Most legit ways to make money on the side with little work require an initial investment of time, money, or other resources. They also need monitoring or regular maintenance to keep things running smoothly, but you won’t have to spend tens of hours a week on them or make small talk at the water cooler.
How to Make Money While You Sleep
Passive income is usually made in one of three main ways:
- Investing. You use the money you already have to make more money when you invest.
- Making money. This means buying something that makes money on its own over time.
- Sharing of assets. In this case, sharing means selling or renting out things you own.
Let’s look at passive investment ideas that combine investing, building, and sharing assets.
Ideas for make money: Investing
The legit ways to make money on the side is to invest, but you might need a lot of money to get returns worth your time.
Dividend Stocks
Dividend stocks give investors a regular share of the profits of the company. Because you have to own the store to get dividends, you will probably need thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands, to invest in dividend stocks to make a significant amount of money.
Investing in dividends does come with some risks. If a company runs into trouble, it might not be able to pay dividends or cut them. If you want a higher dividend yield, look for preferred stocks or dividend aristocrats.
Offer Real Estate is a Featured Partner
Owning real estate is one of the legit ways to make money on the side without doing anything. But it’s more complex than buying a house or piece of land. When you own a rental property, repairs and maintenance can take up a lot of time and money unless you hire a property manager, which will cut even more into your income. Also, you might have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars upfront to buy real estate.
If you’d rather avoid the cost and hassle, you could invest in real estate through real estate investment trusts (REITs) or real estates crowdfunding platforms like Fundrise or RealtyMogul. You’ll need to ensure that a crowdfunding site doesn’t require you to be an accredited investor to invest with them.
Peer-to-Peer Lending
Peer-to-peer lending is just what it sounds like: You lend money to a third party, usually through a platform like Prosper that is already set up. Then, you’ll get interested as the money you loaned is paid back.
When you lend money to someone through peer-to-peer lending, there is a not-insignificant chance that they won’t pay back the money. You could spread your money out over many loans to reduce this risk. You have enough money or income to meet the requirements of the peer-to-peer platform you want to use. Some of them require you to be a qualified investor, and even Prosper has different financial needs for earn money.
Investing in Domain Names
Domaining, another name for domain investing, is similar to trading stocks. You buy cheap domain names with the hope that you can sell them for a profit. Most of the time, you’ll want to focus on standard terms or specific proper nouns. Keep in mind that .com domains are more expensive than almost all others in the US.
Start-up costs are low—you can buy some domains for $10 or less—but there is a chance that you won’t be able to sell the parts you accept and will lose your money. You’ll also have to pay the annual fee for your registration service every year.
Vending Machines
Vending machines can be a source of (mostly passive) income if you own and run them. You’ll need to find a place and spend at least a few thousand dollars. Then, you must pay a little time each week restocking and fixing your machines. You can hire someone else to do these things if you’re willing to give up some profits.
Ideas for a passive income: Building up assets
As the name suggests, building an asset takes time and work up front to make it something that can bring in money. Even though it costs less money than investing, it comes with the risk that the things you spend time making might not sell.
Digital Items
Anything can be a digital product, from ebooks and lesson plans to mobile apps and even non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The important thing is that you only have to do the work once, and then you can sell the same asset online repeatedly. You can only do something with the digital products you make or spend time and money to promote them.
Licenses for music and photos
If you’re creative, you can turn your photos or music into legit ways to make money on the side stream by licensing it to stock images and music sites. Then, other people who want to use your work will pay you for the right to do so.
Affiliate Sales
Affiliate sales are when someone buys something after clicking on a link or using a referral code that you put on a website, video, or podcast.. You’ll usually get a flat rate commission or a percentage of what they buy.
You can find affiliate links for almost any product or service so that you can make passive income from anything from reviews of mattresses to reviews of software. Remember, though, that this is a very competitive market, and the most successful affiliate marketing requires a steady stream of high-quality content.
Products Made to Order
By uploading original designs to print-on-demand websites like Teespring, Redbubble, Cafe Press, and Zazzle, you can make passive income every time someone buys a t-shirt, coffee mug, or other physical product with your design on it. Even better, you don’t have to worry about printing, to store, or shipping the goods. This makes selling physical goods a lot more relaxed.
Ideas for a passive income: Sharing of assets
Look around you if you need more time or money to put into legit ways to make money on the side. You can make money by renting or leasing things you own to other people.
