There are two main ways to create passive income. You can dedicate either your money or your time into developing a stream of revenue that will continue whether you continue to work or not. I decided on 70% time and 30% money. Unfortunately, dedicating money is out of the question for some people. You might not have the extra cash to invest in real estate or the stock market. So how can you start trading in your time for creating a passive income stream?

Start Your Own Blog

Creating a blog is a great way to get started making passive income. Pretty much anyone can tackle this project, even if they have literally no money to spend. You can learn how to create a website in seconds here. There are a lot of different sites out there that will let you start a blog for free, like Wealthy Affiliate.

The first step to setting up your blog is deciding what your content is going to be. There are millions of topics out there, and some are going to be able to generate more money than others. I chose topics that make myself money and are easily teachable. It’s important that you don’t pick a topic just because of the potential money-making aspect; you should write about something you’re passionate about. This will lure more people into reading your posts and increase your traffic.

Once your blog is going great, sign up for an affiliate program, like Amazon’s affiliate program or Builderall. If you’re wondering when you’ll start making money off your blog, it’s going to depend on how much work you put into it. If you’re only posting once in a while, it’s not going to take off very fast. Be serious about it and create fresh content on a regular basis. This will accomplish two goals: getting new readers and keeping your current ones coming back for more.

If you’re serious about making money off your blog, it would help if you took the time to learn about SEO. It can make the difference between your blog becoming successful and never seeing any profits at all.

Informational Products

Do you have a lot of expertise in a particular subject? You can turn that expertise into an informational product or online course and sell it to people looking to learn more. This could be either a guide or an eBook.

The informational product that you write can focus on any topic. If you don’t have any ideas of your own, visit Amazon and start researching what the top selling book topics are and see if your specific area of knowledge fits into those categories. Even if it doesn’t, that doesn’t mean there’s not a market for what you want to share with the world.

Write an eBook for Kindle

If you’re great at creating stories, you can write an eBook to help start making you passive income. You can sell it on Amazon using their KDP program.

Amazon’s program for self-publishing is called Kindle Direct Publishing and it allows for you to upload your book for no charge. Don’t forget that you need to learn about the Kindle formatting process as well as come up with a catchy cover design! Having someone edit your book wouldn’t hurt either.

You can earn a 70 percent royalty for each book sold if it’s priced at $2.99 or higher. If your book is priced any lower than that, you’ll only receive a 35 percent royalty for each copy sold.

If you’re unsure how to get started, there are plenty of resources available that will teach you about the writing process, different strategies for marketing, and how to create something entirely unique.

Sell Your Stock Photos

Whether you’re a professional photographer or just enjoy taking photos, you can sell your pictures online and start generating a passive income right away. There are different sites that accept work and they’ll all have their own set of rules and regulations and their own commission rates.

One of the best parts of selling stock photos is that one picture, if it’s good, can be bought by a lot of different people. This means that you can continue earning commission from one photo for a long time.

(I sold this one to a digital currency company.)

Start Your Own Online Store

Starting your own online store is one of the better options for making passive income. It’s pretty similar to starting your own blog, as far as setting up a website. However, you’re going to want to take the time to make a shopping system that works well. If it’s difficult to purchase something, people are just going to turn elsewhere.

You might be wondering what you can sell on your online store. After all, no money means no products, right? That’s not necessarily true. There are a lot of dropshipping companies that will let you sign up and sell their products at an increased rate. This is great because you don’t have to worry about stocking up inventory. You just send the order information out and then the items will be delivered to the location that you specify. Just remember that your profits may be slim, so creativity in what you’re selling is a must if you want to beat out competition.

Additional Routes

There are dozens of other ways to make passive income if you have no money. You can write and sell your own music, you can design products (like t-shirt logos), and you can even make money on YouTube by collecting hundreds or thousands of subscribers.

I hope this gives you some ideas on how you can start creating passive income without having to dedicate your hard earn dollars. Just remember that all of these ideas are going to take time to get started, so be prepared to make that investment. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see immediate results either – generating income takes time and patience. I gave it one year before I looked back to see if this was worth it. It was.

Good luck and let me know if I can help.