30 Passive Income Ideas to Build Long-Term Wealth

Curious how you can earn passive income? 

Although it gets touted as easy money, most passive income streams are the result of hard work: building an audience, optimizing paid ads, and delivering a great experience and a superior product. However, as a current or aspiring business owner, you’re not afraid to put in the time to do all of those things, and you might already have all three checked off your list.

Adding passive income streams to your life can give you more freedom, flexibility, and money. Discover 30 ways to make passive income, with examples and tips to start today.

What is passive income?

Passive income refers to active income that requires minimal work to earn and maintain. Passive income sources include investing in mutual funds, selling products online, teaching online courses on sites like Udemy, or other tactics where the earner doesn’t have to participate.

Passive income provides residual income with minimal time and effort. It can improve your personal finances and give you the freedom of time. Not having to trade your time for money can reduce stress and anxiety, and can make you feel more confident about your financial future.

30 best passive income ideas to build wealth

Whether you’re running a service provider trying to stop selling dollars for hours or a product business looking to add a stream of revenue that doesn’t involve the logistics of sending out physical products, explore the following passive income strategies: 

1. Start a dropshipping store

Upfront time investment: 🕒🕒

Upfront financial investment: 💸

Passive income potential: 💰💰💰

Dropshipping is one of the best ways to start earning from wherever you are, even if you don’t have plenty of cash flow. Some dropshippers report making upward of $100,000 per year. Dropshipping is not a get-rich-quick scheme, however, it takes some upfront investment of time.

This business model involves creating an ecommerce store where customers browse and buy products. What’s interesting about dropshipping is that you don’t have to see the products you sell physically. 

With dropshipping, your supplier handles everything from manufacturing to packaging to fulfillment. And since you don’t need to send money to your supplier until your customers pay, there’s limited cash risk.

Another risk you get to avoid is the one that comes with investing in a product that doesn’t have a market. You can use a platform like the DSers to find trending products in different niches to sell in your store.

Depending on the product you choose and your pricing, you can earn solid passive income and learn how to run an ecommerce business. 

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2. Create a print-on-demand store

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If you’re an artist, designer, or entrepreneur, print on demand can be a profitable passive income idea and monetize your creativity. It involves working with suppliers to customize white label products like t-shirts, posters, backpacks, or books and selling them on a per-order basis. 

Similar to dropshipping, you only pay for the product after you sell it. There’s no buying in bulk or inventory needed. Print-on-demand stores are a good passive income stream because:

• You can create products quickly and put them up for sale in minutes
• Shipping and fulfillment is taken care of by your supplier
• Once your store is set up, you can automate many marketing and sales processes

With a print-on-demand company like Printful, you can easily create products to sell in your Shopify store quickly. Overall, print on demand is a low risk, simple business idea you can get up and running with fast. 

3. Sell digital products

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Digital products are assets or pieces of media consumers can’t touch physically. These include downloadable or streamable files such as Kindle books, templates, plug-ins, or PDFs. 

Digital products are great passive income streams because they have high profit margins. You only have to make the asset once and you can sell it repeatedly online. There’s no storage or inventory needed. 

You can sell as many digital products as you want. Many creators scale their passive income by selling kits, printables, files, and other assets professionals can use. UX Kits, for example, sells personas, flowcharts, and wireframes to assist the design process. 

The brand has sold its products to more than 10,000 customers in over 100 countries and continues to sell these lucrative products online today. 

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4. Teach online courses

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It’s easier than ever for educators to sell courses online. Whether it’s marketing, illustration, or entrepreneurship, you can create courses and start selling with few limitations. Similar to digital products, you can sell online courses repeatedly without holding any inventory or stock. 

Teaching online requires some upfront investment in time. You’ll need to outline your course, record it, and make downloadable assets like templates for students to walk away with. 

Take Yegi Saryan, founder of Yegi Beauty, for example. After creating an online beauty brand selling eyelash extension products, she created an educational branch called Yegi Academy. Her lash classes help entrepreneurs around the world jumpstart their beauty careers, offering both online and on-site training. 

As an online educator, you can choose the class size and length. You could offer one-on-one tutoring or masterminds if you prefer small groups, or offer training sessions and live courses if you enjoy working with big groups. Don’t want human interaction? No problem. You can create fully downloadable courses that students can finish at their own pace. 

Whichever way you look at it, teaching online is a profitable passive income stream with low startup costs—just an investment of your time.

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5. Become a blogger

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Starting a blog can be a challenging venture, but the blogging business model is only becoming more successful as a passive income stream. You don’t need to be an internet celebrity anymore to earn money online. All you have to do is find your people on one or two platforms, then send them to your website. 

It takes a little bit of time to build a blog. But if you create quality content and promote it through your platforms, you’ll build an audience big enough to monetize. 

You could earn passive income from blogging by:

• Selling affiliate products
• Creating sponsored posts
• Selling your own products 
• Running ads through Google AdSense

The best part? You don’t need any design or coding skills to start a blog. With a content management system and hosting service like Shopify, you can get a blog up and running in no time. 

You’ll need to invest time into creating an SEO marketing strategy and producing and promoting the content. Know that your efforts will be rewarded: the return on investment can be upward of $30,000 per month, depending on how you monetize your blog. 

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6. Sell handmade goods

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There’s never been a better time to sell stuff online. With over 4.6 billion people connected to the internet, the opportunity to build and scale an online business is massive. 

There are hundreds of online sites you can sell on. Some have specific niches, like video games or handcrafted goods, while others let you sell whatever you want. 

Some popular online selling sites include:

• Your own online store
• Handshake
• Amazon
• eBay
• Ruby Lane
• AliExpress

The upfront investment is two-fold. You’ll need to invest in materials and time to make and sell DIY goods like pottery or clothing. You’ll also want to create an online store to house your products.

According to our research, the top 10 products consumers plan to buy post-pandemic include the following.

Selling from your own store reduces the amount of fees you pay on each sale, plus, you can create a brand for yourself. The benefits of building a brand compound over time as you build an audience and connect with more customers. It’ll help you sell more over time and make money online.

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7. Run an affiliate marketing business

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Affiliate marketing involves recommending a product or service to an audience. It’s a great source of passive income because you earn a commission whenever someone uses your referral link to buy the recommended product or service.

It’s also a growing industry. Statista estimates that the affiliate marketing industry will reach $8.2 billion by 2022. Online entrepreneurs become affiliate marketers for a few key reasons:

• It’s easy to execute. You just handle the marketing side of things. The brand will develop products and fulfill orders. 

• It’s low risk. There’s no cost to join an affiliate program. You can sell established profits without any upfront financial investment. You’ll have to invest time in creating traffic sources so more people click on your links. Once that’s set up, you can earn relatively passive income through commissions. 

• It’s scalable. Affiliate marketers typically don’t hire extra help. You can introduce new products to an audience and create campaigns while your past work makes money in the background. 

Earning money with affiliate marketing can be a rewarding way to add new revenue streams to your business. All it costs is your time. Once the hours are invested, you can reap the rewards continually.

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8. Sell stock photos online

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One of the biggest drawbacks to running a service-based business like photography is that you get paid for your time. You must be at an event or photoshoot to make money with photography, which, even if you’re making a killing, can be tiring after a while. 

If you’re a full-time photographer or own a good camera, you can create an extra revenue stream by selling photos online. Stock photo sites like Pexels, Shutterstock, and other online media houses will pay for high-quality photos and videos. 

There’s no inventory to keep around the house besides your camera and laptop. These websites do the marketing for you, so once you load your photos onto the platform, getting your work out there and selling it is done for you. 

If you run your photography business on Shopify, you can also easily tie in digital products like prints or print-on-demand products like shirts and hats, giving you even more passive income streams so you can work less and make more. 

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9. Become an Instagram influencer

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One million dollars: That’s how much Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson makes per Instagram post. While you may not have chiseled abs or over 200 million social media followers, you can still earn passive income on Instagram as an influencer.

To become an Instagram influencer—someone who can sway another person’s buying decisions—you’ll need to build a community of people who enjoy similar topics. 

Are you a comics fan? You can create an Instagram account and start posting consistently about the latest Marvel and DC shows. The same applies if your interest is in sports, scuba diving, home decor, or even general culture. 

Some influencers like Alex Lange run sponsored posts for brands like Tinder. 

If you have an engaged audience, you can find many different ways to make passive income from them. You can partner with large and small businesses to promote their products to your followers. Or you can make money through selling your own merch.

10. Buy a rental property

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Real estate investing is one of the oldest ways to build long-term wealth. 

If you have enough money, you can buy and rent out apartment buildings or some other form of real estate. But since the job of being a landlord is pretty active, you can hire property managers to manage tenants and collect monthly payments or rent. 

What if you don’t have money to own entire apartment buildings? Can you still earn rental income? Yes, you can. 

With a minimum investment of $500, you can use a real estate investment trust (REIT) platform like Fundrise to invest in different real estate assets—and earn passively when the assets appreciate. 

11. Invest in the stock market

Upfront time investment (time): 🕒🕒🕒

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Although the stock market might have a steep learning curve and can be confusing, it’s a great way to build lasting wealth. A common mistake most people make with stock investments is thinking short term instead of playing the long game to reach financial goals. 

The goal for investing in stocks is to diversify your portfolio and reduce risk. You can do this through investing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and high-dividend stocks that earn you income slowly over time. To start investing in the stock market, you need to open up a brokerage account and fund it. 

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12. Rent out your spare room

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Do you have an extra room in your apartment? Or are you going on a three-week road trip and don’t want to leave your house empty? You can partner with a rental company like Airbnb to put your free space up for rent.

Airbnb connects homeowners with people who are looking for their next getaway. People prefer Airbnbs because they’re usually cheaper than hotels, meaning a high demand for your free space as an Airbnb host. 

If you want to make even more income from Airbnb, you can buy apartments for the sole purpose of renting them out. You should note, though, that renting your space out often requires work upfront. You might have to furnish or renovate your free room before putting it up for rent.

13. Rent out your car

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Your free space is not the only thing you can use to earn passive income. You can also offer your car up for rent with a service like Turo. If you already use your car for Uber, you can sign up with platforms like Carvertise or Wrapify to earn extra money as you take trips around town. 

Another option is to look for someone who needs a car for Uber or Lyft. So instead of actively driving around in your free time, you can pull up a Netflix show while your car works for you.

14. Lend money to peers

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Have extra cash that’s not working for you? Try Peer-to-peer lending as a side hustle. P2P lending involves lending money to borrowers or small businesses. 

To make the process easy, you can sign up on a website like LendingClub, Prosper (for individuals), or Worthy (for businesses) that connects borrowers with lenders. 

These sites usually host loan requests along with interest rates based on the borrower’s history. The return on these loans is usually around 5% to 6%. 

15. Earn while shopping online

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Passive income potential: 💰

Cashback reward sites like Swagbucks, MyPoint, and Rakuten allow you to earn money when you shop online. After signing up, you don’t have to do anything extra, aside from shop, to make money from these sites. The more you shop online, the more points you gain. And the more money you can make.

A note of caution: don’t exceed your monthly spending budget or max out your credit card in a bid to earn some reward. 

16. Buy and sell websites

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Websites abound on just about any topic you can think of. The best part? A lot of them make a healthy income through the likes of affiliates, ads, memberships, or products—and they’re often put up for sale. 

Sites like Exchange Marketplace make it easy to buy and sell online stores securely once you open and verify an account.

It’s a great way to own a business that already has some sales and traffic coming in. Once you complete your purchase, you also get access to seller support afterward to ensure you do well. 

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17. Start a YouTube channel

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It’s not too late to start a YouTube channel. A whopping 74% of adults in the US use YouTube. That’s a lot of eyeballs to capture for passive income. The catch? It’s a lot of upfront work for little to no return in the beginning. 

Yet, if you’re a long-term thinker and don’t mind frontloading your efforts, the income potential of a successful YouTube channel is high. Affiliate sales, sponsorships, branded integrations, and ad income can all add up passively as you accumulate content, clicks, and views and grow your audience. 

Take the story of Ali Abdaal as an example of what’s possible. Within four years, he was earning more through his YouTube channel than through his job as a doctor in the UK.

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18. Invest in REITs

Upfront time investment (time): 🕒🕒🕒

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A REIT, or real estate investment trust, is a company that owns and manages profitable real estate. It’s a great way for smaller investors to pool their money together to afford investments they wouldn’t be able to afford by themselves. 

In the last decade, the average annual return for REIT investments was 9.5%. As a long-term investment, REITs are a solid passive income idea worth looking into if you have startup capital. 

Besides upfront capital, getting started also takes some in-depth research. This isn’t an investment you want to walk into blindly. Thankfully, there are plenty of resources, like this guide, that can help you get started. 

19. Stake cryptocurrencies

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Investing in several cryptocurrencies, or “staking crypto,” can be a great way to earn anywhere from 5% to 10% when done passively. You can think of it as earning interest on your savings, except with higher returns. 

How do you get started? First, educate yourself on proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies and how you can get access to a crypto wallet. Then you’ll want to learn about the different coins you can choose from to make an educated decision on which to invest in. Once you’re ready, crypto exchanges like Kraken or Coinbase can be great places to buy crypto. 

From there, it’s a matter of waiting to see the returns on your investments and checking them periodically. The more you educate yourself about the world of crypto, the better investment decisions you’ll make.

Keep in mind that, just like any investment, staking crypto also comes with its own set of risks. There’s also a lot of upfront time you’ll need to spend learning about your options so you can invest wisely. 

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20. Sell designs online 

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Design websites like 99designs, ThemeForest, or Creative Market can be great places to sell digital designs online. Whether you design website themes, logos, branding resources, templates, illustrations, or even fonts, these platforms offer a built-in market that is already looking for design resources.

Graphic design in the US is a $13.1 billion industry and is only growing. Thankfully, getting a piece of that pie passively can be easy too. 

For instance, if you wanted to start selling designs on Creative Market, you’d need to apply and wait for approval. From there, you get your own storefront where you can start selling your branded designs.

21. Invest in businesses

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Today, getting started investing in historically inaccessible business opportunities is absolutely possible. Platforms like Mainvest.com make it easy to invest passively with a $100 initial investment without any of the investor fees.

The returns? As with any investment, it depends. But Mainvest aims to earn you anywhere from 10% to 25%. You don’t even have to vet the businesses yourself. Mainvest takes care of the vetting process for you. You simply invest the capital to get started. 

As a passive income idea, this is a great safe way to step into the business investment world and learn as you go. 

22. Rent out your unused space 

Upfront time investment (time): 🕒🕒

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Have an empty room or garage you aren’t using? Rent it out as storage space! It’s possible to do this safely and efficiently with storage rental platforms like: 

The storage industry is projected to grow to as much as $64 billion by 2026. In other words, this isn’t a passive income idea that’s going away anytime soon. You can store a variety of items, including cars, boats, RVs, or even business inventory. 

Using storage rental platforms is also a great way to avoid liability issues, as they provide safe payment options, contracts, and storage provider and client information. 

23. Sell NFTs 

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Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are unique assets that are stored on a digital ledger. The beauty of NFTs is that the asset you store can be valuable. You can create NFTs for anything including digital designs, photography, music, games, GIFs, and even video. 

Creating an NFT is easy. You can use platforms like OpenSea to create an account and follow the step-by-step minting process (which involves some additional gas fees). 

Although it’s a relatively new industry, NFT sales have skyrocketed past the $10 billion mark. Still, it’s not too late to get into the space. Just know that there is an upfront investment involved in both minting fees and the time you’ll need to create NFTs that will sell.

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24. Create a job board

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A job board is a great way to earn passive income as an online entrepreneur. These websites are used by employers to promote job vacancies to job searchers. Job seekers can look for new job opportunities online or in-person. You can charge employers to post on your job board and offer premium features like sponsored jobs or unlimited access to your candidate database. 

Even if you don’t want to design a job board from scratch, you can buy a job board theme and start there. Now, building the website is the easy part. Creating awareness of your job board is where the bulk of the work is. 

Once you get the flywheel going and your job board becomes established with return customers, you can count on a large part of your income to be passive. Check out sites like ProBlogger, Dribble, or Construction Jobs for inspiration.

25. Create no-code apps

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The fact that any novice can create a basic to advanced app with today’s no-code tools is beautiful. Platforms like Appy Pie, Adalo, or Bubble make it possible to get started in an industry that got 218 billion downloads in 2020 alone. 

To start, you’ll have to decide whether you want to create a website or mobile app. Besides the concept of the app (what niche it will serve and what problem it will solve) there’s also monetization to think about.

You can monetize apps through:

• Subscriptions
• Ads
• Pay to download
• A marketplace model

If you aren’t sure what your app should be about, here’s is a great list of research tools to help you get started. 

26. Write a digital guide

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Chances are, you have deep knowledge about a topic other people are more than willing to pay for. Try using that knowledge to write digital guides. There’s little barrier to entry to get started, and in a lot of cases, there’s no need to invest money upfront. 

What you will need to invest is time. Take the time to research what people are searching for. Google suggestions can be a great place to start. Tools like Ubbersuggest can give you insight into what keywords have high search volumes.

From there, it’s a matter of setting up your digital guide to collect sales, whether that’s through your own storefront or a seller platform. 

27. Earn royalties through inventions

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Inventors aren’t a thing of the past. You can make passive income through your unique inventions. Though this isn’t a passive income route that’s talked about often, it’s a real one.

Getting started is probably one of the hardest parts of the inventor’s journey. You want to make sure you have a worthy invention that’s useful and solves a problem. Start by checking out the US patent website to make sure your idea hasn’t already been created. 

If you want to outright sell your invention, sites like Invention City and InventMyIdea can help you get started. Depending on the deal you strike, you can passively earn a percentage or payouts from the income generated through your idea once it’s on the market. 

28. Record audiobooks

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Audiobooks have to be created by someone. Why can’t that someone be you? Once you break into the industry, it’s possible to create passive income in the form of royalties—which is how most audiobook narrators get paid. 

To successfully make passive income from audiobooks, there are a few things you need to master first. These include learning:

• How to audition
• Proper narration technique
• What niche you’ll work in
• Some editing skills

You don’t have to go at it alone. Some platforms make it easier to get started and land your first few gigs. Check out sites like ACX to learn what you need to make it in the industry. 

29. Invest in vending machines

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Ever wonder who takes care of all those vending machines that are always stocked? The owner of those machines is earning (semi) passive income from your snack and soda cravings. 

You can get in on the fun too with a little research. Fun fact: The vending machine market is a healthy $8.6 billion industry. And as with most industries, it’s positioned for growth in the coming years. 

Starting a passive source of income through vending machines does require an upfront time and money investment. This is a great guide with tips on how you can get started with your first vending machine.

Marketplaces like Craigslist, eBay, or BizBuySell can help you gauge the upfront investment you’ll need to buy your first set of machines (as well as how many you can afford to start). Once you secure an area where you can install it, a vending machine route makes for a great cash-flowing source of largely passive income. 

30. Build and sell spreadsheets 

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Some of us are natural-born spreadsheet masters. If that’s you, it’s possible to put your spreadsheet skills to work to earn passive income. 

Whether you create spreadsheets with Excel or Google Sheets, there’s a market that will pay for you to create spreadsheets of all kinds: for budgeting, profit projections, habit tracking, or even P&L spreadsheets that business owners don’t want to create from scratch. 

Pair a Shopify storefront with the Digital Downloads app, and you have yourself a passive income stream ready to earn revenue. For that to happen though, you do need to drive traffic to your storefront. Thankfully, we have some resources to help with that. 

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On the road to financial freedom

There is only so much time in a day, and finding ways to scale your income more efficiently can give you flexibility in your business to hit the next level. That level might be “taking a vacation, ever” or “hiring more help” or “ordering new inventory,” but whatever it is, adding streams of income with different underlying economics can give you the freedom to explore it.

Feature image by Patrick Chin 

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