Easy ideas to get you started with generating passive income online
Everyone wishes to generate passive income without having to work long hours. However, generating significant amounts of money through passive income streams is not easy. It will take a lot of dedication and hard work at first. However, it may be completely worthwhile in the long run. Many bloggers and YouTubers put in years of effort only to see their efforts pay off after a couple of years. However, once it begins to generate income without them having to work very hard, it becomes a powerful tool.
Software development is a great skill. The skill provides abundant opportunities to make money online.
In this article, let’s discuss 6 different ways of generating passive income as a software developer:
- Info Products
- YouTube Channel
- Podcasts
- Affiliate Marketing
- Blogging
- Micro SaaS products
1. Info Products:
More and more people are creating info products like e-books, video courses, website themes, etc now which keep making money while they sleep.
The eBooks need not be a typical 300-page in-depth guide. It can be as simple as 50 pages of an actionable guide.
You can also make a simple video recording of yourself sharing knowledge on a topic that others don’t know about. People love paying on the internet for learning skills or gaining knowledge that others have.
Simple info products like these can sell for around 15$–25$ easily. If you think the quality of your product is really good, you can sell it for a lot more too.
Even if not passive, info products are still a great way to make a lot of money online if done right.
2. YouTube Channel:
If you’re a camera person and don’t mind recording yourself and posting it online, then YouTube is the way for you.
It is one of the most popular ways to make money on the Internet. You create videos once and they make you money for life without much effort.
But, how does one make money from YouTube?
- Ads
- Product reviews
- Paid promotions
- Affiliate marketing, etc.
However, you should be aware that YouTube is a long-term game that requires significantly more effort than some of the other methods mentioned in this article. It is undoubtedly difficult, but the payoff is enormous.
You will also not start making money right away. It takes years to build a large audience and generate significant revenue. But don't let this deter you. Some people earn hundreds of thousands of dollars per month through their YouTube channels. You can't imagine making this much money from a regular job.
3. Podcasts:
If you’re not comfortable with recording yourself but loves talking, then podcasting is the way to go.
You can record yourself talking about a particular topic or interview other influencers in your niche or you can even interview someone who’s a subject matter expert.
You can even partner with your friend to discuss someinteresting topics.
People love to hear interesting conversations. They needs something to listen to when they’re taking a walk, commuting, have some spare time etc.
You can monetize your podcast in almost the same ways as YouTube: ads, paid promotions, affiliate marketing, etc.
4. Blogging:
If you’re not comfortable with both recording yourself and talking, but you love writing, then blogging is something you should explore.
Many people think blogs are old-age tools and nobody reads articles anymore. That’s far from the truth.
People still love reading articles.
You’re reading this one! Aren’t you?
But, how does one make money by writing articles? I had this question myself for a very long time.
Let’s discuss them briefly here:
- Medium partner program: Medium pays its writers who write articles and put them behind a paywall. When Medium makes money from its paid users (who get to read premium articles) it shares the earnings with writers.
- Paid articles: Many companies are looking for good articles to share on their blog. They pay good writers to ghostwrite for them.
- Sponsorship: Many platforms like HashNode have sponsorship programs where readers can sponsor writers for their work.
Once you have good enough traffic to your blog, you can make money through paid promotions, affiliate links, etc.
Writing is a great skill to have. Writing helps to fill your knowledge gaps on a subject and get more clarity on your thoughts.
Here is my blog: sunilcs.com.
I generally write articles about:
- freelancing
- passive income
- software development
- building online businesses
- building multiple income streams
Follow my blog if you want to learn more about these topics.
5. Affiliate Marketing:
Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to start making money on the internet.
This is how I got started!
Here you basically sell someone else’s product and earn a commission for every sale you make.
The good thing about affiliate marketing is that you don’t need to be an expert in a subject and you don’t even need to have a product of your own.
You just need to know how to sell products to people.
Gumroad is really revolutionizing the affiliate marketing space.
More and more creators are creating info products and are looking for people to help them promote in exchange for an affiliate commission.
But you need to have a good audience to sell the products to. So building an audience on Twitter, Instagram or Linked In, etc is a prerequisite for affiliate marketing.
6. Micro SaaS products:
Another popular but a relatively difficult way is to build micro SaaS products.
I could never imagine myself building a big startup making millions of dollars. So I always throught this was not something that I can make money from. My perspective about startups changed when I saw Pieter Level’s video on building micro SaaS products.
Basically, you build a small SaaS product that solves a very niche problem and earn tens of thousands of dollars (or a hell lot more if it goes well). These are typically created and managed by a small team. In most cases just one person.
The money that you earn from micro SaaS products depends on the complexity of the problem you’re solving and your skills in building and marketing the product.
For example one of my friends Simon Høiberg built a social media automation tool called FeedHive. I have seen the growth of the product from it’s development phase to current phase where it generates over 20k USD in MRR.
If you’re a SaaS enthusiast but don’t think can build a typical startup, you should check out what micro SaaS startups are.
The main goals behind a Mirco-startup are:
- solving a small but a real problem
- working on products you love
- still making a lot of money
- freedom from working for someone else
- staying small (typically 1–5 people)
Conclusion:
Being a Software Developer is akin to, if not more than, having a superpower. It offers numerous opportunities to make money online. Making money online is simple once you've earned your first dollar. Hone this skill and try to create multiple income streams that will allow you to earn money while you sleep. Making money while sleeping is a fantastic feeling.
You have reached the end of the article. Do not end here. See which of the options described above best suits you, learn more about it, and take action today!
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