through it to see what I thought.

Tomorrow night I will begin “Day One” of this article marketing experiment. It should prove to be entertaining to say the least. The cool thing about this technique is that it involves doing things that I am good at. You do not have to know a great deal about html, java scripts or re-directs. No….all you need is a bit of effort and a solid plan. Most likely, I will focus on a Clickbank product, since the commission levels are so high.

I cannot wait to get started.

What about you? What did you do today?