Have you ever wished to earn money without having to actively work, but instead make money while enjoying fun activities such as sipping a refreshing drink on the beach or taking a relaxing nap with your furry friend? Well, guess what, you actually can! It’s called passive income! Today you will learn about the most legit online passive income streams that will get you to work less and live more.
What’s Passive Income?
Passive income is like having a magical money tree that keeps giving you money without you having to work for it all the time!
Example: Let’s say you love drawing pictures and you spend a lot of time drawing different characters. You could turn your drawings into stickers or prints and sell them online. Once you’ve created your products and set up a way for people to buy them, you can sit back and watch the sales come in. That’s passive income!
I’m not going to lie to you, at first, you will need to put in some work upfront, but after that, you don’t have to keep working every day to make money. Instead, the money keeps coming in even if you’re doing other things, like vacationing with your significant other or having a solo night watching The Last Of Us on HBO.
Passive Income V.S Active Income
Passive income is money earned without having to actively work for it, like rental income or investments. Active income is earned from working for a company or selling goods or services.
| Passive Income | Active Income |
| Creating Online Course | Freelancing |
| Blog | Consulting / Coaching |
| Digital Downloads | Social Media Manager |
| Investing | Video Calls / Zoom |
Why You Need Passive Income In Your Life…
Passive income will give you the opportunity to do the things you love and be able to focus on the important things in life without always feeling burnt out from working so much. It will relieve the stress of never having enough money or time to spend doing the things you love.
So let’s get you a piece of that passive income pie!
Where Do You Start?
To truly build passive income you’re going to need some type of skills, time, and a bit of money.
- Skill: Figure out what you are good at.
Do not overthink this! What comes easy to you? or what do you enjoy doing? you can even go further and think of what skills you want to learn and become amazing at (but it will make the process a bit longer since you have to learn a new skill).
Last year, I learned a valuable skill called affiliate marketing. I only needed 2 weeks to learn it thanks to an affordable $7 course, and since then I have made thousands of dollars online from that one skill.
I even created my own eBook and digital download organizer for new affiliates to keep their research, bookmarks, and marketing materials organized. This has become a source of passive income for me because I only had to create it once and post it online. Learning new skills is achievable with discipline and effort, and can lead to great opportunities like this one.
So what will your skill be?
- Time & Money: How much time do you actually have available?
This is the time to be realistic and figure out how much time you ACTUALLY have. Everyone has things to do whether it’s work, family, events; and just LIFE! Keep in mind that If you don’t have that much time to spend you will have to invest a bit more money to create a passive income, but if you have time you will need to invest your time instead of having to spend lots of dollars on creating a passive income for yourself.
Let’s get you started on your way to wealth. These are the best online passive income streams in 2023.
Online Passive Income Ideas
- Affiliate Marketing
- Digital Downloads
- Virtual Lessons
- Online Course
- Blogs
- eCommerce Store
- YouTube Channel
- Steaming
- investing
Affiliate Marketing
This is a very simple skill to learn in a short time with high-profit margins (meaning you keep a lot of the money you make and that’s hard to find in other businesses).
Affiliate Marketing is when you promote another company’s products/services online for a percentage of the sales price ( this will be your commission). You are a freelance digital marketer meaning you are not tied down with a company and you are in full control of what brands you want to partner up with and promote online.
These are the steps you need to take:
- Pick a niche (a specific topic that you’re into)
- Find a product you love and want to promote (it’s easier to talk about things you actually like)
- Sign up for that brand’s affiliate program (free to do)
- Wait to get your special affiliate link (they will email you the link)
- Pick a platform to promote your affiliate product (Tiktok, IG, Pinterest, Ect.)
- Make content about your affiliate product (give a call to action at the end to get that product in your bio)
- Direct people to your special affiliate link (Put it in your bio)
- Make money when someone buys the products you are recommending through your affiliate link!
This is great for beginners since it does not require a big money investment or that much time spent. However, it will require you to learn some basic marketing skills. (You can learn for free here.) It will NOT be passive income at first until you learn to automate your systems and set up your sales funnel and email autoresponders.
Sell Digital Downloads
Selling Digital Downloads is gold because it doesn’t have to be a difficult and super breakthrough, Remember that people like convenience, and if you can give them that with a premade template or an organizer to streamline their work or life, they will always pay for it.
A digital download can be anything from:
- Template (made in Notion)
- eBook (made in Canva)
- Graphics and design templates (Canva)
- Stock photos (Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, Unsplash)
Figure out what skill you can teach others through a digital download and start creating it, there are plenty of templates on Canva if you don’t want to start from scratch, because if you’re anything like me, I am not the most talented digital creator, but that has not stopped me from making passive income with it, and it should not stop you either!
Sell Lessons
All my teacher friends are going to love this one!
I know you know about the teachers-pay-teachers platform. This online marketplace is dedicated to creating and sharing pre-made lesson plans for educators. You can create pre-made lessons and sell them to teachers all over the world.
There is some work that goes into creating the material, but once it’s posted online, it is a fruitful flow of passive income.
Create A Course
You do not have to be an educator to create a course, anyone can do this. If you are into photography, beauty, fitness, math, plants, music, or literally ANYTHING you can create your own course and sell it to people who are interested in platforms like Skillshare, Teachable, or Thinkific.
The great thing about creating your courses on these platforms is that they already have their own organic flow of traffic, which are other people on those platforms looking for your course!
Start believing that your knowledge is valuable and start sharing it with the world.
Start A Blog
Blogs are a great way to make passive income but of course, they will require some work to set them up. But if you are still reading, it means that you are seriously looking for legit ways to change your financial income and this is one of the top ways to do so.
Having your own blog/website can make you serious passive income from ads, sponsorships, affiliate links, or selling your own products.
Back in the day blogs were treated like personal diaries but in today’s modern world, if you take the time to nurture and set them up correctly, Your blog will work 24/7 to generate you a 6-figure passive income.
You will need:
- To pick a niche/subject for your blog
- A domain name ( I got mine here for $6, use my discount)
- Make sure you get a “.com” when you get any website because it’s more trusted by the internet.
- and a great blog host ( I got mine here for less than $2/ month)
Think of a website/blog as an online business where each blog post is like a mini store that can generate its own fortune.
Start An eCommerce Store
Although I am NOT a big fan of shipping things from Alibaba or other countries because they take too long and the profit margins are terrible, however, there are ways to do this correctly where you will be saving yourself the headaches and setting up a passive income stream.
Since we are basically living in the future now, there are many ways to sell online, without having to actually do any of the heavy liftings yourself.
All you have to worry about is:
- Connecting a supplier for your store
- Set a price and some details for your products
- Market your products and start selling!
I hope you know it won’t actually be easy as 1,2,3 but it is way easier than it was a couple of years ago.
Some of the best platforms to create and sell online
- Shopify
- Esty (use Printify for store supplier)
- Redbubble
- Merch by Amazon
These platforms are very user-friendly for the sellers while also providing customers with a smooth shopping experience by supporting worldwide shipping, clean and responsive websites, and having embedded “buy now” buttons.
Start A YouTube Channel
Please do not come for me with this one…
I know you probably didn’t want to see this here, but youtube is also a platform that’s considered evergreen content, like a blog. Having Evergreen content means that it will always be searched for and it will continue to keep popping up on the search bar. This creates a world of difference because your content with your affiliate links, sponsorships, and advertisem*nts will keep making you money even if the youtube video is +10 years old!
To start monetizing (making money off youtube you have to hit a few requirements first:
- Have at least 1,000 subscribers
- Have at least 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months
- Comply with all of YouTube’s terms of service and community guidelines
- Create a Google AdSense account
- Enable monetization on your YouTube channel by navigating to your account monetization settings and following the steps to link your YouTube channel to your Google AdSense account.
Once you meet these requirements, you can start earning money from your YouTube channel through advertising revenue, sponsorships, merchandise sales, affiliate links, etc.
Keep in mind that while monetization can be a great way to earn income from your content, it is important to prioritize creating high-quality content that provides value to your viewers.
Streaming
If you play video games in your free time, you can actually be making money from those highly intense eyes glued to the screen moments. Twitch streamers have multiple ways to make money while they play! This can include subscriptions, advertisem*nts, donations, and sponsorships! Depending on your view counts you can be getting paid anywhere from $50-1500 per streaming session.
Some of the most streamed video games on Twitch include:
- GTA
- Call Of Duty: Warzone
- Minecraft
- Fortnight
- Dead by Daylight
Start recording your screen when you sit down and play video games in your free time, and make that money!
Investing
Investing is a powerful way to grow your wealth over time.
By putting your money to work in the stock market, real estate, or other assets, you can earn returns that can compound over time and help you achieve your financial goals.
But investing can also be intimidating for beginners. The good news is that anyone can learn how to invest with a little bit of education and practice.
Here are a few tips to help you get started:
- Set clear goals: Before you start investing, it’s important to set clear financial goals. Do you want to save for retirement, a down payment on a home, or your child’s education? By setting specific goals, you can create a plan that aligns with your long-term financial aspirations.
- Diversify your portfolio: Diversification is key to reducing risk and maximizing returns. By investing in a variety of assets, such as stocks, bonds, and real estate, you can spread out your risk and potentially earn higher returns over time.
- Stay disciplined: Investing is a long-term game, and it’s important to stay disciplined and stick to your plan even during market volatility. By avoiding emotional decisions and sticking to your investment strategy, you can avoid costly mistakes and stay on track toward your financial goals.
Remember, investing is not a get-rich-quick scheme, and there are no guarantees when it comes to returns. But with a little bit of education and patience, anyone can learn how to invest and build wealth over time. Learn about the 12 Best Investments in 2023.
Wrap Up
Making passive income can seem like an unattainable goal until you find yourself stuck at home for a couple of weekends looking for ways to make money online because you’re too broke to go out. It is possible for everyone to achieve financial freedom and make money passively, I hope you found some inspiration to take the first step towards your journey to freedom.
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