5 Passive Income Ideas For Students in 2024
Whether you are in school or college you are working a part-time job to fuel your income to get by. Things could be severe if you are in university and living independently. You need to pay for rent, groceries, and recreational activities and save up for your tuition fees. Doing all of that with a single source of income is definitely insufficient.
While juggling classes and assignments, many of you students find themselves yearning for extra cash to cover expenses, explore new hobbies, or simply enjoy a bit of financial freedom. The good news is that in today’s digital age, opportunities for generating passive income are more accessible than ever before. In this blog post, we’ll uncover various passive income ideas tailored specifically to your student lifestyle. Say goodbye to the days of surviving on ramen noodles, and join us as we explore the world of passive income possibilities for students.
What is Passive Income?
Passive income is a stream of income that is earned without an active involvement in the project or work. This could be done by putting in a lot of work upfront and/or putting in a minimal amount of work on a regular basis to keep this stream of income flowing. This work could be physical work or financial leverage.
The perfect example of passive income is house rental. When you own a house, you could rent it out to a tenant and keep receiving your rental income every month without any work whatsoever. However, earning passive income from rental properties will require you to first purchase a house which is a huge financial leverage. As students, it’s quite apparent that you might not have much financial leverage to use thus we’ll primarily talk about passive income ideas you can build using physical work and time.
Passive Income Ideas For Students
1. Start a Blog:
Yes, if you can build a blog that generates a decent amount of traffic, there are numerous ways you can monetize it and generate pure passive income. And creating passive income from a blog is quite a popular and achievable goal. However, it’s important to understand that it usually takes time and consistent effort to build a blog to the point where it generates significant passive income.
Ways in which you can monetize your blog may include:
- Running Banner ads on your blog posts. It is simple and easy. All you have to do is sign up for an ad platform such as Adsense, connect it to your website and you are good to go.
- Affiliate Marketing: This is where you review certain products or services on your website and add your unique affiliate link in the post. If your readers like the review and purchase that product from your affiliate link, you get to make a commission on the sale with no extra cost to the buyer. If you get a certain amount of visitors a month on your affiliate blog post, soon you’ll start good commissions with no extra effort. P.S. You may have to keep updating the post so it stays on top of Google Search results.
2.Rent out your stuff
As a student, you probably don’t own a house that you could rent out. However, you may have possessions that you probably could rent out to earn some extra cash. Now the amount you’ll make from this will depend on your item. You may not make a lot of money from this but it’s something that you can consider to make a little cash here and there.
Things that you could rent out:
- Car: If you own a car then you are here at a good advantage. Renting out your car to generate passive income can be a viable option if you have a vehicle that you don’t use frequently. A lot of kids, especially the ones who just got their driver’s license, hop in on Uber to make some cash. While they work to make their active income, you make your passive income by renting out your car to them.
- Guitars, Bikes, Lawnmowers, etc.: You definitely have such tools and types of equipment lying around that you rarely use. Put them to work by handing them out to people who temporarily require them and make some extra cash.
3.Create And Sell An Online Course
As of 2023, the online education industry has been projected to reach $166.66 billion. It’s apparent that if you are good at something and are able to market your knowledge well, people will buy. So look into yourself, is there anything that you are good at that others might pay to learn?
It’s an important question to ask yourself because sometimes, some things we know may be simple and obvious to us but very complicated for others. Thus, selling them the solution could be quite profitable. The best part about selling online courses is that you have to do the heavy lifting of creating the course once and then if you market the course well, you can sell it an infinite number of times.
Platforms you can sell your online courses:
- Udemy: You can host your own course on Udemy which is one of the largest learning and teaching marketplaces with over 62 million courses. If you can put together a good course that will genuinely benefit others and give them a bank for their buck, you will make consistent passive income.
Skillshare: Skillshare is another online learning community with thousands of courses. This platform is basically the Netflix of learning where the audience pays a monthly subscription and gets access to thousands of courses. If you publish your courses on Skillshare, you get paid for the time the user watches your course.
4. Build App or Software
This could be one of the best ways to generate passive income. That’s because not everyone can easily build an app or software, thus a higher barrier to entry. Besides, once you do this heavy-lift of building the software once, you can sell it an infinite amount of times and if your software is based on subscription then you’re up for a ball with the recurring revenue. This is a model alot of B2B Saas compainies are using these days.
Now building software or an app may require coding skills which may not be your field of expertise. Well, you’re in luck, there are loads of companies that allow you to build software and apps without coding and/or blue-label their software with your branding. Once you get that figured out, this project can be quite lucrative as well as passive.
Platforms that allow you to build apps without coding:
Bubble: This is one of the most powerful and easy-to-use platforms to build digital products such as software and apps without any coding. Bubble offers total design freedom without any knowledge of HTML or CSS. The pricing for Bubble is also quite affordable for students.
5. Start a Youtube Channel
This is one of the most popular ways to make money online and generate passive income. Being a YouTuber is probably one of the most desirable career paths for most teenagers these days.
Well, you don’t have to be a YouTube Star to generate a good amount of income from YouTube. People with a few thousand followers are making good money. Now, hands down YouTube is one of the best ways to generate passive income mainly because of the YouTube Partner Program. If you can put together a proper strategy and create ever-green content on topics that may stay relevant for years to come, you’ll generate passive income forever.
Ways to make passive income on YouTube:
- Google Adsense: If you’ve been on YouTube you probably have seen ads at the beginning of the videos. The YouTube channels get a cut of that revenue and if you get good enough views you can make a ton of cash. If your videos are good, it will continue to get views and you’ll continue to make money even if your videos were uploaded years ago.
- Affiliate Marketing: You may sometimes review a few products you like to use or recommend products or services to your audience that might benefit them. Include the affiliate links of those products in the description and tell your viewers that if they would like to purchase the product they can check the affiliate link in the description. ( Be sure to disclose the fact that it’s an affiliate link and that you’ll receive a commission if they buy with no extra cost to them).
Bottom Line
The pursuit of passive income as a college student is not only feasible but also a strategic step towards financial independence and a brighter future. As we’ve explored in this blog post, there are multiple viable options for your students to generate income while still dedicating the majority of their time to academics.
Moreover, the benefits extend far beyond the financial aspect. Building passive income streams as a student instills a sense of financial responsibility, teaches valuable life skills, and sets the stage for a more secure and prosperous post-graduation life.
While it may take some initial effort and dedication to establish these income streams, the long-term rewards are well worth it. The journey towards financial freedom begins with a single step, and by exploring these passive income ideas, students can take a significant leap towards a more secure and fulfilling future.