7 Models of Earning Passive Income Online

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One of the things that really attracted me to the internet in 2008 when I started blogging was the possibility of earning passive income. Offering services, whether as a writer, virtual assistant, web designer or graphic artist, has the advantage of getting upfront payment for the job rendered. But I like the idea of earning passive income, which means having to do the work once but earning multiple times from that work.

However, when building passive sources of income online, you don't usually get paid right away. You also don't get thousands of dollars overnight. It's not a get rich quick scheme. Just because it is called passive income, it doesn't mean there's no hard work. Building passive income online will require lots of time spent on research, hard work, and much patience to master the learning curve. You must be willing to work hard today so you will be rewarded later.

Honestly, I earn a lot more by providing freelance writing services. But I like it when I see some passive income coming in. It's not much, probably because I had not committed more time to build my passive income sources. But I am trying to add to it every now and then.

I don't claim to be an expert but I sure know something about building a passive income. So, let me share five models of building passive income online. Choose one of the models first to try if you could make it work for you.

1. Start a blog or website

Creating a blog or website about a particular topic may take up a lot of your time at startup. But when you have successfully established your blog, it can give you a passive source of income.

There are different ways to earn money from online sites. The most popular methods include displaying Google ads and other comparable pay-per-click ads, accepting private advertisers or sponsored ads, and recommending products.

You can start a blog using free blogging platforms like Blogger, Wix or Weebly. Some people recommend paying to host your own blog, which doesn't cost much (you can get a domain with hosting for less than $4 per month). If you're unsure whether blogging is for you, you can start with the free blogging option then later switch to your own paid blogging platform.

You can check out this tutorial series on blogging using Blogger. But if you want to learn blogging from a pro who has been consistently earning from it, you might want to consider this paid blogging course.

2. Post articles on ad sharing websites

You can write articles and post them on ad sharing websites, such as eHow.com, Bukisa.com, Suite101.com, Infobarrel, Hubpages and Wizzley. You need to sign up for a free account on these websites before you can publish your articles. You earn ad revenue when visitors click the ads displayed on your article page. The more articles you write, the more you can earn, though your earnings also depend on the traffic you get on your articles. As long as you keep the articles published, you can potentially earn from the written content.

Another way you can earn money for writing on these sites is through the display of Amazon product links. You can include links to particular products from Amazon and when someone clicks your product links and buys the item, you make a little commission.  You would need to sign up for Amazon's Associate program account to get your personalized links and rightfully claim the money at the end of each month.

The websites mentioned above have a varying set of rules and regulations that you need to adhere to.  For example, if you pick Hubpages, you need to register, create your profile page, and then start writing. Before you can earn revenue from the site, you also need to sign up for the Google Adsense program and the Amazon Associates program. Hubpages has available tutorials to help you go through the necessary steps. You can also browse the forum and ask for help.

Here's a blog post of my experience in writing articles at Hubpages.

The main advantage of writing for these free websites is that you do not pay anything for posting articles on the site. No need to pay for a domain name or web hosting. Of course, these sites earn a percentage of earned revenue from the traffic to your articles. This is a good option for beginners. You can just try it out for a while and see if you like it. Afterwhich, you can decide to invest in creating your own website.

3. Sell stock photography

If you have a talent as a photographer, you can use that to sell stock photography on the internet. Shoot images of scenes that sell well. Check out stock photo sites to see what pictures are popular and selling. Then, if necessary, visually enhance the photos in Photoshop, and put them for sale on websites such as Fotolia.com or iStockPhotos.com.

You might not see sales right away, but remember that you're creating sources of passive income that has the potential to give you cash month after month. Once you have an inventory of several dozen quality photos, sales will start to trickle in.

4. Become an affiliate marketer

 An affiliate marketer promotes other people's products and will get a commission for all resulting sales. The amount of commission earned depends on the type of product being promoted. In general, affiliates selling digital products like e-books or courses can get higher payouts - as much as 75% of the sale price.

Most affiliate marketers use article marketing or email marketing to promote products. Here's one strategy that can be adopted.

Pick a product you want to promote as an affiliate. It's not enough to just write two articles to get a sale. Write 20 articles to increase your chances of getting more sales. In time, you'll have many pages promoting affiliate products and potential sources of passive income.

5. Sell info products

Anyone can create an information product. It’s great for any person who wants to teach in a niche. It's not necessary that you have a degree, or years of experience before you dive into this. What you need for starters is an idea and slant for your product.

So what info products can you make and sell? Any content that may be in the form of an eBook, a video course, a membership site, a podcast or a combination of those products. Just start with a format you enjoy and have experience with.

For example, you can write an eBook to teach your readers something or educate them about a topic you know. If you know a lot about diet and fitness, maybe you can teach about how to follow a Paleo diet plan. If you’re into selling cars, perhaps you can teach what to pay attention to in order to sell more cars. Your info product should provide a solution to the problem of your target audience.

How can you sell your info products? Well, there are some popular platforms that you can use to sell and promote your product. You can use Clickbank to sell your ebooks and courses. You can use Udemy, an education-based platform, to list your online course and find students. Here, you need at least 30 minutes of content, 60% of which is video. You can use JVZoo and Warrior Plus to list your product so affiliates can find it and promote it.

What is the advantage of having your own info product to sell compared to just promoting products as an affiliate? One, this is the way to go if you have something valuable to say. Two, it allows you to have a level of passive income that you might not have with just selling affiliate products.

To get started, decide on a subject you want to teach. Then choose a particular slant and a format. If using Udemy, be sure to create 60% video. Have enough time to create good content. There's no set amount of information required, just create to teach what the audience is looking for.

Before launching or selling, test your chosen platform to ensure a smooth transaction from browsing, paying to receiving the purchased item. Make sure that all is well and there are no glitches.

6. Create print on demand products

There are many types of print-on-demand products that you can create and sell - books, mugs, t-shirts, pillows, cellphone cases, posters, etc. The way this works is you would design a product and submit it to a site or platform like Teespring, Amazon Merch, Printful or RedBubble, so that people can find it and buy it. 

When people order a product, the site or platform creates the product "on-demand" and ships it to the buyer. As long as you have your product design on the site, people can buy your product and you earn from it every time. 

Watch the video below and see how lucrative this passive income model can be.

7. Create a YouTube channel

You've probably seen how many people are creating YouTube channels. And one of the primary reasons for that is the earning potential of posting videos on this site. There are a number of ways how people earn money from YouTube but the most common is from Google Adsense partnership.

When people watch YouTube videos, money can be earned from the ads displayed on the page. A vlogger can also earn from recommending products as affiliates or accepting sponsored ads. Watch the video below to learn what you need to do to start a YouTube channel.

I hope you have learned something from this post. You should try out one or more of these passive income business models to see if it would work for you. Write on the comments below if you'd like to share how you're earning passive income.