I once had a colleague who worked two jobs.
At the end of every month, he would come to me – flaunting some cash in his hands – and say, “Hey, still think double shifts are too stressful?” Then I’d say, “Yes, Billy, it’s back-breaking.” The funny guy would then whistle away.
Call me lazy, but I belong to the school of thought that Smart Work trumps Hard Work all day long.
So I devised my own plan to add another income stream to my salary. Took me a couple of days to figure it out, but at last, I discovered I had a knack for copywriting. So, I went for it.
Took a couple of free copywriting courses online (Why free? ‘cus I hate debit alerts). Then I joined Fiverr, where I landed my first gig – a $115 project.
Guess what the project was about? To review a couple of episodes of Game of Thrones. I chewed that job in less than a day.
The next three months were rough, though, as jobs weren’t forthcoming. But things soon got back in shape.
Today, I make nothing less than $5k+ from Fiverr every month. And I’m still at my old job.
I complete most of my Fiverr gigs in the office. I don’t stress myself like Billy. I get more than the National Institutes of Health’s recommended hours of sleep. And I still make more money than Billy.
So, I guess Smart Work always Trump (not Donald, please) Hard Work.
Passive income ideas that earn $1000+ per month
You don’t have to be a copywriter like me. You can try any of the ideas below.
#1 Start a YouTube channel
You can start a YouTube channel on anything – sport, gaming, tech, health & fitness, finance, gadgets, home décor, fashion, beauty, etc.
To make money, you’ll submit your videos to YouTube for them to run ads in them. If someone watches your videos (views), you’ll get paid by YouTube. And if someone clicks on the ads in your videos, you’ll get paid too – usually half of the money the ad-owner paid to YouTube to run the ad. You can also choose video editing software for better utilization of time and efforts for seeing greater results.
How much can you make on YouTube?
On average, creators make $5/1000 views. This means that if 1000 people watch your video, you’ll get $5.
To make $1k per month, you’ll need to get a total of 200,000 views.
Getting this amount of views can be tough, which is why you sometimes hear that creators are buy YouTube views, subscribers, and likes. They buy these promo packages to boost their chances of getting plenty of views and making more money.
For example, if you buy 1000 subscribers, it means you already have 1000 constant viewers. Seeing 1000 views on your videos will encourage searchers to click on your videos (thereby increasing your views), unlike when you have meager numbers like 5 or 10. You can also choose to buy Youtube likes and consider best sites to buy Youtube views.
#2 Start a membership website
You’re probably reading this blog for free. To read some other blogs, you may be required to pay.
Often, these are blogs that offer rare and valuable information. CNBC, for example, reserves information like “the best stocks to buy right now” for people that have paid access to their site.
If you have knowledge about a field or you’re willing to put in the work to research some rare knowledge in any field of your choosing. You can create a membership blog/website that charges people for access.
It can be a fashion, grocery, tech, lifestyle, or beauty blog that informs people about cheap deals, rare coupon codes, etc.
How much can you make with a membership website?
Imagine you charge $10/month, and you have 100 members.
That would be:
100 x $10 members = $1000/month
#3 Join affiliate programs
Are you skilled at marketing? Do you have the ability to convince people to do things? If so, then you’re cut out to be an affiliate marketer.
An affiliate marketer promotes the products or services of others, and in return, gets paid a commission.
Perhaps you have a strong following on social media (Twitter, IG, and Facebook), a large group of friends/colleagues in real life, or a vast Whatsapp contact list. If so, then all you have to do is promote a brand’s product or service to this group of people.
You can find products or services to promote by checking for the latest affiliate programs online. Usually, you’ll find programs that pay you up to $100 commission. But sometimes it can be less. It all depends on the price of the product you’re promoting.
How much can you make with affiliate marketing?
Imagine you promote a product that pays you a $100 commission; you just need to sell ten products per month to make $1000.
#4 Dropshipping
This involves selling products you don’t own on social media (FB, Twitter, IG, Whatsapp, etc.) or eCommerce platforms (Shopify, Amazon, eBay, Etsy).
It’s quite similar to affiliate marketing in that you don’t have to hold a stock of what you’re selling. But it’s different from affiliate marketing in that you own the entire profit earned.
In dropshipping business, you advertise your products on every platform you have access to, and once an order comes in, you forward the order to a supplier who fulfills the order on your behalf.
You don’t even need to see or touch the product.
Say, a customer placed an order from your Whatsapp timeline for a product worth $100, and then you forward the order to the supplier of the product who’s selling for $80.
The remaining $20 is your profit.
To speed up the store ranking process, you can also buy guest posts to quickly get organic traffic.
How much can you make with dropshipping
To make $1000 in a month, you only need to sell 50 products worth a $20 profit margin, 40 products worth a $25 profit margin, 20 products worth a $50, or 10 products worth a $100.
#5 Flip retail products
If you’re willing to put in the work, you can scour your local stores or the internet for products you can find at cut-rate prices.
When you find them, you can resell to your friends and colleague or online (on Amazon, eBay, and the likes).
The only challenge with this idea is you’ll need to know a place or have a contact that can help you access discounted merchandise that few other people can find.
How much can you make with product flipping?
Hard to put a marker on it. But, of course, you can make as much money as possible.
You can even make your $1000 monthly target from the sale of one product. It all depends on the product you find and how much you’re reselling for.