You’re done. Over it.
You want to stop depending on your 9 till 5 job to pay the bills and occasionally do fun things.
You want to have the financial freedom and free time to do whatever you want. You’re basically looking for passive income.
Well, you’ve come to the right place! Below you’ll find great ideas that will teach you loads of skills too.
What are these ideas?
- Investing
- Website
- YouTube
- Print on Demand store
- Selling photos
NOTE: These are no get-rich-quick schemes and you won’t get you rich in a year (unless you’re both extremely lucky and talented.)
If you’re afraid of failing, then look at it like this. Everything you fail at, teaches you tons and builds character. You’ll get out the end of the tunnel with a ton of new skills that you can use in other ways.
Let’s start with the basics.
Passive vs active income
Passive income is a way of income that requires barely any time and effort to generate wealth. This can be anything like dividends from investments to selling products online. Most of the time it is income that is generated automatically. That does not mean, however, that you don’t need to put time into setting up these sources. In the beginning they can take as much time and effort as any other active income source.
Active income is when you do put a lot of time and effort into generating wealth. Most of the time this is your job or your business. Is this worse than passive income? No. If you put all your time and effort into a business or job you love, then that is great! But why not do both? Setup passive income streams so you can keep doing what you love without having to worry about your finances.
Multiple Income Streams are Better than One
One income source means you basically get all of your money from one source. Most of the time this is from a job or your own business. While you can have a great income in both situations and live your life like you want to, it can be taken away real quick. How for example?
- The company you work for suddenly goes bankrupt and you lose your job
- An important client chooses to continue with a competitor and you can’t continue your business
There are countless examples you can think of why you don’t want your income to be coming from just one source.
So what do we need to do? We start thinking about how we can get multiple income sources. If one source falls away, we can still lean on the others to at least pay the bills.
That brings us to the ideas for passive income.
Passive Income Ideas
Before we start talking about the ideas, I want to mention that none is better than the other. All have their own pros and cons. It is up to you if you find any of them interesting enough and have the determination to start and keep going when things get more difficult.
If you want to try multiple, then I do suggest you try at the most 2-3 at the same time, depending on how much time you have in a day to work on them. Some require more time than others.
Let’s start with the first one.
1. Investing
Investing your hard earned money into dividend stocks and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) is a great way to have that money work for you. Every dividend stock and ETF you own pays you a percentage of their earnings on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis. Just for having them!
How does it work? You buy stocks or ETFs you researched and think are going to do well in the long term. You either get paid recurring dividends and/or sell the stocks when they are worth more than when you bought them.
Investing isn’t without risk however. You can lose (a part of) your money, so do your research on what you invest in and where. You can check the Investing & Finance section on my Resources page for multiple links to online academies where you can learn everything about investing.
The pros
- Great way to create lasting wealth. You don’t hear the rich having investments everywhere for nothing.
The cons
- Steep learning curve.
- Can be an emotional rollercoaster if you easily get triggered by a volatile periods.
- Depending on how you invest, there is a slight risk to lose money.
What do you need for investing?
- Have basic knowledge of investing: Know what stocks, ETFs and dividends are. Know how to value companies and know what the risks are with investing.
- A brokerage account: A lot of banks nowadays give you the option to invest through them. If you want to invest through another financial institution, then do your research on the pros and cons and choose one that fits your needs the best.
- Money to invest: The exact amount doesn’t matter. Even 20 euros is a start.
2. Website
Making a website is a great way to start a brand and write about things you enjoy. If your blog starts getting traffic, you can put ads from advertisement networks on your website. Every time a customer clicks, you’ll earn a small fee. There are a lot of varying perspectives on this
Another way to make money of your website is by using affiliate links. These are links where you send your visitors to a specific (but relevant!) site where they can purchase a service or product. In return, you’ll earn a commission of some sort, depending on the agreement you have with the site.
A third way to earn money from your website is to sell merchandise for the brand you’ve built. I’d recommend doing this when you have a strong fanbase.
The pros
- You can earn a very decent passive income.
- Your website is completely yours and you can do with it whatever you want.
- Can be a strong addition to your other projects/businesses.
- Your website acts as your business card, giving way for possible interesting and profitable partnerships in the future.
- You learn a lot skills building and maintaining a website.
- No risk.
The cons
- It can be difficult to make a website and expensive to hire a website designer.
- You need to put a huge amount of time and effort into your website before you start seeing traffic with little to no return.
What do you need to make money with a website
- A domain and host and money to pay for them. This is only a small investment.
- A niche to write about
- Advertisement network, and/or..
- Affiliate links to relevant sites, and/or..
- A webstore to sell merchandise or other products.
This website is an example of this idea and you could use it as inspiration for your own.
3. YouTube
You probably already know that YouTubers earn a lot of money with their videos. It is not easy to become a successful YouTuber due to the amount of content that gets uploaded every hour. But if you have a good idea and the determination to continue and build an audience, then you can get there too.
The way it works with YouTube is that you can monetize your video once you’re in the YouTube Partner Program (aka YPP). You’ll start earning money from ads, super chats and channel memberships.
A great way to get into YouTube right now is through livestreaming as it isn’t as Learn how to stream on YouTube with these Important YouTube Livestreaming tips for beginners!
The pros
- The amount of money YouTubers earn is crazy high
- YouTube can be a great creative outlet for you.
- No upfront money needed (if you already have a decent computer)
The cons
- Starting a YouTube channel and making videos is very time consuming at the beginning and has little to no returns.
- You’re dependent on YouTube and their longevity, as well as their interpretations of their guidelines.
What do you need to make money with YouTube?
- A YouTube account
- An idea of the content that you want to make for YouTube
- A computer that can handle video editing software.
- Editing software like DaVinci Resolve to make the videos
Resources
4. Print On Demand store
Starting an online clothing brand is pretty easy and can be very profitable if you do it right.
The way you start a POD store is by making an ecommerce website and link it with a fulfillment center like Printful. You make the designs, upload them on Printful and they will show up on your ecommerce store. When customers buy your clothing on your store, the order gets sent to Printful and they will handle printing and shipping. All you need to do is get the customers to your store through marketing. Or, if you want it completely passive, have someone else handle the marketing for you.
The pros
- The sky is the limit for the amount of money you can earn while sitting on the beach drinking a cocktail somewhere.
- It is easy to setup.
- Little to no upfront money needed. Just some for the domain and host.
- No inventory
The cons
- Profit-margins are low, so you need to sell a lot to earn a decent income from it.
- Customer issues can be hard to deal with.
What do you need to sell clothing online?
- A domain and host for your online POD store
- A fulfillment platform like Printful that is connected to your store
- Designs to put on your clothing that stands out from the rest
- A marketing plan (or delegate to a marketing team) to gain traffic to your store.
I’m personally working on one with a friend. You can find all the information and updates on that pursuit on the CocktailShirt page!
5. Selling photos
You have probably heard of websites like Shutterstock before. They are websites where you can buy and sell photos and images to use for your website, marketing or whatever you want. They got millions of photos, vector graphics and illustrations. Some even got video and music available.
All of their content is made by people like you and me. People with a creative eye and a camera.
So how does it work? You upload photos (or other content), customers purchase and download your content, you get paid.
The pros
- Making photos is very fun and can be a great creative outlet.
- It’s easy to get them uploaded on different platforms.
- Very little work after you’ve setup a decent portfolio.
The cons
- The upfront costs for buying a decent camera and lenses is quite high.
- You need hundreds of photos online to make a decent passive income.
What do you need?
- A decent camera with good lenses.
- A basic understanding of photography.
- Photo editing software (like Lightroom) to brush up your photos.
- An account on a platform like Shutterstock
Conclusion
All of these ideas are worth trying as long as you have the determination to see it through the setup phase. Some will work and others will fail, but you’ll learn loads of skills which you can reuse when trying other new things.
So, what idea are you definitely going to try and why?
If you’re already earning passive income through other ideas, then I’d love to know what those are.
Let me know in the comments below!
Have a great day!
