The Best 25 Passive Income Ideas That actually work

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Hey, it’s Lee with simply smarter income helping you to start, build and grow a successful online business. In this video, I’m going to talk about 25 passive income ideas that can help you make anywhere between 500 to $1,000 or more per month. And I’ve actually personally done at least four on this list, and they’re all creating passive income for me right now, by the end of this video, you’ll be able to pick at least three solid ideas to start making passive income.

Transcription

Below is a transcription of this video. This transcription was generated by Otter.ai and may include minor errors:

25 Passive Income Ideas That Actually Work (Make $1000 Or More Per Month)

So watch this video until the very end to find the best ideas that work well for you. And if you’re new here, my name is Lee and I’ve been making money online since 2014. This includes running a YouTube channel with nearly 30,000 subscribers. I’ve also owned and operated in the e-commerce subscription box company. And I currently run two niche websites and one blog. So this channel is all about helping you to make money online with a successful online business. So don’t forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell to be alerted every time I upload. And with that being said, let’s get started.

1. Real Estate Vacation Renting

So number one is real estate vacation renting. So think Airbnb, right now only vacation rental properties actually a great way to make passive income. And if you really want to be completely hands-off, there are actually companies out there that are basically vacation rental management companies. And they can completely and utterly manage your property for you for a fee, of course, you can expect to pay around 20% or so in fees per month, which is actually a great deal if you don’t have to do much at all, honestly.

2. Affiliate Marketing (Blogging)

So number two is going to be affiliate marketing. So affiliate marketing is actually something that I’m actually extremely passionate about. And it’s something that I know, a good amount of money as well, just from running several websites over the years. If you don’t know what affiliate marketing is, it’s basically the process of making money from Commission’s every time you promote another company’s products or services that actually lead to a sales and you actually only get paid if there is a sale, just like if you were you know, like a sales only commission sort of representative, right. But the great thing about it is that the commission that you make is at no additional cost to the customer. So I kind of think of it more so as like a finder’s fee, it’s like a sale that the company probably wouldn’t have made otherwise. And so in exchange, I receive a small commission for that sale.

So that’s basically what affiliate marketing is, is something you can get really deep into, there’s a lot of layers to affiliate marketing as well. And there are different places that you can use it right, you can use it on your YouTube videos, you can use it on your website, you can use it on Instagram, wherever else that you have an audience. But essentially, what you’re going to do in that those cases is, you know, obviously, if you have any products or services that you’ve used yourself that you recommend that you feel great about, you can actually make money from just recommending those items or those products or services to your audience. So it can be a really powerful way to make passive income. And it’s something that can make you income literally while you sleep. So that’s a great place to start, I would highly recommend affiliate marketing for you guys.

3. Publish E-Books long or short (Canva, publish on Amazon)

Number three is publishing ebooks, when it comes to publishing an e-book, there’s actually really a lot of different ways you can go about it, you can create a short ebook, or you can create an actual like legit book, you can be like the legit author, like with actual chapters, okay, you can do that. But there’s also another number of ways you can actually make money from your ebook as well. And so the most obvious, of course, is, you know, selling the actual ebook for a price. And every time someone buys, you’re making that money. But another way you can make it as well is by offering you know your ebook for free to your audience, for essence, and if you have a really large following, and they’re really interested in what that ebook is about because again, you have to be very mindful of, you know, what is it that your audience needs? And what is it that they actually want? And what are they interested in, in gear your ebook around that. But basically, if you have a lot of traction online, this can be a really great place to start. And what you can do with that free ebook is inside the ebook, you can actually offer your own products and services that you might actually sell at some point in that book.

And you can also just do that via links that you can actually place in the book itself. Or you can also insert affiliate links as well, we just talked about affiliate marketing a second ago, that’s another great way that you can make money from your book as well. Or you can also use discount codes from other, you know, negotiated sponsors ships, right. So maybe there are some businesses and or companies out there that you work very closely with. And you can offer your readers discount codes. And when they use a code, they get a great product or service and you get a small commission. And it’s something that again, can make you money even while you sleep. So it’s a very passive way to make money is a great way to make money as well. And one of the other things you can think about too when it comes down to ebooks is that you know, it can be a segue into other products and services that you might offer as well. So let’s say this book is about affiliate marketing, right? And you just basically have this ebook is basically telling people, hey, this is what affiliate marketing is, this is what it looks like.

This is what you can do to get started and where you can go to learn. But hey, by the way, actually have a course on affiliate marketing and in the book You can click here after you read it if you’re interested in learning more, and sign up for that course. So that can be another segue for you to actually take those readers from that free platform, that ebook over to something is going to be paid for you as well. And it can be very lucrative in that way, as well. And if the person doesn’t want to spend that money or sign up for your course, it’s perfectly fine. Because maybe that book is just whetting their appetite or teaching them about something that they didn’t know about.

4. Create Audiobooks

Number four is going to be to create audiobooks. So another great way that you can make passive income is simply by creating audiobooks. Now, this is I know, like, you’re like, wow, I never thought about this, it’s a great way to make money online. And again, a great way to make passive income too. So we just talked about ebooks just now, right, you can actually take those ebooks that you produced, and you can make your very own audiobook for your own ebook, it’s a great way that you can get started. And you don’t have to worry about paying someone else to actually do that voiceover acting or that reading that book for you, you can do it yourself with some quality audio equipment, and maybe some editing software.

And you can be well on your way to having a great audio book that you can put alongside your ebook as well. And of course, you know, you have the option of narrating audiobooks for other people that are out there as well, because I mean, who doesn’t want an audiobook to go alongside their ebook, right? Or their paperback book for that matter, right. So it can be a really great place for you to get started, even if you don’t have it your own ebook just yet. But you can hop on websites like Fiverr to find gigs that you can start narrating. And then once you kind of get good at it is something that you can do whenever you want to. And it can create you, you know, income. So that’s a really great idea overall. And from a passive income perspective, many times you get the option to get paid in royalties as well, which can in turn, pay you month after month after month after you’ve created that audio book or finished that audiobook project. So it’s a really great place to start.

5. Online Courses

Now, number five is going to be online courses. So every one of us has some sort of skill, we have some sort of knowledge, we have something to offer our audience out there on something right, you could be great at sewing, you could be fantastic at like repairing holes in jeans, I don’t know what it could be. But if you’re really great at it, and it’s something that people really are looking for, as to be something they’re looking for. But if they’re looking for and you have the skill, well, you can create an online course, around whatever that might be, and charge a fee for it. So maybe for those jeans that we just mentioned, maybe you want to charge $50 for that course. And now people will know how to sew, how to do stitching and how to repair holes and their jeans. And that can be a whole fantastic online course that you have.

And you can make good amount of money on that, just because there’s a ton of people out there looking for that. So just really think deeply about what it is that you have to offer. What sort of skills do you have, what’s your training Have you had, and what kind of experiences have you had in the course of your life that you can actually offer up to folks that actually want to find out what it is. So that can be a really great place to start. And you can make, you know, 1000s and 1000s of dollars every single month from online courses. So definitely do not underestimate how much money you can make from online courses. out of everything on this list. I mean, it’s really up there in terms of income. So definitely consider online courses.

6. Create & Sell Digital Products

Now number six, is going to be creating and selling digital products. Now, whenever it comes down to it digital products is probably one of the most lucrative ways that you can make money online because you don’t have to have a physical product to produce. And especially if that product is information, information is super valuable online. Because once you create that asset, that digital asset, you can sell it many times over and make tons of money on it. So it’s a really great place to start. So just some ideas for digital products might be a guide, it could be patterns, it could be prints, or any other types of digital downloads, for instance, you probably can’t see here, but actually have some images here on my wall, and actually went on to a website on Etsy.

And I found like lots of stores that have all these different prints of images that they’ve created themselves. And all they do is offer those digital files for you to download. And for a good amount of money. And that could be a great way that you can basically create those prints, create those digital assets, put those out there online, maybe find a way to sort of gear that towards an audience. Or if you already have an existing audience, you can put that information in front of them, and they’re gonna want to buy it and you can make some money month over month and while you sleep. So a great way to make passive income.

7. Create Designs or Art

Now number seven is to create designs or art that other companies will want to print for you on different canvases or bags or shirts or whatever it might be, but you could actually be the one to create those designs. So if you’re something if you’re someone who’s artistic, this can be a really great leg up for you because you can just create designs that are going to be really, you know, something that people really want to have. So like I just mentioned, Etsy is a great place to start right. You could do yourself and maybe print those things off yourself and offer those up to an audience or on Etsy. For instance, like I said, when a certain platform, or it might be another way that you can actually produce these products and sell them to companies out there as well. So another great place to start to make passive income.

8. Stock Photography

So number eight is going to be stock photography. So I’m really big into photography, right. So it’s probably some of you guys know about me, but I’m really big into it. And so stock photography is actually a really great way that you can make money online. So if you’re already out there, and you’re in the city, for instance, and you’re taking photos, or if you love Lund landscapes, and you just enjoy doing it, you can actually just take those images and go online to like maybe Getty Images, com, or they’re different places online, you can go and I’ll leave them in the description box below where you can go, but you can actually sign up and just start uploading your images.

And what will happen is, as people start to download them, you will start to get paid on every download those people make for those images. And they can be, you know, a lot of images that you upload, you can make this like thing that you do where in your spare time, you can just take a number of photos, you think would be a great stock image and just upload those, and again, make that passive income. So it’s a really great way to make money, especially if you have a lot of photos that otherwise are just gonna be sitting around, you know, on your memory card or something like that, you can make money off of it, just by uploading it online.

9. Create an App

So consider that now number nine is going to be creating an app. So if you’re really great at creating apps, if that’s your thing, this is going to be a really great way to make money online. Because if you create an app that’s very useful, it can blow up overnight, right. And especially if it’s something that’s very useful, people can really, really like, like, really start to download it. And you can find like overnight success in a lot of ways. And if not, you can also find other ways to create money from your app as well, by getting ads on your apps and finding other ways to filter those customers into other apps that you might create and sort of create your whole sort of ecosystem, there’s a lot of that you can do when it comes down to creating apps if you’re really into it. And you have that skill set, highly recommend that you figure something out and get started because there’s a lot of money to be made out there from creating apps.

10. Invest with High Dividend Stocks

Now, number 10 is to invest in high dividend stocks, dividend stocks, basically distribute a portion of the company’s earners to investors on a regular basis. And actually, most of those American companies out there, they actually do this on a quarterly basis. And so that’s gonna be a great way that you can start making money passively, right, just from making those investments, obviously, you have to have some money to invest first. I mean, that’s obvious. But if you do have some extra money, and you do want to start investing, that can make you passive income every single quarter, all the time, this can be a really great place to start to have that sort of passive income foundation for yourself as well. If you’re just getting started in this whole passive income game.

11. Start a Podcast

The next way you can make passive income online is to start a podcast. Now I know everyone and their father and their uncle and their uncle’s brother, everyone wants to have a podcast these days, right. But there’s a reason for it. podcasting is something that is blowing up, right. A lot of us don’t have time to read books and things like that we might listen to podcasts on our drive to work, if we have a long commute, if we’re, you know, cutting the grass, and we’re if we’re at the gym, there’s a lot of reasons that podcasts are very popular. And so if you are interested in podcasting, and you have the perseverance and dedication to do it, I definitely recommend podcasting. But there’s a lot of different ways you can make money with it through partnerships through affiliate marketing, through email marketing, there’s so many different facets of creating money that is passive online, that you can all just weave into podcasting itself. So definitely recommend podcasting as a great way to make passive income.

12. Take Advantage of Peer to Peer Lending

So the next way that you can make money online that is passive income is by taking advantage of peer to peer lending. So if you haven’t heard of peer to peer lending, it’s it’s something that it’s been around for a while, but it might be new to you, right. So peer to peer lending is also known as social lending or crowd lending as well. That’s another sort of term that people use for it is basically for a way for you, the investor to actually lend money directly to other individuals. And so basically, what you’re doing is you’re cutting the bank out from the middle of that transaction, and you’re putting yourself there. And in exchange, you should be able to basically earn like a healthy return on that investment itself from you know, the principal and interest payments that that person is actually main paying back to you. And then in addition to that, you’re actually able to lend in hand to people that actually need some extra income to go after whatever ventures that they’re going after, or whatever projects they’re working on. And you can make some extra money. So it’s a great place to start as well for passive income.

13. Own and Manage Rental Property

Now the next way you can make money online that is passive is to own manage rental property. So obviously, you’re gonna need a little bit of capital first, but if you can get your hands on some rental properties that you can have managed, this is gonna be a great way to make passive income as well because essentially all you need to do is purchase the home find someone that can manage it for you and they’re going to take care Those monthly payments that they’re going to get from the renters every single month. And they’ll let you know if there’s anything that is expensive that comes up and you can just basically pay for that. Like if they’re the plumber needs to come out or you need like an electrician or something like that, of course, you have to pay for those things. But for the most part, alive is can be very hands off, and super passive.

14. Start A Youtube Channel

So it’s another great way to make passive income online, the next way you can make passive income online is to start a YouTube channel. So you could do something like this, like what I’m doing right now. And once you reach a certain amount of subscribers, which I believe right now is about 1000, you can actually be eligible to receive income from those ads that we see on YouTube. And from there, you can also again, incorporate other things like affiliate marketing, email marketing, and build an audience, from scratch, essentially, based all around whatever it is your channels on. And it can be a great way to make passive income. Long term, if you set things up correctly.

15. Crowdfund Real Estate

The next way you can make money online that is passive income is to crowdfund real estate. So it’s actually very similar to peer to peer lending, right, a great place to start with. This is a company called fundrise. This is basically where you get a pool of investors to actually raise capital that you need for a real estate project. And so essentially, this is going to be a great way for you to get that money that you need to purchase that property that you want to flip or that you want to rent out or whatever it is you want to do, this is a really great place for you to start, they can be someone that is actually taking advantage of that pool of investors or you can be an investor yourself. So it really works both ways. But essentially, it’s going to be a great way to build passive income, no matter which side of the fence that you’re actually on.

16. Own Vending Machines

The next way you can make passive income online is by owning vending machines. So we know that we see vending machines, every single place that we go, we go to the barber shop, we go to the dentist office, we’re in the hospital, where I don’t know anywhere at the mall, you see a vending machine, somebody owns these vending machines. And essentially what you have to do is obviously, purchase the vending machines, and you need to find places that you can strategically place them that have a lot of traffic. And essentially, you just need to be responsible for making sure those machines are always filled. And you can actually do this yourself. Or you can hire someone to make sure that all of your machines are in good working order. And to make sure that they always are full of products that people can buy, where you can, again, make money from it. So a great place to start.

17. Rent Your Parking Spot

Another super easy passive income idea is to basically just rent your parking spots. So especially if you live in the city, or if you live in a really high traffic area, you can just rent your parking spot, if you don’t need it. If you don’t have a car, if you have more than one parking spot, you can just rent the other one. And you can make passive income each and every month. Because it’s in high demand, people really need your parking spot. So why not be the person to supply that parking spot and make that passive income.

By the way, if you find any value in this video, go ahead and hit the like button for me. Also, if you already decided what you want to pick, go ahead and leave a comment below for me, I’d love to hear what you’ve decided on.

18. Build Niche Websites

So another way that you can make passive income, which is actually something that I do is to build niche websites, niche websites are a great way to build passive income. And you might say, Oh, well, how does this website make me money, I don’t know how it works, we actually have a video on that. I’ll leave it in the description below. But essentially, niche websites are great because you can use affiliate marketing, email marketing, and a number of other ways to actually create money online, you basically build in a niche website, let’s say it’s all around photography, you know, all of your articles are about different cameras that are out there, different gear, different ways to shoot different ways to use your camera. And that is what your website is about. And your affiliate links can be all basically about different cameras, so they can click here to purchase this camera that they might want to be, you know, they might be interested in. And it’s a great way to build that passive income where again, every time someone’s making a purchase, you’re making that income. So it’s a great place to start.

19. Rent Your Car

The next way you can make passive income every single day, even while you sleep is to rent your car. And you can actually rent your car to Uber and Lyft drivers. And there’s actually a couple companies out there called hyrecar and Turo and you can actually rent your car out to those folks. And they will use those cars to actually do Uber and Lyft, which is something that is it’s kind of mind blowing to me. But it’s a great way to make some passive income. And Turo actually says that the typical, you know, person can bring in an average of $545 per month, there’s renting a vehicle out to an Uber or Lyft driver. So it’s a great way to make money off of your car, especially if you’ve never won, you’re not using your car. Number two, you don’t need it. And I mean, it’s a great way to make some money and you can actually make this a business for yourself by purchasing several cars and renting them out to Uber and Lyft drivers. So it’s something you can think about. And again, it’s gonna make you great passive income.

20. Create Website Themes & Sell Them Online

The next way that you can make passive income is to create website themes and sell them online. So like I just mentioned earlier, you know, maybe it’s gonna be for a niche website, or maybe it’s for someone who is a photographer, or somebody who has an architecture portfolio that they want to present online. So it’s can be a lot of different ways. But you can basically create themes that are basically ready to go that people can use for their online websites. Because a lot of people don’t really know how to make their websites look pretty, right? They know they want a website, but they don’t know how to make it look pretty. And if they do not make it pretty, maybe they don’t have the time to do so. And so that’s where you can come in with that theme and make some money off of it.

21. Buy Bank CDs

And so another way that you can make money passively online is to buy bank CDs. Now CDs are basically time-bound deposits, right. And you basically agreed to let the bank use your money for a set amount of time, in exchange for a higher interest rate, then, you know, you would get with like a regular savings account. And so that’s a really great way again, to make money, especially if you have a lot of extra cash is laying around, it’s in your savings account Anyway, why not go ahead and do that and make some passive income.

22. Purchase & Operate A Laundry Mat

Now the next way that you can make passive income online, which is like this, I this idea I actually really like, and it’s basically to buy a laundry mat. And so according to laundry mat, source, com, the average laundry mat makes anywhere from 450 to $500 per day per day, okay? This includes washers and dryers and other secondary income streams like vending machines as well that you can put on the property. So this is a really great place to start if you have the capital for it. And you actually want to get involved with it, this is a great way to start making passive income that might not require too much of your time. And it can basically be built a business that you can build for yourself, that makes you money every single day, it’s ridiculous.

23. Turn Your Car Into a Mobile Billboard

The next idea is also a great way to make passive income is actually an idea that I think is a little out there. But some folks are probably going to be really into it. But that’s basically to advertise on your car. And so for instance, there’s a company out there called rapid phi. And basically what they do is they find companies that want to advertise on your car. So if you live in a certain area, and there’s you know, a particular company that needs advertising, well, they can wrap your car. And everywhere you go, you’re basically driving advertisement. And so compensation is actually pretty good, but it’s based on basically how much you drive within a designated area, and they call them like campaign zones. But according to rap a phi, you can make anywhere from 200 to $250 per month, if you pick whatever the light option might be. And if you pick what’s next on that list is which is partial coverage, you can make anywhere from 260 to $452 per month, which is not bad at all is not bad at all. Like it’s a pretty good way to make money. If you’re comfortable being a driving advertisement, it’s really up to you.

24. Drop Shipping

Now, the next way you can make passive income online is through drop shipping. So I know like drop shipping is something that’s been super popular for years. But if you don’t know what dropshipping is basically an e commerce based business that does not require you to keep products in stock. And so essentially what you’re doing is you the e commerce store sells a product and then you pass that order on to a third party supplier who actually packages and ships that product to the customer. And you actually pocket the markup. Or you pocket the difference between what you sold the product for and what that other company offer the product for as well. And you make that difference in between, it’s a really great way to make money, it does take a little bit of time to actually build up that business. But once you have it up and running, it’s fantastic. And it makes you a great amount of money.

25. Display Ads

The last way that you can make money online passively is through website display ads. So if you are someone who has a website, you can actually make money online by displaying ads on your site. A lot of times you have to have a certain amount of traffic for your site before you can make money. But in the meantime, you can use Google AdSense, and you can make money that way. But that’s a great way that you can make money online with your website. So I highly recommend if you have a website and you and it actually works well with your business definitely recommend display ads, you can make hundreds and 1000s of dollars per month depending on how much traffic you get on your site. So it’s a great place to start if you already have an existing website. And if you don’t, you can do it some something you can do eventually on your website as well.

Conclusion

Now I know I went through a lot of things on this list, but if you found value in this video, go ahead and hit the like button. Also, if you have an idea of a few of these things that you want to try yourself, let me know what you’re going to pick in the comments below and let’s chat about it. Also, if you have some ideas that I have not thought about, leave those in the comments below. And again, let’s talk about it. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to this channel for more videos just like this and I’ll see you guys in the next one.