Now that you have already read our previous article “How Can I Make Passive Income with No Money: Setting the Right Goals, Mindset, and Expectations.”, you are ready to move to the next level to build real passive income streams. But wait for a second, but why do we need passive income streams anyway? Just imagine that you have a full-time job, you have been working in that company for years, you fully rely on this income, but all of a sudden, your boss got an e-mail saying that she/he is fired which means YOU are fired as well! So out of nowhere, you are waking up the next day to find out that you no longer have a job, with no explanation. This is why you need passive income streams! Now that you are already aware of things to avoid and the reason why you need passive income streams, it is time for us to pass our knowledge to you on how to make passive income with no or little money!
Making Passive Income with NO or Little Extra Money
Selling Digital Products (e.g., Print-on-Demand, Templates, Stock Photos, E-books, etc.)
Teespring
Teespring is a print-on-demand platform where you basically just create designs. You don’t need any paid software for this, you can do it completely for free. There are some apps that will help you do the designing so you don’t have to be an artist or a creative mastermind, you’re just creating catchy, trendy things to put on t-shirts or mugs or different articles of clothing and then you upload it to Teespring which creates a virtual listing and that people can see and buy. The company deals with the printing, shipping, it takes care of customer service and just puts the profit right into your account which you can cash out. This is great for anyone because there’s no startup cost. It’s literally just you finding ideas on the internet, creating them, and uploading them to Teespring. You can spend just an hour after work every day and you’ll be able to create five or six, maybe 10, designs every day. You start doing this regularly for a while and then all of sudden, you’re going to have a hundred, two hundred, three hundred different designs on Teespring. While you’re still working your full-time job, you won’t have to worry about anything related to your Teespring business. it’ll be making money for you in the background. So, when you go home just check your account and see how much money you made on Teespring. This is a good way to start building up that raft that will ultimately let you quit your job.
Merch by Amazon
Amazon has a program called Merch by Amazon, which is very similar to Teespring. Both Teespring and Merch by Amazon are non-exclusive! Which means, you can upload the same designs to both Teespring and Amazon. You are just going to get free traffic from people searching on Amazon that are going to be buying those designs as well. Many people who might never visit Teespring can find your designs at Amazon. And again, this is completely free to start, and you can just keep scaling this and adding more and more designs. So, at this point, you will have two passive income streams and this is so easy for you to start as well. Every time you get more sales, you will be able to level up to the next tier, which means you can upload more designs.
Redbubble
Redbubble is another reputable print-on-demand company and again, non-exclusive. Now, all of a sudden you have three passive income streams and they’re all making money with the same designs! You don’t have to worry about anything after you’ve uploaded the designs.
Etsy
You can sell digital products, such as Photoshop and Microsoft Word templates. You just need to invest time once and put it in your shop. Then, every time someone purchases something from your shop, you get the money automatically. It is very convenient since you don’t have to ship and fulfill your orders; it goes into their account automatically because it’s a digital product stored within Etsy! You don’t have the issue of needing stock or purchasing inventory. Moreover, most of the revenue becomes your profits because Etsy’s fees are pretty low. Essentially, the steps with selling on Etsy is first creating the product. You can create it through free software, like Canva or Google Docs, or Google Sheets. You need to create your Etsy shop and then you are going to rank for certain keywords so that your listings go on top of search and increase your chances to get sales. You can also use social media and other platforms to be able to market your listings.
Other Platforms: Zazzle, Society6, Shopify
Shutterstock, Getty Images, iStock
You can license and sell photos that are in demand. For example, nowadays we have the ‘great resignation’ where everyone is quitting their jobs and becoming business owners & creators. Because of this, a lot of media and social media outlets use photos of people carrying their boxes out of their offices. To check some photos that are in demand, you can first go to a website like trends.google.com to find out what is trending right now in the world, take photos that are related to those trends, license them, and put them on a website like Shutterstock.
E-Books on Kindle Store
You might be saying “Oh no way, I’m just 20 years old, I don’t know what to write about!” Well, you can start from fiction; fiction does very well on the Kindle store, find your niche! It will take some time for you to map out a story and start to write, but if you can find your niche and have this up on the Kindle store, it will start producing monthly cash flow for you! You can outsource some of the writing process, such as the proofreading part by hiring a freelancer from Fiverr. Utilize Kindle Direct Publishing, Lulu, and Blurb to help you on getting started.
Creating Online Courses
Udemy, Teachable, Skillshare
Udemy, Teachable, and Skillshare are course platforms where you can put together a course for a certain price. It is a convenient source for people who want to learn something from scratch; people usually buy in packages to learn things step by step in detail. For example, after you feel comfortable with using Teespring, you can make a Teespring course on Udemy, Teachable, and Skillshare, to share your experience with people who just want to start their journey using Teespring. You can also be their mentor by offering one-on-one courses. Unlike the conventional teaching method, courses in Udemy, Teachable, Skillshare are pre-recorded. This means you will only need to teach one topic once while recording it; that lecture video can be purchased and watched by an unlimited number of students.
Teachers Pay Teachers
If you’re a teacher, you deserve a pat on the back and some extra income for your hard work. If you have lesson plans you’re proud of, especially materials that include high-quality graphics, you may be able to sell the content you created through Teachers Pay Teachers. There’s no limit to how much you can earn, and some teachers have even surpassed the $1 million mark.
Final Thoughts
Selling digital products and online courses is our first way to go to generate money with no or little extra money, but of course, it requires much time to build in the beginning. There is also a chance that there is no one purchasing your design & courses in the beginning for some time. You need to find your niche to succeed in this business since there are many people who creating courses and designs, same as you do. If selling digital products and online courses is not for you, don’t worry! Check part 2 of this article to see some other alternatives.