9 Passive Income Ideas (that earn $1000+ per month)
As an entrepreneur and educator, I’m very passionate about creating and teaching others about passive income. I think it’s so important that we learn how to work smarter, not harder — and that we also figure out how to earn more while working less.
The different ideas I’m going to share with you will help you do exactly that!
If you happen to be new to passive income and want to learn more about how it works, make sure to watch my video Passive Income 101 where I break it all down.
1. Start a YouTube Channel
Once you create a YouTube channel, you can allow YouTube to run ads on your videos. These are the ads that you see playing before a video, the ads in the column on the right-hand side, or below the video. If someone clicks on the ads, then the YouTube creator gets half of the money that the business paid to run the ad. Keep in mind that different channels earn different amounts, depending on their niches.
For some perspective, my YouTube channel gets about 500,000 views a month, which generates about $4,000.
Breakdown: $5/1000 views, 200,000 views = $1000/month
2. Start a Membership Website
This is a private site that you regularly add new content to. For people to access that content they have to subscribe to the website. Often times there is content that people can access for free to give them a taste of what is available, but to get additional content or the premium content they need to pay a monthly membership fee.
Depending on what your membership site is about, what it offers to its members, and how premium the content is you can charge different amounts. The range can be anywhere from $5 – $300 per month.
One fantastic thing about a membership site is that it creates that recurring revenue month after month and you don’t have to necessarily do anything additional to maintain it. With that being said, some of the best memberships sites do add new content every month. It all really depends on how you structure your website, and whether you decide to create and schedule your content.
Breakdown:
100 x $10 members = $1000/month
Or 10 x $100 premium members =$1000/month
3. Write a Book
Writing a book isn’t my favorite way to make passive income, because it doesn’t have as much profit potential as many other methods. However, it does have some other benefits, including the ability to help you reach other goals and advance your career.
Breakdown:
$5/per book sale
200 sales/month = $1000/month
4. Create a Lead Gen Website for Service Businesses
With this option, you would work with another business that was offering a service or a premium product to their customers. You would create a website of your own, which would essentially be an advertisement for your partner's business. Your website provides prospective customers with some free resources or potentially the opportunity to book a free consultation call. You would then drive traffic to that website so you can get leads for the company that you’re working with. Afterward, the company would pay you for the leads.
In order to do this successfully, you will need to have a working knowledge of Digital Marketing so that you know how to drive the right traffic to the website.
Breakdown:
$5/lead x 200 leads = $1000/month
5. Join the Amazon Affiliate Program
You can get a cut of Amazon’s profits by joining their affiliate program. After the quick sign up process, you can share your affiliate links with people who you think would be interested in purchasing certain products. You're then paid a commission of 4-8% of the sale price. The more products your prospects buy on Amazon, the higher the affiliate commission is.
One of my favorite things about Amazon’s affiliate program is that even if someone clicks on your link and doesn't buy what you recommend, you can still earn an affiliate commission if they purchase anything from Amazon within the next 24 hours. Keep in mind that to earn enough affiliate income to make $1,000 you need to do an excellent job in recommending products to people who want to buy them.
Breakdown:
$5/sale x 200 sales/month = $1000/month
6. Market a Niche Affiliate Opportunity
Instead of making a small commission on a lot of products with Amazon affiliates, you can instead choose one, premium product — usually a digital product — and to focus on marketing. You can start a YouTube channel or blog based around that product/topic, start building an email list, or promote it on a social media platform. Your goal is to build an audience that will be interested in the product and who trusts you so that they will feel confident in purchasing the digital product you're recommending.
Breakdown:
$50/sale x 20 sales/month = $1000/month
7. Create an Online Course
Creating a course is another great option to generate passive income. You can sell it on your website or on a third party platform — each option has advantages and challenges. If you sell on your own site, then you keep 100% of the profits but have to drive traffic to generate sales. Alternatively, if you sell your course on a 3rd party platform, such as Udemy, finding customers is much easier, but you won’t earn nearly as much per sale.
When you sell on your site, you can charge much higher prices. Courses typically sell for $100 to upwards of $5,000. Your price is dependent on what your course is about, what value it gives to the students, and how well you market it. On a 3rd party platform, courses typically run between $10-$100, and you earn around 50% of the sale price.
Breakdown:
Sell your course on your own site:
10 x $100 sales or 1 $1000 sale
Sell courses on 3rd party site:
$20/sale x 100 sales/month x 50% commision = $1000/month
8. Invest in Real Estate
I’ve owned several rental properties in the past, and in my area, it is typical to earn about $250 of profit per month per rental. But, of course, there are plenty of things that can throw off that average.
At first glance, it might look like the other ideas above are better than investing in rental real estate because the risk-to-reward ratio is a bit skewed. Fortunately, some benefits you can take into consideration are that you can build equity in a property that could also be appreciating in value at the same time.
Breakdown:
4 rental properties x $250 profit/month = $1000
9. Rent Out a Room in Your House
You can rent a room of your house through a website such as Airbnb. This is a great option if you have extra space in your house and you don't mind the company. In addition, you can even consider renting your entire home if you travel a lot, whether it be for business or vacation. Renting a room can range anywhere between $25-$200 per night depending on the location and where you live.
Breakdown:
$50/night x 20 nights = $1000
Passive income definitely takes a lot of upfront work to create, but it can be a great way to diversify your income. Depending on which route you decide to take the initial investment can pay off immensely!
Are you thinking about starting your own business this year? I put together a free video training series to teach you everything you need to know!
Sign up for my FREE 8-part video series all about how to start your own business:
small business 101
Are you interested in starting a profitable online business the simple way?
I invite you to download my free Small Business 101 course. These 8 action-packed lessons will teach you how to start a successful business without the headache or overwhelm. If you're all about keeping things simple, this is for you!
