Sometimes the daily grind of going to a 9 to 5 job, potentially missing important quality time with your family, and even more critical relaxation time by yourself, can be frustrating! Even more so when various expenses immediately drain your well-earned wages – be it the mortgage, the groceries… the list goes on. However, instead of working yourself to the bone, there is a variety of easy ways you can earn a passive income – which is a way of making money without using up all of your time and energy. The advantage to having at least one passive income system is that once it’s set up, it continues to make money for you with very little effort from yourself if any, to keep it going. Here are 8 of the best ways to earn a passive income.
Invest in stocks or shares
One of the most popular ways to earn money passively is by taking some money from your savings and investing it in companies’ stocks. It is a long term passive income system, in which you will reap the rewards after possibly years of waiting, but it will likely generate better returns than the interest from a savings account. A great way to invest money is by setting up an index fund, which can track the performance of companies, and the manager of the index fund can invest in stocks based on what the index shows, therefore reducing the risk of losing money in these investments, and increasing the opportunity for profit!
While one of the disadvantages of investing is the risk of losing the money you’ve invested if the price of stocks decreases, if you invest in a range of companies and diversify your investments, there will likely be a profit made overall. Investing is one of the most passive ways to earn money, as while it requires some research, once you have decided what to invest in and how much to invest in it, you can sit back and wait on your profit.
Create a Crypto Interest Account
Another form of passive income comes from setting up a crypto interest account. This is similar to a savings account, as you earn interest from what you put into it. However, instead of money, this type of account takes bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which it lends out to other people and then pays you back with interest. The benefits of a crypto interest account are that they often offer higher interest rates than a regular savings account. They also introduce you to the world of cryptocurrency, a market that is growing more and more relevant in a world that is becoming more and more digital. As well as this, if you are ever in need of borrowing money instead of lending it, it is quick and easy to get approved for a loan with crypto interest accounts, as they don’t need to do a credit check.
Start a Blog
If you want to make some money on the side and also flex your creative abilities, another way of passively earning income is through blogging. Although it takes a lot of input at the start to generate some form of revenue, which means creating lots of blog posts to entice readers, this can be an enjoyable and fulfilling activity, especially when you choose the right topic to write about! For example, you could base your blog around cooking, style, cleaning – anything that interests you, and even better if you know a lot about your chosen subject so that you can spread your knowledge to others. Blogs can generate a passive income over time through advertising through the blog posts or by sharing affiliate links to your readers. Other similar ways to make a passive income can be by starting a YouTube channel, if you prefer expressing yourself through vlogs, or video-essays, or you could even start a podcast; while less popular than the YouTube platform, they still generate income over time.
Become an affiliate marketer
On the topic of affiliate marketing, there are places other than through blog posts that you can post links to affiliate businesses. Affiliate marketing involves promoting other people’s products or businesses for a small percentage of the earnings generated by your promotion. This can be done on a variety of platforms- with blogging, yes, but also on social media, through your personal website, and other places online. If you have access to a platform such as these, all it takes is to find an affiliate program online, such as Amazon Associates, and start promoting! The downside is that the amount you earn depends on the number of potential buyers you can send the way of the product. Therefore, to generate a good profit, your blog, website, or any platform you may use needs to have some viewers to direct to the affiliate links, which might require more time spent on that platform to grow its audience over time.
Sell digital products
If you’d prefer to market something of your own instead of other people’s products, one way to do this is by creating a digital product and selling it online yourself. This includes products like e-books or mobile phone apps that you can make once and put online to be sold to multiple people over time. This is more suitable for someone with more time on their hands, at least at the beginning, as creating an e-book, for example, is no small feat. However, once you put your product online, no more work is required. Furthermore, there is no limit to the number of buyers you can bring in, as the product is digital and available to anyone with access to digital technology.
Earn money by shopping online
For those who enjoy doing their shopping online and want to make some money doing it, various apps and browser extensions allow you to earn money just through shopping while using them. One popular example is Rakuten, which gives you cashback each time you shop through it and is connected to popular stores such as Walmart. One of the benefits of using apps like this to shop online is that there is no risk involved, and once you have earned $5 in cashback, the money is released into your account. In addition, some apps and websites offer a certain amount of commission for performing other activities, such as taking part in surveys, watching videos, or playing games. While these are less passive than doing some shopping online, which many people already do pretty frequently, they still involve doing something easy in your spare time to generate a bit of cash.
Rent Out
If you have a spare room- or even a house- handy, renting your property out is the perfect way to earn some money passively. Even if you don’t have an extra room at hand, it is always worth considering renting out your house for a few weeks when you’re on holiday or other trips away from home, and the place is left empty. As long as it’s with tenants you can trust, you get the added income and the knowledge that your home is being looked after when you’re gone!
For those with some extra savings looking for a challenge, you can also consider buying and renting a property, but this comes with risk – as property isn’t cheap, and it requires maintenance.
If you find it challenging to find a tenant to rent your property, there are online websites such as Airbnb that help find people looking for houses to stay in, often for holidays but also rental opportunities. The upside to this site is that it also background checks potential tenants.
Sell Your Unwanted Junk
We all tend to have a load of old clothes, kids’ toys, and other useless items lying about the house, doing nothing but creating clutter. Selling these items online is another form of passive income which helps solve this problem. Apps like Vinted allow you to do this for free – the only ‘work’ required is uploading a photo of the item you want to sell and giving a few details about it, such as its condition and the asking price of the item. Selling things online is a great way to free up space in your home without feeling the guilt of throwing away something too good to just throw in the trash, and the extra few dollars earned from it make it worth it.
There are countless ways to set up systems that earn money for you so that you have more time to spend doing the things you love and so that you can feel more financially comfortable without overworking yourself. While you may just want to follow one of these suggestions or all of them, they offer some more effortless ways to generate income and boost your bank account. Finally, they can provide an opportunity for you to learn more about marketing and promoting yourself.
