Do you dream of a day when you are lying in the hammock strung between palm trees on the seashore, with the blue
sea lapping at the shore , the sun warming you.
Sorry – back to reality, most of us can only do this for a few weeks a year, but what if…..
If you can find ways of generating a passive income you may just be able to pull off that dream.
So let’s find out whether it is possible for you to achieve your dream.
What’s the difference between passive income and active income
The main difference is that you don’t have to be working all the time at the passive income.
Notice I didn’t say you don’t have to work with a passive income.
There normally is some maintenance weekly or annually.
With active income you need to put in hours of work, but you get paid for the hours you work.
With passive income you may put in hours of work, but until you get visitors you won’t get paid.
But with passive income it is able to generate income all day every day, no sickies.
So what methods are there for generating that passive income?
Become an Affiliate Marketer
A few years ago setting up a website included learning a different language ( the language of the web HTML), but nowadays it is one click and you have the barebones of a website.
Almost no skill involved at all.
If you have something interesting to say and can draw a crowd around you then you can create a website and create content.
Getting people to read your content is difficult, if it is interesting or unusual sharing it on social media can go a long way to getting you visitors.
Once you have your crowd you can start to market your recommendations to them, as you know what they are after.
Affiliate Marketing can be a very powerful method of creating a passive income.
But it does take a lot of work for little reward in the beginning.
As long as you are passionate about blogging then you can just write, if success comes so much the better.
Build a Sales Funnel
Effectively all websites are sales funnels.
So you will need to have a website…or at least a bit of space on the web.
There has been a lot of programs devoted to sales funnels created in the last few years, this can make it look attractive to involve yourself with one of these and wait for the money to roll in.
But it is not that easy.
You need something to give to your visitors in exchange for their email address.
It needs to be something of value.
You will then be marketing to your subscribers and you must keep them happy.
If you just go in with salesy emails then you will probably lose the majority of your subscribers, unless that is what they have signed up for. ( you know them…the ones you have unsubscribed from)
So you will need to carry on giving free information and the occasional promotion.
Once you have got this setup it can turn into a massive passive income stream.
Maintenance becomes checking that the products offered are still available and that you list is still growing.
To start building your funnel all you need is a website, you really don’t need to go for dedicated funnel software.
You will need an autoresponder to setup the email sequence and find useful quality products to market to your crowd.
There will be a time overhead at the start, but you only need to keep one email ahead of the first subscriber.
It is a very nice way of starting to get a passive income coming in.
Develop an APP
You’ve downloaded them and thought ‘ This could be better if it had….’
So why not add it …or create something similar.
Ah…you are not a programmer.
Well nowadays there are drag and drop programs that give you a good deal of functionality.
Yes it will involve a bit of learning at the start, but once the app is done then other than checking it is compatible with the latest update or tweaking for a small bug then it’s totally passive.
The other way is to pay a developer to create what you want, this is the more expensive route, but if you do some market research first and find out whether your app will be a hit then you minimize the risk.
Find out where your target market is and ask them questions, and modify what you will create depending on the results you get back.
The app may take off, in which case you will be smiling, but if it doesn’t, look for feedback and maybe modify it depending on the feedback into a hit.
Create an Online Course
Do you have a skill that you keep teaching people…or want to teach people.
Have you found a way of setting things up or finding things that you haven’t seen widely on the internet.
Well people are willing to pay for your knowledge and creating a course is not as difficult as it sounds.
There is time required at the start to think through the idea, get the information onto video or into training guides.
And to find out whether people will be interested.
Again market research on social media – having a poll or questionnaire will give you insight as to whether it is worth the effort.
This can turn into a very nice stream of passive income, and once produced can last a number of years.
You could start with a membership website if you don’t want to add your course to sites like udemy, teachable or skillshare.
It could be you are helping with homework assignments or teaching people how to play a musical instrument.
You can create a course on almost anything, but finding what is wanted is a skill to learn.
Make Youtube Videos
People like to watch videos, they are easy to digest the information from.
People like easy.
So being able to present your information in video format will get you visitors.
If you can get a crowd following you then you can monetise it and create a passive income.
To get a sizable income may take a huge crowd, but a million views is not out of the question.
And as long as it is not a cute cats video and has a purpose then people will look at your offer – even if you have to add adverts on your own channel.
You can start a Youtube channel for free and use your mobile phone to record yourself.
It is better to get more sophisticated equipment as you move along, unless you are a roving reporter, in which case make sure you have a good quality phone.
You can add a link to your site, if you have one, where they can see more information on the topic you have created the video about or to promote other solutions.
It does take a while to get going with this and it will take time to create the videos.
But once created, they are on your channel until you delete them.
So you can pick any topic or stick to one niche and gather an audience to hear, and see, your creation.
Sell Digital Products on etsy
Similar to creating courses you can sell workbooks or other digital products on etsy.
Better know for it’s handcrafted items, etsy now is getting into selling almost anything.
Having a browse through its vast catalogue of items has shown that there is a section for digital downloads.
So from soundwave printable wall art to a downloadable course on pattern making in photoshop – there maybe a market for almost anything.
This niche can make you a sizable passive income.
Do your due diligence on what is selling, as with all of the other passive income ideas.
This way you can tailor your offering into the markets with the most sales.
You don’t have to stick with one market you can produce products in a variety of markets.
But being Etsy, you can charge a little more for it as it is hand made.
Selling Stock Photos
Do you love taking pictures…no not selfies…but pictures as you are out and about.
Well you can sell these as stock images and make a passive income.
Make sure you read the terms and conditions of the sites before you start taking your snaps as you may need anyone who is recognizable to sign a waiver.
Do your research as to what is getting downloaded and concentrate on these areas if you can and like them.
See what sort of image is being sold and use that as a basis for what you take pictures of.
At the start it may take time to get noticed in this competitive market, but using the power of social media you can leverage any images you don’t feel worth selling as marketing.
Post processing your images with programs like photoshop will be a must to remove any blemishes, so there maybe a learning curve and upfront cost there.
But once you have the program and the workflow you can batch process the images and maybe even create a course on how to carry this out and make even more passive income.
Purchase Dividend Stocks
There are hundreds of dividend stocks out there which are helping companies stay afloat.
To reward the people who buy the shares in the companies, every year they give away an amount of money .
Depending on how many shares you own depends on how much passive income you receive.
And yes the dividend will go up and down , depending on how well the company is doing.
So with this passive income stream you will need to do your homework on how the company is doing and what you think it will do in the future.
There are companies who help you buy shares for dividend so make it a lot easier for you to enter the market.
It is a long term plan as you are buying to hold the shares rather than buying and selling them. so look for a long term strategy.
At the start you will get little return on your investment, but as you build your portfolio then your returns will increase.
This form of passive income has been used for years., and will be used for years to come.
You will need to carry out careful research to minimise the risk, as even large companies can fold – so maintenance is essential as is keeping an eye on the market.
Invest through Peer to Peer lending
Lending people money has been going on for years.
The banks have a policy of lending money ,this is how you got your interest on your savings accounts…in the old days.
Well what if you have a surplus of cash, could you put it to work like the banks do?
Several years ago a lot of sites popped up loaning people money at huge rates of interest.
The government found that a lot of people could not afford the interest rates, so got involved and capped the rates and tidied up the market place.
These peer to peer lending sites which are left are now regulated, so safer places to borrow and loan money to.
You will still need to do some due diligence but most of these sites have calculators which are pretty accurate at determining the return on investment.
Your passive income will be the interest being returned from the site.
So the more you invest into the site, the more you get in return
There are levels of risk within the site, so you will need to decide at what level of risk you are happy with and either place all of your money there or split it over several levels.
Knowing that you are helping others maybe something that drives you to invest in these sites.
Build Niche Websites
Maybe you have a passion for something like collecting model soldiers.
Or have found that you need to change your pots and pans due to the purchase of an induction cooker as the old ones don’t work ( don’t ask).
Maybe not all of your friends share your passion to the level you do.
Well you can find a crowd that do on the internet.
You can inform them of what you found.
What are the best choices.
So helping that group of people ( your niche or crowd) solve their problems.
You can create a niche site.
It will take a while to gather momentum, depending on how you decide to get visitors to your site, either via search engines ( slow), social media ( quicker) or paid advertising( quickest)
You will need to get a site up and running with content on there relatively quickly for it to gain momentum.
So a time investment or cash investment for others to carry out this task will be in order.
There are sites where you can buy done for you niche sites and show you the earning potential.
You will need to produce a number of articles going forward but this can be outsourced or created over a period of time.
It is still one of the best methods of creating a passive income online.
Build an E-commerce site
People like to buy.
People don’t like to be sold to.
So any site or method of selling that tells people that they want this gadget or that gadget will not do too well.
People like to browse, imagine themselves using the product or service.
So e-commerce sites are these easy to browse portals.
Writing the descriptions can be a bit challenging at the start until you get to know your niche.
And yes you will probably do better sticking to one topic rather than as a general store.
It doesn’t mean one product, but if you chose one product that has loads of associated products to use with it.
Like an action cam, this can have accessories for the different mountings – memory cards – software …you get the idea.
Or leathercrafting- the tools, books, stains, courses, etc.
If it is a craft or area you like then so much the better.
But do your research into how many people are using that service or whether it is building or fading away.
Getting people through the door can be a challenge, as why should they notice your site.
As with offline shops promotions always get noticed, as do freebies.
So you can market your e-commerce site to your niche through social media or paid advertising until word of mouth or your search engine optimised descriptions rise to the top and you start to get search traffic.
It can take a while and creating the descriptions for all of the products can take time, but again once done then you can relax once the visitor numbers are up and the products are converting.
So which is best for me?
Looking back on the options, for a beginner i would go with a niche website and a youtube channel at the start.
Building on this would be courses and if you like taking pictures – stock photography.
Whatever you pick the best thing to do is to get started.
A quote i heard is ‘ what is the best time to plant a tree..10 years ago.. .what is the second best time to plant a tree…now’
So if you didn’t start this 10 years ago the best time to start is now.
Just remember you need to stick at it for a while to start to get a passive income coming in – these are not get rich quick schemes and do take a time or money investment a the start.
Do your due diligence in whatever you do, don’t be sucked into the ‘you only need to push a button to make millions’ world -it rarely ever happens.
It is through hard work and determination that you will succeed.
Stick at it and watch it grow before your eyes, be proud of what you have achieved and others will feel this as the read, watch or learn through your work.
Which passive income online idea are you thinking of starting?