Passive income is money you earn that doesn’t require you to do a lot of “active” work to continue making it. The work tends to be front-loaded: If you create an online course, the sales continue rolling in long after its launch.
You’ve probably heard the expression, “make money while you sleep.” That’s the biggest draw that entices people to earn passive income. You can create something (a blog, course, ebook, videos, or an online store) that generates money even when you’re not working. Or you can own something (property or stocks) that allows you to earn passive income.
10 Passive Income Ideas 2020
1. Start an Online dropshipping Store
Dropshipping is one of the most profitable passive income sources you’ll find online. it’s a good place to start. With dropshipping, you can find trending products in a marketplace that you can then sell online to customers around the world. You can sell products in various dropshipping niches from fashion to home decor to beauty. The magic in dropshipping is that you build your own business and control how much you charge for the products. Out of all the passive income ideas on the list, dropshipping is the one where you have the most control over your earnings. To start dropshipping today, you can sign up for Shopify.
2. Run a Blog
The most popular passive income stream tends to come from blogging. Blogging has helped countless bloggers and entrepreneurs earn passive income through affiliate links, courses, sponsored posts, products, book deals, and more. It’s true that it can take quite a bit of upfront work to build a successful blog. However, it’s one of the most sustainable ways to generate an audience through organic and social traffic or by building an email list. The biggest perk of creating a blog is that you can turn that one asset into several different streams of income. Thus, making running a blog one of the easiest ways to make passive income.
3. Create a Course
Selling online courses is one of the best passive income ideas of 2019. We’re still seeing massive sales growth for course creators. Whether you decide to sell a course on your own website or on a platform like Udemy, you’ll find customers who want to learn your insider tips and tricks. If you’ve followed tip number two and built your own audience, selling your course on your website can help you control how much passive income you earn. Finding your customers is up to you. That will be a bit easier if you sell on course platforms like Udemy, but your course may be heavily discounted during certain periods. This will affect how much passive income you earn.
4. Instagram Sponsored Posts
If you love Instagram as much as I do, you might want to turn your scrolling time into posting time to help you skyrocket your passive income. The best thing about Instagram is that you can literally create fan pages for absolutely anything. Whether you love travel, fashion, beauty, home decor, or something really peculiar like outrageous dog grooming…
… you’ll find a committed audience. The secret to getting a ton of Instagram followers is to be super consistent with the type of content you post. So be sure to stick to one niche so that people who follow you can count on you to deliver more content just like that. In your Instagram bio, be sure to add your email address. As your account starts to grow, so will sponsored posts requests allowing you to make money on Instagram. The more Instagram likes your posts get, the more people will reach out to you so be sure to create engaging content.
5. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways to make passive income today. The upside to it is that almost every big brand has an affiliate program so you can sell some pretty popular products and rake in the dough. The only real downside is that you only make a commission of the sale. Some programs like Shopify’s affiliate program allows you to earn up to $2,000 per referral, which is astronomical. Some online retailers only give a measly 10% referral bonus. So you’ll want to make sure you do some research into the best affiliate marketing programs before you get started. Blogging tends to be the most cost-effective way to make recurring affiliate commissions without having to spend money on ads.
6. Write an eBook
Ebooks exploded onto the scene in 2009 and 2010 and are still a hugely popular content medium. Even though, they first became popular a few years ago, there’s still a pretty good chunk of people who make passive income from creating them to this day. Sure, it’s an insanely competitive market. But if your writing chops are stellar, you could find yourself with a decent slice of the profits. By creating how-to ebooks on popular niches or captivating novels, you could build a fanbase of loyal readers
7. Sell Digital Products
If you’re looking to create your own products instead of selling someone else’s, you can create digital products. You can use Shopify to sell your digital products online. Digital products can include everything from ebooks, online courses, PDFs, custom graphic designs, stock photos, or some other digital goods. Selling these products is the epitome of passive income, as the entire process can be automated on Shopify with instant downloads.
8. Sell your Photography
While being a photographer may seem like an active income business, it’s actually not. Photographers don’t only make money from taking photographs. They sell them too. Stock photo sites, magazines, and canvas printing for their clients are some of the ways you can make the big bucks in the photography biz. All you need is a great camera to get started. But these days, you can even use your phone to take photos. You could make passive income in a snap.
9. Create YouTube Videos
YouTube is the passive income stream that just keeps on giving. From sponsored videos to ad revenue, you’ll find that you can make recurring income from your YouTube channel. The secret to creating a successful YouTube channel is creating content on a consistent schedule for a long time. That’s it. If you stick with it for the long haul, eventually you’ll start reaping the passive income rewards.
10. Company Stocks
Yup, your 9 to 5 job can also become a passive income stream. No, it’s not the hours you work. However, your company stocks or any company-matching retirement plans can help you score some pretty decent passive income. I actually used this passive income method to pay for the down payment on my condo. And it only took two years. Of course, you’ll likely need to invest some of your own money too, but the extra bit that the company adds in is a nice perk if you’re willing to try it. (And trust me, few people ever do.) If you’re starting a new 9 to 5 job, be sure to ask for company stocks as part of your hiring package. You’ll thank me later.
See also: SELLING ONLINE – IS IT A PASSIVE INCOME?
