Passive Income: How I Multiply My Money With Minimal Effort
My Secret Strategies for Low-Effort High-Reward Side Hustles
We all need passive income.
I am always in search of effective ways with which I can not only grow my wealth but also require less time and energy. Something that I can do on a side and still enjoy my life and my other business. This small idea to start something of my own apart from my writing business led me to test a few online businesses that can make me money in a long run and…..with less effort.
Less effort doesn’t mean NO EFFORT. I do put little time into my income streams. Sometimes, if required I DO take help as well.
The best thing that I like about having a passive income stream is that it will help me more during good times. And most importantly if I become unemployed (4 years back I was a developer), me and my family can live on these income streams. doesn’t matter how small it seems, it all adds up at the end of the day.
What is passive income?
In my view, these are simple streams that can be created with less or minimal efforts.
For example — My office hours. I would reach my office sharp at 9 am and come back around 6. So that was a fix 9–5 job.
But that’s not the case with the online businesses. even if you leave it untouched, the stream will still deposit money in your bank at regular intervals.
Passive income is not…
Have to clear this up as many get into wrong assumptions.
- Your job. I don’t work 9–5 for my passive income streams. I sit at my desk around 10 am. and close my work before 6 pm.
- A second job. Doing the same amount of hard work as my first job won’t qualify as a passive income stream.
- Non-income-producing assets. Investment is what I am doing currently. But I have to agree here on one thing it requires money. But that’s not the case with passive income that I am going to talk about here.
25 Passive Income Ideas to Help You Make Money
- Create a course — This is the best and my most favorite one. If you can make a video course and upload it to Udemy and sell directly using Gumroad or Payhip then still you can add a passive income stream to your portfolio.
- Write an e-book —For me, this is the no.1 income source currently. I would suggest to check out this article for more details.
- Sponsored posts on social media — Till now I have got only one sponsorship. The company approached me through my Medium profile.
- Create a blog or YouTube channel — I have started YouTube and the views are much better than a blog. I cannot tell whether YouTube is the preferred platform for audiences or not, but I am sure that the duo works perfectly when done together.
- Affiliate marketing — I did this but only a few times. I have a few software I use and love to promote them. I have a few courses and ebooks from other creators that I enjoyed myself. I promote them on other blogs.
- Flip retail products — If you are interested in retail business then this is best for you.
- Sell photography online —I am a fan of Adobe Stock. I use it personally. if you are into photos then sell them on various platforms like Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, Wirestock and so on.
- Sell designs online — if you are into illustrations or love creating designs online then try to sell them on various marketplaces like Etsy, Gumroad, Creative Fabrica, and so on.
- Buy a blog — Simply means Flipping the blogs. Buy blogs at lower prices and sell them at higher prices.
- Advertise on your car — This I picked up from my neighbor. Who uses its car to advertise other people’s products? Most of the products are related to health.
- Rent out useful household items
- Rent out your home short-term
- Buy a local business
- Preferred stock
- Buy crowdfunded real estate
- Peer-to-peer lending
- Dividend stocks
- Create an app
- Rental income
- Rent out a parking space
- REITs
- Set up an annuity
- A municipal bond closed-end fund
- A bond ladder
- Invest in a high-yield CD or savings account
Passive Income IdeasFAQ
Which passive income source is best?
Most people ask this question. So I’ll try my best to cover it over here.
I have listed here so many passive income streams that anyone can do from the comfort of their home. Some of them are offline as well like renting out your home items while most of them can be done online.
when I created the list for the first time, it was 50. I trim it down to the small one you can see above.
Seeing so many income streams that one can do without investment sounds astonishing but at the same time, it’s confusing as well.
Creating a social media account is easy. Creating an account on Amazon KDP is easy. But the problem arises when you want to make consistent sales.
The best passive income stream is the one you enjoy yourself. Plus there is a demand for it.
Example — Selling designs online. I sold a few on Adobe stock myself. Cannot live on that money focus but love it simply because I like clicking pictures. I learned Inkscape during my college times so that was useful for me. Adobe is famous and many people/brands/companies use the platform. It’s weird to see that I still make sales from photos I uploaded 6 months back!
The niche is specific of course. I am a fan of going for micro-niches.
How can I make passive income with NO money?
I always suggest going with ZERO investment when you are starting out. There are so many income streams you can do with ZERO dollar investment. Some I have listed above. Also, I have written in detail over here. How I Create Passive Income With No Money
How can I make passive income with money?
This is what I am focusing on this year. Most of my passive income streams started with ZERO investment. So that was my hard work making me money. Now I want my money to make me more money.
And what’s better than investment?
Here are a few that you can try. make sure you get help before jumping in. I too take help from my brothers.
- Stock market — This is what I am learning currently
- Bonds
- Real Estate Rentals
- Peer-to-Peer Lending
- Dividend Stocks and Funds
- Investing in Bonds or CDs
How many income streams should you have?
It all depends on your needs.
For me, aside from my main income source (writing), I have two more passive income streams as a side hustle. It’s in tech and the other is a music store.
I have seen some people have 7 passive income streams. while some have 2 or 3.
I never believe in the number of passive income streams. Because I know some bloggers have only TWO BLOGS but make around $10k per month.
I met once a blogger (on YouTube) who has 200 blogs but only 5 are making him real money. It’s around $200 per blog (monthly). This data is 2 years old.
Not to follow anyone. You decide what you want.
Quality will always make you the most money. Period.
Conclusion
Its definitely not something that can be achieved in a few days or weeks. Your consistency and hard work is an important factor here.
There are so many ways I’d like to create income. But I know I cannot do all. So I always prefer the one to my liking and stick to it for a few months to see if I like to continue it or not.
Make sure you choose those income streams that will be helpful to you in the long run.
Good luck!
If you are interested in Gumroad Business then you can check out my ebook — Build Once, Sell Forever — How I Create & Sell Digital Products With Gumroad
