20 Best Passive Income Ideas To Make a Full-Time Income

Searching for the best passive income ideas?

Here is a list of 20 passive income ideas that you are going to love!

1. Become a Proofreader

Want to earn money correcting mistakes?

If you have a good eye to spot errors, have a good grasp of any language, and enjoy reading, you should consider becoming a proofreader.

It’s a side hustle idea that you can take up part time and is damn profitable!

As a proofreader, you dictate the number of hours you work and how much workload you want to take up. You can enjoy the freedom and flexibility of working for yourself as well.

Your main job would be to find mistakes in the script you are given. From grammatical mistakes and punctuation errors to formatting, you have to identify them and correct them for your clients.

In this age of increased digital and content marketing, proofreaders are in great demand and you can find work quite easily. You can expect to earn $30-$50 per hour as a beginner proofreader. And significantly more once you are experienced and have good clients.

Caitlin Pyle, the founder of Proofread Anywhere, used to earn more than $40K every year through proofreading alone. Being a highly successful freelance proofreader, she started Proofread Anywhere to help others learn the same and find clients.

If you want to learn how to get started as a proofreader, you can take Caitlin’s free workshop. The workshop is fully free and you can learn so much about making money as a freelance proofreader.

Free Proofread Anywhere Workshop

2. Starting a Blog

Our next best recommendation is to start a blog. It’s a highly scalable, easy and fast way to start making an income from side.

This blog started as a side hustle and now make us a decent passive income every month. And that too with hardly a few hours of work every month!

It’s a highly profitable business model! 

I mean, which business costs $50 in annual expenses but can make you thousands of dollars in profit every month!

If you are new to building digital businesses but want to build a new source of passive income, we highly recommend starting a blog. It’s the best way to reach your financial goals!

We have a free step-by-step guide that will take you through the entire process of starting your blog. It hardly takes an hour of work.

Ready to get started? 

You can find the guide below.

Learn How to Start a Blog & Make Money

3. Become a Transcriptionist

Want to make money converting audio and video files to text?

Yes, you can make money transcribing audio files!

Similar to proofreading, you can find a lot of opportunities as a transcriptionist in this increasing age of digital marketing.

This job also provides you the flexibility to work at night (or at any time) and pays well.

You can find a variety of transcriptionist work including services for bloggers, YouTubers and podcasters to legal and medical transcription services that pay highly.

If you wish to jumpstart your transcription career, you can attend the free General Transcription Mini-Course offered by Transcribe Anywhere. 

Taught by Janet Shaughnessy, a professional transcriptionist & owner of Zoom Transcription Services with over 10 years of experience, this free course will teach you all about becoming a six-figure transcriptionist and finding high-paying work easily.

Free Transcription Mini-Course

4. Flipping Flea Market Items Online

Another highly profitable way to make money online is flea market flipping.

Flea market flipping is the art of buying household items from garage sales and thrift stores at a discount and selling them online at a profit. You can sell these products through your own store or platforms such as eBay and Craigslist.

Sounds crazy?

It’s true. You can make insane profits by flipping flea market items.

Rob and Melissa, the founders of Flea Market Flipper have been flipping items since 2015 and make over $100,000 annually.

They have a free Flipping Workshop where they will take you through the A-Z of flea market flipping and help you make your first $100 flipping used/old items in 7 days. Ready to take up the flipping challenge?

Learn from the free workshop by Rob and Melissa below!

Free Flipping Workshop ($100 in 7 Days Challenge)

5. Become an Amazon Seller

Did you know that you can become an Amazon seller easily?

In fact, there are people who earn millions of dollars as Amazon sellers. 

So, what can you sell on Amazon?

We can sell anything and everything, from physical products (like soaps, notebooks, clothes, kitchen utensils, etc), digital products, or your own merchandise all via Amazon. You can make use of the Amazon FBA program to fully outsource the shipping activities to Amazon and focus more on the sales part.

Robert and Stephen, million-dollar Amazon super-sellers have set up Marketplace Superheroes, to help beginners learn how to make $10,000+ every month selling simple products online.

Through this free webinar, they will teach you exactly how they have sold items globally and built a ‘mini empire’ on Amazon with no outside funding!

From why you don’t need to sell hundreds of different products, finding hidden gem products, what to avoid, and the #1 way to create a global Amazon “mini-empire”, they’ll let you in on the secret sauce to achieving Amazon success.

Ready to get started with your Amazon seller journey?

Learn below from the best in the industry today!

Free Webinar – How to Build a 5-Figure Global Amazon Mini-Empire

6. Become a Virtual Assistant

If you are an organized person looking for side jobs to make money, you could render your service as a virtual assistant.

Virtual assistants provide their clients with administrative help and support, bookkeeping, customer service, and social media management while working from their home office.

Gina Horkey, from the Horkey Handbook, used to earn $48,000+ in side income every year as a virtual assistant while holding a full-time job. After achieving success as a virtual assistant, she has been teaching people how to start and grow their VA businesses by sharing her own journey.

If you want to learn more about being a VA, you can download her free VA Workbook where she will teach you about the services you can offer as a VA,  how to land your first paying client, and show you how her students were able to break into the VA industry successfully.

Free VA Workbook

7. Writing an E-Book

Ever wanted to be an author?

I know writing a book sounds crazy, but it’s very much possible. Unlike in the 20th century, you do not need a publisher and agent to sell your book.

It’s possible just with the click of a button. Amazon has revolutionized the publishing industry with Kindle Direct Publishing. You can now publish your book (both hard copies as well as e-books) at the comfort of your home. All you now have to do is to essentially write the book!

In this age of tweets and snaps, people hardly spend time reading large novels or books. Be it a novel or non-fiction book, small and concise books tends to do well.

Thus if you have experience or expertise in something (it could be anything – fitness, travel experiences, cooking, home decor, parenting) or if you have a story in mind, publishing an e-book has never been easier!

The best part about self-publishing is that it is a passive income source. If you publish a book, you will keep receiving royalties as long as your book keeps selling. It’s a life-long earning opportunity!

Ana from The She Approach has created the course “Ebook Bestseller Bootcamp” to help people publish their own e-books. She has published not one, but three best sellers, ranked on top of amazon categories and consistently makes between $500 to $3500 every month from her books.

You can explore this course if you want to learn in-depth about how to publish your own e-book and generate income passively for the years to come.

E-Book Bestseller Bootcamp Course

8. Creating Your Own Courses

If you are wondering which is the most profitable online business model, we would say its starting a course of your own.

The typical path of a digital marketer is to get started from a business like blogging, YouTube, podcasting, etc and later build a course of their own. Because creating your own course is crazy profitable.

Think of this, you have a $199 course. That’s $199 for every person who buys your course. That’s much more easier than having an insane $50 RPM and getting 4,000 people to visit your blog or YouTube channel. 

You would rather have 1 person buy a $200 course than four thousand people read a free blog post, right?

In short, creating and selling an online course is one of the most profitable online businesses you can start.

You can choose to sell your courses through already established platforms like Udemy (you will get free customers organically since they have millions of customers already) or can start an online school of your own through platforms like Teachable, Thinkific, Podia, etc.

9. Starting a Podcast

Podcasting is one of the most profitable online businesses you can run. Like blogging, it costs a very small amount to get started (you just need the right mic and hosting), but pays a decent income for your efforts.

Of course, it takes some time grow your follower base (just like blogging or starting a YouTube channel). But once you have a follower base, you will be able to make a great side hustle income from your podcast.

10. Starting a YouTube Channel

Starting a YouTube channel is another powerful way to earn online while working part-time. It’s a perfect night hustle with lots of potentials.

It might not pay off right away, but as your videos start gaining more traction, you will start seeing significant passive income coming in. And it also has the potential to become a full-time job (even a small business) in the future. 

And irrespective of whether you are a student or have a full-time job, you can spend a couple of hours every night creating and editing videos for your channel.

11. Become an Affiliate Marketer

Affiliate marketing is an extremely lucrative side hustle idea. The earning potential is really high and the barrier to entry is really low.

The competition is also high in affiliate marketing, but the pie is big enough that you can always make a nice side income with good efforts. There are several affiliate programs that pay hundreds of dollars in commission per sale.

12. Become an Email Marketer

Email is one of the oldest and most effective communication and marketing channels employed by marketers for decades. Even though the concept of email and email marketing came to popularity in the 1970s, it is still as effective as earlier, if not more.

According to DMA national Client Email Report 2015, email marketing has an ROI of $38 for every $1 spent, and 1 in 5 companies report an ROI of over 70:1.

The Returns On Investment (ROI) above show how effective email marketing actually is!

Running a newsletter is more profitable and simpler than ever before. With around 4 billion people using email and billions of emails being sent daily, email spamming has also become a common problem. Most people only subscribe to high-quality mail lists and newsletters of late.

Even though it has become challenging to capture leads through email, email marketing, and newsletter business still is one of the most effective side hustle ideas to try out.

13. Start a Dropshipping Business

Dropshipping is a popular business model since it enables people to sell products without having to manage inventory and shipping. This results in a low startup cost and reduced risk for the entrepreneurs.

By eliminating the need to manage inventory and shipping, you effectively only have to focus on sales and customer service alone.

If you have previous expertise in marketing, then dropshipping would be a suitable side hustle for you. The earning potential is tremendous and good marketers stand to earn a great side income from dropshipping.

A few popular niches that you could consider for your dropshipping store are fashion and beauty products, toys, electronics, and kitchen equipment.

You are not limited to these niches, you can choose any niche that you believe has potential. There are a lot of untapped niches that you could target for your dropshipping business.

14. Become a Social Media Influencer

Becoming an influencer is all about building a personal brand. If you have dreamed about being famous as a child (or as an adult, duh!), there’s no better time to go after your dreams than now!

With the advent of the internet and social media, it hasn’t just become easier to become famous; you can even make money as an influencer. Whether you have a great fashion sense, cook well, sing well, or dance well; you can create a personal brand through social media like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc.

If you are not a social butterfly and don’t like standing in front of the camera, do not worry. You can still be an influencer around activities like photography, food, pets, etc.

You can make money through sponsored posts, promoting affiliate products, etc. It takes some time to start making money as an influencer, as you have to build a following initially. But once you have an engaged following, it’s a passive income source you could utilize for the years to come.

15. Mobile App Development

If you are proficient with programming languages like JavaScript, C#, PHP, etc., and are familiar with app development platforms like Firebase, React Native, etc., you could make money developing and selling mobile apps. There are two ways you can make money from app development:

• You can develop and publish your own apps on platforms like iOS App Store, Google Play Store, etc. If you have a good enough idea with the potential to go viral, you could stand to make millions. We cannot predict how much you would make by developing and publishing your own apps. You can make nothing, a few hundred dollars, or even millions. There are mobile games and app development companies with revenues in billions as well. It’s a tough act, but with an extremely high upside if things go your way.
• If you do not want to experiment, wait and see if your app would become successful or not, and would rather get paid for the app development efforts you put in; you could work as a freelance app developer in your free time. This way, you can create and provide apps to your clients while getting paid for them. In a way, you are building a career as an app developer as well with this method. Because once you have worked with multiple clients and have built a reputation as an efficient developer, you will actually find companies looking to take you in as a permanent developer. App developers are in high demand currently.

16. Peer To Peer Lending

If you have some extra cash with you and would like some good returns in a short period of time, peer-to-peer lending is a good option for you. With P2P lending sites, you will receive a much better interest rate than investing in a bank account or fixed account.

There are platforms that allow you to lend to businesses as well as individuals. You can leverage such platforms to generate a decent interest rate from your spare money. 

Some websites have inbuilt algorithms to calculate the inherent risk and provide an appropriate risk-reward ratio to individual lenders. Like investing in stock markets, peer-to-peer lending is also a passive income method. Even though the returns might not be as lucrative as investing in secondary markets, it’s still much better than the returns from a normal bank account, fixed deposits, etc.

17. Investing

Investing has never been simpler thanks to the emergence of applications like Robinhood and Acorns. You can generate passive income through a wide range of investments, including equities, high-dividend shares, REITs, and bonds.

The stock market doesn’t need to be a scary place. Here are a few more ways to make money investing.

• Bonds Or CDs:

Low-risk investment opportunities include bonds and certificates of deposit (CDs). You may expect modest profits in exchange for little risk.

• Index Funds:

It’s common for index funds to have a mix of stocks and bonds for a certain market. They can liquidate in 1–3 business days. However, increased liquidity comes with a greater risk.

• Stocks:

Dividend-paying stocks are highly attractive to retail investors. It’s common for stocks to provide a greater rate of return than other types of investments, but that high rate of return comes with increased risk.

• Money Market:

Money market funds are short-term debt products that are often rather stable. However, they have a low risk and hence a low return, and are easy to sell.

• Real Estate Investment:

Real estate investing may be done in a variety of ways. Purchasing a home is, first and foremost, an investment. However, you may also invest in REITs using an app like Fundraise.

18. Creating Softwares

Have you considered leveraging your expertise to produce software that you can sell?

Similar to creating & publishing mobile apps, you can create custom software as well.

19. Sell Stock Photos Online:

One of the most significant disadvantages of having a service-based company such as photography is that you are paid for your time. To make money with photography, you must cover an event or session, which might be tiresome after a while, even if you’re earning a lot.

If you’re a full-time photographer or possess a high-quality camera, you may supplement your income by selling images online. Pexels, Shutterstock, and other online media outlets will pay for high-quality photographs and videos.

Because these websites handle all of the marketing for you, once you post your photographs to the platform, the chore of getting your work out there and selling it is done for you.

If you run your photography business on Shopify, you can easily incorporate digital things like prints or print-on-demand products like t-shirts and hats, which will provide you with even more passive income streams, allowing you to work less and earn more.

20. Own A Vending Machine:

This one, too, takes some investment. To get started, you must first purchase a vending machine, clean it as well as possible, then load it with food and drinks.

Furthermore, you must situate it in a favorable location, so you have to save aside some funds for this attempt as well. Vending machines usually offer a six to twelve month return on investment, after which the money earned is nearly passive.

Stand-alone self-operated water and ice vending machine is another wonderful vending machine concept. You may purchase a machine that is simple to install, operate, and administer remotely.

The advantage of using an ice machine rather than one that sells beverages or snacks is that the machine creates its inventory–all you need is a water connection and power.

Ice vending machines look wonderful in parking lots, stores, and wherever else you can obtain permission to put them.

There are many other passive income ideas that you can start. But these are few ideas that we believe are the best for beginners.

You do not need any experience or knowledge of the digital business landscape to get started with these ideas.

If you are half-hearted of starting a business or are wondering why you should start one, it’s because an online business will help you build a new source of passive income.

No one ever got rich by saving. You actually have to earn more in order to achieve financial freedom.

And these are few simple business ideas that you can explore.

But some of these are extremely scalable business models. Do give them a try. It could change your life!

If you are unsure of which idea to get started with, I recommend starting a blog.

Learn How to Start a Blog & Make Money