#1 — Write And Sell An Ebook
If you have a propensity for writing and you can slay with your
prose, consider writing an ebook. While the market has certainly become
saturated as of late, books that help teach people about a technical
topic still sell extremely well. This is a great source of passive
income but does require a large amount of effort at the outset before
any money is generated.
You can sell your ebooks through
Amazon’s Kindle program or
Apple’s iTunes Connect,
which gives you access to a large majority of the digital-book reading
market and the barriers for entry are incredibly low. You don’t need to
invest lots of money to make this happen, but you do need to invest lots
of time, not only in writing the ebooks, but in marketing them as well.
#2 — Sell Audiobooks With Audible
I’ve been in the audiobook-selling business for some time now and
have over 3 dozen titles to my name. I know a thing or two about
audiobooks. And, what I’ve noticed recently is that audiobooks are
growing in popularity as their digital-ebook counterparts are becoming
less and less popular.
People are turning to audio and visuals when it comes to technical
subjects. However, you should consider doing an ebook first and turning
it into an audiobook through a resource like Audible’s
ACX
platform. You can hire a producer either through a royalty share
program, so you don’t have to shell out upfront cash, or you can do a
pay-per-hour hire as well.
#3 — Create An App
Yes, this is far more technical. Unless you have the right
app-development skills, doing this is going to be a significant
undertaking. But, apps are also a great source of
passive income when done the right way. You can reach a massive audience of smartphone users by building a great app.
However, like anything else truly worthwhile, apps require a
significant investment of your time or money upfront. If you don’t have
the skills, then you have to hire someone who can assist you in creating
a great app. But first you need to come up with an idea that will sell.
Do the proper market research and analytics to come up with the right
app.
#4 — Use Mechanical Turk
Mechanical Turk
is Amazon’s take on micro-jobs. These are small miniscule-jobs that you
can do for other people, which they call HITs, or Human Intelligence
Tasks. These are super simple tasks that anyone can do. Some examples
are listing off some URLs with certain kinds of images for one cent, or
recording a few phrases with a microphone for 6 cents.
Yes, they don’t pay much, but if you string together hundreds of
well-paying HITs, you can make a bit of money quickly online if you’re
in a crunch for cash. Also, it’s important to note that you can also
employ people with HITs to help you with whatever micro-tasks you might
have.
#5 — Offer Gigs On Fiverr
If you have some professional experience in graphic design,
accounting, social media marketing, web development or SEO, for example,
you could offer gigs on
Fiverr starting at $5 per job. You could perform a valuable service that you could also up-sell to make more money per gig.
Fiverr is one of the biggest providers in the gig economy on the web
and you can sell a wide variety of services and products through this
medium. Do the research and find out what you can offer. However, keep
in mind that like any other money-making task, it takes time to succeed
here. And stellar reviews will help you generate more and more income
over time.
#6 — Sell Professional Services On Upwork or 99Designs
Upwork and 99Designs are two of the biggest resources for selling
just about any professional service under the sun. If you have extensive
experience in a field, you might want to consider selling your services
through one of these sites. 99Designs only applies to graphic design
while Upwork applies to nearly every other professional service.
However, like anything else, the beginning will be difficult. Before
you have a significant track record and extensive reviews, sourcing work
in one of these highly-competitive platforms will be difficult. Find
the most successful people in your niche and try to model your approach
and online profile after theirs.
#7 — Build A Blog
One of the most exhaustive endeavors when it comes to making money
online is to build a blog. But we all know that building a blog with
real readership is difficult. It takes a lot of work. And I’m speaking
from experience. However, once you reach a certain point, the progress
and momentum sways in your favor and it becomes far easier.
Blogs can easily generate tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of
thousands of dollars per month when done right. Yes, that much. But it
won’t be easy to get there. However, looking back on it, a year from now
you’ll wish you started today. So why wait another moment?
#8 — Email Marketing
Email marketing is at the heart of every successful endeavor on the
web. For those serious about making money online, email marketing is
certainly where it’s at. But it has to be done the right way. Before you
even try to market anything to anyone via an email list, be sure that
they’re people that subscribed and opted in directly to you.
When you try to market to people via email out of the blue, you won’t
find as much success. But, if those email subscribers are actively and
keenly interested in what you have to say, and they signed up directly
through your blog or site, your success rates will be much higher.
#9 — Auction Items On Ebay
Ebay is a bellwether. It’s been around since nearly the start of the
online boom. But, like any other platform, success can seem fleeting if
you don’t know what you’re doing. Selling items on eBay, professionally
that is, can be an art form. Getting people interested in your auctions
isn’t always easy, especially when there’s hefty competition and low
demand for what you’re selling.
Like anything else, you need to do the proper research, but you can
make significant amounts of money as an eBay Power Seller. Find the most
successful eBay sellers in your niche and model after their success.
Find all of their listings and see just how they list the items that
they’re selling.
#10 — Rent Your Home On AirBnB
Rent your entire home or just a room on AirBnB. This is a simple and
effective way to make money online, especially in the short term. While
you won’t get rich doing this, you can generate thousands of dollars per
month for the right place. And, if you live in a sought-after vacation
destination, then you’re certainly in luck.
Research other listings in your city on AirBnB and see what the going
rate is for a place like yours. You could also just rent out a private
room as well or even a bed in a shared room. In fact, that’s how AirBnB
got its start. However, you might find it hard in the beginning without
reviews, but as long as you take really good care of your guests and
provide a lot of value, the reviews will eventually come rolling in.
#11 — Sell Photos Online
If you’re at all into photography, and you have a cache of nice photos, you could consider selling them through sites like
Shutterstock and
iStockPhoto,
two of the biggest photo resources online. It doesn’t take too much
effort to do this, but it does take creativity and persistence to
succeed with it.
You’ll find serious competition when trying to sell photos online,
but this is also a great method for generating passive income. If you
can license your images or sell them as stock photography, you won’t
have to do any additional work to generate income from that sale once
the photos have been posted online. Just collect your payments.
#12 — Drive For Uber Or Lyft
If you live in an area where Uber or Lyft operate, why not become a
driver? If you’re looking to make some short-term cash, you can
definitely rake it in by working for one of these popular car-hire apps.
As long as your vehicle fits within the specifications of their
program, and you have a clean license, you could do this on the side,
especially if you’re in a crunch for cash.
Treat your guests right and offer them perks that other drivers don’t
offer, simply because you want to deliver a lot of value. You might not
get that much out of it from the outset, but it will set you apart from
all the other drivers and your reviews will be indicative of just that.
#13 — Sell Products On Etsy
Etsy is a great
resource for those that enjoy making their own products and selling them
online. If you’re into hand-crafted items and you have a penchant for
creating killer goods and wares that people just have to have, then you
might want to consider setting up an Etsy shop and selling through a
massive online portal.
Etsy is a great way to go directly to where all the consumers are
congregating. While the company will take a small fee to list your
products, along with fees to process the transaction itself, it is
easier than setting up your own transactional website. Do some research
on the top sellers and try to emulate their success.
#14 — Use Shopify To Build Your Own Online Store
Don’t want to sell through Etsy? You could always build your own online store using a platform like
Shopify.
Shopify makes it easy to build a transactional website without all the
hassle, which takes much of the guesswork out of doing what some would
consider a highly-complex task.
The company markets their services with being able to start selling
online in seconds. Well, it might not work that fast, but you could most
certainly get a good transactional website up and running within
minutes or hours.
#15 — Build An Amazon FBA Business
If you want to go directly to the world’s largest online retailer, consider setting up a
Fulfilled-by-Amazon (FBA) business.
Amazon will pick, pack and ship your orders, and you’ll have enormous
exposure to a buzzing marketplace where products are selling every
second.
Clearly, there’s a lot of demand on Amazon, and if any product is
going to sell, it’s going to sell well on Amazon. But the goal here is
to source the right products that will easily sell at the world’s
largest online retailer. Generally, products between $10 and $50 sell
very well here. Just be sure to do the right market research before
jumping on this bandwagon.
#16 — Answer Professional Questions
Are you a professional in a field that can help answer questions for people looking for your expertise? Websites like
JustAnswer
and LivePerson match you up with people looking for answers to
technical or professional questions. You can make money online by simply
answering these questions and providing the right information to people
based on their individualistic circumstances.
Depending on your area of knowledge, you could either make a lot of
money or just a little bit by answering questions professionally. Do
your due diligence before signing up to any website where you’re
providing answers in exchange for money and be sure that it’s a
reputable source.
#17 — Create Video Tutorials On YouTube
This is definitely a long-term strategy, and you won’t get rich
overnight by doing this, but creating engaging and well-thought-out
video tutorials and posting them on sites like YouTube could make you a
significant amount of passive income in the long term depending on just
how well-received those videos might be.
Find a niche and stick to it. Build a YouTube channel and find
something that you can do that will add a whole lot of value to the
people that might be interested in that field or niche. However, keep in
mind that this will require a significant amount of time and upfront
investment before this pays off at all.
#18 — Develop Educational Courses On Udemy
One of my absolute favorite sites for selling educational courses is Udemy. In fact, you can check out
the courses that I have for sale on the site here.
Udemy is a great place to build out technical courses that will teach
people how to do some complicated task or learn some sought-after skill.
In my courses, I teach things like web development, search engine
optimization and graphic design, but you can teach just about anything
on Udemy. However, there is enormous competition on here, but it’s a
great source of passive income if you can create a course that people
will love.
#19 — Become A Virtual Assistant
While becoming a virtual assistant won’t pay you enormous amounts of
money, if you’re looking to be a digital nomad in a city with a low
cost-of-living, this could be something that pays your bills. This will
require a significant amount of organization and some technical skills
as well to succeed.
As long as you have the basics covered with programs like Word, Excel
and PowerPoint, for example, and you’re an effective communicator, able
to stick to deadlines, you might find yourself excelling as a virtual
assistant.
#20 — Teach Others As A Virtual Tutor
Want to teach others directly? You can become a virtual tutor and
engage in one-on-one tutoring sessions or even host Webinars to help
people directly with any number of topics. This is terrific for teaching
people new languages. If you have a second-language skill, this might
be the right option to generate some money quickly and easily.
Of course you could teach a number of things virtually. This could
range from technical to non-technical skills. For example, you could use
a site like VerbalPlanet to teach a language, or try to source clients
directly through social media or other avenues and process their
payments through PayPal.
#21 — Write Articles For Other Sites
Last, but certainly not least, is article writing. Depending on your
skill level when it comes to writing, you could always find work writing
articles for other people. At the outset, this won’t pay you much,
especially if you have little in the way of examples or portfolio
pieces. But, like anything else, you can build this up over time.
You could also do a number of other things related to writing such as
copywriting for descriptions, emails, or other sales-related content.
Do your due diligence to find out what the going rates are for writing
articles, and even try to find a mentor if you’re serious about making
money online through this method.
