If you’re like most Americans, you’re probably sick and tired of your job and looking for a way to escape the rat race. You came to this article because you’ve heard of people kicking back on the beach with their laptops and margaritas while earning residual income, and you’re wondering, “What is residual income?”
What Is Residual Income?
There are basically two main types of income in life: active and residual. Your job is a type of active income. You go to work and put in the hours, and you get paid every couple weeks. It’s predictable. It’s fairly stable. But your income is mostly fixed at a constant rate.
On the other hand, residual or passive income isn’t the same thing as trading hours for dollars. What is residual income like then? Residual income doesn’t require punching a clock. You simply collect your money every month or quarter, depending on the payout period.
There are many ways to earn residual income. For instance, pop stars and award-winning novelists earn royalties for ongoing sales of their products. But you’re not Katy Perry or Stephen King, so you’ll have to take another path.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
6 StrategiesforBoosting Residual Income
Again, there are tons of ways to earn passive income. Some of them take a lot of work to set up. Others also require a big investment. There isn’t enough room here to cover all of them. Therefore, this article will handle the most popular ways that are accessible to most people without a lot of money up front.
Strategy 1: Write Articles to Earn Passive Income
If you’re wondering what is residual income and how can you get started with no money and no website, the easiest place to start is with a writing website like HubPages or Blasting News. These companies allow you to write articles and publish them on their websites.
Once your work is up, the company starts running ads on your content. In the end, they willshare the ad revenue with you. The more traffic you can get to your articles, the more money you can make. The best part is that you don’t have to be a professional writer or journalist. You just sign up, follow the rules, and get to work.
Strategy 2: Start a Blog or Niche Review Website
Another method — probably the most popular method for earning passive income — is blogging. You start your own website for 10 bucks or so, buy web hosting for another $5-10 per month, and you get busy writing blog posts.
You can monetize the blog with advertising networks like Google’s AdSense or Chitika. People who run after residual income can also sign up for affiliate programs like Amazon and Clickbank and market specific products on your blog.
Strategy 3: Invest in the Stock Market
If writing blog posts and articles doesn’t sound like something you’d be interested in doing, you might simply want to start with investing in stocks. You’ll receive dividends every quarter based on the number of shares you own and the value of each share.
You don’t even need to do any work at all, so this is completely passive. With investment apps like Stash and Acorn, you can actually start investing for as little as five dollars.
Strategy 4: Micro-Invest in Real Estate
One really exciting development in the past few years is the rise of micro-investing in real estate. In the past, you needed to have big bucks to get involved in real estate investing. You also needed to do your homework to qualify for loans and follow laws and regulations.
But today, you can invest in real estate for as little as $1,000 through crowdfunding. All the work is done for you. You just invest your money and collect residual income as property values rise. Of course, there are always some risks involved, as is the case with any investment. So look into your target organization before sending them your funds.
Strategy 5: Start Your Own Micro Business
There are a lot of opportunities to start a micro business with very little startup capital. Vending machines are a classic example. You buy some machines. Then you find local businesses that will rent out a few square feet of space inside their location. You set the machines up and collect the money every week or so when you go back to restock the machine.
Strategy 6: Hire an eBay Power Seller
Flipping used items on eBay is incredibly popular these days, but if you’ve ever tried it, then you know that it’s a lot of work. It’s just not for everybody. But what if you have tons of stuff in your garage and don’t want to just donate it?
You can hire a local eBay seller who is already making a killing on eBay. You have them list all your stuff and ship the items out when they sell, and they split the profits with you. Some items can take several months to sell. Nonetheless, once you’ve got thousands of items listed, you’re sure to have a nice income stream trickling in every week.
Final Thoughts
So are you starting to get a good feel for what is residual income now? You put up the money or do the work now, and then you mostly just kick back while the income starts streaming in over time. Of course, things can start out pretty slowly. You might need to put in a lot of work, in the beginning, to make it worth your while.
But passive income is legit. You use money, people, and technology to create leverage. And then you take advantage of systems that handle the workload after the initial setup. Afterwards, you’ll make money for months and years to come without lifting a finger.
Have you tried any of these methods for building passive income? Do you still have some questions about what is residual income and how to get started? Ask in the comments below.
