3 Really Specific Passive Income Ideas You Can Start Now: Idea #3 Will Surprise You

I’ll share 3 specific passive income ideas and the behind-the-curtain tips people use to start them.

It’s trendy to talk about why passive income isn’t possible.  

I’m here to show you that passive income is possible

Plus, I’ll give specific playbooks and examples so you can start today.

Remember…

Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right

Henry Ford

3 Really Specific Passive Income Ideas You Can Start Now

Here are my favorite passive income ideas you can start right now.

1. Create a Digital Product like a Resume Template

I make 6-figures a year selling digital products online on Etsy. I love this passive income business model because you can create your first product and make your first sale within hours. What’s even better is that you can continue to make money from those couple hours of work while you’re on vacation or doing anything else but working and trading time for money. 

Here’s the playbook: 

1. Come up with an idea for a digital product (see the next paragraph for more details)
2. Create said product (tools like Canva, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, GoogleDocs are great places to create)
3. Create an Etsy store and post your first item
4. Let the Etsy algorithm show your product to tons of new customers 

You’re probably thinking, “How the heck do I come up with a digital product idea?”

A great place to start is by thinking of people’s problems, what’s going on in the world, and people’s foundational wants and needs.

For example, I mentioned a resume template because people are often looking to increase their income by getting a new job, and there has also been some buzz about companies laying people off lately.

So when people want a new job, what do they need?

That’s right!

A resume.

And the data on eRank.com backs this up. In the image below, you can see that there are a lot of people searching for resume templates, and some of the top resume sellers have sold nearly 90,000 templates on Etsy!

Setting up an Etsy store isn’t too complicated, but it can feel overwhelming if you haven’t done it before. So when I first started, I invested in an Etsy course that made all the difference. This free webinar is from the creators of the course I took- they share some of the things you need to know related to creating digital products and selling them on Etsy if this is a path you’re seriously considering going down.  

2. Affiliate Marketing for a Course You Believe In

Have you ever learned something that changed your life?

For example, maybe an online course helped you learn a new skill that helped you get promoted at work.

Or maybe you took a course that helped you learn how to be a better cook and lose weight. If you have a personal story related to a course you took, you are well-positioned to make passive income from your story.

Here’s the playbook:

1. Take an online course (that has an affiliate program)
2. Take the course seriously and leverage the content to improve your life
3. Share the story of your transformation online (for example, on your blog, Medium.com, or YouTube.com)
4. Add pictures to your content to show the transformation
5. Add an affiliate link to your story 
6. Make sure you disclose you added an affiliate link 

I love this passive income business model.

First of all, you’re probably not new to the idea of affiliate marketing. However, most people’s understanding of affiliate marketing has to do with low-cost items (think an Amazon affiliate link for a t-shirt). While that’s better than nothing, you’ll literally make pennies on the dollar, so it takes A LOT of traffic and clicks to make enough to buy a cup of coffee.

When you promote courses, you can often make between 30-50% of the course cost in commissions. So for every $100 course you promote, you can make $50. If you promote a $1,000 course, you can make $500! Not too bad for the cost of one blog post you wrote that will live on the internet and potentially generate passive income forever. 

Pretty sweet, right!? 

Here’s a bonus tip: If you’ve ever hesitated to buy a course or it’s felt out of your budget, find out if the course creators have an affiliate program. If they do, that will incentivize you to work hard to get the promised result because you can leverage your story to make your money back and then make extra passive income.  

3. Create a Print on Demand T-shirt Design for Easter and Sell it on Pinterest or Etsy

Print on Demand has been all the rage lately.

Why?

Because it’s a passive way to sell physical products.

What is print on demand?

Basically, you create a design, leverage a third-party vendor like Printful, and then market the product. When the product sells, the third-party vendor creates, packages, and ships your product. 

Here’s the playbook: 

1. Come up with an idea for a print-on-demand product (more below)
2. Create said product (you can use Canva or Adobe Illustrator) 
3. Upload the design to a POD company like Printful 
4. Market your product via Pinterest or Etsy
5. Let the Etsy algorithm show your product to tons of new customers 

Coming up with a good idea is usually the hardest part of any business, but a great way to start is to think about your behavior and the behavior of the people around you.

For example, I just texted my mom about who will buy the ham for Easter. Then, thinking about Easter made me think about outfits for my kids. Then, I thought, “I wonder if people are looking for Easter shirts?” After looking at the data on eRank.com, I found out that, yes, in fact, they are searching for all types of easter shirts right now. 

You may be thinking, well, when you print on demand, you have to share a lot of your profits with the vendor. It’s true you have to share the profits, but there are a lot of people in the world that buy clothes. A percentage of a lot is still a lot.

Case in point: A woman named Emma has the Etsy store Quartz Design Studio, and according to Business Insider, she made $48,000 in the first 5 weeks of 2023 selling embroidered print-on-demand sweatshirts. Emma said most of her revenue comes from her best-selling “silly goose” sweatshirt. 

If that doesn’t inspire you and prove that passive income is possible, I don’t know what will.

Curious about the ins and outs of this passive income model? Check out this program created by a top print-on-demand seller.

So, there you have it, 3 Hyper-Specific Passive Income Ideas that you Can Start this Weekend and Make Money Immediately.

Still here?

Want a passive income shortcut? Check out my free passive income checklist to get started. 

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P.S. This post contains affiliate links, but I’ll never recommend a product I don’t think is awesome (and hey, you can use this post as an example of how to do idea #2).