It is straightforward and fun to generate revenue by just sitting on your sofa and typing away on your laptop. Online passive income can make you a millionaire if you put in the right effort. Passive income can be defined as the creation of online businesses that fully utilize available online platforms and banking systems. This kind of business does not require any form of physical appearance for money to be made and the ease in which enterprises transact is incredible. However, note that it is a challenging task which requires absolute devotion and patience. The reward is beyond measure for those who succeed in setting up a good blog or website.

  Here are the nine legal ways to generate passive income online:

Create A Blog And Get The Affiliate Links Cranking

Who doesn’t like some down and dirty affiliate fees?!  It’s even easier to make money this way than with an ebook because all you need to concentrate on is pumping out the content for your own site and getting the traffic in – most people can get an affiliate sale within 30 days of starting a blog. 

Freelancing

It is a dream for most of us to possess their own businesses. Well, freelancing is probably the best idea if you are interested in creating a sole proprietorship. It is a hard task but can be achieved with the right set of skills. All fields of expertise can operate online as free lancers for example editors, bloggers, web designers, bakers, etc. What anyone requires is an eye catching website, excellent marketing, and good reviews.

Create Software Or A Simpler Online App

Whatever it is, from WordPress themes to online productivity tools to a very industry-specific thing like an online billing service for architects, this could make you serious coin. 


Obviously, you can get all the heavy lifting done by professionals, and then you just sell the software online yourself through your own marketing efforts.

Stocks and Bonds

The best and easiest way to earn passive income is through trading in the stock market. Idle money lying in your bank account can be fully utilized in investments such as perpetuity, shares, stocks name it. But there is a catch, the higher the returns, the higher the risk of losing cash. Be careful, so you do not to lose every penny in the stock market. To avoid these risks, seek professional advice from a broker or financial advisor.

Sell digital products on Etsy

Etsy is a massive resource for people wanting to sell all types of handcrafted goods. But, did you also know that you can sell digital products on Etsy? These digital products require little to no maintenance once they're up and running. All you need to do is put the time into creating the digital products and setup quality listings


Clearly, this will require some maintenance on your part and ensuring that the right traffic hits your listings. However, digital products require virtually no overhead and will sell automatically as long as they are high in quality and are appealing to the relevant audience that you're targeting.

Online surveys

If you are risk averse try registering and participating in online surveys. Most companies today carry out sample surveys to test new products before launching them in the market. The sole purpose of these surveys is to predict if the new product will be a success (earn them profits). They pay a small amount at the end of each survey to your online account.

Affiliate marketing

It involves teaming up with companies by acting as a marketing agent for their products and services through advertising their work on your blog. The income will arise from commissions paid to your from each purchase made by a customer whom you have referred. Also, more income will result from the email subscriptions and followers plus visitors that your blog or the web receives. This kind of venture requires some initiative and motivation to meet set targets. Lack of determination will automatically lead to termination of the contract.

E-books

This is mainly directed to those who can create good reading materials especially advice. For professionals who have established businesses writing an e book offering to advise in their area of expertise is a plus. Make sure to quote the price and the online account number where buyers can wire their money to.

Online junk sales

This venture is perfect to those who have stashed goodies in their basements which may be valuable to others. Selling them will earn you quick clean money. However, you will eventually run out of items to sell so arguably it is not such a good business venture for someone looking for a permanent passive income stream.

Consultation service

Offering professional advice to people is the best way to help and also earn. Develop a website or blog to offer your advice to those who need it. At the beginning when you have few client you can provide free services until your customer number increases. Charge a fixed rate preferably per hour.

Develop a smartphone app

Okay. Okay. I know it's not easy to develop a smartphone app. You either need a lot of skill or a bit of money to get someone to make your vision into a reality, but it is still possible. While the overnight gold rush to app riches might be over, you can still earn a respectable income if you develop the right app.


If you can create the next Uber, then great. If not, you can opt for some niche app that will help to solve a problem or fill a need that might not have yet been properly covered. Think you can do something better? Why not give it a shot? If you're at all technical and understand the dynamics of business and smartphone applications, this is definitely worth your while.

Selling ideas

Necessity is the mother of all inventions. You can earn handsomely just by a click of a button. Outsourcing innovations to companies or other entrepreneurs in online platforms can bring in a passive income stream. Sell the ideas and inventions you have to companies who have the finance to execute and develop your grand proposals into a reality.

Take great pictures and sell them online.

If you normally enjoy taking pictures or already have a huge collection of good quality photos that you personally took, you can cash in on them by selling them online. You can sell the same image several times and earn a steady stream of passive income from your existing gallery. You can even use your iPhone to conveniently take pictures, wherever you are.

Subscription fees

Any successful blog or website can be used to earn membership fee. Sell your work to membership sites where all visitors will be required to pay a fee top access your content. The best part is that your subscribers will be paying you a monthly fee. The content must be something of importance or else no one will subscribe. For example, there are several tutorial sites, especially for students. Such sites have a good number of subscribers because of the content provided.

Build a sales funnel

Anyone in the marketing business understands the concept of sales funnels. Sales funnels conceptualize the process of taking prospective customers from browsers to buyers. However, building the proper sales funnel is no easy task. It requires a serious amount of upfront investment of your time, and it also requires lots of browsers to drop into the top of the funnel.

In order to build your sales funnel, you need to offer something in exchange for an email address, effectively creating a free offer. Sign up to a system like Aweber or Mail Chimp and work on building out your sales funnel. Create a free offer and build an automated email series that will move your leads up the value ladder of products that you're selling.


There you have it, knowing this list is a good way to consider starting your very own online business, look for what will be the most advantageous way for you to make money online and do it!