u/scazto

Regardless of whether you created a digital product, an app, a web app, or a service, if you don't know how to market it and how to market it properly, it's going to fail.

Even if you create something that is the best on the market out there and, on top of that, is cheaper than everyone else, still, if you don't know how to market it properly, no amount of word of mouth marketing will help you.

Don't start creating anything if you don't have a marketing plan, especially a good one, and if you're a beginner, I'd recommend you just copycat the marketing of someone you find in your niche that is already successful.

Here's something I noticed running content for a client's SEO agency.

We were bidding on "SEO agency" and "hire SEO expert." Expensive and competitive.

Then I looked at what people search before they even know they need an agency/SEO guy, things like "what is domain authority" or "what does CTR mean."

Turns out way more people are searching for that than "hire SEO expert." And almost nobody was making content for it at the time. We started publishing simple explainers for those terms instead (Plus some Parasite SEO).

Inquiries went up, cost per lead dropped, because we were the only ones standing there.

Turns out this isn't an SEO-specific thing. It's how every market works.

Every niche has a "Buyer Signal": the acronyms and terms people look up before they know they're about to make a decision. Think APR, ROI, LLC, HITT, SKU. Nobody's making content around these because everyone's fighting over "best credit cards" and "top loan companies" and other saturated and expensive keywords that are Intent to Buy.

But the person googling "what is domain authority?" isn't randomly browsing. They're circling a decision about their website. They just don't know it yet.

Show up there, explain it clearly, no bull shit, and you become their guide for the rest of the decision. When they're ready to buy, you're already someone they trust more than others.

That's it. Pick a niche -> list 10–20 terms people don't understand yet -> explain each one simply -> repeat.

Zero/Low competition. A lot of real buyer intent. Free traffic.

So if you go through this subreddit, a lot of the posts are either people advertising their product or people writing about things that aren't really passive income. They're just ways to make money online, or passive income methods that probably won't last long term (5+ years).

If we don't include real passive income like renting apartments (Which still isn't passive income unless you hire an agency to manage it all for you or someone), dividend stocks, renting anything out there, and focus solely on the internet side of things, how do you actually achieve it?

If you, for example, start a YouTube channel and you grind making videos, get monetized, and your videos are the type to generate views for the next 10+ years, eg:

- iPhone 18 Review: Is It Worth Buying?

This would get most of its views when the iPhone 18 is released.

- How to Tie a Tie

This can get views for the next 30 years.

- ChatGPT 6 New Features Explained

Just explains a new feature a new version of ChatGPT has, same as how a video about, let's say, Drake scandal or Elon Musk scandal would get just one-time views.

- How to Change a Car Tire Safely

Would probably get views for a long period of time, and I've just given straight examples, you can also go with "Life of Julius Caesar" or "Life of Genghis Khan" can get views for a long period of time.

Hence, even if you'd stop posting videos, your content would still be generating revenue for long period of time if it's properly ranked and nicely done videos.

Hence, if you apply the same logic to a mobile app, if you create a video editing app, if you stop working on it, competition will kill you with way better apps, and your users will leave you. If you, for a simple example, create a calculator app, people have much less reason to switch because the app already does everything they need.

I've had a manga reader website (Japanese Comics), which I've ran for 4 years before selling it to put the cash into stocks, chapters updated on their own, I've advertised that site for it's first year, next 3 years new people kept coming from visitors i already had recommending it, and the same people kept reading manga for years (With slight decrease as some people just stop), but you get the point.

Look out to create something that can:

- Stay Relevant for as long a period of time as possible.

- Competition matters a lot less once you get loyal users, especially if your product simply works and solves the problem they're using it for.

- You can see in ur head, a few ways you can promote it to gain the users in the first place.

This is the formula you need in case you want real passive income. I'd 10/10 recommend you to just look to make as much money in a shorter period of time as possible. Since if you have a way to make 200$ a hour for the next 1 year yet that business is going to fall or become irrelevant in next 12 months and at the other hand y ou have another option that makes you 80$ per hour and you're sure it will stay there for next 3 years, always pick option 1, as when it ends you will have way more money than if you went with option 2 and will have budget, connections and experience to seek something new once it's over. It just puts you in a way better financial situation.