Passive Income: 3 Easy Ways To Make Extra $$$

Ah that unbridled feeling of happiness when payday comes, you feverishly login to your bank account and see those beautiful Benjamins flirting at you on the screen. Nothing can beat it, apart from spending them of course. Now… imagine how much more fantastic it would feel to discover you’re a little bit richer, but you didn’t have to bust your balls to bring in those Benjamins. A pipe dream? Au contraire - this is an actual reality you could achieve. We’re talking passive income, which basically is defined as money for sitting on your jacksy, and here are 3 ways to make that extra $$$.

Whether you get paid a salary, by the hour, or per project, many of us actively do some type of work to earn money in return. But with those beautiful two words, passive income, you can see your bank balance swell in size while you’re catching some zzz’s in the land of slumber. Think of it as one of the many different revenue streams wealthy people have to become richer without doing tons of extra work.

Exciting idea right? You better believe it, and you better start believing it’s achievable too, cos right now you’re not earning money when you could be. While real estate and general investing are key ways to earn a passive income, here are a few ideas you might not have thought of yet:

Create an online course or sell access to your knowledge

You’ve got a brain full of useful knowledge that people would pay dollar for, even if you might not have figured out what it is yet. So why not capitalise on that clever head of yours? Of course, passive income does take a wee bit of time to get off the ground, but once you’re there, you can kick back and watch the readies roll in. Work at the beginning is certainly the case when it comes to starting an online course.

Maybe you already have a blog where you write about your favorite makeup accessories and your best friends are always asking you how you get your face looking so freaking fabulous. Why not create a guide people can download, or perhaps even an online course on how to become a makeup expert?

Or maybe you’re a pro at designing resume templates and your friends are always asking you to help make them one to land the job of their dreams. You could make those resume templates into files that people can download—for a price.

The point is to think about where your expertise lies and how you can create something of value.

Write classroom materials for teachers

Managing multiple classes of students can be like juggling with molotov cocktails. While school districts give teachers directives on what they have to cover over the course of a school year, teachers do tend to have some leeway in terms of the lesson plans they use to reach those goals, which is good otherwise they’d probably keel over.

If you’re super boffin around a particular subject and feel like you can teach others, consider drafting up some lesson plans for teachers. That’s what Brad Hines, a digital marketing strategist, did in his spare time, using websites like Teachers Pay Teachers. “I parlayed my skills as a graphic designer to be able to make plans teachers liked,” he says. Once you’ve created the  initial product, it can be downloaded (and paid for) time and time again.

Use affiliate links when you share the products you love

If you follow or frequent blogging sites online, you’ve probably seen them post a note somewhere that declares they might receive payment from a company if you click through and buy one of their products. This is affiliate marketing, where the blogger advertises someone else’s stuff in exchange for a cut of the profits when people buy it. And guess what - you can do it too.

“You don’t have to have a big following to get started in most cases,” Shannon Mattern, the blogger behind Your WordPress BFF, says. “Simply Google your favorite products and services to find out if they have programs, sign up, and then share info and the link on social media.” The size of your following and how SEO-friendly your site is will dictate the clickthrough rate you receive. Once you get people clicking through, you can expect to make money within a month or two.

Follow these handy tips, and you too could be waking up each morning to some lovely chunks of cash in your account.