Let's start with these inspiring words.
"Your economic security does not lie in your job; it lies in your power to produce – to think, to learn, to create, to adapt. That’s true financial independence. It’s not having wealth; it’s having the power to produce wealth"
- Dave Ramsey
Juliana is a Biology teacher in a local secondary school. She goes to work at 7 am and comes back at 4 pm. Every day, five days a week. Apart from how draining her job is, her income can barely meet her financial needs. She has been thinking of passive income ideas to generate more money.
One day, she created a YouTube Channel and started posting videos on various topics in Biology. Soon enough, she gained some traction and started monetizing her YouTube Channel. Now, she earns from her YouTube channel and day teaching job. With this new source of income, Juliana can pay more bills and live a more comfortable life. That is the power of passive income and how you can maximize it to improve your personal and business finances.
In this article, we will answer the question "what is passive income?" extensively. You will also see a list of our most recommended passive income ideas this year. Let's answer the first question: what is passive income?
Meaning of Passive Income
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Passive income is money you regularly earn from other sources of income other than an employer-employee job. It is money you earn that doesn't require a lot of active participation. You can get passive money from investments, a blog, an ebook, a course, an online store, and being paid book royalties or stock dividends. Ultimately, they generate money even when you're not working.
Active & Passive Income: Which Is Better?
Active income is money or income generated from actively working. In other words, when you are not working, you are not earning. On the other hand, passive income does not require you to work before you can earn actively. Naturally, passive income is a more comfortable way to earn.
Do not get it mixed, though. Passive income is not a "get-rich-fast" scheme. Although it requires little to no monetary investment, it takes great commitment and consistency to generate income. If anything, it involves a lot of work and attention, especially when starting out. Regardless, it is a great way of building financial security, whether personally or for your business.
Best Passive Income Ideas
We have made a list of twelve (12) of our most recommended passive income ideas for you. Many of them require money, while some require time investment. Most require both. These are the best passive income ideas you can leverage to make more money this year.
- Affiliate marketing
- Dropshipping
- Blogging
- Creating a course
- Selling online
- Writing an ebook
- Creating an app
- Investing in real estate
- Sponsored Posts And Ads
- Creating a job board
- Creating A YouTube Channel
- Investing In The Stock Market
1. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves recommending and referring a product or service to customers. You earn a commission when a customer uses your referral code or link to purchase a recommended product or service. Affiliate marketing is a great source of income because it is affordable. You require little to no cost to join most affiliate marketing programs. All you have to invest is your time and some marketing skills.
An advantage of affiliate marketing is that you don't need to leverage a particular product or niche. You can introduce new and different products and create awareness to get commissions on sales.
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You can become a Strikingly affiliate marketer. Our marketing program helps you make up to 50% on each new sale. When you sign up to join us, we give you your customized affiliate link. Your affiliates can sign up through that link, and you automatically earn money when they purchase any of our services. Learn more about our affiliate program in this blog post.
2. Dropshipping
If you enjoy being the middleman, dropshipping is a great income idea for you. It involves buying from a manufacturer and selling directly to the consumer. The good thing about this is that you do not always need physical contact. You can just create an eCommerce store where people can search, place an order, and then you deliver. Don't have an eCommerce store yet? Check out the Strikingly online store builder.
The trick is to look for trending products on e-commerce marketplaces and sell to customers all over the world. You can pick a niche and fill your online market space with various items from that niche. It could be home or interior decorations, fashion, or beauty.
One other advantage of dropshipping is that you decide how much to charge for the products. You can buy from a manufacturer at a low-cost price and increase the selling price. This means you have control over your profit margin.
3. Blogging
You will need to make some investment to build a successful blog. As a blogger, you can earn through affiliate links, courses, sponsored posts, book deals, etc. To own and run a blog, you don't need to be a celebrity. It takes creating quality and appealing content and promoting it to build an audience big enough to monetize. If you already have a knack for writing, blogging might be the best way to make passive income online. With the Strikingly website-building tool, you can set up a simple blog website to start your blogging journey.
4. Creating And Selling Courses
Say you're an expert in a particular field, this is a great income idea for you. You can start earning passive income by creating and selling online courses. You can sell them through your website or online learning platforms like Udemy, Coursera, etc. Selling through your website is the best option because you have control over pricing. You decide how much to charge.
Creating and selling a course is akin to selling digital products online. It requires investment in time. You will need to have a course outline, record it (audio, visual or audiovisual) and make downloadable assets for your students. You determine your class size (number of students) and the length (duration). You can also decide to offer one-on-one classes or group classes and mentoring.
5. Selling Online
Selling digital or handmade products and services online is a great income idea. For instance, you can sell mugs, cups, t-shirts, hats, etc. with your designs on them on platforms that allow for such sales. You can sell through your Strikingly online store. You can also set up your web store through sites such as Shopify. There are other online selling sites where you can advertise and sell your products. For example, Amazon, EBay, AliExpress, Jiji, etc.
Image taken from Strikingly Product
6. Writing an E-book
An e-book is a short book with 30-50 pages. It requires expertise on a specific topic or niche. This is a great passive income idea for writers or people interested in writing. Anyone with expert knowledge in a particular subject can write an ebook. You can leverage the low cost of publishing and the worldwide distribution of Amazon to get your book by millions of potential buyers. You can earn income through page reads and sales.
7. Creating An App
This is one of the best passive income ideas for developers and programmers. Your app can be a game or something that helps users perform a function. You can generate income once your app is public and people download it. You have to consider how you would like to generate sales from your app. You can run in-app purchases or ads or have users pay a fee for downloading the app. However, your app must have relevance to drive sales. The more sales you make, the more feedback you can get from users. This feedback will help you improve your app.
8. Investing In Real Estate
Buying and selling of properties - real estate - is a great income idea. Well, that's depending on the property's location and the time of purchase. Like every other business, risk is involved, so it's advisable to speak to a real estate agent to help you know which property to invest in. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are also a great way to invest in real estate. REITs pay income in dividends and interests.
9. Sponsored Posts And Ads
If you have a great number of followers on social media, this is a great income idea for you. You can leverage your social media presence by writing great and eye-catching content. You can get growing brands to pay you to advertise and post their products to drive sales to them. You need to keep posting continuously to grow your audience and get sponsored posts to reach a wider audience.
10. Creating A Job Board
A job board is a site employers use to promote job vacancies to people. You can create a job board and charge companies to post on your board. You can create a job board on your own or you can use already-made themes. You have to create awareness for your job board. You can make posts on social media or run ads to build a strong clientele of customers.
Image taken from Strikingly website
11. A YouTube Channel
Having a YouTube Channel is a great income idea. You can teach a course, review products, make DIY (Do It Yourself) videos, or run sponsored videos and ads on YouTube. The secret to a successful YouTube Channel is creating relevant content consistently. If you know a particular subject or topic, you can share your knowledge and experience with the audience. People will subscribe to your channel to get notifications whenever you upload a new video.
12. Investing In The Stock Market
The stock market is a great income idea to build wealth over time. You need to research to know which business to invest in. To start, open a brokerage account and fund it before you can start investing in the stock market. You can invest in your company's stocks or through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or high-dividend stocks.
Conclusion
These are our top recommendations for passive income ideas you can try out. You can pick one or two of these, do some research, get a website, and there, you have an extra income source. Again, you must not bombard yourself with about five of these ideas. Just one is fine. If you must, two or three are excellent. Once you have your website set up, you can start creating visibility around your side hustle.
Remember, you can get a simple website with Strikingly. Don't have the funds to get your own domain yet? No worries. Just start one for free with us. As you earn from your new source of income, you can get your own custom domain. Check out some of our website templates here.
You have our best wishes.
