Passive Income Ideas
We all wish we could make money while we sleep right?
Think about it, you can take an extra-long holiday while your “passive income” makes you money behind the scenes – truly a dream come true.
So, what is a PASSIVE INCOME?
Here is a short explanation.
Passive income is where, at first you put in effort on a project, and later, this project brings you money day in and day out even if you are not actively involved.
For example, you work on something like say an ebook and put it up for sale. This book starts generating sales for you on a regular basis, 24×7. You could go on a holiday and this book is still making you money – this is called passive income.
You only wrote that ebook once, but you are getting paid for it over and over again every time someone makes a purchase.
Sounds like a dream job isn’t it? This is why you hear a lot of people say, “Make money while you sleep, with passive income”.
And it’s not just from selling an ebook, there are many other ways you can generate passive income to make money from home.
In today’s post, I am going to share some smart passive income ideas to consider in 2020.
These are ideas that are profitable and still in-demand so you have a good chance of creating a sustainable income from home.
I have been making passive income from home with this blog since 2018. Most of my blog income is from affiliate marketing and advertising on this site – both a form of passive
Are you ready to learn how to create a passive income?
*This post may contain affiliate links. Please read
PASSIVE INCOME IDEAS 2020
1. Make money on Pinterest
Pinterest is a great platform to generate a passive income with affiliate marketing.
You can make money on Pinterest even if you don’t own a website or a blog.
There are many affiliate programs that accept you without a blog.
Once you apply and get accepted into these affiliate programs, you can create a few pin images for each of the products you would like to promote. And then you share it on Pinterest.
I use Picmonkey to create these pin images, so my pins stand out from the rest of the millions of pins shared on Pinterest. This is very important because if your pin images are poorly done no one is going to click your pin and read about your affiliate product.
Here’s how the process works,
– A Pinterest user spots your pins
– Clicks on to read it.
– Clicks on the affiliate link to make a purchase
– BINGO! You make a commission!
I made over $122 in ONE month promoting just ONE product (a recipe ebook) using Affiliate marketing on Pinterest. Here is an in-depth tutorial on Pinterest Affiliate marketing.
2. Blogging
I know you see this at the top of every list of passive income ideas, and that’s because it works – and I can testify.
There are so many bloggers that work on their blog either full-time or part-time and generate some money. However, it does take a little time to bring in a steady income each month. It all comes down to how much time you have to work on it.
I started this blog in early 2018 and earned a few hundred dollars in my first-month blogging and that was from affiliate marketing on Pinterest.
The flexibility with blogging is amazing, and I believe its the perfect stay at home mom job as it has given me the opportunity to have a flexible work at home lifestyle.
So how do you make money blogging?
You can earn money by placing ads, link to affiliate products or even sell your own product.
The amount of money you make depends on the number of visitors (traffic) to your site, and if the readers are interested in your content.
If you are ready to give blogging a try, I highly recommend Siteground to host your website. I have been with them since the start, and they have been so helpful – from setting up, doing regular backups, increased site speed and just keeping my site free from hackers – I can’t recommend them enough. And the best part – they set me all up, so there
Read how I got set up with Siteground the easy way>>
Note: I put Pinterest and blogging at the top of the list because they are two of my highest-paying passive income streams that makes me a full-time income each month.
3. Retirement Savings
Saving up for retirement is a passive income stream that is best to start today.
Bloom is an online Robo advisor platform, particularly for your workplace retirement 401k plan.
They help you link your existing 401k which then allows their bots to do the research for you.
You are not required to have an account minimum, so you can begin with a zero balance – great for beginners looking to save.
Get your free 401k analysis here.
4. Open a High-Yield Savings Account
CIT Bank offers the most competitive interest rates on its savings account.
You can earn up to 2.20% APY just for having money in your savings account. This is one of the best ways to make money from your income.
There are two ways to do it with CIT.
1. Monthly savers – Open this account with a $100 minimum and continue to deposit at least $100 each month to continue receiving high-interest rates.
2. High Balance Savers – Maintain a $25k balance on your account to receive CIT’s highest interest rate.
Check out CIT’s Savings Accounts here.
5. Earn for using the Web
We all use the internet to find the best answers for the price comparisons, recipes, or just about anything.
There is a rewards site called Swagbucks that pays you when you do an internet search. You earn points for your web search that can be redeemed for gift cards or PayPal cash. Gift cards start from $3, and you can cash out every day if you have enough points.
So instead of using Yahoo or Google for browsing the web, try Swagbucks and earn a passive income.
Join Swagbucks here for a $5 bonus and start earning. Make sure you verify Swagbucks email confirmation in your inbox to gain access to their dashboard.
Read additional ways to earn with Swagbucks – which includes daily surveys, cashback and more.
6. Investment App for Beginners
Not necessarily.
You can begin with investing as little as 50 cents and build it up.
Like the sound of that?
Most of the time our expenses and income are so tight that we end up having no money left to save. If
So if you join Acorns and connect it to your bank account, next time you shop for a burger or a coffee and use your card, Acorns will round up the change to the closest dollar and automatically invest it for you. I have included this investment App in this list of passive income ideas, because every time you shop, you get money automatically invested for you – more money for you.
7. App to Cut Bills in Automation
Trim is one of the best automation apps to help save money on your bills.
Whether its cable, internet or car insurance Trim has saved is users over $1,000,000 in bills each month.
They have been featured in mainstream media like The NewYork Times and ABC news.
Once you connect Trim to your account, it analyses your recurring subscriptions and determines where you can save.
It helps negotiate or cancel bills on your request.
8. Drop-Shipping
If you are interested in selling products online this might suit you. Drop-shipping is where you sell products on your website and get someone else to do the delivery for you.
The advantage to dropshipping as opposed to owning your own e-commerce store is that you don’t need to stock any inventory. Once a customer visits your website and places an order, your chosen dropship supplier will deliver the product for you.
The investment in dropshipping is minimal and you can set up your website for less than $100 a year.
9. Create and Sell a Digital Product
Selling a digital product like an ebook or an online course doesn’t have to be overwhelming or expensive.
For an eBook: Canva is a free website that lets you create an design an ebook in a pdf format that is free to download. And to sell your book I recommend using Sendowl to take care of all the transactions. Prices start at just $9 a month and all you need to do is upload the PDF file of your ebook to
For an online course: With an online course, you can include video tutorials to make it more interactive. Teachable is the recommended platform for selling online courses. You can use Teachable to create and sell on the same platform. It’s convenient because you can make updates to your course anytime and readers can view the changes when they login to their dashboard.
Every time someone makes a purchase you get the money straight into your account. Pinterest and Facebook have been the best way to promote online products. And if you don’t want to create your own website, you can also consider selling it on Kindle using Amazon.
10. Sell photos
If creating an ebook or selling an online course is not for you, how about selling photos online?
Wondering how?
Stock photos.
Online business owners, magazines/editorials and bloggers all use stock photos for promotion. So if you love taking high-quality images you can sell either per image or as a photo bundle – say 20 photos for $15 (as an example).
You can either sell your photos on sites like
You can also create an affiliate program for your website, so others can promote your site for you, while they earn a commission.
My friend Alicia Powell has her own stock photo website – you can check hers out here for inspiration!
11. Rent your house and things inside
Something that doesn’t involve investment or any of your time. If you have a spare room at home -why not rent it out?
You can either rent it out on a contract basis for a few months or join hands with Airbnb and rent it to travellers looking for a few nights stay. Either way, you can easily make a few hundred each
Want to rent things you don’t use often?
Yes, there are many legit sites that offer to pay you for renting your stuff. Here are some worth looking into.
Rent parking space – Just park, Your parking space, Park on my driveway
Rent clothes – Style lend
12. Rent your car
You can rent your car on Turo if you don’t use it often. Its free to list your car on Turo and it takes less than 10 minutes to do so. You get to set your own daily price and can also choose to offer discounts on longer trips.
Turo protects your car against physical damage and have access to 24×7 roadside assistance and customer support.
In regards to how much you earn – you get to keep 75% of the trip price and earn via PayPal.
13. Sell homemade crafts
Here is a long list of 40 crafts ideas that you can make from home and earn extra cash.
But if you are looking to start an online business selling your crafts, then Etsy is the way to go.
It’s an online marketplace that you list some of your goods and
14. Cashback – Online shopping
Cashback apps are a good
And to get more out of online shopping, cashback apps work the best.
If this is the first time using cashback apps take a look at this little GIF that shows you how to save money when buying everyday products at Target using Ibotta a cashback app available to those in the US.
Ibotta is free to use and you can withdraw your earning once you reach a minimum of $20.
15. Paribus – Automatic refunds
This app is genius and because it is a part of Capital One you know they are a legitimate program you can trust.
How can Paribus make you money?
*Note Paribus may compensate us when you sign up using the links below.
Pretty simple, you install the app on your Apple device. Once you do your online shopping, Paribus will track all your shopping confirmation emails and track if there is any price drop. And if there is a drop in price for one of the products you have purchased, you will get your refund into your bank account.
What an easy way of making money from your shopping, and there is no need for you to contact anyone for a refund. Paribus will take care of that for you. They will access your emails to get your refunds, so if this is something you are not comfortable with, you can create a separate email account and use it for your online shopping.
Paribus not only gives you shopping refunds, but you also get compensation for late Amazon deliveries and assistance in re-booking cheaper holiday hotel accommodations.
Read a full review on Paribus here>>
16. Neilson App -$50
Neilson Digital is another highly genuine company that lets you run their app on your phone to understand internet
17. Start your own YouTube channel
If you enjoy being in front of the camera its never too late to start a YouTube channel.
You make money on YouTube the same way as you would with a blog – from ads and affiliates.
See those little ads that show up while watching a video on YouTube?
Those are ads that will generate you money.
And in the description below the video, you can see some notes and links right?
If someone were to click those affiliate links below and make a purchase you earn a commission.
Here are some popular Youtube video ideas:
You can do recipes, hair and makeup tutorials, travel logs, parenting, and toddler videos or just generally even a family lifestyle channel and get the entire family involved.
And even create free classes to help others with knitting, crocheting and other helpful tutorials.
That’s your 16 legitimate ways of making money from home even when you are on a holiday.
That’s the best part of building a career on passive income. You get paid over and over for work once done.
If you are looking for some quick ways of earning money, here are some creative ideas.
- 20 Online companies that don’t require any calling
- 5 Side hustles for quick money
- 7 legit survey sites I trust
thank you for the very good ideas. very informative and helpful
Thanks Phiona!
The idea of passive income is super appealing, so I’m going to look into some of the things that you mentioned. I’ve only have experience with blogging, but I haven’t done that for too long. Thank you for the post!
Hi Carolyn, I love blogging too, but there are indeed a lot more flexible option to work from home. I might just venture out into something else soon:)
Thanks for the ideas, I’ve been crocheting since I was 4 years old, but could never find a market for my creations. Maybe an ebook of my patterns would sell better than the items themselves. I’ll give it a try, you never know.
Absolutely Gloria! I think crocheting is a hot topic these days, and I believe you won’t have any trouble finding an audience. And like you said, you’ll never know unless you give it a shot:)
Great!
Hi
Really interested in this as about to become full time van lifers for a while. Very interested in the ebook idea! Thanks!
Thanks Emma!
Hey Saranya, when you create pins for direct affiliate links, how many do you create for one product to be successful with the campaign? I know it can take only one but if you really want to start an affiliate campaign on Pinterest, how many do you suggest?
Hi Saranya! I’m also curious, how many different pins would you create for the same product until you start getting sales on your affiliate link? I’m myself struggling with Pinterest, it’s not working for me just yet.
It’s always nice to pursue those continuous income streams, thank you for putting this together!
Hi Carlo, I would recommend creating at least 6 or 7 pins for each of your affiliate products. Unfortunately, there is no magic number, because even if one pin goes viral you could be making a good number of sales:)
Hey, Saranya! Just love thing you states in this article is that you build trust over investment for beginners. Thank You!!
Thanks for sharing such great high paying passive income ideas.
I have to say, I love your posts such as this one, a great idea for me as a home staying dad to start Airbnb since I own a house close to T station. This would be a great income for my family, I have to dig more dipper into this one.