In a world where everybody is talking about the 4-hour workweek, passive income has become increasingly popular. To define our terms, passive income is the money you receive from sources you did not actively make that money from.
Passive income is something everyone should strive for. It’s not easy to achieve because you need to make a sacrificial effort, but trust me, all the effort is worth it!
You might be thinking, “I already have a job. Why do I need passive income?” The truth is that you can have multiple streams of passive income at once. You can also have a part-time business that generates side income each month if you have a full-time job. You can build it up to become your sole source of income. And with so many ways to make money online, there are more opportunities to generate additional income streams without quitting your day job.
There are many ways to create passive income in today’s world. Some are riskier than others, while some take more time than others – but they all have their benefits (and drawbacks). Here are the 18 best passive income ideas for 2023.
Real Estate
There are many ways to go about earning passive income. However, one of the easiest ways is through investing in real estate. If you’ve been looking for ways to earn extra income, investing in real estate is one of the most reliable and long-lasting strategies. It’s a proven method for building wealth through both income and appreciation.
The good news is that it’s easier than ever to invest in real estate, thanks to the proliferation of low-cost investment vehicles like crowdfunding platforms.
Real estate is one of the most popular investment types for people looking to generate long-term passive income. It’s not surprising since real estate has proven itself to be a strong hedge against market volatility and an excellent way to diversify your portfolio.
It’s an excellent way to save for retirement and generate passive income simultaneously. As you build your real estate portfolio, properties’ value typically rises over time, and you can take advantage of tax breaks that come with owning rental property.
There are many different ways to use real estate as a vehicle for long-term passive income. You can buy and hold rental properties, flip houses for profit, or even invest in REITs, which can help you build wealth over time without much involvement.
While real estate is a great investment option, it’s important to understand that, like all investments, there are associated risks.
However, there are several options for investors at different risk levels to build their real estate portfolio, boost their income and generate profitable returns. The two most common ways to invest in real estate are through REITs and direct purchases.
REITs are an attractive option for those who want to start investing in real estate but don’t have the capital to invest in property themselves. A REIT, or Real Estate Investment Trust, allows investors to pool their money together and invest in real estate projects.
Create A Course Or Ebook
This is one of the best passive income ideas because it requires little investment, and it’s easy to do. You can also choose your topic or niche, making this one of the best passive income streams if you’re interested in writing and helping others learn. If you have a skill or knowledge that you think others would like to learn, creating an online course can be a great way to earn passive income online.
You’ll need to create a course and promote it. But once it’s out there, you don’t have to do anything but collect the payments each month. You can create a course on Cooking, Health & Fitness, Programming, Marketing, Yoga, etc. You can start your blog if you don’t have a website for your online course business.
There are various platforms such as Udemy and Teachable to create and sell your course with millions of enrollments. Once you create your course, you can upload it to a platform like Udemy and let it sit there for years, generating a steady flow of income.
To get started, you just need to pick a topic that you’re familiar with and create a video course around it. If you prefer to write instead of making videos, create an ebook and sell it on platforms like Amazon Kindle or Gumroad.
The great thing about creating an online course is that you can do it from the comfort of your own home, on your schedule, at any time. It is also one of the best ways to earn money because once you have created the product, the work is done, and you will continue to get paid repeatedly.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the best passive income ideas for eCommerce entrepreneurs. It allows you to sell other people’s products and receive a commission on every sale you make.
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular and easiest ways to earn passive income online. Affiliate marketing is a good way for you to make money in the long run.
According to various sources, affiliate marketers make $250 per day. All you need to do is focus on growing a large audience and getting them to convert into sales.
With affiliate marketing, you can promote products or services that are not yours (or your company’s) and receive a commission when someone makes a purchase based on your recommendation. It’s also a great way to monetize your website or blog. The process is very simple:
- You promote something on your blog or website.
- A customer clicks on the link and goes to the product page.
- The customer buys it.
- You get paid a commission.
To start, you will need to find an affiliate partner and sign up for their affiliate program. Next, you’ll need to create content around your chosen products and use your affiliate link to send traffic to the product sales page. When your readers purchase via your link, you will be rewarded with a commission.
It’s important to note that while affiliate marketing is a great way to make passive income, it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. Just because some people are millionaires doesn’t mean everyone will be an affiliate marketing isn’t a simple push-button operation that magically generates cash.
To make money through affiliate marketing, you must carefully consider how your products are presented to the public and which products are most likely to attract an audience.
Blogging
Blogging is a great side hustle because you can do it at your own pace, anywhere you want. It’s not a quick and easy way to make money, but there are many ways to make money side hustling while blogging. You can sell advertising, become an affiliate for other people’s products, sell your online product, etc. It does take time to build up an audience to make a decent amount of money, but once you have a large following, you could earn over $2,000 per month or more.
Blogging is one of the best passive income ideas because it allows you to earn money even while sleeping. Once you publish your blog post, it will continue to generate traffic and generate revenue for months and years to come.
To make money blogging:
- Start by finding a niche that fits your skills and knowledge.
- Find a product or service you can promote as an affiliate to earn passive income.
- Once you have a few posts under your belt, join social media groups related to your niche and start engaging with others.
You never know who will read your content and contact you about their own needs! Another way to make money blogging is through paid partnerships with brands in your niche.
Selling Photography
One of the most passive income ideas is selling photography. If you have a passion for photography and capturing moments, you can consider starting your own photography business to sell photos online and earn money. This requires no active work, yet the pictures will continue to sell for as long as you choose to market them online.
There are a few different ways to market your photography online. The first way is to use a stock photo site that acts as a broker between you and the people who want to purchase your photos. You will post your photos on the website, and then whenever someone wants one of your photos, they will buy it from the stock photo site. The stock photo site will pay you for the photos and keep a portion of the profits from their sales.
You can also sell prints or digital copies of your photos directly from your website or blog. This means that you do not have to give up any portion of the profits; however, it also means more work, including marketing and maintaining your website or blog.
A third option is self-printing – this means that you upload your images to print-on-demand services such as CafePress or RedBubble, which allow customers to order copies of the images in various formats like posters, t-shirts, and greeting cards.
Car Renting
Depending on the area in which you live and the vehicle you own, you could make a few hundred dollars per month on average renting out your car to various customers. For those who love to travel and are tired of paying parking fees at the airport, renting out your car can be a great way to earn extra cash.
Renting your car can be an easy way to make passive income, but there’s more to it than just listing your car on a website. It helps if you live in an area where people need to rent cars, but you can also travel somewhere to meet travelers. Just keep in mind that this is a passive income idea that requires time and work upfront before any money is generated.
Here are steps you should follow when renting out your car
Prepare Your Car
Before putting your car on the market, you need to ensure it shows well to potential renters. You’ll want a professional mechanic to check it out and do any necessary repairs or maintenance.
Once the car runs well, you’ll want to clean it inside and out. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this yourself, take it to a professional detailer. This will ensure that your car looks its best for future renters.
Take Pictures of Your Car
Once the car is clean and ready for renters, take pictures of the exterior and interior from all angles. Make sure there’s nothing in the background of the shots — if possible, take them outside against a neutral wall or on the street without any other cars or distractions. You’ll also want to document any existing damage for safety and security purposes.
Renting Apartments On Airbnb
Airbnb is one of the most popular ways to earn passive income, and if you live in a great location, it’s an excellent way to supplement your income — or potentially even replace it. If you have a home or apartment sitting empty, consider listing it on Airbnb.
Airbnb is a site that lets you list your property for people looking for accommodations during their vacation. The service lets people rent out rooms, apartments, or entire homes to others looking for an affordable place for vacation or just stay for a while. All you need to do is list your space on the site and wait for someone interested to contact you.
It’s one of the best passive income ideas because you earn money on a space you already own and typically require little to no involvement. You’ll take care of the booking and guest inquiries, and Airbnb handles your payment, so all you have to do is keep your calendar updated and wait for the checks to roll in.
If you’re worried about someone trashing your place while they’re staying there, consider including additional protections beyond basic liability insurance. For example, if you have nice furniture or artwork inside your rental, it might make sense to purchase renter’s insurance to cover damage or theft.
In many cases, people leave town with their homes available. But they don’t want to leave their home unoccupied while they’re gone because that increases the risk of burglary and other problems. So they rent it out instead.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a supply chain management method. The retailer does not keep goods in stock but instead transfers customer orders and shipment details to either the manufacturer, another retailer, or a wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer.
As in retail businesses, most retailers make their profit on the difference between the wholesale and retail price, but some retailers earn an agreed percentage of the sales in commission, paid by the wholesaler to the retailer.
Drop-shipping is one of the best passive income ideas out there if you have a knack for finding hot products and marketing them at a profit. With drop-shipping, you sell a product on your website, but when the customer buys it, the product is shipped to them directly from a third-party supplier (i.e., wholesaler). Once the customer receives the product, you get paid your commission from the wholesaler.
Consider drop-shipping if you’re looking for a relatively passive way to earn more money. It’s a business model that lets you sell products without keeping any inventory or shipping anything yourself.
The basic idea is to find a product that other people are selling on sites like Amazon or equal fulfillment part of selling online.
Bay, set up your site where you sell the same product at a higher price. When someone places an order on your site, the manufacturer or wholesaler ships it directly to the customer, you keep the price difference!
You have to do some work upfront to find suppliers who will drop-ship their products, but once you have them set up, you only need to list the products on your site and collect orders.
Start A YouTube Channel
Starting a YouTube channel is probably the most fun out of all the best passive income ideas. It’s fun, you get to play around with video editing and publishing, and you get to have your own little space on the internet. The only downside is that it takes time to grow an audience. If you want to make money with your YouTube channel, you’ll need to spend time creating content – but that’s a given when you create a passive income stream.
YouTube is probably the most popular video platform globally and will likely continue to be so for the foreseeable future. It has a large user base, and content creators can monetize their videos through ads and other opportunities.
The good news is that YouTube videos are relatively easy to make, just like podcasts, so once you have a few videos published, they can take off by themselves. You can start producing videos in any niche, but you should consider your interests and expertise.
If you have a passion for something or have a skill that you could teach others, YouTube could be the perfect way to earn passive income. You can start by making short videos related to your topic and posting them on YouTube. If your YouTube channel gets enough views (it typically takes thousands of views to start making money), you may be able to start earning some income from advertising.
You don’t have to spend a lot of time or resources making your videos; many people have made millions of dollars with videos that took only a couple of hours to produce. If you do not have any experience with video production, don’t worry – many online resources can help you create great videos without spending too much time or money.
There are many different revenue models for making money with your YouTube channel, from advertising to selling products. But the easiest, most reliable way is through ad revenue. Ads are shown before, during, and after your video. You can only make money on ads if you have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours of your channel over the past 12 months.
Here’s how to get started:
● Create a YouTube account and channel.
● Set up your channel: Upload a high-quality photo for your channel icon and add channel art representing your business. Add a description that tells visitors what your business is about.
● Make sure you’re eligible: Verify your Channel, agree to the YPP policies, and submit to the application process.
● Create videos: Make videos that are high quality and provide value to viewers — entertainment, tutorials, or vlogs work well on YouTube.
● Optimize: Use keywords in video titles, descriptions, and tags so people can find your videos through search.
Trade Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency has been around for years, but in 2017 it blew up. The value of some of the top coins skyrocketed, and investors everywhere wanted in on the action. People who took advantage of the cryptocurrency boom have already seen some very lucrative returns.
You can generate passive income by investing in cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is a digital asset used as a medium of exchange, which secures its transactions via cryptography and stores them in a blockchain.
There are many cryptocurrencies, but the most popular one is bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto invented Bitcoin in 2009. Since then, many other cryptocurrencies have appeared, including Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, and Dash.
There are different ways you can make passive income from cryptocurrency, which include:
● HODLing (aka buy and hold): Buying a coin and then holding onto it long-term. This is the passive earnings strategy that most people use.
● Day trading: Trading coins on an intraday basis to make a quick profit as prices fluctuate. This active income strategy requires you to keep your finger on the pulse of market developments.
● Mining: Setting up a rig to mine coins and earn them passively, without having to pay anything upfront. This is one of the most expensive strategies, but it’s also the most lucrative in terms of earnings potential – although it takes some serious technical expertise to get it right.
When you invest in cryptocurrency, you’re hoping that it will appreciate over time. To profit from the investment, you must sell the crypto at a higher price than you paid to acquire it.
It’s important to remember that cryptocurrency is a highly volatile asset class. This means that its value can change dramatically over short periods. Because of this, it’s not uncommon for cryptocurrency investors to see the value of their investments drop by 50% or more in a single day.m This level of volatility can be intimidating to investors who are used to traditional asset classes that are less volatile and easier to predict.
Sell Digital Products
Digital products are a great way to generate passive income. This is one of the most popular ways for bloggers and website owners to make money online. However, there are many other ways to sell digital products that you can start today. You can make an amazing amount of money by selling your products online. Even better, it’s a truly passive way of earning money because you don’t have to be present or active to make sales.
Selling digital products is one of the easiest ways to make money online. You don’t necessarily need to have a technical background because there are so many free tools that you can use to create and sell your products.
Here are five types of digital products you can sell online:
● Ebook or Print Book
● Courses and Memberships
● Themes and Templates
● Audio and Video Files
The good thing about selling digital products is that you can do it anywhere in the world, even while you’re sleeping, making it the perfect side hustle or passive income business idea. You can also easily scale your business by promoting your products to your list of followers on social media or running paid advertisements.
The popularity of selling digital products has been increasing over the years, as it’s an easy way for anyone to start selling online. Whether you’re a photographer, illustrator, or designer – there’s no doubt that selling digital products can be a great source of revenue for any creative entrepreneur.
Flipping Websites
One of the best passive income ideas is to make money by buying and selling websites. This practice used to be a lot more difficult in the past, but it’s easier than ever thanks to several platforms. You can buy an existing website and sell it for a profit!
Website flipping is buying a website, improving it, and making some changes to earn money. It works like flipping a house or flipping any other tangible property. To understand how to flip a website, one needs to know how much improvement can be done on an existing website. The main things that affect the value of a website are:
● Traffic generation
● Profits generation
● Content quality
● Backlinks
Before you get started buying and selling websites as a passive income idea, here are some tips:
● Start small. Don’t try to buy an expensive site right off the bat. Buy a cheap one and make it profitable first.
● Keep your day job. Don’t quit your job yet. It will take time for your website to grow and become profitable, so don’t go all in until you’re sure it will work out.
● Don’t overpay. When buying or selling websites, make sure you aren’t paying too much or asking too little.
Flipping websites can be a quick way to make some money. But it’s not as simple as setting up a website and selling it, and you have to put in a lot of effort before you can sell your website as a business. Some websites generate passive income for their owners 24/7 with minimal effort. They have integrated systems and processes to attract targeted traffic and convert it into buyers.
Own A Vending Machine
You can make passive income by owning a vending machine. This is a great way to ensure that you have a steady income stream. However, before you can start making money, you will need to buy your vending machines.
Vending machines may not seem like the most interesting passive income ideas, but they’re a great way to make money without too much work. You need to find a location, provide the products to sell, and replace them when they are sold, but you don’t have to do anything else, and the income keeps coming in.
Choose your location carefully because it can make or break your business. You need somewhere with lots of foot traffic where people will have time to browse the products on offer. It also needs to be reasonably close by to check it regularly for stocks and maintenance.
Vending machines are perfect for passive income because you can be very hands-off once the machine is installed and running. You just need to service the machine from time to time to refill it with new stock and collect your profits.
What’s even better about vending machines is that you can install them in high-traffic locations and charge a premium for their convenience. It’s not unusual for people to pay $2-$3 for a soda can out of a vending machine when they could get it at the store around the corner for $0.50.
Although it may sound like one of the most passive sources of income, owning a vending machine isn’t as easy as it sounds. It’s not enough to just purchase a machine and put it in an area with high foot traffic.
Network Marketing
Network marketing is one of the few business models to earn a passive income without ever leaving your house. You will need to get people to join your team, but that’s it once they are on board. You need to teach them how to find their customers and recruit new members to the business. You will start earning an annual residual income as you build up your team.
Network marketing is also known as direct selling, multi-level marketing (MLM), and referral marketing. There are many successful network marketing companies today, such as Mary Kay. The products being sold are household goods and cosmetics. These products are not highly technical, so they can be sold easily.
The beauty of network marketing is that you don’t need any qualifications or special skills to succeed in this business model. And unlike traditional businesses where it takes money to make money, with network marketing, all you need is a telephone and laptop computer to start generating leads for your business. You just need to learn how to sell yourself and market your products.
In network marketing, you need to build a network of people interested in the company. Your goal is to have them become clients and repeat customers, recommending the business to their friends and family.
Here are some tips on how to start this process:
● Choose a network marketing company with products in high demand and for which you can make a good profit margin.
● Find out who your target customers are. What are their demographics? Where do they live? How can you reach them?
● Don’t just sell the products. Focus on getting people interested in your business too. Selling and recruiting are two different things. The more people you recruit, your network grows, and you make more money.
Network marketing is not just one method to make money. It can be a powerful and effective way to earn passive income in your spare time or even full-time if you dedicate yourself.
Design T-Shirts
If you are a creative mind, then it is high time that you get into the business of designing T-shirts. This is one of those passive income ideas that will not require a lot of your time, yet you can earn money from it. But then, this does not mean that there will be no competition in this field. You have to figure out what kind of design will be liked by the people who buy them.
The T-shirt design market is huge and growing. Apparel sales make up 21% of the total U.S. online retail industry! And, there are an estimated 1.2 billion t-shirts sold every year in the U.S. alone! This creates a massive opportunity for entrepreneurs to start an online business selling their custom-designed t-shirts (and other products) to a worldwide audience of shoppers.
When it comes to designing T-shirts, there are many online platforms where you can open a profile and sell your creations. These platforms can include sites like Redbubble and even Amazon Merch. These are platforms on which you do not have to put much effort to sell. As soon as people start liking your designs, orders will automatically start coming in for shirts with your designs on them. You can also create your website for selling these shirts if you wish to take things forward.
To make money in this market, you need to find a way to differentiate yourself from the competition and attract customers regularly. One way to do that is by specializing in designing shirts for a specific niche or focusing on a particular type of design style (like minimalist designs).
However, remember that if the quality of the shirts is not up to the mark or if the designs are not good enough, you might not be able to sell them at all. Hence always try to keep your designs unique so that people feel interested in buying them and wearing them.
Storage Rentals
Storage rentals are the perfect passive income idea, but you need to be able to afford the initial investment. You buy a storage container and rent it out in a storage rental. Most of these containers are rented out on a month-to-month basis, so you don’t have to worry about long-term commitments.
The downside is that you need to find customers, which can take some time. Also, you need to be located near busy areas and make sure that your containers are secure. If there’s an area where people are moving in and out, then this is the perfect passive income opportunity for you.
Put up flyers around town and post about it on social media sites like Facebook to get the word out about your new business venture and start generating revenue immediately.
You can hire a management company to run your storage facility and collect the profits. The company will also deal with maintenance and repairs, advertising, and tenant turnover.
Also, you can buy a building already in use as a storage facility or find one that can be converted. You can build a new storage space, which can get pricey but is an option if you have land available. You’ll also need to get permits and meet zoning requirements before breaking ground.
Starting a storage rental business includes construction and insurance costs plus marketing to attract tenants. If you’re building from scratch, getting the facility ready for customers could take months. A management company might charge 10% or more of your gross monthly income to operate the site for you.
Creating An App
If you’re looking for ways to make extra money or searching for a low-risk way to make passive income, then creating and selling an app could be a great option. The first step is to come up with a concept. Do you have a hobby or special skill that would make for a good app? If you are passionate about it and can come up with a new twist, that would be your best bet.
The application can be informational or have a purpose. For example, if you are a fitness instructor, you can create an app demonstrating different exercises or a nutrition chart. If you have an eCommerce store, you can allow people to shop right from the app to make the shopping experience more convenient and comfortable.
Next, you will want to create a wireframe for the app. This is kind of like a blueprint used to design the app. Make sure you consider what operating system it will run on and how it will look on different screen sizes.
Next, you’ll need to start writing code. You can learn how to do this from free websites like Code Academy or books, but it is not easy. If you are unsure of yourself, I recommend hiring someone who knows what they are doing when writing code.
Once you have the code written, you will want to upload it onto the app store, where people can buy and download it. There are many options available depending on which platform your app runs on. For example, if your app is an Android game, you can use Google Play or Amazon’s App Store.
If your app is successful and makes money every month, you may want to expand on its functionality by adding more levels or maybe even a sequel. You can monetize it by allowing companies to include in-app purchases and ads.
Licensing Your Music
Music licensing is one of the best passive income ideas for artists. If you have a decent amount of music and you’re able to produce music in different genres, it can be a great way to earn money on the side while having your music heard in everything from tv shows to feature films.
To use this passive income idea, you will need to sign up with companies that license music. These companies will then distribute your music and earn royalties from your music usage. You’ll want to make sure your music catalog is large enough and diverse enough for people to find the type of music they need for their tv shows, podcast, or commercials.
If you are a music lover and have a music talent, this is one of the best passive income ideas. You can sell your music through various online platforms such as iTunes and Spotify. You can create your music catalog or promote artists of other labels for a fee. As an independent artist, you need to research what works best for you.
The industry has plenty of opportunities, but it can be hard to get started. If you’re interested in getting into the music licensing business, here are some great tips to get you started:
● Ensure that there’s a demand for the type of music, lyrics, sound effects, or background sounds you want to create before getting started.
● Find out how other musicians are cashing in on their sounds and melodies by doing some research online. Check out websites like AudioJungle (www.audiojungle.com) and MusicRevolution (www.musicrevolution.com).
Passive income is the Holy Grail for online marketers. It’s automatic. Effortless. But not at first. In the beginning, it was grueling. I liken this to doing the most amount of work for the least initial return. However, as your passive income begins to increase, your reliance on an active income plummets. That’s when the real magic starts to happen.
So what’s the takeaway from this massive list of passive income ideas? Overall, earning a passive income is more complex than most people realize. It’s not just one simple formula. It can also be a mix of multiple formulas if you want to truly set yourself up for success. Now that you have a deeper understanding of passive income and how it works, create a game plan to start your passive income journey. Make sure you align all your goals, figure out what your risks are, and set your business up for success right here and now so that it’s ready to grow when you are in 2023.