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A passive income, who wouldn’t want to have that??? Even if you decide to continue working, it can be a great thing to have an additional income. Luckily, we are living in times when it is actually possible to make a passive income without having to go to the office every day. Obviously, none of the suggestions below will make you a millionaire in one day neither in one year, most likely – You will have to build a service, product, or content that can generate consistent income. While some of the advertisements online about passive income circulate around high initial investment such as real estate, equities, and angel investing, this guide refers to those who hold a guitar, a camera, or just a laptop.

The first thing you need is to decide what kind of person you are, and what are your capabilities. You will have to determine whether you have the ability to sell your art or you are a technical person that can assist people to get the product, service, or content they need.

So, until the world will be ready to implement a universal basic income for all citizens across the globe, let’s find out some of the best passive income ideas in 2020.


YouTube

YouTube is perhaps the easiest way to make passive, at least in terms of technical knowledge to distribute the content and the time you will have to spend. Of course, it depends on the content you want to promote. Some people have uploaded one video that has gone viral, however, if you plan to make a long-term passive income, you might want to come up with a good idea.

Regardless, YouTube pays an average of around $1 per 1000 streams, but it does not have to be directly from one video. You might have a channel with a number of videos that generate consistent traffic. If you are a Yoga teacher, guitar player, musician, advertiser, photographer, or anything else – you can use these skills. YouTube is not limited so you can upload anything you like as long as the content is not inappropriate. Whenever you got more than 4,000 valid public watch hours in the past years, and more than 1,000 subscribers – you can sign up for the YouTube Partner Program, which allows you to monetize your channel,

Uploading a video on YouTube is pretty straightforward and the only thing you will have to learn is how to create and monetize your channel. But first, come up with a good idea, create videos, and build a channel.

Blog/website

Well, believe it or not, this might be one of the most difficult ways to make passive income. Blogs and websites can make a huge income these days, but not so quickly. It takes time and a lot of work. You must be familiar with online marketing terms such as SEO, affiliation, analytics, etc.

But we don’t want to break your spirit – You can do it if you have a good idea. The bottom line, the steps are pretty simple – You need to choose a hosting plan (we recommend Kinsta), understand WordPress or any other CMS software, and follow search engines’ requirements.

Regardless of the niche and the website’s category, the most important factor to get a passive income through a blog/website is traffic. How much traffic? That’s the magic number – Even if someone will tell that there is a number that you should reach to get an income, it varies from different industries and the type of the website you have.

Sell products on Amazon 

Become a seller on Amazon is quite easy but you have to find a niche or a product that you believe in. First, you will have to open a seller account on Amazon Seller Central. There are some basic steps you will have to follow but if you are a technical person with a lot of patience, selling products on Amazon is definitely a good option to make a passive income.

Amazon is one of the largest digital economy platforms in our times, and there are always new opportunities to make passive income through this platform.

Music 

Well, music was always an option for a passive income, even before the rise of the internet. But now, anyone that makes music can independently distribute music to social music platforms. No, we are not saying that anyone who can play a few tunes should upload music. The music industry must remain reserved for high-quality artists and well-produced projects.

Nevertheless, if you are a talented musician and want to distribute your music, that’s pretty simple. First, visit this guide on how to upload music to social music platforms. There are many distributors out there and you will get suggestions and oppositions from any one of the distributors. Some of the most well-known distributors are Ditto, DistroKid, Cdbaby, and TuneCore. Music social platforms, including YouTube, pay between $1-$12 for 1000 streams.

Photography

The world needs photos. And the world needs many more photos with the increasing demand from social platforms, blogs, and websites. A few decades ago, a photographer was a full-time profession and every photo had a few buyers (newspapers, collectors, etc). But now, it’s crazy out there. If you are a content person, you’ll understand – You always need photos!

Photography is another great way to make a passive income. There are plenty of image providers in the market and a photographer can upload images on these platforms and earn a commission every time a download has been made. The rates vary from 25 cents to $120 per photo depending on the platform and the photo you are trying to sell. The most well-known image providers are Shutterstock, DepositPhotos, iStock, GettyImages, Adobe Stock, 500px.

Cryptocurrency mining

Yes, cryptocurrency mining. What? What is cryptocurrency mining??? We know. Cryptocurrency mining is the process of adding transactions and verify these transactions on the blockchain ledger. Though it sounds complicated (it is a bit complicated), but anyone can mine cryptocurrencies. Mining bitcoin is no longer an option. Do not expect to mine bitcoin with your tiny laptop as most high-end GPUs are not powerful enough to mine Bitcoin but you can use your laptop or PC computer to mine other crypto coins.

Frankly, it’s not recommended to mine cryptocurrencies with a laptop or PC – It takes a long time, your computer might be damaged, and mining crypto coins take a lot of electricity. And yet, it’s an option – If you have a strong computer and by any chance, you have a solar panel in your house/office, you can make a passive income from mining crypto coins. You need to make research on the most profitable crypto coins to mine and understand how it works but it can generate a modest passive income for you. MinerGate, for example, is a software that allows users to mine cryptocurrencies by using their laptops or PC.

Affiliate marketing

Among all the ways to make passive income, affiliate marketing is the one that is likely to produce the highest revenues with the lowest effort. And the good thing with affiliate marketing is that it’s a ‘must’ to have a website, a blog, a channel because you can do it on social platforms, by email marketing, and even refer friends and colleagues.

Basically, affiliation is an agreement between an advertiser and publisher in which the advertiser pays a commission to the publisher when a transaction has been made through a link that contains the publisher’s ID. You probably notice affiliate ads on Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms and honestly, some of them actually offer interesting products and services.

Like any other way, it takes time to organize everything and have advertisers that want to work with you. As you start from the bottom, you got low commissions and not all of the advertisers will approve you as a publisher. However, you need o start somewhere – First. open an account at affiliate marketing platforms such as Rakuten, CJNetwork, and Awin. This will allow you to have a range of products and services as these platforms offer thousands of advertisers.

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