In the article "Top 30 Best Passive Income Ideas," you'll discover a variety of ways to make money while putting in little to no active effort. From building a niche affiliate website to publishing eBooks, owning rental properties, and even flipping domain names, these passive income ideas offer the opportunity to earn income while you sleep, read a book, or relax on a kayak. Whether you have startup capital or are looking for ways to make passive income with no money, this article has something for everyone. So get ready to explore these 30 best passive income streams and start making your money work for you.
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Top 30 best passive income ideas
There are two basic ways to make money. The first is the traditional way: getting out of bed in the morning and going to work at a full-time job. But the second way, using the best passive income ideas, is a lot more fun because it means you get to earn money while you’re sleeping, reading a book, in the middle of a lake on your kayak, or anywhere.
Once you’ve got them set up, the best passive income ideas require little to no active effort from you. Most of these require a bit of startup capital, so your first step will be building up some savings through a saving game or budgeting. After that, get ready to learn how to make your money work for you!
Knowing how to create passive income opportunities with no money is a bit trickier and narrows your options. However, there are still a variety of ways to make passive income and increase your cash flow.
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Top 30 best passive income ideas
Without further ado, let’s dive into 30 of the best passive income streams! For further learning, be sure to check out our list of great passive income books, and also learn the key differences between active vs passive income.
1. Build a niche affiliate website
A great source of passive income is to build a website. The upfront work of this method includes finding a niche to write about, creating an attractive website, researching keywords that will drive traffic to you, and joining affiliate programs. Once it’s set up, you’ll earn ongoing income from any affiliate sales your content generates. You can make occasional updates to keep the site active and also update keywords. For websites like these, think small and specialized. Review websites for a specific type of product that can be successful and easy to monetize, and research the types of blogs that make money. You can also make a YouTube channel or other social media accounts to create more content related to your website.
2. Create apps or software to sell
If you already have tech skills, think of a program that would improve people’s lives or be fun to use. Even simple apps can be successful. For instance, look at the story of Flappy Bird: an extremely simple yet addictive game that went viral and at one point was earning its creator $50,000 a day from ad revenue. The Flappy Bird story is an exception rather than a rule, but it demonstrates that you don’t have to build the fanciest, most complicated apps to earn a profit. Once your app is available for sale, there’s little ongoing work besides making any necessary updates. There are lots of resources where you can learn how to build an app to make money.
3. Publish eBooks
Self-publishing books on Kindle is one popular way to monetize fiction or nonfiction writing. Actually, writing the book will require the most time and effort, but it’s also one of the best passive income ideas. You’ll also need to market your book in order to let readers know about it. After that, you get to sit back and make sales! Even if you only charge a couple of dollars, it can add up as people continue buying copies for years into the future.
4. Own rental properties
Rental properties are one of the best passive income ideas. But if you’re not up for the job of screening tenants and being a landlord, you can turn this into a passive income strategy by hiring property managers. Of course, property managers are an added expense, but it takes a lot of work off your hands. Owning rental properties is not without risk. For instance, the property could stay vacant for too long, or repairs might cost you a lot of money. Even so, with caution and due diligence, owning real estate can be very lucrative.
5. Buy bonds and/or Certificates of Deposit
Bonds and CDs (certificates of deposit) are two of the very low-risk best passive income streams. The tradeoff for this safety is usually fairly low returns and having your money committed for a certain amount of time. There is usually a penalty if you need to withdraw early, so make sure you don’t need the cash soon. So how do savings bonds work? With bonds, how much they pay mostly depends on how stable the bond issuer is. U.S. savings bonds are government-guaranteed and are very safe. Corporate bonds depend on a variety of factors to determine their risk factor and interest rate.
And what is a Certificate of Deposit? It allows you to place a specific sum of cash into an account and earn interest on it in a low-risk way. It is sort of like a savings account, except you can’t remove your money until the term is done. But at that point, you’ll have extra money in addition to the original amount due to interest.
6. Sell stock photos
One of the easiest and best passive income streams to start is selling stock photos. Although this isn’t a passive income idea that will usually make you rich, it is relatively easy. Once you’ve done the work of taking photos and listing them on a stock photography site like Shutterstock, your photos can bring you a little cash on the side for years to come. These days, most smartphone cameras are capable of producing high-quality images. So you don’t necessarily even need to upgrade your equipment (unless you’re already a hobbyist photographer and have a DSLR on hand!). Think about the types of photos companies might want to use for websites, articles, etc. The subject matter might not always be the most exciting, but getting paid is exciting!
7. Own a vending machine or ATM
Vending machines and ATMs are some of the more unusual ideas that not as many people realize are possible. You find vending machines and ATMs everywhere but might not stop to consider who owns them! And it’s a great passive income resource.
When you buy or rent an ATM, you can place it in a location you are the owner of or negotiate to share profits with someone who has property in a more lucrative location. You make a profit from ATM fees charged each time someone uses the machine. You’re responsible for keeping the machine stocked with cash, but you can turn this into a passive income source by outsourcing this work to a trusted third party.
A vending machine business is similar. You’ll want to place it somewhere with a decent amount of foot traffic, and you can outsource the restocking of snacks or drinks inside the machine. Inventory costs can be very low when you’re buying in bulk, so it’s a chance for a decent profit margin.
8. Flip domain names
Domain names are sort of like the real estate of the internet: everyone wants a good one, but there’s a limited supply. Most people want a .com domain that’s memorable and relatively short, so it’s easy for people to type. If you’re a creative type with a little business acumen, a good passive income hustle could be buying domain names you think could be profitable and in demand and listing them for sale. You can often do this relatively cheaply, but it’s not without risk since you could find yourself paying for a domain name that just won’t sell.
9. Sublease to roommates
If you currently own a house or apartment (or are in the market for one), doing a rent split with roommates can drastically increase your passive income. For the cost of sharing a spare room, you’ll add hundreds of dollars to your monthly income. Splitting rent is a form of house hacking, which is essentially canceling out your mortgage payments with rental income. If you don’t want a full-time roommate and live in a popular area, you can list a room on Airbnb open to shorter-term travelers. You’ll just need to do some cleaning between stays. Renting your room on Airbnb is one of the most lucrative and best passive income ideas to try! In fact, you may be able to earn more renting weekly rather than monthly.
10. Rent out your car or parking space
When you’re not using your car, why not let it make money for you? You can offer your vehicle for short-term rentals to travelers on a service like Turo. Or, you can help someone out with their own side hustle journey by making your car available on HyreCar, where it can be connected with drivers for services like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart. Insurance is built into these services, making it less risky to have a stranger drive off with your car!
And if you live in a high-traffic area, like a city or beach town, you can even rent out your garage for parking. It’s a great idea if you have a space but not a car or are gone most of the day and only need the space in the evenings.
11. Install money-saving apps and get cashback for online shopping
Many of the best coupon websites and a lot of apps are available today where you can earn cashback, find coupons, etc. Most require some ongoing effort, so they’re not passive. However, Dosh is an example of a totally passive cash-back app. Just link a card in the app, and if you spend money at an eligible store or restaurant, you’ll get your money back automatically. In the same way, Paribus will work behind the scenes to check your email inbox for online shopping receipts and issue partial refunds if the price drops shortly after your purchase.
And if you tend to do a lot of your shopping online, get some motivation for saving money with a single click, thanks to online cash-back portals. Rakuten, formerly called Ebates, is the big one in this space. Just install their cash-back button on your browser, and you’ll be notified when you’re on websites where cashback is available. It’s one of the best passive income ideas and requires almost no work.
12. Invest
Investors understand one of the most common ways to make passive income. Over the long term, the stock market has consistently generated steady returns, even if it has ups and downs in the short term. Learning how to start investing in assets that will make you more money is a great way to earn passive income.
Dividend stocks
There are a couple of ways to earn money from stocks. You could buy high dividend stocks for regular cash payouts based on company earnings. Or, hold onto ordinary low-dividend stocks and let them grow in value until you’re ready to sell at a profit. Dividend-paying stocks can be a smart way to make extra money but keep in mind that dividends aren’t guaranteed. You should use this passive income idea in addition to others for more consistency.
REITs
It’s also possible to buy shares of REITs (real estate investment trusts) and earn a share of income from the real estate projects....
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