Start a blog
The most important method for generating passive income is to start a blog. Blogs can generate a tremendous amount of income, but not quickly. If you plan to start a blog, understand that it's going to take a vast amount of work and time to succeed.
Regardless of your niche, as long as you have a clear understanding of things like searching engine optimization, social media marketing and the ability to write high-value content, then you will succeed with a blog. Once your blog becomes popular, it provides you with the platform and audience to generate multiple streams of revenue by marketing relevant products and services to your visitors.
Write and publish an ebook
Another great method for generating a respectable amount of passive income is to write and publish an ebook. Non-fiction ebooks that help to educate your audience on topics such as online marketing, business or other self-development areas, are going to sell far better than fiction books at the outset.
Clearly, fiction can make tremendous amounts of money, but it's also highly competitive if you're not an already-established writer with an existing following. Utilize the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing platform and publish ebooks that will fill an existing need in popular niches where you have some level of expertise.
Create an online course
Have a technical skill? Want to convey that skill to others out there while generating a healthy passive income stream? Creating an online course on Udemy is a great way to automate some of your cash flow. However, like any other income stream that's passive, it takes a significant amount of effort on the front end.
There are so many things that can be taught through an online course. I opt to teach technical skills in my courses such as how you can become a web developer or learn search engine optimization, but you can also opt to teach other skills such as playing an instrument, learning a new language, becoming a photographer and so on and so forth.
Produce an audiobook
I've been in the audiobook business for some time now and it's an incredible stream of passive income if you do things the right way. Leverage Audible's ACX platform to push out your audiobooks to the world's most robust platforms such as Audible and iTunes.
If you have specialized knowledge or advanced skill sets in some area, you could opt to teach them through audiobooks. However, you have to focus on delivering an enormous amount of value and ensure that you have a high-quality production. Don't try to slap things together and expect to earn any money online.
Become an affiliate marketer
Affiliate marketing is likely one of the most powerful ways that you can produce multiple passive income streams. However, this isn't easy by any measure. To succeed at affiliate marketing, you need a large following of users. In other words, you need a big platform and audience.
When you don't have a platform or audience, you need to run ads, which can get costly. If you know what you're doing and you're a seasoned internet marketer (IM), you'll succeed. But it takes time to learn the ropes. Still, this is a great way to sell products and services that you don't own, effectively becoming like a broker while earning a healthy passive income stream.
Build a sales funnel
Anyone in the marketing business understands the concept of sales funnels. Sales funnels conceptualize the process of taking prospective customers from browsers to buyers. However, building the proper sales funnel is no easy task. It requires a serious amount of upfront investment of your time, and it also requires lots of browsers to drop into the top of the funnel.
In order to build your sales funnel, you need to offer something in exchange for an email address, effectively creating a free offer. Sign up to a system like Aweber or Mail Chimp and work on building out your sales funnel. Create a free offer and build an automated email series that will move your leads up the value ladder of products that you're selling.
Develop a smartphone app
Okay. Okay. I know it's not easy to develop a smartphone app. You either need a lot of skill or a bit of money to get someone to make your vision into a reality, but it is still possible. While the overnight gold rush to app riches might be over, you can still earn a respectable income if you develop the right app.
If you can create the next Uber, then great. If not, you can opt for some niche app that will help to solve a problem or fill a need that might not have yet been properly covered. Think you can do something better? Why not give it a shot? If you're at all technical and understand the dynamics of business and smartphone applications, this is definitely worth your while.
Real estate has long been the source of passive income for ages. Investors and owners have opted to rent out homes, apartments, condos and office space to generate a healthy monthly revenue. Clearly, real estate is a great source for generating some automatic income, but it also requires a sizable upfront investment.
If you have extra cash lying around, you can certainly opt to invest in some real estate. You can purchase real estate to rent out to long-term tenants or you can try your hand at vacation rentals through sites like Airbnb or VRBO. Either way you look at it, this is a great passive income idea if you have the cash lying around.
Etsy is a massive resource for people wanting to sell all types of handcrafted goods. But, did you also know that you can sell digital products on Etsy? These digital products require little to no maintenance once they're up and running. All you need to do is put the time into creating the digital products and setup quality listings
Clearly, this will require some maintenance on your part and ensuring that the right traffic hits your listings. However, digital products require virtually no overhead and will sell automatically as long as they are high in quality and are appealing to the relevant audience that you're targeting.