I and many people like me make large (six-figure annual) passive* income streams from selling information products online. My flagship product is a book/video b

I and many people like me make large (six-figure annual) passive* income streams from selling information products online. My flagship product is a book/video bundle to teach web development with Ruby on Rails, and sells for $159 (http://railstutorial.org/ http://railstutorial.org/). Many people who use it go on to get new jobs paying them 50%–200% more money, which makes the product an easy sell to the right market. *Of course, it's not perfectly passive, but it's pretty darn close: ~2 hrs per week (for customer service) plus ~3 months full-time every 15–18 months (to make a new edition). There are lots of opportunities to make product businesses like mine. It's not a startup in the traditional sense; I think of it as a medium risk, medium reward business. It can also free you up to take bigger risks, such as starting a full-blown startup, which is what I'm doing now. In particular, I'm working on a publishing platform to allow technical authors to make profitable information-product businesses. (I love meta.) I recommend reading Amy Hoy's blog [Unicornfree](http://unicornfree.com/ http://unicornfree.com/) for ideas and suggestions, and maybe take her 30x500 course some time. You may find yourself surprised that it's not snake oil or Ponzi schemes—you can earn an honest, healthy living while still having a huge amount of time and freedom.