19 passive income ides 2025 – Best ways to make a passive income

We could all use a few extra bucks. 

The trouble is that dollars aren’t hard to earn. It’s finding more time in the day that presents the real challenge.

The solution? Passive income: the art of generating revenue while you sleep. 

As we head into 2025 with an uncertain economic future on the horizon, we’ll all be looking for passive income ideas to help bolster our wallets. Here are some of the best (and most accessible) ways to earn passive income in the next twelve months.

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What is passive income?

Passive income is money you earn with minimal labor, typically from income sources outside the traditional nine-to-five. In a traditional job, you trade time for money. Passive income requires no time input from your end.

An example? If you own a stock that pays out quarterly dividends, the money that hits your account is passive—earned income that you didn’t have to sweat for.

Types of passive income

Just like nine-to-five jobs, not all sources of passive income are alike. There are a few different strategies and mindsets with which you can approach building your passive income streams:

Diverse investments

You can try one big business to generate all your passive income, or spread the risk out between multiple strategies to see which best fits.

Long-term vs. short-term strategies

A short-term strategy might be dividend investing, which only requires start-up capital and a click. Long-term strategies require more investments of time, such as building a dropshipping business that runs with barely any work.

Initial investments

Will you invest time (building a business) or money (using capital for passive investments) as your primary strategy? It may depend on what you have at your disposal as you read this.

Opportunities

Your ability to find opportunities will help determine the success of your passive income streams. 

For example, are you exploring the businesses possible when building a website with AI? are you watching shopping trends to see where a dropshipping business might succeed?

It’s tempting to believe that ideas for passive income are all you need. But the best ways to create passive income will rely on some ingenuity and forethought on your end. 

That said, it never hurts to have a few ideas to spark your next “ways to create passive income” brainstorm session.

Let’s start with speed.

Fast passive income ideas for beginners to start right away

Idea #1: Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is laser-quick for one reason: you can think of it as “online sales.”

You’ll sign up with an established business, work as their affiliate, and earn a commission. You don’t need to build a back-end shop—you just need a blog, a social media presence, or another way to drive traffic. 

Once you do, you can start collecting commissions on all the sales you send to those third-party businesses.

Idea #2: Sell photos online

Shutterstock. Dreamstime. Fotolia. 

These are websites where you can easily upload stock photography and make a quick sale. all you need is a camera, some imagination, and a way to show off your shutterbug skills.

One caveat? There’s plenty of competition here, so you’ll have to be on your a-game to be successful here.

Idea #3: Monetize YouTube videos

Have a YouTube presence? Plenty of subscribers to join YouTube’s monetization program? Then, the views you’re already getting can turn into passive income in a hurry with just a few clicks.

If your audience isn’t quite there yet, you’d be surprised at how quickly you can grow. If you need help, here’s an in-depth guide for making money on YouTube, including insights from the pros.

Idea #4: Provide consulting services

This one is only semi-passive, but if you have skills and an audience, it’s a fast way to turn on a new spigot of income.

People out there want to learn new skills—and they need to hire consultants with expertise to do it. 

Consider developing video or text-based consulting services or using an online training platform to leverage your skills, attract an audience, and monetize what you know.

Idea #5: Digital downloads

With a bit of software know-how, you can sell digital products quickly. Here are just a few ideas:

• Digital art prints
• Website themes and templates
• Printable planners and journals
• Educational templates and worksheets
• Social media templates, such as pre-made designs for Instagram posts

Heck, people will pay for your PDFs if there’s enough value in them.

Idea #6: Domain investing

The idea’s simple: investing in domain names and parking them until someone asks to buy, can be incredibly lucrative. 

If you know where to spot the opportunities.

Idea #7: Dividend investing

Stocks and funds with high dividend yields can pay out either monthly or quarterly—you don’t need much time, but you will need some capital to see a consistent return here.

REITs (real estate investment trusts), for example, are quick investments that collect rent money and pay it out in the form of dividends to all investors. 

Best ways to make a passive income online from home

Idea #8: Develop online courses

Got a skill? 

Build a course once, then sell it on a website or a hosted platform—it’s a bit like taking the idea of becoming a teacher and turning it into a passive enterprise.

Some course developers can even earn six-figure incomes every year.

Idea #9: Create and sell audiobooks

One in five Americans listens to audiobooks, and there is plenty of intellectual property available in the public domain. 

If you have a soothing voice and need to share some value with the world, why not record yourself reading it, and then keep selling that same audio product for years?

Idea #10: Create and sell ebooks

People always need words. Entertainment, instruction, tips for starting a new business themselves — these will always be in demand.

So if you have some expertise you want to share, consider publishing it in ebook form and offering it for download on a service like Gumroad, or even your own website.

Idea #11: Dropshipping

Fun fact: you don’t have to build your own logistics business to sell products online.

Dropshipping lets you work with a third party, making sales on your own behalf and then letting the dropshipper take care of everything on the fulfillment side. It’s a little like affiliate marketing — except you get to keep more of the profits yourself.

Idea #12: License music or sound effects

People need royalty-free music in this YouTube-driven world. If you have the audio bug, why not supply it?

You can license music or digital sound effects online, or license music directly to platforms like PremiumBeat or artList.

Ideas to generate a passive income with no or little money

Idea #13: Start a blog

With enough traffic, your blog can open up affiliate advertising opportunities, direct sponsorship deals, or serve as your platform for selling your own digital products. For a simple, managed solution, check out GoDaddy WordPress Hosting to get your blog started.

Idea #14: Create a membership site

Platforms like Patreon are great for hosting your content at premium membership fees, or creating your own membership site to capitalize on your following online.

Idea #15: Self-publish a book on demand

Like drop-shipping, you can work with third-party platforms like Amazon to print books whenever customers order them. This is especially great if you write fiction and want to give readers something they can hold in their hands.

Idea #16: Sell printable items

Digital downloads like planners and checklists are fun. But why not have a third party print them out and sell them as full products? Platforms like Etsy help you expand your reach, but you’ll retain more of each sale if you sell them directly from your own online store. Think of easy-to-print products like creative bookmarks, planners, calendars, and more.

If you already have a high-quality camera, you’d be surprised how easy it can be to capture stock video footage and license it online. Platforms like Shutterstock or Adobe Stock are always looking for new entries to round out their offerings, or you can use a platform to charge royalties to people who buy them directly.

Idea #18: Print-on-demand merchandise

If you have the skill to come up with catchy mottos or put together creative designs for posters, mugs, and T-shirts, print-on-demand merchandise can be a hands-off way to build your next business. Companies like Printful or Printify are more than happy to make up most of the fulfillment end of this business, keeping it mostly passive on your end.

Idea #19: Create your own app

Sounds complicated? Like a major investment of time and money? You’d be surprised. Today’s no-code tools like Glide can help you create simple, monetizable apps. The only catch is you need to come up with something people will want to download. You can even keep the app free to use if implementing ads, giving you a low-maintenance way to earn passive income.

Passive vs. active income

Active income is any money you earn that you have to physically or mentally work for. Passive income is money that shows up in your bank account without any additional work on your end. 

Here’s a good way to illustrate the difference. If you’re a real estate property manager, you have to go and work to collect rent checks, handle maintenance, vet tenants, and do repairs yourself. But if you invest in a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust), you only to buy a share of the trust and someone else will collect the rent for you. That’s passive income.

How much can you earn from passive income?

It all depends. Passive income earnings vary widely depending on method, effort, and initial investment. If you’re earning passive income from investing, then let’s say you invest $10,000 in a dividend fund paying out 7% per year. That might generate you $700 per year or over $50 per month.

If you own businesses generating passive income, the sky is the limit. Successful affiliate websites with plenty of traffic might generate $1,000 to $5,000 per month. 

Myths and misconceptions about passive income

Passive income sounds like one of those too-good-to-be-true myths, which is why lots of other myths tend to pop up around this concept. Let’s debunk a few of those myths right now:

• Myth #1: Passive income is easy. It’s easy—once you set it up! However, most passive income either requires hefty investments of sweat equity or initial capital to get going. There are no “too good to be true” myths here.
• Myth #2: Passive income is a get-rich-quick scheme. Nope. There are no pyramid schemes, just leveraging what value you can offer the world and creating a system that runs with minimal input.
• Myth #3: I should quit my job for something passive. Maybe it’s more prudent to start off a side hustle first. Only once you’re sure the passive income has replaced your full-time income should you start to consider leaving.

Overcoming challenges in building passive income streams

Passive income isn’t like a light switch. It will take some ingenuity, some forethought, and a careful examination of how your skills intersect with what customers are willing to buy. If you can find a good match, you have a recipe for a passive income stream. If not? You may have to work at it.

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