15 Practical Passive Income Ideas You Can Start Today

Making money while you sleep.

Sounds great, doesn't it?

Truth be told, we come across many articles online with impracticable advice on how to make money online, though nobody said it was going to be easy. But these posts make it look like you don’t have to do much to start earning.

The only way that will work for you is if you can find out what makes you tick. Find out that your innate ability then you’ll find it easy to delve into that field.

Let us define Passive Income?

It is passive because once it is set up, you earn revenue from it on a regular basis with little or no active participation.

That typically means that you continue to make income with no or very little effort on your part to maintain that cash flow.

You can see why the idea of passive income would be appealing. Typically when someone needs additional income, or you're a college student that needs to make money, they get the stereotypical suggestion to “get a part-time job.”

But what if you don’t have the time or energy to put in all those extra hours?

Plus, that isn't as appealing as making money without needing to trade your time.

Here’s a list of quite a few passive income ideas, so it’s likely that you’ll be able to find at least two or three that cater to your situation and skills.

1.Thrift or Lending club.

Thrift may be particular with my Nigerian brothers and sisters. Thrift is known by the Yorubas as “Ajo” to Igbos “Esusu” to the Hausas “Adashe”. This may cut across savings and investment depending on the terms of the agreement between the folks involved. The typical definition is the coming together of a few people who agree to put a fixed certain sum of money into a central pot(maybe a bank account) and the money is used in an agreed way. This may also be called a lending club because the bulk of the money when collected is given to one person to use whichever way he/she deems fit. (again the sharing formula depends on the agreement)

You may find it useful for yourself.

Diamond bank Nigeria has capitalized on this traditional savings style and introduced DiamondEsusu and I find it quite helpful. You just have to set it up by instructing them to remove a certain amount of money and put into the esusu to be returned to your account on a fixed date.

This form of esusu also covers the community contribution as well.

There are other online lending clubs in your location, do well to search the internet for them.

Now let’s be clear on one point: those high rates do come at a cost. Unlike bank investments, Lending Club loans can go bad, in which case you will lose principal. However, there are ways to minimize those potential losses. Start small.

2. Investing Passively In REITs With Fundrise

If you want to invest in real estate, but you don’t want to be as hands-on with your investments, then you should look at Fundrise.

Fundrise is a REIT, which is a real estate investment trust. Just like with other investment trusts, these are basically pools of money which are managed by financial professionals.

With a REIT, all of the money is going to be invested in real estate. The REIT owns the property, and you don’t have to worry about handling the landlord duties.

One advantage of Fundrise is you can start investing with as little as $500. With other real estate investments, you’ll have to have a lot of money saved up to start, but Fundrise lets you get into the real estate business with just your Christmas bonus money.

While Fundrise can’t predict the future, and you never know how well the investments are going to perform, they do have some great returns in the past. In each quarter of 2017, they have posted returns between 9.65% – 10.88%.

Obviously, these are much higher than you’re going to get with most other investments.

They have several different types of accounts you can choose from:

• Self-Directed IRA
• Goal Based Investing account
• an eREIT
• an eFund

Each of them has different pros and cons you’ll need to consider when you’re looking to get in the real estate investment game.

3. Try out index funds.

Index funds are a type of mutual fund that provides you with a way to invest in the stock market that is completely passive.

For example, if you invest money in an index fund that is based on the S&P 500 Index, you will be invested in the general market, without having to concern yourself with choosing investments, rebalancing your portfolio, or knowing when to sell or buy individual companies. All that will be handled by the fund which will base the fund portfolio on the makeup of the underlying index.

E*Trade is our recommended online broker for buying index funds. They make the research and process of investing in different funds very easy.

We recommend them over other options because if you ever start to look at other types of stock or mutual fund investments you already have the account set up and it is easy to move your money over. On top of that the cost to get your account going is super cheap and the cost per trade very affordable.

4. Make money for tasks you'd do anyway

Yes, you can make some money doing some of the things you're already doing. Sounds easy right?

For example, InboxDollars allows you to make money by searching the web, shopping online, playing games, and more! Swagbucks also allows you to make money doing similar activities. It's amazing. Take advantage of the compensation plan on each of these websites and make some extra money!

You can also make your own schedule with Uber and pick up extra income by driving others around when you are already out and about anyway! Among these three only Uber actually works in Nigeria.

 

5. Put your photography to work on the web

Do you like photography? If you do, you may be able to convert it into a passive income source. Photography websites such as Shutterstock and iStockphoto can provide you with platforms to sell your photos. They may offer either a percentage or a flat fee of each photo that is sold to a site client.

In this way, a single photo could represent a residual income opportunity, since it can be sold again and again. You simply need to create your photo portfolio, put it on one or more photo platforms, and then the activity becomes completely passive. All the technicalities of the photo sales are handled through the web platform.

And yes, that's me in a stock photo you can purchase from iStockPhoto.com. My wife is a good photographer and has uploaded a few hundred photos to their platform and makes a good monthly residual income from it.

6. Write an ebook

This can be a lot of work upfront, but once the ebook is created and marketed it can provide you with a passive revenue stream for years. You can either sell the ebook on your own website or offer it as an affiliate arrangement with other websites that provide content related to your ebook.

7. Sell your own products on the internet

The possibilities here are endless – you can sell just about any product or service that you like. It could be a product you have created and can manufacture on your own or it could be digital in nature (such as software, DVDs, or even instructional videos). I mean you can literarily sell anything.

You can set up a dedicated website for this product or service unless of course, you have a website or blog already in place. Alternatively, you can also sell it on an affiliate basis, either by offering it direct to websites and blogs related to your product or service or through a platform such like jiji.com efritin.com olx jumia konga breketefamily market etc.

If you make a lot of money in your current job and you're not sure that you can make a similar amount by selling products online, think again. Many people are making residual income from these avenues.

You can learn to sell products online too and make quite a bit of money. While it's not entirely passive, it's certainly more passive than getting up and heading out the door to work every morning!

8. Make YouTube videos

Youtube is the second largest search engine in the world right now according to study. So why not delve into it.

This is a venture that is growing rapidly. You can create videos in just about any area that you like – music, tutorials, opinions, comedy, movie reviews – anything you want . . . then put them on YouTube. You can then attach Google AdSense to the videos, which will overlay your videos with automatic ads. When viewers click on those ads, you will earn money from AdSense.

The keys will be to create compelling videos, to promote those videos on social media websites, and to create enough of them that your income will be coming from multiple sources. There’s a good bit of work that goes into creating videos, but once a video is done it can become a completely passive cash flow source for a very long time.

9. Start or Buy a blog

Thousands of blogs are created every year, and thousands are either completely abandoned by their owners sometime afterward. If you can buy blogs with a reasonable amount of web traffic – as well as a demonstrated cash flow – it could be a perfect passive income source.

Most blogs employ Google AdSense, which provides a monthly revenue stream based on ads that Google places on the site. There may also be affiliate programs generating additional revenue. Both income sources will be yours once you purchase the blog.

From a financial perspective, blogs usually sell for 24 times their monthly income. So if the site generates $250 a month in income, you can likely buy it for no more than $6,000. Translation: a $6,000 investment will buy you $1,500 per year in cash flow.

You may even be able to purchase the site for less than 24 months earnings if the site owner is particularly anxious to get out. Some sites have good “evergreen” content that will continue generating revenue even years after the site has gone silent. So a simple $5000 investment can net you ongoing passive income.

If you were to buy such a site and then to reinvigorate it with fresh content, you may be able to raise the monthly revenue enabling yourself to sell the site at a later date for substantially more than what you paid for it.

Finally, instead of buying a blog, you might want to create your own blog. But first try to find out that thing that makes you happy, that thing you are most passionate about. That thing that you are knowledgeable in. then create a blog on it. but that doesn’t mean you cant improve on things you know.

10. Write a book and collect royalties

Much like writing an ebook, there’s a lot of work upfront. But once that’s done, and the book goes into the sales stage, it becomes a completely passive venture.

This is especially true if you can sell the book to a publisher who will pay you royalties for the distribution and sale of the book. You’ll get a percentage of each sale made, and if the book is fairly popular, the royalties could be substantial. Just as important, the royalties can continue flowing for many years.

Mike Piper from OblivousInvestor.com did just that. He wrote a book, Investing Made Simple, which was sold strictly on Amazon. He had decent success with the first book that he created an entire series of book. Those books now net him over 6 figures per year in residual earnings. Not too shabby.

11. Set up a website selling a product

If there is a product that you are particularly knowledgeable about, you may be able to sell it on a dedicated website. The technique is similar to what you would use for your own product, except that you will not to be concerning yourself with product creation, but only with the sale of someone else’s product.

You may even find after a while that you are able to add other products that are related. Should that happen, the site could generate substantial revenues.

If you are able to have the product drop shipped to customers directly from the manufacturer, you won’t even have to get your hands dirty. That may not be 100% passive, but it’s darn close.

12. Become a business silent partner

Do you know of a successful business that needs capital for expansion? If so, you can become something of a small-time angel investor and provide that needed capital. But rather than offering a loan to a business owner, you can treat this as a business opportunity and take an equity position in the business.

In this way, the business owner will handle the day-to-day operations, while you will act as a silent partner who also participates in the profits of the business.

13. Become a referral source

Every small business needs referral sources in order to maintain sales. Make a list of small business providers that you use on a regular basis and feel you can recommend to others without reservation. Then contact the owners and see if they have any kind of cash referral marketing offers available.

You can do this with accountants, landscapers, electricians, plumbers, carpet cleaning services – the list is endless. Keep a list of these businesses, and be ready to refer them to your friends, family and coworkers. You can earn a fee on each referral just from talking to people.

Don’t overlook referral programs at work either. If your company offers a referral bonus for either new employees or for new customers, then take advantage of that plan. It’s easy money with virtually no work.

14. Try affiliate marketing and make sales

This is a passive income technique that is better suited to people who have blogs and active websites. You can sign up to promote certain products or services on your site, for which you will be paid either a flat fee or a percentage of the amount of the sale completed.

This isn’t as hard to do as you might think, since there are thousands of companies in the world who want to sell their products in as many places as they can.

You can find affiliate offers either by contacting vendors directly, or on dedicated websites, such as jumia, konga amazon etc It’s always best if the product or service is one that you are either very interested in or is highly relevant to your website.

15. Purchase high dividend stocks.

By building a portfolio of high dividend stocks, you can create regular passive income at an annual rate that is much higher than what you get on bank investments.

Just as important, since high dividend stocks are stocks, there is always the potential for capital appreciation. In that way, you can earn passive income from two sources – dividends and capital gains.

You can make this process very easy and affordable by opening an account with Ally Invest. They have one of the lowest fees for each trade and have been a long time top brokerage.

Need any help in setting up any of these?

Please drop a comment bellow. I will be gald to be of help.