14 True Passive Income Ideas You Should Know About Now!
Today I want to go through 14 different passive income ideas that require little to no work to others that require at least a few hours of work every week. Most of these ideas fall in the middle where they require a lot of up-front work and then can be allowed to coast after that.
I have grown to think that there is a lot of misperception as to what passive income really is. Some people believe that passive requires no work but this is far from the truth. While some others think that is just like any side hustle that is almost like a full-time job.
Now, do not get me wrong. Some passive income ideas can be very demanding (depending on how much work you want to put into it) such as niche websites.
For me, I define passive income as an income stream that requires A LOT of hard work up-front and then minimal maintenance work to keep up the income stream. Some passive income ideas require more maintenance work compared to other ideas.
Let’s take a look!
Passive Income Ideas
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Niche Websites
Niche websites probably take the most time out of any of these passive income ideas but have the greatest potential to make A LOT of money. This is because they can consist of the next four items on this passive income ideas list. Putting all four of these ideas together in one niche website can really boost anyone’s income stream.
Niche websites require you to put a lot of time in up-front to build the website (Need help? Check out this article), build good solid content, perform good marketing, and execute a solid SEO Strategy. Once all of this work is done you could be making thousands of dollars a month.
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Subscription Fees
This passive income idea requires you to come up with a service for people to subscribe to. One of my favorite photographers, Trey Ratcliff, has done this perfectly. He has created the Passport service on his website which provides access to exclusive content he has created. He creates training videos, e-books, Adobe Lightroom preset packages, and so on. People subscribe to his site for $9.99 a month to have an all-access pass to this content.
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Training Courses
Are you an expert in something such as, “How to prune a rose bush.” Well, you should create a training course on how to maintain rose bushes on Udemy. Here you can great courses about subjects that you are passionate about. Then others who want to learn about that subject purchase your course.
Udemy requires a lot of up front work to create the course but once complete it needs minimal maintenance. Occasionally, you might want to come back to update the content of the course.
You can even create and host your own training course. This is something that Michelle from Making Sense of Cents has done with her affiliate marketing course.
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Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is probably one of the biggest ways to make income off of niche websites. With affiliate marketing, you team up with companies from all over the world. Those companies will pay you a commission for any customer you send their way. There are bloggers out on the internet making 10’s of thousands of dollars each month off of affiliate marketing.
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Advertisements
Google Adsense is a super easy way to have Google place advertisements on your website. You decide where and what type of ad is placed on the website. Then they decide what content is placed there based on the website or viewer. Every time a person clicks on the advertisement, you get paid! It is really that easy!
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Stock Photography
Are you good at taking photographs? Check out stock photography as a passive income idea. All you have to do is shoot, edit, and upload. After being accepted on iStockPhoto for Shutterstock (my two favorite hosts) then you are on your way to make some good money. I have made over $1,000 just off of one photo! There are others that make well over $10,000 a month selling stock photography.
There are several other ways to make some passive income off of your photography. Check out my 5 Simple Ways on How to Sell Photos Online article.
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E-Books
This is another passive income idea that requires a lot of up-front time. Once you finish writing your book you can have Amazon host and sell it for you. From there it is all about letting the book bring in money for you. Of course, you will need to market the book after completed. People need to know that it exists!
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Dividend Income
Andrew is the pro at this passive income idea. Dividend income comes from stocks that you purchase. These stocks pay out dividends in different intervals whether it be monthly, quarterly, or yearly. The key to dividend income is only purchasing stocks that have a strong reputation for paying out dividends. Then you can turn around and reinvest those dividends.
Interested? I know you are! Check out Andrew’s What are Dividends and Dividend Investing article to get started!
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Mobile Applications
Even if you do not know how to create a mobile application you can have one made for you fairly cheap. Personally, I do not have any experience with this but cannot wait to give it a try. All you need is a good idea, a developer, and the ability to upload to the Android Play Store, Apple Store, or both!
Have a good idea already? Check out Fiverr.com for an application developer. The cost will depend on the complexity of your application.
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Rental Properties
This passive income idea takes a lot of capital up front to be able to get into the gig. Once that is done, you can let the passive income flow right in from renters. You can either do traditional long-term rentals or you can do short-term rentals on Airbnb. Determining what path to take will depend on your rental’s location and local ordinances.
Rentals will require maintenance throughout its life but you can have someone help you out with it. Perform a Google search for rental property management companies in your area. They will help maintain everything for your property. The ones I have seen do take 10% of your income though.
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YouTube Videos
Who does not love a good prank or how-to video on Youtube? I know I do! If you have any good and creative video ideas, you can make some serious money off of YouTube. All this takes is some up-front work with shooting the video, editing, and uploading. YouTube does all of the work from there!
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T-Shirts via Teespring.com
Have a funny or creative T-Shirt idea? Hop over to teespring.com to create and sell that shirt! Here you design your shirt and then someone buys it. From there Teespring prints it and ships it. This sounds pretty awesome!
Oh! And they do home decor, phone cases, accessories, tote bags, and mugs too! Let’s get designing!
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Peer-To-Peer Lending via Lending Club
With Lending Club you can lend others money and they pay you back plus interest. Lending Club helps you do all of the research as to whether the person is someone good to invest with or not. Andrew has tried it out and has written about his experience over here.
Do note that you are taking a risk by investing with others. They may never pay you back.
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Fitness via Achievement App
If you like to workout, walk, hike, Tweet, or sleep then the Achievement app is for you! You connect major fitness or social media applications to your Achievement app. From there the application does the rest of the work. It will sync up that data and then give you points for each activity. Once you earn 10,000 points, they pay you $10.
For more information check out my review of the application.
Conclusion
These passive income ideas can give you an extra boost in income each month. Like I have mentioned in other posts, do not just jump into multiple of these at a time. Pick one, master it, then add the next one on top of the previous one. Loading your plate too much at the beginning can result in failure and no one wants that!
Did none of these passive income ideas trip your trigger? Head over to our Ways to Make Money page to learn about some other side hustles.
Cheers!
Adam
My favorite of all of these is niche sites. These require sooo much work upfront but afterward if done correctly, also depends on how competitive your niche is, can bring in some serious money while taking 2-3 weeks off at any given time!
I totally agree with you on starting only a few at a time. I would go as far as to say pick one, get really good at that one, and if another one interests you see how you can hire it out potentially. While I have interests in almost all of these if I tried to accomplish even 3 of these on my own I would be better off if I had just focused really hard on one!
These are few of the coolest income ideas that I’ve got online. It reminds me of a time when I was doing my first summer job. I had just come out of my school and my parents asked me to be responsible about paying for my own insurance. It seemed an uphill task to manage my finances, but eventually to provided me a lot of knowledge. I owe much of my financial freedom to my being responsible during the early adult life.
Great point SB! It is something I plan to teach my little one as he grows older.
I agree with you Dad Wallet! Niche Websites are my favorite as well but that upfront and upkeep time can be daunting at times. I do look forward to trying out a mobile application here sometime. Have you tried one before?