1. Open a High Yield Savings Account

By simply putting your money in the bank, you may be able to start to earn passive income on it. If you invest in an FDIC-insured account, the first $250,000 of your money is protected. There are both banks and online platforms which offer high yield savings accounts.

2. Buy a Company

Although this may take an up-front investment, buying into a business and becoming a silent partner can be another passive income source.

3. Become a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lender

Using a peer-to-peer or crowd-lending website, you can be matched to an individual seeking a loan and lend your money as an installment-type loan, earning interest on it. You might earn even more than from a bank, depending on the loan.

4. Buy a Rental Property

Another popular passive income source is rental property. You might want to purchase a home to rent out to an ongoing tenant or list a property on a short-term rental site like Airbnb. Hiring a property management company lessens your day-to-day involvement, thereby making this venture more passive than active.

5. Invest in Crowdfunded Real Estate

If you don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on a piece of property, you can always check out your options on crowdfunded real estate sites like Fundrise and CrowdStreet. For Fundrise, you only need $500 to start.

6. Invest in Index Funds or Dividend-Paying Stocks

There is no guarantee that investing in dividend-paying stocks will continue to earn you passive income, but some investors may enjoy the thrill of the ups and downs of the stock market. Dividend-paying stocks typically pay investors quarterly or annually and often allow investors to reinvest the dividends.

7. Invest with an Automated Advisor

If you’re just getting started with investing, you may want to use automated investing tools to help you choose the appropriate allocation of assets for your goals. Tools such as SoFi’s Automated Investing allow you to automatically invest each month and grow your portfolio over time.

8. Start a Retirement Account

When you open your retirement account, you can choose to invest it however you want. One way to earn passive income on a retirement account is through mutual funds. You can choose the level of risk you want to take with your money by finding a mutual fund that is higher or lower risk.

9. Join an Affiliate Program

When you join a company’s affiliate program, you earn a commission from every product that someone purchases from that company. All you have to do is post the link on your blog, website, or social media pages. Amazon Associates is a great place to start.

10. Rent Out Your Car

Another one of the best passive income opportunities is renting out your car on a site like Turo. It’s basically the Airbnb of cars, and, according to Turo, the average annual income for one car on the site is $10,516.

11. Advertise on Your Car

If you have a clean driving record as well as a newer car, consider getting in touch with a car advertising agency. You simply drive around town with ads on your car and easily earn passive income.

12. Rent Your Parking Space

Do you have space in your driveway that you aren’t using? Then rent it out on platforms like Stow It, where you can find people who will pay to rent out the space.

13. Rent Storage Space

If you have extra space in your garage, shed, or storage unit, then you could earn passive income by using a peer-to-peer storage site like Stashii to find people who need your space.

14. Invest in Storage Space

You may not have space to store other people’s things, but you might consider investing in a real estate investment trust (REIT) that focuses on storage units. For example, one option is Public Storage, which has ownership or interest in 2,548 properties located in 38 states.

15. Rent Your Bike

Perhaps you don’t have a car, but you do have a bike that’s just sitting around. Your bike could be a lucrative passive income source, especially if you live in a high-traffic area. List your bike on Spinlister to get started.

16. Airbnb or Rent Out a Room

Even if you don’t own a rental property, with your landlord’s permission, you may be able to rent out a room in your apartment or list it on Airbnb and start adding to your passive income streams.

17. Pet Sit in Your Home

If you love pets, you can earn passive income by welcoming pets into your home while their owners are on vacation. For instance, you could charge $30 to $80 per day just for running a doggy daycare. You can gain clients through word of mouth or use a site like Rover to find customers.

18. House Sit for Someone

When your friends go out of town, they may need someone to stay in their home and do simple things like water their plants and collect their mail. You can easily make money and have somewhere new to stay for a little bit. Along with making yourself available to friends, you can sign up to be a house sitter on HouseSitter.com.

19. Buy and Sell Domain Names

Some domain names are cheap, while others cost a lot of money because they are in high demand. One thing you could do to start another passive income stream is to purchase domain names you think will be popular. Purchase low for around $10 to $100 and then sell them for a much higher price later on.

20. Rent Your Tools

Have you ever done a home improvement project that required you to purchase tools? You may never need to use those tools again. Thankfully, now you can rent tools, and rent out your tools, on peer-to-peer platforms such as Sparetoolz to earn passive income.

21. Invest in Royalties

Let’s say you don’t have any songwriting ability, but you would like to make money on other artists’ work. You can invest in royalties through Royalty Exchange and earn passive income on the intellectual property.

22. Purchase a Billboard

You can make thousands of dollars per month if you own a billboard where companies can advertise their products and services. Do your research and make sure you get the right permits before committing to a billboard.

23. Purchase a Blog

If you don’t have the time or energy to create content for your own blog, then look into ones that are already successful and see if the owners are willing to sell. You could also hire someone to manage your blog so that you’re truly earning in a passive way.

24. Create an Online Course

If you have a special skill or knowledge about a certain topic, you may be able to create a video course where you teach people about that topic and charge them to take the course.

25. Sell Digital Products

You may want to research online platforms where you can sell everything from digital art to e-books. Whether you’re an artist, graphic designer, or writer, you can create digital products to sell online.

26. License Your Photos

Many companies, bloggers, and individuals use stock photos on a regular basis. You may be able to upload your best photos to stock photo sites and earn passive income on them.

27. Create a Mobile App

If you’ve been dreaming about an amazing phone app that you think a lot of other people would use, you may want to look into hiring a development team to create it.

28. Sell a Product

You may be able to earn passive income through sales of a product that you create. This could be a book that you write or a physical product that you design and make. You might also list items you already own on sites like eBay and earn extra income through those sales.

29. License Your Music

Do you love to write songs? Then you could license your music and start to earn passive income. You’ll just have to team up with a music licensing company to get started.

30. Self-Publish a Book

Through platforms like Amazon’s KDP, you can self-publish a book and earn a royalty on it every time someone makes a purchase. You will be able to set the price of your book and be in full control of your book’s Amazon page, where you can list pictures of the book, reviews, and videos promoting it.

31. Sell Blank Books

You can start selling books online without having to write anything. How? By focusing on blank books, such as journals, sketchbooks, and planners. Simply find a design you believe will appeal to people and begin collecting royalties when people buy your books.

32. Create Greeting Cards

Another artistic endeavor that could be a good passive income stream is creating greeting cards that you sell to a wholesale or retail stationery company that accepts independent artist submissions.

33. Sign Up for Dropshipping

If you want to sell products online but don’t want to store any of the goods, you could always look into dropshipping to earn passive income. With dropshipping, you don’t have to have much money to start since you don’t need inventory to fulfill orders for customers.

34. Start a Blog

If you like to write and are passionate about a certain topic, you might want to start a blog and earn money through ads and affiliate links.

35. Start a YouTube Channel

If you enjoy creating videos more than writing, then consider starting your own YouTube channel. Once you get enough viewers, you can earn passive income through YouTube advertising.

36. Publish an E-book

Like an online course, an e-book is a way to share your expertise with the world. Anyone can self-publish a book online through services like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, iBooks Author, or Kobo Writing Life .

The percentage of royalties you earn varies depending on the publisher. Of course, the more marketing you do, the more copies you’re likely to sell—and there’s no shortage of online marketing strategies to investigate. But once you write and publish the e-book, it’s out there ready to generate passive income for you.

37. Create a Podcast

Podcasts are all the rage, and they can generate some passive income streams for you. If you start a podcast that resonates with people, then you can grow your audience and monetize your show by sponsoring with ad partners. If you get enough listeners, you may be able to sign up for podcast advertising networks.

38. Start an ATM Business

When people are out at a bar or nightclub or they’re frequenting a cash-only business, they may need cash right away. If you own an ATM business and you place your ATM in high-traffic locations, you could start to earn passive income through surcharge fees. Typically, you could earn around $3 per withdrawal.

39. Start a Vending Machine Business

Similar to an ATM business, a vending machine business allows you to use your creativity and determine high-traffic areas where you could make a lot of money. If you buy in bulk, you’ll be able to save on the snacks and drinks you purchase for your machines.