Want to Get Rich? Use One of These 7 Passive Income Ideas

The biggest lie young people are told when they’re 18, 19, and 20 is “money doesn’t grow on trees”. This process starts in school when we’re taught to follow the traditional path of getting a job and a mortgage, which leads to working every hour of the day just to earn enough money to retire at 67 and finally die.

Let’s be real for a second. Do you think that’s how I make $67,257 per week? There is clearly something else going on, and no, I’m not talking about getting a high-paying job or starting a side hustle. To achieve this, you need a way of making money that doesn’t rely on you working day in, day out. It’s called passive income, and here are seven ideas I strongly suggest you consider, along with my ratings of each.

Passive Income Idea 1: Invest in Stocks

There’s a bit more to this than just invest in the stock market and you’ll make passive income. I mean, I can see why people might think this, because let’s say you buy a share in a company and it goes up in value, technically you’ve generated some money without doing anything. But in order to actually get your cash out, you have to sell your stock. Some would consider this passive income, but instead, I just think of it as a bonus and not something to rely on.

I consider passive income as nothing less than actual money flowing into your bank account every month, without the need to sell the asset that’s making you the money. That’s why the only form of stock market investing I consider to be real passive income is dividend stocks. These are chunks of companies you can buy—think Starbucks, Pepsi, and McDonald’s—and in return for owning them, you get a share of the profits paid directly into your pocket, as well as benefiting from the stock going up in value as a bit of a bonus. They’re one of the easiest ways to make money on a consistent basis with absolutely no work. Well, that’s as long as you pick the right ones to invest in. I strongly suggest you listen to this next part carefully so you avoid making any crucial mistakes.

To help you sort the good from the bad, dividend stocks are ranked in a kind of social hierarchy:

• At the top, you have the Dividend Kings. These are stocks that have not only paid a dividend, but actually increased it for 50 years in a row.
• Under that, you have the Dividend Aristocrats. These are the stocks that have increased their dividends for 25 years.
• That’s where the official definition stops, but I like to think of the stocks under this as dividend working class. Sure, some of them will eventually become Aristocrats and Kings. However, it’s very hard to tell which ones will make it.

I’d be very cautious with this, as a lot of people get drawn in by companies offering extremely high dividends. I can understand why, but remember, as much as it’s about the amount of money you’ll be paid, it’s also essential that it’s sustainable long-term.

So you can easily compare these seven ideas, I’m going to rate them in three different categories.

Passive Income Ratings (Dividend Stocks)

• Time commitment: I’d rate this a 1/5, as all you have to do is download an investing app, deposit some money, and buy a few dividend stocks.
  • Tip: Some apps I’d recommend are Moomoo for the USA and Lightyear for the UK and Europe. Apps like these often give out free stocks for joining, so if I find any, then I’ll pop them down in the description below.
• Money needed: I’ll give this a 5/5. As it’s so quick to do, the trade-off is that you need a lot of money invested to make a significant income.
• Ease of making $100 per week: This also gets a 5/5.
  • Example calculation: To make $100 per week, or $5,200 per year, with a stock like Starbucks (annual dividend 2.4%), you would need to invest a total of $216,666.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: this sounds great for people that already have money, but what if I’m just starting out? In that case, it’s a much better idea to use your time instead of your money to make passive income, which is what the next idea is all about.

Passive Income Idea 2: Automate a Side Hustle

A lot of people don’t understand the difference between a job and an automated side hustle. When I was younger, I had a friend called Jamie who had a small dog training business. He was fantastic at what he did. I remember him seeing and taming the craziest of dogs. One day, when we were sitting in the park, I asked him how much money he made, and I was surprised to find out he was only just getting by. It didn’t really make sense to me how such a skilled person, who obviously had a lot of value to give, was unable to make the money he deserved.

If we put aside the fact that he probably wasn’t charging enough, we get to the real issue, which was the business model. Jamie had a limited amount of hours he could sell and dogs he could train. Therefore, he could only earn so much before his potential was capped, as at the time there was no way to automate and scale it. But now we have the internet, these little side hustles can become much more passive and make a lot more money.

So, how do you go from having a skill like Jamie to having an automated side hustle? Well, here are the steps I’d take, and I’m pretty sure I could turn a small side hustle like Jamie’s into a million-dollar business nowadays:

• Identify what you’re really good at. Ideally, you should have some kind of unfair advantage. This is where the majority of people get caught in the same trap as Jamie, as they start to sell every minute of their time for a small amount of money. Instead, you need to focus every waking hour on building a digital asset of some kind. For Jamie, this could have been a blog where he talked about training dogs, a manual for owners to train their own pets, or a course that teaches other people how to start a dog training side hustle.
• Decide what kind of digital asset you want to build. You have to put it on the internet so that your future customers can find it. The best solution I found for this is a tool called Hostinger, which is an all-in-one platform. I’m talking hosting, website builder, logo maker, and a free domain name with annual plans. I personally choose this as the drag-and-drop website builder makes it so easy, as I don’t have any coding skills.
• Effectively advertise your digital product on social media. I’d highly recommend making viral TikToks about your product, as you can reach so many people without too much time and effort.

Passive Income Ratings (Automated Side Hustle)

• Time commitment: If you’re doing it on your own, I’d give it a 5/5, as it does take a while to build the digital product and then you have the added headache of making a website. However, if you decide to use something like Hostinger, I’d give this a 3/5. You don’t need to worry about having any technical or design skills for the website, as you can just use the built-in AI website builder to make the website for you, or alternatively, you could use the designer-made templates. This is great news for a boomer like me.
• Money needed: This is a 1/5, as this passive income idea is way more about spending your time than your money. It depends what digital product you want to build, but if it’s just a course of some kind, you can do all of that on your laptop using a program like Canva. When it comes to hosting it on the internet, if you get Hostinger’s 24-month plan, it comes out at less than $3 a month.
  • Discount: I reached out to Hostinger and they got back to me, so if you use the code MARKTILBURY, you’ll get an additional 10% off. I’ll leave a link in the description below.
• Ease of making $100 per week: I’d give this a 1/5. Once you’re up and running, let’s say you price your digital product at $25. All you have to do is make four sales a week, and you’ve made 100 bucks. This is easy enough if you’re posting TikTok videos every day, and you might even get a really viral one and end up making way more sales than you initially expected.

Passive Income Idea 3: Make Online Content

For decades, millions upon millions of dollars have been hoarded by the traditional media—I’m talking about the radio stations and television networks. The public had no idea how much money was in advertising until YouTube opened its doors for the public to create their own content. The traditional media hated it, and that’s why at every opportunity, they try and discredit social media.

The people leveraging online content are dipping their hands into the previously extremely guarded money pot and rightfully taking their fair share. It still shocks me how some people don’t understand how content creators make money. I mean, the concept of advertising is hundreds of years old, and online ads are far more trackable than just putting a random advert on the TV and hoping it increases a business’s sales.

Here’s the best piece of advice I’ve received about social media: it’s not if you do it, it’s how well you do it. So, how can we use it to make money? Well, it’s like I previously mentioned, you can start a YouTube channel, and once you reach 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, you can start getting paid from the adverts on your videos.

Whenever I say this to people, they come back with something like, “Well, the people that succeed are just lucky”. Maybe this was the case a couple of years ago, but now, if your content’s good and designed for the algorithm, you will be successful. The harsh truth is, too many people think their content is good when it’s actually just terrible, and no one wants to tell them this. This is because they only ask family and friends who sugarcoat the truth to protect their feelings.

It’s best to pick whatever you feel the most comfortable with, be that writing, taking photos, speaking into a microphone, or recording a full-blown video. As long as you can capture people’s attention, then you’re onto a winner. It’s also worth mentioning that picking a niche is important. In the early days of the internet, you could get away with talking about anything and everything, but now there is so much competition that you need to specialize in something in particular. Think about it like your favorite TV show: every time you tune in, you kind of know what to expect—similar characters, locations, and storylines. So, you want to make sure your viewers know what kind of content you produce and put it out on a regular basis. This also makes it a lot easier for you to attract sponsorship opportunities.

I like to think of every video I put on this channel as a little asset that will make me money for years to come. It also helps that it’s extremely fun to make content.

Passive Income Ratings (Online Content)

• Time commitment: I’m going to give this a 5/5 rating, as it’s one of the most time-consuming things in the world. I’m not going to beat around the bush, but making content is a long, hard process. I mean, this video’s probably taken us more than five days to produce. However, the upsides are worth it in my opinion. Just think, the harder that something is to do, the less competition you actually have.
• Money needed: This is a 1/5, as you really don’t need much to start. I see way too many people buying the latest equipment or going on crazy long courses to learn how to create content. This is a terrible idea. You just need to become an avid consumer of whatever you want to create. Take the good parts from all of those different things and then mix them with your own ideas. There’s a great book about this called Steal Like an Artist.
• Ease of making $100 per week: This has to be a 1/5 too. Within a couple of months of starting this YouTube channel, it was able to make more than $100 per day, and you can do the same. No wonder the traditional media wanted to hoard all this money for themselves. The opportunity is insane.

Passive Income Idea 4: Start Private Investing

Now, I want you to imagine you’re an investor on Shark Tank. An entrepreneur walks in with an incredible business you think you can help with, and they’re looking for some money to expand. You have the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of this business. Are you going to take the risk? How about if you’re having a conversation with a family member and they share their plan for a world-dominating business, and they just need a small amount of money to start up? If you answer “yes,” then private investing could be for you.

Your first step is deciding which kind of private investor you are. There are two main types: sharks and angels. Some stay angels and some morph into sharks, but it’ll help you to know the difference:

• Angels often invest in businesses run by friends and family. They often don’t have lots of money nor an interest in taking control of the business. They’re generally seen as nicer and more forgiving, hence their name.
• On the other hand, Sharks may invest small amounts of money but have deeper pockets. They may also seek a controlling interest at the start, as they’re confident their expertise can make the business more profitable, and therefore grow their investment.

I’m personally more inclined towards the shark end of the spectrum, as I like to have as much control over my investments as possible. But whichever private investment strategy you pick, you can also combine it with content creation. Believe it or not, the actor Ryan Reynolds is a great example of this. He’s one of the smartest people on the planet right now, and I’m not exaggerating. He’s extremely good at playing the everyday guy, but under the mask, he’s a business-savvy venture capitalist with many multi-million dollar exits under his belt, giving him a net worth of over $350 million.

He finds interesting companies, offers to buy a small percentage as an angel investor, uses his social media to drive up the value, and then when the company sells, he gets a huge check for tens of millions of dollars. And this is almost passive income—it’s genius. Now, of course, Ryan is a worldwide star, but you can replicate this strategy on a smaller scale and use it to make a lot of passive income. I mean, even if you could replicate 1% of his success, that would give you a net worth of $3.5 million.

Passive Income Ratings (Private Investing)

• Time commitment: I’m going to give this a 2.5/5, as it takes a while to find a business that you really believe is worth investing in. Don’t just jump into anything; take your time and carefully consider if you can see that business being successful in the future. You also have to ask the entrepreneur how dividends will be paid and their ultimate exit strategy, as that’s how you’re going to get the majority of your money. The actual investing part doesn’t take long, as it’s just the case of handing over the money and being assigned your percentage of the business.
• Money needed: This is a 3/5, as it really depends on the business that you’re investing in. I’d personally invest anywhere between $1,000 and $100,000. Of course, the earlier you get in, the less you’re going to have to invest, but also the more risk you’ll be taking. So, you have to decide how much risk you’re willing to take. If you do this, I’d also recommend making more than one investment, as I’ve often found that one good investment can make up for nine bad ones.
• Ease of making $100 per week: I’m going to rate this a 2/5, as it really depends on your negotiation skill and how much you invest. I’ve invested $50,000 in a business and helped them to upgrade their equipment as well as helping them grow their client base. I started making an easy $100 per week in dividends. The more value you can offer, the more you’ll get in return, as you are taking money out of the entrepreneur’s pocket, but instead helping to grow the pot of money for everyone.

Passive Income Idea 5: Create a Digital Tool

My best friend decided to do this and now he’s a multimillionaire who spends more time on vacation with his wife than he does at home. He noticed a gap in the market for a digital tool that helps large membership organizations keep track of all their customers’ data. At first, he decided to sell his software as a one-time purchase. However, he always had to search for a new customer. When he made the switch to a subscription-based model, he was able to make a very predictable amount of passive income every month. Well, I say passive income, of course he still had to offer support to his customers, but eventually he hired people to do this for him and was completely hands-off. He later went on to sell his business for multiple millions.

Before you start thinking you have to be some kind of nerd to create a digital tool, hear me out. The most important thing to do is to identify a problem that needs solving. Often you find people who have the ability to code aren’t that creative and need a lot of direction. So, if you can’t code, then you can be the ideas person, the business brain behind the talent. You then need to pick the customers your software is going to serve. There are two main categories: business or consumer. Serving other businesses is often seen as the least risky, and you can make more money per customer. When you’ve got this, you’ll really be able to see how people respond to your solution.

You’ve got to make sure you aren’t too attached to your ideas, as you may find it doesn’t actually fix the problem you intended. Therefore, it’s very important to be able to adapt your digital tool after receiving criticism. Even if this isn’t something you think you can start right now, it’s worth just noting down problems you see businesses are facing, just in case you stumble upon a solution no one has thought of before.

Passive Income Ratings (Digital Tool)

• Time commitment: I’m going to give this a 5/5. Not only does the process of coming up with the idea take a long time, so does the testing and the building of the tool. So, if you decide to go down this route, I don’t want you to be under any delusions. Make sure you don’t sink years into building the final tool before testing it, though. I’ve seen way too many people do this and realize they’ve actually just ended up wasting years of their life on something no one wants.
• Money needed: This is a 3.5/5, as making anything like this is going to cost you a decent amount. However, there are two things you can do to bring down your costs:
  • Firstly, you can partner with a coder, and therefore you won’t have to pay for his time, but you will have to give away equity.
  • Secondly, once you’ve made your first version of your product or MVP, if it’s good, you’ll start to get some interest from angel investors. At this point, you have to make the decision to either keep using your own money (known as bootstrapping) or take on investment in return for giving away equity in your business.
• Ease of making $100 per week: This is a 1/5. If you manage to build a tool that can be released to the market and you were to price your subscription at $20 a month, then you’d only need 20 paying customers and you’ll be making $100 a week. Of course, you will have other expenses, but these will be limited to customer support and software updates. I must spend at least $1,000 a month on digital tools, so the money’s definitely out there.

Passive Income Idea 6: Become an Affiliate Marketer

I remember when recently a big bank had a promotion. My son’s girlfriend sent a sign-up link to all of her friends, letting them know if they downloaded the app, they could get a free $10. She was shocked by the results. Every few hours, a new friend had signed up and thanked her for the free cash. Before she knew it, 30 of her friends had signed up using the link, and she’d hit the limit. But she wasn’t just doing this out of the kindness of her heart, although she is a kind girl. She also got paid $10 for everyone that signed up. Meaning that day, she made $300 just sitting in the bed texting a few people. Just imagine if there wasn’t a limit—she could have made far more.

This is essentially affiliate marketing, but real affiliate marketing doesn’t have a limit, so you can make as much as you want. It’s considered to be one of the simplest, yet most profitable ways to make money online, as it doesn’t require you to have any extra skills or previous experience. All that’s typically needed as an affiliate is a passion for your niche and strong persuasive skills. Think about all the products you love and maybe even use on a daily basis. The chances are that other people will also like those products, and you are the perfect person to sell it to them.

Most big companies have an affiliate scheme, so all you have to do is go onto their website and do a bit of digging. If you can’t find anything, it’s worth reaching out to them directly and asking if you can become an affiliate. There are also websites like Impact.com where you can see a lot of different affiliate schemes that you can easily sign up for. Now, you have to make some noise. You can do this by writing blogs, using social media, or posting reviews. You may have already seen this done on TikTok with those videos about “Amazon products you need to buy”. Every time someone buys through your link, you as the affiliate marketer receive a kickback and make a profit. But bear in mind, if you’re doing reviews, you should actually purchase the product and test it. Using it over a period of time and reporting your findings will make sure your content is useful and genuine.

Passive Income Ratings (Affiliate Marketing)

• Time commitment: I’m going to give this a 3.5/5. I’m not going to lie, it’s going to be hard to begin with, so it’s important to have realistic expectations. While it is a great way to make money online, it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. It requires patience and a willingness to learn. It’s totally understandable to feel discouraged if you don’t see results right away, but keep in mind that success in this field takes time. You need to build trust with your audience and create valuable content for them.
• Money needed: This gets a 1/5, as you don’t need any money whatsoever. That’s assuming you already have a phone or a laptop you can use to access the internet and make your content.
• Ease of making $100 per week: I’d give this a 2/5. If we take the example of my son’s girlfriend, she was kind of doing affiliate marketing without even knowing and she managed to make $300 in one day. Of course, this wasn’t very passive, as she was texting people. However, once you have your content up and running, it will do most of the heavy lifting for you.
  • Earnings: It’s been reported that affiliate marketers earn an average of $66,029 per year passively, with earnings ranging from $35,000 up to $124,000.

Passive Income Idea 7: Rent Out Your Stuff

Most people don’t realize that they’re sitting on a goldmine and could already own what they need to make some passive income. I remember a few years ago, one of my friends revealed to me that he was struggling to pay his bills. I then suggested that he rented out his driveway to make some passive income. He looked at me and laughed, but then a few weeks later, he texted me back and said it was working amazingly. This is because he lived near Bromley train station, which meant he could charge people $70 a week to leave their car in his drive when they went to London to work. He had capacity for two cars, so he was actually able to make $140 a week in extra passive income.

I’m aware not everyone has a driveway to rent out, but most people have something they could use to make money. Make a list of everything you own and see if anything jumps out at you. A few ideas that come to mind are storage space (such as an attic or a basement), a vehicle, camping equipment, camera gear, a garage, or a spare room in your house. Or dare I say it—money. Of course, you could always go down the route of buying a second property to rent out, but you would need a considerable amount of money to do that. The world is definitely becoming more familiar with renting things, as things are getting more increasingly expensive. Renting out your stuff can be a great way to actually justify buying the asset in the first place. I mean, if I knew that an expensive camera would pay for itself after a certain amount of rentals, then it makes sense to buy it.

Once you’ve thought of what you can rent to others, all you need to do is find an app that matches you with potential customers. There are so many of these. In the past, I’ve used Fat Llama to rent camera equipment and camping gear, Turo to rent vehicles, and Airbnb to hire filming locations. Peer-to-peer lending platforms also make it possible for you to essentially rent out your money to others. While it does involve some risk, many lenders have successfully generated a nice income from this investment. For example, Prosper, one of the leading platforms, has an average historical return of 5.4%. So, if you’re willing to take a bit of a risk, this could be a great option to explore.

Passive Income Ratings (Rent Out Your Stuff)

• Time commitment: I’ll give this a 1/5, because all you have to do is take a few pictures and upload them to an app or a website that does all the work for you. The biggest drawback of this is the potential risk involved. Not everyone will take the same degree of care with your items as you would. That’s why having some kind of insurance is important. Normally, this comes with the platform that you decide to use.
• Money needed: I’ll also give this a 1/5, because if you’re just renting out things you already own, then it’s not going to cost you anything. The only cost will be if you decide to get separate insurance or you decide you want to buy things in order to rent them out.
• Ease of making $100 per week: I’d give this a 2/5, as it’s very easy if you have enough assets you can use to make an extra $100 a week. Most people have a house they can use to make an extra $100 a week, even if that means renting out a driveway or a spare room.