Until I was in my mid-thirties, I worked a traditional office job. You might call it a 9 to 5 routine, but, for me, I worked well beyond those hours. Often nights and weekend.
Now, this is the point in the story where most people will complain about the daily grind and their desire to escape the confines of their cubicle. But in my case, I really loved what I did.
But one day, through no fault of my own, our company went out of business… and I suddenly found myself without a job.
That's when I discovered entrepreneurship… and passive income.
If you're not familiar with the term passive income, it's where you make money over and over once again for work that you did one time. Ever since I learned about this concept, I've been adding passive income streams to my business on a weekly basis. Creating online courses, uploading videos and blog posts, and driving traffic to my email autoresponder which does the selling for me.
But I've only scratched the surface of what can be done with Passive Income. In this post, I've compiled 23 different ideas for how you can create passive income in your life. So you, too, can wake up each morning to emails alerting you to new PayPal deposits.
Ready? Here we go…
1. Publish an Online Course
Online courses can be a terrific source of passive income. Here's how they work: you produce a value-packed online course that helps solve an issue or fills a need.
I currently have several courses published on the Udemy platform, which sends me my cut of the sales earned each and every month from the courses I published months and years ago.
I also publish courses of my own using ProductDyno and promote them through social media sites.
2. Create Video on YouTube
All around the world, there are people just like you and me who are generating income using YouTube. Each time somebody views one of your videos, you can choose to have ads appear. And when someone clicks on those ads, you get to share in the profits. The key to success on YouTube is building a large enough viewer base that every video you publish results in tons of views (and ad clicks).
Of course, this can take a lot of time, to begin with, but once your videos are live there is capacity for you to make passive income from each video you post on an ongoing basis.
3. Promote Products Using Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the simplest ways to earn passive income. There is no product to make, warehouse, or fulfill. No customer service to perform. All you need to do is get your referrals for products and services in front of an audience who can benefit from them.
Chances are you are already making lots of recommendations to people and not collecting a commission. But if you take the time to investigate the products and services you share with people, I bet you'll find that lots of them have affiliate or referral programs.
4. Rent out a Room in Your House
Do you have an extra room that you hardly ever use? Why not rent it out to someone trying to find a short-term rental on a site like VRBO or Airbnb? There are people all over the world using Airbnb as an alternative to traditional hotels when they travel.
While this is not entirely passive income, this in an income stream that takes comparatively little effort to manage, and you can keep the income rolling in on a regular basis if you've got a location that in demand.
5. Start a Blog
Maybe the most effective method for generating passive income online is to start a blog. Blogs can generate a tremendous amount of income over time. It won't happen right away, but like creating a successful YouTube channel (above), you can build authority with search engines and develop a loyal audience on your blog.
It doesn't matter what industry you are in or what topic your blog covers, as long as you have a clear understanding of things like searching engine optimization, social media marketing and the ability to write high-value content, then you'll succeed with a blog. Once your blog becomes popular, it provides you with the platform and audience to generate multiple streams of revenue by marketing relevant products and services to your visitors.
6. Publish an Ebook
Another great method for generating a respectable amount of passive income is to publish an ebook. Non-fiction ebooks that help to educate your audience on topics such as marketing, business, or self-development areas, are going to sell far better than fiction books. Plus, if you are teaching your readers to solve a problem, you can also make recommendations for tools or products they should buy – and earn referral commissions when they do.
Clearly, fiction can make tremendous amounts of money, but it's also highly competitive if you're not an already-established writer with an existing following. Utilize the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing platform and publish ebooks that will fill an existing need in popular niches where you have some level of expertise.
7. License Your Photos
Another avenue for passive income is to leverage photo-selling websites such as iStockPhoto and Shutter Stock to earn money while you sleep. Clearly, you need to understand photography and things like Photoshop if you're serious about succeeding in the photo-selling business.
If you have a knack for photography, then selling your photos online should come almost naturally to you. Whether it's portraits, landscape photography, business photography, or something else, find it and stick to it.
8. Create a Mobile App
You either need a lot of skill or a bit of money to get someone to make your mobile app vision into a reality, but it is still possible. While the mobile app gold rush might be over, you can still earn a respectable income if you develop the right app.
If you can create the next Uber, then great. If not, you can opt for some niche app that will help to solve a problem or fill a need that might not have yet been properly covered.
9. Rent Your Cars And Truck for Ad Space
How would you want to generate income simply for driving your vehicle and not need to pick up any travelers? By allowing businesses to put ads on your vehicle's windows, you can make a couple of hundred dollars every month merely by owning your cars and truck around town.
Check out Carvertise to see how you may be able to make passive income by wrapping your car with an ad.
10. Invest in a Laundromat
Here's another turnkey passive income company concept. Many cities have fully operating laundromats that are available for sale. Here is how it would work: you purchase the already-existing business, make certain that you have someone to manage the daily operations, and pocket the earnings (plus the loose change people leave behind).
The reason why you'd want to purchase an existing one and not begin one from scratch is that the expenses of starting from scratch can be quite high. Industrial washers and dryers are not cheap, so it makes a lot more monetary sense to buy an already-established laundromat then starting from the ground up.
11. Sell Digital Products on Etsy.
Did you also know that you can sell digital products on Etsy? All you need to do is put the time into creating the digital products and setup quality listings.
Clearly, this will require some maintenance on your part and you need to ensure that the right traffic hits your listings. Digital products require virtually no overhead and will sell automatically as long as they are high in quality and are appealing to the relevant audience that you're targeting.
12. Generate Royalties from Jingles or Audio Tracks.
If you're musically inclined, one idea for generating some passive income could be to create jingles or audio tracks that you can then license out through popular websites such as Audio Socket, Sound Cloud, or AudioJungle, just to name a few. Clearly, while this isn't the easiest thing to do to rake in big bucks, it's well worth your time if you can come up with something great.
Do your research and due diligence to create audio tracks that are appealing to a large audience. Search for other popular tracks that are being heavily licensed and see what they're doing that you could try to replicate in some format, while not outright duplicating.
13. Make YouTube Video Tutorials.
Earlier we talked about the YouTube ad revenue strategy. Well, if you have expertise in an area, you can use YouTube to post and promote “how-to” videos (which are among the most watched categories).
Remember, if you position yourself as an authority on YouTube, you can develop an audience who are not only interested in watching your videos, but in taking advantage of the things you promote… which could be your own products or affiliate offers.
14. Use Cash Back Credit Cards.
Cash back credit cards offer a great resource for earning some passive income, especially if you're already going to be spending the money. While this revenue stream likely won't make you rich, it will help give you some kickbacks on money that you're already likely spending in your day-to-day life.
Do a few searches online for the best cash back credit cards and sift through all the posts that detail what the right card would be to fit the bill. Be wary of linking through on some of the posts that might try to push you towards the card that will help them earn the greatest income by referring you to it.
15. Purchase Dividend Stocks.
Dividend stocks are a great resource for generating passive income. You also won't need to sell the stock to generate that income. However, you will need to buy a significant amount of shares to see a healthy stream of revenue from whatever dividend stock you end up selecting.
Do the proper research and due diligence on finding the right dividend stocks. You don't need to start out by knowing everything, but you do need a desire to understand and learn. Start small and build up from there while constantly keeping an eye out for high-income producing dividend stocks.
16. Invest through Peer-to-Peer Lending Platforms.
Peer-to-peer lending platforms such as the Lending Club and the Funding Circle make it easy and straightforward to invest in people and businesses to generate a passive income stream from interest payments. Many of these sites have algorithms that will predict risk, taking much of the guesswork out of the equation for you.
Clearly, this will require some upfront investment. If you have some money stashed away, this might be a good avenue for investment without having to rely on low-interest-producing CDs at banks or high-risk stocks. Do the research and judge for yourself on whether this passive income idea works for you.
17. Become an ATM Vendor.
Depending on where you live, you could quite possibly make some great passive income by setting up ATMs in a variety of locations such as small corner stores or in malls and so on. Locate a good company that will allow you to place their ATMs at various businesses and earn a small percentage of the income that these generate.
Outside ATM machines can charge upwards of $5 per transaction, and you could get a small piece of that. On volume, this can amount to a lot of money. Clearly, there is some maintenance involved in this and it's not fully passive, but it is a great resource for earning a respectable amount of monthly cash flow depending on the volume of ATMs you're able to set up.
18. Build Niche or “Guide” Websites for Lead or Referral Income.
If you have an understanding of SEO and online marketing, you might want to build niche or guide websites to help generate leads and referral income. Popular industries include insurance, credit cards, the make money niche, diets and weight loss, among others.
Find something that you ensure and know that you source the right relationships with the right companies to sell your leads, or make sure that people are referred to the right products or services that will allow you to earn a commission with each subsequent sale.
These are just a few ideas for generating passive income. To more fully understand how passive income can become a part of your business and lifestyle, request a free copy of SUREFIRE PASSIVE INCOME.