Most people at some point or another have spent time imagining a life where they can relax and lay on the beach all day while still earning money. This is where passive income can come into play. Earning passive income means creating more time to do what you want, when you want. This post will go into detail about plenty of different ways to build up different passive income streams that you can get closer to financial independence. To put it simply, if you want to create multiple income streams and escape having to work your 9-5, then this post is something that you should keep reading. There is a lot of chatter in the realm of personal finance about passive income, why you should want it, and how great it is. But before we can really get into how to generate it, we should cover what passive income actually is.

Passive Income Ideas

Below are a number of ways that you can begin to generate passive income. Some require more work than others to get there, but they all ultimately can help you achieve your goal of financial freedom.

1. Crowdfunded Rental Properties

Real estate has been a long time factor in generating passive income and wealth over a lifetime. In multiple long term studies that can measure over the last 145 years, real estate as an investment has shown to beat out almost everything else, including stocks, for the best return on investment.

What makes real estate a great passive income is that rent and real estate values combine the lower volatility of bonds with the higher returns of stocks. Like stocks, real estate investors benefit from both the ongoing passive income and the value of appreciation as they hold their property longer.

In the past, real estate investing has been a difficult business to get into since the upfront cost is so hard. However, there are plenty of crowdfunding platforms that can help you get into real estate investing at a much lower price. Companies like Fundrise let you invest in rental properties in a hands-off manner. You can begin investing on platforms like this with as little as $500, and the return can build over time into a stream of passive income. The low minimum makes Fundrise accessible for most people and provides plenty of options for real estate investments.

There are also companies like Roofstock who go past that of Fundrise and give you the option to buy and sell existing rental properties in whole. If you decide to use them, then you get a complete profile of each house and can see how much they currently earn.

2. High-Yield Dividend Stocks & Funds

Dividend stocks and Fund can be a great way to also earn some extra money while you sleep. While a lot of dividend-paying stocks pay only a return on your investment of 1.5%-3.5% in dividends, a minority pay high yields in the 6-8% range. You don’t have to be an expert to do this, but you should take the opportunity to learn the basics and understand what you’re truly putting your money in.

Granted, returns and dividends are ever guaranteed. If a company has a bad quarter or longer, it may not pay a dividend at the same rate, if at all. That’s the risk when you invest in equities. Instead of trying to pick individual stocks, you can also look into mutual funds and ETFs that specialize in high dividend yields. If you decide to go this route, watch out for high fund management fees. Actively managed funds often charge high fees, which can eat into your returns.

When in doubt, you can always invest in a passively managed low-cost index fund. When compared to actively managed funds, passively managed funds have outperformed their counterparts consistently for many years. Not only this, but the vast majority of actively managed funds underperform the market year over year.

3. Robo-Investing

Robo-investing is a newer type of investing that diversifies your portfolio and uses computer-based algorithms to enhance your return on investment. To put it simply, robo-advising gives you investment strategies to follow so you don’t have to worry about it.

Robo-investing is also a great time-saver, so you’re not wasting anymore time researching on what stocks to invest, especially if that isn’t something that you like to do. Instead, robo-advisors like Betterment allow you to choose flexibility over anything else. You can automatically ride the market while reducing your time and stress that has come with traditional investing.

4. Certificates of Deposit (CDs)

Certificates of Deposit, or CDs, are a low risk, low yield return that generate passive come. CDs are also about as exhilarating as watching paint dry. If you don’t like the idea of putting money in the stock market because of the volatility, then CDs might be a good idea for you instead. You can place your money in a bank that is FDIC insured, and CDs will help you reduce any losses to inflation.

Just be aware of a few downsides to CDs before you actually go through with it. First, you typically need a minimum deposit to get started, as well as a minimum time frame. For example, you might need to park at least $1,000 in the CD for a minimum time frame of 36 months. You should consider using CDs in conjunction with other investments when you need to set money aside in a guaranteed secure place. If the alternative is parking it in a savings account, a CD can be a great alternative.

5. Store People’s Stuff

Almost 10% of Americans pay for extra storage space. The self-storage industry is a booming industry and has been with for some time and shows no signs of slowing down. In regard to passive income ideas, this idea is a pretty simple one.

If you have any extra storage space on your property that you aren’t really using, you can always rent out the space to others to generate passive income. Depending on how much space you’re renting out, you can charge hundreds a month. While this won’t make you a millionaire any time soon, a couple extra hundred bucks a month never hurt anyone. Plus, with this model, it requires no work on your part.

It’s also a far less regulated space than the residential rental industry, making evictions far less expensive and also makes it a lot faster if the worst happens and your renters don’t pay you. A company called Neighbor is a great way to get started if this seems like an idea you would like to pursue.

It can be easy to turn your basement, garage, or even just a closet into a passive income generator and can be a great side hustle to earn you extra money while you sleep.

6. Refinance Student Loans

While this doesn’t sound like something you would do to generate passive income, refinancing your student loans to a lower rate can help. Even if your interest rate only goes down half a percent, you could still save thousands of dollars over the life of your loan. As far as passive goes, it doesn’t get much more passive than this. It only takes a few minutes and a quick application to check current rates available to you, and it doesn’t affect your credit score, so you have nothing to lose. As an added bonus, some refinance companies will give you cash bonuses when you refinance using their companies.

7. Start a Blog

Is there something that you’re passionate or knowledgeable about? Start sharing it with everyone online. No matter how small the niche, there are other people around the world who will share your enthusiasm. There are blogs about everything, even something as simple as sungazing, which is the practice of staring at the sun.

As you build a following, you can monetize your blog by mentioning affiliate products or services, having ads run on your blog, or even by selling your own products or services through your website. Starting a blog can be a great side hustle since you can do it on your own time, build a passive income stream, meet new people, and find tons of new opportunities.

It’s also low risk, but offers tons of income potential, so it’s a great place to get started. Just remember, like so many other passive income streams, starting a blog is a long-term play. Chances are you won’t generate income on the first post you create. But as you keep creating good content, you will find momentum. The most important part is to just get started.

8. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)

Real estate investment trusts, or REITs, tend to have an extremely high dividend payout. This is because REITs tend to invest in income-producing properties or high-interest debt services, so they are inherently more passive income-oriented investments. REITS tend to do well when real estate as a sector is performing well, and the dividends they produce can increase or decrease as this sector does well or suffers.

On advantage here is that investors can buy and sell REITs just a quickly and easily as mutual funds, yet still benefit from the diversification that REITs offer from their different sectors of the market.

Just because the stock market may be down doesn’t mean that real estate as a sector will, and vice versa. REITs can be a great way to diversify into real estate without investing into any one property directly and are also a high-yield option.

9. Peer to Peer (P2P) Lending

Another option is lending money to different people through peer to peer (P2P) lending websites like LendingClub and Prosper. You can pick and choose the borrowers and loans that you like by browsing through the loan requests on these websites. If the loan interests you, you can start with a small amount of money with your first loan to make sure it’s something you really want to do.

The returns usually fall in the range of 6-10%, which is nothing to be upset about. Like all investments, the higher the return, the higher the risk that is expected to go along with the deal as well. As you get more comfortable with looking at the loans, you can progressively scale up the amount you invest with.

10. Make Money Watching TV

Finally, the cooch potato’s true calling can be recognized. If you have a knack for watching tv shows, movies, or playing video games then there are many different ways you can turn this into a passive income stream.

You can participate in different surveys for companies or watch specific programs through various websites to earn extra cash. You can also stream your activity on a streaming service or on YouTube. Streaming video games has become a huge business in recent years, and you can certainly earn your money with this activity.

11. Private Equity Funds

A private equity fund is a pooled fund that invests in a large-scale project. This project can be anything, from a large real estate project, to a startup company, to any other form of an investing venture. The fund is managed by an individual or management group that oversees the fund’s investments. Usually, private equity funds require you to be invested for the long-term, with a minimum investment at least being a few years.

While these are not always accessible to people, they can make excellent passive income streams if you have enough money to invest into one of these projects and are worth mentioning if you have a substantial amount of money to spare.

12. Rent Your Car or Parking Space

A person favorite of mine. Have you ever heard of a company called Turo? Think of it as an Airbnb for cars. Individuals can rent their cars out for a short period to others. Turo does provide state-minimum insurance along with all bookings for the renter, and several different options for car owners to add more protection if they want it. Like everything else, you should always do your homework before starting something like this.

Being both a renter and rentee on Turo, my experiences have been almost entirely positive, and it has generated thousands of dollars since I started using it. I’ve known some other car owners to build up a small fleet of cars that they rent on Turo to really generate a considerable amount of passive income. It also makes for a great way to generate ongoing cash from your old cars rather than trading them in for far less.

On average, a vehicle is parked over 95% of the time. This makes parking spaces extremely valuable, especially in big cities. Parking sports in a city like San Francisco can go for as much as over $300/month! Even if you live in a less expensive city, you can still easily make an extra $100/month by renting out a space. Just draft up a contract and begin to generate your passive income.

13. Private Notes

If you liked the idea of investing in real estate, but don’t want to deal with the hassle of ownership or managing a property, then an alternative option for you is lending private notes. You can lend other real estate investors money for their deals directly in the form of a private note and negotiate whatever interest rate is agreed upon by both you and the borrower.

For example, I have a loan out right now with a real estate investor in Nevada that I know and trust. He has a great history or success. For an eleven-month private note, I am earning 1% monthly. The risk that is associated is that if the borrower defaults on the loan, you may have no resource if your note isn’t attached to the property’s deed as a lien.

Personally, I wouldn’t recommend starting with this as a passive income stream. Private notes can be a great way to make money, but only to the extent that you know and trust the investor/investors involved on the other end of the deal.

14. Write a Book/E-book

Although not for everyone, writing a book can be a great way to earn passive income for years to come if you can get a book published and on the shelves of different stores. Start with something you like to talk about and begin from there. The hardest part of this can be getting the book published through a mainstream publisher once the book is written. You can always try to self-publish, but this might result in less money in your pocket.

Similarly, you can publish a book for e-readers and make passive income this way as well. Self-publishing through Amazon is extremely easy for e-books. There are no startup costs, and you don’t have to sell your book to a publisher to take a chance on your book. Whenever someone buys your book, you receive royalties as the author.

15. Create an Alexa Skill

Alexa by Amazon is one of the new favorites when it comes to personal devices. Just like apps on smartphones, you can create content for Alexa devices that you can continue to profit on passively once you’ve created the skill.

The Alexa equivalent of apps is called skills, which are programs that work with Alexa’s system to generate content for the end-user. Creating a useful skill can result in great returns to the ever-growing Alexa user base. This can take some technical skill, but if you have it, then you can create some great returns on your investment.

16. Transcription

Transcription is a lot like data entry and is relatively mindless work that can result in a good amount of money. While the work is relatively involved, the flexibility of transcription makes it a qualifier for this list. As a transcriber, you are tasked to listen to various audio files and transcribe them. Simple work, but it typically pays per audio hour. Since most transcriptionists are not asked to transcribe long periods, this can be a flexible way to make some cash.

17. Buy Royalties

Even if you aren’t an artist of any sort, you can still by other artists’ royalties to create another passive income stream. There are different websites that are dedicated to buying and selling royalties. You can try Royalty Exchange to get an idea of the different kinds of royalties that you can buy.  Just make sure that the royalty rights you buy are just as likely to continue generating sales in the future as they have in the past. Some forms of art have a limited lifespan, so they might not continue to generate wealth once you buy it.

18. Build an Affiliate Marketing Niche Site

A niche website is a site that is designed to attract visitors online with a very focused interest with the goal of becoming the authority of a specific topic. Content is expected to be extremely high quality and addresses specific questions related to the topic. The site targets specific keywords, with high search volume. Typically, search engines boost these sites to the top of the search page.

An affiliate niche website is one that monetizes the site using affiliate marketing and programs. With affiliate marketing, you can earn commissions each time someone clicks on the advertiser’s link posted to your page. When you sign up for these programs, you will usually be given a personalized affiliate link for tracking your traffic. These links will take the user to the official signup page for different services but reward you with money for each new customer you bring in.

When you sign up for an affiliate program that has recurring commissions, you will often be given access to a member dashboard where you can generate different affiliate links, track signups, and choose your payment method. Typically, these programs will pay you every 30 to 60 days via PayPal or bank transfer.

19. Start a Podcast

If writing isn’t something that you’re particularly skilled in, then maybe podcasting is a skill you might favor more. Another medium for creating useful, educational, or entertaining content is by talking, and you would be surprised at the amount of people willing to listen.

If you have some charisma and don’t mind talking into a microphone, try starting a podcast rather than a blog. Like a blog, you can earn money from affiliates, advertisers, or selling your own products and services. You don’t need top of the line equipment to get started and can typically get started with different podcasting headsets for under $50.

20. Create an Online Course

Online courses have become increasingly popular in recent years, so if you’re knowledgeable about a specific subject, then creating a course is a great way to make some passive money. If you love a subject, someone else does too. Online courses can pair well with blogs or podcasts, since your course can be a service you offer to your audience at a price since your blog or podcast is normally going to be free itself.

Online courses can be a tricky way to start if you don’t already have a website or podcast running, but you can always look to sell your course through websites like Coursera. These types of websites aren’t free, though, so if you’re looking to maximize the passive profits, you might want to look elsewhere.

21. Sublease to Housemates

If you’re just beginning to look into how to make passive income, subleasing can be an easy place to start. If you own a home but don’t need the entire space of the house to yourself right now, subleasing and getting a few housemates will help pay your mortgage for you.

You can advertise on places like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, show photos of the property and room they would get, screen applicants, and then ultimately choose someone who moves in. Depending on where you live, a single person subleasing from you can cover over half of your mortgage payment. As an added benefit, you can have them pay half of the utility bills.

While these tenants won’t be around forever, you can use them to meet people and have them pay for pieces of your home payment as well.

22. Start an Ecommerce Business

My personal favorite and one I have done repeatedly, starting an ecommerce business can generate passive income for years to come. You can ship digital products to avoid shipping or sell physical products to expand to multiple products. The only question would be what products do your online users want or need?

You can also look for wholesalers of your products who will ship the product directly to the customer for you, removing the middleman of having to worry about shipping products yourself. This method is called drop shipping and can be a great way to avoid any additional hassle for yourself. This can be one more way to add passive income streams to your online business!

23. Buy an Existing Business

Starting any type of business is a lot of work in every sense of the word. If you like the idea of owning a business but don’t want to go through the stressors of starting your own from nothing, then you can look to skip all of the early headaches and buy an already profitable and functioning business.

You can do this with any type of business. Brick and mortar, ecommerce, or software. If you can name it, chances are you can buy it. You should look in depth at a few different businesses for sale on sites like BizBuySell to see what types of businesses you might be interested in. If you’re serious about the idea, do plenty of research into the industry. Buying a business is an enormous commitment both financially and strategically. It is a responsibility you shouldn’t take lightly.

Make sure to do your homework on the business and industry in question. When you think you’ve done all the necessary research, go back and do even more. You can never be too prepared.

24. Outsourcing Your Business

Even though businesses can profit from the hands-on activity that owners do, it’s sometimes a better idea to connect your services or product with outsourced labor.

Outsourcing business labor can deliver great results while you spend time working on other areas of your business, or it can just free up more of your time. This can be ideal if you’re looking to create passive income.

Plenty of services exist to connect your business to outsourced talents and freelancers. You can also create your own platform for finding outsourcing talent through social media or networking sites.

Passive income is generating money while you aren’t actively working on whatever is creating profit for you. Outsourcing your business can lead to this entirely since it can automate different services in an effective way to gain income. Such services are in high demand and can be used in many aspects of life, not just your business. 

25. Laundromat

Businesses like a laundromat are designed from start to finish with only one real goal in mind: to create a passive income stream. Every washing machine at every location is a micro-automated worker who will do the majority of the work for you every day you show up. If you hire a few workers, you can have a fully functioning business that makes you money while you aren’t there!

26. Vending Machines

Plenty of brick and more businesses have space that can benefit from a vending machine. When I was working in retail sales, the vending machine in the breakroom could be a lifesaver if you needed a snack or soda halfway through the day. Even though vending machines require inventory supply lines and some standard maintenance, they can be a good way to increase passive income streams and develop business relationships at the same time.

27. Start a YouTube Channel

Whether you’re reviewing products, giving your opinion on current events, or perform entertaining work, there are plenty of ways to earn passive income through having a YouTube Channel. While YouTube rewards channels that have higher viewers typically generate more money through ads, the easiest way  to make money through YouTube is through endorsing products. These can be your own other passive revenue products like an e-book, or you can use affiliate marketing to create your next revenue stream,

One video product review could net you thousands of dollars depending on the item, and a site that consistently draws in most viewers per idea can really make some good money passively.

28. Stock Photos

If you enjoy photography, or have access to an extensive portfolio, you can monetize these photos through selling stock photos online to sites like Dreamstime. You can sell the rights to the photos to businesses or brands that would like to exclusively use the photo or photos. It’s also possible to start a small business photo exchange if you’re truly a passionate photographer. There are plenty of local art shows where you can display your work and create new consumers.

29. Buy and Sell Domain Names for Websites

With the rise of online business, having a catchy name is a significant part of making a marketable brand. Having the right name, and in this case domain name, is vital for reaching your targeted audience. Investigating rising markets and using a bit of creativity to purchase domain names that potential buyers might want can help you make some cash. This is also great if you have different business ideas and would like to do some market research.

30. Create Software

If you have the skillset, you can create code that others might pay to use on an ongoing basis. Even if you don’t have this skill, you can hire someone to create the software, and then sell it to generate your passive income. Many of us think of software as having a limited, short lifespan that becomes obsolete fast. This isn’t necessarily always the case, especially if it’s software for a specific niche industry.

Something to keep in mind is that “software” is a pretty broad term, meaning that it can be software for anything. You don’t have to pigeonhole yourself into one type of software. The more you branch out, the more money you can make. You’re only limited by your imagination.

31. Manage Social Media Accounts

Many small businesses understand that to be successful in today’s modern world, you need to have a social media presence. Despite this, many small business owners do not have the time to keep up with a social media account.

If you have a good mind for social media, you can help local businesses maintain basic social media pages for contracted monthly fees. This might not be as passive as other options, but you can turn time spent aimlessly scrolling to profitable time posting things for your clients. Because it doesn’t take more than a few minutes a day, managing social media accounts makes the list for passive income.

32. Get Paid to Install Apps on Your Phone

This isn’t a way that will make you millions, but hey, whatever works, right? There are a few options in this method. The first way you can do this is by using behavior tracking apps, which take data from multiple users to create an accurate snapshot of how people use their devices. Different companies offer rewards to users who allow their usage to be tracked.

Another way to go about doing this is to use different apps that connect to your bank account. Apps like Acorns will help you save money by rounding up purchases to the nearest dollar and transferring the difference into a savings account automatically. While this isn’t necessarily giving you additional money, sometimes the best way to make passive income is to automate portions of your finances and savings.

33. Become a Host on Airbnb

If you have the space, you might want to consider renting out a spare room(s) to short-term guests. You can set the schedule that you want, and only rent out your space when you like it. This means that if you have family coming, you can block those dates on Airbnb.

The possibilities don’t end with just a spare room. If you’re going on vacation for a few weeks, why not rent your entire home? You can be paying for your next vacation while on your current one. If you like this concept overall, you can even go one step further and convert a rental property into a short-term Airbnb rental. It might take some work, but this can generate you some lucrative income all on your own time.

34. Financial Reward Programs

There are several opportunities to find cash on financial rewards from credit cards, promotional offers, and other things. Many credit card companies offer cash rewards bonuses for signing up for their credit card and offer things such as travel rewards or cash back for using the card. Major credit card companies offer several promotions year-round that you can cash in on.

This was actually how my wife and I paid for a major portion of our honeymoon. We opened a credit card line, which is something we were planning on doing anyway. We then routed all of our bills and day to day purchases through that line of credit and paid it off every month to avoid any interest accruing. By the time it came to pay for the honeymoon, we had our roundtrip flights and a rental car paid for entirely, which opened up more money for fun things to do during the trip itself.

35. Become an Angel Investor

Being an Angel Investor is different than lending out money or being an active participant in the day to day activities of a business. Investing is about finding companies you believe in, dumping in capital, and waiting for the company to pay you back and then some. Using a website like AngelList can help you get connected to multiple different businesses that are looking for cash flow in exchange for equity. This is good to help you diversify your portfolio, or if you have plenty of savings readily available.

36. Inventory Investment for Small Businesses

Plenty of companies need money to get started, but what about businesses that need help supplying customers with the actual product? Websites like Kickfurther give you the ability to invest in companies to help them meet their inventory needs. You’ll see a return on your initial investment when the business begins to turn a profit.

37. Invest in a Food Truck

Food trucks are an extremely popular alternative that people are turning to when it comes to buying food. They’re not only delicious, but they can be a great passive income stream. If you know someone who wants to start a food truck but doesn’t have the capital, investing in them can be a good financial decision.

Since they’re low maintenance and can go to the customer directly, food trucks have become a popular startup idea. If you invest in a food truck, you will receive a payout when they start making a profit. People are always looking for great new food options, and food trucks can be a great low-risk startup idea to invest in.

38. Rent Personal Items

Similar to renting out a home or room in your home, renting out personal property is a way to increase your passive income stream. Sites like FatLlamma can help you advertise things to people who may be interested in renting your stuff. Although you might want to look into purchasing insurance and perform standard maintenance on your stuff to keep it rentable, the benefits of renting out your personal belongings means making money while not actively working on anything.

39. Rent Out Old Baby Gear

If you ask any parent, they’ll all tell you that baby equipment is so expensive that it’s frustrating. Babies need so much gear, from cribs, to highchairs, to new clothes constantly. What makes it even more frustrating is that even though babies need this gear, they ultimately grow up, and the baby gear loses its value to the parents. If you have any old baby equipment that you’re no longer using, you can rent it to new parents through sites like BabyQuip, turning your unused baby gear into a passive side hustle that is generating you money.

40. Lease Equipment

If you own some equipment that you’re not using, you can lease it out to make extra cash. Anything from farm equipment to office equipment can be leased. Chances are someone near you needs the equipment that you have. I’ve even seen people lease furniture to realtors for staging homes that they’re trying to sell as a way to make some extra cash doing this. It just goes to show you that there is a niche market for everything, and an opportunity for anyone who is willing to be creative when it comes to passive income.

41. Sell Retargeting Advertisements

One way that marketers can increase their reach is through retargeting. In retargeting, personal information scripts are taken from different websites to recalibrate advertising in page clicks for consumers. This means that people’s information from your website can be used by marketers to help them guide consumers to their own internal advertising processes. If you choose this kind of advertising, this should be shown in your terms of service for your site. If you don’t specify this somewhere, you could face backlash down the road for data use violations.

42. Freelance Graphic Design

Freelance graphic design can help you build your skillset for a career in design and also help you have a creative outlet for your design side. Much like a social media manager, freelance graphic designers work with different small businesses who want to improve their brand. You can create content for their website, social media channels, or even their newsletters. If you’re skilled in graphic design tools like Photoshop, this can be a great way to generate additional income. Freelancing using different skills in general can be a great way to generate additional income as well.

43. Sell Your Clothes

Have you ever looked at a tee shirt in your closet and realize you haven’t worn it in years, and probably will never wear it again? Try selling your clothes online. Sites like Poshmark allow you to sell or trade-in old clothes for cash or store credit. You can earn some money back that you spent on the clothes themselves, and you can get your money at the price of a few photos. Plus, buying clothes second hand can prevent them from ending up in a landfill somewhere. One man’s trash can be another man’s treasure!

44. Sell Your Plasma

This is one that I did repeatedly throughout college to make some extra cash, since selling plasma can be a great way to earn some extra cash when you need it. If you’re not a big fan of needles, then feel free to skip this one. There are certainly other less invasive ways to earn cash but selling your plasma from time to time is worth mentioning if you’re in a bind and need cash.

45. Start an Etsy Store

If you’re a crafty person, you can turn your crafts into money with an Etsy store. Etsy is a platform that lets users buy and sell their home-made and custom arts and crafts. Many different hobbyists sell their creations through Etsy and can make some serious cash through the site doing so. Etsy also makes it easy to get paid and ship through their site to your buyers. Depending on what you sell and how much popularity it has on the site, you can create a legitimate revenue stream through Etsy. Since most crafting is considered a hobby anyway, selling these crafts through an Etsy store can be considered passive income.

46. Participate in a Sleep Study

Finally, a legitimate way to make money while you sleep. There are plenty of research studies around sleep, and researchers are always looking for different participants for these types of studies. If you’re in good health, then you have a chance to qualify for different studies. Usually, there is some physical and psychological evaluation to get a baseline before the study begins. You are paid every step of the way, and you can make thousands from one study alone. If you love sleep, then this might be a dream come true for you.

47. Become a Notary

Becoming a notary is a great investment for plenty of reasons, but the biggest is that it’s low-cost to become a notary and it can bring in a healthy revenue stream. Notaries are people who oversee specific legal processes, such as being a witness in legal document signings. All you need to do as a notary is witness various document signings, such as a mortgage signing. It costs about $100 to become a notary in most places, but you can make upwards of thousands of dollars once you get started by acting as a notary.

48. Customer Interviews

Big businesses rely heavily on customer feedback to understand different products and their varying levels of success in the marketplace. Sites like Respondent can help connect companies with customers who are willing to give feedback and facilitate these types of interviews. Typically, these interviews can happen in person or remotely. By providing feedback on products that you’ve tried, you can make well over $100/hour.

49. Raw Land Flipping

An alternative to the traditional rental property route, flipping raw land can be a great income stream for anyone. Raw land flipping is when you buy vacant land and clean it up and sell at a higher profit. The idea behind this is simple but can be lucrative since people look for raw land as places to build their homes, for companies to build their business, or for farmers to plant their crops. By spending a few Saturday mornings cleaning up weeds and marking some property lunges, you can turn a great profit without ever dealing with any tenants.

50. Become a Brand Ambassador

Plenty of up and coming companies look for people to be the next face of their brand. Typically, they accomplish this by finding people to be brand ambassadors. As a brand ambassador, you would help with local marketing efforts by doing things like posting about their brand and products on social media. Companies will typically pay you for your efforts and will also offer you different affiliate marketing codes to give you a commission. So, you can be getting paid twice depending on the company. Once for promoting the product, and once for any sales that come through your links.

51. House Sitting

House sitting can be one of the easiest ways to generate passive income. When people you know go out of town, they are willing to pay people to stay at their home to keep an eye on things and make sure nothing goes wrong in their absence. You might be asked to walk a pet, water some plants, and maybe do some minor yard care, but overall, it’s an extremely low effort job that can pay well. If you’re going to be relaxing on a couch watching tv, then you might as well be getting paid to do it.

52. Vehicle Advertising

If you’re like me and don’t mind putting a few larger stickers on your car, then you can make a pretty nice amount of money just driving around. Companies love to advertise in a number of ways, especially if it’s going to be mobile. Companies like Wrapify will pay you up to almost $500/month to put an advertisement on your vehicle. Something like this can be a good alternative if you aren’t looking to get into something like ridesharing.

53. Consulting

If you have plenty of experience in a specific field, you can try your hand at becoming a consultant and getting paid for your opinion on certain matters. Clarity is a site where you can consult businesses or startups remotely. People pay for advice on a number of different matters, from money management to start ups for businesses. No matter what you’re an expert in, you can use that expertise and begin turning a quick profit in no time.

54. Lose Weight

Could you stand to lose a few pounds off of your belly like me? Then why not earn cash to give yourself even more of an incentive to do so? HealthyWage is a site that works somewhat like a bet. You make a wager on how much weight you will lose in a specified time period. If you meet your goal, HealthyWage will pay you for it. This can be a great incentive if you’re looking to lose a few extra pounds, or even make a big lifestyle change.

55. Design Logos

This one goes hand in hand with freelance graphic design, but designing logos is a good way to create a portfolio and have some fun with it by getting your creative juices flowing. 99Designs is a company that allows graphic designers to submit different ideas for logos to a number of businesses. The business will then pay for the best one that they want. This can feel like a waste of time if you’re designs are chosen consistently, but the payout and chance to fine tune a skill can help you in the long run if you stick with it.

56. Be an Extra in Movies

If you are in a big city that is huge on movie productions like L.A. or New York, being an extra in films can be an easy way to make a few hundred bucks. Being involved as an extra typically means sitting around while the main character acts out scenes, so you’re getting paid to show up and sit somewhere on a set. Not only can you make some money doing this, but you might get lucky and meet a few celebrities while you’re at it.

57. Email Marketing

Small businesses are looking for all the marketing help that they can find. Email marketing, while sometimes considered boring and tedious, is still a relevant form for small businesses to market themselves. Many small business owners don’t have the time to set up their own email marketing schedules, which can be where you come in. By using different services like MailChimp, you can easily set up multiple email templates to be sent out automatically. From there, all you need to do is set the email schedule and collect your money. 

58. Create an Audiobook

Creating an audiobook can be a great stream to generate passive income for a few reasons. One, it can increase the reach for your potential audience, and two, audiobooks are becoming more and more popular, meaning that there’s a higher chance that someone will download it and you’ll get paid. There are plenty of tools to make this possible for you to make and sell your audiobook, and the more channels you use, the more sales you can potentially make.

59. Purchase Bonds

Like of like purchasing stocks, bonds are another classic passive income stream. They’re prided on being much safer and less volatile than stocks. The idea of bonds is simple enough: you lend money to the government or corporation by buying a bond for a certain length of time. For example, let’s say you buy a bond and the length of time is five years. For the next five years, they make interest payments to you. Then, at the end of the five years, you get your original investment back.

Overall, bond returns are much less on average compared to stocks. But as previously stated, the risk is also much lower as well. With this being said, you should certainly weight the opportunity costs of buying bonds compared to stocks, especially if you’re younger. If you’re in your twenties or thirties, you can most likely tolerate more volatility to get more of a return by buying in stocks over bonds. However, if you’re closer to retirement, then bonds might look more attractive, so you don’t have as much risk.

60. Refinance Your Mortgage

Even though this might not sound like an actual source of income, refinancing your mortgage can save you hundreds each month for years to come, leaving you with more money to save, spend, or invest for your future. By shopping around for lower interest rates, you can save tens of thousands over the life of your loan. Even a difference of lowering your interest rate by a fraction of a percent can save you hundreds every month depending on the amount on your mortgage. You can also find lenders that offer credits that can reduce closing costs as a means of boosting your overall savings.

What Is Passive Income?

Passive income is when you get paid after the work is done. It includes royalties from books, music, and movies. It can also be revenue that comes in from things like real estate investments or creating a business that you don’t actively manage but still own. Basically, it’s generating money when you don’t have to be present to earn it.

Some passive income ideas can take a degree of upfront work, such as writing a book or creating a business, and something things don’t take hardly any effort at all, such as investing in real estate or the stock market. Either way, pursuing some of your passive income ideas can put you on a faster track to financial freedom.

Summary

Unless you’re a business owner or a CEO of a large company, chances are you aren’t going to get rich from your day job. Achieving financial independence can be achieved with some upfront work to generate a few passive income streams. Hopefully this list was able to give you a few passive income ideas that you can choose from and get started. The more effort you put into it upfront, the more you can generate passively later on, so front load the work now that way you’ll have a steam or a few streams of passive income later.