Discover 20 attractive ideas for creating passive income and learn how to build wealth and achieve financial independence without constant effort.
Passive income is the dream of many people in today’s world, because this method is considered a smart way to build wealth, and without the need for constant effort, it can provide you with a steady flow of money, without disrupting your daily time and energy. Passive income is like a seed that is planted only once and, if managed and cared for properly, you can reap its fruits for years. By trying to build such a source of income, after a while, you will be able to achieve financial independence and enjoy the benefits of its significant income. Below, we introduce 20 ideas for passive income that can be a great starting point on this path.
What is passive income?
Passive income is income that you don’t have to do much “active” work to earn. Essentially, you can do most of the work up front and put in more effort to earn money in the future. For example, if you create an online course, you only need to update the content to keep the money flowing. You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Make money while you sleep .” This is the biggest advantage that encourages people to earn passive income. You can create something (a blog, course, e-book, video, or an online store) that earns money even when you’re not working or doing anything. Or you can invest in passive income (assets or stocks) that allow you to earn money passively.
Table of benefits of having passive income
Benefits Description
Financial freedom: the Ability to meet expenses without relying on a full-time job and reduce financial stress.
More time, the opportunity to dedicate time to family, hobbies, or learning new skills.
Capital growth: The Possibility of increasing income through the use of compound interest or smart investments.
Flexibility: Greater control over when and where to work, without the need for constant physical presence.
Reducing job dependency reduces the risk of losing your only source of income in the event of job or economic problems.
Future security: Create a stable source of income for retirement or emergencies.
Increased creativity, reducing financial pressure, and creating space to nurture creative ideas and personal projects.
Income diversification: The ability to create multiple sources of income, reduce risk, and increase economic sustainability.
20 Passive Income Ideas to Achieve Financial Independence
Below are 20 different ideas for passive income, and you should note that none of them are incompatible with active income or a full-time job with a monthly salary, and you can do both. Each of these methods is suitable for some people and not for others. The important thing is that you find your interest and ability and have the necessary planning along the way to have your passive income.
- Dropshipping store
- Blog creation and blogging
- Online training course
- Instagram content production
- Setting up an online printing store
- Creating a program or application
- Investing in stocks
- Buying a property
- Hosting on Airbnb
- Creating a ready-made template for a website
- Affiliate Marketing
- Making teasers and videos
- Design and sale of e-commerce websites
- Buying company shares
- Make money from YouTube
- Photography
- Advertising agency
- Production and distribution of e-books
- Selling digital products
- Digital currency investment
1- Dropshipping store
Dropshipping is one of the most profitable examples of passive income you will find online and is a great place to start. Using dropshipping, you can find popular products on the market and sell them online to customers around the world. You can sell everything from sheds to home decor and beauty products, and more, because the magic of dropshipping is that you create your own business and control the cost of the products. In fact, out of all the passive income ideas, dropshipping is the one where you have the most control over your income. To start dropshipping, you can create an online store and start selling high-quality products. You will need a website to operate in this field and increase sales. Your site should be designed in the style of a retail website, featuring a simple yet attractive user interface.
2- Creating a blog and blogging
The most popular passive income stream comes from blogging. Blogging has helped countless entrepreneurs earn passive income through affiliate links and referral links, courses, sponsored posts, products, book deals, and more. It’s true that creating a blog and successful blogging can require some initial work. However, it is one of the most sustainable ways to build an audience through organic and social traffic or by building an email list. The biggest advantage of starting a blog is that you can turn it into several different income streams. So if you are looking for a passive income idea, blogging could be a good option for you.
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3- Holding an online course
Selling online courses is one of the best passive income ideas in 2025. That’s because we continue to see massive growth in course sales. Whether you decide to sell a course on your own website or on another platform, you’ll find customers who want to learn insider tips and tricks. If you’ve followed step two and built your audience, holding online courses and selling your course on your website can help you control the amount of passive income you make. Finding your own customers is up to you. This will be a little easier if you sell your courses on other platforms.
4- Producing content on Instagram and becoming sponsored
If you like Instagram, you might want to turn your browsing time into content creation to help you earn passive income. The best thing about Instagram is that you can create multiple pages for anything. The great thing about it is that you can find a dedicated audience for almost any topic. The important thing is that you can use Instagram’s algorithms correctly and grow your page’s audience in no time.
In your Instagram bio, be sure to include your email address. As your account starts to grow, sponsorship requests will increase, allowing you to make money on Instagram. The more people engage with your posts, the more they will connect with you, so be sure to create engaging content.
5- Setting up an online printing store
Since e-commerce is one of the most popular ways to make passive income online, having a print shop can be profitable. Print on demand allows people to print their images on products like t-shirts, clothes, mugs, canvases, phone cases, bags, etc. and sell them. The best thing about this is that you can create products with your own brand and logo. The only downside is that you need to be smart in graphic design, and if you can create a unique design, your sales will be successful. Plus, it won’t hurt your sales because you won’t be competing with anyone but yourself.
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6- Creating a program or application
If you are a developer or programmer, you may want to create apps as a passive income stream. You can go about it in two ways. First, you can charge people who want to buy your app. Second, you can make your app free and monetize it with ads. You can do this by creating an application, selling and updating it to earn money this way. One of the attractive and profitable branches in this field is designing application plugins for WordPress. As you know, most sites are designed using WordPress and designing a functional plugin for it can create a lot of income for you.
7- Investing in stocks
When you look at the richest people in the world, it’s easy to say that stocks have played a major role in their deep and bottomless bank accounts! Investing in stocks is one of the passive income ideas that can go far beyond what you’re worth while working a 9-to-5 job. So, if you want to study how different businesses perform, consider this passive income idea.
8- Buying property
Depending on where and when you buy, real estate can be a great way to generate passive income. In large cities, property values are constantly increasing. By buying multiple homes on a pre-sale basis, you may find some lower-cost properties that will appreciate in value by the time construction is complete, allowing you to sell the property for a profit once it is completed. As with all investments, this can be risky, so it is best to speak with a real estate agent to help you find the right investment property.
9- Airbnb host
If you followed step number eight, you can choose the location of your residence or house to rent out on Airbnb. What’s interesting is that you don’t really need to buy a new property to earn passive income with Airbnb. If you have an extra room, you can rent out a room in your current house or apartment. Also, Airbnb has recently expanded and allows you to organise events, meetups, and tours in your city.
10- Creating a ready-made template for the website
Building your own website can be a reliable source of passive income. Some people create marketing agencies and outsource the work to freelancers. You can Also create some online courses to share your knowledge and educate others.. You can also sell products – digital or physical – online. If you don’t know where to start with your education, you can take advantage of courses from Jacket Academy, including the Persianization course for templates and plugins. After training, you can work as a salesperson yourself. Get active.
However, by building your own website, you gain more control over what you sell and how much you earn. This is one of the best passive income ideas for beginners because there are a variety of tools, like WordPress, to help you create a website (no coding required). You can then make it look beautiful by adding themes, plugins, and other visual elements.
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11- Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the best passive income option available in 2025, and the best part is Almost every major brand has an affiliate program. In affiliate Marketing, you can sell some very popular products and make money. The only real downside is that you only get a commission on the total sale. However, some affiliate programs, like cooperation in the sale of digital goods, allow you to earn a good income. So, make sure you research the best affiliate marketing programs before you start and then choose them. Blogging is considered the most cost-effective way to generate recurring affiliate commissions without having to spend money on advertising.
12- Creating teasers and video content
Doing this can help you generate passive income. The latest video marketing statistics show that people are obsessed with video content, so you need to be able to find an audience for your videos. Because you can sell that video to a news site, and if that video is well-received, you can earn money for weeks, months, and sometimes even years. If you are good at producing entertaining content, companies will help you market your videos through viral marketing, along with offering you a share of the overall revenue.
13- Building and selling a shopping website
Do you love building websites and online stores? If so, you can earn passive income by selling them. If you have great design skills and create some of your own website content, you can find someone willing to buy your store site. Today, building an online store, you no longer need programming knowledge, and by learning WordPress and WooCommerce, you can set up a site and sell your products there. Note that in addition to design, you can also provide services such as website SEO and content, and receive additional fees under the name of site support. It will help you acquire this money-making skill.
14- Purchase of company shares
Buying stock is one of the most powerful ways to generate passive income, as it allows you to both receive dividends and increase the value of the stock over time, making the investment more valuable. Not only does this method require no direct daily activity, but by choosing stocks from stable companies, you can build a reliable, long-term income stream. It also helps you benefit from the compounding effect of dividends and capital growth, which ultimately increases your wealth exponentially.
15- Earning money from YouTube videos
YouTube is a passive stream that helps you earn passive income from sponsored videos and ad revenue. After a while, you will find that you can earn money from your YouTube channel on a recurring basis. The secret to creating a successful YouTube channel is creating content on a consistent schedule over a long period. This way, you can easily earn from YouTube. Stay busy. If you stick with it long enough, you will eventually start earning passive income rewards.
16- Photography
Although being a photographer may seem like an active income business, it’s not. Photographers don’t just make money from taking photos. They can also sell their artwork. Magazine photography sites and canvas prints for your clients are some of the ways you can earn passive income from photography. All you need is a camera to get started!
These days, you can even use your phone to take photos and sell them to earn passive income. You can even take high-quality photos of products and market them for e-commerce. All you need is a device that you can take photos with and a little inspiration to get you going.
17- Advertising agency
Are you a smart marketer or salesperson? If so, countless businesses will pay you more for a larger audience. Real estate agents are always looking to help more people find the home they love. So if you love helping people make money, you can start generating passive income through your connections. All you need is a few emails or messages from your audience, and you can be earning passive income with very little effort.
18- Production and distribution of online books
E-books have gained a huge following since 2009 and 2010, and are still a very popular content medium. Even though they first became popular a few years ago, there are still plenty of people who are making passive income from writing e-books. Sure, it’s a crazy, competitive market. But if your writing is great, you can sell your books for a decent profit. By selling e-books in popular genres and marketing them, you can build a loyal reader base.
19- Selling digital products
If you are looking to sell your products rather than someone else’s, you can create digital products. You can create a storefront for selling your digital products online. Digital products can include e-books, online courses, PDFs, custom graphic designs, photos, or other digital goods. Selling these products is a great example of passive or inactive income, as the entire process can be automated with products in an online store.
20- Investing in digital currency markets
In recent years, investing in the cryptocurrency market has become very popular, and people have earned large amounts of passive income through this. You can earn passive income through methods such as mining, lending, staking, and so on. To learn about cryptocurrency exchanges, you can use a cryptocurrency exchange script.
Active income vs. passive income; which is better for me?
In theory, all your sources of income have their value, and the more you have, the better. But when it comes to achieving financial freedom, active income is nothing compared to passive income! Active income is money that comes from all the efforts you put in at the moment, and you have to keep working to keep earning. The following argument shows you a complete comparison of the two.
FeaturesActive incomePassive income
Definition: Income that comes directly from activity and time spent. Income that is earned without the need for daily or continuous activity.
The need for physical presence requires direct and continuous presence at work or the job. It does not require constant presence; it can be automatic or indirect.
Examples: fixed salary, hourly wage, sales commission. Real estate rentals, stock dividends, and online course sales.
Financial security is Dependent on continuity of work; if work is interrupted, income stops. Possibility of long-term financing with proper management.
Time limit: Limited to the number of working hours per day. It has no time limit; it can even be created in sleep.
Risk level: It is usually less risky, but it depends on job stability. It may be associated with investment risk.
Growth potential : It usually has limited growth and is dependent on increasing experience or career advancement. High growth potential with proper investment and planning.
