In today’s article, we will learn about 8 passive income stream options.
We will also try to understand how difficult it is to build each of these streams and what are some key points you should keep in mind while executing each of these options.
Each of these options can easily fetch you 10K per month if you put in the effort.
Before we deep dive into these options, let us first understand what passive income means.
We often assume that passive income means to make money in our sleep, i.e. we have created a system which generates money for us every single month.
Now, this might be true in some cases. An example could be- you have rented your property. In this scenario, you don’t have to actively work to make money, maybe except remind your tenant that their rent is due. 🙂
A more sensible definition of passive income would be to create a process/system where you do not have to actively invest your time to earn money.
Another definition could be to create a system where you are exchanging value for money. An example here could be to create a course. You could teach a skill you are exceptionally good at to other folks.
Now, here are the 8 passive income stream options:
1. Stock market investing
So, how do you make passive income from the stock market?
You invest a certain amount of money, and there is an appreciation of the stock that takes place. This is the first way.
The second way is through dividends. Companies like ITC, HUL, Nestle pay dividends from time to time, so this can become a sustainable cash flow income for you.
Stock market is a mechanism where you decide how much time you want to invest into it.
However for people like us, who are retail investors, the aim should be to become a long time investor and to not end up trading our active time for money.
To make stock market investing a passive source of income, become an investor and not a trader.
2. YouTube
You can make money through YouTube by 3 ways:
i. Adsense revenue
Usually you are shown ads just before YT videos. These ads generate an income for the creators.
But this feature gets activated only when you, as a creator, have at least 4000 watch hours and 1000 subscribers.
ii. Brand sponsorships
A baseline number of subscribers to get brand deals would be somewhere around 20-25K subscribers.
iii. Selling digital products or community memberships
Some key tips to start a YT channel:
i. Pick a niche you are extremely, extremely passionate about.
ii. You might get next to nil traction in the first few months of your YouTube journey. If you do not enjoy the process, you will have an extremely hard time to build this source of income.
iii. You can first start making reels on IG, and then eventually shift to YT. This way you will understand the process of making videos. And, it is easier to make shorter videos compared to longer videos.
3. Selling digital products
In this case, you need to think about the value add approach. If you are selling your course at Rs. 10K, but the audience does not seem to find it worth its price, you might want to consider repricing the course.
A simple mathematical equation you must keep in mind is
Price x Quantity = Money you make
If you want to make 10K through your digital product, and if it is priced at 500, you will have to sell it to at least 20 people. On the other hand if it is 10K, you have to sell it to only 1 person.
A problem that you might face is distribution of your digital product.
If you do not have a long standing social media presence on platforms like LinkedIn, IG or YT, your courses might not be that easily discovered and might not get a lot of traction. In such a scenario you will have to look for alternative marketing methods.
4. NFTs
Of course, for retail investors, creating and monetising an NFT is not an easy task, but this is an option that will become more popular as the world grows.
5. Writing books
You make passive income from books through royalties. You make roughly 10-20% royalty for every book that you sell. This is because the distributors and publishers take a lot of commission.
In India, making 10K per month through a book can be a difficult task. But if you market your book well and everyone is talking about it, and it genuinely is a good book, it definitely can be a good source of passive income.
6. Podcasts
Starting a podcast is super easy. All you need is a mic, and you’re done. You can use Anchor to start your podcast.
You can make money through podcasts by getting sponsorships. It can be quite difficult for newcomers to monetize their podcasts.
You’d require a minimum of 1500 downloads to be eligible for a sponsorship.
7. Paid memberships
If you are exceptionally good at writing you can create your weekly newsletter and then eventually ask people to support you on platforms like Patreon, where you can create exclusive content just for paid subscribers.
This can be a hard way to earn passive income, especially in a country like India, where people are not very willing to pay for content.
8. Angel investing
This is a slightly more advanced stream of income.
It might not necessarily be a passive source of income for often the founders seek support from the investors.
To be an angel investor, you must know about businesses. You should have experience in building your own businesses and you must also be aware of the value you can add to the business.
Currently, start-ups are very interested in getting good people on board who can help them accelerate their growth.
If you as a retail investor are interested in investing in start-ups, you can explore platforms like Angel Investing Network.
But again, this can be super risky as the majority of start-ups fail.
Now, these are the 8 passive income streams that can help you generate a cash flow. You can pick the ones that make the most sense to you and also excite you in order to upscale your career and make more money.
