+28 Best Passive Income Ideas to Build Wealth While You Sleep in 2024 (and Beyond)

1. Dividend Investing

A dividend is a distribution of a company’s earnings to its shareholders. Dividend investing refers to the practice of investing in stocks that pay dividends in order to receive regular income.

This type of investing is often considered to be a passive income strategy, as it can provide investors with a consistent stream of income without requiring much active involvement.

Dividend investing is probably my favorite way of building a passive income stream. I love dividend investing so much that I’ve written a whole list of articles talking only about dividend investing.

• What are the different types of dividends?
• Understanding different dividend policy.
• Finding stocks that pay a dividend.
• Finding good dividend stocks.
• Understanding the pros and cons of dividend investing.
• Why young investors should consider dividend investing?

Why do I like dividend investing so much you ask?

Certain companies pay out dividends for every share of stock you own. These dividends are (generally) pretty low per share, we’re talking about 3 to 10% per annual.

But these dividends often pay out consistently on a periodic basis. Every quarter (or so) you’re going to get a dividend payout for holding the stock long-term.

Without selling the stock, you gain a return on investment (ROE) while as the company grows, your dividend grows as well.

In other words, your passive income can grow with time, which is performed for retirement planning or looking to find financial freedom.

With the dividend, you receive you can do one of these 2 actions

• Take that dividend and life off your life with the dividend received. Plenty of folks do exactly that, especially when they’ve piled up a few thousand shares.
• Take the dividend and reinvest it into the stocks or opt for Dividend Reinvestment Scheme (DRIP) so you can grow your portfolio quicker in a passive way. This basically buys more stock (and more passive income) with “free money”.
• Take the dividend and invest in other stocks where you can get a better return.

Whatever you choose, there’s nothing wrong with that and it is totally up to you.

2. ETFs Investing

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is an investment fund that trades on a stock exchange, much like a stock. ETFs are a type of mutual fund that owns the underlying assets (e.g. stocks, bonds, oil futures, gold bars, foreign currency, etc.) and divides ownership of those assets into shares.

ETFs typically offer investors lower fees than traditional mutual funds, and they can be traded throughout the day like stocks.

ETFs offer many benefits, including

• Low costs, tax efficiency, and diversification.
• Provide a stable stream of passive income.
• Get started even if you have little money to start investing.

With a traditional stock portfolio, you may have to actively manage your investments and make decisions about when to buy and sell.

3. Open High Yield Saving Account

If you are looking for a way to earn some extra money, you may want to consider opening a high-yield savings account. With a high-yield savings account, you can earn interest on your deposited funds.

There are many benefits to opening a high-yield savings account.

• You can earn interest on your deposited funds, whereas some financial institutions offer a higher interest rate when you reach a certain threshold on the number of funds deposited.
• With a high-yield saving account, you are free to withdraw the money anytime when you need it, giving you the cash flow required to buy or invest when required.
• Amount all passive income ideas, this is considered a risk-free investment and you will not have to worry about losing any money.

Although the interest rate is rather low, this still proves to be a great way to earn passive income in a risk-free way.

4. Getting a Fixed Deposit

A Fixed Deposit is a type of savings account where the funds are held for a fixed period of time, typically for 1 year or longer.

The account typically pays interest at a higher rate than a regular savings account.

When someone opens a fixed deposit account with a bank, they are essentially lending money to the bank for a set period of time.

In return, the bank pays the customer interest on their deposit. This interest is generally higher than what the customer could earn if they placed their money in a savings account.

A fixed deposit account is a great way to generate passive income in an almost risk-free way. The customer can park their money in the account and earn interest without having to do anything else.

5. Invest With Robo Advisor

A Robo Advisor is a digital platform that provides automated, algorithm-based financial planning services with little to no human interaction.

The key advantage for Robo Advisors is that,

• It provides guidance and recommendations without the need for human interaction.
• Let investors save time on the processing and fees for the service.
• Gain access to financial planning services for those who might not otherwise have the opportunity.

Unlike investing in individual stocks, robo-advisors allows you to invest in a wide range of portfolio while automating the rebalancing of your portfolio according to your risk tolerance level.

And if you are wondering which are the best robo-advisor you should invest, check out these articles:

• Best Robo-Advisor to invest for beginners

Robo advisor makes investing truly passive, letting you receive an income on a regular basis without the need for active work or effort on your part.

6. Buy High-Yield Bonds

High-yield bonds are a type of debt security that offers a higher yield than other types of bonds in exchange for a higher level of risk. They are often issued by companies with lower credit ratings and are considered to be more speculative than other types of bonds.

Bonds are generally separated into different ratings,

• Junk bonds: High risk of defaulting
• Investment-grade bonds: Low risk of defaulting

For investors seeking passive income, high-yield bonds can be an attractive option as they can provide a steady stream of income that is generally higher than what is offered by other types of investments.

But like all investments, caution has to be taken when investing in bonds.

7. REITs Investing

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are a type of investment that can offer passive income. They are typically investments in real estate and can offer the potential for high dividend yields. In fact, I’ve written a few articles on REITs alone that you may be interested in.

• Types of REITs
• Risks and benefits of REIT investing

REITs can be a good way to diversify a portfolio and can offer stability during volatile markets.

• Offer the potential for high returns with relatively low risk.
• Offers diversification of portfolio.
• Less volatile than stocks.
• Provide a steady stream of income.
• Provide investing in real estate with little capital.

While there are some risks associated with investing in REITs, it can be a good way to generate income, but it is important to do your research before investing.

8. Rental Property

The wealthiest people on the planet ALWAYS dump money into the rental property market – and they aren’t doing that “just because”.

Real estate is a Tier 1 investment asset, about the best asset class you can get into as an investor, and it should be your number one focus as you start making money.

Buying single-family homes and flipping them might be an approach you consider. But that’s not a passive way to make money. Not if you are banging the hammer yourself.

• Investing in rental property, though (residential or commercial) is a great way to make a pile of money in a hurry while also making a ton of passive rental income month after month.
• Buying real estate let you leverage your money to buy an asset that produces passive income straight out of the gate.

Learn this approach to generate passive income as early and as often as you are able to if you are looking to build generational wealth.

9. Cryptocurrency and Crypto-Assets

Maybe you don’t have a ton of interest in investing in the stock market, though.

Perhaps you are more interested in jumping feetfirst into the world of crypto, recognizing that it’s a bit more of the “Wild West” than the stock market is.

There’s nothing wrong with that – and the opportunity to hit some real home runs in the crypto world (like so many already have) certainly exists. Knowing which are the best crypto exchanges sure help if you want to succeed in crypto investing/trading.

• Choosing the best Crypto-Exchange to start trading.
• Step-by-step guide to register and open an account on cryptocurrency exchange.

You can buy and hold crypto, hoping to get 25% or greater returns year after year like some coins have produced. But you can also get yourself into crypto “lending” platforms.

You basically lend crypto to the platform, they lend it to customers on your behalf, and you get paid a consistent and reliable return no matter what happens to the value of that asset.

Not a bad way to make money, right?

10. Invest In Domains

What are domains? A website domain is an online address that helps people find a specific website. It is made up of a set of characters that are separated by dots, and it usually ends with “.com” or “.org“.

For example, the domain for the website www.example.com is “example.com“.

Investing in domains is the process of buying a domain name with the intention of selling it at a later date for a profit.

• Domain investors typically purchase domains that are generic, short, and easy to remember.
• They will then sell these domains to businesses or individuals who are interested in using the domain for their own websites.

Although you don’t get an income while you are holding the domain, the work required to get a return is minimal, and it can be regarded as a semi-passive income.

11. Airbnb

Setting up an Airbnb with properties you already own can fast-track or multiply your passive income generation opportunities, too.

This is a lot like owning rental property, but with the added benefit of the sort of “subdividing” parts of your property instead of renting it out wholesale.

For example, if you own a single-family home with four bedrooms you might rent that out as a unit for $1500 a month. If instead, you put that on Airbnb you might be able to rent each room out for $500 a month, pulling in $2000 a month – netting an extra $500 in the passive income you would have been leaving on the table before her.

Something to consider for sure.

12. P2P Lending

The decentralized finance industry has absolutely exploded in the last few years, with more and more people jumping headfirst into peer-to-peer (P2P) lending opportunities than ever before.

Instead of using P2P lending platforms to get your hands on cash, though, consider getting on the other side of the ledger board and offering your money to borrow at terms that you are comfortable establishing.

This might sound confusing, convoluted, and risky at first. But the top P2P lending platforms today make this almost effortless, safe, and secure, and eliminate a lot of the risk entirely.

It’s an avenue worth pursuing.

13. Become A Silent Partner

A silent partner is a type of business partner who does not take an active role in the company but provides financial support and shares in the profits and losses.

Silent partners can be,

• Investors or creditors of the company.
• Individuals who have helped to start the company.

Income earns through this kind of investing is passive and does not require the investors to do much work.

14. Gold Investing

Investing in gold is probably one of the safest form of investing compared to the rest of the options listed in this list.

Gold itself holds a certain value, and unlike other forms of of investment, the value of gold do not diminish when faced with market uncertainty, gold have an inverse relationship to paper assets such as stocks, bonds, and REITs.

And even when paper assets grow or raises, gold price raises as well due to inflation, making gold a great asset to hedge against inflation.

Currently you can invest in gold in a few ways:

• Invest in gold using Gold IRAs.
• Invest in gold by buying physical gold.
• Invest in gold by buying Gold ETFs.
• Invest in gold by buying gold stocks.

If you are lookin to take advantage of tax savings, investing in gold using Gold IRAs can be a great option. If you are unsure what is Gold IRAs, or thinking about investing in gold, check out my article here:

• How to invest in gold for average beginner investors.
• Gold IRAs: How the rich protect their retirement.

1. Create An Online Course

Have you taken an online course before? At school? At work?

Learning something new from an online course is gaining in its popularity as technology advances.

An online course is a type of distance learning in which students take courses via the internet. This means that the course content is provided online ignoring the physical barrier of conducting classes face-to-face, the limitation of the size of the classroom, or the need to be in the class physically.

Online courses allow students to,

• Access online courses at any time.
• Access online courses from any location.
• Access course materials at their convenience.
• Allow students to work at their own pace.

Quiz: What Course Creator are You?

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Choosing the right online course platform is essential if you want to succeed in selling your online course. I’ve handpicked some of the best place where you can create and sell your online course:

• Online course platforms to create and sell your online course (Ps. ThinkiFic and LearnWorlds are my top picks.)
• Best platform to start a paid membership site with recurring income.

Creating an online course allows you to generate passive income with a steady stream of payments, without the need for active involvement in the training once you’ve created the online course.

Additionally, online courses typically provide a variety of learning materials, including videos, readings, and quizzes which help students learn better.

And if you are out of ideas check out our handpicked list:

• Best online course ideas currently in-demand
• Proven membership site ideas

2. Start a Vending Machine Business

Vending machine business is probably not a very popular passive income idea you come across online. But it is a great passive income idea to make a lot of money.

A successful vending machine business is about,

1. Having money upfront to invest your money in a few key machines
2. Place them in high-traffic areas.
3. Generate a steady stream of income.

Vending machines are also relatively low-maintenance, so you won’t have to spend much time or money on upkeep.

3. Product Creation

Product creation is easier today than at any other time in human history thanks to the power and reach of the Internet.

Anybody (and we mean anybody, including beginner young adults that have never owned a business of their own before) can create a product – or have one made for them – and then start selling that product globally in a single afternoon.

1. Find a market that needs to solve a problem urgently.
2. Research the options available for that solution (if any) and find out where they are falling short.
3. Deliver something unique – and more effective – and you’ll be able to mint your own money from here on out.

Information products and services are the lowest barriers to entry products you can create, which means there’s going to be a lot of competition out there.

But it also means you don’t have to start your passive income journey with a ton of money invested, either.

4. Royalties and Licensing

Another thing you’ll want to consider as a product creator is building products that you then license or lease out to other marketers and salespeople, allowing them to handle the heavy lifting of selling stuff for you while you get a cut of every transaction.

1. You can produce the actual product or service
2. Offer it to those businesses for a cut of the dough
3. Then license or collect royalties on every sale from there on out.

This is about as passive and income-generating an opportunity as it gets.

5. Write An E-Book

An E-Book stands for an electronic book, it is a book that exists solely in electronic form.

It is a digital publication that can be downloaded and read on computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, or other electronic devices.

They are typically shorter than traditional print books thus it is easier to make and is often less expensive, thus it often converts better than traditional books.

Even if you are not a great author, E-Books are a great passive income stream. Once an E-Book is created, it can be sold over and over again with little to no additional effort required.

Book By Kopi Buddy, aka. Antony C.

In 2023, I’ve launched my new book titled “Start Small Dream Big“, which is about overcoming procrastination and achieving your dreams.

With this book “Start Small Dream Big“, I’ll show you exactly,

• Why 99% of all people fail to succeed.
• How you can become the 1% that will reach your dream.
• Actionable steps to start your self-transformation, and transform dreams into reality.

If you are seeking passive income, this book will help you reach your goal.

Buy on Amazon

Read More About The Book

6. Copywriting

Every single business on the planet can benefit from the help that a legitimate copywriter brings to the table.

Copywriters understand how to produce content that sells – they are basically salespeople in print – and can give you an almost unfair advantage when it comes to building and growing a business online.

Not everybody understands the ins and outs of copywriting, though.

If you take the time to master copywriting (and believe it or not it’s a lot easier than many people make it out to be) you can start creating winning campaigns for clients that not only pay you for your work up front but continue to pay you a commission for as long as they run your work.

It’s not all that difficult for beginner copywriters to sign two or three clients paying $2500-$5000 a month almost right out of the gate.

That’s pretty close to a six-figure income – and will likely get over that hump with royalties and commissions – right out of thin air.

7. Dropshipping and E-Commerce

Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from learning copywriting as well as the ins and outs of running an online business and marketing your own products or services, either.

A lot of copywriters and of going down this road at some point, especially once they learn just how easy it is to break in with drop shipping and e-commerce (especially when they’ve mastered the skill of selling with copy).

• Finding the right market
• Finding the right products
• Getting a flood of targeted traffic to your sales pages
• Start making money even while you sleep

Dial this in, though, and you’ll never have to worry about a 9-to-5 job ever again.

The biggest advantage of becoming a drop shipper or e-commerce whiz is that you can scale your businesses and your offers to fit your income needs and your financial goals.

Lots of people do well with tiny little businesses online that fully replace their old full-time income, allowing them to enjoy complete freedom thanks to passive income.

Others scale their businesses and start making the kind of money they never even dreamed possible before – and others still scale their businesses big enough to sell for a huge windfall profit.

You’re in the driver’s seat here!

8. Print On Demand (POD)

Print-on-demand is probably the easiest way to start selling physical products while keeping yourself from trading time for money.

Once you’ve created your customized product designs, you can sell it again and again without you doing any of the the work other than designing new products to sell.

Your Print-On-Demand service provider which can be a Print-On-Demand Site or Print-On-Demand Company, these providers will help you do all the heavy lifting of your business.

Depending on which POD you choose, they will help you do the following:

• Help you manufacture your products when someone orders it.
• Help you customize your products according to your design.
• Help you send out your products to your customers.
• Help you handle the return of the products if there is any.

Basically your POD providers will help you do everything you’ll need to do, including not requiring you to keep any inventory, making your capital; cost for the business very low. Check out our article where we help you pick the best POD for your online passive income business.:

• Best Print On Demand Site and Companies

9. Passive Brick and Mortar Business

Because it’s so easy to get started with an online business these days people have been ignoring the passive income opportunities in front of them in the “real world”.

It’s gotten a lot easier to break into these brick-and-mortar passive income businesses because of that. You’re not dealing with global competition. You’re not dealing with the headache and hassle of building a business online and all the technical stuff that comes with that.

Instead, with a passive brick-and-mortar like a laundromat or a carwash you really only need to put your money into the business and then let it run on autopilot.

Laundromats and carwashes really do run themselves (for the most part), with minimal investments in staff and maintenance needed.

It’s even possible to get into these kinds of brick-and-mortar operations without having to have a pile of money as well – especially if you have other passive income assets buying these for you.

Building Passive Income By Providing Advertising Services

Let’s assume, though, that you don’t want to run an online or an offline business and aren’t all that interested in learning the ins and outs of investing, either.

Is it still possible to make passive income without having to do any of that work? Or is that just a pipe dream?

Well, thanks to the power of advertising – and your approach to leveraging advertising – you can make passive income in your sleep without having to own a business, without having to invest, and without having to create any products or services of your own.

1. YouTube Advertising

Do you own a YouTube channel? Or do you watch YouTube?

Today, YouTube has 2.1 billion monthly active users and sees approximately 122 million users per day.

If you are an owner of a YouTube channel, you are basically a YouTuber, you are a content creator on the YouTube platform where you provide entertainment and information to audiences that visits youtube on a daily basis.

As a creator, YouTubers typically make their income from advertisements that are displayed on their videos, which are ad space purchased by businesses that want to promote their product or services. These ads can be targeted to specific demographics, interests, and even geographical areas. 

To be eligible for monetization of your YouTube channel, you will just need 1000 subscribers with 4000 hours of watch time for the past 12 months.

Another less common form of monetization is sponsored content or sponsorships.

Sometimes when you are watching YouTube, do you remember the YouTuber saying something like “this is sponsored by…” or “proudly sponsored by…“.

That is sponsored content, the business pays the YouTuber in exchange for the mentioning of their product or services to their audience.

Being a YouTuber can be a good passive income because it requires little effort to maintain once the initial work of creating videos is complete. It requires little effort to maintain and can reach a large audience.

There are some software and skills that can help you create more entertaining videos faster and simpler if you want to become a YouTuber.

• Text-to-speech software that generates realistic and natural-sounding human voices; ie. Speechelo

2. Start a Podcast

Podcasting has been around since the early 2000s, but in recent years it has become more popular than ever. A podcast is basically a radio show that you can listen to at any time, on any device. You can listen to podcasts while you’re driving, walking, cooking, or even working out.

They are usually available for subscription, so that new episodes are automatically downloaded via web syndication to the user’s own local computer, mobile application, or portable media player.

When you start a podcast, anyone can listen to your audio program, and are often free of charge to listeners. Some Podcasts can sometimes be supported by advertising, membership fees, or donations.

Podcasts are a great way to generate extra income while you sleep.

3. Start A Blog

Are you a blogger or a website owner?

A blog product placement is a form of advertising where a business or entity offers the blogger or website owner the to mention or place their products or services in a blog post or a part of the website in exchange for something in return for the website owner.

This form of advertising proves to be highly effective for businesses, thus businesses collaborate with different website owners through private deals in the form of sponsored posts.

The other more common form of advertising is through ad placement using Ads exchange platforms such as AdSense.

Blog product placement is a great way to earn extra money while sharing helpful tips with my readers.

4. Join A Car Advertising Program

A car advertising program is essentially agreeing to put up a sign or advertisement on your car, and people will pay you for the privilege of being able to advertise their product or service on your car.

Generally, the company will pay you a monthly fee, the amount you earn will depend on how many companies you sign up with and how often you drive.

However, it is a relatively easy way to make some extra money, and it doesn’t require much effort on your part.

5. List Rental

All business owners understand that the real money for their business is “in the list” – the list of prospects and paying customers they’ve built up during their time open for business.

The only thing more valuable than a house list for a business is a list that has similar prospects or paying customers that might be interested in what they have to offer, a list that they can rent and run campaigns to.

It’s important to remember that the most thing any business will ever do is get a complete and total stranger to trust them with their hard-earned money, handing over their cash in exchange for a product or service.

Once that happens, though – and once a relationship has been established – it’s a whole lot easier to sell to that same person over and over again.

By creating your own email list and offering it to other people in your market (even direct competitors) or folks in related markets you’re able to make money on a powerhouse asset without doing literally anything on your own.

It doesn’t get more passive than that.

6. Lead Generation

Getting new customers is always a challenge for every business on the planet, which is why they spend so much time and money on lead-generation campaigns.

What if, though, you built a business exclusively focused on lead generation – handling this tough, annoying, and challenging (not to mention expensive) task for other businesses and then sending them the leads directly?

Don’t you think smart business owners would go crazy for that shortcut to success?

They’d probably pay you a decent chunk of change for those leads, and pay you every month (or more frequently), wouldn’t they?

You bet they would!

Local lead generation is the easiest way to break into this business.

Buy a web domain, get some hosting, and learn a little bit about search engine optimization. Find a way to land yourself on the top spot of Google for local search results, start tracking the traffic that you are generating, and then pitch local businesses in your area to buy the leads you’re creating from you.

It’s that easy once everything gets up and rolling.

7. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is another fast way to get into passive income opportunities without having to invest a ton of money or a ton of time.

The idea here is you basically become a commissioned salesperson, selling someone else’s products or services and collecting an affiliate paycheck along the way.

This used to be something that the info product industry did more than anybody else. Today, though, even major multinational corporations like Amazon are getting into the swing of things and offering affiliate payouts, too.

You’ll have to do a little bit of work early on to establish an affiliate site and then push traffic to that platform. After that, though, you can pretty much do the bare-bones minimum maintenance on that affiliate offer and cash checks every time someone buys from your link.