How To Make Passive Income Online in 2024

Affiliate marketing is a great way to meet your financial goals. You find cool stuff online and recommend it to others. If they buy it through your special link, you earn a commission. It’s a win-win-win. Companies get sales, your audience finds awesome things, and you make money.

The flexibility with this is huge. It’s easy to start from scratch. You can work whenever you want and promote products you truly believe in. But how do you actually make it happen? 

Here’s a simple roadmap:

• Get Smart: Learn the basics of affiliate marketing — there are plenty of free resources out there.
• Find Your Spot: What are you passionate about? Do you love tech, fashion, fitness? This is your niche.
• Get Connected: Tons of affiliate programs exist, like Amazon Associates or ones through individual companies. Do your research.
• Share the Goodness: Time to create content — blog posts, social media, maybe even videos. Be real, be helpful.
• Spread the Word: Now it’s time to get your content out there. This is where social media, email lists, and other online channels come in handy.

Let’s talk about choosing your products strategically:

• Match Your Values: Promote products you genuinely use and like. Your audience will trust you way more.
• Think Like Your People: Which problems do they have? What would make their lives better? Find products and services that solve those problems.
• Baby Steps: Start with a few products. Master that, then you can always expand later.

Online courses let you package what you know into a format others can learn from, and they’re willing to pay for that. It’s like sharing your secret operating system to help others level up their skills.

So, what’s your greatest strength? Maybe you’re a pro at personal finance and crunching numbers. Maybe you rock at social media. Or you may know your way around the kitchen at a really high level. 

If you can teach it, you can build a course around it.

The coolest part? Online courses have the potential for recurring income. Create a course on a topic that’s always in demand (evergreen), and people can buy it for months, even years. That’s true passive income potential. 

Here’s a quick step-by-step look at what the process entails:

• Choose a Winning Topic: What problems do people in your niche struggle with? What are they always eager to learn?
• Pick Your Platform: Sites like Udemy, Teachable, and others make it simple to host your courses.
• Get Creating: It’s time to turn your knowledge into videos, worksheets, or whatever format works best. Keep it focused and high-quality.
• Get the Word Out: Now it’s time to get your content out there. This is where social media, email lists, and other online channels are useful.

Have a skill or expertise that you can offer on a regular basis? Subscription services are the perfect way to turn your knowledge into recurring income. This powerful business model lets you charge customers a monthly or yearly fee in exchange for valuable content, products, or exclusive access.

The beauty of subscriptions is the reliable income stream they create. Unlike one-time products, subscribers keep paying, giving you financial freedom and allowing you to focus on creating amazing content.

Here are just a few passive income ideas for subscription-based businesses:

• Coaches/Consultants: Offer exclusive content, personalized advice, and support for clients in any niche — fitness, business strategy, personal finance, you name it.
• Digital Downloads: Curate a members-only library of templates, tutorials, stock photos, and any kind of digital resource that provides value.
• Physical Product Boxes: Love to find cool stuff? Surprise subscribers with a monthly box of curated goodies, from beauty finds to artisanal snacks.
• Members-Only Communities: Create a vibrant online community where people can network and learn. This builds loyalty and boosts long-term income.

Platforms like Patreon and Memberful make it easy to set up memberships, while Shopify and other e-commerce options work well for physical subscriptions.

Building a successful subscription service takes upfront investment and work to create valuable offerings and attract members. But the potential for long-term passive income is massive.

Are you skilled at photos or videos? You can get paid for your amazing visuals. Stock photo and video sites let you upload your content, and when businesses, websites, or anyone else needs an image, they can license yours. That’s cash in your pocket for your creative eye.

If snapping cool photos or making videos is already your hobby, this is like turning fun into an income stream. 

Sites like Shutterstock and others make the process easy. The key is to focus on the types of visuals that are in high demand. Think lifestyle, small business, tech-related — the things that people constantly need.

Always wanted to see your art on t-shirts, phone cases, or mugs? Print-on-demand makes it possible. This is like having your own merch line without dealing with inventory or shipping. You focus on the designs, and print-on-demand companies like Printful handle the rest.

This is perfect for artists, creative minds, and anyone who wants to connect with niche communities. Love cats? Design funny cat shirts. Fitness buff? Create motivational workout gear. The key is finding your audience and giving them designs they’ll love.

Ever thought about becoming a blogger? It might seem old-school, but blogs are still incredibly powerful tools for building an online business and generating passive income. The trick is to focus on a specific niche and provide tons of valuable content to your audience.

Once you’ve built an audience, your blog can become a major source of income. Want to blog about personal finance? Write how-to guides on budgeting, investing in mutual funds, or finding high-yield savings accounts. Love to cook? Share killer recipes and earn through ads and affiliate partnerships.

Blogging takes time and effort to build up, but once that audience is there, the income potential is huge.

Have an extra room in your house? Maybe a cabin in the woods? You could be sitting on a serious income source. 

Platforms like Airbnb make it simple to list your space for short-term rentals. This is an amazing way to turn your property into a passive income stream for renters.

The flexibility is a huge perk. Rent out your space occasionally for extra money, or go full-time for more serious rental income potential. The key is creating a great listing, providing a welcoming guest experience, and pricing your rental property smartly.

This path works in all kinds of markets. City dwellers can list their apartments for vacationers, homeowners in tourist destinations can attract travelers, and rural folks can offer unique getaway experiences.

Airbnb is a powerful way to start building wealth with real estate, even if you don’t own multiple properties.

Want to run your own online store but don’t want to deal with piles of inventory? That’s where dropshipping comes in. With dropshipping, you focus on finding awesome products and marketing them. When a customer buys something, your dropshipping partner handles the shipping and everything else.

The key to dropshipping success is all about your niche. Are you passionate about sustainable fashion? Do you love finding the latest tech gadgets? Choose a niche you know, and build your store around products your target customers will love.

Tools like Shopify and AliExpress make setting up your dropshipping store simple. If you love finding cool stuff and have an eye for marketing, this could be your OS.

Passive income takes effort in the beginning, but the payoff can be huge. The online world gives you the tools to build financial freedom and design a life you love. Join the Founder OS newsletter or Founder OS Program, where we’ll dive deeper into passive income strategies, business-building tools, and the mindset shifts that lead to true freedom.