If you’re looking for ideas to earn a passive income online then you’ve come to the right place! The online world changes every single day and has seen an enormous boost over the last couple of months! More and more companies were forced to work from home and focus on the online side of their business.
I hate to bring it up cause I am truly sick and tired of hearing about it but ever since Covid-19 reared its ugly head the world of travel blogging has truly been flipped upside down. A lot of people were in a complete panic cause they were losing job offers left and right and nearly every press trip got cancelled. For me it was a weird time as well cause for weeks I couldn’t practice my regular job as a paediatric dentist. There was no active stream of income and well money was flying out cause of course the cost of living didn’t stop.
But I was also prepared for something like this cause in 2019 I focussed on launching different sources of passive income. In this blog post I will tell you different ways how you can do this too and create a safety net for yourself when shit would hit the fan again.
How To Earn A Passive Online Income In 2021
Before we dive into all the possibilities I want to explain to you what exactly I mean with a passive online income!
What is a Passive Online Income?
Well passive income is money earned without actually working for it. Or said in a better way, it’s money earned while working in a really smart way! When done right you can even start earning money in your sleep!
Passive income is the source of constant income that you get for a work that you have done once.
In the “real world” for instance passive income can be earned by investing in real estate. By renting out a flat, garage or an office space you can create a monthly income stream for yourself without actively working for it!
Well, what if I told you you can do the same thing online but you’ll need waaaaaay less money?!!
Let’s dive into all of the possibilities shall we?
7 Ideas to earn a Passive Online Income in 2021
The online world is evolving every single day and with it so are the possibilities to create a profitable passive online income. I am not saying it will be easy and that it will take off immediately. It will require some time and dedication but once you’ve set everything in place you’ll be able to reep the profits.
My Personal Story
As some of you might already know I work as a paediatric dentist 3 days/week. I used to work full time but I wanted more time to invest in my blog and more freedom to be able to go on short trips without having to reschedule any patients. It wasn’t an easy decision and it was actually pretty scary in the beginning but over the past years I learned how to earn an extra passive income on top of my income as a dentist.
For my blog I have to travel a lot and as a dentist I get zero days of paid leave. This means that when I am not actively working in the practice I earn zero money. In my first year as a content creator I wasn’t focusing on creating a passive income at all. I thought everything would work itself out… even when going on a 3 month trip through Asia…
Well, I was wrong. I suffered a big financial loss that year and was pretty much in over my head. It’s not something I like to talk about cause well we only like to share the good stuff right? Well last year the shit truly hit the fan for me but I figured out a way to power through and came out stronger on top.
Because I already have a really demanding active job I don’t want to use my Instagram to constantly promote products for payment. If I really stand behind a product or I already own it myself then yeah, I might do it, but otherwise it’s a no from me. For me the goal was to create a passive income stream through multiple resources and simply focus on helping people. I can now say that I successfully did so and now that I have I want to help you achieve the same!
1. Affiliate Marketing
The power of affiliate marketing is often very much underestimated. When affiliate marketing is done right you can actually earn a full time extra income while working your day job! For instance I put the money I make with my affiliate marketing aside for future trips. This way I don’t actually spend the money I make with my job as a paediatric dentist.
There are different ways to do affiliate marketing but what it actually means is that you earn a part of the profit when someone purchases something through your personal affiliate link.
Popular affiliate programs for instance are
- Booking.com
- Amazon.com
If there’s a specific business that you want to become an affiliate for simply go to their website and see if they have a program that you can join. If it does you can then apply for their program. Once you are accepted you’ll receive a personal tracking link or you’ll be able to generate your own links. You can then use these on all of your Social Media platforms or on your website. The moment when somebody makes a sale through your link, you’re paid your commission.
Affiliate marketing can be tricky in the beginning but once you get the hang of it’s definitely worth the trouble!
There are also some creators who offer their own Affiliate Program! Me for instance :p. You are free to join my Affiliate Program for my presets and with every sale that you make you’ll be rewarded a 30% commission.
2. Monetise your blog
I made several mistakes in my first year of blogging and one of them was not focussing on monetising my blog. The first misconception about starting a blog is that it has to cost you hand fulls of money to start one. Well that’s really not the case at all!
There are a few things I recommend though:
- Get your own domain name through wordpress.org
- Choose a good website hosting service. I use Siteground and really like their service! Every time I ran into some trouble with my site or I couldn’t figure out something they have been there to help. They have a chat service which is constantly available where you can ask all of your questions!
- Choose a good theme. There are several free themes available at WordPress but of course as with anything that is free a lot of people are using it. I found my theme at 17 Avenue Designs. I like to point out that when I started my blog I had absolutely no clue about coding and honestly I still don’t. But I was still able to create a beautful website by using one of their themes!
There are a ton of ways to monetise your blog and make a passive online income.
Advertising
There are basically two ways of paid advertising: PPC and CPM. The PPC or Pay per Click is when a company pays you for every click made on one of their banners on your website. While CPM (Cost per Mile) is when an advertiser will pay you for every thousand impressions on that ad.
The most popular advertising network to this day is still Google Adsense but besides that you also have Monumetric, Exponential, … But once your blog reaches a monthly traffic of 50.000 sessions you should definitely apply to join Mediavine. A few months ago they changed their application policy so instead of 25.000 sessions in 30 days you now need 50.000 sessions in 30 days. The benefit of Mediavine is that they have a higher payout as Google Adsense!
Affiliate Marketing
Here I go again I know but affiliate marketing truly is an amazing way to create a passive online income! For instance let’s say you’ve bought someone’s e-book or a course and they offer an affiliate program. A good way is then to write a review about your experience and use your personal tracking code within the post.
3. Sell your own Digital Products
The best way to earn a big passive pay check is to create your very own digital products that your audience will love and buy.
Start by thinking about what your audience wants. Which questions do you get asked most often? Put all of that in writing and start thinking about a product that can actually help these people.
Creating a digital product does require time and effort but once it’s set up all you need to do is promote it to your audience in a genuine way and that’s it.
The best thing about a digital product is that you don’t need to invest into creating an inventory. All you need to do is set up an online shop. I created mine in WooCommerce and love the simplicity of its interface.
4. Graphic Design
Graphic designing is a creative way to make money. In the online world there is a constant need for new fonts, banners, templates… etc. And while you can sell these as well in your very own online shop there are also several websites out there where you can upload your own designs. These website already have millions of visitors and you can sell your creative work for good margins. Some websites worth to check out are: Graphic Leftover, Themeforest (if you can design website themes) and Creative Market.
An easy way to start designing your own templates is by using Canva. You can get as creative as you want with all of their fonts, images, symbols and photos available!
5. Sell Your Photos Online
Just as with graphic designing websites and companies are always on the lookout for new stock images. You can upload your photos for instance to EyeEm.com and every time someone purchases your image you’ll receive your payment. For one single photo this can sometimes go up to $499!
6. Styled Stock Photos
If you have an eye for aesthetics and you’re good at putting together flat lays I can totally recommend this one! I am always on the lookout for cute stock photos to use for blog posts like well, this one haha. A lot of bloggers sell these kind of stock photos or they use them as a freebie to get new subscribers!
7. Create an Online Course
A good quality course will take some time to create it but once it’s out there it can generate a nice passive online income. The only catch here is that the course has to provide value and solve a problem. The most important part here again is that you know your audience and their struggles. Ask what they would like to learn from you and go from there.
Creating a course has been something that’s been in the back of my mind for a while now and who knows maybe some day I will launch one. I do however think it is very important to only sell something of true value and to not only include information that people can simply find online.
I hope this blog post brings you the value that you were searching for! And if this is a topic that you are interested in make sure to keep an eye on my Instagram cause I will be launching something incredibly helpful at the end of the week!
Nicolette Toebosch says
Zeer interessant verhaal, met veel belangstelling gelezen. Je bent open in het geven van je kennis die je inmiddels hebt opgedaan afgelopen jaren. Ik volg je Instagram met veel plezier en vind je foto’s en shoots mooi en leuk. Als ik een stuk jonger was geweest was dit voor mij ook een interessante “job” geweest. Ik houd het nu maar bij reizen (inmiddels) ook met camper en ga me meer toeleggen op fotografie. Succes verder met je blog etc.
Charlotte says
Hej Nicolette! Amai wat een complimenten! Heel hard bedankt hiervoor! En over dat “jong” zijn, ik denk dat er velen jouw verhaal met veel interesse zouden willen lezen! Je moet maar eens kijken bij @lindaontherun op Instagram. Ze is na haar scheiding haar eigen reisblog begonnen met groot succes!
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