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Are you in college and looking for passive income ideas for students?
One of the things that can really smoothen your college experience is having some moolah. And what’s even better than having money is having money that you barely have to grind for.
This is where passive income ideas for students come in handy. With a cool passive income stream, you can make money on autopilot while focusing your energy on learning and having fun.
In this blog, we will be looking at the best passive income ideas for students. So sit back and maybe grab a notepad as we figure out how you can make money passively.
15 Best Passive Income Ideas For Students
1. Start An Etsy Printables Business
One of the easiest ways to make money passively while you’re in college is to sell printables on Etsy.
Printables are essentially any product that can be sold as a digital download for customers to download and print for themselves after purchase. These include things like thank-you cards, business cards, logos, wedding printables, and many more.
The good thing about these kinds of products is that they are very easy to make and require minimal experience or expertise.
The other amazing part about starting an Etsy printables business is that, because your products are digital in nature, you can make one single product and potentially sell it thousands of times.
This is where the aspect of passive income comes in. One product that you list today can potentially make you money for years, therefore earning you a steady stream of passive income.
To learn how to start an Etsy printables business and start making money, follow the link below to watch a free training course by Cody and Julie from GoldCityVentures.
2. Start A YouTube Channel
Another excellent passive income ideas for students is to start an educational or entertainment YouTube channel.
With consistent effort and high-quality content creation, a YouTube channel can provide you with a steady stream of passive income that pays out for years.
People like Mr. Beast started their YouTube channel without much experience or know-how, but today, Mr. Beast earns over 4 Million dollars per month from his YouTube channel.
4 Million! Per Month!
This goes to show just how much potential YouTube has.
To get started on YouTube, you need to choose a niche that you will be making content around. Some of the most profitable niches include;
- Gaming
- Fitness
- DIY Tutorials
- Electronics
- Cooking and Recipes
- Meditation
Once you start your YouTube channel and start getting traffic, you can monetize via methods like displaying ads, doing affiliate marketing, or selling your own products or services.
If you are serious about making it big on YouTube, consider taking a course to help sharpen your understanding of the platform and how to make money on it.
Here is An Excellent Course by Joshua Mayo who has pretty much mastered how to make a fortune on YouTube.
3. Start A Blog
Starting a blog is one of the best passive income ideas for students.
Starting a blog is like the holy grail of passive income. And there are a few reasons why I say that. First;
- You become your own boss: You can work whenever you want, however you want.
- You learn valuable skills such as copywriting and marketing. These skills can prove invaluable when you leave school.
- You earn passive income while living the laptop lifestyle.
- The income from your blog can make it so that you never have to look for a job when you leave school.
Those are only a few of the reasons why starting a blog is one of the best passive income ideas for students.
With a blog, you get to share your passions with the world and make passive income while doing it. Some of the most profitable blogging niches you can choose include;
- Personal Finance
- Pets
- Tech Review
- Fitness
Once your blog starts to attract an audience, you can easily monetize it through methods like affiliate marketing, displaying ads, selling digital products, sponsorships, and many more.
4. Sell Your Class Notes
Another amazing way to make passive income as a student is by selling your old study documents and class notes.
If you have any old class notes, practice quizzes, study guides, or old home homework that can be used as a reference to help students learn, you can monetize such resources and make bank in passive income.
You can do this by uploading these study resources to a website called StudyPool.
StudyPool is a platform that allows students to exchange notes and learn from each other. And get this… you can earn up to $10 every time a student views your document.
With a good library of study resources uploaded on StudyPool, you can expect to get a steady stream of passive income. In fact, the platform promises that you can make up to $5000 per month in passive income.
Is this really true? Well, there is only one way to find out.
5. Use Passive Income Apps
Another of the best passive income ideas for students is to use passive income apps.
What are passive income apps?
These are apps that pay you for pretty much just installing them on your device. Now, before you dismiss them as a scam, you need to know that these apps are very legit.
Obviously, they don’t pay you to just install them. They compensate you for allowing them access to your internet connection. This means that other users use your device as a proxy to do things like online market research.
In return for offering your device’s internet connection, you are paid a remuneration in passive income. Since you don’t have to do anything to earn, this can be quite an interesting way to make money while in school.
Some of my favorite passive income apps include;
6. Start A Print On Demand Business
Starting a print-on-demand business is an excellent option for anyone looking for passive income ideas for students.
Print-on-demand dropshipping involves selling products online without ever having to see the products or worry about inventory and shipping.
With a print-on-demand business, you only have to worry about getting people to your store and having them buy your products. Everything else is taken care of by your print-on-demand platform.
This makes print-on-demand dropshipping one of the easiest ways to create passive income while you are studying.
Creating an online store and designing products for your POD business can take less than twenty minutes, and you can potentially sell those products hundreds or thousands of times on your chosen marketplace.
Some of the most popular products for print-on-demand business include;
- T-shirts
- Hoodies
- Caps
- Backpacks
- Socks
- Tote bags
Here is how to start a successful print-on-demand business that makes over $1000 per month in passive income.
7. Affiliate Marketing
Another amazing opportunity for anyone looking for passive income ideas for students is affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing involves selling other people’s products or services and earning a commission for each sale you make.
If you frequent social media a lot and have a considerable following, you can easily monetize your audience and make a lot of money through affiliate marketing.
To get started, you need to choose a niche and then search online for affiliate programs in that niche.
Once you find a good program and receive your affiliate tracking link, your only job is to drive traffic to that link and you will earn commissions every time someone buys the product you’re recommending.
Other options for driving traffic to your affiliate link that you can consider include;
8. Freelance Writing
Are you still looking for passive income ideas for students?
Another excellent option to consider is freelance writing.
Freelance writers help businesses write copy such as blog posts, social media posts, emails, and more.
The reason that freelance writing is such an excellent idea to make money as a student is that it’s extremely flexible and high-paying at the same time.
As a freelance writer, you get to choose your own hours and what projects you are comfortable working on, and if you are doing it right, you also get to choose how much you get paid.
Freelance writing is not just a side hustle or passive income idea. It can very easily be scaled into a full-time career that pays out long after you’re done with school.
To get started as a college freelance writer, check out our complete freelance writing guide.
9. Use GPT Sites
If you are still interested in great passive income ideas for students, consider using GPT sites to make some extra money on the side.
GPT (Get-Paid-To) sites are platforms that pay users for completing simple tasks on their websites/apps.
The reason why this is an excellent way to make money as a student is because the tasks on these sites are super simple to complete. They include;
- Playing games
- Shopping online
- Surfing the web
- Downloading apps
- Signing up for free services
- Watching videos
- Referring friends
- Clicking on ads
Some of my favorite GPT sites that I use to make some extra money on the side are;
10. Sell An Online Course
Another excellent addition to our list of passive income ideas for students is to create and sell an online course.
You have probably already heard about online courses before. If you haven’t, they are one of the easiest ways people make bank online in this age of the internet.
If you have expert knowledge about anything. And I mean, anything. You can make money by making a course about it and selling it online.
The best part about being a course creator is that with a little bit of automation, your course can make you money while you are literally asleep, or off on a vacation somewhere.
Some of the best platforms to host and sell online courses include;
11. Sell Stock Photos
Selling stock photos online is one of the best passive income ideas for students.
If you have a knack for photography, consider posting your work online and earning passive income from it while you school.
Businesses and content creators are always looking for stock photos to use in blog posts, websites, and other projects.
Once you upload your pictures for these clients to see, you can sell your work over and over again and generate steady passive income.
Some of the most popular photo themes that sell well are nature, portraits, food, and landscapes.
Here are some of the best platforms to sell your photos for passive income;
12. Sell Pictures Of Your Feet
Are you interested in a crazy-sounding passive income idea?
Did you know that you can make money selling pictures of your feet online?
While this idea might sound ridiculous or creepy to some, there are actually lots of people who are making money selling pictures of their feet online.
To do this, you simply sign up to a platform, create an account, upload cute pics of your feet, and watch the money start rolling in.
It may sound ridiculous but feet pics sell for up to $100 per pic.
If this is something you’d be interested in trying out, here are some of the best platforms to sell pictures of your feet for passive income.
13. Stream On Twitch
Are you an avid gamer and would like to make money doing what you love?
Did you know you can make a steady income online just by streaming your gameplay online?
Twitch is a streaming platform that allows gamers like yourself to monetize their skills in the virtual world of video games.
As a streamer on Twitch, you can make money in a ton of different ways such as through display ads, affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and more.
14. Start Investing
Investing is one of the best passive income ideas for students.
You might be wondering, isn’t it too early to start investing? The answer is no. It’s never too early to start investing.
Investments are one of the biggest ways to create wealth in the present age. Some of the top investment types to consider starting with are;
- Stocks and Shares
- Real Estate Investments
- Mutual Funds
- Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF’s)
15. Create An App
Another one of the best passive income ideas for students is to create an app.
If you have a little bit of coding knowledge, college is perhaps one of the most creative times of your life. It’s the time that you can identify a problem in the world and fix it with an app.
Some of the wealthiest individuals on the planet (who need no naming) grew their wealth by creating an app in college, and you can too.
Once your app takes off, you can launch a startup and basically say hello to the world of wealth in passive income.
The best part about this idea is that you don’t need to have coding knowledge either. You can simply buy a pre-built app template for less than $100 on a site like Code Canyon and turn it into the next big thing.
Final Thoughts On Passive Income Ideas For Students
College is one of the most exciting times in one’s life. And what makes college life even better is having a steady income to support both your studies and your fun adventures.
Now that we have come to the end of our list of the 15 best passive income ideas for students, what’s left is for you to pick one idea and run with it.
Consider your skills, knowledge, and time factor and choose the idea that works best for you.
Also, remember you can even combine more than one of these ideas to earn as much as you would like in passive income. The ball is now in your court.
