16+ Ways You Can Earn Passive Income

Passive income might be the holy grail for many of you reading this. There’s nothing more powerful than getting paid to do (almost) nothing.

Many people would love to start earning passive income, but just don’t know how to get started. Here are 16+ different ways you can start earning passive income, today.

Dividend stocks

This one is simple. You accumulate a little capital, put it to work in stocks that pay dividends, and collect a nice stream of income. Be careful to not be distracted by unsustainable high yields.

Real estate

Being a landlord is much tougher than many people think, but real estate has traditionally been a great source of passive income. It’s easy to borrow a lot of money to buy real estate, which is nice for people without much capital of their own.


Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are fully passive ways to invest in real estate. They may not pay as much as traditional rental properties, but they come with far less work.

Peer-to-Peer Lending

Such a service isn’t available to Canadian readers, but U.S. citizens have been collecting returns of between 8% and 12% for years now. Plus, it’s easy to diversify, putting a few bucks in many different loans.

Private mortgages

Banks turn down plenty of solid borrowers every day. Work with a mortgage broker and you can collect returns of between 6% and 15% on your capital all while having solid collateral.


Most of us have an extra bedroom, so why not rent it out for cash? AirBnb makes the process easy; you’ll be up and running in no time.


Blogging is probably the least passive way to earn income on this list, but it can still be fairly passive. It will take a lot of time up front, but the rewards can often last years.

Buy websites

Once you understand the basics of making money online, leverage those skills. Small or medium-sized websites sell for as little as 12 times monthly revenue. You’ll make your money back in a year.

Write a book

Self publishing on Amazon is a cinch these days. Just do your research, pick a good topic, and you could earn a nice recurring income for just a little upfront work.

Build an app

This one takes some specialized skill, and will likely take some luck to actually turn into a hit. Many apps are downloaded fewer than ten times once they hit the app store. Find the right app and it can be a nice money maker.


Flipping can be both fun and lucrative. Many people focus on one particular niche for best results.

Drop shipping

Drop shipping is ridiculously easy to get started. Just find a product direct from China, take some pictures of it, and post it on Amazon or eBay. Thousands of people make their living doing just that. It shouldn’t be hard for you to make a few hundred bucks a month.


I know someone who recently added a laundromat to his portfolio. He’s currently raking in 2% of his purchase price in profits…every month, with very minimal maintenance.

Become the silent partner

I often run into good employees who would do well as the owner of a fast food joint, specialty store, or other business. If you supply the capital and they supply the elbow grease, it’s a win-win situation.

Sell pictures

Can you take stunning pictures? All you need to do is upload them to certain websites, and you’ll get paid if anyone decides to use them.

Be a broker

Say you know someone who would like a website built. So you agree to do it for a certain fee. You then hire the project out to someone in another part of the world. That’s a nice profit for a very small amount of work.

Bonus: tracking down deals

Saving money is just like creating passive income. Each method puts cash in your pocket in exchange for very little work.

So do what I do. Before you buy anything online, simply Google “‘x product coupon code”. I just about always save at least a little.

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