10 Smart Passive Income Ideas (That Earn Over $1000 Per Month)

If you’re always short on money or are finding it hard to save, you’re either spending too much or not making enough.

I would say the latter because, let’s face it; most people are not so conscious when it comes to spending money.

Also, cutting down on, say, a cup of coffee every morning or a few dinners out a month won’t increase your savings tremendously.

You know, there are 5 pillars of personal finance: Income, spending, savings, investing and protection, and one of the fastest ways to build wealth is to increase your income.

Now, if you’re employed or running a business, passive income, which is basically earning money while you do other things (or not doing anything), is of course the best choice.

So, without further ado, let’s look at my top 10 passive income ideas that could see you earn as much as $1,000 (or even more) a month:

1. Get a Rental Property — or Two

This idea requires you to have a bit of money as down payment on an apartment or house.

But if you do your calculations right, that is, estimate the expenses you’ll be incurring and the income to expect, your investment can boost your income pretty quickly.

With rentals, you’ll only need to put a bit of effort into managing the property once and not really exchanging your time for a salary.

2. Affiliate Marketing

This is a great idea for content creators or those thinking about starting a channel, blog, or website.

Basically, affiliate marketing is promoting a business’s products or services for a commission.

So, you create the content and add a link for the product/ service, and whenever someone clicks on it and buys, you automatically earn money.

There are millions of things you can promote online, and so you can even pick a niche you’re actually passionate about.

The truth is, although my YouTube channel is relatively small compared to others (~3,500 subs at this moment) and I am the so-called “nano influencer’’, I constantly get contacted for affiliate marketing opportunities.

However, these days I am focused on preparing for my CFP exam next month so I am not in the headspace to try and review any new products and services, but my point is, you don’t need to be big to earn that money.

These affiliate marketing opportunities are easily available and as long as you have a strong community who trust your recommendations, you will be able to make good money from that.

3. Website or Domain Flipping

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

Did you know that you can make money by reselling websites and domains?

Or, put it another way, did you know that such a market still exists?

In the case of domains, you can buy ‘high-demand’ domains, in particular, those that ends with “.io” instead of “.com” and later resell them at a markup.

As for websites, you can buy websites going for low prices, make them more attractive, and again sell at a markup.

4. Vending Machines

Photo by Nicholas Ng on Unsplash

A vending machine business is one of the least-demanding things you can do to earn money.

All you need is a high-traffic location, a vending machine (which you can rent or finance with a business loan), a supplier for the items in the machine, and licensing.

Once you have these, all you’ll be doing is servicing the machine, which you can also outsource.

Also, besides paying for the items in the machine, you can lease out space in the vending machine to suppliers and have a profit-sharing arrangement with them.

This way, you minimize your risk of carrying the inventories.

5. Selling Photography

Businesses are launching websites every day.

These websites need relevant, high-quality pictures, which businesses don’t have the time to create.

So, they’ll turn to stock photos online.

If you have a high-quality camera and already enjoy doing photography, you can begin selling pictures independently or through sites like Getty Images, iStock, etc.

6. Peer to Peer Lending

Have a bit of money saved up but don’t know what to do with it yet?

Earn income from it by lending it out.

There are online platforms like Happy Money and Peerform, where you can contribute any amount of money into a lending pool and earn interest on it.

Now that’s 100% passive.

7. Renting Out Your Assets

If you’re looking for passive income that requires no investment, how about leasing out assets you already own?

You could, for instance, list an extra room in your house on Airbnb.

You could also lease out your car if you don’t use it daily; your computer, camera, lawn mower, etc.

Even your parking spot, which you can rent out, is an asset!

8. Online Course

Are you good at something that not many people are?

I’m sure you are.

How about sharing your knowledge and earning from it?

You can create a course and sell it online, on a platform like Udemy, Skillshare, or your own website.

Once you launch, you can earn exponential income from it.

9. Crypto Staking

Photo by Tezos on Unsplash

This is one of my favorite strategies.

If you’re okay with moderately risky assets that hold huge potential for profits, crypto would be a great idea.

And the good thing is you don’t even have to be an active trader.

You can simply buy a cryptocurrency with a good annual percentage yield (APY), in other words, compound interest, and lock it in an exchange for whatever amount of time you want.

Kind of like high-yield savings account for crypto.

10. Investing in Startups

This last passive income idea is probably one of the easiest ways to get rich.

Of course, that is if you play your cards right.

Simply find a startup that you think will blow up in a few months or years and invest in it.

You can find startups to invest in through investment platforms like WeFunder and SeedInvest or in your local community.