Okay, so I’ll be honest passive income streams aren’t *always* hands-off at first, but with the right set-up, you can be bringing in well over 6 figures a year without needing constant effort.
And more importantly, without needing to go to a 9-5. Here are 23 real passive income ideas so you can quit your job fast.
23 Proven Passive Income Ideas to Quit Your 9-5
1) Sell Printables (& Build an E-Commerce Empire!)
Selling printables is one of the most accessible and scalable ways to generate passive income online – it’s low risk but high reward.
Printables are digital products that customers can download and print themselves, saving you from the hassle of inventory management, shipping, or fulfillment.
Once you’ve created and listed your designs on platforms like Etsy, you can sell them repeatedly with little ongoing effort.
Popular Types of Printables:
- Planners and Organizers: Weekly or monthly planners, to-do lists, and goal-setting sheets are evergreen products that people consistently need.
- Budget Trackers and Financial Worksheets: Personal finance is a huge niche, and many people are willing to pay for tools that help them manage their money more effectively.
- Fitness Guides and Workout Trackers: Health-conscious individuals love using workout logs, meal planners, and fitness challenges to stay on track.
- Art Prints and Inspirational Quotes: Many customers enjoy decorating their homes or workspaces with beautiful, ready-to-print designs. You can create a range of styles, from minimalist quotes to intricate illustrations.
- Party Decorations: Banners, invitations, cupcake toppers, and themed party packs are incredibly popular, especially for events like weddings, birthdays, and holidays.
Related: How I Make $10,000 a Month Selling Printables on Etsy (Step-By-Step Plan)
How Much Can You Make?
The income potential for selling printables is absolutely enormous!
Top sellers on Etsy make anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000+ per month, depending on the number of products they offer, how well they market them, and how optimized their listings are for search.
Here’s a rough breakdown of what you can expect at different stages of growth:
- Beginners: After launching your first few products and getting the hang of the market, it’s realistic to make $500 to $1,500 per month.
- Intermediate Sellers: With 20-50 well-designed and optimized products, sellers often report earning between $1,600 to $5,000 per month.
- Top Sellers: The highest earners, with hundreds of products and an established customer base, can easily clear $5,000 to $10,000+ per month, especially if they’re diversifying across multiple platforms or using social media to drive traffic.
Tips for Maximizing Profits:
- Bundle Your Products: People love getting more value for their money, so consider bundling related printables together. For example, sell a yearly planner that includes meal planning, fitness tracking, and budgeting sheets in one package.
- Seasonal Products: Holiday-themed printables (like Christmas or Halloween planners, invitations, or decorations) can see huge spikes in sales during specific times of the year.
- Offer Customization: Offering customizable printables, where buyers can add their names, dates, or specific details, often allows you to charge more and stand out from the competition.
Related: 12 Digital Products With The Highest Profit Margin (Launch Your 6 Figure Business!)
2) Sell Canva Templates
Average Monthly Profit: $4,900 a month selling Canva templates as a side hustle.
Selling Canva templates has become a hot commodity, especially with the growing demand for easy-to-use, customizable designs!
Canva is a widely popular design tool that allows users to create professional-looking graphics with a simple drag-and-drop interface.
But not everyone has the time or skills to create high-quality designs from scratch, which is where templates come in.
If you have an eye for design, creating Canva templates can be a lucrative side hustle or even a full-time business.
Related: 18 Canva Templates That Sell Like Crazy and Are Easy to Make!
3) Affiliate Marketing
Average Monthly Profit: $2,000 to $10,000+ per month.
Affiliate marketing is another easy way to start generating passive income by promoting products or services you love.
The idea is simple: you share a unique referral link, and whenever someone makes a purchase through that link, you earn a commission – anything from 2-40% of the product’s overall price.
From blogs to YouTube and TikTok, affiliate marketing works across multiple platforms.
The best part? It’s low-cost to start, and you don’t need to create your own products.
Once you’ve created content that brings traffic, the income can be consistent and scalable.
Some top affiliates even make six figures a year just by recommending high-demand products!
4) YouTube Channel
Average Monthly Profit: $1,500 to $20,000+ per month (depending on niche and subscriber base).
Creating a YouTube channel is a powerful way to build passive income, especially when you monetize through ads, sponsorships, affiliate marketing, and product sales.
With consistent, high-quality content, you can attract a loyal audience who will watch, engage, and share your videos.
Once your channel takes off, you can earn a steady stream of income from views alone, and the more popular your channel gets, the higher your earning potential.
Related: How to Start a YouTube Channel to Replace Your Full Time Income
5) Selling Photography
Average Monthly Profit: $500 to $3,000+ per month.
If you love photography, selling your images online can be a great way to earn passive income.
Websites like Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, and Etsy allow you to upload photos and sell them as prints or digital downloads.
Once uploaded, your photos can be purchased over and over again with no additional work on your part.
Popular niches like travel, lifestyle, and nature photos tend to sell especially well.
Related: Top 10 Websites to Sell Photos Online and Make Money
6) Building a Blog
Average Monthly Profit: $500 to $10,000+ per month.
Blogging is still one of the most consistent ways to generate passive income.
You can monetize your blog through ads, sponsored content, affiliate marketing, and selling your own products or services.
A well-established blog that attracts consistent traffic can bring in substantial revenue over time.
While it takes time to grow your audience, once you have consistent readers, the income opportunities are endless!
Related: How to Become a Freelance Writer With Absolutely No Experience
7) Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon)
Average Monthly Profit: $1,000 to $10,000+ per month.
Amazon FBA allows you to sell physical products without having to handle the inventory or shipping.
You source products (often wholesale or private label), ship them to Amazon’s warehouses, and they handle the rest.
It’s a fantastic model for anyone looking to build an e-commerce business with Amazon’s vast customer base, while minimizing the logistical headache.
Top sellers can quickly scale their operations and bring in impressive profits.
Related: 19 Beyond Easy to Source Products that Sell Like Crazy on Amazon FBA
8) Vending Machines
Average Monthly Profit: $300 to $5,000+ per month (depending on number of machines and location).
Vending machines are a classic passive income stream that still works today.
By placing vending machines in high-traffic locations (think office buildings, gyms, and schools), you can earn consistent income with minimal effort beyond stocking the machines.
While the initial investment can be high, the long-term profits are steady, especially with the right products in the right location.
9) Subscription Boxes
Average Monthly Profit: $500 to $10,000+ per month.
The subscription box business model has exploded in popularity in recent years.
By curating and delivering themed boxes filled with products people love, you can build a loyal customer base.
From beauty products to gourmet foods, the possibilities are endless.
With recurring monthly subscriptions, you get predictable income and the ability to scale quickly, making it a potentially lucrative business.
10) Dividend Stocks
Dividend stocks are a type of investment where you earn regular payouts, typically quarterly, just for owning shares of a company.
These payouts come from the company’s profits, making dividend stocks one of the simplest and most hands-off ways to generate passive income.
The best part? You can reinvest those dividends to buy more shares, compounding your earnings over time.
Why Dividend Stocks Are a Solid Investment:
- Passive Income Without Selling: Unlike other stocks where you only make money by selling at a higher price, dividend stocks provide regular income even if you hold onto your shares.
- Long-Term Growth: Many companies that pay dividends are well-established and financially stable. This means your investments can grow steadily over time.
- Reinvestment Opportunities: By reinvesting your dividends, you can buy more shares without putting in extra capital. This allows your portfolio to grow faster and accelerates your passive income potential.
11) Franchise Ownership
Average Monthly Profit: $2,000 to $10,000+ per month (depending on franchise type).
Owning a franchise allows you to tap into an established brand with proven business models.
While the upfront investment can be substantial, a successful franchise can generate steady, predictable income.
Popular franchises like fast food chains, gyms, and cleaning services are known to be lucrative.
Once operational, many of the day-to-day tasks are handled by the franchise systems, leaving you with mostly managerial duties.
12) Creating an Audio Course
Average Monthly Profit: $500 to $5,000+ per month.
Audio courses have become a popular way for people to consume educational content on the go.
Whether you teach productivity hacks, fitness, or language learning, audio courses are a scalable digital product.
Once recorded and uploaded to platforms like Audible or Teachable, you can sell your course repeatedly with minimal maintenance.
The key is to create a course in a high-demand niche that provides value to your audience.
Related: 9 Genius Ways to Make $1,000+ a Month Passively! (That are Actually Do-Able)
13) Creating an Online Course
Average Monthly Profit: $1,000 to $10,000+ per month.
Online courses are one of the most scalable passive income streams.
You can teach anything from photography to coding, fitness to marketing.
Platforms like Udemy, Skillshare, and Kajabi make it easy to upload and sell your course.
Once you’ve created the content, it can generate revenue for years with minimal updates.
Many online course creators earn six figures by leveraging targeted marketing to attract the right audience.
Related: 23 Hobbies That Make Money: Build Your 6 Figure Business!
14) Selling Print on Demand
Average Monthly Profit: $500 to $5,000+ per month.
Print on demand allows you to design custom products like t-shirts, mugs, and phone cases without handling inventory.
Once you create the designs, a third-party service handles production, shipping, and fulfillment.
With platforms like Printful, Redbubble, and Teespring, you only pay for the product when it sells, making it a low-risk, high-reward passive income option.
Creative designs that resonate with niche audiences tend to sell like crazy!
Related: How to Make Stickers to Sell Online (Even if You Can’t Draw!)
15) Drop Shipping
Average Monthly Profit: $1,000 to $10,000+ per month.
Drop shipping involves selling physical products without ever holding inventory. You set up an online store and partner with suppliers who handle the fulfillment.
When a customer makes a purchase, the supplier ships the product directly to them.
This model has low startup costs and is highly scalable. Platforms like Shopify make it easy to get started.
Profits depend on finding the right products and suppliers to ensure customer satisfaction.
16) Building Websites
Average Monthly Profit: $1,000 to $6,000+ per month (or more, depending on client base).
If you have web development skills, building websites for clients can be a highly lucrative income stream.
Once you have a portfolio of well-designed sites, you can charge premium prices. Many website designers also offer ongoing maintenance and SEO services, generating recurring income.
With businesses constantly needing websites, this is a high-demand skill that can easily replace a full-time income.
17) Creating a Membership Site
Average Monthly Profit: $1,000 to $10,000+ per month.
Membership sites allow you to charge users a monthly or yearly fee for access to exclusive content, courses, or communities.
Whether it’s fitness, business coaching, or creative skills, people are willing to pay for valuable content on a recurring basis.
Once set up, membership sites generate consistent, predictable income. By providing ongoing value, you can keep members engaged and reduce churn, increasing your long-term profits.
18) Podcasting
Average Monthly Profit: $500 to $5,000+ per month.
Podcasting is a fantastic way to generate passive income once you build a loyal audience.
You can monetize your podcast through sponsorships, listener donations, and affiliate marketing.
Creating high-quality content and promoting your podcast effectively will attract sponsors and grow your revenue.
Platforms like Anchor and Podbean make it easy to launch and monetize your podcast.
19) Selling eBooks
Average Monthly Profit: $200 to $3,000+ per month.
Writing and selling eBooks is a low-cost, high-reward way to earn passive income.
Once published, eBooks can be sold on platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing or Gumroad.
The key is to choose a niche topic with high demand and provide valuable content.
With effective marketing and good reviews, your eBook can continue to generate sales over time.
Related: 11 Real Ways to Get Paid to Read Books ($300+ a Month)
20) Creating a Membership-Based App
Average Monthly Profit: $1,000 to $10,000+ per month.
Developing a membership-based app involves creating a platform where users pay for exclusive content or features.
This could be anything from premium fitness plans to specialized educational content.
Once the app is built and users are subscribed, you can earn recurring revenue with minimal ongoing effort.
Investing in user experience and ongoing updates will help retain members.
21) Develop WordPress Themes and Plugins
Average Monthly Profit: $1,000 to $7,000+ per month.
If you have web development skills, creating and selling WordPress themes or plugins can be very profitable.
You can sell your creations on marketplaces like ThemeForest or CodeCanyon.
After the initial development, ongoing income comes from sales and updates.
Offering great support and continuously improving your products can lead to higher sales and customer satisfaction.
22) Selling Online Workshops
Average Monthly Profit: $500 to $5,000+ per month.
Create and sell access to pre-recorded online workshops or courses. Platforms like Teachable or Udemy make it easy to host and sell your content.
Once created, these workshops can be sold repeatedly with minimal additional work.
Focusing on a niche topic where you have expertise can help attract paying customers and generate ongoing revenue.
23) Monetize a Niche Facebook Group
Average Monthly Profit: $300 to $4,000+ per month.
Building a highly engaged niche Facebook group can be a lucrative source of passive income.
Monetization options include membership fees, sponsored posts, and affiliate marketing.
By creating valuable content and fostering a strong community, you can grow your group and explore various revenue streams. The more engaged your members, the more potential for profit.