Yaro Starak has a very detailed post about internet passive income opportunities.  Go check it out if you have time and you are interested in the topic.

One of the interesting conclusions he draws is that, once you filter out the scams, there are a lot of internet passive income opportunities that work, but the people that are working them usually fail.  He goes into some detail here – and it is worth reading.  It is not only true for individuals, but also for businesses that want to generate leads online.  It is about consistently building on what you have, and most people set up a site and then do not touch it for 6 months.

While I avoid MLM’s like the plague, I did join one this year and was successful in building a downline.  Yet I quit selling it after 6 months – and the reason was because the people below me were failing and leaving the program.  I tried to do some training, but getting those people to take action and stick to it long enough to be successful simply took too much of my time for too little return.  Which, coincidentally, is exactly why I avoid MLM’s.

But what makes internet passive income opportunities more attractive is that the start up cost can truly be $Zero.  Sure, you are going to do better, faster if you can spend some money.  But you can trade time and effort for money and just keep learning by trial and error and build a serious business that has a great passive revenue for you.

When I talk to business owners about social media and blogging, it is always the risks they are worried about.  What are the social media risks and how to do minimize the risks while still capitalizing on the social media opportunities?

Some businesses block access to twitter, facebook, myspace and more as a way to minimize the risk.  In some instances, this could be appropriate.  For example, in the medical area, if you have professionals that need to worry about HIPPA and such, it might be better to take any chance of leaking information that would put the organization at risk off the table.  Saying this will not be popular with social media professionals that think everyone should have access, but it is just the hard reality.  Sometimes the risks outweigh any potential reward.

That said, if you care about marketing, PR, customers and website traffic, the risks for not using social media probably are higher than risks using it.

The key to minimize the social media risks is training and documenting your policies.  What constitutes appropriate computer use at work?  Can you only use social media at work if it is in your job description?  What about people that talk about where they work while at home and off the clock?

Many law firms are now offering social media handbook services to help you craft this strategy.  Just be sure that the law firm understands the risks and rewards of social media.  If you could benefit from it, you do not want a policy in place that completely shuts it down.

I had a good meeting with some venture capital people today.

No, I was not raising money.

Actually we were there via a referral and we were discussing how our lead generation system could help them grow their portfolio companies.  It turns out that over 50% of the companies were a good fit for increasing sales through our lead generation system.

That got me thinking about how to sell business to business.  It seems to me that it is smarter to go after venture capital people to get introductions to other business owners that can benefit from your product or service.  I am not saying this is easy, but the traditional route of hoping that business owners know other business owners and will refer you in just seems limited.  The nice thing about talking to these VC’s is that we sell a product that increases quality sales leads.  They have a great interest in increasing the portfolio company’s sales and profits.  It was a good meeting.

If you have only been going through one channel of people to do business to business lead generation, consider who else might be able to introduce you to the people that can benefit the most from working with you.