If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re an entrepreneur at heart. You’re the kind of person who isn’t content with sitting in an office all day working on your boss’s goals and dreams while your aspirations sit on the sidelines. Or, maybe you feel financially capped and know you can do much better for yourself.
Whatever your reasons are, if you’re here, it’s clear that you would like to start creating passive income and be free from the 9-5 grind – I applaud you for that! It takes courage to go after your dreams, especially when it seems so many people are content with living mediocre lives.
Know that creating money outside of your day job is within reach – and I’m going to provide you with a few ideas to make it happen. So read on, and get ready to feel empowered as you realize the possibilities.
The Motivating Factors: Passive Income vs Employee Paycheck
When you work a traditional job, you’re always trading your time for dollars, and you can only work so many hours, right? In addition to that, most employers have a set “allowable” hours that each employee can work, creating a situation where the employee can only make a certain amount of money per paycheck, with only a small increase each year, if they’re lucky.
Speaking of trading time for dollars, it brings back bad memories of working long days, with long commutes, day after day, like clockwork. I know from experience that this type of scenario is tiring, and all your efforts go into building up someone else’s business, as well as their bank account, as you are being drained physically.
On the other hand, with passive income, all your effort goes into creating financial freedom for you and your family. Plus, because of the nature of passive income, you can make money even when you’re not actively working. Or, you’re putting in hours that you want to work because you enjoy what you do, and let’s not forget the fact that you don’t have to ask for permission to go on vacation.
The bottom line is that a passive income stream can lead to a high level of financial independence that’s not possible with a traditional job. Furthermore, not being locked up in an office from 9-5 can give you the opportunity to make your own schedule, spend more time with your family, work on your goals, and live the lifestyle you deserve – that sounds so much more rewarding, doesn’t it?
Find Your Passion and Turn it Into a Lucrative Self-Employed Income Stream
The process of creating passive income so you can leave your day job starts with deciding what path to take as far as how you’ll generate that income. Ask yourself – What am I good at? What are my passions and talents? These are the things that you should consider because you’re more likely to excel and be successful doing something that you’re interested in or talented at.
You should make a list of all the avenues you like to consider and then research each one to determine its income possibilities. This is important because although you may love doing something, you have to ensure that you can actually generate income from it. With all that in mind, let’s dive into a few ideas that I’d like to share with you to jumpstart your research.
5 Ideas for Creating Passive Income So You Can Quit Your Job
If you need a few suggestions while you’re brainstorming how to create passive income, then read over these interesting ways to bring in money – hopefully, one of them will be right up your financial alley.
1. Join the Revolution and Sell Digital NFT Artwork
If you’re an artist, selling digital NFTs is a great way to create passive income. What is an NFT? It’s a non-fungible token, which is another way of saying that an item is a one-of-a-kind, which is what can make an NFT scarce and valuable.
In the digital realm, an NFT can represent a particular file or item, such as an illustration, a photograph, a video, in-game items, audio, as well as virtual real estate, just to name a few. NFTs were put on the map by CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club, so it may be fun to check them out for some inspiration.
Selling an NFT is similar to selling stock photography on a site such as Getty Images, with the difference being that you’re selling only one-of-a-kind items, and you’re dealing in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, as opposed to selling the same digital item to many people and dealing in fiat currency. It’s similar, all while being a whole new ball game.
All passive income streams require some initial setup work. Some will also require a periodic investment of your time, and this is the case with selling NFTs. You would need to spend time creating a database of artwork, and periodically create more. Once you’ve created your NFT artwork and decided on your pricing, you can list them for sale on an online marketplace such as OpenSea, Mintable, Rarible, and others.
When someone buys your NFT, they’ll typically receive a digital token that represents the ownership of the artwork, you receive the funds, and the transaction will be recorded on the blockchain.
Here’s a full overview of NFTs that you’ll find interesting:
2. Earn Passive Income by Selling Stock Photography
For those of you who are not yet into blockchain technology and NFTs, I present to you good old-fashioned stock photography. What is stock photography? It’s simply photographs (or illustrations) that are typically sold for commercial use. This can include anything from images of dogs and cats, sunrises, calculators, and cityscapes, to more specific images like businesspeople shaking hands or families spending time together.
Most stock photography is sold through large online agencies that make the images available to customers for a fee. Each stock agency has its own fee structure, and the photographer typically receives a percentage of the money an image brings in.
How Do You Get Started Selling Stock Photography?
The first step is to sign up with a stock agency. There are a few different agencies to choose from – Adobe Stock, iStock, Shutterstock, and others.
Once you’ve signed up, you’ll be able to start uploading your images. Each agency will walk you through the simple process and provide you with their own set of guidelines, and also provide information on what types of photos they’re looking for, so make sure to read through everything before submitting anything. In general, though, there are a few things that all agencies look for in stock photos:
- Quality: The images should be well-composed and in focus, as well as uploaded at a high resolution, typically 300 dpi.
- Commercial Appeal: Your photos or illustrations should be of subjects that businesses or consumers might want to use in their own marketing materials, or that can be used as website content.
- Originality: All images submitted should be your own original work.
- Released for Commercial Use: Images should come with a model release form if they contain any recognizable people. This allows businesses to use the photos in their own advertising materials without having to get permission from the individual pictured.
A lot of people combine their stock photography income stream with an additional one due to the fact that it can take some time to get up and running – you’ll need quite a few images to produce a steady income. The more you shoot and upload to your account, the faster you’ll start earning passive income and the closer you will be to leaving your day job for good. Eventually, once your account is fully stocked, you’ll literally reel in cash while you’re sleeping.
3. Make Money Outside Your 9-5 Job by Developing an Online Course
Many entrepreneurs share their knowledge and expertise with others through an online course and generate passive income in the process. Developing an online course isn’t as difficult as you might think. With the right planning and execution, you can create one that’s informative, engaging, and income-producing. Plus, there are some amazing online course software programs that you can use that make the process easy, and allow for the integration of videos, PDFs, quizzes, provide the ability to collect assignments, and the like. A few that might be worth checking out are Thinkific and Teachable.
When it comes to creating an online course, the sky’s the limit in terms of topics you can cover. However, it’s important to choose a topic that you’re passionate about. Not only will you be more likely to stick with the course creation process if you’re passionate about the topic, but your students will also appreciate your enthusiasm. In addition to this, keep your target audience in mind because if you create a course solely based on your interest in a topic, but it’s a subject that’s not in demand, then it might not be as successful as you were hoping it would be.
Once your course is perfected, it can be self-running, and then it’s up to you how much you want to be involved with your students – you can set your course up to be more or less interactive based on your preferences.
Here are a few hot topics that would make for great online courses:
- How to Start a Blog that Makes Money
- Advanced Affiliate Marketing Techniques
- How to Invest in Crypto for Beginners
- Social Media Marketing Strategies
- Video Production for YouTubers
- Nutrition and Fitness Topics
4. Generate Monthly Passive Income with Rental Real Estate
Millions of people own rental real estate that brings in rental income from their tenants every month, like clockwork. The beauty of this avenue of creating passive income is that it’s not something you have to be passionate about for it to be successful, and you don’t even require any real estate experience to get it up and running. How is this possible? It’s actually a brilliant concept – a full-service real estate company works with you to purchase a rental property, and they do all the work to get you up and running. This includes finding a property in a lucrative market, placing a tenant and a property manager for you, and everything in between – it’s a super simple process.
Ok, I know many of you may be thinking, “I have bad credit, so I’ll never get approved for a loan”. Believe it or not, there is actually a way for you to obtain a loan without it being based on your income or credit score; it’s called non-recourse financing. This type of financing allows the borrower to use the property as collateral for the loan but does not require the borrower to personally guarantee the loan – so they’re not basing the approval process on your stats, but instead, on how stable and lucrative the rental property appears to the bank.
Check out this inspirational video that covers ten ideals for non-traditional financing that can pave the way to buying rental real estate:
If you think you might want to dive into this topic by researching how to buy a rental property, I highly suggest taking a look at this article – How to Easily Buy a Rental Property Before the End of the Year.
5. Reach Your Goal of Leaving Your Day Job by Starting a Blog
One of the most popular ways to create passive income, enough to leave a 9-5 job, is to start a blog that includes affiliate marketing or sponsored ads. Of course, starting a successful blog takes time and effort, but if you’re willing to put in the work upfront, then it could be well worth it in the end.
Once it’s up and running, you can decide if you want to write for your blog, or if you want to make it a true passive income situation by hiring someone to write for you. Either way, a well-put-together website with a blog can definitely take you down the path to self-employment and financial independence.
I’m not going to go into detail on how to go about starting a blog because I have two exceptional posts that say it all, as seen below. However, I do want to emphasize that you’ll find that most bloggers use WordPress for their platform, and Blue Host as their hosting provider.
If you’re interested in starting your own blog, read over my other two posts. The first one dives into some important financial benefits of creating a blog, as well as tips on how to get started. The second article, well, the title speaks for itself, and it’s an exceptional read:
- Top 5 Financial Reasons You Should Start a Blog in 2022
- How I Earned Over $1,800,000 with My Blog and You Can Too
Start Earning Passive Income and Stop Working for a Paycheck!
I hope this article has encouraged you to move forward with your goal of leaving your day job. Know that it’s totally possible; lots of people have left the world of 9-5 office jobs to pursue a better life, and you can make it happen for yourself. No matter what path you take – starting a blog, investing in rental real estate, or something else, keep heading down the path to financial independence and never stop believing in what you can accomplish!