Passive income is a concept that gets a lot of discussion from online entrepreneur gurus. And while some passive income ideas are overhyped, there are lots of legitimate ways to make real money online by starting a business that mostly runs itself — and automatically puts money in your business bank account.
At its best, a passive income business is like a garden: You plant the seeds, you nourish the ground, and over time you can harvest the fruits — in the form of repeat business, recurring revenue, subscriptions, affiliate links, and selling information or products to your customers.
I’ve been making money online as a full-time freelancer for many years. But I’ve mostly been creating content for other people’s businesses. And while I love my career and it’s not too late, I sometimes wish I would have used my skills and energies to start an online passive income business of my own.
Here are a few passive income business ideas that I wish I would have started five years ago.
1. Content marketing: Career advice blog for liberal arts majors
My college degree is in History. I love History and I’m glad I studied it, but sometimes there’s a misconception that you can’t get a job with a liberal arts degree. Fortunately, I’ve never been unemployed for a single day since I graduated from college (despite a few close calls).
I’ve worked in a lot of different settings, from Midwestern politics to international companies, from a major U.S. bank to Japanese public schools. I sometimes wonder if I could start a successful blog, offering career advice to History majors, English majors, and other liberal arts majors who don’t always know what to do when they leave school. Websites like Copyblogger can teach you how to start a successful content marketing business, attract an audience, build a brand, and more.
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2. Podcast and YouTube channel
It seems like everyone has a podcast nowadays. But even though there’s no guarantee of overnight success or vast riches, it’s possible to start a podcast (or YouTube channel, or both) and make money from it. Successful author and podcaster Ramit Sethi says a typical podcast with 10,000 downloads might earn $500 to $900 per month. If you have a YouTube channel with 20,000 views per day, you can expect to earn at least $13,400 per year from ads.
That’s not enough to live on, but it’s worth pursuing. And if you start a podcast or YouTube channel, you can use it to promote your business, build your brand, host guests to cross-promote and expand your audience, and sell other products and services to your audience.
3. Travel coaching
Along with studying history and daydreaming about starting businesses, another thing I love to do in life is travel. I have traveled to a total of 12 countries, and visiting other places is one of my greatest joys and adventurous learning experiences.
Some people start businesses online where they serve as travel coaches — offering travel advice, travel consulting, and even guided tours and customized “travel agent” services. Not all of these services count as passive income — if you have to actually show up in real life and lead a group of people on a tour, that counts as active income in my book.
But as an online travel coach, you could sell webinars, guidebooks, or one-on-one coaching sessions where you help people plan a trip, book cheap flights, and find out how to have the international travel experience of their dreams.
If you want to start an online business, it’s worth asking yourself:
- What are some things you love to do?
- Where do you have special expertise?
- Who might want to learn from your experience?
You could turn your expertise into an online business.
4. Self-publishing books
I’m a writer. Why haven’t I been writing and publishing my own books? Authors can use tools like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing to self-publish their books online and sell directly to their readers. Not every author becomes a huge success, but some Amazon Kindle self-published authors make $150 per month, or up to $20,000 per month if they have big followings and lots of buyers.
5. E-commerce business
I’ve spent so much time in the past 15 years writing content for websites and thinking about how to get people to click on headlines, I should have started my own e-commerce business by now.
Getting people to buy products online is an art and a science. Starting your own online store can be a great business idea because you don’t always need much money to get it off the ground. And you can constantly experiment, evolve, and adapt your business to better serve your customers.
Great free resources exist on Shopify and HubSpot to help you learn how to build and market your e-commerce business. If you put in the time and effort, you can learn the ins and outs of SEO, search engine advertising, building traffic, finding a niche in the market, and closing sales with customers.
Bottom line
Starting an online business that earns passive income takes time and effort. There are no guarantees or overnight successes. But I sometimes wish I had started my own online business years ago.
Building up your own brand, your own audience, and your own base of diversified recurring revenue can give you better financial security than any job ever could. The most important things you need to start an online business are curiosity, tenacity, hustle, and a willingness to learn.
