Marketing

It's the dream: money you can count on to keep rolling in, even while you sleep.

Passive income isn't entirely passive, of course. You'll put in work up-front to get the profits rolling, so don't relax in your recliner just yet. But with so many potential sources of passive income available to you, picking one or several will mean that the day you can finally kick back will draw steadily closer.

Rental Properties

Real estate is a tried-and-true wealth builder for a simple reason: people will always need somewhere to live. Research the market in a growing community until you know a good deal when you see it. You can maximize rent by fixing up a deteriorating property or upgrading a mediocre one. The key is to hire a property manager to do all the day-to-day landlord duties for you—and you'll need a good one. Smart investors put their profits in another property and repeat the process until they have a diverse portfolio.

A YouTube Channel

You can start a blog if you're more comfortable hiding behind a computer, but consumers are more likely to prefer video content. Post a series of “how-to" videos to answer questions about whatever you're an expert in.

You can put up any content you want, but if you don't want to commit to regularly updating it, focus on “evergreen" topics that will draw clicks for eternity. Ads will create your income, especially if your channel grows in popularity. Better yet, sign up for affiliate marketing. If you recommend a product and provide a link to buy it, you'll get a small percentage of those transactions.

Auto Advertising

If you don't mind vinyl-wrapping your car with an ad for a company, you can get cash just driving around and running your errands. Make sure you contact a reputable company that doesn't ask for any money from you; if they're the real deal, they'll evaluate your car, your driving habits, your area, and more. Bonus: the brighter the ad, the easier it'll be to find your vehicle in the parking lot.

Digital Products

What's something that people will pay for but doesn't require shipping on your part? Finding that item is what can supplement your income indefinitely. Write an e-book, charge for your cross-stitching patterns, design prints that people can digitally download, invent an app, record a “masterclass," or whatever else you want. Every time someone new discovers it, the cash register rings. With a little more effort, this is a potential source of passive income for you that can continue to grow. Once you build up a customer base, they might want more products. The good part is that it's up to you whether you wish to give it to them.

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GeistM has ranked #433 on Inc.5000 elite list of America's fastest growing private companies. The annual index, which has previously honored current leaders in their fields like Microsoft, Dell & LinkedIn, gives you a glimpse at the fastest growing independent small businesses taking the US economy by storm.

GeistM, the #1 Performance MarTech Platform powering digital marketing for a portfolio of top class brands and innovative startups, has reported 3 year revenue growth of 1,157%.

Kevin Fortuna, Founder and CEO of GeistM remarked: "Our momentum is building, and we expect our explosive growth to continue. GeistM's performance-driven, partner-friendly business model -- together with our best-in-class technology, our close relationships with network partners and the top-notch work from our talented staff -- are creating a 'virtuous cycle' for our business" .

GeistM is a part of a prominent group of companies featured on the list, who are not only competitive, but have collectively achieved an astounding three-year average growth of 538.2 percent. The Inc. 5000's mass revenue was $206.1 billion, and is responsible for creating 664,095 jobs.

"Our data-driven model enables us to identify and scale winning combinations of content elements, offer dynamics, networks and targeting strategies. At GeistM, we don't think of ourselves as an ad agency or a "vendor" – we're an extension of the marketing teams of our partners. We look for category-leading companies with complex or unique value propositions and the capacity and commitment to scale spend in proven channels of customer acquisition. Our best-of-breed MarTech platform, BlackFire, and our obsessive focus on performance-driven results for our clients, have been the driving factors of our success."

GeistM has exhibited staggering growth in recent years, and it can be attributed to its winning combination of talented staff and innovative approach to marketing technology. The measure of GeistM's worth is clearly evident by not only its skyrocketing success, but by the glowing customer testimonies they receive. "The team at Geist has knowledge and insight unlike any other platform and partner I've worked with. Their passion for product marketing, ability to optimize and propose new ideas makes them the ideal partners to work with."

If their astronomical growth so far is anything to go by, GeistM shows no signs of slowing down and will continue to rise above the rest.

For over 70 years, the marketing of one fruit has made it ever-present in our daily lives.

The Red Delicious, in the American consciousness, represents the quintessential apple. It's the one you see on the teacher's desk, and the one in every student's lunchbox. It's also known as the official compost food. But as aesthetically pleasing as it is to the eye, one bite reminds you that what you really want, is one of those crispy golden apples instead. So how is it that they keep selling, and we keep buying, this god awful thing? The production of this gorgeous monstrosity is finally on the decline but, how did we ever let it get this far?

Giphy

Our story starts rather innocently, with few traces of capitalist forces.

Jesse Hiatt, an Iowa farmer, came across a mutant seedling that refused to die. Year by year he chopped it down and year by year it grew back, so finally he let nature bear its course. What resulted was a thing of beauty - red with yellow stripping. It had strong, beautiful skin and a sweet, delicious taste. Hiatt named it "Hawkeye" in Iowa tradition, and boasted of the mutated beauty he'd cultivated. He entered into a contest in Louisiana, Missouri, hosted by Stark Nurseries.

The owners of the nursery, the Stark brothers, were looking for a replacement apple for the "Ben Davis," which was the apple-of-the-day at that time. The "Hawkeye" won and the Stark brothers purchased it, initially naming it "Delicious". In 1923 a farmer reported back to Stark Nurseries that a strange and beautiful mutation had occurred on one of his seedlings, producing a magnificent, crimson apple tree. Instantly wildly popular, people flocked from all over to gawk at and devour this new beauty of a fruit.

Stark capitalized off of this revelation.

By combining the new varietal with another popular seedling the bore, the "Golden Delicious," he rebranded their new apple as the "Red Delicious". Armed with their innovative new breed, they launched what would equate to a multi-million dollar marketing campaign in today's dollars, and even went as far as to send seedlings cross country by railroad.

As growers rushed to mimic this brilliant looking mutation, they began adopting new methods to control the breeding process.

A Life of Apples wrote: "This has allowed growers and breeders to choose mutations that may be redder or more 'perfectly' shaped, constantly moving the Red Delicious closer to an ever-changing ideal of a perfect apple". They also began manipulating the fruit to maximize it's potential for mass market production and longer storage. This led to stronger, tougher skin which hid blemishes and impurities.

Giphy

This is why you may bite into a gorgeous apple, only to discover the mealy and tasteless fruit within.

And as they've continued making the apple redder and prettier, as well as increasing production, we've continued taking that first bite and then throwing the apple away, unsatisfied. However, it appears that our taste buds have caught on. Sales for the Red Delicious has declined. And while many of us remember the bailouts of the bank and the auto industry, President Clinton's apple industry bailout continues to be lesser known. In seems that we may be checking out the apple market again, flirting with Galas and Fujis, and Grannysmiths'.

College is expensive, and the times are changing. In fact only about two-thirds of the current generation are opting receive bachelors degrees or higher. And for those that do pursue higher education, the price tag is higher than ever, and it's rare that your degree doesn't come unaccompanied by a load of debt. That means college is a business and we've got to start thinking like businesspeople. If you're going to spend at least 4 years and mess up some comas, let's look at the numbers. Here are a few college majors with pretty high ROI.

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