10 Proven Ways to Generate Passive Income in 2023

From starting an online business to publishing an ebook, these are smart passive income ideas to help you get started.

There are many ways to generate passive income and change your financial future. Whether you want to earn just an extra $1000 per month on the side or go into something full-time and replace your current salary, different passive income ideas require different work and time.

Upfront work is required, so don’t expect to get rich overnight, but with a plan in place and the right kind of motivation, you can see success much sooner than you think.

1. Start an Online Business

Starting an online business is the best way to generate revenue on autopilot.

Why?

You don’t need a ton of cash upfront.
You have a lot of room to make mistakes, and
It’s one of the most fulfilling life adventures you could ever be on.
I started my first online business in 2008 after being laid off from an architecture job I loved. My website helped architects pass a difficult exam, and people paid me for study material I created to help them prepare.

How much money did this business make?

In one year, I generated over $200,000, more than double what I earned as an architect.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing allows you to generate passive income simply by recommending existing products to other people. If you’ve ever recommended something to a friend, you know how to do affiliate marketing already.

Affiliate marketing has been my most significant single source of revenue, bringing in over $4 million since 2009.

So, how does affiliate marketing work, exactly?

With affiliate marketing, you recommend other people or company’s products and services to your following. You can talk about it on YouTube, a website, in an email, or even just with your social following. And, when someone purchases from your recommendation, you’ll receive a commission from the sale.

One of the most popular and accessible ways to get started is through the Amazon Affiliate Program. People already know and trust shopping from Amazon, and you’ll have a massive range of products to select from.

Just be sure only to choose products that you can stand behind, and that will serve your audience well, and be sure to always be upfront that a link you promote is an affiliate link.

To be successful with this, you’ll need to put time into building an audience who trusts that you’ll always steer them in the right direction and then follow through on that.

3. Start a YouTube Channel

Starting a YouTube channel is an excellent option for making passive income online; it’s free to get started, and if you create videos that people want to watch, you can generate revenue from ads, sponsorships, and even promoting your products.

Recently, I started a new YouTube channel all about Pokemon cards called Deep Pocket Monster. In two years, this new channel has grown to over 500,000 subscribers, and it generates revenue from ads, sponsorships, and even affiliate marketing by promoting card shops and binders on my videos.

4. Open a Paid Membership Business

Like signing up for a gym membership, people join online memberships and pay recurring fees for the sense of community and value it brings them. In fact, we have a couple ourselves:

Our SPI All-Access Pass is a community of up-and-coming entrepreneurs who get access to all of our courses, workshops, community events, and even guides to help them through the material.
SPI PRO is our higher-level community of established business owners who want to network, connect, and share ideas with growth in mind. We require an application to get into this paid community.
Both of our communities require a recurring payment (quarterly or annual), but people are happy to continue to pay that because they’re getting more value in return.

With a membership business, you may need a platform to host your community. Circle is our top choice because it’s easy to use and familiar to users who join. This is our affiliate link for Circle in case you’d like to check it out and give it a run!

5. Make Print-on-Demand Designs

If you have a keen eye for design and current trends and know how to use design software, selling print-on-demand designs could be a great option to create passive income.

With print-on-demand, you don’t have to buy any inventory ahead of time, so it’s a low-risk business model.

You’ll work with a print provider, like Printful or Teespring, to sell merch (t-shirts, mugs, bags, etc.) customized with your designs and sold per order.

When someone buys one of your designs, the print provider fulfills, prints, and ships the order on your behalf.

The trickiest part is making unique, high-quality designs that inspire your people to purchase them.

6. Offer Software as a Service (SaaS) Business

Another potentially lucrative option for passive income is to create an app or software that you can offer as a subscription service—also called software as a service (SaaS).

To do something like this requires coding knowledge or the funds to hire someone who knows how to code, but there are many resources available to find people who can do that kind of work for you, like Upwork.

Remember that this is one of the more time-consuming options; it will take a good chunk of time to plan and get things up and running.

Also, you will have to create and offer a truly valuable solution—and market your solution effectively—to make passive income with this, which isn’t exactly easy.

This is a challenging route., but it can be rewarding.

7. Create an Online Course

Everyone has a skill they can teach, so why not monetize yours AND help others by creating an online course?

Making an online course isn’t too difficult either, but it will take a lot of time and effort to ensure it’s useful. We host our online courses on both Teachable and Circle, and it’s an amazing way to package information into a place where people can experience a transformation or solve a problem.

Once you’ve created the content and have everything set up, it can be an incredibly profitable source of passive income.

There are several platforms, like Udemy or Skillshare, that you can choose from to host your course and facilitate getting your course paid viewers.

However, I always recommend using your website to give you greater control and true ownership.

8. Create No-Code Apps

Did you know you can reap the benefits of creating an app without knowing how to code? Apart from hiring an expensive developer, that is.

Yep, you can control the process and create an app through development platforms like Zapier, Appy Pie, or Bubble.

There are a lot of apps out there, so to be successful with this, you’ll need to search and identify a need and fill that need with your app.

If you set your objectives ahead of time and know exactly which problem you’re trying to solve—and who you’re solving it for—you’ll already be a step ahead of the competition.

With this, you can earn high passive income through downloads, subscriptions, ads, etc.—depending on how you model it.

9. Publish an eBook

Selling eBooks online is a very accessible method of making passive income.

The idea of creating a whole digital “book” might still sound intimidating to you, but I promise it’s actually simple to do.

Your book’s content can be informative or entertaining, and it can be as short and simple as a 5-page PDF.

You don’t have to be a pro writer or even an expert on your eBook’s topic. Just be sure to provide high-quality, well-designed content that resonates with your audience.

You can even hire a freelance ghostwriter and graphic designer to help you out.

All you have to do is self-publish it to Amazon or Apple Books and promote it to your audience.

Writing an eBook gives you a vehicle to benefit your existing audience with helpful information, further strengthening your relationship with them.

It’s also a great tool to augment your audience to new levels and boost traffic to your website, podcast, and other channels—growing your brand.

10. Write a Book

Writing a physical book is a great way to generate passive income, not just from the book’s potential sales, but how it may promote other services and products you have to offer.

I’ve written and published three books myself, and although it’s a tough route, it’s super rewarding, and the residual income, if you continue to market the book (or it takes off on its own)can be plentiful.

My self-published book, Will It Fly, has generated a total of $459,341.00 (between 2016 and 2019)

If you’d like to join a community of people just like you who are building their businesses right now, please check out our All-Access Pass. We’ll guide you across our entire course library to ensure you give yourself the best chance to earn an additional income.

You got this!