Passive income is income generated with minimum, direct involvement in the income-generating activity. There are numerous ways to earn extra cash via passive income in 2022, but none of them qualify as easy money. They will usually either require significant initial input in terms of effort / work or initial investment capital. Nevertheless, if you commit to one, passive income opportunities can lead to streams of income which may even eventually provide you with financial independence.
The easiest way and most reliable source of passive income is to put any extra income into a high-yield savings account. However, due to the lower risk, the returns are also likely to be lower. This can sometimes be the best option for those that have a busy life and do not have the time and energy to risk alternative methods. If you are looking for alternative ways or are looking to build up an income stream from scratch, then we suggest some of the below methods!
Renting Out Your Car
While cars are useful when you want to get somewhere quick, they are usually parked out somewhere. Therefore, renting the car during the day or over the weekend can get you paid when the car is idle. Registering with a good car rental agency will enable you to tap into this source of passive income.
Renting Out Living Space
Buying a house can be a good investment. Unfortunately, most people own houses that are either too big for their families or put too much strain on their budget. These days there are several options available for anyone who needs to rent out some part or the whole of their house. You could do it yourself. In which case, you would have to advertise the living space, vet every single potential tenant, deal with matters that arise during the tenancy period, and deal with those that arise after it. Or you could outsource to various brick and mortar or online letting agencies. These agencies manage your rented space for you so that you. As a result, this option is less cumbersome and will allow you to earn your passive income with less personal involvement.
Social Media Marketing
A passive income opportunity that you can tap into if your social media presence has gained you a following is social media marketing. It is done by social media influencers who can sway their followers’ spending decisions. Companies pay social media influencers to advertise their products favorably. On a post where you are marketing the company’s product, you either suggest directly that your followers use it or feature it in your picture or video. The more followers you have, the higher companies will pay to do social media marketing. You could get extra money through these deals from posting videos and pictures that you would otherwise be posting.
Affiliate Marketing
When you sign up to an affiliate program, you can earn a commission each time someone clicks on one of your links to view or purchases an item or service. You can display links either via your website, blog or using a social media channel. Once you have an affiliate link set up anywhere you have an audience, you get a commission each time the person clicks on it or makes purchases by using it. If you are famous online, you can be an affiliate. For example, most YouTube reviewers are affiliate marketers, partnering with sellers for the items they review. The reviewers provide links to websites belonging to affiliate companies. Lot’s of digital products and services offer affiliate programmes.
Selling Stock Photos
If you have decent, good-quality photos, you can post them for sale on stock photo sites like Shutterstock. Shutterstock allows you to sell digital copies of your photographs (stock photos). Before posting your photo up for sale, you should ensure that it matches what the customers want. People use stock photos for their blogs, make ads, book covers, and more. Finding a niche in which your photograph can be bought is essential for selling stock photos. After you pay for your photo, you might have to market it. The more people like, buy, and recommend it, the more you will be assured of a passive income.
Narrating an Audiobook
Audiobooks are a popular alternative to written literature. They are ways for people to catch up on favorite books with an appeal of their own. Audiobook narrators earn royalties with every audiobook that sells. To be one, you must first learn how to narrate. Then you must acquire a license from the copyright holder of the book. If it goes well, you should be on your way to earning a passive income from your audiobook.
Starting a YouTube Channel
YouTube pays YouTubers most of the income they get from AdSense. Companies advertise their products and services using AdSense. You often see these advertisements on websites, video streaming platforms, and social media. Most of your payment will come from advertisements if you become a successful YouTuber. Every once in a while, everyone looks for something to watch. Find a consumer niche that likes videos you can make consistently and then start small. It might take some time to gain subscribers. Once you do, you will regularly earn from your posts with little involvement.
Writing a Blog
One of the ways you can earn from your writing is by creating a blog. All blogs are attractive for the content they offer. For this reason, ensure your posts are tailored to the desires of your readers. You will earn from your blog in one of two ways. You could sell products directly on your site. Or create traffic that improves the interaction with your AdSense advertisements and affiliate links. In this way, you will continually receive a passive income stream from your blog when you have a readership.
Publishing a Book
There are always people willing to buy a book. It might be for educational, informative, or entertainment purposes. Find out what you want to write about as a start. Then try to establish who would buy the book and why. Numerous people buy best sellers for a reason. If it helps, you could read and analyze a best seller from the genre in which you want to write. As you do this, note the appeal the book has. You could also read the book’s reviews. After writing, you can use a publishing house or an online bookseller like Barnes & Noble or Kindle to publish your book. Book sales will earn you passive income after that.
Creating an Online Course
An online course is made up of educative literature, documents, presentations, videos, or tutorials for those who sign up to learn a skill or occupation. They can be long or short courses. Setting up the platform for your course will be taxing. However, it will not need as much involvement to run once you have it up. Students will access it independently, go through the lectures and keep track of their progress. You will only have to make updates and upgrades occasionally and ensure it is available to students.
Creating an App
Apps make people’s lives easier and better. Almost all phones being produced in the world today are smartphones. This means almost everyone uses an app for something. If you have an idea for an app that will improve people’s lives or make it easier, you should actualize it. Apps don’t have to be developed from scratch. Some softwares and websites will enable you to make your app using their templates. Once you make your app available on app stores, you are set up to earn from its sales or the ads you allow on it.
Making an Invention
The world is filled with people’s inventions. The device you are using to view this article is an invention. So is a table and a car. Inventions can be objects of any kind as long as they have a utility. However, not all of them earn the people who invented them passive income. If you have an idea, you should patent it in your name. Once you do, no one can make or sell an item that is similar to yours. For permission to recreate the item, they will have to buy your patent or pay you royalty. In this way, you are always assured of a passive income from your invention.
Creating a Dropshipping Store
Dropshipping stores are intermediaries who avail products from sellers to buyers. You don’t have to buy products to run this kind of business. Just pitch a supplier’s prices to potential customers and redirect the orders they make back to the supplier. You pay the supplier, who then sends the items to your customer. With a dropshipping website and cell phone app, you can then automate orders and supplies so that you only get involved when significant changes are to be made or if a problem occurs.
Owning a Vending Machine
A vending machine is a food ATM. It is similar to how you can get money from a bank without being served by an employee of the bank. Vending machines have two slots. One is where customers insert money, and the second is where food packets come out. As you buy food from a vending machine, the owners profit from your purchases without directly serving you. They just have to stock it with supplies, ensure it is working, and service it from time to time.
Owning a Taxi
Getting from place to place is part of everyone’s day, week, or month. In busy towns and cities, people use taxis to get from place to place. These days, taxi services accessible online like Uber and Bolt get used more because of their convenience. If you want to get passive income from owning a taxi, you can register yourself with these services and employ a taxi driver. This way, you will only have to service the car and pay the driver while making your passive income source.
Peer to Peer Lending
Peer-to-peer lending involves giving loans to individuals and small businesses and charging interest. As part of the loan terms, you will receive a specified amount each month from the debtor. The transaction will take place on a peer lending platform and there is usually a minimum investment.
Corporates are companies specifically structured to give their owners regular passive income. Corporate owners have shares in the company. Stock investments gives you the right to receive a portion of the company’s profits equivalent to your portion of ownership. These are called dividends. The more shares you have, the more dividends you will receive. To buy shares (to invest), you can go to the stock market like the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) or a financial institution like your bank. Corporates are specifically structured to give their owners passive income. As the company grows, so does your share value and the dividend income you receive. People can either pick individual companies to invest in, or invest in funds such as mutual funds where the financial decisions are managed by a fund manager. More profits directly translate into higher dividends. The reverse is also true. Although, you only get significant income from buying shares if you invest a large amount of money.
Staking Cryptocurrencies
Crypto staking is the easiest way to invest in them. Your investment pays off interests that are made available to you. This type of earning passive income strategy requires a little knowledge of cryptocurrencies (crypto) plus cryptocurrency coins or tokens. Money can be exchanged for coins and tokens on an exchange market. A crypto wallet in an app can also help you acquire coins. Anything involving cryptocurrencies is still seen as extremely high risk due to the early nature of the product and the chance that it could still collapse to zero.
Buying Bonds
To some extent, bonds are similar to shares because bond owners get regular income. Bond owners, however, do not have part ownership of the bond issuer (an institution that gives bonds). Bonds are debts. Buying a bond will secure you a specific amount each month in interest and your money back when the debt is due. The issuer will tell you the amount you’ll get each month as well as the date your money is due to be paid back (maturity date). These are specified on a bond certificate. After you get the bond certificate, you will receive passive income. This amount will not change.
Investing in Real Estate
Buying, building, or investing in a real estate company that buys and builds them can earn you passive income. Real estate is one of the most sort out asset worldwide. You will cater to customers looking for living space, office space, or even storage space. Once you rent out the real estate you have, you will have a regular income. The amount of income generated from rental property will vary depending on the type of property, for example, vacation properties can sometimes generate a higher rental income than residential ones but might be harder to fill. In order for it to provide real passive income streams, you can opt-out of managing the property by employing real estate agents to manage them for you. You can also opt-out by investing in a Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs). Similar to financial investments such as buying shares with corporates, Real Estate Investment Trusts will earn you regular variable active income in the form of dividends. This might be an easier entry point into real estate investing for those that do not have the extra money for the upfront investment of purchasing a property.
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Job is a seasoned writer with a good understanding of the emerging markets, Africa to be specific.
