Passive Income Ideas: 15 Ways to Make Money While You Sleep

All of us have a similar financial goal - build wealth that doesn’t waste your time, so you can enjoy your life and do all the things that bring you happiness.

Building a passive income isn’t so passive in the beginning, it requires short-term tradeoffs - time, money, skills and/or all three. Building multiple streams of passive income can make you more resilient and better able to weather economic shocks.

Photo by Katie Harp on Unsplash

What is Passive Income?

Passive income is money earned with minimal activity through any venture that requires little or non of your most precious resources - your time and effort!

While it can sound too good to be true, it’s very possible to earn great money while not doing much. You need the right mix of assets, couple it with your active income, buy more assets, and the cycle continues and builds.

For example, if you build an online course. You’re earning no money and require a lot of effort. However, once the course is complete, you do some marketing and client support which only require a few hours a few, and sales roll in month after month (even when you’re sleeping!)

Benefits of Having a Passive Income Stream

Like any big life decision, you’ll have to understand how it’ll impact your personal life. Having a passive stream of income offers a variety of benefits that can boost your personal financial goals. Other benefits include:

• Helps you establish financial security. 
• Boost your discretionary income
• Make money on your own schedule
• Earn money from anywhere in the world
• You don’t (always) need money upfront

Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash

15 Ways to Put Your Money to Work:

1. Build a niche affiliate website or blogging

According to expert, there are 6 best niches for affiliate marketing that are profitable and competitive:

• Vacuum cleaners
• Hotels with jacuzzis
• Travel car seats
• Golf equipment
• Headphones and earbuds
• Zero waste

2. Sell stock photos

To get started with selling stock photos & make money, visit these top 5 Microstock Websites:

• Shutterstock
• Folia (Adobe)
• iStock
• Pond5
• Adobe Stock

3. Rental income - car, parking or storage space

Rental income is one of the most popular ways to earn passive income.

4. Store people’s stuff

You can earn passive income by letting people store their stuff in your home, garage, or shed. Neighbor is a safe place to list your storage space so people who need it can rent it, and yes, pay you for it! Win-win!

5. Housesit

Many people are discovering that paid house sitting jobs can open up doors for them to travel and explore one city or country for extended periods. Find your next house sitting gig here:

• Trusted House Sitters
• MindMyHouse
• Housecarers.com
• Luxury House Sitting
• Nomador
• House Sitters America
• HouseSit Match
• The Caretaker Gazette

6. Create and Sell Online Courses

Creating and selling online courses give you an opportunity to teach what you know, going as deep into the content as your students need.

7. Place an Advertisement on Your Car

Sites like Free Car Media, Wrapify, Carvertise and StickerRide connect car owners with advertisers. In exchange for putting a vinyl decal for an agreed amount a time, you’ll earn a passive income stream while driving.

Source: Wrapify

8. Start an E-Commerce Business/Dropshipping

This business model eliminates the burden of stocking merchandise. It allows sellers to sell items without having them in stock. Instead, they partner with manufacturers who agree to ship items only after the customer has placed an order.

These are the best e-commerce platforms for dropshipping:

• WooCommerce
• Magento
• Shopify
• BigCommerce
• OpenCart
• Spocket

9. Peer-to-Peer Lending

This is a great alternative to traditional financing. Instead of the borrower going to a bank to take out a loan, they use services that connect them to investors. This allows investors to lend money to an individual or a company earning fixed monthly payments.

10. Rent Out Useful Household Items

Renting out your stuff is a no-muss, no-fuss way of earning some part-time money without taking up a big chunk of your time. These are the different apps and sites you can rent out everything you own.

11. Start an Etsy Store

A lot of times when you think of Etsy, naturally you think of handmade products. But what most people don’t know is that you can also sell digital products on Etsy as well, like these digital planners.

12. Sponsored Posts on Social Media

Can you imagine the photo you took on your holiday or day-to-day life generating some money? If you are keen to learn more about this, I recommend doing research on your niche and getting yourself familiar. 

13. Create a Blog or YouTube Channel

14. Create an App

15. Do Surveys Online

Make money while you enjoy your lunch break, or while you’re on vacation. Here are websites you can use to take surveys:

• Swagbucks
• Toluna
• OnePoll

Engaging in passive income is like getting a new, less demanding second job. Regardless of which avenue you choose, setting up a passive income stream requires initial effort. Over time as you stack up multiple passive income streams, your income will start snowballing. Eventually, they will bring in enough money to cover your expenses and you’ll reach financial independence and no longer be dependent on your 9-5 job. 

Passive income compounds and builds over time.

Would you give them a go? If not, what’s stopping you?