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Need a passive income stream? Here are 7 ways to make money online

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By Aly Yale

Inflation is currently at a 40-year high, sending prices on just about everything upward. While cutting corners and careful budgeting can help, for some Americans, it might not be enough.

If you’re in this boat – or you just want to reduce some financial stress, you might want to consider creating a second, passive income stream. Fortunately, the internet makes this easier than you’d think. There are dozens of ways to make money online — without any special training.

Are you looking to create a passive income stream? Here are seven ways to make some extra cash.

1. Start a blog

Blogs aren’t just for fun these days. They can be quite the moneymaker when done right. The key is to pick your niche, build your audience and then monetize the blog. You can do this through affiliate marketing, which earns you a commission when someone clicks a monetized link or buys a product that’s promoted on your blog. You could also try selling and displaying ads on your site. You can use a tool like Google Adsense to get started with the latter.

2. Take online surveys

Giving your opinion and taking part in market research can also be an easy way to make money online. Some of the more popular survey sites include Survey Junkie, Swagbucks, OneOpinion, Opinion Outpost and Ipsos iSay. Keep in mind: These won’t bring in huge earnings. Swagbucks says its members earn about $1 to $5 per day. That’s why it’s important to do your research before you get started or commit to participating in any online surveys.

3. Start an online store

If you’re the creative type, you can start up an Etsy shop. Etsy sellers offer everything from jewellery and clothing to artwork, invitations, yard signs and more. If that’s not your style, you can start a drop-shipping store. With this strategy, you essentially operate a storefront. When a customer makes an order, you order that product from a third party (typically a manufacturer, vendor, or a wholesaler) and ship it directly to the customer. Shopify has a whole dropshipping walkthrough you can use to get started (and you can use their platform to create your store, too).

4. Sign up for a gig-working platform

There are several platforms designed for online gig work. For example, Amazon Mechanical Turk is a place you can take on small tasks for businesses across the globe. They might include moderating content, taking a survey, or transcribing audio. Clickworker is another similar platform, or if you have a specific skill – like copywriting, editing or graphic design – you can use freelancing platforms like Fiverr, Freelancer.com and Upwork to connect with potential clients.

5. Start a YouTube channel

YouTube creators can make a lot of money – and it doesn’t necessarily require a lot of expertise. You can create how-to or explainer videos on virtually any subject or go more personal and put yourself in the videos. You can interview subject matter experts, provide tips and tricks, or even just show yourself playing various video, mobile or board games.

The important thing is to find a niche and build a following. You can then integrate Google Ads, become a YouTube Partner, and even make money off memberships, live chats and subscriptions.

6. Become a transcriptionist

If you’re a fast typer, you might consider doing some online transcription for cash. You’ll simply need to listen to audio files and then type out what you hear. You get paid per piece, so the faster you can type, the better – at least, financially speaking. Rev.com, GoTranscript and TranscribeMe are just a few of the sites where you can find online transcription work.

7. Test websites and apps

Fancy yourself the tech-savvy type? If so, you can get paid to test out new websites and mobile apps and hunt down any glitches. At UserTesting.com, for example, you get to test new sites and products from brands like GoDaddy, Hello Fresh, HP, Subway and Canva. You just need to have a reliable WiFi connection, a microphone, a computer or mobile device and you can get to work. BetaTesting.com, UserZoom and Userlytics are other similar platforms.

More ways to earn quick cash

If none of the above seem like a fit, you can also become a virtual assistant, sell your photos on stock photography websites or become a social media influencer if you can drum up enough followers. There’s a side gig for everyone. You just need to figure out your perfect fit.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Aly Yale

Sourced from CBS News

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How to Make Passive Income in the Creator Economy

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Sourced from Entrepreneur

Alfonso Cobo, founder of Unfold, outlines trends and opportunities for digital creators.

Who are you and what is your business?

I am Alfonso Cobo, founder of Unfold, a social storytelling app that lets you create photo templates and bio sites for selling anything.

What are the biggest trends you’re seeing in the creator economy?

The biggest trend we’re seeing is creators diversifying their income streams — users who sell products are starting to explore content, content creators are selling physical goods, and creators are dipping their toes into Web3. There’s an emphasis on becoming less reliant on any one platform, while also setting up passive income streams that bring in steady revenue so the creators have more space and stability to focus on their craft. Most influencers currently still rely on brand deals, and most are looking to diversify.

What are the top trends in social and digital selling?

Social commerce will soon exceed social advertising — it will quickly grow to be a huge chunk of global ecommerce. Universally, we’re seeing that brands and businesses who embrace social selling are seeing great returns and are also realizing that it’s an opportunity to build a stronger relationship directly with the consumer.

We’re creating and seeing smarter monetization tools, and the real key is that there are so many touchpoints and platforms, you want to remove friction points along the way. Bio Sites are a huge trend in social selling because they provide creators with a unified ecommerce link that they can share across their platforms and communities. And coming next, sellers are looking at Web3 as a way to drive new revenue channels, more transparent business models and higher engaged communities.

What are the biggest challenges that creators are facing?

Creators have to manage a presence on a bunch of different platforms because there is no central hub that aggregates all the tools and data that they need in one place. Each tool and platform in the market has its own niche and goes deep into a specific use case or vertical.

This also makes it challenging for creators to truly own and monetize their audiences in a way that is platform agnostic when they may have very different followings or content styles from Instagram to TikTok.

Smart creators understand that their audience is made up of different types of fans with different levels of passion and willingness to pay, but this requires high levels of focus, providing different levels of offerings like editions, 1/1s, and auction mechanisms to meet fans where they are and convert them from casual and active fans to super fans.

Unfold became a part of Squarespace in 2019. What insights do you have for entrepreneurs about integrating into a bigger ecosystem?

I asked myself three questions about becoming part of their ecosystem, and all of the answers were yes:

  1. Do you provide something with a similar goal but in a different lane? We found that what Squarespace provides for online, Unfold provides on social. So yes.

  2. Do your customers’ goals overlap? There is a lot of overlap within our customers’ goals, which is to start creating and monetizing their brands with the highest quality design alignment across all digital selling. So yes.

  3. Will we approach integration thoughtfully and patiently? We gave ourselves a few months to watch our products grow independently, which illuminated ways to build new releases that were completely complementary. Around that time, Squarespace’s mission was evolving to provide creators with everything to sell anything, and because we gave ourselves a discovery period our natural role presented itself – providing ways to monetize social in the broader ecosystem.

What’s next for you?

Monetization tools will continue to be a priority for us as we expand how our customers can set up and test new revenue streams. We’ll continue to release products that help creators to tell their stories in a consistently beautiful way across all social platforms – this consistency across platforms and channels will help build long-term customers. And creators want the ability to roll out multiple Bio Sites so that they can have flexibility to add more link-in-bios as they acquire new audiences. We want to empower creators to be successful in telling their story exactly the way they want to, and we’ll be focusing on new video content creation and monetization tools to help them do that.

Feature Image Credit: Unfold

Sourced from Entrepreneur

 

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How To Make Passive Income Blogging

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By C. James

One of the best goals to set for yourself, if you intend to start an online business, is to have income streams that generate that income passively for you.

Passive income means that you are not constantly having to work hard to generate revenue, but instead you work smart and productively. There are many ways to earn passive income, some are completely passive while others (like owning an online business) become more passive over time.

One of the simplest, but most effective elements you should consider creating as part of your online business is a blog.

Although it is not essential, you will find those businesses which have a blog will generate increased revenues, have more loyal followers and customers, and the blog allows them to create additional passive income.

Where To Begin

Before you start your blog, and indeed your online business, you should determine which niche or niches you want them to target. You can take several approaches to this, with the first being to have them in a niche that you know very well and are reasonably passionate about, such as a hobby you follow. This can work and will certainly be easier in the beginning as you will have an idea of what subjects to blog about.

The danger is that no matter how passionate you are about the niche, if it is not one which lends itself to an online business, you are going to struggle to generate any income. For example, you might know all there is to know about competitive duck herding (Yes, that is a genuine hobby) but in all reality, there is hardly going to be an audience to which you could blog, let alone promote products to and generate an income.

Instead, you want to choose a niche that is proven to have a large and captive audience, and more importantly, a niche which is proven to buy products online. .

Creating Your Blog

By far the most popular platform that bloggers use on their website is WordPress. This is a content management system that you install on your website, and which makes it extremely easy to create, post, and edit your blog content.

Most importantly, using WordPress on your website gives you multiple options with which you can promote your content, encourage others to share it and most importantly build up the loyal following you need to consume your content on regular basis. After choosing a CMS, you will want to find a hosting platform for your blog. Make sure you pick one with great reviews like HostGator or a handful of others.

Once you have your blog set up, do not go in all guns blazing trying to promote offers, or sell something. That is the quickest way to kill your blog before it even gets started. Instead, introduce yourself, say a little a bit about why you are interested in the niche you have chosen, and finish it by asking those who read your posts to leave their comments.

Continue posting every day to start with, as this will help your blog get noticed quicker by the search engines, especially Google. As you proceed, the hope will be that as you add more content it starts to get shared, and when other websites start linking to it, your search engine ranking will continue to improve. As a result, you’ll start getting ever-increasing numbers of visitors to your blog.

Content Automation

Bear in mind that you do not want to just post written content, so video and audio posts should also be used. Unfortunately, one of the downsides of having to create a lot of content is the amount of time it can take. If you want to earn passive income, that cause is hardly helped if you have to spend hours each week creating it.

Regardless of which format your posts take, you should be looking at ways with which you can automate your blog. One of the simplest ways to do this is to employ someone to create and post the content for you. By outsourcing this part of your business, you will free up a lot of time. The cost of doing this can be comparatively low, especially when compared to what you consider an hour of your time to be worth.

There are websites, like Fiverr, where you can employ freelance writers, voice artists, and video makers, who can produce exceptional high-quality content for you, for hourly rates, or one-off fees, that often have to be seen to be believed. With your freelancers doing all this work, you can focus on those parts of your business that generate the income.

Passive Income Streams From Blogging

With your blog well established within your niche and attracting lots of visitors, you should now have the opportunity to use it to support and complement your income-generating activities. You should also have created social media groups and pages, created an email list by placing an opt-in box on your blog, and occasionally post promotional blog posts which review products you are happy to endorse.

These promotional posts will form parts of your affiliate marketing strategy, whereby you earn a commission each time something you recommend is purchased via a link you have in your blog post. You can also promote affiliate products via your social media accounts too. For example, you can make a Facebook post recommending a product or service and do likewise on Twitter.

‘For Sale – One Blog, One Previous, Wealthy Owner’

The ultimate way in which your blog can earn you a passive income of a sort, is to sell it. Depending on the revenue that you generate from all your affiliate promotions, and any of your own products which you use it to promote, there are buyers who will pay a very high multiple of that figure.

It is not unknown for websites with a proven monthly income of just a few thousand dollars to be bought for a six-figure sum. While that would mean that your blog is no longer yours and therefore not earning you a passive income anymore, undoubtedly the $100k+ that you may have pocketed will be more than enough to encourage you to start again … and not forgetting you still have the passive income from your Twitter accounts.

By C. James

Sourced from WEALTHGANG

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7 Top Passive Income Ideas for Small Business Owners in 2021

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By Pratik Dholakiya

2020 has been a tough year, especially for small businesses. We have all had many eye-opening realizations about financial stability. And the most prominent one would be the fact that relying on one income stream is not an option anymore.

To survive and thrive in the post-COVID19 world, having multiple income streams has become a necessity. For small business owners, building a couple of passive income streams can ensure that your business can stick through the toughest times too.

When the times are tough, passive income streams can help you fund your small business, with almost little to no effort. In this article, let’s see some of the top passive income ideas that will support you during these unprecedented times.

What is Passive Income?

Passive income is the process of earning money from a business in which you aren’t actively involved anymore.

Many people mistake passive income for money that is earned from get-rich-quick schemes. That is not true. It cannot magically help you earn money instantly. Otherwise everyone today would be successfully owning multiple passive income businesses today.

Most passive income streams involve you putting in the initial hard work for weeks, months, or even years before it turns into a consistent passive income stream. Or, in the case of investments in rental properties or shares, you need to invest time and money to turn it into a passive income stream.

Passive Income Ideas for 2021

Let’s look at some of the top passive income ideas that are most suitable for small business owners in 2021.

1. Sell Online Courses

The eLearning market has been booming ever since the pandemic outbreak. Since everyone is stuck at home, more and more people are investing in online learning. So, why not make this your passive income idea?

As a business owner, you must be an expert in an area or two. You can easily monetize your expertise by creating and selling online courses. You can use platforms such as Udemy or Coursera, or you can even sell online courses on your website.

The idea will need an initial investment of time and money in creating high-quality digital courses. But once the course picks up, you’ll be earning a consistent passive income on the side.

2. Invest in Peer-to-Peer Loans

Using investment marketplaces such as Swaper, you can invest in peer-to-peer loans for other consumers. This idea will require an upfront investment from you. But you need not be actively involved in the process as the platform offers you auto investment options too.

Investing in P2P loans can be a great way to earn a significant income on the side to help you generate steady income to fund your small business during uncertain times.

3. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a great passive income idea as it involves earning commissions by promoting and selling others’ products. So, you don’t have to put in the efforts to create your own products. You can simply sell others instead.

Affiliate marketing can be a great option especially when you have a website with consistent traffic or a good digital following.

4. Sell Digital Products

Selling digital products is, again, a great way to generate steady income after you put in the initial hard work. Since there is no active inventory and physical shipping involved as in the case of physical products, the income turns passive after some time.

Your digital products can be ebooks, guides, templates, or even mobile apps. You can also sell audio tracks or professional stock photos, and generate royalties for them.

5. Create and Monetize a Blog or a YouTube Channel

Creating blogs and producing YouTube videos is one of the best options to generate a significant amount of passive income. Lots of people today, earn 6 and 7 figures through these ideas.

Unlike the other options, the kind of hard work and time required here will be much more. But, the potential to generate a significant amount of income is the highest here.

6. Invest in Real Estate

Real estate investments are one of the oldest forms of generating passive income. The initial investment will be expensive, but if you’ve got the money, then this is definitely a good option.

A downside of real estate investing is that it will go down if the economy is not good. But if you are ready to be patient and wait for the industry to get back, then nothing like this kind of passive income.

7. Rent out your Car

If you do not have the capital to invest in a rental property right now, you can rent out your car through apps like Turo.

All you need to do is some initial set up and you are good to go. Instead of simply sitting in your garage, your car can make some passive income on the side. This idea is a no-brainer and you can use this as your second or the third passive income stream alongside others.

Final Thoughts

To conclude, we can say that after the outbreak of the pandemic, relying on just one income stream is not the best idea.

If you are worried about your small business going into a loss, plan for it beforehand by building at least a couple of passive income streams that can keep you going even during the tough times. Use the ideas in this article to start working on your passive income idea.

Feature Image Credit: Depositphotos.com 

By Pratik Dholakiya

Sourced from Small Business Trends

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