The 30 Best Passive Income Ideas to Increase Your Wealth (2024)

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Do you want to work less and earn more money? Here are 30 passive income ideas that will help you build wealth and make a lot of money.

Although it may appear to be easy money, the majority of successful passive income ideas are the result of hard work: building an audience, optimizing paid ads, and providing a great experience and a superior product.

However, as a current or aspiring business owner, you aren’t afraid to put in the time to do all three of those things, and you may already have all three checked off your list.

Increasing your passive income streams can provide you with more freedom, flexibility, and money. Here are 30 ideas for generating passive income, along with examples and how to get started right away.

What exactly is passive income?

Passive income (or unearned income, as the Internal Revenue Service calls it) is defined as income that requires little effort to generate and maintain and comes from sources other than a traditional employer.

Passive income streams can be generated by investing in mutual funds or real estate, selling products online, publishing online courses, or engaging in other side hustles that do not require the earner to actively participate.

Passive income, as opposed to active income, is frequently generated automatically, providing residual income with minimal time and effort. It can help you improve your personal finances and give you more time. Not having to trade your time for money can reduce stress and anxiety, and extra cash flow can boost your confidence in your financial future.

Consider the following passive income ideas if you’re a service provider looking to stop selling dollars for hours or a product business looking to add income sources that don’t involve the logistics of sending out physical products.

30 money-making passive income ideas:

Begin a dropshipping business.
Make a print-on-demand shop.
Sell digital goods
instruct online classes
Start a blog.
Sell handmade items
Run an affiliate marketing company.
Online stock image sales
Make yourself an Instagram influencer.
Purchase a rental property
Invest in the stock market
Rent out your extra room.
You can rent a car.
Make a loan to a peer.
Earn money while shopping online
Buy and sell websites
Create a YouTube channel.
Purchase REITs.
Stake cryptocurrencies
Selling designs online
Invest in companies
Unused space can be rented out.
Sell NFTs
Make a job board.
Make no-code apps
Make a digital guide.
Earn royalties from your inventions.
Make an audiobook recording
Purchase vending machines.
Create and sell spreadsheets

1. Establish a dropshipping business.

Initial time commitment:

Initial financial investment:

Potential passive income:

Dropshipping is one of the best passive income ideas for making money from anywhere, even if you don’t have a lot of money to begin with. Some dropshippers claim to earn more than $100,000 per year. Dropshipping, on the other hand, is not a get-rich-quick scheme because it requires an initial time investment to generate income.

Dropshipping is a business model that entails creating an ecommerce store where customers can browse and buy products. The interesting thing about dropshipping is that you don’t have to see or manage the products you sell.

Your supplier handles everything from manufacturing to packaging to fulfillment when you use dropshipping. This passive income business has low cash risk because you don’t have to send money to your supplier until your customers pay.

Another risk that you can avoid is investing in a product that does not have a market. You can find trending products in various niches to sell in your store by using a platform like DSers.

You can earn a good passive income and learn how to run an ecommerce business depending on the product you choose and your pricing.

2. Establish a print-on-demand business.

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Print on demand can be a profitable passive income stream and a way to monetize your creativity if you’re an artist, designer, or entrepreneur. Working with suppliers to customize white label products such as t-shirts, posters, backpacks, or books and selling them on a per-order basis is what it entails.

You only pay for the product after you sell it, similar to dropshipping. There is no need for bulk purchases or inventory. Print-on-demand stores are a good source of passive income because:

You can create products quickly and sell them in minutes.

Your supplier handles shipping and fulfillment.

You can automate many marketing and sales processes once your store is up and running.

You can quickly create products to sell in your Shopify store using a print-on-demand company like Printful. Overall, print on demand is a simple, low-risk passive income source that can be set up quickly.

How to Launch a Profitable Print-on-Demand Store Quickly

3. Market digital products

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Digital products are assets or pieces of media that consumers cannot physically touch. These include files that can be downloaded or streamed, such as Kindle books, templates, plug-ins, or PDFs.

Because of their high profit margins, digital products are excellent passive income sources. You only need to create the asset once, and you can sell it multiple times through your online business. There is no need for storage or inventory.

You are free to sell as many digital products as you like. Many digital asset creators increase their passive income by selling kits, printables, files, and other materials that professionals can use. For example, UX Kits sells personas, flowcharts, and wireframes to help with the design process.

The company has sold its products to over 10,000 customers in over 100 countries and continues to sell these profitable items online today, demonstrating the potential of this passive income strategy.

4. Conduct online courses

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Educators can now sell courses online more easily than ever before. Whether it’s marketing, illustration, or entrepreneurship, you can create and sell pre-recorded courses with few restrictions. Online courses, like digital products, can be sold repeatedly without the need for inventory or stock, generating passive income.

Teaching online necessitates an initial time investment. You must outline your course, record it, and create downloadable assets such as templates for students to take with them.

Consider Yegi Saryan, the founder of Yegi Beauty. She founded the Yegi Academy after launching an online beauty brand that sold eyelash extension products. Her lash classes assist entrepreneurs all over the world in launching their beauty careers by providing both online and on-site training.

Because your online course is pre-recorded, you can shorten, lengthen, or edit it to suit a wide range of class sizes and experience levels, thereby diversifying your passive income streams. You can design fully downloadable courses that students can complete at their own pace, or you can use software to automatically release lectures and materials at predetermined intervals.

In any case, teaching an online course is a great way to generate passive income with a low startup cost other than time investment.

5. Start a blog.

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Starting a blog can be a difficult endeavor, but the blogging business model is becoming increasingly popular as a passive income stream. You don’t have to be an internet celebrity to make money online these days. All you need to do is find your audience on one or two platforms and direct them to your website.

Building a blog requires some effort. However, if you create quality content and promote it across your platforms, you will build a large enough audience to generate a significant income stream.

You could earn passive income from blogging by doing the following:

Affiliate marketing products
Developing sponsored posts
Selling your own items
Using Google AdSense to display advertisements

What’s the best part? To start a blog, you don’t need any design or coding skills. A blog can be up and running quickly with a content management system and hosting service like Shopify.

You’ll need to invest time in developing an SEO marketing strategy as well as creating and promoting content, but your efforts will be rewarded: the return on these passive income investments can be up to $30,000 per month, depending on how you monetize your blog.

6. Market handcrafted items

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

There has never been a better time to sell items on the internet. With over 4.6 billion people online, the opportunity to build and scale an online business is enormous.

You can sell on hundreds of online marketplaces. Some have specific niches, such as video games or handcrafted goods, while others allow you to sell anything.

Some popular online selling websites are:

You have your own online store.
Etsy
Facebook Marketplace
Handshake
Amazon
eBay
Ruby Street
AliExpress

The initial investment is twofold. To make and sell DIY items like pottery or clothing, you’ll need to invest in materials and time. You should also set up an online store to sell your products.

According to our research, the top ten products that consumers intend to purchase following the pandemic are as follows:

Selling from your own store reduces the amount of fees you pay on each sale, and it also allows you to establish your own brand. The advantages of developing a brand compound over time as you expand your audience and connect with more customers. It will help you sell more and make money online over time.

7. Run an affiliate marketing company

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Affiliate marketing entails recommending a product or service to a target market. It’s a great way to earn passive income because you get paid every time someone clicks on your referral link and purchases the recommended product or service.

Affiliate marketing is popular among online entrepreneurs for several reasons:

It’s simple to put into action. You will only be in charge of marketing. The company will create products and fulfill orders.

It carries little risk. Joining an affiliate program is free. You can sell existing profits without making any initial financial investment. You’ll need to spend time developing traffic sources so that more people click on your links. Once that is in place, you can earn commissions in a relatively passive manner.

It’s expandable. Typically, affiliate marketers do not employ additional personnel. You can introduce new products to an audience and create campaigns while your previous work continues to generate revenue in the background.

Earning money through affiliate marketing can be a rewarding way to diversify your business’s revenue streams. It only costs you your time. After putting in the time, you can reap the benefits indefinitely.

8. Sell stock photos online.

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Photography, unlike many of the other passive income ideas on this list, is a service-based business that typically pays you for your time. To make money with photography, you must be present at an event or photoshoot, which, even if you’re making a fortune, can be exhausting after a while.

However, if you are a full-time photographer or own a high-quality camera, you can earn a passive income from photography by selling photos online. Pexels, Shutterstock, and other online media outlets will pay for high-quality photos and videos.

Except for your camera and laptop, there is no inventory to keep around the house. These websites handle the marketing for you, so once you upload your photos to the platform, the platform handles getting your work out there and selling it for you.

If you run your photography business on Shopify, you can easily incorporate digital products such as prints or print-on-demand products such as shirts and hats, giving you even more passive income streams so you can work less and make more.

9. Establish yourself as an Instagram influencer.

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson earns one million dollars per Instagram post. You don’t have to have chiseled abs or over 200 million social media followers to earn a monthly income as an Instagram influencer.

To become an Instagram influencer—someone who can sway another person’s purchasing decisions—you must first build a community of people who share your interests.

Are you a fan of comic books? Create an Instagram account and begin posting regularly about the latest Marvel and DC shows. The same is true if you enjoy sports, scuba diving, home décor, or even general culture.

Some influencers, such as Alex Lange, do sponsored posts for brands such as Tinder.

You can use an engaged audience to support a variety of passive income ideas if you have one. You can, for example, collaborate with large and small businesses to promote their products to your followers. You can also make money by selling your own merchandise.

10. Purchase a rental property

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Real estate investing is one of the oldest methods of accumulating long-term wealth and passive income.

If you have enough money, you can purchase apartment buildings or other types of real estate and rent them out for a profit. However, because landlording is a very active job, you can hire property managers to manage tenants, maintain properties, and collect monthly payments or rent.

As an added bonus, as the housing market improves, your properties will appreciate in value, increasing your profits in the event of a future sale.

11. Invest in the stock exchange

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Although the stock market has a steep learning curve and can be confusing, it is an excellent way to build long-term wealth. When it comes to investment funds, most people make the mistake of thinking in terms of the short term rather than the long term.

The goal of stock investing is to diversify your portfolio while reducing risk. This can be accomplished by investing in mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and high-dividend stocks, which generate income gradually over time. To begin investing in the stock market, you must first open and fund a brokerage account at a reputable financial institution.

12. Rent out your extra bedroom.

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Perhaps you lack the startup capital to invest in rental properties. Do you, however, have an extra room in your apartment? Or are you planning a three-week road trip and don’t want to leave your house unoccupied? You can rent out your free space through a rental company such as Airbnb or VRBO.

Airbnb connects homeowners with people looking for a place to stay for their next vacation. People prefer Airbnbs because they are often less expensive and more convenient than hotels, which means that your free space as an Airbnb host will be in high demand.

While renting out one spare room to generate passive income is beneficial, renting out ten is even better. If you want to earn even more passive income from Airbnb, you can buy apartments for the sole purpose of renting them out (depending on local laws). It should be noted, however, that renting out your space frequently necessitates some upfront work. You may need to furnish or renovate your spare room before renting it out.

13. You can rent a car.

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

You can earn passive income by renting out more than just your home. You can also rent out your car through a service like Turo. If you already use your car for Uber, you can sign up for platforms like Carvertise or Wrapify to earn money while driving around town.

Looking for someone who needs a car for Uber or Lyft is another way to turn your car into a passive income stream. So, instead of actively driving around in your spare time, you can watch a Netflix show while your car does the driving.

14. Make a loan to a peer.

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Have extra money that isn’t working for you? As a side hustle, consider peer-to-peer lending. Peer-to-peer lending entails lending money to individuals or small businesses.

To make the process easier, sign up for a website that connects borrowers with lenders, such as LendingClub, Prosper (for individuals), or Worthy (for businesses).

These websites typically host loan requests as well as interest rates based on the borrower’s credit history. The interest rate on these loans is typically between 5% and 6%. The more you lend, the greater your cash flow.

15. Earn money by shopping online.

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

When you shop online, cashback reward sites like Swagbucks, MyPoint, and Rakuten allow you to generate passive income. Apart from shopping, you don’t need to do anything else after signing up to make money from these sites. The more you shop online, the more points you will accumulate. And the more money you can make, the better.

A word of caution: do not go over your monthly spending limit or max out your credit card in order to earn a reward.

16. Buy and Sell Websites

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

There are websites on almost any topic you can think of. What’s the best part? Many of them make a good living through affiliates, ads, memberships, or products—and they’re frequently for sale.

After you open and verify an account, sites like Exchange Marketplace make it simple to buy and sell online stores securely.

It’s an excellent way to own a business that already has some sales and traffic. After you complete your purchase, you will have access to seller support to help you succeed.

17. Create a YouTube channel.

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Starting a YouTube channel is not too late. YouTube is used by 74% of adults in the United States. That’s a lot of potential customers to capture for passive income. What’s the catch? It’s a lot of work up front for little to no payoff in the beginning.

However, if you’re a long-term thinker who doesn’t mind frontloading your efforts, a successful YouTube channel has a high passive income potential. As you accumulate content, clicks, and views and grow your audience, affiliate sales, sponsorships, branded integrations, and ad income can all add up passively.

Consider Ali Abdaal’s story as an example of what is possible. Within four years, he was earning more from his YouTube channel than he did from his job as a doctor in the United Kingdom.

18. Purchase REITs.

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

What if you don’t have the funds to purchase entire apartment buildings? Can you continue to earn rental income? You certainly can.

You can use a real estate investment trust (REIT) platform like Fundrise to invest in a variety of real estate assets for as little as $500 and earn more passive income as the assets appreciate. A real estate investment trust (REIT) is a company that owns and manages profitable real estate. It’s a great way for smaller investors to pool their money and make investments that they couldn’t afford otherwise.

The average annual return on REIT investments over the last decade was 9.5%. If you have startup capital, real estate investment trusts are one of the best passive income ideas to consider as a long-term investment.

Aside from upfront capital, getting started necessitates extensive research. This is not an investment you want to make on the spur of the moment. Fortunately, there are numerous resources available to assist you, such as this guide.

19. Stake Cryptocurrency

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Investing in multiple cryptocurrencies, also known as “staking crypto,” can be a great way to earn 5% to 10% in passive income. Consider it similar to earning interest on your savings, but with higher returns.

Where do you begin? First, learn about proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies and how to obtain a crypto wallet. Then you’ll want to learn about the various coins you can invest in so you can make an informed decision. When you’re ready, crypto exchanges like Kraken or Coinbase can be excellent places to purchase cryptocurrency.

Then it’s just a matter of waiting for the returns on your investments and checking them on a regular basis. The more you learn about the world of cryptocurrency, the better your investment decisions will be and the larger your passive income stream will be.

Remember that, like any investment, staking crypto has its own set of risks. There will also be a significant amount of time spent learning about your options in order to invest wisely.

20. Online design sales

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Selling digital designs on design websites like 99designs, ThemeForest, or Creative Market is a great way to generate a passive income stream. Whether you use a website builder to create website themes, logos, branding resources, templates, illustrations, or even fonts, these platforms provide an already-existing market for design resources.

Graphic design is a $13.1 billion industry in the United States that is only growing. Fortunately, getting a piece of that pie passively can also be simple.

For example, if you wanted to sell designs on Creative Market, you’d have to apply and wait for approval. You then get your own storefront where you can sell your branded designs.

21. Invest in companies

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

It is now entirely possible to begin investing in previously inaccessible business opportunities. Platforms such as Mainvest.com make it simple to invest passively with a $100 initial investment and no investor fees.

What about the profits? It depends, as with any investment. However, Mainvest aims to earn you 10% to 25%. You are not even required to personally vet the businesses. Mainvest handles the vetting process for you. To get started, you simply invest the necessary funds.

This is a great, risk-free way to get started in the business investment world and learn as you go.

22. Rent out your extra space.

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Have an unutilized basement or garage? Rent it out for storage! This is possible in a safe and efficient manner using storage rental platforms such as:

Neighbor
Peerspace
StoreAtMyHouse

By 2026, the storage industry is expected to be worth $64 billion. In other words, this isn’t a passing fancy that will fade away anytime soon. You can store anything, including cars, boats, RVs, and even business inventory.

Using storage rental platforms also helps to avoid liability issues because they offer secure payment options, contracts, and storage provider and client information.

23. Sell NFTs

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are one-of-a-kind assets stored on a digital ledger. The benefit of NFTs is that the asset stored can be valuable. NFTs can be used to create digital designs, photography, music, games, GIFs, and even video.

It is simple to set up an NFT. Create an account on platforms like OpenSea and follow the step-by-step minting process (which involves some additional gas fees).

Despite being a relatively new industry, NFT sales have already surpassed the $10 billion mark. Still, it’s not too late to enter the market. Just keep in mind that there will be an initial investment in both minting fees and the time required to create NFTs that will sell.

24. Make a job board.

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

As an online entrepreneur, a job board is an excellent way to generate passive income. Employers use these websites to promote job openings to job seekers. Job seekers can look for new job openings both online and in person. Employers can pay to post jobs on your job board, and you can provide premium features such as sponsored jobs or unlimited access to your candidate database.

Even if you don’t want to create a job board from scratch, you can purchase a job board theme and begin earning passive income right away. Now comes the easy part: creating the website. The majority of the work is in raising awareness of your job board.

Once you’ve started the flywheel and your job board has established itself with repeat customers, you can expect a large portion of your income to be passive. For ideas, visit sites like ProBlogger, Dribble, or Construction Jobs.

25. Make no-code apps

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

It’s amazing that with today’s no-code tools, anyone can create a basic to advanced mobile app. Appy Pie, Adalo, and Bubble platforms make it possible to get started in an industry with 218 billion downloads in 2020 alone.

To begin, you must decide whether you want to build a website or a mobile app. Aside from the app’s concept (what niche it will serve and what problem it will solve), there is also monetization to consider.

You can generate passive income with a mobile app by doing the following:

Subscriptions
Ads
pay to download.
A Vendor marketplace model

If you’re unsure about what problem your app should solve, here’s a great list of research tools to get you started.

26. Make a digital guide.

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

You most likely have extensive knowledge of a subject that others are eager to pay for. Use your knowledge to create digital guides for passive income. There is little barrier to entry, and in many cases, no money is required to get started.

Time is what you will need to invest. Take the time to find out what people are looking for. Suggestions from Google can be a great place to start. Tools like Ubbersuggest can help you determine which keywords have a high search volume.

Then, whether through your own storefront or a seller platform, you can set up your digital guide to collect sales.

27. Earn royalties by inventing.

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Inventors do not exist in the past. Your unique inventions can generate passive income for you. Though this isn’t a commonly discussed passive income option, it exists.

Getting started is likely to be one of the most difficult aspects of the inventor’s journey. You want to ensure that your invention is worthy, useful, and solves a problem. Begin by checking the US patent website to ensure that your idea has not already been created.

Sites like Invention City and InventMyIdea can help you get started if you want to sell your invention outright. You can earn a percentage or payouts from the income generated by your idea once it’s on the market, depending on the deal you strike.

28. Record Audiobooks

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Someone has to create audiobooks. Why can’t you be that someone? Once you’ve established yourself in the industry, you can generate passive income in the form of royalties, which is how most audiobook narrators are compensated.

There are a few things you must first master in order to make passive income from audiobooks. Among these are the following:

How to Perform an Audition
Correct narration technique
Good knowledge of the niche you specialize in
Some editing abilities

You are not required to go it alone. Some platforms make it simpler to obtain

Begin and land your first few gigs. Visit sites like ACX to learn what you need to know to succeed in the industry.

29. Purchase vending machines.

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Have you ever wondered who keeps all those vending machines stocked? The owner of those vending machines profits (semi) passively from your snack and soda cravings.

With a little research, you can join in on the fun as well. Fun fact: The vending machine market is worth $8.6 billion.

Starting a passive source of income with vending machines does necessitate an initial time and financial investment. This is an excellent guide that will help you get started with your first vending machine.

Marketplaces such as Craigslist, eBay, and BizBuySell can help you estimate the initial investment required to purchase your first set of machines (as well as how many you can afford to start). Once you’ve identified locations for them, a vending machine route can be a great cash-flowing, largely passive source of income.

30. Create and sell spreadsheets

Initial time investment (time):

Initial financial investment (money):

Potential passive income:

Some of us are born spreadsheet experts. If this describes you, you can use your spreadsheet skills to earn passive income.

Whether you use Excel or Google Sheets to create spreadsheets, there is a market that will pay you to create spreadsheets for a variety of purposes, including budgeting, profit projections, habit tracking, and even P&L spreadsheets that business owners don’t want to create from scratch.

When you combine a Shopify storefront with the Digital Downloads app, you have a ready-to-earn passive income stream. However, in order for that to happen, you must drive traffic to your storefront. Fortunately, we have some resources to assist us.

Resources:

How to Launch an Online Store
Checklist for SEO
Path to financial independence

There are only so many hours in the day, and finding ways to scale your income more efficiently can give you the flexibility you need to take your business to the next level. That level could be “never taking a vacation,” “hiring more help,” or “ordering new inventory,” but whatever it is, adding passive income streams with different underlying economics can allow you to explore it.

Are you ready to start your own business? Begin your free Shopify trial today—no credit card required.

FAQ on passive income

How much money can I expect to make from passive income?

The definition of passive income is broad. Some people earn a few dollars per day, while others earn $100,000 or more per year. It is dependent on the passive income channels you choose and the amount of time you devote to them.

What is the simplest way to generate passive income?

Investing in dividend stocks could be the simplest way to generate passive income. These stocks pay out quarterly dividends simply for purchasing and holding them. Affiliate marketing is a good option if you want to build a business that generates passive income.