Having a little bit of extra cash is always welcome. To earn additional money without exerting any effort is ideal. Earnings that arrive in your bank account without effort are known as passive income. Having many sources of income, especially if your salary potential is limited at work, is a fantastic method to build wealth over time. Passive income sources, such as dividends, investment interest, and rental income, often require a significant investment.
Passive income streams can also be created from scratch. You may design a side gig or a small business to generate passive income generate additional cash.
Take a look at these five passive income strategies for 2023.
#1 Write A Book And Get Your Book Into The Kindle Store
Writing and publishing an e-book may bring you passive money online. Systems like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and Medium’s Partner Program make it easier for authors and writers to make residual revenue or royalties from their material.
Mark LaCoursiere, who compiled his knowledge in project management into an e-book, claims that the entire process took him three days and cost less than $500. LaCoursiere put his e-book up for sale on Amazon in November 2024 and currently makes an average of $1.50 a day in royalties.
#2 Be A Creator
The creative economy is flourishing if you know how to garner attention or love to develop instructive or amusing material. Creating your content won’t be passive, but the money you generate on the backend will be residual and take minimum upkeep to sustain.
Once your channel or podcast has gained popularity and you have acquired a following, you can start making money via ad-monetization platforms like YouTube’s Partner Program, Google’s AdSense, and Podbean’s PodAds. Nick Loper, the host of the podcast Side Hustle Nation, which features interviews with people who make money through side hustles, says that his YouTube channel has been doing very well, producing a regular $500 to $800 a month passively for years.
If you’re worried that you don’t have enough visitors to be interested in advertising, you may choose a sponsor that shares your values instead. Sponsorships are arrangements in which an organization financially supports your efforts to spread the word about its wares via public channels, including video, audio, email, and social media.
If you want your work to be seen, teaming up with brands and corporations is a great way to go, and it may also lead to bigger brand partnerships and more potential to earn royalties.
#3 Use Affiliate Links To Your Advantage
With affiliate marketing, you may earn a commission if one of your recommended products or services is purchased by a customer. By directing your readers or followers to marketplace websites like Amazon through affiliate links, you may earn money while promoting things you wish to sell. A growing number of software developers offer affiliate programs where users promote a software company’s product in exchange for a commission.
Getting affiliate links in front of enough people is difficult, but the rewards may be substantial. A 43-year-old father of four from Austin, Texas, named Sal Farzin transformed TikTok into a lucrative side venture by creating videos of unique Amazon goods and sharing affiliate links with his followers.
Suppose you’re interested in starting an online business but don’t want to invest time and energy to develop your product. In that case, affiliate links might be a fantastic way to test the waters with minimal risk.
#4 Create a Subscription Service
Being compensated once is fantastic. And it’s much better if you are rewarded repeatedly.
By creating a membership site, you can charge a small monthly fee for access to your valuable content or tools. You’re licensing your work to others, much like how subscription-based software or streaming services generate revenue. Your membership site might start modestly and grow as your needs evolve.
Desislava Dobreva, the founder of the Badass Brand Squad, a business and branding membership in its sixth year, says, “I wouldn’t call memberships passive since they entail labor — retention in particular.” Her monthly time commitment is around 10 hours, and her staff handles everything else while she focuses on phone calls and inquiries. Dobreva began building her staff at the close of her first year, and they now deal with billing, IT support, customer service, and event planning.
Since maintaining a steady revenue stream is crucial when dealing with memberships, she recommends emphasizing member retention. You’ll be able to hire people quickly and delegate much of the work involved in managing the membership to them. Then you’ll have more time to accomplish the things you enjoy, like, in her case, answering calls and assisting customers.
#5 Publish a Course on the Web
Since they may be offered to an unlimited number of people with nothing in the way of upkeep, online courses have the potential to generate enormous profits. You probably have knowledge that others would benefit from hearing, and you may make your money back many times when selling an online course or other informational product.
The course may be modified later, and more live elements can be added if desired. Level Up in Tech is an e-learning company founded by Broadus Palmer that focuses on teaching in-demand cloud computing skills. Palmer first used recorded videos to teach and market the course, but now he uses a hybrid strategy that combines live sessions with recorded ones, depending on a student cohort.
Even though Palmer’s hybrid approach is no longer passive, he has all of the necessary components to offer a future self-study alternative.
Get Started on Your Next Source of Passive Income Today
The experts mentioned above did not all claim to have passive income streams. Everyone makes an effort now and then to maintain a regular flow of funds. But it’s been assured that the effort will be worthwhile.
If the concept of passive income has caught your interest, the next step toward financial independence is to put some effort into developing one or more of these streams of revenue.