I was going to make this sound more straightforward than it is and say something like, “Just choose one of these 5, get started and start making money!”
But you and I know that building any substantial passive income stream will take time and effort.
Still, what is better than making money while you sleep and then leveraging that system to produce more and more income as you like?
Here are the top 5 picks for passive income streams for new and seasoned marketers. I will say that choosing just one of these to start is a good idea since it will allow you to focus and build much faster than if you scatter your attention over two or more of these.
That said, once one of these is bringing in a decent income for you, you might want to branch out to a second one and get it up and running.
And please remember that while passive income means earning when you’re not working, it does not mean you’ll get paid for doing nothing. It’s sort of like real estate. You must purchase and maintain real estate to receive the passive rent income.
Alright then, let’s get started:
1: Affiliate Marketing
The easy part of affiliate marketing is selling other people’s products. You don’t have to create products or provide customer service for products when you’re selling someone else’s stuff. You get an affiliate link and send traffic to the offer.
And that is the hard part of affiliate marketing – building an audience or getting traffic to an offer.
You can build a following via social media, email marketing, YouTube, podcasting, and so forth and offer those followers products…
Or you can experiment with paid advertising until you create a funnel that is self-liquidating, meaning you are making as much or more money as you are spending for the advertising.
Once your offer is self-liquidating, you can ramp it up to as much advertising as you can get (that converts) and build a following while simultaneously selling products.
2: Creating Info Products
Like affiliate marketing, you need your audience or the ability to generate traffic to make this work. But in this case, you are the product creator and handling customer service on your products.
You might wonder why you should go to the trouble of creating your products when you can be an affiliate for other people’s stuff. That’s a fair question because being a product creator is more work, but you also enjoy some benefits that affiliates don’t get.
First, you can get affiliates to promote your products. This way, you are getting a percentage of all their sales and 100% of your sales.
Next, you are building a reputation and a following of customers. Your loyal customers will repeatedly return to purchase your products, and they might even become your customer advocates and affiliates.
Finally, you can do joint ventures with other product creators to put on highly profitable events and sales.
There are other benefits, too, but these are my favorites. If you’re starting, I recommend working on building your audience and monetizing with affiliate products until you’re able to begin creating your products, too.
3: Blogging
Yes, blogging is still highly relevant and a great way to build an audience and a reputation.
Your content can be long-form, short, or a combination of the two. Keeping your readers apprised of the latest news and developments while creating evergreen content is best.
Monetize your blogging by offering affiliate products, your products, and sponsorships and becoming a paid influencer in your niche. Once you have a loyal following, marketers will seek you out to promote your products.
And you can turn your posts into reports that you give away to build your email list and into books that you sell on Amazon.
4: Podcasting
Do you love to talk about things and ask people questions? Then put that skill to work with podcasting. Share your knowledge, ideas, and insights with your audience.
Comment on the news, offer your opinions and get your audience to weigh in on topics.
Interview experts on relevant topics in your niche. Collaborate with others to create engaging conversations and do “person in the street” interviews cleverly edited to provide entertainment value to your listeners.
You can monetize your podcast by offering affiliate products, your products, sponsorships, and advertising.
5: YouTube Channel
This is a great way to make passive income because of its potential. And no, you never have to appear in front of the camera.
Once you qualify for YouTube’s partner program (1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time), you can upload a video once and continue to get paid for it for a long time.
Think of one video going viral and getting a million or more views and what that could mean for your bottom line.
You can make videos in which you appear in front of the camera, talking about your niche, teaching how to do things or whatever is relevant that people want to see.
Or you can make videos such as Top 10 lists where you never show yourself. You can even get a professional to voice over the videos if you want, allowing you to be completely anonymous if that’s what you prefer.
You’ll want to get to know your audience to see what they like, and it will help to become proficient at video editing (or hire someone to do the editing for you). You can also recommend products in your videos, do product reviews, teach them how to do things, and give them links for the tools they’ll need.
I know I haven’t disclosed anything you weren’t at least partially aware of here. But you might not realize that most internet fortunes aren’t made with the newest, latest, greatest fad but rather with the tried and true that has already worked for so many.
Every one of these five methods has created untold numbers of financially free lifestyles for people who now work a few hours a week and get paid 24/7 for their efforts.
And you can be the next person who takes one of these methods and turns it into a 5, 6, or 7-figure passive income in the coming months and years.
