Making passive income is possible in a variety of ways. The most common historically have been purchasing and renting out real estate, as well as investing in a specific portfolio and letting compound interest grow that money.
But as social media and websites like YouTube gain popularity, more and more content producers are realising they can generate passive revenue on their own. Some people generate income by offering taped classes for sale online, while others monetize their podcasts and YouTube videos with advertisements, and yet others do so by having TikTok or blog affiliates.
Sometimes the passive income these producers generate is sufficient to allow them to completely leave their day occupations.
Here are three recommendations from business owners that generate thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars in passive income each month if you’re eager to start earning some passive income yourself and one day perhaps even quit your work.
Boost your income by selling an existing skill
When Graham Cochrane, 38, founded The Recording Revolution blog and YouTube channel, he was a full-time music producer struggling to make ends meet. The first plan was to impart his musical knowledge while gaining additional customers for his music-producing company. But he soon recognised that both were just ways for them to get rich on their own. As of right now, that company generates a passive income of $40,000.
Cochrane advises relying on the talents and information you currently possess when beginning your own passive income stream.
“The turning point for me was when I got the idea to turn my knowledge of audio mixing and recording into an online course,” he recently spoke with CNBC Make It. Based on that, you can sell digital things, “provided a passive income stream and allowed me to make far more money in a day — while putting in less time — than I did working as a freelancer.”
Cochrane has a second business offering online courses designed to teach individuals how to commercialise what they know and are passionate about after many years of expanding his online business. This generates passive income and gross sales of $120,000 per month.
Within a short period of time, he began to reduce the amount of music he produced. Now, he devotes only five hours a week to his online enterprises.
Embrace the stories of those who succeeded and use them to become your own
At the start of the epidemic, 24-year-old Shannon Smith lost her waitressing job, and she spent months trying to figure out how to make up for the lost money. She began by putting in around 10 hours a day as a fitness coach. She started creating videos on Instagram and TikTok in July 2021 to show people how to create wealth and internet companies. She currently earns a passive income of roughly $8,000 per month via affiliate marketing.
“I see a lot of people try too hard to reinvent the wheel completely with social media posts to get their business into the spotlight,” she told. But “I’ve learned that the key to going viral and growing your audience is to study what’s working for others,” she said.
Smith advises researching the conversations people are having about the specialised themes you wish to cover in your content and building on those. What queries keep arising in their vicinity? She also advises keeping an eye on the content strategies used by your profitable rivals. Are they speaking to the lens? creating lengthy captions? Additionally, don’t forget to use the pertinent hashtags that are appearing on your platform.
Smith only dedicates two hours a day to her internet business and has quit her job as a fitness teacher.
Having multiple income streams will make it easier for you to quit
With a full-time job as a financial analyst, Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, 33, started her blog Making Sense of Cents in 2011 to document her progress in paying off her student loans. As a result of extending her coverage to include guidance on financial goods and investments, she now earns an average of $760,000 per year passively from it.
Gardner encourages other bloggers to diversify their revenue sources because she generates money from her site in a variety of methods, including affiliate marketing and numerous courses she has written about it.
“Diversifying your income streams allows you to not be reliant on just one way of making money or just one of your traffic sources,” she told. “Instead, you will have balanced income streams to mitigate risk.”
In 2013, she left her job, and now she only spends 10 hours a week working on her internet enterprises.
