10 Ways to Keep Making Income While Idle

Get the Full StoryIf you're interested in making money but don't want to take a second job, you should consider making passive income. It's basically money you earn consistently without doing much or even anything at all. Of course, you do have to put in a lot of work in the beginning, but once you set up the passive income revenue stream, you can just sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor without lifting a finger. Here are some ideas:

Write a book. Writing a book means you can earn money off of the sales once you've published it. You can always go the ebook option and self publish, or try to find a publishing house that will take you on.

Create an app. Create a smartphone app and earn money every time someone downloads it. You never know what will go viral and how quickly you can make money if your app's a hit. In fact, the silly iFart app even generated 30,000 in just one day.

Start a static blog. Spend some time building a website in an area that interests you and other people. Focus on topics that won't ever get dated "how to" articles are pretty evergreen that you know people will be searching for. Host ads on your site. Once you have some good content on your site, you can quit writing and make money off your old content.

Write articles online. You can make money if you get approved to be a writer for About.com. You'll get paid to write the articles in the first two years. After that, you'll be paid according to pageviews. Once you've put in the initial effort to write the article, you can just make money off of the views in years to come.

Create a YouTube video. Shoot a video for YouTube, and if your video becomes popular, you can run ads on it to make money. The amount you earn varies, but many people, such as Justin Bieber, have launched careers out of it, and popular YouTubers are making over six or seven figures.

Take beautiful photos. If you've got an eye and passion for photography, sell your photos to sites like Shutterstock - a place where amateur photographers can sell their photos. You'll earn a commission that ranges anywhere from 25 cents to 75 or more for every image downloaded. There are other similar sites like iStockphoto and Shutterfly, so be sure to do your research and pick one that works best for you.

Draw and design graphics. The photo websites also accept illustrations and graphics. You will still earn money for each download.

Make a t-shirt. Design a t-shirt for Threadless, and if your design is popular among the site's community, the company will use your designs for the next Threadless shirts. If your design is picked, you can end up making thousands of dollars in prize money and reprint sales. You can also design and sell t-shirts as well as other products on sites like Zazzle, Cafe Press, and Society6.

Sell insurance. If you sell insurance, you will not only make money when you've closed a deal, but some companies will also give you an additional commission when your customer renews his insurance.

Get stock dividends. One of the more common ways to earn passive income is investing in stocks that pay high dividends. Here's a list of some dividend-paying stocks with high rates.

Want more money? Here are 31 ideas for making side income.

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