How to Earn Passive Income

Updated on 9 June 2025 • Reading Time: 3 minutes

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How to Earn Passive Income

Whether you own a business or plan to start one with savings, having access to a little extra cash has never hurt anyone. Ideally, if you earn passive income, you can use this to supplement your income, or even to bootstrap your next venture. And yes, this is possible!

Passive income can easily be defined as payment for minimal input. When done right, you only need to give that initial push to get the ball rolling, and then the effort will pay for itself.

Passive Income Ideas

1. Real Estate Rentals

Whether long-term or short-term rentals, real estate rentals are a good way to earn passive income, especially if you have unused space like a backroom or second property that you want to rent out. You may choose to do so with the help of a property manager or do it yourself.

Additionally, you can also rent out garages for storage space rentals.

2. Equipment Rental

Equipment rental is an easy way to make money from equipment that might just be lying in a drawer or cupboard. Instead of selling this asset for a once-off price to get cash, renting it out provides a regular stream of income.

Whether it is camera equipment, power tools, kitchen equipment, audio equipment or something completely different that falls into the category of equipment, it’s assets you can rent out.

3. Vending Machines

Another business that is low effort and earns passive income is vending machines. You can choose to focus on specialised products or offer a wide array. What you do with your machines is up to you!

Costs will entail inventory, machine rental and possibly the cost of having the machine placed at a specific location.

4. Vehicle Ads

Out-of-home advertising, specifically vehicle ads, lets you maximise your income while you drive. From long hours in traffic to long distances for your commute, this exposure is highly beneficial to brands. A platform like EazyAds helps drivers turn a profit from their travels.

5. Parking Space Rentals

Renting out unused parking spaces is ideal for someone who may have an extra parking spot or garage. Imagine your house as two parking spaces, but you only use one. Why not create passive income by renting out the additional space to neighbours who could use it? It is low-cost (almost nothing) and will not require much effort.

6. Writing a Book or Creating Educational Content

Although the initial input may be hard work, once it is complete, you will be able to reap the benefits. That’s how you can look at sharing your knowledge and expertise in a field with people while making some cash.

There are two ways that you can achieve this. Either by creating a book – a downloadable e-book is the cheapest option – or developing educational content such as videos that you sell in a learning path.

Identifying the topic, moulding the book outline or course, and constructing it will be the bulk of the work in the beginning, but once it is available to your audience, you can sit back and see the money slowly enter.

7. Narrations

Similar to writing an e-book, you can also narrate content. This can be e-books or videos, and can be either your own content or someone else’s. Sites like Audible offer narrator opportunities and will charge you depending on the number of sound clips you complete.

You will, however, need to ensure that you have the right technique that they are looking for, and a course on narrating can assist with this. You will also need to look into having the right equipment, such as a good microphone, if you don’t already have one.

8. Selling Digital Products

Digital products constitute anything that you can create digitally and sell for money. This can be templates, prints, e-cards, bookmarks, downloadable stickers, or diary pages. The possibilities are endless! You also don’t need any fancy software. You can use Canva or Google Slides to turn your vision into reality!

You can either use a website or your social media to promote the products and sell them.

With these eight interesting ways to create your passive income, you will have a little extra cash in your pocket in no time!

Get Personalised Advice from Experts

Nathi Khumalo
Founder of Inzuzo Analytics
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Founder of Redmatchstick Marketing
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Founder NOVILS Consulting
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CEO of Acumind and Hazile Group
Thabo Ncalo
Managing Partner at 8th Season Capital
Themba Mtsali
Founder and CEO of IKAMVA SBS

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