Making money while not working sounds wonderful doesn’t it, but how can you do it?  There are a lot of ways you can create passive income in your business while you sleep, on vacation or being Taxi Mom, like me

Here are a few tips I have found are easy to set up.

Scheduled Tweets & Status Updates

There are a few services you can use for free that will allow you to automate your postings to Twitter and update your status to social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn.  The service that I use is called HootSuite and it is super easy to set up and use but you just want to create scheduled update for your Twitter account you can consider using Social Oomph.  I suggest scheduling promotional types of tweets and status updates a few times throughout the day.  What you will want to promote are your own products and services as well as other people’s products through affiliate marketing.

Ebooks

Ebook Are you an expert at something and like to write? You can easily put together an ebook and sell it from your website. You can even have a virtual assistant or graphic designer create a snazzy cover for you to help drive sales. To sell the book from your website all you need is aPayPal account and you can set up a “buy now” button on your website and customers can buy your book. Once they have made the purchase you will receive an email and send the book out to them in PDF format.

Ezine Articles

Writing articles and submitting them to free  to Ezine Articles is a great way to get exposure in your business for free!  You can turn your existing blog posts into articles in a snap!  Being on Ezine Articles will help you also build your reputation and as an expert in your subject.

EzineArticles.com is a matching service — bringing real-world experts and ezine publishers together.

Expert Authors & Writers are able to post their articles to be featured within the site. Our searchable database of hundreds of thousands of quality original articles allows email newsletter publishers hungry for fresh content to find articles that they can use for inclusion within their next newsletter

What are some ways you have used passive income in your business?

© 2011 Sunrise Virtual Services, Dawn Cullo

This blog post is part of a 7-Day Blogging Challenge hosted by Brandy Mychals. You can participate in the challenge too by going to http://brandymychals.com/mb/7-day-blogging-challenge/

Everybody talks about the wonders of Twitter, but no one tells you HOW to use it!

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Click here to visit the Twitter Rockstar site.

Are you wondering why there are so many people on Twitter?

How in the WORLD are you going to listen to all they have to say?

Well, you don’t have to, you only need to listen to the people who matter to you and weed out the other yahoos out there.  Twitter has a service called Twitter Lists.  This is a way you can  organize the people you follow and put them into little categories.

You can build many different lists of people and even just organize the people you follow by topic, region, profession, groups of friends or family members.  The lists are then shown on your Twitter page and can be viewed by anyone who visits your page, heck they can even start to follow your list.  Another cool feature is that you can see the lists that other people have put you on and follow that list as well.

The lists that I have created include my fellow online business owners, a celebrity list, a Mommy Bloggers list, a local Sacramento list and a list that I appear on called Ask Erin Live which was created by Erin Blaskie.

Creating a Twitter List

• Go to your Twitter Page and select “New List“.  Then you can name your list, create a description and select if you want your list to be public or private.

• After you have your list created you will need to add people to it.  Go to the pages of the people that you want to add to your list and simply click the list button and add that person to your list.

• Once your lists are created you can edit them at anytime by clicking the “View all” link under the Lists section of your profile page.  Once on the list page just select the “Edit” link to rename your list or adjust the privacy settings.  To remove people from the list simply click on their thumbnail photo or the “View all” link under the Following section and you can adjust which list (if any) they appear on.

Things You Can Do With Your Twitter Lists

You can add your Twitter Lists to your blog or website by using either Twitters List widget or the one that I used on my website by Tweet Grid. If you are a HootSuite user you can integrate your Twitter Lists as columns.

More Resources

Here are some more resources you can check out about Twitter Lists and see what these experts have to say

Twitter’s Blog – Posting “There’s a List for That”

Mashable – “10 Ways You Can Use Twitter Lists“  and Twitter Lists Guide

So, how will you use your Twitter Lists?

HootSuite is a tool that you can use to manage your Tweeting habit, for free!

There are several functions you can do with this amazing tool.

• You can manage all of your Twitter profiles in one place.
• Track your Tweeting statistics
• Multi-column layout with customizable tabs
• Create customizable groups of friends, coworkers, celebrities
• Embed a column on another site so you can see the Tweet stream of a specific topic on a blog or website
• Feed your blog (I am currently using Twitterfeed..but will be updating to HootSuite soon)
• Integrate your Ping.fm account so that you can update all of your Social Networks at once with a single Tweet
• Schedule Tweets – This is my personal favorite!
• View user information about other people without going to their profile

You can view demo videos here about how these features work.

I  have a few Twitter Tips up my sleeve and I’d like to share these with you.

Use a colorful background or wear a bright color in your profile photo.

This tip I picked up from Erin Blaskie. She explains that by having a bright profile image your Tweets will ‘pop’ out more within someone’s Tweet Stream, makes sense to me.  Check out her Twitter profile image when you follow her you will see how much her Tweets actually seem to jump out at you.

Join Twitter Directories

There are several Twitter directories you can join and once you do so people can find and follow you based upon common interests.  Some directories to join are:

• We Follow – http://wefollow.com/ – This one is my favorite because it ranks people in differnt categories (they place themselves in the categories) but it is still fun to see who the top Celebrity Tweeters are or the top Social Media people are.
• Twellow - http://www.twellow.com/ – Known as the Twitter Yellow Pages
• Just Tweet It - http://justtweetit.com/ – Find other people who Tweet what you Tweet

Completely fill out your Bio, Upload a picture, Create a Background Image

People are more likely to follow you if you have a completed Bio. Also, be sure to use your real name in your profile so that if someone searches for you, they can find you!  Isn’t that the point of being on the Internet anyway so that people can find you?  Also, you can create your own background instead of the stock Twitter backgrounds.  There are a lot of web designers who will do this for you for a small fee.  My favorite designer is BKB Designs , her name is Katherine Boroksi and she Designed my company logo and she can whip up something for you in a flash.

Tweet  and Retweet

To stay relevant, you need to Tweet what you think!  You will find that you create the most converstation with people if you actually interact with them on Twitter and ReTweet their thoughts as well.  Don’t just ReTweet a celebrity Tweet, actually Tweet things that are of interest to you as that is how you will create a community of like minded followers.

You can also follow me on Twitter at – http://www.twitter.com/dawncullo

I have been using Ping.fm to post Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace & Plaxo updates for my clients.  What I have always wanted was a (free) way to schedule these updates.  Similar to what SocialOomph does for your Tweets.  With SocialOomph (previously known as TweetLater) you can schedule your Tweets far in advance which makes for promoting my clients events much easier.

Finally, HootSuite has come to the rescue and now are providing a new service where you can schedule your status updates on many social networking sites.  This has really made my job a lot easier as I don’t have to ‘remember’ to post a specific status update daily.  The great news is that you can even schedule updates to your Facebook Fanpages as well, yippie.

I have been using TinyURL for quite some time to shorten my long links while using Twitter, however my colleague Erin Blaskie showed me an even better way to shorten long URL’s.  The service is called bit.ly and you can not only shorten your URL but you can also view the analytic for the link.

Once you have shorten your link and use it you can immediately start to see the analytic information.  Below is a recent one I used for a promotion on my Mommy Blogging site.

There are other features about this service that make it fantastic.

History

Bit.ly will keep a history of your links, this is a great feature if you do affiliate marketing and you want to shorten your links and track them.

Sidebar Bookmarks

Shorten URLs from anywhere with either one of bit.ly’s bookmarklets.  They have made available either a sidebar widget or a standard tool bar bookmark then share your bit.ly link in your Email, on Twitter, Facebook or anywhere!

Blog

To keep up on all things bit.ly check out their bit.ly blog.

Tell me what you think about bit.ly or what service do you use to shorten your URL’s?

[tags] bit.ly, Dawn Cullo, Erin Blaskie, Sunrise Virtual Services [/tags]

Top Referrers ?

Referring Site	Click(s) On bit.ly Link
Email Clients, IM, AIR Apps, and Direct	65
Direct Traffic includes people clicking a bit.ly link from: - Desktop email clients like Microsoft Outlook or Apple mail - AIR applications like Twirhl - Mobile apps like Twitterific or Blackberry Mail - Chat apps like AIM - SMS/MMS messages It also includes people who typed a bit.ly link directly into their browser
twur.li	6
	6
twitter.com	4
/	1
/DawnCullo	1
/home	2
Registered Applications	2
TweetDeck	2
bit.ly	1
/	1
powertwitter.me	1
/	1
sunrisevirtualservices.com	1
/	1
www.tweetlater.com	1
/tweets/add/	1

Locations ?

Conversations

Have you ever thought of following a celebrity on Twitter but just not sure if it is really them sending those Tweets?  Well, you are not the only one who has had that thought that cross through their mind.

The good folks over at at Twitter in San Francisco are working on saving us from fake celebrity accounts. The are currently in the process of verifying celebrity accounts to be sure that they are authentic.  They are creating a new Verified Account program in which they will do their homework and find an official person connected to the celebrity who can verify the account.  According to the Twitter Blog they are planning on rolling out the program this summer.

Until then, the best way to be sure you are following a 100% genuine grade A celebrity is to go to their website and see if they have a link to their Twitter account.  Even better some celebrities have publicized their Twitter ID’s on their talk shows or while doing interviews.

Oprah is one such celebrity who announced her Twitter ID on air.  She devoted an entire show to Twitter in April 2009.   She tweeted live for the first time on TV with Gayle King by her side and even had Evan Williams co-founders of Twitter on the show with her.  You can be sure that this Twitter account is the real Oprah http://twitter.com/oprah

These accounts have already been verified by the celebrity either through their website or themselves via their own talk show or while on another show.

Gail King – http://twitter.com/kinggayle
Jimmy Fallon – http://twitter.com/jimmyfallon
Ashton Kutcher – http://twitter.com/aplusk
Demi Moore – http://twitter.com/mrskutcher
Ellen Degeneres-  http://twitter.com/TheEllenShow
Shaq – http://twitter.com/THE_REAL_SHAQ
MC Hammer – http://twitter.com/MCHammer
Anderson Cooper – http://twitter.com/andersoncooper
Sean Diddy Combs – http://www.twitter.com/IamDiddy

Who are the celebrities that you follow?

[tags] Twitter, Oprah, Oprah Winfrey, Gail King, Jimmy Fallon, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Ellen Degeneres, Shaq, MC Hammer, Anderson Cooper, Sean Diddy Combs, Dawn Cullo, Sunrise Virtual Services [/tags]

I utilize Tweetdeck to manage my daily Tweeting habit. Tweetdeck is a desktop application that organizes your Tweets into columns, allows you to update your Facebook status when sending your Tweets and create custom columns to organize people and topics.

Photo From Tweetdeck

Here are the 5 productive tools that I use with Tweetdeck.

1. Create Custom Columns

Tweetdeck provides columns such as :  All Friends, Replies, Direct Messages, Favorites, TwitScoop and Facebook Friends.  You can pick and choose which columns you want to use or create some of your own. Within the top left toolbar  is a Group Icon and a Search Icon.    The Group feature allows you to create a column of specific people.  The Search feature allows you to search by keyword or topic and then it automatically creates a column based upon that keyword.

2. Update Your Facebook Status

This feature will allow you to update your Facebook status when you send a Tweet.  Tweetdeck allows you to pick only specific Tweets to update to Facebook, not all of your Tweets will show up on Facebook if you don’t want them too. Simply check or uncheck the box next to the Facebook box when sending a Tweet.

3. Filter Your Columns

Each column features a filter button at the bottom of the column.  This can come in handy when you want to see if people are tweeting about a specific keyword or topic. Simply click the Filter icon and type in your keywords.

4. Manage Retweets, Replies & Direct Messages

One of the most productive tools on Tweetdeck is the power to Reply (@) , Retweet (RT) or Direct Message (DM) with two clicks of your mouse.  Simply hover over the photo of the person next to the Tweet you want to take action on and a sub menu will appear.  Once you click the appropriate icon your message will appear in your Tweet window at the top of Tweetdeck and you are one click away from sending off the Tweet.

5. Shorten URL’s.

Just below the Tweet window is a handy tool called Shorten URL.  Simply paste in a long URL and click the ‘shorten’ button and your new link will appear in the Tweet window.  You can also select from 6 different URL Shortening services from the drop down menu.

Those are my top 5 productivity tools that I use on Tweetdeck.  How about you?  What types of tools do you like to use to manage your Tweeting habit?

[tags] Twitter, Tweetdeck, Facebook, Dawn Cullo, Sunrise Virtual Services [/tags]

It is important to add your Twitter URL (or ID) to your Facebook, your Website and your Blog.  This will help your current connections to find your Twitter URL (or ID) and start to follow you on Twitter.

By adding your Twitter URL to your Facebook, Website or Blog page people will then be able to quickly follow you on Twitter by clicking  the link and going to your Twitter profile.   Your Twitter URL is http://www.twitter.com/username or ID  for instance mine is http://www.twitter.com/dawncullo

To Add The URL To Your Facebook

The link can be added to your Contact information under the Info Tab in the Websites section.

1. Click on the INFO tab in your Facebook Profile.

2. Scroll down to the Contact Information section

3. Hover your mouse over the Edit button / pencil area until it appears and then click EDIT.

4. Scroll down to the WEBSITE section

5. Type in your Twitter URL (remember it is http://www.twitter.com/username)

6. Click the blue SAVE CHANGES button.

7. View the link on your profile Home Page under the INFORMATION section.

8. If the new link does not appear, click on the pencil icon to bring up the EDIT menu.  Click the box next to WEBSITE to make that section of your profile visible in the Information section.

To Add The URL To Your Website and Blog

Do a quick Google search for “Twitter Buttons” and you will come up with a laundry list of  designs. My favorite site is Twitter Buttons but there are a lot of new sites popping up all the time so check those out too for a design that fits into your Website or Blog theme.

1. Once you have found the design you like input your Twitter ID in the box at the top of the page and click “GO”

2. The site will automatically generate an HTML code below the design.

3. Select copy code and then paste to it your Website or Blog.

4. You can also past the code in a notepad document and save it for use later.

I found this one on Twit Buttons

If you are unsure how to do then add this to your Website or Blog page this could be a great task to delegate to a Virtual Assistant or a Web Site Editor.

If you have a WordPress Blog site I can help you with this task.  I offer this as part of my Blog Update service.  Send me an email if you are interested in adding your Twitter ID to your blog.  My email is dawn@sunrisevirtualservices or you can Tweet me.

[tags] Twitter, Dawn Cullo, Sunrise Virutal Services [/tags]