Passive income streams are an attractive and powerful way to generate an income and possibly make a decent living. Because the business model steps away from traditional wages and salaries, it is not necessary for a person to "trade" working hours for a certain amount of money. This opens up time that can be used for other activities, and even working toward generating other passive income streams for the future. Here are ten killer tips that you can use to help you achieve your goal of earning a passive income: First, you must think "online". Brick and mortar businesses, although potentially profitable, do not work when trying to generate a passive income. For one, you cannot keep a physical store open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (including holidays), like an internet business can. Also, you are narrowing your customer base to a very tiny location. Online, anyone with a computer from anywhere in the world can access a website and potentially become a customer. Additionally, brick and mortar stores require constant attention and upkeep, which is opposite of what you want to happen if you're trying to generate a passive income. Secondly, you should only deal with selling electronic products, such as ebooks, audio and video files, or membership websites. Although physical products can be profitable as well, they require time from you to package, ship and send to customers. On top of that, you may have to deal with damages and returns, which only take up more of your valuable time. With electronic products, there is no inventory, no need to package, and shipping (via email, usually) can be done automatically for you without your presence. Thirdly, don't forget about outsourcing. Outsourcing specific jobs that you either don't want to do, or don't have time to do, can be an excellent way to free up your time and make streams of income truly passive. Although a project or a task may require the human touch, it's still passive if it doesn't require your human touch. Fourth, realize that results take time. Patience is a virtue, especially when it comes to doing business online. Today, we live in a world where we want to see results happen right away. Put that train of thought aside when building a passive income business because it can kill a successful business before it even had the time to actually become successful. Fifth, learn how to make more money with a passive income business model. In the traditional salary/wage model, there are only two ways to earn more money: 1) by working more hours (overtime), and 2) by getting a raise. That's it! In a passive income business model, there are several ways to earn more money: 1) by increasing the number of people coming to your website (traffic), 2) by increasing the amount of people who stay on your website (decreasing bounce rate), 3) improving conversions for opt-in lists, click-throughs, and completed checkout forms, 4) running seasonal promotions, 5) finding joint venture partners, 6) having an affiliate program, 7) optimization by testing, 8) promoting on blogs and forums, 9) making more electronic products, and 10) word of mouth about your business. There are many more ways to increase and optimize a passive income business online, and as you can see, the opportunities to earn more money are far more lucrative than working in a 9 to 5 job. So, when you're thinking about creating passive income for yourself, or you're in the middle of creating an online business, be sure to keep in mind these 5 tips. Pat Flynn is an entrepreneur, business owner and blogger who specializes in generating passive income streams online. For more information about Pat's businesses, please visit http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/passive-income-streams-101