Working smarter and not harder has been one of our goals for a long time. As the children get older and I have more “time” (it’s not true BTW you don’t!) I want to spend it doing things I love, having adventures with my family and friends not working more! David and I have been looking, working, creating, and formulating ideas and plans to develop our passive income and side hustles.
What Is Passive Income?
Passive income is an activity that requires minimal labour to earn money and maintain. For me is about creating something ONCE and selling it over and over (and over and over). Examples include;
- Property Rentals
- Survey Sites
- Affiliate Marketing
- Dividend Stocks
There’s an awful lot of information out there about affiliate programmes and matched betting as ways to supplement your income but do either of those really appeal? When starting side hustles it’s really important to evaluate your skills and consider how your skill set can earn you an extra income. Are you good at writing, proofreading, or editing? You could look for freelance writing or editing jobs or one-off gigs. Think about your skill set and put them to good use. Also, consider your passions and what gets you excited, what do you enjoy? Do you care a lot about cooking and nutrition? Can you use this passion to create meal plans, shopping lists, and recipe ebooks? 
Using Your Existing Skills To Develop Money Making Side Hustles:
Micropayments
PayPal.me, Ko-Fi or Buy Me A Coffee style micropayment platforms enable readers/followers/subscribers to send you small payments or donations, usually around the price of a coffee so £3/£4 to show their appreciation for your work.
Books
You can earn money, commission, or royalties via E-books, booklets, and actual books. E-books consider using 3rd party apps like e-junkie or Clickbank. I use the affiliate link with Amazon to promote my book Crafting a Successful Small Business. You could use Buy Now buttons within your content. KDP print-on-demand enables you to print physical books but not hold stock as Amazon fulfills orders on demand. It’s a really handy cost-effective way to write and produce books.
Upselling
Give something away for free in order to sell services/products to your customers. For me, my blog is my freebie and hopefully, you enjoy what you read and will come back for more of my services.
Selling Stuff
Ever wondered how to start selling coffee online? Starting an online side hustle could be easier than you think. Plain and simple whether that be via a shop or just adding PayPal links to items you want to sell! Selling online is 24 hours a day 7 days a week, online shops never sleep. This is probably the easiest way to make extra money as there are so many amazing resources available online from a reindeer SVG to step-by-step bird box tutorials. If you can make it you can sell it! Not crafty? Think about the skills you already have, that you could sell on.
Affiliate Marketing (and Google Adsense)
Placing live links or banners on your website is the easiest way to start creating a passive income. When readers/followers/subscribers click through and purchase products you earn a commission. I use Affiliate Window, Amazon Affiliates, and Google AdSense, most of your favourite brands have affiliate schemes in one way or another. There is a lot of information, tricks, tips, and hints out there on how to maximise your sales via affiliate marketing. For example, just moving Google Adsense into the main header and adding a plugin that automatically creates ads for well-performing posts increased my monthly earnings with little effort on my end. If you share links on social media you should always state that the links are affiliates and you need to declare this in your blog Disclosure Policy too.
T-shirt & Mug Designer
Starting an online side hustle could be easier than you think. We just integrated a print-on-demand shop with our Travel Blog where we designed mugs and water bottles using our logo, however, you can create all manner of products, including t-shirts, bags, and hats. We are able to streamline and integrate with your current eCommerce platform, so it looks just like our brand. We do not hold stock or send out products everything is fulfilled by the print-on-demand distributor. Selling online is 24 hours a day 7 days a week, our online shops never sleep. If your skill set lies in graphic design, painting, or even photography you can easily create designs to populate a shop selling t-shirts, mugs, and even leggings in no time. If you want to make these items yourself vinyl cutters and printers are readily available on the high street, I’ve seen many a mum at school making some extra cash selling personalised drink bottles. If you aren’t very creative then Design Bundles is a pretty awesome and low-cost platform where you can buy SVG files (scalable vector graphics, which can easily scale up or down without altering the integrity of the design) look out for fathers day svg and Easter templates for those t-shirts and mugs.
Become An After-Dinner Speaker
Why do event organisers book an after-dinner speaker? An after-dinner speaker injects something special into your event or function. After-dinner speakers add a touch of glamour to events and can attract a higher number of attendees as people come out specifically to see them, they also give your guests even more reason to hang around after. Use your small business knowledge to create motivational and inspirational public speaking content. Utilize these situations to network and grow your business and following.
Digital Downloads
There are so many ways you can earn a passive income through digital downloads, you create a product, list it in your shop and then your software sends it out on purchase. You continually make money from something you created ages ago! For example, if you spend time and energy creating your own social media graphics and enjoy doing so then why not create and sell templates via Canva or even bespoke tailored graphics? You can use your mailing list to send out a free sample (everyone loves a freebie!) because there are lots of people like me out there who spend an eternity trying to create something half decent and getting nowhere fast! You could also create courses, workshops, PDF’s anything that solves a problem! Planner inserts for example lists such as Christmas lists, Birthday charts, a time audit, and recipe cards the options are endless.
Dividends
A dividend refers to the distribution of a portion of a company’s earnings as a reward (either cash or otherwise) that a company gives to its shareholders. With dividends, you invest your money (as little as £1) in stocks and then receive payments if the company makes a profit. The amount of money you receive depends on the number of shares you own and how well the company has performed. Dividends provide a regular stream of income — shareholders receive payouts every quarter, month or year without having to do anything. You need to take a bit of an interest in where you hold shares, for example, should you hold shares in a high street retail chain that then goes bankrupt, your shares can be worth nothing and you would end up losing whatever money you’d invested. Also, be aware that media coverage can also play a role in how well shares do.
Blogging as a Side Hustle
This is sort of two-pronged. If you don’t have a blog maybe now is the time to start writing one. Not only is it great for SEO but you can also monetise your blog to earn you some extra cash. If you are already blogging then you could look at earning extra cash by selling blog writing services.
Earning Interest On Cryptocurrency
This is a great savings alternative using AQRU a simple app that helps you to buy, invest, and earn interest on your crypto assets. Your annual interest is paid daily and tracked to the second plus you don’t even have to deposit with crypto, you can deposit normal currency to start earning a yield.
YouTube
If you are partial to a spot of video blogging then YouTube, a free video sharing platform, enables you to not only watch and engage with videos online but actively encourages you to create and upload your own videos but you can monetise your videos too and start to earn ad revenue. By creating videos on practically any topic that you are passionate about or that will engage and resonate with your core audience, you then upload them to YouTube. Once your channel has 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours per year, you will be able to join the YouTube Partner Program. YouTube has criteria for paying publishers running ads on their channel: a viewer must click the ad or watch the ad in its entirety for you to be paid for these ad views. 1,000 ad views are roughly worth £3.50 currently. Your YouTube account is linked to your Google AdSense so payments are made in a lump sum once you hit the payment threshold of £60, payment is made automatically into your bank account you don’t need to request it
Spring is Coming
Are you an avid gardener? Do you always end up with a surplus of seedlings? Not everyone (me, I’m talking about me) is green-fingered and I’m always buying seedlings and established plants. Facebook selling groups are an easy way to sell your surplus seedlings.
*BONUS TIP*
Never underestimate occasional spending and seasonal gifts there are so many dotted throughout the year (Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Spring to name a few) it’s never too early to get making and advertising.
There are lots and lots more ways that you can save and make money for a rainy day and build up your passive income stream. What online side hustles do you have to increase your passive income? In what ways do you “earn a passive income”?
Read my article 10 Passive Income Streams to Unlock Financial Freedom on 123 Reg.
Have I missed any or do you have some creative outside the box suggestions? I like those kinds 🙂
This post complies with my Disclosure Policy
The information contained in this blog post is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. Please seek out expert advice when dividends or other financial instruments.
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