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Best Passive Income Online Businesses?

by NevinC
39 replies
What are the best passive income online businesses out there?
#businesses #income #online #passive
  • Profile picture of the author pikka
    Hi NevinC,

    I have a small list to answer your question:


    1. Affiliate Marketing.

    2. Create Adsense Sites.

    3. Create a digital product download sites: software, ebooks, apps, templates, etc.

    4. Buy and own Turnkey Web Sites.

    5. Sell ebooks on Kindle.

    6. Create membership websites.

    7. Creating Udemy.com courses.

    8. Product review site or Niche website or Hobby website with affiliate links to related products.

    9. Print on demand books on Createspace.

    10. Create products for Cafe Press.

    11. Create products for Zazzle.

    12. Product review site or Niche website or Hobby website with affiliate links to related products.

    13. Write a Blog and sell ad space.

    14. Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon).

    15. Sell Clickbank products.

    There is much more but, I hope this list creates a spark.

    Aisha
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    • Profile picture of the author jitenmazee05
      Originally Posted by pikka View Post

      Hi NevinC,

      I have a small list to answer your question:


      1. Affiliate Marketing.

      2. Create Adsense Sites.

      3. Create a digital product download sites: software, ebooks, apps, templates, etc.

      4. Buy and own Turnkey Web Sites.

      5. Sell ebooks on Kindle.

      6. Create membership websites.

      7. Creating Udemy.com courses.

      8. Product review site or Niche website or Hobby website with affiliate links to related products.

      9. Print on demand books on Createspace.

      10. Create products for Cafe Press.

      11. Create products for Zazzle.

      12. Product review site or Niche website or Hobby website with affiliate links to related products.

      13. Write a Blog and sell ad space.

      14. Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon).

      15. Sell Clickbank products.

      There is much more but, I hope this list creates a spark.

      Aisha
      Absolutely right. I am using Clickbank, adsense on my blog for the earning. And its good by just updated your blog with good content daily.
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    • Profile picture of the author mrdeedreid
      #6 has worked well for me. Although it's not completely passive, it's still one of the best sources of continuity income IMO.

      Reid
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    • Profile picture of the author sendizo
      Originally Posted by pikka View Post

      Hi NevinC,

      I have a small list to answer your question:


      1. Affiliate Marketing.

      2. Create Adsense Sites.

      3. Create a digital product download sites: software, ebooks, apps, templates, etc.

      4. Buy and own Turnkey Web Sites.

      5. Sell ebooks on Kindle.

      6. Create membership websites.

      7. Creating Udemy.com courses.

      8. Product review site or Niche website or Hobby website with affiliate links to related products.

      9. Print on demand books on Createspace.

      10. Create products for Cafe Press.

      11. Create products for Zazzle.

      12. Product review site or Niche website or Hobby website with affiliate links to related products.

      13. Write a Blog and sell ad space.

      14. Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon).

      15. Sell Clickbank products.

      There is much more but, I hope this list creates a spark.

      Aisha
      Perfect list.
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    • Profile picture of the author dmp
      Originally Posted by pikka View Post

      Hi NevinC,

      I have a small list to answer your question:


      1. Affiliate Marketing.

      2. Create Adsense Sites.

      3. Create a digital product download sites: software, ebooks, apps, templates, etc.

      4. Buy and own Turnkey Web Sites.

      5. Sell ebooks on Kindle.

      6. Create membership websites.

      7. Creating Udemy.com courses.

      8. Product review site or Niche website or Hobby website with affiliate links to related products.

      9. Print on demand books on Createspace.

      10. Create products for Cafe Press.

      11. Create products for Zazzle.

      12. Product review site or Niche website or Hobby website with affiliate links to related products.

      13. Write a Blog and sell ad space.

      14. Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon).

      15. Sell Clickbank products.

      There is much more but, I hope this list creates a spark.

      Aisha
      Combine them, they obviously have to be compatible of course, but for example a montised YouTube channel, and a twitter announcement channel would be compatible, youtube shows the videos with subcribers twitter announces new content takes suggestions and trends etc telling non subscribers of new content, as long as you juggle and manage them, and keep a close eye on trends and conflicts you should be fine.

      A single one isnt really a passive income, but when combined each little income adds up, creating a passive income.

      As for apps, go for quality over quantity.
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  • Profile picture of the author thesadshow
    Most types of online business can be done in a way that can be considered "passive". All you need to do is figure out something that works and find a way to automate it without sacrificing quality.

    Don't limit yourself to things that are considered passive right out of the box.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adrian Nutiu
    Allow me to answer you with 3 questions to help you break down what you need:

    1. What product or service can you create that solves an in demand problem and is ever green?

    2. How can you automate traffic to such product or service(buy traffic, sales person on commission, seo...)?

    3. What systems you need to create or what people do you need to hire to have 1 and 2 taken care of?

    Also I would like to second the advice above about not limiting yourself to "passive income" thinking.
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  • Profile picture of the author AffEngineer
    Passive income predominantly still involves you doing some work to keep things ticking.

    Blogging, eventually becomes quite passive.

    Kindle books is another one.

    Buying/building and monetising a website.

    Nothing is 100% passive, again, you'll still need to do some work to keep things running.
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    • Profile picture of the author talfighel
      Most affiliate programs out there will allow you to earn residual passive income online.

      Originally Posted by AffEngineer View Post

      Blogging, eventually becomes quite passive.
      You need a lot of articles added to your site on a daily and weekly basis to get passive traffic for years to come. It would be a good idea to add new content too.
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      • Profile picture of the author marciayudkin
        Steve B.,

        I agree with much of what you wrote.

        However, what you are overlooking is that not everyone wants to grow their business.

        I am actually leading a seminar now for Baby Boomers who want to shrink their business and go into semi-retirement or retirement with some passive income streams. In that situation, it's really helpful to know which business models CAN be passive. Most cannot. But the ones I listed can indeed be passive and continue to bring in income for years with no additional work at all. That was my point.

        Marcia Yudkin
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        • Profile picture of the author Steve B
          Originally Posted by marciayudkin View Post

          . . . what you are overlooking is that not everyone wants to grow their business.

          This is true; however, it appears to me that the OP is not asking how to make his already established business truly passive. He didn't say he already had a business.

          It seems to me (of course, I could be wrong) that he is looking for a way to set up a passive system that doesn't already exist. And if he's going to do that, he is going to have to do all the work to create and grow a business. Even what you call "passive" business models require a fair amount of work to get them to the point where they make consistent income.

          In addition, it has been my experience that income slows down progressively when marketers stop promoting. Products become stale and out-dated over time, the pipeline of traffic slows and revenues fall in most cases when you do nothing to promote. And I'll bet that the vast majority of business owners would rather see their income go up instead of down.

          Steve
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          • Profile picture of the author shmol
            Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

            This is true; however, it appears to me that the OP is not asking how to make his already established business truly passive. He didn't say he already had a business.

            It seems to me (of course, I could be wrong) that he is looking for a way to set up a passive system that doesn't already exist. And if he's going to do that, he is going to have to do all the work to create and grow a business. Even what you call "passive" business models require a fair amount of work to get them to the point where they make consistent income.

            In addition, it has been my experience that income slows down progressively when marketers stop promoting. Products become stale and out-dated over time, the pipeline of traffic slows and revenues fall in most cases when you do nothing to promote. And I'll bet that the vast majority of business owners would rather see their income go up instead of down.

            Steve
            Steve,

            You are spot on,

            If the OP simply wants income and NOT a business then, yes, by all means write one kindle book a week or even per month and money will come in, but, it will not--in my opinion really grow because as you said, things fizzle out.

            This is not to say that you can't get lucky and have one book sell tons--but, this, chances are, is not going to happen.

            The better choice would be to, write several really good kindle books and promote them--or make one really high quality blog and really work at promoting it.

            Which of course means adding content on a regular basis and being active on social media--which I realize is not passive--but this is the price of doing business.
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  • Profile picture of the author James McAllister
    This question again..

    Practically anything can be outsourced to the point where it requires almost no ongoing work, while at the same time practically nothing can be considered truly passive.

    Much better in my opinion to focus on the total return for time invested. If you crave that ongoing income stream, invest what you get into dividend growth stocks or index funds...
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    • Profile picture of the author marciayudkin
      Practically anything can be outsourced to the point where it requires almost no ongoing work, while at the same time practically nothing can be considered truly passive.
      I disagree. Here are several kinds of income I receive where I do the work in the beginning and then sit back and receive income over time without doing ANYTHING else.

      1. Kindle/Smashwords ebooks
      2. Udemy courses
      3. Book royalties from traditional publishers
      4. Joint ventures that include royalties from continued sales
      5. Audiobooks
      There are other examples I hope to put into practice soon as part of my retirement plan!

      Marcia Yudkin
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    Originally Posted by NevinC View Post

    What are the best passive income online businesses out there?

    I know others will disagree, but IMO passive income is mostly a myth if you want to grow and increase your business over time.

    Let me explain. Yes, you can write a book, upload it to Kindle or elsewhere, and forget it and still have income for a time. But if you truly want to be successful and grow your business, you need to be promoting your book and probably writing other books to promote your name. You still need to work to increase your business. If you "set it and forget it" you won't have the same results as you will if you keep working at it.

    Yes, you can be an affiliate or sell Clickbank products but that model requires that you constantly drive traffic to your offer pages or affiliate links. If you stop driving traffic you won't make nearly as much as you will by continually pushing your offer in front of new prospects.

    Selling courses, audio books, blogging, etc were all mentioned as being passive. To me, there is nothing passive about these models if you intend to keep growing your subscriber list and your audience. Internet marketing takes continual effort and continual traffic.

    None of the methods already mentioned, IMO, are truly no work, hands off, never touch it models unless you are satisfied with having these strategies run their course and eventually die out because they are "stale" and not keeping pace with the times.

    And yes, you can outsource everything and have someone else run your business in your stead. But then you are trading dollars for someone to do your work so it is still "costing" you something.

    Steve
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    SteveBrowneDirect

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    • Profile picture of the author Anthony J Namata
      Originally Posted by Steve B View Post

      I know others will disagree, but IMO passive income is mostly a myth if you want to grow and increase your business over time.

      Let me explain. Yes, you can write a book, upload it to Kindle or elsewhere, and forget it and still have income for a time. But if you truly want to be successful and grow your business, you need to be promoting your book and probably writing other books to promote your name. You still need to work to increase your business. If you "set it and forget it" you won't have the same results as you will if you keep working at it.

      Yes, you can be an affiliate or sell Clickbank products but that model requires that you constantly drive traffic to your offer pages or affiliate links. If you stop driving traffic you won't make nearly as much as you will by continually pushing your offer in front of new prospects.

      Selling courses, audio books, blogging, etc were all mentioned as being passive. To me, there is nothing passive about these models if you intend to keep growing your subscriber list and your audience. Internet marketing takes continual effort and continual traffic.

      None of the methods already mentioned, IMO, are truly no work, hands off, never touch it models unless you are satisfied with having these strategies run their course and eventually die out because they are "stale" and not keeping pace with the times.

      And yes, you can outsource everything and have someone else run your business in your stead. But then you are trading dollars for someone to do your work so it is still "costing" you something.

      Steve
      I really like what Steve has to say here. All the more reason why--in point of fact, you've got to love what you do to keep it going. Like publishing a book and continuing to write helpful articles to drive more and more traffic back to your landing page or blog. A music blog I publish is currently getting over 3,000 views a month organically. Without even me trying. All I do is publish one article per week. And of course, I get more clients for my related services off the back of that too; AND I get to sell my downloadable mp3 products.Which should answer your question on residual/passive income. Not easy. It's a labor of love that pays off in the end.
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    Outside of buying DOMAIN NAMES or ROYALTY rights, TRULY PASSIVE income streams don't exist.

    The good news is there are RELATIVELY PASSIVE INCOME models out there that require periodic work.

    Know the difference.
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  • Profile picture of the author tuhinindia1971
    In which section you are expert? I think you should start the working in that NICHE, where you are expert. After starting the work, you will be able to find the best one. So have a try. Best of luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author dlane1987
    I've write about just this topic. There are plenty of good ones like affiliate, digital products, ads on a website. The key thing to remember is Passive income is hard to get it just involves no active selling, so you don't need to be present.
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  • Profile picture of the author Popche
    You will have to work hard before you set up your passive income, start from one side and you can hit many, for example start a blog and an e-book related to that blog or some tutorials and maybe you can host them on Udemy. You will find your pattern.
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  • Profile picture of the author kennyd3
    Building a list. That should be your first priority.
    Best way is to create an info product and promote it as free download and build your list.
    Then upsell to your subscribers your related niche. Always offer quality content and your subscribers will always come back for more.

    That will generate your passive income.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Passive income.... what about Aggressive Income?

    1) $2,000 affiliate commissions
    2) $500/month consulting fees
    3) $2,000 per person seminars
    4) Continuity program at $47/month
    5) $300 backend products

    Sounds good? Aggressively sell to people if you want to make money.
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    • Profile picture of the author dlane1987
      Originally Posted by Randall Magwood View Post

      Passive income.... what about Aggressive Income?

      1) $2,000 affiliate commissions
      2) $500/month consulting fees
      3) $2,000 per person seminars
      4) Continuity program at $47/month
      5) $300 backend products

      Sounds good? Aggressively sell to people if you want to make money.
      Passive income is not passive business. Everything you listed as aggressive can be passive income. Passive income simply means you didn't actively earn the money from say trading time for money. Your list is a very good list for passive income.
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      • Profile picture of the author nzchick
        You are right dlane in what you say about passive income and passive business. Take kindle books you write the books only once but if you want to do well you have to market the books so you don't just write the book and leave it there. However much we would love to be able to push a few buttons and leave it for the money to come in that is a very rare occurrence and there is always some amount of work to be done.
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  • Profile picture of the author Seantrepreneur
    I mean, it really depends on what you consider to be passive. Is working on it a few hours a day passive or a few hours a week? No matter what there will be some level of "work" that needs to be done.

    Most people who earn "passive" income busted their butts for a while to build it up to a certain level and then set it on somewhat autopilot (have VAs take over). Even there you still need to manage the VAs.

    The undisputed king of teaching about passive income is Pat Flynn. Just start listening to his podcast from the very beginning and I think you'll get plenty of ideas to work out.
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  • Profile picture of the author Braznyc
    If there was a simple answer for that, it will be worth billions of dollars.
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  • Profile picture of the author extrememan
    Affiliate marketing tide into list building. You can automate 80% of this business modal and have multiple income streams.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex65
    Hi NevinC,

    I would advise these businesses to create online passive income:

    Selling information products, affiliate marketing, Google AdSense.

    I advise you to build your list in the infomarketing niche.

    You can eran $1 - $5 every month for any subscribers in your list.

    What do you think about it?

    Send a daily email to earn $500 - $5000! ;-)
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  • Profile picture of the author HelpingYouBeAnExpert
    Most of what is listed here is NOT passive at the very least you have manage and monitor but in general you need to do way more work then just that.
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    • Profile picture of the author nancy666
      Have you looked at CBPassive Income by Patric Chan?
      It is an affiliate program but he does most of the work for you.
      All you have to do is drive traffic to his offers and it's ongoing, he's always putting up new products!
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  • Profile picture of the author rulesforrebels
    I'm not saying passive incomes don't exist, I know some people do very well but I think majority of people don't realize even passive incomes require work.

    Just for example, I can write an ebook in a couple hours and I can never touch it or think about it again. It may bring in a little bit of money but if I want to actually have success I need to be promoting my book, maybe writing a blog to accompany the info in it and steer sales towards it, etc.

    When I release an eBook I'll make say $100-$300 off it for a few months but if I let it become passive for a few month sales are down to like $17 a month.
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  • Profile picture of the author Thirty3Down
    Passive Income Exist... but I agree that they don't exist for the vast majority of people because they don't build the infrastructure that they need to make it all work.

    It's an incredible amount of work to build what you need to get started.

    One of the assets that I have that passively put income into my business month after month would be a software that we run (a SaaS model type product).


    Pieces that make it Truly Passive for me:

    1) I have a software team that does the majority of the updates. We typically have a monthly meeting (so it's not 100% passive... but pretty damn close considering this is the only work I do on it all month an it amounts to about 15 minutes now)

    2) We put a ton of work into dialing the product in when we launched it. So... I do very little work now because I did a ton of work on the front end.

    3) There are ads running all over the web that have been tested like crazy... but now they bring in customers dailys (lead flow).

    4) The service that the software provides doesn't require any integrations. I don't have to keep up with the latest Google or Facebook update for this to work.

    In short....
    It's a near passive income asset (minus the one meeting a month) because we put so much time in to build and grow it on the front end.

    Most people looking for passive income don't want to put in the kind of work necessary to make something like that work (in my experience).

    Great conversation.
    Hope I added something small of value to it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Big Al
    I was going to say Kindle books have been the most passive for me, although they could do with a version 2.0 update and perhaps better covers right now - so some continuous work involved and they would have sold better if I marketed the more (which is more continuous work).
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  • Profile picture of the author createyouwealth
    You can build an affiliate blog
    And just write reviews on Amazon
    Products, just post reviews once
    A day and you will be good.

    Thats just one of many ways to
    Achieve passive income online.

    All the best!
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  • Profile picture of the author Velrajan Thangavelu
    My pick would be clickbank+bing Ad
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  • Profile picture of the author EzamMarjan
    My new Online Passive Income machines for 2017

    1. Create Business & Game Apps and publish them in Google Play/ Apple Appstore
    2. Own App Store
    3. Put all my created Apps on my own app store
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  • Profile picture of the author Swapnil Tiwari
    Affiliate marketing is evergreen.
    But believe me, nothing is passive.
    You need to work as hard as possible for months. Only when you get a lot of organic traffic to your website from various sources. You can set it up and leave it.
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  • Profile picture of the author allegandro
    The best is a niche or thing that fits you best.
    Maybe you're amazing at generating traffic to your website, so for you that is best. but you are not good at writing articles. I could say that writing is the best way of making money online, but for you it isn’t the case.
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