There are 2 basic ways to earn money: Passive and active income. Active income is where you sell your time for money – this is your regular everyday jobs. Passive income is the money you earn through alternate sources, as opposed to the active method through which you earn money by selling your time. The most common definition of passive income is this: Income that you earn without being actively involved.

You can earn passive income. Melvyn Mangion argues that one does not need to find time to generate a passive income. One can just invest his or her money or time and then sit back, relax and reap the profits from the investment. The best part is that one can keep his or her day job. One can continue to do the work one wants to do, while in the background the passive income machine generates revenue for you.

Passive income is a beauty, we all want to create additional revenue source yet we are time-bound, we have only 24 hours a day to work on. Passive income machinery works even while you sleep in the night. That’s why passive income is much loved.

Melvyn Mangion suggests that investing in dividend-paying stocks (or mutual funds) is a great way to generate passive income. If you buy quality stocks, the dividend is almost guaranteed. The rate of dividend quite often outranks the interest rate you earn on deposits. Also, the stock price gain is yours to keep when you sell the stock.

Real estate investing is a very common way to earn passive income. I have many friends who invested in rental or commercial real estate. There’s no limit to your income as you basically use other people’s money to earn passive income. Your bank lends you money to buy a rental property. You pay them off with the rent you get. The surplus amount after home tax and insurance is your passive income.

Initially, it requires a lot of effort in buying a property that can easily be rented out and as many times as needed. After that initial effort, the income from it becomes really passive. You get automated rent check and you pay out automated mortgage payments.

Already have something you are ridiculously good at and you actually know how to transfer your knowledge and teach the topic? You are halfway there to becoming a course writer for some very popular websites. Online courses have become a real hit and have taken off in sense of popularity lately, as people are starting to understand more and more that it’s not always about diplomas and which school you went to.

A true passive online income would be through a website which you create and upload content once and then it can continue to earn money for you from the advertisements you put up.

Writing a book might also raise you passive income. Easier said than done, I admit. If you love writing then you need to put effort for a few months to create a book and market it to publishers. Then, once you’re published, you pretty much don’t do anything else than counting the royalty payment. eBooks also go hand in hand with creating and online course as you can sell your eBook to people who take your course as an additional resource for learning. This increases the chances of your eBook becoming more popular if the word of mouth start spreading, which can later interest some new blog readers into taking up your course.

Many personal finance bloggers have written eBooks and published them through Amazon. They earn $1 to $10 for each book sale, depending on the price of the book.

In a world in which most of the population of countries in which selling photos is a real thing, almost everyone has a smartphone with a decent enough camera. A little learning of the principles of photography, some knowledge of how light works and how shadows are made, a couple good landscapes and you will be set to become a semi-pro photographer.

To generate passive income through apps, you should possess a quality very few does. You should have an innovative idea for an app. You then need to know the coding part or need to know someone who will develop the app for you. Then it’s all about marketing.