What Is Passive Income?

The best type of income there is, is the one where you do the work once and you get paid over and over for it – passive income.

It’s like putting blood, sweat and tears into a product one time then watch the money roll in when you receive notifications that you made sales.

The first time I heard about passive income streams was when I started looking for ways to make money online.

People look for dream jobs where they pretty much trade time for money but this is one of the worst ways you can make money.

Not to say that having a job is bad. It gives you an income after all.

But if you want to make an uncapped amount of money, where you literally make money whilst you are asleep, then a job is not the way.

There are many ways that you can make passive income and there are places which give you some sources that you can go to, to get started.

The purpose of this post is to be the first that gives you a wider list of ideas in one place, that you can easily implement to start earning passively.

The easy part is having the idea but get ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

The ideas you will get here take little resources to start but once the effort is all in and the product is finished you will be on your way to enjoying the fruits of your labour.

If you’re ready to take action and want to cut to the chase, you can access my four favourite passive income ideas here.

Let’s get started.

1. Sell an E-book

Want to share your knowledge with the world?

Want to teach something? Write an e-book.

It is not hard to write a 60 to 100 page book and put a price tag of let’s say $97 and sell it online.

When I created my first e-book, it took me a day to write a 37 page document.

I used Microsoft Word to draft the content and then saved it as a PDF.

If you are not good at writing, then you can simply outsource the work to a freelance writer on Fiverr or Upwork.

Any design for the e-book cover can also be outsourced on Upwork but if you are creative then you can use Canva or PicMonkey to design your e-book cover.

Once your book is finished upload it on WordPress.org or Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing so that your potential customers will be able to download the book when they purchase it.

WordPress and Amazon merely act as the host where you can upload the document as a media file and have a link where the customer can download the product.

Once you have your finished product you are ready to market it on the internet via social media outlets or arrange for some affiliates to promote your product for you on sites like Clickbank or Clickbetter.

2. Create a blog and use affiliate links

Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to create passive income.

You need only start a blog, like this one that you are reading, in whatever niche you enjoy.

Then include some affiliate links to products that you would recommend to your audience and get paid when they buy the product or take a certain action.

If you want to get paid on the action of a visitor, such as opting into a form or downloading an app then you can apply to sites like Panthera Network or ShareASale and choose from offers available which pay the highest cost per action.

If you prefer to recommend products for sale, then Amazon Associates, Ebay Partner Network or Rakuten Marketing are some great affiliate companies that you can apply to and include their products on your site.

Once you have created your blog, it is important to send traffic to it.

People are not going to find your blog unless you promote it.

You can also optimise your blog for SEO so it can be found in the Google search engines.

Related Article:

• The Complete Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Successful Blog 
• Network Marketing Blog 5 Reasons Why You Need Them

3. Sell an online course with membership

Many people are turning to the internet to learn a skill so you can capitalise off of this by creating your own course.

You will be surprised to find all sorts of courses that are already making the rounds on the internet.

For example,

Audition Hacker by Rob Knopper teaches you how to rock your audition for any instrument that you play for the orchestra

So You Wanna Be A Fashion Designer by Julie Mollo teaches you what else? How to be a fashion designer.

Fierce Grace Collective by Carrie-Anne Moss teaches women how to nourish their souls and connect with themselves.

So you see, you can literally create a course about anything. Use the course platform like Teachable or Clickfunnels to start creating your online course.

These two platforms make it easy to connect payment processors so you can easily receive payments from your customers via Paypal or Stripe.

4. Join a passive income affiliate program

If you are not into doing much of the work yourself and prefer to let others take care of it for you, then joining a done-for-you affiliate program that specialises in passive income streams is the easiest way to earn money passively.

There are so many affiliate programs on the interwebs that offer this type of model.

The idea here is to purchase the affiliate product which could be from $50 a month to even over $3000 annually. Depending on the price you pay, you will always receive a percentage of the sale when you send a referral to the program.

All programs are already in place. Your only responsibility is to promote the product.

The earning potential for this idea is uncapped.

Absolute genius!

Related Article:

• Top 10 Places To Find High Paying Affiliate Programs For Marketers Or Bloggers
• How To Start Affiliate Marketing For Beginners

5. Create an Ecommerce Store

This can be huge if you know what you are doing. If you don’t, don’t worry. I’ve got you covered!

Creating an eCommerce store is simple.

Many websites provide platforms to enable you to build your store on it without worrying about design or coding.

A good place to start is Shopify.

Once your online store is created you can source products from wholesalers who will provide the stock at a low price.

You can then sell the product at a higher price that allows you to earn a considerable profit.

For wholesale items check out the Alibaba Marketplace. This is the largest directory of Chinese suppliers that provide products to accommodate any niche.

You can communicate with the vendors or manufacturers directly to ship products individually to the customer or order in bulk if you wish to stock your own inventory.

If you are in the US and prefer not to hold your inventory then you can use fulfilment centres such as Dollar Fulfillment who will package and ship the product to your customer for you.

Whilst operating an eCommerce store involves a lot of work on an ongoing basis such as providing customer support, ensuring that the inventory is well stocked or keeping the site up to date, you can try to automate all these processes as much as possible by hiring virtual assistants from on Upwork.

If you are brand new to eCommerce or are looking for some additional help in getting started with eCommerce, getting your online store set up and getting your first online store sale then check out my review of eCom courses compiled and reviewed.

There are many step by step guides to help you master eCommerce in any niche that you choose.

Related Article:

• How To Start An Online Clothing Store
• 4 Proven Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Online Store

6. Create a comparison site

Many people want the best product for the right price.

If you help them find it, then you can make a whack of money at the same time.

That is why comparison sites are such good passive income streams.

For example, you can compare credit card benefits, pros and cons.

All that is required is good indepth research about different credit card products. You can compare as many as you can and set up a table listing each pro and con so that it is easy for the customer to compare the benefits side by side.

Once you have set out the comparisons, you can clearly state which card is the best product and create a link for the customer to apply.

Most credit card companies have affiliate programs so you can become an affiliate and get paid when a customer applies for a card and gets accepted.

The payout by credit card companies for providing leads to them can range from $35 up to $125 per qualified applicant.

7. Sell advertising space on static websites

There are many ways that you can provide advertising space on a website.

One way to do this is with the traditional banner ads. These are images that are found on the top, side or bottom of a webpage and which click through to a product or offer.

You can also provide text links within a blog post as these are said to be super high converters.

To create this advertising space you will need to start a niche blog or website such as a cooking blog or travel blog.

Once your website attracts a good number of viewers per day, offer space on your website for advertisers.

A great place to actually start selling advertising space is Buy Sell Ads.

Guest posting is another way in which you can offer advertising. In fact it is a smarter way where advertisers write high quality useful posts that are relevant to your audience and ties into the product or service that they are promoting.

Do not stop at one. Start creating 10 of these static websites, send traffic to it and you can potentially earn a full time passive income from it within let’s say a year.

8. Lead capture websites for local brick and mortar businesses

The contact details of leads are quite valuable to businesses when those leads convert into customers.

Think of cosmetic or dental businesses where the lifetime value of a customer can be in the thousand of dollars.

Just how much will a business like that be prepared to offer you for leads’ contact details?

My buddy John explains how he does it.

He creates a blog dedicated to carpet cleaning services. The blog is optimised for SEO so that it appears on the first page of Google.

Within the blog he gives away a free report on the mistakes that most carpet cleaners make so as to attract leads.

He then contacts the local carpet cleaners offering them leads for their business. These companies already advertise with Yelp for their services so he offers them leads for the same price as Yelp.

This is how he made a cool $15,000 from one business just for sending them leads.

Related Articles: 

• 4 Awesomest Lead Capture Page Builders You Must Use
• How To Win By Giving Away Freebies In Your Business 

9. Create Iphone, Ipad or Android Apps

The internet is HUGE for information on how to build apps.

So if you are not tech savvy in this area try The Appmakr  or iBuild App to start creating your own app.

If you do not want to create your own app then hire a developer from Upwork or Fiverr.

Apps are big business but you have to be in a profitable market to make a decent sum of money.

Gaming apps dominate the top grossing apps and make their money from in app purchases.

Dating apps like Tinder makes its money from charging users to bump their profiles to the top of the list amongst others in their area.

Music apps like Spotify or Pandora make their money from charging subscription fees for unlimited music with no advertisements.

Call and text apps like Dingtone make their money from charging customers to create internet numbers and making internet calls from anywhere in the world.

Do not try to invent the wheel.

The key to this idea is to repurpose an app that people already love and will pay for.

Find out what complaints people have about the existing app and introduce features that solve those complaints.

Essentially you will be creating a better one.

If you already have an audience you can easily market your app or you can let trusty affiliates promote the app for you.

10. Create a YouTube Channel

If you know what people are looking for and can create content for it, then you have an awesome idea to work with.

The problem however is that people are too shy to turn on their cameras and let the world in.

But the reality is, even if you create a website or blog, people prefer to watch videos on how to do something rather than read a 2000 word blog on the same topic.

It is really simple to create a YouTube channel and start creating content.

Most computers have built in cameras that you can shoot from.

If you wish to be a bit more sophisticated then head on over to Amazon and search for their best digital cameras that produce quality video output.

The next thing is to create content. It can be as simple as sitting in front of the camera and talking about a topic.

Or as elaborate as travelling the world and creating videos vlogs for your audience.

Once you have built up an audience, monetise your videos with ads or you can become an affiliate for products you would recommend in your niche and include affiliate links in the description box of the video.

11. Create a niched stock content for other people to use

If you’re good at creating beats or taking photos then you can set up a content library and make money off of the royalties.

A good example is where you create instrumental beats so that internet marketers can use it as the backdrop in their videos.

You can also create a library of stock photos that bloggers can use on their blogs.

Create a decent pricing structure that is competitive then market your product to churn in the money.

Another route that you can take is to partner with companies that already have the platform and the audience like Shutterstock, and let them do the work for you.

Just be prepared to part with a share of the revenue.

12.Create WordPress themes

As a web designer or developer you can develop a WordPress theme and sell it.

Don’t just create a theme for the sake of creating a theme.

Think about creating themes for a target audience. For example you may have pretty, girly themes for women or ruggish, handsome themes for the guys.

If you have no clue about webdesign then consider outsourcing the work to a designer or developer on Fiverr or Upwork.

You can sell your WordPress themes at Themeforest, Creative Market or Mojo Marketplace.

13. Make a book reviews website

This is like a comparison website but with a lot more content which gives the viewer an expectation of what they are likely to get when they purchase the book.

Some people also call it book blogging.

Read a book, review it and financially support yourself.

You will obviously join the Amazon Associates program to promote the books and embed your affiliate link within your website.

The key to a good book reviews website is to have as much traffic as you can to your website. If you sign up for Amazon you will come to realise that the affiliate payout is just about 5% to 10%.

A good book may cost anywhere between $25 to $50. I could be wrong.

With my calculations that would be about $1.25 to $5.00 per book sold.

You will therefore need thousands of sales to even start making a decent income.

To get thousands of sales you will need hundreds of thousands of views on your blog or website.

You can also build an email list and promote other related products to the list, such as book cover designs, freelance writing or book touring.

Related Article: 

• The Complete Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Successful Blog 

14. Make a product recommendation website

I recently saw a website like this in action.

Thinking about it, it really is not hard to create as all it involves is a static website connected to Amazon Associates with affiliate links.

There is no selling on the website.

All you are doing is recommending certain products and linking those products back to Amazon.

Gadget Review for example does a great job at reviewing high priced items and then leading the customer back to Amazon to complete the sale.

If the customer completes the sale or purchases any item on Amazon within 24 hours of clicking on the affiliate link, then Gadget Review earns a percentage of the sale.

You can spend about two weeks setting up this site so that it is SEO friendly. Include as many Amazon affiliate links within the article.

Ensure that your content is unique and of a high quality. Provide a ton of value so that the user feels compelled to click on your link.

15. Become a digital publisher

The idea behind this is to create an information product that people are willing to pay for. Kind of like selling an e-book or e-magazine but the difference is, you are not the creator of the product.

Someone will create the information product whilst you work on hosting the product for sale.

The outcome will be that you share in the profit of the sale or you can work out a deal where you pay a flat fee and you benefit from all the upsells, crossells, downsells, whatever it may be.

This somewhat resembles an affiliate model.

Before you start on this it is a good idea to test the product to see that it is in high demand and something that people will pay for.

Therefore research is absolutely paramount.

Some great examples of digital published content include digital magazines and creating subscriptions from them.

If you do not yet have an audience for a subscription model then you can monetise the magazine with Google Adsense or drop some affiliate links from affiliate networks like Panthera or ShareASale.

16. Create your own product or gadget that solves a problem

If someone has a problem that you can solve, well you have the answer to your next passive income idea.

If people are willing to pay for it, then you are capable of making money from it.

Let’s start inventing!

Create your own product or gadget then set up a simple online store using Shopify.

Spread the word of your store through networking or advertising and make sales.

The thought behind this is that you are selling one product but it will involve a lot of work to actually design and manufacture the product.

There are people that you can outsource the work to if you merely have the idea in your head.

Stocking the item will be another thing to add to the list as well as getting the item packaged and shipped to the customer.

This does come with a fair bit of risk but if successful has huge returns and is a serious passive income stream if you can market the product well.

17. Buy an existing online business

There are many people who will create businesses and flip them just to make an extra couple hundred thousand of dollars.

The plus side of it, is that you now have an automatic cash machine if the business is successful and generates a lot of money.

The down side of it is, like any business, there is a huge risk.

You have to study the portfolio of the seller. Ask a ton of questions before you invest your money in this idea.

If the business has decent cash flow then why is he/she selling it? Wouldn’t you want to keep that cash flow to yourself anyway?

On the other hand some people prefer to adopt a business as opposed to creating one from scratch. It takes out a lot of time from building it up and instead allows them to just jump in and keep the engine running.

Do not be too hasty to rush into any business deal. Know what you’re getting into and be sure that the amount that you pay for any business is how much it is actually worth.

18. License a product and sell it

If you like creating products, then this can be a profitable passive income source for you.

All you do is create a product in any niche and then distribute the license to it so that other people can buy it and claim it as their own.

This is called the resell of private label rights (PLR).

It is very simple to implement. You can create any product that you want.

An e-book or online video is the best type of product there is.

The product can be in any niche and on any topic. Then you can sell the product with PLR rights attached to it.

You can sell the product to individuals or to make it an automated selling platform, create a membership site with Clickfunnels and provide your subscribers with new PLR products every month.

19. Sign up to Reward and Discount Programs

Hey this is not going to make you a bunch of money but at least it is going to make you something.

And you can earn money from just about doing the simple things that you do everyday.

Sign up to rewards programs like Ebates or Swagbucks.

Do what you would normally do like buy things online and then receive cashback on your purchases.

Again not an ideal way to make money passively but you still get a payout for doing absolutely nothing more than what you already do anyway.

20. Sell things on Ebay

This idea can be passive if you have the selling process done automatically.

You may want to hire a virtual assistant to take care of the setting up and listing of products.

You can also use a fulfilment center like Dollar Fulfilment to sort, package and ship your products to your customer.

To start selling on Ebay find a supplier on the Alibaba Marketplace for whatever product you want, then get the product imported and start selling.

To profit successfully from this income stream, the key is to get the right product and mark it up at the right price.

You can make a good 30-40% profit margin if the price is competitive.

21. Design custom t-shirts, shoes, mugs and sell them online

I Love Grandma T-shirts or My Dog Is Better Than Yours Mugs are great ideas to target passionate niche lovers.

Sites like CustomCat or PillowProfits allow you to upload your design, pick the product and they take care of the fulfilment of the product to your customer.

All you have to do is set up your shop on an eCommerce platform like Shopify and sell away.

The key to making a good deal of money is knowing what people are passionate about. This can work in any niche provided that the idea is fun and unique.

You really want to targeted those super crazy passionate followers.

Check out Just Love Cats who specialise in, you guessed right, cat merchandise.

22. Give all your content away for free and ask for donations

This is a popular passive income stream for most bloggers and YouTubers, especially those who have a huge audience.

The idea is about creating a lot of valuable content that can touch someone’s life, help them or inspire them then ask for donations in a nice way.

The payment system must also be very simple for the donator to get the job done in as little time as possible.

You Are Creators on YouTube does this perfectly. They are a law of attraction channel that produces content to help people learn how to create their own lives. They provide motivation and inspiration for goal setters and dream chasers.

They also have over 300k followers and each of their videos net over 20,000 views.

They then created a single video asking for donations.

I would not rely on donations as a reliable source of income but hey I am only showing you what’s possible.

23. Build an online education site

Similar to creating an e-course but with a lot more meat on the bones.

How this works, is that you create an online member site where there is a library of content in any niche that you want.

To make it valuable to the user it will be useful to include live webinars, Q&As, forums and mastermind groups.

Of course this will not be a cheap product for the customer and neither will it be cheap for the creator.

To be honest it may not even be passive unless you can outsource elements of the site to staff members so they can fully operate it.

In order to set up this type of online education site will require a lot of work and maybe a full time developer as well who will be able to add customisations just the way you want it.

24. Create podcasts or video based interviews with experts

To earn passively you must be prepared to give away a great deal of content for free.

Once you have warmed up your audience with your free content, you can then charge for premium products in a membership site.

You can either charge per download or offer a monthly subscription for a recurring fee.

This would not be too hard to set up. You can use WordPress and integrate it with Clickfunnels for the membership site function.

Your podcasts can be based on any topic. I have seen people provide dating advice or internet marketing advice.

With experts in the mix most of the content is already created for you. All you need to do is upload and release.

25. Create your own subscription box

This passive income idea may not be the finest but it sure can make you some serious dough if you can offer a unique concept to an audience that is willing to buy.

For example there are hair care subscription boxes, facial beauty subscription boxes, even law of attraction subscription boxes.

And the work behind it is not too hard either.

It may take a fair investment for the products but once you have marketed this idea well, the returns can be insane.

Wrapping Up

So there you have it 25 of my very best passive income streams.

Of course there are other ways that you can create a passive income stream. You just need to seek them out.

Speaking of seeking out, if you’re excited about passive income but want a step-by-step guide on getting a project set up in under a day you should check out my eBook Make Money With Small Blogs.

It’s the perfect solution for those who are looking to promote an affiliate or network marketing product and want to create a passive income from it. This eBook teaches you how to do affiliate marketing or promote any product with small valuable blog posts.

Plus it comes with a bonus freelancing guide that teaches you how to get other people to pay for your business costs and how to use free traffic methods to promote your content fast for incredible results.

Check out the eBook here.

Happy reading.

P.S Have I missed any passive income streams? Have you tried any yet? Tell me in the comments which one is working for you.