Every year I publish an article to analyze which ones will be the best passive income strategies. Each year some techniques don’t work anymore, and new ones arise.
In this article, I’ll list the 5 best strategies to make passive income in 2021.
Before I get into the 5 approaches, I want to clear 2 false assumptions about passive income. Unfortunately, it’s really simple to misunderstand the meaning of this term.
First of all, what is passive income?
It’s revenue you generate through a built system that needs no additional work or a little one.
The biggest presumption about it, is that passive income doesn’t exist. That it’s just a way for marketers to scam people.
Funny how the passive income doubters are probably generating it without realizing it. If your bank offers interest rates on your savings and gets a 2% return every year, that’s passive income. You make money simply by leaving your savings in your bank account.
Passive income isn’t rocket science, but it’s usually wrongly assumed like something dirty or deceiving.
On the other end, many people keep looking for ways to create passive income and become rich overnight.
I’m sorry to say that there’s nothing like becoming rich overnight unless you don’t win the lottery.
Passive income systems need strategy and realization, and it’s not supposed to make you rich. It’s a great way to generate side income that you can invest as you wish.
I have different passive income strategies that take care of my business expenses, like social media ads. It took me time to imagine them, build them, and test them. But once they started giving consistent results, I didn’t have to touch them anymore.
But let’s get into the 5 best ways to make passive income in 2021.
#1 Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of my evergreen strategies. I’ve been using it for years, and it keeps working for me.
Affiliate marketing means promoting somebody else’s product in exchange for a percentage on each sale you make.
I started small with affiliate marketing, and now it almost covers 50% of my monthly income.
Most of my videos on YouTube have links to products or services I affiliate for, obviously products that I use for my business.
If I find something useful for me, my first question is always the same: “do these guys have an affiliate program?”
Lately, I started using Facebook Ads to promote some of my affiliate products, and the results were above my expectations.
If you want to learn how to use affiliate marketing with Facebook Ads, you can watch my free 1-hour masterclass on this topic.
#2 Use apps to invest your money
I’m not an expert in stocks, dividends, and all these kinds of things, and I think I should fill this gap in the future.
But for the moment, luckily, there are mobile apps that invest your money for you. You save some money on their accounts, decide how much you want to risk, and you’re ready to go.
The app I use to invest in is called Plum, and I have to say it works unexpectedly well. The return I have there is higher than the one any bank can give me.
If you live in the EU and want to try Plum, you can try it here.
#3 Start a podcast and promote products
4 years ago I used to run a podcast that had a discreet success, and I started it just as a hobby. I didn’t have any aspirations or projects for it.
One day I receive an email from a person who created a smartphone app that could be a great match for my audience. He offered to pay me $100 per episode in exchange for 30 seconds of promotion at the beginning and the end of each episode.
Once I recorded these 2 audio segments, my work was over. Everything I had to do after, was recording the podcast episodes that I was anyway doing for free.
That’s is a classic example of getting paid for something I created once.
Becoming successful with a podcast isn’t that difficult, and it takes a lot less effort than with a Youtube Channel.
#4 Online courses
Another thing that you can create a single time and sell over and over is online courses. As you may know, I have 3 online courses that make sales regularly, and I hardly have to touch the content in them.
A great way to make sales is to do short-time discounts when there are important events like Christmas, Easter, Black Friday, your birthday…
In theory, you can offer a discount on your courses every month, cause there’s always something to celebrate.
If you need a platform to host your courses, I suggest you use Teachable, which I use. You can try Teachable here for free.
#5 Flip retail products
Nowadays, we have access to various ways to buy low and sell high.
For example, you can walk into a store with specific products on sale, whether due to seasonal discounts or the store’s clearing old stock. You can buy a good quantity of the discounted product and then sell it on Amazon or eBay for a slightly higher price.
You can do the same thing with online websites offering products on discounts or buying from countries offering specific products at a lower price.
I’ve met people who make a considerable income just keeping an eye on discounts and clearances in shops and online shops and buying in stock.
The exchange is a win-win for them and the buyers. They make a margin on each product, and the buyer gets an item at a lower price.
Once you make a dozen sales on a shopping platform and received good reviews, sales will automatically come without the need to promote.
I hope you liked these 5 strategies. Pick one, and commit to make it work. I saw successful examples for each of the categories I listed.
