In this article, you will find actionable passive income ideas that will provide you with multiple income streams so you can potentially fire your boss instead of worrying about the reverse.
Are you tired of working your 9-to-5 job? Do you want to build your own business and be more in control of your destiny?
Maybe you’re just looking for a side hustle to make some extra money or looking to replace your current income along with the limits that come with it?
If the answer to any of these is “Yes!”, then you’ve come to the right place.
My name is John E. Williams, you’re on johnewilliams.com, and I help brand new entrepreneurs learn to make passive income online through Affiliate Marketing, online presence, and digital marketing education.
My goal is to transition you from traditional W-2 employment to self-employment earning a full-time income from multiple streams.
In today’s economy, having only one source of income is a very dangerous position to be in – especially if it’s one source that you don’t control.
The thing to realize about a W-2 job is that you are a replaceable resource because you’re making money for someone else or for a company that’s owned or run by someone else.
The owners decide what needs to be done and how to do it. They will still find ways to make their money if something happens to you or if you decide to work elsewhere.
We know this model works very well for those on the top end of the machine, so our goal is to place ourselves at the top end of our own machine. This puts us in a proper position for the accumulation of wealth.
So how do you achieve this?
How To Start Creating Passive Income
Down below are 5 things you can get started on right now to PREPARE to transition from W2 income to self-employment.
Notice the use of the word PREPARE. Nothing here, and nothing that you’ll ever hear from me, will allow you to get rich quick. At least not on purpose. All I ask is that you remember your good friend John E. Williams if you somehow accidentally get rich quickly!
Meanwhile, DO NOT quit your job, don’t try to “Stick It To The Man”, and don’t tell anyone to “Take This Job and Shove It” (ala Johnny Paycheck – Google him).
First, do a serious amount of planning and successful application of the things we’re going to discuss.
Let’s be clear. What you’re looking to do is start a business.
Starting any business can easily require more time and money on the up-front than you can afford as a beginner holding down a full-time job.
They can also be quite literally a lot to manage if you’re coming into that space as a beginner.
This is why I recommend starting with things that once you get them set up, can run mostly on autopilot
Multiple Passive Income Streams
These will be in what I see as priority order of importance. Be sure to leave a comment to let me know your thoughts on the order.
5 things you can do right now to create multiple passive income streams and EVENTUALLY get rid of your 9-to-5.
- Print-On-Demand
- Affiliate Marketing
- Start a Blog
- Dividend-Paying Stocks
- W-2
Print on Demand
You can get started very quickly with Print on Demand using a few simple tools and with little or no money.
All you need to get started today are a Design Tool and a Fulfillment provider.
In most cases, the things I mention will be free to use. Some will offer paid versions with more bells and whistles that you can invest in as things grow.
Canva is an online design and publishing tool that’s simple and easy to use and has all you need to create anything from logos to graphics to any visual content you need.
PlaceIt.net is a robust online mockup and design template generator. Once you’ve created a design using a tool such as Canva, you can upload your design to PlaceIt.net, crop or resize as necessary and have it appear in a high-quality mock-up on models of your choosing. It’s as if you’ve paid for a photoshoot all at your fingertips.
In a later post or video, I’ll show you examples of how I use both tools and how easy it can be to get what you need to put together a polished-looking design that people will love.
What do you need to get started:
- Ideas (something to say, or show)
- Models or photos of your product
- Fulfilment
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is another low-barrier-to-entry business model. Costs are minimal because you don’t even need your own product to start.
The entire concept is that you promote another company’s or person’s products or services for which you earn a commission – or percentage of the sale – for every transaction that you bring to the seller.
This is done by the seller providing you with a unique link to their online product. The link identifies you as the source of their new customer.
Some things to keep in mind:
- You’re probably already promoting a whole lot of stuff by just talking to people.
- If you’re not getting paid, you’re promoting a whole lot of stuff for free.
- If you’re not getting paid for your recommendations, then someone else is getting paid, and it’s not you.
- All businesses that want to grow need more customers, which means they need to advertise.
- All consumers (customers) need or seek the things they want.
This makes you, the Affiliate, valuable to both ends of the transaction.
Why? The best and cheapest way to bring buyers and sellers together is by word-of-mouth. Paid referral or affiliate marketing is not far behind that. Affiliates will narrowly target audiences known or believed to be looking for a given type of product or service, and place the said product in front of them online. The result is cheaper than the broadcast or billboard approach where the advertiser may just as likely be ignored for any number of reasons that will drive up their cost of advertising. The savings can then be passed on to the consumer in the form of lower purchase prices.
What do you need to get started:
- Website or funnel builder
- A product to promote
- An email autoresponder
- An understanding of online marketing
Click here for a FREE program
Start a Blog
Starting a blog is not everyone’s first go-to because it takes time and the ability to write. There are ways around this if you’re comfortable outsourcing the content writing.
You still would want to pick a niche that you’re interested in or in which you have some expertise. A well-chosen niche will make it much easier to provide content or guidance for the same if or when it’s time to outsource.
Starting your own blog opens a whole new world in which you learn the things necessary to establish an online presence and a consistent voice and brand.
What do you need to get started:
- A hosting company
- A domain name reflecting your brand or niche
Dividend-Paying Stocks
Disclaimer: I’m not a financial professional. In this post, I will provide neither investment advice nor stock-picking advice. You will need to consult with a professional for those services.
I can only share what tools I like, and what I do for myself. That said…
You’ve probably noticed that any money you may have sitting in a savings account isn’t working very hard for you. These days, you’re lucky if you find a 1% interest rate. Not what I’d call a good source of passive income.
Enter the stock market. Take the time (no time at all really) to download a free stocks app.
Free Stock Apps
There are several stock apps that will give you FREE stock as an enticement. Two stand out for beginners because they eliminate almost all the usual barriers to entry.
Robinhood and Webull both allow anyone to quickly get started trading stocks, options (options are NOT recommended for beginners), and even cryptocurrency.
Between the two, Robinhood is my favorite because you can trade fractional shares. This means that you can invest in the “big boy” companies that perform well and pay dividends but are usually priced out of reach for those without substantial savings.
Generally speaking, when publicly traded companies do well, they either re-invest the profits or pay out dividends to shareholders. Dividends are what we’re interested in.
This way, we can take advantage of the average 10%-or-so stock market return, but re-invest any “free” dividends that we’re paid (usually quarterly) and get the return on that and let it snowball.
The two brokers have very similar features that benefit beginners:
- No fees on trades for stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrency
- Zero fees on options trading (again – options are not for beginners)
- No account balance minimums
What do you need to get started:
- A Stock-trading app
- An small amount of money to routinely invest (monthy/weekly/daily) per your budget
Check out my post How to Get FREE Stocks on Robinhood for more great info on how to get started with dividend investing.
W-2 (What’s Passive About This!?)
“Wait! There’s nothing passive about W-2 income”, you might say. And you would be correct.
However, trading your time, attention, and labor to make money for someone else is about as non-passive as it gets. In fact, it’s pretty darn active. Making money for your employer while you sleep is, as they say, “not a thing”.
But, it is a way to pay the bills while you go about building a plan and a foundation for your own business.
Passive income takes active work to get started
In conclusion, you need to know the following: There is no such thing as “get rich quick”. You will have to put in some actual work on the front end in order to get started.
Your W-2 income will likely be consuming the majority of your time while you work to shift away from it by building other streams. This makes it a very good idea to pick one stream and focus on making it profitable. Once it’s up and running and needs less of your constant attention, then you can move on to building the next stream of income.
Keep in mind that an Investment is required just as with anything that grows in worth or value. This will come in the form of money or time. If you’re a beginner who’s just getting started, you may have more time than money. In that instance your investment path becomes clear.
One way or another, money talks. Spending makes it say “goodbye”. Investing in assets, yourself, and your business, makes it say “Hello!” – and potentially “Bring your friends!”.