#1: Online Membership Sites
Online membership sites are a great way to get passive income. Once you have them up and running, they can become cash machines which just keep giving and giving.
When we mention membership, we’re not talking about free membershipwhereby members have access to a limited amount of resources without any bonuses. We want paid membership – where we offer exclusive content through a password protected site, in exchange for a membership fee.
Most membership sites offer content or SaaS which is Software as a Service. These two types of membership sites are the most popular choices.
There are a few different models for memberships as well. You have fixed term membership sites which have a start and end date, quarterly and annual membership sites, whereby membership is renewed every 3 or 12 months.
You also have one-time payment memberships which are sometimes known as lifetime memberships. And you also have monthly “forever” membership sites which would be the best option when it comes to generating reliable and sustainable passive income.
What’s great about membership sites is also because they can cover a very wide range of topics. They can be about anything – yoga, healthy eating, app development, internet marketing – really, anything. Even stamp collecting!
Naturally, some topics do sell better than others – the key to a successful membership site lies in the content and topic that you choose to address.
The fact is that as long as you can target and market to the right people, you’ll be able to get hundreds, even thousands of people to sign up on your membership site.
#2: Offer software as a service (SaaS)
SaaS or software as a service is a great way to create passive income. While it might sound completely terrifying to want to create and maintain software, it’s really much easier than you think with the help of online virtual assistants and freelance developers.
You must be thinking that there is nothing passive when it comes to software – there is a lot of work that needs to go into creating SaaS, especially in the early stages. However, once you have the software up and running, you then need to only sit back and watch the money grow!
Software might not be as easy to produce as newsletters and videos, but there is a huge amount of cash to be made through well-made software. Just look at sites like Google Apps and Aweber who have thousands of users who pay for their service on a monthly basis.
Yes, it might take longer to create and launch a SaaS but it’s definitely worth it, especially if you have a great idea for it already. The perceived value is much higher than any other form of digital content out there and rightly so because good software is invaluable in this day and age.
And like I said, once you get the grunt work and development out of the way, you can expect passive income in large amounts. With so many things being automated such as autoresponders and customer helpdesks, all you’ll need to do is keep an eye out for bugs and software updates, which can even be handled by a hired professional!
#3: Create and sell digital products
Selling digital products through online product launches is a great way to make money online. The best part is that you don’t even need a big wad of cash to get started – the internet marketing game is low cost, with sky-rocketing profits.
Product launches can bring in lots of revenue within just a few minutes. Millions of people are on the internet at any given time and these people are only a few clicks away from purchasing your product Because of this, it is insanely easy for your earnings to snowball within the first couple of hours of your launch.
Once you create your digital product, say an e-book or a set of video tutorials, all you need to do is promote your product launch and list it on online marketplaces. Then sit back and watch as people purchase your product.
And with the help of autoresponders and virtual assistants, all the follow up work can be automated so you’ll have more time to spend doing the things you love.
Yes, some time and effort will have to go into setting up your product launch. You’ll need to conduct market research, find affiliate marketers and set aside a good amount of time writing your sales letter and promotional e-mails, but once you get that initial work out of the way, you can truly enjoy the perks of a passive income stream.
Product launches also give you the opportunity to make the most out of your other products as well. If you know how to properly integrate and plan a sales funnel, you can look to increase your passive income phenomenally!
#4: Sell PLR products
If you are good with quick content creation, then selling PLR products is a great way for you to generate passive income for yourself.
PLR stands for Private Label Rights. Once purchased by the buyer, PLR products or content can be legally manipulated, published and the buyer can claim authorship over said content.
That is to say that when you sell PLR content, you are also selling some or all of the intellectual property rights of the said content.
PLR content itself doesn’t need to be so comprehensive or fancy – in most cases, PLR content is quite bare and kept simple – this is to allow purchases to make edits and rebrand the product easier. This also means you won’t need to stress too much on the product creation aspect.
However, be warned that PLR products are sold at pretty cheap prices – articles costing less than a dollar and whole e-books costing less than $10 – but that doesn’t make them any less profitable. You’re playing a numbers game so you want more buyers to offset the low prices.
Something which you should consider for selling PLR products is setting up a membership site. Paying members can then get free access to new PLR products on a monthly basis through your membership site.
If you’re just getting started with PLR, this is a great way for you to start making lots of passive income from just a few different PLR products. This just goes to show that you only need a handful of subscribers to start creating reliable passive income with PLR products.
#5: Sell stock photos and stock music
Stock photos and music are products which are licensed for specific uses. And you might be surprised to hear that they are great ways to generate passive side income, as well.
From casual photo enthusiasts to even a number of professional photographers, many have gotten involved in the stock photo industry which is pretty close to being a billion dollar industry. So, there’s no reason for you not to be on that pathway as well – especially since it’s quite simple to start selling stock photos and music online.
And because stock photos and music can be used in so many different mediums and for a wide range of uses, you can generate income from one set of photos or one piece of music several times over the course of a year or two.
Once you upload you stock images and music, you will make money every time someone choose to purchases one of your products. This is because the products can be sold over and over again – similar to PLR products. This means that there isn’t a limit to the amount of times the image can be reproduced – so you can expect to make the most out of your products.
#6: Google AdSense On YouTube Channel
If you have started your own YouTube channel, and you have successfully engaged your subscribers. Now, you may be thinking how to make some passive income with your YouTube channel. Fortunately, you can now create your own Google AdSense account and link it to YouTube.
Google AdSense is a free, simple way to earn passive income by just displaying targeted ads next to your online content. In this case, on your YouTube channel. With AdSense, you can show relevant and engaging ads in your YouTube channel, and earn a portion from advertising it.
How exactly does Google AdSense work for YouTube? Basically, whenever one of your viewers clicks on the advertisement on your YouTube channel or on one of your videos, you get paid a commission for advertising for them.
The advertisers had bid on how much they should pay for per click for your ad space, you will get paid according to the bid. The highest bidder gets their advertisement showcased in your YouTube channel or on your videos.
Whenever someone clicks on it and views the ad, you will get a share of the money they pay Google to showcase it. Meaning to say, the more engaged viewers in your YouTube channel, the more you will earn.
#7: Google AdSense On Your Own Blog
Same thing can be applied to your blog, too! After some time of posting in your blog, you have created your own small community with a number of engaged readers. This is the time where you will want to start to monetize the blog to get some extra passive income.
You can then link your Google AdSense account to your blog. If you use AdSense, you don’t have to select keywords or categories for your ads. Instead, Google’s server will then determine what kind of advertisements suit your blog based on what your posts are about. And then display the most relevant ads to your readers.
The process to monetize your blog with Google AdSense is extremely simple. Google doeseverything for you. All you need to do is request for an access to your AdSense account. And then Google will automatically create and place ad code on your page through the layouts and template tools.
You don’t have to go through the trouble with the coding on your site to create the ad space and select which advertisement to put on your site, Google does it for you. Login to your AdSense account, click the Home tab, choose the Account settings sub-tab and go to third party access.
And you are done with it.
#8: Become An Affiliate Marketer With Your Blog/Site
Becoming an affiliate marketer is one of the methods to earn online passive income. In fact, this might be the fastest way to earn passive income. Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s product. You will get a share of the money whenever you make a sale.
Affiliate marketing has been here for years. If you are already a blogger with a massive number of engaged readers, you can start to monetize your blog by becoming an affiliate marketer.
Write reviews on other people’s products is the first step to monetize your blog. First of all, you must join the affiliate program first to get your affiliate link and promotional tools. Affiliate link is unique to each of the affiliates, so make sure to get yours to put on your review.
And then the promotional tools such as graphics or videoseases your work to show the demonstration of the product to your readers. This would be helpful in writing your reviews too. You can even contact the vendor to get access to the product to test it out yourself. So, you will have the first hand feeling of using the product.
Most importantly, when you are writing reviews for others, be honest on what you write. You wouldn’t want to disappoint your readers by introducing them to a bad product. Don’t take the risk just for the commission.
#9: Become An Affiliate Marketer With Your Mobile Phone
Markets and media are in upheavals and it is continuously shifting towards digital. There are fewer target groups that can be reached through the traditional way of advertising, such as TV, billboards, print, or broadcast advertising.
In order to follow the trend, we must all shift towards the digital way to advertise too. To reach out for more target audiences, the mobile web has proved to be one of the best ways to do so. The mobile web is still rapidly growing due to innovative transmission technologies today, which creates completely new business opportunities for us.
For your information, 50% of mobile phone users rely on their phones as their primary source of Internet nowadays. The percentage may be more by now, which proved that mobile affiliate marketing is a tested technique.
As an affiliate marketer, if you don’t adapt to the trend, you will be left behind. For starters, you must join the affiliate program that enables you to advertise with mobiles. Once you’ve joined their program, you will get the mobile ads in different sizes, mobile text links, and other necessary tools for you to promote their product.
The commission scheme varies depending on the program, you might get pay for Pay-per-View, Pay-per-Click, Pay-per-Order, or even the combination of these. Read the terms and conditions before you join.
#10: Find Or Become A Joint Venture Partner
Joint venture is when two or more businesses enter a temporary partnership. Joint venture for physical business is a major decision, whereby they have considered the factors that might affect the relationship of this partnership. Fortunately, to form a joint venture in the online business is much easier.
“If you can’t beat them, join them. Two heads are better than one.” If you want to increase the market reach, break down barriers in your market, or just for the simple reason to generate more revenues, joint venture is definitely the best idea.
You can find or become a joint venture partner. Do not let go of any opportunities that allows you to earn passive income. It is not necessary to have a few projects with your JV partner; it can be just one particular project. Of course, you can have a long term partnership for the business as well.
When you have a JV partner, you will have the opportunity to access new markets and expand your networks. Likewise, your partner will have the access to your market too. This is a lovely win-win situation for all parties.
In addition, you are able to share the risks and costs with a partner or two. This would be great, especially for newbies, who do not have big capitals at the beginning of their business.
Of course, there are risks in forming up joint ventures as well. You may be facing the different objectives from your partners. Whenever there are different group of people, there are different opinions. Thus, clear communication plays a vital role in JV forming.
Despite the risks, joint venture is a powerful technique to earn massive revenues. This would be a great idea to add on one extra passive income stream as well.
#11: Buy an existing online business/ membership site
This option is a bit on the pricier side – you’ll need to have some money to burn to be able to purchase an online business or membership site. But if you are looking to invest a few thousand and then some, then buying over a membership site is a great way for you to create passive income for yourself from then onwards!
What you want to do is purchase a matured, thriving monthly membership site. This saves you all the hassle of having to create a membership site from scratch and find subscribers. Because when you purchase an online business or membership site, you get to basically take over the business and capitalize on its recurring income!
For example, you could purchase a membership site which usually makes about $1,000 a month from recurring members. That’s an extra $1,000 which you can get every month from simply owning this new business. Yes, you may need to pay up to 12 times that amount to purchase the membership site in the first place but in the long haul you will have created for yourself a reliable and dependable passive income stream.
Don’t forget that but purchasing a membership site, you are also gaining access to a whole new database of subscribers. So not only are you purchasing something which gives you recurring passive income but you are also growing your list while doing it!
#12: Create A Business System And Franchise It Out
Creating a business system and franchise it out does not limit it to only physical business, you can apply this online too!
Franchising your business is a proven route to rapid growth. When the concept of franchised is effective, you can make it one of your passive income streams. Do bear in mind, this is not a 100% ticket to success. It can be successful only if you have the correct mindset in doing this.
To do this, you need to first create an online business system. Once you’ve proven that the system is stable and workable, you can then franchise it out. Meaning to say, this online business system is no longer your own. Anyone who pays will have the access to use this system for their own purpose.
#13: Design And Sell Merchandise Online
The next method to earn passive income is by selling merchandise online. This would be the perfect plan to start a business if you do not have extra capital to spare, because you do not need a big capital to start this business.
According to research, online retail sales grew 12.6% to $176.2 billion in 2010, and they are expected to reach $278.9 billion by 2015. This would be an incredible revenue-generating opportunity for you to start Internet business. People nowadays rely on online shopping, because it is more convenient. Why not grab this great opportunity and start your own Internet business now?
If you are a graphic designer, you can start design your own custom merchandise and put it online. You need not to start mass producing the product in the beginning. You must first find your customers and then you’ll start producing the product according to the orders you’ve received.
If you do not have the skill to design, you can outsource to other freelancers to design it for you. Instead of spending a long time to learn how to design from scratch, outsourcing would be a better solution.
Other than designing merchandise and selling it online, you can also find your own niche according to what you love. Once you’ve found the niche that you are interested in, you can start selling your own products online.
For instance, if you love to teach people how to do Internet marketing, create your own training course and start selling it online! There are a lot of marketplaces that enables you to sell your own product nowadays.
#14: Sell advertising on your blog/site
If you have a blog or website, you can look at turning them intopassive income streams as well. All you need to do is sell advertising space on your site.
There’s a common misconception that you need to have an extremely popular, high-traffic website to be able to start selling adspace. This is certainly not true. While it does help if your website has a good amount of daily visitors, what is more important is that you can ensure that the right ads are shown to the right people.
You can get high conversion rates as long as you know your market well – and that’s how you can create big bucks through selling advertising on even low-traffic websites.
You can easily make hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month by selling adspace to other online businesses and ad agencies. You can also assert full control over how many ads you want to take on at any given time so that you don’t jeopardize the quality of and reputation of your website or blog.
You’ll be amazed at how easy it is to make money through adspace. A simple banner ad can earn you around $1,000! The main challenge here is getting the advertisers to be interested in buying adspace on your website. As long as you can show them your statistics and convince them that you can deliver, then you’ll be well on your way to churning out consistent passive income for yourself.
