23 Passive Income Ideas to Help You Build Wealth (2024)

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Do you want to earn passive income in 2023? We break down the best ways to earn passive income, including exclusive quotes from people who are actually doing it.

Building a passive income stream is one of the best ways to make more money with little work.

This article gives you 23 ideas for making passive income while you keep your full-time job. So that you can finally make more money than you could have ever imagined.

How do you get passive income?

Money you make that doesn’t require you to do a lot of “active” work is called passive income. In essence, you can make money by doing most of the work up front and putting in some extra work along the way.

For example, if you make an online course, all you have to do to keep making money from it is keep the content up to date.

“Make money while you sleep” is a phrase you’ve probably heard. This is the main reason why people want to earn passive income.

You can make something that makes money even when you’re not working, like a blog, course, eBook, videos, or an online store. Or, you can invest in things like real estate or stocks that let you earn money without doing anything. (Soon, we’ll tell you more ways to make money like this.)

Which is better? Active income or passive income?

In theory, all of your sources of income are about the same. But if you want to be financially free, passive income is much better than active income.

So, active income is the money you get from all the work you are doing right now. And if you want to keep making a living, you have to keep working. If you quit, you don’t get paid. Your time is the same thing as money.

Then there is passive income. A way to make money that doesn’t require you to do anything. And money keeps coming in for many, many years. If you want to have a dream life where you don’t have to worry about money, you might want to focus on passive income.

Just keep in mind that even though you might be able to build a passive income stream with a small investment, you are still making a commitment just like someone who invests their time. To make passive income as good as income from active work, you have to put in a lot of work up front.

23 ways to make money with passive income in 2023

1. Open a dropshipping store.

Dropshipping is one of the best ways to make money while you sleep. With dropshipping, you can use sites like AliExpress to find popular items to sell to people all over the world. You can put items from dropshipping niches like fashion, home decor, and beauty in your online store.

The great thing about dropshipping is that you can build your own business and set your own prices for the products. In fact, of all the ways to make passive income on this list, dropshipping gives you the most control over your profit margins.

You can start dropshipping right away if you sign up for Shopify. Install one of these dropshipping apps once you have an online store to find high-quality items to sell.

Note: Buying wholesale products to sell on your store is similar to having a dropshipping store, but you have a lot more control over the products you sell and their quality. Using a wholesale marketplace, you can connect with local US-based suppliers, buy products at wholesale prices, and then sell them to your audience. You can even combine this option with dropshipping by finding wholesalers who will send products directly to your customers.

2. Make a blog and make money from it

Blogs are a popular way to make money without doing anything. Through affiliate links, courses, sponsored posts, products, book deals, and other ways, blogging has helped a lot of entrepreneurs earn money without doing much work.

Building a successful blog can take quite a bit of work at the beginning. But it’s one of the best ways to build a following through organic and social traffic or by building an email list. The best thing about having a blog is that you can use it to make money in many different ways.

So, if you want an easy way to make money on the side, blogging might be the best choice for you.

Desirae Odjick, who started Half Banked, says, “I started my blog to make talking about personal finance more accessible, and as part of that, I tend to share a lot of personal stories.” They often talked about the tools I was using and liked, so it was a natural step to add affiliate links when I joined the affiliate programs of those companies.

“I’ve been writing about personal finance on my blog for almost four years, and those links consistently bring in four figures every month. People find my articles and start to get their finances in order because of them, and I feel great recommending them because I use all of my affiliate products myself. It’s a great way to add passive income to your business, especially if you don’t have your own passive products to sell… yet!

3. Make online courses and sell them

If you know a lot about a certain subject or field, selling online courses could be a great way to make money while you sleep. Whether you sell them on your own website or on an online learning platform like Udemy, there will be a lot of people willing to pay to get access to your content.

Things are easier if you sell on sites like Udemy, but there may be times when your course is heavily discounted. This will change how much income you get from doing nothing. Selling through your own website, on the other hand, gives you control over your prices, so you don’t have to lower them just because others are selling at a lower price.

“In 2013,” says Sumit Bansal, who started TrumpExcel, “I started a blog about Excel spreadsheets.” I did it because I was learning a lot about spreadsheets and thought it would be a good way to help other people. It took a while, but after two years, over 100,000 people looked at it every month. I made an online course to see if it would be popular, and it was. After a few months of making good money on the side, I decided to do this full-time and put out more courses. Since then, the blog has grown a lot, and I’ve been featured on many well-known websites and magazines, such as Problogger, YourStory, GlassDoor, CEO Magazine, etc.”

4. Put up sponsored posts on Instagram

If you have Instagram followers, you might want to try making sponsored content. Sponsored posts on Instagram are pieces of content that promote a product or service that the sponsoring party usually owns. Sponsored posts on Instagram are pieces of content that promote a certain product or service (usually owned by the sponsoring party). Sponsors pay publishers to make and share content that tells people about their business.

More Instagram followers are the key to getting sponsored. You’ll also want to post the same kinds of things over and over again so that sponsors know what to expect. And make sure to focus on just one niche. Brands like content creators who can make good content about a specific subject.

Be sure to include your email address in your Instagram bio. As your account grows, you can hire virtual assistants to make sponsored posts on your behalf. The more requests you get to write sponsored posts, the more passive income you’ll be able to make.

5. Open a store that prints on demand

Print on demand is worth mentioning because ecommerce is one of the most popular ways to make passive income online.

Print on demand lets you put your own designs on things like t-shirts, clothing, mugs, canvases, phone cases, bags, and more, and then sell them. The best part about this is that you can make your own products under your own brand.

The only drawback is that you need to be good at graphic design because the margins are often too small to afford to hire someone else to do the designs. But if you come up with that one-of-a-kind design that sells, your sales will take off. Also, it’s not a very competitive business, since it’s unlikely that other brands will sell the same designs. Don’t be afraid to start with Shopify right away!

How much money does print on demand make? Find out in our comparison of dropshipping and print on demand, which we did with Wholesale Ted.

The founder of Boba Love, Veronica Wong, talks about how her love of bubble tea helped her make passive income: “I’ve been drinking bubble tea for as long as I can remember, so it made sense to combine my love of boba with my love of design. Last year, I started making and selling bubble tea clothes and accessories, and it’s been an amazing ride. Printful handles production, shipping, and fulfillment, so I can focus on marketing and building my brand. I’ve met boba fans from all over the world and just recently hit 10,000 followers on Instagram. I’m just getting started on my journey to make more passive income, but Shopify and Printful make it very easy, and I’m very hopeful!”

6. Make a phone app

You’ve probably noticed a pattern by now: making things often leads to income that you don’t have to work for. This is even more true when it comes to software for mobile devices. If you are a developer or programmer, you could try making apps as a way to make money while you sleep.

There are two ways to do it. First, people who want to buy your app can pay you a fee. Second, you can give your app away for free and use ads to make money. A few years ago, my fiance did this, and he still makes extra money from his app to this day.

CodeCanyon is where he bought the code. Then, he used a tool called Eclipse and installed the Android development SDK to change the code and make his own app. You can make money from an app in a number of ways, such as by running ads inside the app, charging for premium features, or putting some content behind a paywall.

7. Invest in stocks

When you look at how the world’s richest people make their money, it’s safe to say that stocks have been a big part of their huge bank accounts.

Buying stocks is a pretty passive thing to do, but the research that goes into it is an active thing. Warren Buffett reads 500 pages every day, but it’s not your typical mystery novel. Nope. He reads the annual reports of businesses. By doing this, he gets a better idea of whether a business is doing well or not. This helps him become a better stock investor.

Investing in stocks can help you make passive income that is worth much more than what you earn at your 9-to-5 job. So, think about this idea if you know what’s going on in different markets and industries.

8. You can buy and sell homes

Real estate can be a good way to make passive income, depending on where and when you buy. The average price of a home in popular cities like Toronto, which was $1,054,992 last year, is expected to go up by 10% this year.

By buying condos before they’re built, you may be able to get some cheaper properties that will go up in value by the time they’re done, letting you sell them for a profit when they’re done.

As with any investment, real estate can be risky, so if you’re new to the game, it’s best to talk to a real estate agent who can help you buy the right investment property.

Shawn Breyer, the owner of Breyer Home Buyers, says, “My girlfriend, who is now my wife, went to law school and graduated with $173,000 in school debt. We decided to pay off the loan over 15 years, so our monthly payments are $1,459. We wanted to pay off our monthly law school debt with the money from our rental property. Our first choice was to buy a two-family house where we could live on one side and rent out the other. This alone saved us $1,350 in rent that we would have had to pay before we bought the duplex.

“Instead of using that money to make extra payments on the school loan’s principal, we put it away and used it to buy another duplex two years later. This purchase gave us an extra $650 each month, which helped us buy a third property. We were able to save and earn an extra $2,500 per month from the three properties, which we could then use to make extra principal payments. The great thing about this plan is that our tenants are paying down our law school debt, and if we lose our jobs or have a medical emergency, we can rely on the rental income to pay the school debt for us.

9. Rent out your spare room

If your apartment has a spare room, you can rent it to someone for a certain amount of time. Platforms like Airbnb will put you in touch with people who are looking for their next home. Airbnbs are preferred because they are usually cheaper than hotels. This means that if you list your free space on Airbnb, you can make a higher passive income.

It’s important to remember that getting started as an Airbnb host takes work. You might have to fix up your room or buy new furniture before putting it on the market. To make it truly passive, you can hire a part-time property manager to list your properties and take care of them. But remember that they will charge a fee of between 8% and 10% of the monthly rent collected.

Martin Dasko, who started Studenomics, rents out his condo on Airbnb to make money without having to do anything. He says, “When I went to New York and stayed in an Airbnb, I decided to give it a try. I thought the idea was great and wanted to be a part of it. I rented out my condo and was surprised by how many people were interested. In downtown Toronto, I was able to charge $169 per night. When a company told me they were sending a few employees to Toronto, that was my biggest win.

“They made a reservation for the whole month. I didn’t have to worry about getting more people to stay. Airbnb is great because you can turn it on and off whenever you want. When you want to make some extra money, you can rent out your place. You can also rent out that extra room.”

10. Start an affiliate marketing business

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money without doing much work. On the plus side, almost every big brand has an affiliate program, so you can sell popular products and make a lot of money.

The bad thing is that you only make money when someone buys something. For example, Shopify’s affiliate program lets you make up to $58 per referral, which is a good amount of money. Other online companies only give referral bonuses of $5 to $10.

So, before you start, you’ll want to do some research on the best affiliate marketing programs. Blogging is usually the best way to make affiliate commissions on a regular basis without having to pay for ads.

The founder of Crowd Work News, Sireesha Narumanchi, says, “I started blogging as a side job a little over two years ago, and this has been the most amazing journey so far. Most of my income as a content creator comes from affiliates, and it’s all passive. Having both a job and a business was not easy, but it was well worth it. I do spend a lot of time researching, writing, and working on business plans, but once my content is done, it makes money for me again and again without me having to do anything. My prize at the end of the day is the great pleasure I get from helping people and showing them that they can work from home and make a good living.

11. Sell your videos

If you’re always in the middle of drama and excitement, you might want to take out your phone and press the Record button. By doing that, you can make some money without doing much work. People are obsessed with video content, according to the latest video marketing statistics, so you should be able to find an audience for your films.

Why? Because you can sell that video to a website that covers news. And if the video becomes popular, you can keep making money from it for weeks, months, or even years. Of course, the easiest way to get involved is to go to public events like rallies, festivals, and protests.

There will be chances to sell your content wherever there is conflict. And if you know how to make entertaining content, companies will pay you to make viral videos and give you a cut of the money they make overall.

Peter Kock, the owner of Seller at Heart, talks about how he made passive income by uploading videos to popular websites: “I uploaded a few videos to Newsflare and Rumble. When someone buys my content, 50% of the money I make is sent to my personal account. My videos were shown on MSN, AOL, Yahoo, the Daily Mail, The Guardian, and other websites. So far, I’ve made more than $4,000 with Newsflare, and I still get royalties for videos I posted a few years ago.

12. Buy sites and sell them

Do you know how to make websites that sell things? If so, you could build and sell them to make money while you sleep.

You’ll likely need to generate some revenue (to prove that your store has potential). But if you’re good at design and can put some content on your website, you could sell it to someone who wants to buy an ecommerce store that’s already built.

You could try Shopify’s Exchange marketplace if you’re looking for a place to sell your website. You can sell your brand-new online store or your six- or seven-figure store on the platform. It’s the best platform for flipping websites.

Website flipping for passive income

13. Ask for shares of the company

Yes, your 9-to-5 job can also be a way to make money on the side. No, it’s not how many hours you put in. But your company shares or any retirement plans that your company matches can help you make some pretty good money while you sleep.

I used this method of making money without doing anything to pay for the down payment on my condo. It took only two years. You’ll probably have to put in some of your own money, but the extra money that the company adds is a nice bonus if you’re willing to give it a try. (And trust me, almost no one does.)

Ask for company stocks as part of your hiring package when you start a new 9-to-5 job. You’ll be glad you did this later.

14. Start a channel on YouTube

YouTube is a great way to make money without doing anything. You can make recurring money from your YouTube channel through sponsored videos and ad revenue.

The key to making a successful YouTube channel is to post content regularly over a long period of time. Make sure that every video you upload is well made and something people want. If you keep at it for a long time, you’ll eventually start making money from it without doing anything.

Do you already have a channel on YouTube? Check out our article How to Make Money on YouTube for ideas on how to make money from your videos.

Matthew Ross, co-owner and COO of Slumber Yard, started making passive income on YouTube. “Back in 2013, my business partner and I were very interested in wearable technology like Garmin watches, Fitbit activity trackers, etc., so we decided to start a YouTube channel that would review these kinds of products. We really just liked trying out the watches and thought that we could make some extra money by advertising them.

“We spent a total of about $5,000 to make the channel and buy the products to review. But around that time, the market for wearable technology took off, and we started making more money than we ever thought possible. I, of course, was able to make my hobby into a business. We’ve been able to grow our top-line revenue to more than $2.5 million, we’ve hired 10 full-time employees, and we just moved the company’s headquarters to a new, state-of-the-art 7,000-square-foot office in Reno, Nevada. Together, our websites and YouTube channels get more than 4 million visitors a month.”

15. Make money from your photos

Even though being a photographer might seem like a good way to make money, it’s not. Photographers can make money in more ways than just by taking pictures. They also sell them. In the photography world, you can make a lot of money from stock image sites, magazines, and printing canvases for your clients.

To start, all you need is a good camera. But these days, you can even take great pictures with your phone. You could make money in the form of royalties by taking good photos and putting them on stock photography sites.

Jacob Hakobyan’s photography business, Shotlife Studio, brings in money without him having to do anything. He says, “Even though we had a lot of business education and what some might call very stable office jobs, we felt like we could do more. Not in terms of money, but of spirit. We started Shotlife Studio as a brother, sister, and husband team because we all loved photography and thought it would be fun to run a business of our own. With the help of our CPA knowledge, we made a clear plan for how to grow the business. We were able to double our profits from one year to the next, earning a five-figure side income.

16. Help businesses get more customers.

Are you a savvy marketer or salesperson? If so, there are a lot of companies that will pay you referral fees if you send them more customers.

DJs, photographers, and other people who work alone are always trying to get more customers. If you can find clients who are willing to sign a long-term contract, they will be happy to give you a referral bonus.

So, if you are good at making connections, you can start earning money without doing anything. A few emails or messages are all it takes to get this business going.

17. Write an ebook

Ebooks took off around 2010 and are still a very popular way to get information. Anyone who knows a lot about a certain subject can write an ebook to share their ideas with the rest of the world. You don’t have to do it all by yourself. Platforms like Upwork make it easy to find people who can help with writing and editing books.

You’ll need to publish your manuscript on Amazon Kindle in order for your audience to be able to read it. To get the word out to as many people as possible, some marketing is also needed. Once you get into writing ebooks, you can make money from page reads and Kindle sales, which is how most ebook writers make money.

Allie McCormick makes money without doing anything: she writes ebooks. She says, “In 2016, when I was pregnant with my son, I started a side business with Amazon Kindle publishing. I hoped to make $500 a month by the time he was born so I wouldn’t have to go back to work.” I didn’t stop working right away, but 18 months later, I had a six-figure business that brought in money on its own. Biggest win? Even now, this business still runs mostly by itself. I only work on it for one to two hours a week and can take three to four weeks off at a time and still make money!”

18. Sell the things you don’t want.

Want to start getting rid of clutter in your home like Marie Kondo suggests? Well, you could sell that stuff and turn it into cold, hard cash.

We all have stacks of boxes with things in them that we haven’t thought about in years. You can keep it and maybe end up on an episode of “Hoarders,” or you can sell it online to make money while you sleep. You might have to look hard, but you might find some things that are worth a lot of money.

So, if you don’t know where to start making passive income, your closet might be the best place to start.

Nicholas Christensen, the founder of Lottery Critic, talks about how he makes passive income by selling family members’ things on eBay: “I am the ‘eBay whisperer.’ At first, I offered to help my elderly aunt clean out her house. Over 60 years’ worth of things had to be sorted, thrown away, given away, or sold. I found a box that had a big doll in it. She turned out to be a Shirley Temple doll from the 1920s that was in perfect shape (I had to Google it). I did my research, sold it on eBay, and gave my cousin half of the money I made. When other family members heard about it, I had a nice side job. Even though it’s still “work,” the extra money is nice.”

sell things and make money without doing anything.

19. Make digital products and sell them

Digital products are forms of media that can’t be touched. Most of the time, they have files that can be downloaded, like audiobooks, PDFs, templates, or plug-ins.

Digital products have high profit margins because there are no costs for keeping inventory or storing it. You only need to make the asset once to sell it more than once. There is no cap on how many copies you can sell.

You can set up an online store with Shopify to sell your digital products. Selling these products is the best way to make passive income because you can automate the whole process on Shopify with instant downloads.

The Smart Pair

The two people behind The Savvy Couple, Kelan and Brittany Kline, say, “Last month, we opened a Shopify store with a few digital products to sell to our readers. We made the Budgeting Binder to help people learn how to start budgeting and organize their money. Since we opened our shop, we’ve made more than $1,500 in sales, and that number keeps going up every week. All of our products are digital, so this income comes in without any work on our part. As long as we keep sending people to our shop, we’ll keep making sales.”

20. Use passive income apps

Passive income apps do exactly what they sound like they do: you put them on your phone and do a few things to make money. The things you can do can be as simple as watching videos or as complicated as turning a small investment into a stream of passive income. There are a lot of apps that can help you make better use of your phone and your time. Here are a few that are good:

Fundrise. Fundrise lets you put down a minimum of $1,000 to invest in real estate projects. It gives you the option to get dividends every three months, which are your passive income.

InboxDollars. InboxDollars offers cashback for doing activities that you’re likely to do anyway, such as shopping, watching TV, and searching the web. The cashback and the $5 bonus for signing up are your passive income.

Dosh. Dosh gives you the option to link your debit and credit cards to its system. When you pay for something using these cards, you earn passive income in the form of cashback.

21. Create and license audio tracks

If you have some audio skills, why not put them to work? Making audio tracks for other people’s use is a great way to earn extra cash, as people are constantly looking to brand themselves with the right sound.

If you want to make full songs and earn money through royalties, you can license your tracks on sites like SoundCloud and Audiosocket. All you have to do is find out what kind of content is popular with your audience. From there, it’s easy to start adding songs to your collection. Who knows? It could turn into something bigger.

If you’re interested in making audio, you can try out all kinds of things, from intros and outros to full albums and mixing samples. Your audio track can also be as simple as a jingle or the beginning of a podcast.

22. Use your extra space to make money

Most of us don’t have enough space, which is a valuable thing. Whether you only use your storage room part-time or have extra space in your home, there are lots of ways to make some extra money with that space. For example, you can rent out storage spaces on sites like Neighbor.com so that people have an extra place to keep their things.

You can rent out your garage or even an extra parking spot at the same time if you have room. If you’re renting a space for an event but don’t need it all the time, you can check out sites like Share My Space, where you can let anyone who needs it know that your square footage is available.

You could also give employees and professionals who don’t have their own office a great place to work in comfort. This way, you’ll make passive income and the renters will have a nice place to work. Everyone wins!

23. Create a job board

A job board is a website that employers use to tell people about open jobs. People can apply for open jobs from anywhere in the world with just a few clicks. Companies can pay to post on your board, and you can make more money by upselling features like unlimited access to your talent pool.

You can make a job board from scratch, or you can buy a theme that’s already been made and start there. Most of your time should be spent getting people to know about your job board. To get people interested early on, you can write a press release, post on social media, and run paid ads.

Once you have a strong base of regular, reliable customers, you can expect a big chunk of your income to come from passive sources. Check out sites like Dribbble or Problogger for inspiration.

With these passive income ideas, you can improve your financial future.

Passive income is a great way to boost your income and fill in the gaps that your 9-to-5 job can’t. If you want to improve your financial future by bringing in more money, the ideas on this list can help you do that.

And it’s fine if you like what you do for a living. When you have a 9-to-5 job, the work it takes to make passive income is usually easy to handle. So, yup, you can do both.

If you want to start a dropshipping store, your own agency, or make money with content, you’ll find that you can do all of these things. Start. That’s all you need to do.

Passive income FAQ

How can I generate passive income?

There are many ways to come up with ideas for passive income. You could, for example, make a list of all the things that interest you and then look into how other people have built businesses around them. Another idea is to think about how to solve a problem you have often and turn it into a way to make money on its own.

How can I start making money without much money?

There are many ways to make money without doing much work. Dropshipping, affiliate marketing, print on demand, and selling things you don’t use are some examples.

How much can I make if I don’t do anything?

You can make as much or as little money as you want through passive income. But it’s not a way to get rich quickly. To start making passive income, you’ll need to put in some time, work, and money at first. The good news is that if you get these things right early, you can relax and reap the financial benefits for years to come.

You can start with as little as $100, then reinvest your profits until your passive income is at a level that you can live on. You can make enough money to live a happy, healthy life if you have a high, steady income.