Selling courses online has become very popular due to sites like Udemy.com. Udemy is a site that allows instructors to provide both free and paid classes to the public. In order to be successful with Udemy, you must create high quality content and promote it to the public. Many Udemy instructors bring in six figures each year in passive income by creating and selling their courses.

Create a YouTube Channel

Do you have a camera and a passion for talking? You should consider creating a YouTube channel. Many YouTube content creators make passive income through AdSense. AdSense are the ads you most commonly see at the beginning of a video. Every time a viewer views and clicks on these ads, YouTubers earn money. To make a lot of passive income with YouTube, you need to have a successful channel with high traffic volume and lots of clicks.

Don’t think than YouTube can make you money?  Well, actually it does work.  For example, Emily Eddington used her love for makeup to receive over 66 million views on YouTube.  This former news anchor took her passion and turned it into a raging success.

Become an Affiliate

If you have a website and a company you believe in, then consider becoming an affiliate. Being an affiliate has many perks! One perk in particular is the ability to make money passively whenever someone clicks or buys something from your affiliate link.  Affiliate link commission can range anywhere from a few cents to thousands of dollars. One success story in particular comes from Pat Flynn. According to his site SmartPassiveIncome.com, in May of 2016, he brought in $89,592.77 in passive income through affiliate programs including Bluehost, Amazon, and AWeber! That’s more money than most people make in a year!

Invest in Dividend Stocks or CDs

An easy, though risky, way to make passive income is by investing your money into CDs and or dividend paying stocks. Each time a company pays dividends, you receive money because you are part owner of the company. The more money you have invested, the more dividends you can receive. Like many of the other ways to make passive income, you need to invest a significant amount of time and money into your dividend investment. You will need to research the stock as well as figure out how much money you will need to invest. Using a dividend calculator, you can find out how much money you will need to invest to get the annual yield you desire. According to Young Adult Money, increasing your monthly income so that you are able to save is the best way to approach investing in dividend-paying stocks.

Also, many credit unions offer dividends on a monthly basis to their consumers who put their money into their checking and savings accounts. For example, Police and Fire Credit Union currently offer 1% APY for the first $3,000.00 in a checking account. Saving your money in a high interest bank account or credit union is less risky than investing in stocks.  However, for the added risk associated with stock market investing, you typically receive a higher dividend payment.

Conclusion

There are many ways to create passive income. Some passive income ideas require a lot of time while others require money in order to obtain the highest yield.  Ultimately, it is up to you to decide which passive income endeavor is best for you, based on your skills, needs and risk tolerance.

If you’ve made money using a passive income strategy, please leave us a comment below.  Others will want to hear your story!

Photo: Flickr: 401(K) 2012