Six Months of Residual Income with Mr. Rebates

Legitimate sources of passive income seem to be dropping all over. At least when it comes to online or internet sources of passive income.

eHow is no longer an option, unless you are accepted as a Demand Studios writer and choose to write revenue share articles there.

The Google Panda update has also negatively affected other sites like Hubpages.

One source of passive income that has stayed strong and continued to grow for me, however, is referring people to the online shopping rebates site, Mr. Rebates.

Since the first of the year I have earned over $1200 from this one stream of income. My earnings have broken down like this:

January: $234.67
February: $159.65
March: $141.68
April: $206.97
May: $291.61
June: $195.49

Why I Like This Income Stream

1. It's win/win.

You don't have to convince anyone to buy something in order to become a referral. In fact, they'll have money on the things they're already buying. That's great - especially in these economic times.

And they'll get $5 just for signing up, which is free to do.

I use this site for my own online shopping, so I feel great recommending it to others.

2. I have a long history of being paid by Mr. Rebates.

I can't speak for every cash back rebate site on the internet, but I can tell you that I have been reliably paid by Mr. Rebates, going back several years.

You don't have to take my word for it, however. Mr. Rebates is an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau, with a rating of A+.

3. It's completely passive.

Most months, all I do is request my payout. I am usually paid the next day via Paypal.

Check out Mr. Rebates for yourself. Even if you only use it as a shopper, it's a great deal. But it can be an awesome source of passive income as well.

Six Months of Residual Income Earnings

It's been a long, long time since I posted any residual income reports. Six months to be exact. So, let me make that right. Here is a report of my residual income earnings from October 2010 - March 2011.

eHow Earnings

My eHow earnings have continued to grow and grow and grow. I haven't added any new eHow articles during this time, since the changes were made to the WCP. So this represents truly passive income, which is fabulous! (It's still possible to add revenue share articles through Demand Studios, but the only articles I've written for them have been for upfront pay and aren't included here.)

October 2010 - $271.70
November 2010 - $266.19
December 2010 - $301.53
January 2011 - $367.97
February 2011 - $350.83
March 2011 - $440.84
 
Cash Back Sites

These are my referral earnings from cash back sites like Mr. Rebates and Big Crumbs. Again, this is truly passive income. Once the referrals are made, I earn a small percentage of their savings every time they shop through these sites. I love this income stream because my referrals are saving money too. My "commission" comes from the company and not from the referrals' savings so it is truly win/win/win.

October 2010 - $177.94
November 2010 - $133.01
December 2010 - $214.00
January 2011 - $246.63
February 2011 - $190.57
March 2011 - $160.90

I also use these sites to save money on my own online shopping, but those amounts aren't included here.

Adsense

During the period from October 2010 - March 2011, I received two Adsense checks totallying $226.90. Those are primarily from writing at Hubpages, Xomba, and at my Family CEO blog.

Amazon

Amazon affiliate earnings totalled $206.92 for the six month period. Again, those come from a variety of online sources.

Miscellaneous

I also had another $65 in residual online income that came from several other miscellaneous sources.

Final Thoughts

This report is encouraging to me, because it covers a six month period where these income sources were somewhat neglected. This is just residual income (or passive income, if you prefer) that was thrown off from work I've done earlier.

The residual income stream I am most excited about are the referrals from the savings sites Mr. Rebates and Big Crumbs. If you haven't checked out those sites, I highly recommend you do so. Even referring a few friends or family can create a little income stream and you'll earn cash back on your shopping as well. (The links above are referral links and will put you in my network when you sign up. Oh, and they're both free, plus Mr. Rebates will give you a $5 cash back bonus just for signing up.)

Let me know if you have any questions and I'd love to hear how your residual income businesses are going as well!

Xomba Goes in a New Direction

WebProNews has a really interesting article about Xomba's new direction. In short, they're making it more of a community site, and creating a business model that relies less on Google searches. After all the hubub about the latest Google algorithm change, a site with a different way of driving traffic is refreshing.

Here's a quote from the article:

"While most content sites rely on Google or search in general for the bulk of their traffic, Xomba’s approach reflects a newer way of thinking throughout the web – that less dependence on search (and being less at the mercy of algorithms) is a better approach for a sustainable business. In other words, it’s best not to put your eggs all in one basket."

For what it's worth, my Xomba earnings have started to rebound more quickly than my other Adsense sources.