31 Easiest Passive Income Ideas to Start with NO Money – 2022

Who doesn’t want to be rich while sleeping- money is what you need and no effort or time? Of course, everyone, so are you! Passive income is the way for it as it is an earning. Today, most people tend to work from home and do side hustle to increase their income due to the Covid-19 in 2021. If you are a beginner to passive income, it doesn’t matter. We have included all the things that you should know about passive income streams. However, before discussing passive income ideas, we need to have a clear idea of what passive income is and how works it.

What is Passive income?

Passive income refers to an income source that generates revenue with minimum effort. So it allows you to generate income while you sleep. For example, if you save money in a high yield bank account, you will receive monthly interest without any effort. 

The world best investor Warren Buffet once said that;

If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.

Warren Buffet

In the modern economy, many people tend to abandon active sources of income and create their own passive income streams. But in my opinion, it will be more effective if you have both because all businesses are not permanent. So if you can make a few income sources, it will be better than remaining in one.

However, did you notice that active income and passive income?
What is the difference between active and passive incomes? Let’s see quickly.

Different between Active income and Passive income

Are investments essential to make passive income?

Many people don’t prefer to invest in any business because there are so many risks. But the reality is some passive income ideas not required investment to get started. And you may think those income streams will not earn than other passive income sources that require investments.

Absolutely not.

There are so many passive income streams that generate higher income without investments. We have included some of them are in below. However, the income you generate depends on what you give for it.

It means you can invest more by doing nothing and generate substantial passive income from your bed if you have capital. If not, you have to give a bit of effort to get started but not continuously.

1. Start rental income business

One of the most effective ways of passive income is the rental income business which gives you monthly revenue but requires a little effort. Even investment to earn rental income has become more convenient because of the internet. You must learn about how to profit from rental properties, and for this purpose, you must know about how substantial income you desire on the venture and the exact complete charges and customs of property.

Not only this, but you must determine the commercial uncertainties when you want to own the property. Passive income investments are always a good idea to survive the expenses in the world. Research everything for the property that you want to own and its commercial value to avoid the risk factor of loss. Go for this idea now and be rich.

2. Invest in dividend stocks

Is there anyone who doesn’t want to be rich in this time of expenses? Of course, there is no one, not even you! Get a good idea to earn passive income. Investing dividends is refers to a method of buying stocks that pay dividends as a passive income. It would never be a bad idea to invest.

All you have to do is to own the stocks and get profits. You can never earn this much from 9 to 5 jobs that you can make by investing in stocks. However, there is also has a risk in investing because if the company makes a loss, you will not receive a dividend, but it depends on your experience. Many experienced investors can predict what companies are growing soon and which one makes a huge profit. In that time, they have less risk.

But a wise decision can make you rich overnight without putting in any effort. For example, Warren Buffet invested in Cocacola in 1988 by his Berkshire Hathaway corporation. Now his Cocacola dividend is more than Cocacola founder.

You should investigate the company thoroughly if you are a beginner to earning passive income. Stock investments never let you disappoint if you act wisely.

3. Own a Dropshipping store 

If you are looking for passive income online, you can find a lot of ideas. But some of them are risky and need to invest a lot of money. That’s why we have added Dropshipping to this list. Dropshipping is a retail fulfilment method to earn a considerable amount of money. In that case, you don’t need a physical store for your products. You can ship the ordered product from your dropshipping module and get a profit. There are two popular ways to earn by drop shipping so let’s see what are they and how to get started quickly.

1. Dropshipping in other eCommerce sites
2. Own Dropshipping store 

Today there are so many eCommerce websites in the world. So you can list your products on those eCommerce websites like Amazon, eBay etc. For example, you can choose products from Aliexpress and list those products on eBay while making a profit. The below example will explain the difference in the price between the same items on different websites.

If you don’t like to list your products on other eCommerce websites, you can create your own website/store using eCommerce platforms like Shopify and Woocommerce. It is easier than Dropshipping on other websites, but this will cost the services. And my recommendation is to get started with other websites, and then you can create your own one.

4. Peer-to-peer lending

Peer-to-peer lending is the practice of lending money to people or companies. It lets people secure loans straight from other people, where the financial system has no role as an agent and people are undeviatingly lending with each other. Nowadays, most people do not want to borrow from the bank, but they favour engaging with people directly. Therefore, it’s worth exploring alternatives. 

Starting a peer-to-peer lending business is not much difficult. Firstly, you require to choose a peer-to-peer lending platform, and you have to open an account to deposit funds and investments. The expected least money depends upon the management, and usually, it has to be as little as $25. After that, you have to decide on the borrower after glancing at their profiles to whom you need to lend your money. Their profiles have everything that you would need to know. P2p lending is always a good option for your revenue to get a passive income.

5. Save in high yield saving accounts

If you have money and no idea what to do with it and want it to do something for you, go and put your money in a high yield profits account. High yield saving accounts are placed at the banks, and they would pay a significant amount of interest more than others.

The benefit is saving your money in a high yield account is you can generate a maximum amount of passive income at the end of the month or quarter. High yield accounts probably provide 20-25 interest rates depending on each bank.

For example, if you save $ 10,000 in a typical bank account, it would pay close to $ 6 per annum at 0.06 percent of the national average interest rate. But when you save money on a high yield saving account, you will receive $ 2,000 of annual interest as a high passive income.

6. Affiliate marketing

Today in the realm of technology and the internet, affiliate marketing is one of the most successful passive income ways. It is carrying into action marketing in which a business compensates one or more than one affiliate for any company or consumer paid by the affiliate’s marketing efforts. The influencers or bloggers of social media promote the mediator’s products by posting them on their own social media sites.

One of the big names in today’s world is Amazon, but others like eBay, Shopify affiliate programs empower you to earn handsome revenue. People who have websites and blogs are generating much. We also provided a guide for Pinterest affiliate marketing for your debut. Passive income ideas have this as a top-notch idea in 2021.

7. Start MLM business

Here is one of the most popular passive income ideas today because today marketing world has expanded into work from home and earn through it. MLM we can be extended to multi-level marketing. So multi-level marketing refers to a marketing method that works by suggesting products or services to others. Most people doing this business as a side hustle and make a substantial passive income through it. But some people confused this with the pyramid scheme.

But here, you will receive payments for each sale in the business so, it is a legal business module to get started and earn passive income from home. The process is you should have to involve with an MLM business with little investment and suggest their products or services to other consumers. You will receive commissions on every purchase made by the buyers you introduce to the business. So it doesn’t require a lot of effort, but as a beginner, you should do proper research about this business module because there is more likely to get scammed.

8. Start a SAAS business

Business is solving problems for profit. There are so many opportunities to solve the problems in the world so, if you can solve a problem, you can make millions and millions per month for sure. Here, you will solve a digital problem that most people have. SAAS refers to Software As A Service. It means you can sell the answer to the question by keeping a profit.

Already, there are so many SAAS businesses in the world for example;

• Microsoft ( net worth: $2091.14B )
• Shopify ( net worth: $189B )
• Adobe ( net worth: $288.59B )

If you want to make substantial revenue for a long time, SAAS business is the best for that. But it requires a lot of effort to get started. Therefore, this income system is not friendly for beginners who want to earn a passive income from home. But it possible for someone who has enough capital to start their own business.

9. Rent out your free spaces

Renting your rooms or space is one of the popular passive income ideas today. If you are not using any space, just rent it out. Many people who stay out of town for any purpose or go for a long holiday rent out their places, and they get high passive income through it. You can set your rental terms and put the ad on any website like,

• Airbnb
• Vrbo
• Apartment Finder
• Apartment List

Do proper paperwork when you let strangers stay in your home to avoid any mess or risk. Take your important files with you while renting out and visit over time if you can to check it out. The income you get depends on the number of rooms, apartments or houses you have listed and the facilities they have.

10. Create a mobile application

At least the best passive income idea is creating a mobile application. Creating a simple mobile application is a little bit complex when we compare it with others. But the only matter is you need some programming knowledge for writing software. However, there are so many platforms to make apps without coding. But in my experience, it’s not going to work. Because programmers can make good apps than third-party platforms. Also, some of them are paid platforms. So you have to waste some extra money for their subscription(annually/monthly).

However, the main ways to make money by creating apps:

• Admob
• In-app Perches

In these two ways, you can make a significant amount of money in debut. After promoting and developing the application you can gradually increase your income.

11. Buy a profitable app

Although, you can buy a profitable application that has already been created by developers. They have listed their application on many platforms like Flippa. Buying an app is cheaper than creating a new one because users and awareness already exist; So all you have to do is maintain it from its revenue. Not only mobile apps, but you can also buy desktop apps and use them as a SAAS, or you can monetize at your discretion.

The best example for this is, Tiktok. In 2018, the ByteDance company acquired the Musical.ly social media app where people can upload lip-synch videos for between US$ 800 Million – 1 Billion. And merged it with their own social media app, known as Douyin, so the result was published in 2019 as Tiktok.

The exciting point is that investment boosted the company revenue to millions and billions. So according to a business insider, Tiktok is worth US$ 250 Billion with 1B plus active users today.

12. Develop a mobile or pc game

How a game makes a passive income for you? Simple. In today, the game industry has evolved into VR(Virtual Reality) technology. To earn passive income from a game is much the same as mobile applications. The only difference between an app and a game is that game charges a fee for their upgrades without providing a product or service. 

You may have seen many gamers are perching game characters, cars, bikes, whatever they need to enjoy the game. So when someone perches on any element in the game, the developer will make money passively. There are mainly three ways to make money from games.

1. One time perches
2. In-game perches
3. Monetize the game

But we know that game development is not an easy subject for anyone so, this income source will help someone who has enough budget or enough skill. Also, you can do this with a team as a passive income business.

13. Start a Blog

Creating your own blog site is one of the best passive income ideas to generate money without investment. Actually, it requires the domain fee and hosting fee to publish your website, other than it doesn’t require much investment. However, creating a blog for your business websites is better than creating only a blog because users will come and read your content and are more likely to buy something from your site; yet, you will get free traffic to your business.

Creating a blog is simple and easy for anyone because there have many platforms like WordPress to create blogs without coding knowledge. You can write articles on a topic of your choice and, users will come to your blog to find their answers to their questions. So there are two ways to generate passive income through a blog.

1. Monetize your blog with Ads
2. Sell affiliate products and services

Most people don’t like the competition of blogging. But in my opinion, if you write something interesting and valuable content that provides more information than existing ones, you will get rank your website and more traffic. The more traffic you get, the more you earn.

14. Start a YouTube channel

Youtube is a haven for talented content creators. Today, most people tend to create their own youtube channel to make a passive income through it because this is the best beginner passive income idea on the list. But creating a youtube channel is not enough to generate a passive income. You should create content that is valuable for others to enjoy and get knowledge. According to YouTube About, there are 2 billion monthly active users waiting for your content each month. So how to make a passive income from YouTube?

There are mainly three ways to make passive income from YouTube. 

1. Monetize the YouTube channel
2. Affiliate marketing
3. Sponsorships

However, you can use any of these methods to generate your passive income without any investment. For example, Pewdiepie, the most popular Youtuber, makes $100,000 per day without any effort. YouTube partnership gives you a huge opportunity to reach a massive audience with your content and make millions of revenue through it.

15. Start a subscription business

Starting a subscription business is another best way to make a passive income stream for the long term. It is a bit similar to the SAAS business but, the difference here is you can provide physical items and opportunities to others. For example,

• Etsy
• Envato 
• Freepik

This passive income source will provide an opportunity for sellers to sell their products and services on their websites depend on a monthly or annual subscription. Also, some of them require a subscription fee from the buyer as well. So it will generate a higher amount of passive income but, bear in mind, it will be not easy to do as cool as it seems. There is a massive process behind the screen.

16. Start a Facebook page

So the next passive income stream is Facebook. The number one social media platform in the world within 2.85 billion monthly active users. Why do you ignore such a massive audience? You can create valuable content for that audience and collect your followers on your page. Find your target audience is pretty easy on Facebook and, you can see millions of content that people love and engage with quickly. So how to generate a passive income from Facebook?

When you got more followers to your page, Facebook allows you to monetize your Facebook page to earn money through your content. Not only ad revenue but there are also many features like;

• Starts
• Instant Articles
• Stream ads
• Fan subscription
• Paid online events

After monetization, you should create more and more content daily to reach a massive audience. Then is it a passive income? Yes, of course. If your 3-minute video reaches 10 million on Facebook with monetization, you can earn a large passive income from that 3-minute video alone. In addition, you can check our complete guide to Facebook organic reach if you are interested.

17. Sell stock images

If you are a graphic designer or photographer, here is the opportunity to make your passive income through it. Images or designs are the main things in marketing and branding. That’s why there is a big competition between designers and photographers; they always struggle to create and capture more and more creative designs and rare and valuable photos for their galleries. After that, they will list them as stock images on the web. There are so many websites to list your creativity. Such as;

• Shutterstock
• Envato
• GettyImages
• AdobeStock

This passive income source doesn’t need any investment to get started so, anyone can make the first step on creating their passive income through this method. If your picture is sold anywhere in the world, you will get paid. How much money you can generate from this strategy is depends on your creativity.

18. Sell E-books

Selling e-books is another way to make a passive income for you. E-book means electronically created books that can be read on computers and other digital devices. If you are an experienced writer, you can write e-books on any topic such as storybooks, lesson books, health care, games, children books etc. Also, you can hire someone else if you have enough budget to get started. You can sell your books on your own website or any other platform. There are so many third-party platforms to sell your books online. Such as;

• Amazon KDP
• Apple iBooks Author
• Kobo Writing Life

And more. But if you sell your own website, it requires a quiet bit of effort to maintain your site. In the process, you can list your books in PDF format and give the option for consumers to pay. After the payment, the buyer will receive the download link automatically. This way, you can make tons of money while you sleep.

19. Cryptocurrency mining

Cryptocurrency or crypto is a digital currency that able to perches and uses online. Cryptocurrency mining refers to the process of the transactions and verified users to the blockchain. But to earn from this method, you need to have a piece of significant technical knowledge because you have to supply the machine power from your properties to the crypto mining process. You can get startup from the following steps;

• Buy Appropriate Computer Hardware
• Set up a cooling system
• Set up a wallet
• Download a mining software
• Join a mining pool

But unfortunately, this passive income stream is illegal in some regions such as Bolivia, Nepal, Egypt, Morocco etc. Even if your country is eligible for crypto mining, don’t jump to it asap. Because it requires high machine power and consumes a lot of electricity; so having the capital to start is essential.

20. Start a car wash

Establishing your own car wash is one of the best passive income ideas to generate good revenue without much effort. Because today, car washes are fully automated with the technology. So, consumers will come and take service from their machines after the payment. You will receive the fee from each consumer after the deal.

However, establishing a car wash is one of the best passive income investments to invest with your capital this year because many people tend to work from home today due to Covid19. So things have to be automated for human safety. If you have enough budget, the choice is yours.

21. Create music tracks

Another best passive income idea is creating your best music tracks. A lot of musicians and artists make money passively from this passive income stream by their fewer tracks. But, it requires the skill of audio engineering and creativity. However, if you are interested in this field, you can try this method. So, where you can publish your music tracks? and how to make money through them?

Well, there are so many platforms to publish your music tracks. Also, you can list them on your site as well. However, here are some popular stream sites;

• Spotify
• Deezer
• Amazon music
• Apple music

Also, if it is possible to create a video for your music, you can publish it on YouTube. Listing the same content on more platforms will affect your revenue to grow up soon. However, the above platforms will pay per listen so, the more fan you earn, the more you receive.

For example, Ed Sheeran’s worldwide hit “Shape of You” has over 2.3 billion streams on Spotify. Spotify pays $ 0.0047 per listen depending on other competitors Napster. So, “Shape of you” has makeover $ 9.5 million in streaming royalties from Spotify alone.

22. Design T-shirts

We have discussed how to sell designs and make passive income through it, but how about T-shirt designs? Well, T-shirt designing is another way to generate a passive income for you. Today, the costume industry has a huge demand when we compare it with others. As a result, most of the designers have tended to design t-shirt as a side hustle.  

Designing t-shirts is so simple if you have a little illustration skill but, some people even create only text without designing on the t-shirt so then skill is also worthless at the time. However, hiring a designer is better if you haven’t any skills. Here are the popular sites which can list your designs and get income from them.

• Design Hill
• Printful
• Teespring
• Zazzle

After designing and listing, you should wait for the result. If anyone purchases a t-shirt with your design, you will receive money without doing anything at the time.

Tip: You can use this source on dropshipping as well. So, you can list t-shirts on your store with your designs and deliver them through the above websites by giving the customer address.

23. License royalties

Above, we discussed how to generate passive income from music tracks so, here, we will discuss how to license them and make more revenue. Royalties refer to the legal payment to an individual or corporation for the continued use of their assets, including copyrighted works. If you have created something with your own effort and money as intellectual property, you can get a license for it from royalties.

There are few platforms to buy royalties or invest in it.

• Royalty Exchange
• Lyrics Financial
• Song Vest

The important is buying a license from royalties is it would be payment received when someone uses your copyrighted work somewhere such as club, radio, television, in movies or any other streams. Also, it is a stable investment to make a passive income without struggling.

24. Sell online courses

Selling items online will not give you a passive income. There is a long process such as packaging, marketing, delivering and more but, if you have created courses with your own experience that help others learn something they need, you can make a passive income stream through it. You can do this on your own website and, there are tons of websites that allow you to sell your knowledge to students. For example,

• Domestika
• SkillShare
• Udemy

It is a bit similar to doing a Youtube channel but, the difference is you can set a price for your courses. So you will get paid as per your already fixed price, not for ad revenue. But, some of them allow you to set a subscription fee that helps increase consumers interest.

25. Rent out your car

Have you ever rented your car for a moment? If yes, you already know about this passive income source. This method is simple for anyone who has one vehicle or more. It doesn’t matter what kind of vehicle you have; you can rent it out by keeping consumers’ details. In addition, if you feel it so risky depending on the value of your vehicle, you can use a platform to continue this like;

• Rental Car
• Turo
• Get Around

Also, many people already using this platform to make passive income through their vehicles because platforms guarantee to protect your vehicle. So it has high reliability and responsibility.

26. Buy a vending machine

You may know vending machines are automated to provide items, such as snacks, dolls, beverages for consumers after cash. Buying vending machines and establish them at popular places will produce passive income for you. Customers can make payments by credit cards and a special card associated with the vending machine.

The only thing you have to do is repair the machine monthly to give a better experience for the consumer. So you can make $300 – $400 monthly passive income from this method. But unfortunately, you must take the risk of vandalism. Otherwise, this is one of the best ways to make money passively without a lot of effort.

27. Buy a profitable business

The next best passive income idea is buying a profitable business as per your budget. Many rich people do this because they do not want to spend a lot of time developing a new business step by step. After buying a whole business you can run it by employees and, you will make money from home without much effort. But for those who do not have an adequate budget, this passive income system will be a bit difficult.

The best example is Google which bought Youtube in 2006 for USD 1.65 Billion. In today, Google generates USD 1.65 Billion in ad revenue every three weeks through YouTube. 

Buying businesses and investing more and more to grow finance is a habit of the rich. So you need to have business knowledge before you buy a business because it is not easy as how it seems.

28. Invest in bonds

Here is the next passive income idea for investors. If you really want to make a subsequential revenue without effort, you have to tend to invest. Bonds are loans from an investor to a borrower such as a corporation or government. They will use that loan for their business and survival. Typically, bonds pay interest twice a year. If the bonds are held to maturity, bondholders get back the entire investment, so bonds are a way to make a large amount of capital while investing so, it directly falls to a passive income stream.

Investing in bonds is less risky than investing in dividend stocks because a bond is a loan and a stock is a share so, a loan has a big responsibility than a share, but it doesn’t mean you cannot lose money.

If you have capital and you are afraid to take a risk, you can try treasury bonds. Treasury bonds are repaid twice a year at a fixed interest rate until the bonds mature. It can be considered risk-free assets. So it will be suitable for those who need to invest as beginners to make their own passive income.

29. Buy a profitable website

Websites always generate passive income in many ways, such as advertising, affiliate marketing and more. But you can’t make a website today and make money tomorrow. So if someone has enough capital to buy a whole website that generates passive income, the guy is so lucky to own a massive asset.

Own a profitable website is one of the genius ways to generate passive income because there are over 3.5 billion searches per day on Google alone. From them, significant users will come to your site to check their needs so, why you can’t earn from it? Also, most of the things already have been done on your site. The only thing you have to do is maintain the site brand without losing consumers trust.

So how to buy a profile website like that? My recommendation is Flippa, the most popular and trusted marketplace. But here are some other websites that you can buy existing sites for a reasonable price.

• Empire Flipper
• FE International
• AppBusinessBrokers
• Wesellyoursite.com

This passive income idea is also for investors who are looking to grow their finance so quickly. So, If you do not have enough money to buy a complete website, don’t worry. You can choose other passive income ideas and grow your wealth first.

30. Advertise on your car

Here is another way to make money without any effort. You may have a car and go here and there. A lot of people will see your car when you drive. But, have you ever thought that you can make a passive income while driving? 

Marketing is all about advertising so, there are so many ways to promote businesses to their target customers. Here is one of them. You can use so many platforms to involve their advertising programs and get their ad stickers to your car. Here are a few companies that provide ads for your car.

• StickerRide
• Wrapify
• Carvertise
• Free Car Media

No risk, no investment. Usually, you can download the app that they provide and register in it. After registration, you can go to the company location and stick those ad stickers. How much you can earn from this passive income stream is depends on how long that you drive and, also, it depends on so many things such as ad modules, car modules, time and more. 

31. Rent out your items

We already discussed renting out your rooms, and here we can make another passive income stream from renting out your items. Items mean such as demanded stuff that people prefer to rent instead of buy. For example, electronics, sports equipment, photography equipment, music equipment etc.

There are so many sites to list your renting items. Here are some popular sites.

• Friend with(Rent anything)
• Fat Llama(Rent anything)
• Spinlister(Rent your Bikes, Surfboard or Snowboard)
• Stylelend(Rent your Clothing, Handbag, Shoes and Accessories)

Simply, you can sign up and list your items on all those sites. If anyone rent your items, you will receive payment as per long as uses them. So this passive income source is very suitable for beginners who are looking for passive income ideas. Even you can rent out your stuff for your neighbours and others you know.

Popular questions

Passive income benefits never limit if you work accurately and manage everything with your money to put less effort and earn more. That’s why we collect the most effective and easy passive income ideas for this year. We will guarantee that all those passive income streams we have included here are legal methods to earn, and we have mentioned some illegal regions that haven’t give opportunities. Also, we have included many passive income ideas for beginners and investors. Work smartly and get rich with a few hard efforts!