Passive income can be a great way to help you generate extra cash flow, but you need to go about it the right way. Having a source of income that isn’t your job can help you earn more during the good times, and tide you over during the bad times; even if you take time off work, you’ll know that you have money coming in.
There are many ways one can set up a source of stable passive income, but it should come as no surprise that a lot of it is done online. We’ve rounded up the best ways you can generate some extra cash online; from online courses to selling your photography online.
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Passive Income Is
Regular earnings from a source that is different from an employer or contractor can be classified as passive income. Despite its seeming get-rich-quick appeal, passive income is not really about getting something for doing nothing. In practice, you’re going to end up doing some or all of the work upfront, with additional labor along the way too. You may need to keep your product updated and well-maintained in order to keep those passive dollars flowing.
Committing to a good strategy can be a great way to generate income and create some extra financial security for yourself along the way.
Passive Income Is Not
- Your main job. Passive income is generally defined as income that does not come from something you’ve been materially involved in such as the wages you earn from a job.
- Your second job either. If you get a second job in order to make more money, that still won’t qualify as a passive income stream because you’ll still need to show up and complete some sort of work to get paid. Instead, passive income is about creating a consistent stream of income without you having to do a lot of work to get it.
- Non-income producing assets. Investing can be a great way to generate passive income, but only if the assets you own pay dividends or interest. Non-dividend paying stocks or assets like cryptocurrencies may be exciting, but they won’t get you passive income
Best Ways to Get Passive Income Online
Sell Photos Online
Selling photos online in stock photo markets might not be the most obvious place to set up a passive business, but it could allow you to scale your efforts; especially when it’s possible to sell the same photos over and over again. To do that, you might want to set up separate accounts on marketplaces like Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, Alamy, etc. Or, you could do it all through Wirestock—a platform that gives one-door access to the above marketplaces and more.
Create a Course
A popular strategy for passive income has always been creating an audio or video course, then kicking back while cash rolls in from the sales your product brings you. There are a myriad of sites you can find that distribute and sell such content, and all you have to do is meet their criteria.
Alternatively, you can try the ‘freeminum model’, meaning that you can build a following with free content first and then start charging for more detailed information or for those who want to learn more.
Write an E-Book
A good opportunity to take advantage of low-cost publishing, writing an e-book is another thing you can do to generate passive income. E-books can vary in size, the shortest being perhaps 30-50 pages, and are generally cheap to create since most of the process is reliant on your expertise.
You can design the book quickly on multiple online platforms, and even test-market different titles and price points if you wish. And similar to creating courses, a lot of the value of work will come when you add new books to the mix from time to time, drawing in more customers.
Create an App
Making your own app could be a way to make that upfront investment of time and then reap the reward over the long haul. Whether it’s a game or an app that helps mobile users perform a task that’s hard to do, an app that is public can help generate more income.
If you can design something that catches the fancy of your audience, you have to consider how bets to generate sales from your app. For example, you might run ads in the app or have your users pay a nominal fee otherwise. And, if your app gains popularity or you receive feedback, it is important to add incremental features to keep the app relevant and popular.
Do Sponsored Posts on Social Media
If you have a strong following on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, it is time to leverage that into passive income. Get growing consumer brands to pay you to post about their product or feature it in your feed.
For this to work, you need to keep filling your profile with content that draws in your audience. And that means continuing to create posts that grow your reach and engage your followers on social media. Leveraging that kind of presence is one of the most common and attractive business models right now. Draw eyeballs and clicks to your profile with strong content and then monetize that content by setting up sponsored posts from brands that appeal to your followers.
