It’s challenging to find ways to make extra income with our already hectic lives. Many of us work forty hours per week and don’t have the time to boost our discretionary income. Fortunately, there are various ways to make passive income without consuming hours of your precious time. Yes, these methods often require an upfront investment but are relatively low maintenance in the long run.
Regardless of how much passive income you earn, it’s essential to carefully monitor your income and spending, ensuring that you don’t experience lifestyle inflation. Our platform has various robust features, including expense management tools, a transaction tracker, and a credit card paydown calculator. Make sure to sign up for Chunk before you start to boost your income!
Are you ready to pay down debt or reach your financial goals? Here are the top ten ways to earn passive income:
1. Create a Blog
Creating a blog with keyword-rich and high-quality content is a proven way to make passive income. Launching the blog does take some initial grunt work. You’ll need to register a domain, build a website, and develop a long-term content strategy. If you write consistently and incorporate SEO best practices into your posts, your blog will eventually see a stream of organic traffic. You can monetize your blog with affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, and e-books. Once you start making money, you can take a hands-off approach by hiring a freelancer to write the blog posts for you.
2. Sell a Course on Udemy
Udemy is an online platform where you can take a course on virtually any topic. It doesn’t cost anything to create a course, but it does require a significant time commitment at the onset. If you’re a subject-matter expert, you can also a lot money on Udemy by selling your own courses. It’s not uncommon for new instructors to bring in $100 – $300 on the website, which eventually grows through word of mouth and positive reviews. And although many instructors answer their students’ questions directly, you can also hire a teaching assistant to help you.
3. Start a Dropshipping Website
When you buy a product online, there’s a good chance that the merchant doesn’t physically have the product on hand. Instead, the store orders the product from a dropshipper who mails the product to you. You could run a dropshipping business anywhere in the world (as long as you have an internet connection). However, you’ll first need to create a visually-appealing website and develop a marketing plan to attract potential customers.
4. Develop a Mobile Application
Developing a mobile application is an excellent way to make passive income, especially with coding experience. However, you don’t necessarily need coding experience; you can hire an app developer for $5,000 – $20,000, depending on the application’s complexity. Once you’ve completed all the development work, you can list your application on the App Store or Google Play. Most individuals monetize their application with advertisements, in-app purchases, subscriptions, or by charging a fee to download the application. It’s also essential to remember the initial advertising expenses you’ll incur to drive traffic to your app.
5. Sell Stock Photos
Do you have a knack for photography? If so, you should consider selling your photographs on websites such as Getty Images, Shutterstock, and Alamy. Tons of entrepreneurs use these platforms to find stock images for their websites, social media posts, and publications. You can expect to earn around 20 – 50 cents for every photo you sell. Two factors drive your earning potential: the quality and quantity of your photos. You’ll likely need to list a couple of hundred photos on various websites before you start to see any meaningful income.
6. Invest in the Stock Market
Recent data shows that at least 55 percent of Americans own shares of stock. Whether you have stocks in a 401(k) or a personal investment account, playing the market is an excellent way to make (and lose) money. Many investors prefer to park their money in a diversified exchange-traded fund (ETF), like Vanguard’s Total Stock Market ETF (VTI). Those who like a particular company and see growth potential often buy individual stocks. There’s no guarantee that you’ll make money in the stock market, but you can gauge your earning potential by looking at historical data, such as the price of the S&P 500 year-over-year.
7. Join a Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform
Peer-to-peer lending platforms let you play the role of the “bank” and lend borrowers money in exchange for interest. Popular peer-to-peer lending websites include Funding Circle, Prosper, and Kiva. As with any investment, don’t put “all your eggs in one basket.” Peer-to-peer lending can be risky because there’s always a chance that the borrower will default on the loan. However, many investors only lend a portion of the loan amount, enabling them to share the risk with other individuals. The upside to peer-to-peer lending is that you can make much higher returns than what a standard savings account or certificate of deposit (CD) offers.
8. Put Your Money in a High-Interest Savings Account
Have you looked at your savings account only to notice you’re only making a few dollars per year in interest? You’re not alone: the annual percentage yield (APY) is around 0.06%. Unfortunately, inflation will eventually eat away your money if you leave it idle in a standard savings account. High-yield savings accounts are an alternative to traditional savings accounts. The main difference between the two accounts is that you can earn almost ten times more interest with a high-yield account. Many online banks can offer these higher interest rates because they don’t have the same overhead as brick-n-mortar banks.
9. Create a YouTube Channel
Although YouTube isn’t necessarily a “passive” money-making strategy, you can make some extra cash if you post a video or two each month. Most YouTubers make around a few dollars to $18 per 1,000 views, depending on their audience retention and content type. You don’t have to reach “influencer” status to make decent money on the video-sharing platform. Once you reach thirty to fifty videos and generate consistent views, you can easily make a few hundred dollars each month.
10. Sell Graphics
Selling graphics online is very similar to selling stock photos. Like photography, creating graphics requires some level of skills. Graphic artists can make passive income by selling custom icons, logos, vector graphics, and more. Graphic River is currently the leading online marketplace for all things graphic design. It’s pretty common for highly skilled graphic artists to make a living selling their services online, but don’t expect to quit your day job until you can build a steady stream of income.
Earning Passive Income: A Final Glance
Earning passive income isn’t as hard as it seems, but it does take some motivation to get started. Not only that, but you’ll likely have to invest some money, whether you’re creating a blog or starting a YouTube Channel. Our platform has powerful expense management tools and a transaction tracker that enables you to keep a close eye on your cash inflows and outflows. Whether you’re new to passive income or an expert, Chunk can help you reach your financial goals.