Introduction
While it may not make you rich overnight, passive income provides opportunities to increase your income with minimal effort. Explore these passive income ideas to generate more money and build a more secure financial portfolio.
Key Points
Most passive income ideas require hard work upfront to earn ongoing income. Adding sources of passive income to your life can give you more freedom, flexibility, and money. E-commerce is one of the best passive income ideas to earn money from anywhere you are.
What is Passive Income?
Passive income is essentially money you earn without needing to work directly for it. It is not tied to your 9-to-5 job and is earned without your direct involvement.
Strictly speaking, passive income refers to income sources such as rental properties or dividends. However, the term is increasingly used to describe income generated from previous work, such as earnings from creative content or affiliate marketing commissions from a website you created.
Low-input ideas like those on this list allow entrepreneurs and creatives to earn more without hard work. The best passive income ideas continue generating wealth even after you stop putting in your efforts.
29 Passive Income Ideas
1. Start a Dropshipping Store
Dropshipping is one of the best passive income ideas to make money from anywhere, even if you don’t have much cash flow initially.
The dropshipping business model involves creating an online store where customers browse and purchase products. What’s interesting about dropshipping is that you don’t need to see or physically handle the products you sell. The dropshipping business model.
With dropshipping, your supplier handles everything from manufacturing to packaging and fulfillment. Since you don’t need to send money to your supplier until your customers pay you, this passive income business model carries limited financial risk. You can use a platform like DSers to find trending products in various niches to sell in your store.
? Tip: With Shopify, it’s easy to start a dropshipping e-commerce business and sell online without the hassle of managing inventory, packaging, or shipping.
2. Create a Print-on-Demand Store
If you’re an artist, designer, or entrepreneur, print-on-demand can be a profitable income source that allows you to monetize your creativity. It involves working with suppliers to customize blank products like t-shirts, posters, bags, and books, and selling them on demand.
Similar to dropshipping, you only pay for the product after it sells. There’s no need for bulk purchases or inventory. Print-on-demand stores are a good source of passive income because:
– You can create products quickly and list them for sale in minutes.
– Shipping and fulfillment are handled by your supplier.
– Once your store is set up, you can automate many marketing and sales processes.
With a company like Printful, you can easily and quickly create products to sell in your Shopify store. Overall, print-on-demand is a simple, low-risk source of passive income you can start quickly.
3. Sell Digital Products
Digital products are assets or pieces of media that consumers cannot physically touch. These include downloadable or streamable files such as Kindle books, templates, plugins, or PDFs.
Digital products are great income sources because they generate high profit margins. You only need to create the asset once, and you can sell it repeatedly through your online business. There’s no need for storage or inventory.
You can
selling numerous digital products as you wish. Many people are expanding their passive income from digital assets by selling bundles, files, and other materials that professionals can use.
4. Teach Online Courses
It has become easier than ever for teachers to sell online courses. Whether it’s marketing, illustration, or entrepreneurship, you can create pre-recorded courses and start selling with little restriction. You can sell online courses repeatedly without having to hold any inventory, generating passive income.
Teaching online courses requires some initial investment in time. You’ll need to plan your course, record it, and create downloadable materials like templates for students to benefit from.
No matter how you look at it, teaching an online course is a great way to generate income with a low startup cost, aside from investing time.
5. Be a Blogger
Starting a blog can be a challenging venture, but the business model related to blogging becomes more successful as a source of passive income.
It takes time to build a blog. But if you create quality content and promote it through your platforms, you’ll build an audience large enough to generate significant income.
You can earn passive income from your blog by:
– Selling affiliate products
– Creating sponsored posts
– Selling your own products
– Running ads through Google AdSense
The best part? You don’t need any design or programming skills to start a blog. Using a content management system and a hosting service like Shopify, you can have a blog up and running in no time.
6. Sell Handmade Goods
There are hundreds of websites online where you can sell. Some have specific categories, like video games or handmade goods, while others allow you to sell anything you want.
Some popular sites for selling online include:
– Faire
– Amazon
– eBay
– Ruby Lane
– AliExpress
The initial investment is twofold. You’ll need to invest in materials and time to create and sell handmade goods like pottery or clothing. You’ll also want to set up an online store to showcase your products.
Selling from your own store reduces the fees you pay on each sale, plus you can build a brand for yourself. The benefits of building a brand compound over time as your audience grows and you connect with more customers. It will help you sell more over time and earn more money online.
7. Run an Affiliate Marketing Business
Affiliate marketing involves recommending a product or service to an audience. It’s a great source of passive income because you earn a commission every time someone uses your referral link to purchase the recommended product or service.
Online entrepreneurs become affiliate marketers for several key reasons:
– It’s easy to get started. You only handle the marketing side of things. The brand will handle product development and order fulfillment.
– It’s low risk. There’s no cost to join an affiliate program. You can sell steady profits without any upfront financial investment.
– It’s scalable. Affiliate marketers typically do not hire additional help. You can bring new products to your audience and create campaigns while your previous work earns money in the background.
Making money through affiliate marketing can be a rewarding way to add new income streams to your business. All it costs you is your time. Once you invest the hours, you can continue reaping the rewards.
8. Sell Photos Online
Unlike many of the other passive income ideas on this list, photography is a service-based business, which usually means that you get paid for your time. You need to be at an event or photoshoot to earn money from photography, which can become taxing after a while.
And with
If you are a full-time photographer or own a good camera, you can generate passive income from photography by selling photos online. Photography sites like Pexels and Shutterstock and other online media will pay for high-quality images and videos.
If you run your photography business on Shopify, you can also link digital products like prints or print-on-demand products such as t-shirts and hats, giving you more sources of passive income so you can work less and earn more.
9. Become a Social Media Influencer
To become a social media influencer – someone who can influence the purchasing decisions of others – you need to build a community of people who enjoy similar topics.
Are you a fan of comics? You can create an Instagram account and start posting consistent content about the latest Marvel and DC releases. The same goes if your interest is in sports, diving, home decor, or even general culture.
If you have a shared audience, you can leverage that engagement to support a variety of passive income ideas. For instance, you can collaborate with both large and small companies to promote their products to your followers. Or you can make money by selling your own merchandise.
? Tip: Shopify Collabs makes it easy to find brands that match your personal style, build affiliate relationships, get paid for what you sell, and track everything in one place.
10. Buy a Rental Property
Investing in real estate is one of the oldest ways to build long-term wealth in general and passive income in particular.
If you have enough money, you can buy residential buildings or any type of property and rent them out for rental income. But since being a property owner requires a lot of active involvement, you can hire property managers to handle tenants, maintain the properties, and collect monthly payments or rent.
As a bonus, your properties will increase in value as the housing market rises, which enhances your profits if you sell them in the future.
11. Invest in the Stock Market
Although the stock market can have a steep learning curve and can be overwhelming, it is a great way to build lasting wealth. The common mistake that most people make with investment funds is thinking short-term instead of playing the long game to achieve financial goals.
The goal of investing in stocks is to diversify your portfolio and reduce risk. You can do this by investing in diversified mutual funds, index funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and high-dividend stocks that earn you capital gains over time.
To start investing in the stock market, you need to open a brokerage account with a reputable financial institution and fund it. It’s also recommended to talk to a financial advisor for help in creating a plan and achieving your goals in passive income strategy.
12. Rent Out Your Spare Room
You might not have the initial capital to invest in residential real estate. But do you have an extra room in your apartment? Or are you planning to go on a three-week road trip and don’t want to leave your home empty? You can partner with a rental company like Airbnb or VRBO to rent out your vacant space.
Airbnb provides homeowners’ houses to people looking for their next vacation. People prefer Airbnb because it is sometimes cheaper and often more convenient than hotels, which means high demand for your spare space as an Airbnb host.
While renting out one spare room to earn passive income is great, renting out 10 rooms is much better. If you want more income from Airbnb, you can (depending on local laws) buy residential apartments solely for the purpose of renting them out. You should note, however, that renting out your space often requires upfront work. You may need to furnish or renovate your space before listing it for rent.
13.
Renting Your Car
Your home isn’t the only thing you can rent out to earn passive income. You can also list your car for rent using a service like Turo. If you’re already using your car as an Uber vehicle, you can sign up for platforms like Carvertise or Wrapify to earn more money while you’re driving around town.
Another way to turn your car into a money-making asset is to look for someone who needs a vehicle for Uber or Lyft. Instead of actively driving in your spare time, you could watch a Netflix show while your car works for you.
14. Peer-to-Peer Lending
Do you have extra cash sitting around that isn’t working for you? Try peer-to-peer lending or small business loans as part of your side hustle efforts. Peer-to-peer lending involves loaning money to borrowers or small businesses.
To make the process easier, you can sign up for a site like LendingClub or Prosper (for individuals) or Worthy (for businesses) that connects borrowers with lenders.
These sites typically host loan requests along with interest rates based on the borrower’s credit history. Returns on these loans are usually around 5% to 6%. The more you lend, the more your cash flow increases.
15. Earn Money While Shopping Online
Cashback reward sites like Swagbucks, MyPoint, and Rakuten allow you to generate passive income when you shop online. After signing up, there’s nothing extra you need to do other than shopping to earn money from these sites. The more you shop online, the more points you earn. And the more points you earn, the more money you can make.
Note: Don’t go over your monthly spending budget or rack up your credit card bill trying to earn some cashback.
16. Buying and Selling Websites
There are websites out there on just about any topic you can think of. The best part? Many of them are generating good income through affiliate programs, ads, or membership subscriptions – and are often listed for sale.
Sites like BizBuySell make it easy to buy and sell online businesses safely once you open and verify your account.
It’s a great way to own a business that already has some sales and traffic coming in. After completing the purchase, you’ll also receive support from the seller to ensure your success.
17. Start a YouTube Channel
It’s not too late to start a YouTube channel. About 2.7 billion people worldwide use YouTube every month. This massive viewership can be a source of passive income. However, it requires some initial effort with little to no return at first.
However, if you’re thinking long-term and don’t mind putting in the initial grind, a successful YouTube channel has high income potential. Affiliate sales, sponsorships, paid integrations, and ad revenue can all contribute to passive income as your content and clicks and views accumulate and your audience grows. You can even easily branch out to start a podcast and earn even more money through sponsorships.
18. Invest in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
What if you don’t have the cash to buy entire residential buildings? Can you still earn rental income? Yes, you can.
With a minimum investment of $500, you can use a real estate investing platform like Fundrise to invest in various real estate assets and earn more passive income as the property values increase. A real estate investment trust (REIT) is a company that owns and manages profitable real estate. It’s a great way for smaller investors to pool their funds together to enable them to invest in projects they wouldn’t be able to afford on their own.
As a long-term investment, REITs are among the best passive income ideas to consider if you have the initial capital. Beyond the initial capital, getting started also requires some deep research. This is not an investment you want to dive into without knowledge. However, there are plenty of resources, like this guide, to help you get started.
19.
Sell Designs Online
Design websites like 99designs, ThemeForest, and Creative Market are great places to generate passive income by selling digital designs online. Whether you are using a website builder to create website templates, logos, brand assets, templates, graphics, or even fonts, these platforms provide an integrated marketplace looking for design resources.
For example, if you want to start selling designs on Creative Market, you will need to apply and wait for approval. From there, you will receive your own shop where you can start selling your designs.
20. Invest in Businesses
Today, it has become possible to start investing in business opportunities that were historically unavailable. Platforms like Mainvest make it easy to invest passively with an initial investment of $100 with no fees for investors.
What are the returns? As with any investment, it depends on various factors. However, Mainvest aims to earn you between 10% to 25%. This way, you don’t have to screen the businesses yourself. Mainvest handles the vetting process for you. All you have to do is invest the capital to get started.
As a passive income idea, this is a great and safe way to enter the world of business investment and learn while you work.
21. Rent Out Unused Space
Do you have a basement or garage that you are not using? Rent it out as storage space! You can do this safely and efficiently using storage rental platforms like:
– Neighbor
– Peerspace
– StoreAtMyHouse
The storage sector is expected to grow to as much as $64 billion by 2026. In other words, this is not a passive income idea that will disappear anytime soon. You can store a variety of items, including cars, boats, RVs, or even business inventory.
Using storage rental platforms is also a great way to avoid liability issues, as they offer secure payment options, contracts, and information about the storage provider and the client.
22. Create a Job Board
A job board is a great way to earn
Source: https://www.shopify.com/blog/passive-income-ideas
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