How can you make residual aka passive income from home? The world is going virtual and there are simply more and more ways to make money online than ever before. While most people work 9-5s, there are actually people who exist in this world that make money while they sleep and don’t have to go to a j.o.b. every day. Let’s discuss how this can be done.

Ultimately, it comes down to creating a product that will sell for days, months, and years to come. Any best selling author that has a book that continues to sell has created residual income. If you’re not creating something then you need to invest in something that will grow in value to earn passive income.

Passive income would dramatically change most people’s lives (unless you’re already making residual income).

So how can we do this? Let’s look at how people can make residual income now without being a best selling author or rockstar that sells albums decades into the future.

Best Ways to Make Residual Income From Home

1.  Blogging/Affiliate Marketing

We’re heading into 2022 and the world is more virtual than ever. Hell even if you run a brick and mortar business you need to have a website for it. So really, any business you have should be tied to a website that you can brand: enter blogging.

Now, I don’t call my website a blog, I mostly refer to it as a niche website but I guess it’s the same thing essentially. The goal is the same, to build out a website that generates traffic and make money either by creating your own products or by referring people to other products that you can earn a commission from (affiliate marketing).

Why is this the number 1 thing I think you can do to earn residual income? Unlike most other options you don’t need as much money down. You can simply purchase a domain for around $12 a year, get hosting for around $4 a month and you’re good to go.

The only problem is you need to know what you’re doing. Fortunately, there are training programs that can teach you step by step how to build a profitable online business.

The potential is unlimited as there are bloggers making anywhere from hundreds of dollars (or nothing at all) to over a million dollars a year. With a global audience at your fingertips, you have the ability to create a full-time income that even comes in passively as you sleep by creating evergreen content that solves problems for readers.

This is about as “passive” as you get as once you build out an audience you can simply choose to do whatever you want on a daily basis outside of keeping up with updates on your website.

You don’t have to keep any physical products and then physically ship them out (unless you want to), you can just leverage other products already being sold all over the world.

Not everything is perfect though, the downside of this strategy is that it takes time. It isn’t a get rich quick scheme where you’ll start making money right away.

You’ll be planting seeds until things blossom. So if you’re willing to play the long game and don’t have a lot of money upfront to invest, this is a safe bet and potentially the best way to create residual income from home.

2. Start a YouTube Channel

You probably heard about the kid who created a YouTube channel and made millions right? Last I heard it was up to 22 million a year…that was a few years ago.

So what’s your excuse? lol

We all hear about these stories then clock back in to work every single day, thinking about creating that YouTube channel that we never get around to starting.

And look, it doesn’t have to be a YouTube channel. This concept goes hand in hand with the top option mentioned here of creating a website.

Even if you want to have a YouTube channel it should be tied to a website. That way you have a website you can send people to if you want to sell your own products, etc.

There are also other platforms like Rumble, Odysee, or Theta.tv where you can create videos to upload and generate traffic. YouTube is the most known, but it doesn’t matter which platform you use and you may want to use all of them if you decide to take this route.

You can get started doing this with very little money down. You could even get started with just a smartphone and last I checked most people have those.

I think many people shy away from this for obvious reasons, the fear of being on camera. However, many channels have been created where it’s simply informational videos where nobody shows their face. You could do this type of channel if that’s what’s holding you back.

Bottom line, this is another way to create residual income online from your own home. You’re leveraging the power of the internet to reach thousands or even millions of people online…wait did I say millions?

3. Cryptocurrency and Stock Market Investing

Now, both of these are separate types of investing but they both involve the same thing. You can buy cryptocurrency and stocks through an online app and make money instantly.

Unlike the top options I listed, however, if you wanted to create a “full time” income investing in these things you would either need to be incredibly lucky/skilled or realistically have tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands to invest.

For example, let’s say you were a skilled enough investor to carve out 20% annual returns. This means to make 40k a year you would need to invest $200,000.

So if you have $200,000 and you’re a really good investor then you could make a full time salary just by investing. The problem is that the idea of investing is not necessarily to sell it right away but to hold it and let it compound.

Or, and this is really the most common way you can earn “passive income” from stock market investing, and that is to buy dividend stocks where you get paid dividends usually quarterly.

Now dividend payouts will vary from company to company but as a ballpark figue these might range from 2-6% annually, so let’s just use a 4% average as an example.

This means in order to make $40,000 a year by dividends you would need a million dollars invested. Something most people don’t have.

But nonetheless, this is a way to create passive income from home.

Investing in assets like this is something I think most of us should be doing, even if we’re in debt. Personally I use these assets more less as part of my savings strategy (not financial advice) with the hopes of not having to be forced to sell them.

Overall, until you have enough money to invest this likely won’t bring in a full time income but can still be a good way to help save and grow money over time.

4. Real Estate Investing

Again, unlike affiliate marketing or creating a YouTube channel, this option tends to take a lot of money to make money. However, as you should be aware many millionaires have been creating through real estate investing.

If you have money to invest in real estate then this is one of the safest bets you can make in terms of return on investment. Land/housing will likely always be in demand and as we’ve seen lately housing prices have continued to steadily rise.

So if you can invest in real estate then you can make money a few different ways.

Number 1 is just by making the payments and earning equity on your property. Typically when buying a property you need to invest 20% down. So you’ll already have that equity, but if you’re renting the property out and someone is paying you rent then they’ll be paying down your loan balance and you’ll be building up your equity in the property without having to fork up the money yourself each month.

This will also be more hands on because you’ll be responsible for all of the upkeep on the property. So while the top 2 options I mentioned here can be done simply from your computer or cell phone, real estate investing may require some hands on work.

Of course you can always hire out for that as well. At the end of the day this becomes a business that is going to be a bit more hands on than the first 2 approaches towards making passive income.

Is that really passive? Close enough right.

Now is it possible to make money in real estate with no money down? Technically yes, but you really need to get creative. I’ll just put it that way.

For example, you could crowdfund invest in real estate, or you could potentially rent and then run an Airbnb from a rental, but you’d have to get permission to that.

Which by the way, is another terrific way to make income from real estate-Airbnb. This is just going to require a more hands on approach. And again, this typically is going to be done with a down payment on a property that you own, thus requiring money up front.

However, most of this can be done online from the comfort of your own home.

5. Dropshipping/Selling on Various Platforms like Shopify/Etsy. Etc

This isn’t exactly “passive income” because these things tend to be more hands on. However, you can basically make an income buy selling products that you don’t have to ever physically touch.

This means to some extent you can create “passive income”. Like anything else this will require a lot of time or money upfront but you could eventually get to the point where you just hire someone to do most of the work for you and that would make this strategy qualify as “passive income”.

Unlike real estate or stock market investing you also don’t need as much money upfront to get started making this another great avenue for passive income. Just realize this is likely going to be much more hands on than the top options listed.

6. Joining an MLM (Multi-Level-Marketing) Company

I have to add this here because it’s technically a way of making residual income from home, but in my personal opinion, this is the worst way anyone can go about earning residual income.

Not because it’s not possible to do so, but because generally it’s a flawed system that revolves around overpriced products. The system is set up to sell the “money making opportunity” and the product is just there to make it technically legal.

At least that’s my opinion, and I wrote more about that here.

However, regardless of the fact that I think this industry completely sucks. It is technically possible to create residual income this way.

And it is true residual income.

Therefore, it makes the list.

Challenges with Making Residual Income

If making residual income from home were easy. We’d all be doing it.

The truth of the matter is that it’s not easy. In other words, the more money you have up front, the easier it is to get going. And that’s even with the top 2 options I mentioned that are great to get started because you don’t need a lot to invest.

But money could drastically speed things up for you. For example, by paying for advertisements or by hiring a writer to write for you, or even by purchasing a domain that already has traffic.

If you have very little money to invest, then it’s going to require a lot more work up front to get the ball rolling.

Essentially that’s what the goal is, to turn this thing into the snowball effect where it keeps building. Again, the hard part is the start where you have to get things to stick in order to start building on their own.

This is likely going to require a lot of work up front where you aren’t getting paid. You don’t just start a website or a YouTube channel and make a thousand dollars a month, it doesn’t work that way.

It could take days, months, or years to get things to take off. So that’s something you’re going to have to be aware of.

Think about it like this, would an author make money while writing a book? Of course not.

They’d have to finish the book, get it published, then get it to sell and there are no guarantees.

Now, real estate, stocks and crypto…those you can make money right away with, but typically require a lot of money up front.

And just to be clear, these aren’t the only things you can invest in…obviously you can invest in other things but they will typically, at least roughly, work the same way.

The Potential of Residual Income is Greater Than any Other Type of Income

This is subjective, but I say that making passive income while you sleep is the ideal way to make money. In other words, why invest a ton of time and effort on something that may not pan out?

Because the potential is unlimited.

The potential is millions of dollars a year working zero hours a week.

Now, that may seem unrealistic, and honestly I don’t think anyone who earns residual income actually works zero hours a week. Hell even Stephen King doesn’t stop working and he has residual income that will last several lifetimes. AND of course only a very small percentage make a million plus per year.

That being said, a better way to think of this is to get a small percentage of that. Start with a goal of making some money working part time. Then gradually scale up.

But yeah, at the end of the day you can trade your hours for dollars. Spending 10-20 hours a week mowing lawns or something will net you an immediate number of dollars.

You work this much and mow X amounts of lawns then you’ll bring home $400, or whatever.

Building something that will earn residual income likely won’t work that way. You’ll have to plant seeds for X amount of time before you start making anything.

However, if you can, then there is no better form of income in my opinion.

Who Can Make Residual Income?

The answer: anybody.

Well…this is assuming you’re not in some 3rd world country with no access to internet and what not. But outside of that…anybody can make residual income.

However, let’s not be ridiculous. Most people will fail, so who are the people that are likely to succeed?

• People with a strong work ethic. It’s pretty clear as to why this would be one of the best personality traits you’ll need to earn residual income. It’s going to take a lot of effort.
• Entrepreneural minded people. Look, this is absolutely clear. Some people think this way and others don’t. If you don’t have this mindset, you likely have no business trying to create residual income. It won’t make sense to you why you shouldn’t get paid a paycheck for the work you’re doing.
• People who are mentally tough. I guess this goes hand in hand with the first two personality traits, but you won’t make it if you’re weak minded. Imagine the pushback you’ll get from people while “planting seeds”. Imagine the time it takes to get the ball rolling? This takes mental stability.
• Creative minded people. You’re going to have to create something unique, interesting, and something that provides value to people. Having a creative mind seems absolutely necessary to doing these things.
• People with money to invest. You’ve heard the phrase “it takes money to make money”, and it’s no different here. The more money you can invest the less of the traits above mentioned that you’ll have to have. This is not required though.
• People with a large following. If you already have a large following, specifically on social media. Then this is something you can also leverage to drastically speed things up.

I’m sure there are other personality traits that can help people succeed. But the bottom line is you have to have the will. If there’s a will there’s a way.

How Long Will It Take to Earn Residual Income?

This is the magic question. And if we knew, then things would just be so much simpler, wouldn’t it?

Now, let’s look at the top couple of options of creating money online by a website or video. There are so many different factors that you’re simply not going to have a specific answer here.

But what I’ll tell you about ranking in Google, which is kind of the cornerstone to building an online business, is that you won’t get ranked for 6-12 months.

In other words, you may be indexed but your posts/videos won’t get any respect until then. At some point you’ll get to page 6, then 5, 4, 3, 2…and of course page 1 is the goal.

So that general answer is good to go by. At least 6 months. Hold off any expectations until then.

Clearly there are ways around this and that typically involves already having a large social media following or having money to invest.

And also that’s where real estate and stock/crypto investing comes in to play. These things will likely take less time but require more money.

Summary

I gave some of the top ways in which you can make residual income from home. Of course, past performance doesn’t equal future results. Nothing is guaranteed, and none of this is financial advice 😉

But, that being said I personally think these are the best ways to create passive income. What do you think? Is there something I missed on this list you think should be here? Do you disagree? Agree? Let me know in the comments below!