40 Best Passive Income Ideas & Investment Opportunities
Everyone likes to have a reliable stream of passive income probably because it guarantees financial independence.
Passive income is very essential and lots of people find one way or the other to supplement their normal daily activities with dependable passive income ideas.
The most interesting thing about passive income ideas is that they give you the chance to look into other businesses and make money doing two or more things at a time.
Put simply, passive income is a form of extra profits you earn through a business you are not actively engaged in.
If you have a lucrative passive income stream, it becomes easy for you to spend ample time on your usual job and make it more fruitful.
Beyond doubts, an effective stream of passive income is a proven solution to financial difficulty because it fetches you extra money that could be used in overcoming unexpected financial obligations such as debts.
How to Generate Passive Income
Knowing the best passive income ideas is one thing while understanding how to generate passive income is another.
It’s pretty easy to build a passive income stream especially if you have chunks of dollars to put up for investment.
The major ways you can establish a passive income stream are:
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Investing Money in a Business
This is a great way to build a passive income stream on a life-long basis but the major downside is that you will need to gather a decent sum of money up-front and wait –probably for months or years –before it ultimately becomes a source of residual returns.
Quite frankly, this idea of generating passive income is best suited for those who have money and are ready to pump it into long-term businesses.
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Renting Out Property
This, undoubtedly, is one of the mainstays of passive income especially for those who have a surplus of assets others may need to use on a temporal basis.
These assets are usually fixed in nature and may be used over and over.
Also, some people rent out personal belongings such as fancy dress, wedding gowns, jewelry and golden wristwatches to those who need them for formal occasions.
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Investing Time in Something
This form of generating passive income might not require much money but you will have to invest ample time in something such as a skill, craft or technology.
The downside to this is that you don’t get any profit in the course of time investment but afterwards, you get paid by those who would love to use that thing.
Perhaps, this might be a mobile app you designed a few years back and people now download from popular app sites.
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Doing or Establishing Something Online
It’s quite exciting that the internet is an avenue for people to transform their hobbies into reliable streams for generating passive income.
Beyond doubts, some people take the advantage of shopping regularly on retail sites –such as Amazon and the likes –to make money without doing anything so special.
Another sure way of generating passive income online is to act as an affiliate marketer by linking a company’s products to potential buyers.
This article broadly discusses the 40 Best Passive Income Ideas for 2018 and each passive income idea comes under the appropriate category through which it may be generated.
Passive Income Ideas through Investing Money
1) Invest in Real Estate
Real estate is a viable stream for generating passive income in the sense that people pay you for using your property.
You’re damn sure to enjoy a lasting inflow of income through real estate investment but one of the cons of the business is that it requires a large capital outlay to get started.
These days, there are a decent number of private real estate investment platforms out there and of them is Fundrise..
2) Invest in Dividend-Paying Stocks
Looking for a decent passive income stream? I guess dividend-paying stocks are one sure way to have a passive income stream you can rely on.
Not only do dividend-paying stocks allow you to earn a portion of other people’s profits, many of them still yield dividends even when the stock market is fluctuating.
3) Invest in a Mini Apartment
Some people often think real estate investment thrives better only for those who are stark wealthy. But the factual point is that you can start real estate with a couple of bucks and grow the business the more you earn.
For a start, you could invest a decent amount of dollars in a mini apartment such as a triplex or duplex. Put simply, this serves as a cash-flow asset you can always rely on in years to come.
4) Deposit Money in High-Yield Savings Accounts
This might not be the most lucrative passive income opportunity for you but it has its own advantage. Unlike many other investment opportunities, putting money in high-yielding savings accounts involves little to no risk.
Amongst others, Capital One is a trusted platform you could consider for this. The platform pays you the sum of $25 after creating an account with a deposit of $250.
As a plus to that, there is an APY of 0.75% on savings accounts.
5) Invest in Cryptocurrencies
You may not have known but it is an undisputed fact that lots of people have made millions of dollars through cryptocurrency investments.
If you’re always keen to have a reliable stream of passive income, you could climb on the bandwagon of cryptocurrency investors today.
Interestingly, some platforms pay you as low as a $10 bonus just to get started with investment in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and others.
Truth be told, investing in cryptocurrencies is now considered one of the passive income investment ideas that hardly suck.
Passive Income Ideas through Renting out Property
6) Rent out Your Vehicle
Are you thinking about a passive income idea that requires little to no investment? Do you have a car you occasionally drive and would like to rent out?
It is of course a good thing to have some cars you could rent out to somebody who needs them for a specific purpose.
You may want to rent out one of your vehicles probably because you would be away for awhile and wouldn’t like to abandon it in your parking lot.
To start using your vehicle as a passive income stream, ensure you connect with a reliable company that will help you list it for private rental purposes.
Turo is a website that helps you in this quest and one of the good sides of this is that the site offers insurance that covers your car against unforeseen accidents such as collision and physical damage.
7) Rent out an Extra Room
Renting out one of the extra rooms in your self-owned apartment could be a pretty stream of residual income. The interesting part of this is that some temporary guests are ready to pay you monthly for using your lodging.
If you’re comfortable about accommodating tenants in a couple of spare rooms, nothing should stop you from earning passive income for a lifetime.
8) Rent out Clothes
It might not be the passive income opportunity you have been thinking of but renting out unused clothes could be an incredible source of lasting income.
Is your wardrobe crammed with a collection of imposing clothes such as a fancy dress or your wedding garment? Do you think you’ve got some appealing costume others would love to wear for specified occasions?
If yes, it’s damn easy for you to maintain a stream of passive income that hardly sucks.
9) Rent out a Bike
You may not have sufficient money for passive income investments. Nonetheless, the fact that you’ve got a couple of bicycles in your parking lot means you can still make extra cash week after week and even year after year. What do you do?
Rent out your unused bicycles to those who are willing to ride them to workplaces all day or just for the fun of leisure hours.
This, of course, is a passive income idea that will put a smile on your face.
10) Rent out Musical Instruments
Some people are in dire need of musical instruments but they can’t afford a single penny to own them.
On the contrary, some people have got several musical instruments which they are not using.
Supposing your generous uncle has just dashed you a piano whereas you’re not thinking about being a pianist, what would you do with such an incredible instrument?
Instead of buying a set of musical instruments, some people prefer to rent the actual instruments they need.
These days, there are a number of reliable online platforms out there that help you list your musical instruments to those who might have to rent them.
11) Rent out a Parking Lot
Do you have a spacious parking lot somewhere in the metropolis whereas you drive only one car?
With such a parking lot, you could establish a stream of long-lasting passive income by allowing guests to park their vehicles in it and paying you certain fees in return.
12) Rent out an Open Space
Have you got an unused open space such as an enormous yard behind your residence or somewhere in the heart of a metropolitan area?
Do you believe you could convert it into a source of continual passive income?
Without any doubts, this is a passive income idea that will continue fetching you money the more people rent such an open space to organize parties and the likes.
Passive Income Ideas through Online Businesses
13) Set up a Blog
If you’re ready to stay on a cash-flowing online asset probably after you may have invested ample time in it, blogging is definitely a great option for you.
Few of the downsides to blogging is the time investment it requires. Besides the pleasure blogging offers, it is certainly one of the best online business ideas that offer a substantial and long-lasting inflow of passive income.
But before blogging turns out to be a decent passive income stream, you must have invested ample resources –including time and money –in it.
14) Create and Sell E-books
As simple as it is, you could start writing e-books as many as you can to make this business a lifelong source of revenue.
The basic concept of this is that you first devote ample time to writing e-books on the various areas of interest you’re capable of. What happens later?
You start earning reasonable bucks week in week out by making your e-books available for purchase on popular sites such as Amazon.
The residual income you earn from this makes it an interesting online business idea.
15) Establish an Online Course
There are lots of passive income ideas on the internet and one of them is to create a relevant course many people seek to study online.
If you have a knack for tutoring others on a specific course, this is definitely a great way you can build an online channel that will serve as a lasting source of extra income.
One of the beautiful sides of this business is that you only exert the effort once to start earning on a continual basis.
16) Buy an Existing Blog
If you’re passionate about having a blog but still want to avoid the hassle of creating a new blog and growing it from scratch, the prettiest option is to purchase an already-established blog.
Some blogs have massive viewership with great SEO potentials yet their owners are keen to sell them.
If you’re lucky to stumble on one of these blogs, you could purchase it and acquire full ownership of it in no time.
Not only does this serve as a great online business idea, it also guarantees you that stream of lifelong passive income.
17) Earn Money by Shopping on Amazon
This, undoubtedly, is one of the countless online passive income ideas that pay you to do something you’re certain to do.
If you can’t do without shopping on Amazon, then it’s pretty easy to transform that hobby into a profit-yielding activity. And how do you do that?
As a regular shopper on Amazon, your purchase record can be monitored by a research company if you’re interested in making some bucks through Amazon every month.
18) Earn Money by Searching the Internet
You may not have heard from your friends that you could be paid to browse the internet in search of things.
However, that detracts nothing from the fact that some companies –such as Swagbucks –pay you for utilizing their search engines.
It’s pretty awesome that Swagbucks rewards you with some money for browsing through its search engine.
If browsing is your one-in-a-million hobby, chances are that you could make it a lasting source of residual income. Wouldn’t you give that a try?
19) Write and Sell Engaging Articles
The internet is home to hundreds of passive income ideas and dozens of shrewd people have taken the advantage of them to establish long-lasting wealth.
If you think you’re skilled in creating exceptional contents or writing articles that will stun readers and make them crave for more, here is a proven way you could earn chunks of dollars on a timely basis.
First of all, browse the internet for the contents people read often and will surely continue reading in years to come. Gather your writing skills and create your own versions of those contents.
All you need here is the capacity to write plagiarism-free articles that will appeal to people’s fancies. Create as many as possible relevant articles you can probably in one or two weeks. What next?
Look for clients on freelance sites such as Upwork and for each article you sell, you’re damn sure to get some bucks as residual income. You see! You don’t need somebody to employ you before you transform your writing skills into money.
20) Earn Money by Watching TV
To some people, this is really hard to believe but if you get veritable information about Swagbucks, you will easily agree that this online passive income idea is not far from the truth.
Verily, Swagbucks allows you to watch TV and get paid in return. As a plus to that, the company does offer a profitable service that pays you a $5 bonus for signing up.
You get this benefit by simply signing up via the link for Swagbucks’ $5 bonus.
21)Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is an exciting online business idea that gives you some desirable passive income day in day out.
By affiliate marketing, all you do is own an online platform –be it a website or blog –through which you help retail sites, such as Amazon, generate sales.
Basically, the retail site sells a product through you by simply placing a picture or link to the product on your website. And what do you get?
Each time a customer uses your website link in purchasing a product, the retail site rewards you with a commission which is a portion of the sale you’ve just generated.
Prettily, this passive income continues rolling in just as you keep making sales for the retail site.
22) Create a Website for Book Reviews
If you are so much fascinated about reading books and giving others some brief descriptions about them, you could create a website for book reviews.
Do you believe thousands of people browse the internet to read book reviews before they buy books? Just get started by creating as many as possible book reviews you can.
Of course, this is so great an opportunity to have a lasting inflow of passive income in years to come.
23) Make and Upload Videos to YouTube
Online passive income ideas are great in number and one of them is to own a YouTube channel.
There are lots of people exploiting this opportunity already but this doesn’t mean you can’t tap massive benefits from having a YouTube channel.
If you’re skilled in making engaging videos about popular tips or other things that often capture people’s attention, chances are that you could make YouTube a lasting stream of passive income. Are you ready to get started?
The great way to make money through your YouTube channel is to have it connected with AdSense.
After making as many as necessary videos, upload them to your YouTube channel and place ads on the videos.
As long as you get a huge audience for your YouTube videos, these ads will receive massive views and AdSense pays you in return.
Passive Income Ideas through Time Investment
24) Design T-Shirts
Have you got the skill of designing T-shirts? Are you aware that billions of T-shirts are sold year in year out?
If you know that a single person can own dozens of T-shirts, you have every reason to believe people earn bags of dollars through the sale of T-shirts.
If you’ve got all it takes to design attractive T-shirts, get started today by designing as many as possible T-shirts as you can. Who knows?
This could be your chance to have a lasting stream of extra cash.
25) Create and Sell Stock Photos
If you’re really skilled in photography and would love to make it a stream of residual income, this is a sure way to make your dream come true.
There are a pretty number of online platforms like Shutterstock where you can upload stock photos for interested people to download.
Of course, this is a proven opportunity for any skilled photographer to create lots of imposing photos and make them available on sites where people, such as bloggers, download stock photos.
In return, this fetches you decent royalties the more people download your stock photos.
26) Write a Song
Are you a creative person looking for a lucrative passive income idea? Can you write songs that will appeal to the taste of an audience?
Writing songs for others is a proven way to earn lifelong wealth. Although it requires spending considerable hours, days or weeks to compose a couple of songs, you will surely get the rewards in form of royalties afterward.
Today, we have musicians who earn thousands of dollars through the music they uploaded to online platforms for people to download and listen to.
27) Make and Sell Crafts
This is a great passive income opportunity that requires craftiness. You must have acquired some skill –such as woodcarving and furniture making –that could make you a lasting earner of residual income.
Today, quite a few experienced artisans do not wait for prospective clients to pay them to make crafts. They rather invest their money and time in making attractive crafts.
Prettily, such crafts often come in handy, stylish and user-oriented fashion because their inventors must have looked out for the samples that appeal to the fashion in current use.
Have you got such skill? If yes, invest your time and money in making crafts now and by the time you start advertising them on popular sites, you could become the next craftsman sitting on that awesome stream of passive income.
28) Create Mobile Apps
Are you looking for an online business idea that pays you a whole lot of residual income? Have you the basic tech skills for creating mobile apps?
If you realize that software developers make cool cash, you’d agree that you could make loads of continual income by building mobile apps.
All you do is create useful or interesting mobile apps that people would always love to download.
Today, it’s damn interesting that people use smartphones everywhere and as people download your apps, your stream of passive income continues to flourish. That’s exciting indeed!
Other Passive Income Ideas
29) Lend Money to Others
Many people are familiar with lending as a passive income opportunity. Although lending of money requires that you have substantial capital, you’re pretty open to having a long-time inflow of wealth through the interest rate you charge your clients.
Some people often claim lending is a risky business to do because some borrowers may not pay back.
However, the idea of peer-to-peer lending has made this business a decent opportunity for both investors and borrowers.
30) Set up a BarberShop
Do you know some barbers aren’t the actual owners of the shops at which they ply their profession? (Oh! That blows your mind!).
Put simply, you could own a spacious barbers’ shop and get quite a few barbers to work therein. All this requires is a decent amount of dollars to set up the shop and furnish it with vital tools such as clippers, chairs, etc.
Believe it or not, there are skilled barbers out there who do not have a single penny to purchase tools or rent shops to keep themselves in the profession.
Look out for these people and get them to work in your barbers’ shop. The interesting aspect of this is that the barbers pay you an agreed percentage of their earnings.
31) Hire Somebody to Write E-Books for You
Do you believe you could make as much money an e-book author makes even without writing a single e-book? Put simply, all you need is getting some proficient writers if you think you lack that creativity of writing e-books.
Pay them once and for all to write e-books for you. Surely, this will cost you some money but you don’t have to worry because the long-lasting residual profits are still yours.
32) Earn Money by Displaying Ads on Your Car
Do you believe you could use your car for ad displays just in the same manner companies use billboards in advertising products/services?
Of course, some companies readily pay people for displaying ads on their vehicles. Are you given to driving often? Would you like to help people advertise their brands on that stylish mini car of yours?
If yes, nothing should stop you from looking out for trusted companies like Autowrapped, Pay Me for Driving and Carvertise.
33) Set up a Fashion Label
Believe it or not, you could accumulate bags of dollars through the fashion industry even without being a fashion artist. That’s so cool an idea and you would love to see how it works.
Although this is one of the countless passive income investment ideas, it requires only a considerable amount of investment.
Just set up a fashion label anywhere fashion is certain to thrive and equip it with the required facilities. Then hire a couple of make-up artists and hairstylists.
The beauty of this is that you don’t pay the artists to work in your label. They rather pay you an agreed portion of their earnings just to ensure your investment is fetching you some extra wealth.
34) Set up a Local Car Wash
If you don’t have much to invest in a passive income stream, I guess here is one sure passive income opportunity with little capital requirement.
You can run a local car wash in a busy metropolis where people are bound to patronize car washers.
All you need is to secure an open space, convene several boys (who could even be idle school students) and provide them with all the facilities for doing the job.
Surely, the boys will get their stipends without tampering with the percentage that should serve as your residual income.
35) Own a Billboard
If you have a substantial amount of money and you think it should be best invested in a profitable asset, here is an investment idea that will make you a happy passive income earner.
Owning two or more billboards is a great way to maintain a regular inflow of cash. The interesting thing about this is that companies pay you certain fees to display ads on your billboards for an agreed period.
Of course, this will continue fetching you money because many companies optimize their marketing campaigns by displaying ads on billboards situated in metropolitan areas.
36) Own a Food Van
Sincerely, you would prefer to give this passive income opportunity a try especially if you can’t afford to invest too much money.
All you need is to have a couple of cooks who are highly skilled in the culinary business. Such cooks readily know the delicacies preferred by the locals and will create a set menu that should suit them best.
To make this a really substantial passive income idea, you may need to get a serious-minded driver who can deliver delicacies to people at target places like festival squares, public gatherings and sports grounds.
37) Purchase Rental Property
This is mostly related to the businesses where people buy assets that have great potential and can be used over and over. Such assets are meant for rental purposes and they may include canopies, trucks, generators, vehicles, etc.
Although this business requires substantial overhead costs, you’re pretty sure to earn far above your amount of investment after few years of successful rental services.
What more? You continue earning passive income the more people rent your assets.
38) Own an Uber Vehicle
Some people know nothing about this trend while many others have taken advantage of it to remain long-time earners of passive income.
Do you believe you can have an Uber vehicle without being the actual person to drive it around metropolises?
This, of course, is an interesting opportunity to get somebody working on your behalf while you sit back home expecting some cool cash in return.
Like other urban riding platforms, Uber allows you to register your vehicle for its riding services and appoint somebody who will drive it on your behalf.
If you have two or more cars in your parking lot, this is a great way to make them profit-yielding assets rather than render them unused.
39) Sell Valuable Assets
Some people have bulks of valuable items –such as jewelry, gold, and diamonds –which they hardly use. Sincerely, these people may have gotten such valuables as presents from friends, parents and other sources.
Whichever way, you’re pretty sure to convert such valuables into money by selling them.
If you can’t afford to sell them or you probably think that wouldn’t make a lasting stream of passive income, you could rent out such valuables to those who need them for parties and other formal occasions.
40) Own an ATM
Are you dying to have a steady inflow of passive income? Verily, some passive income ideas suck but here is one great opportunity that will keep you going in that line of passive wealth. Are you ready?
These days, an individual can own two or more ATMs and guess what, he/she earns as people use the ATMs for transactions.
Although this does come with the need to first invest some bucks, you surely have the pleasure to accumulate passive revenue for an immense time.