Who doesn’t want to make money while they sleep? If you want to really make a lot of money, it’s easier if you can do it 24/7.
Imagine waking up first thing in the morning to a nice healthy bank balance that grew overnight.
The 51 ways to make money while you sleep below can help this become your reality.
Passive income is the holy grail of making money.
Any stream of income you can create that doesn’t require your regular attention will take you a long way towards your goal.
Making income without having to constantly work for it is all the rage right now but how do you actually go about creating an income stream that will make money while you sleep?
This post contains affiliate links. Please read my Disclosure for more information.
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How To Make Money While You Sleep
Most ways to make money while you sleep require an initial effort but stay the course you will be making money passively in no time!
Keep your eyes on the prize and before you know it you will be cashing in as you snooze.
Imagine sitting on the beach on vacation while the dollars come rolling in! It really is possible.
51 Ways To Make Money While You Sleep
1. Start a blog
If you can get readers, you can make money. This is my preferred way to make money while I sleep and I love waking up to a sale notification.
With a high traffic site, you can make a lot of money from advertising revenue.
Pay per click ads can really amount to a significant income on a popular site.
Starting a blog is not a quick way to make money but with work in the beginning you might be able to join the ranks of the bloggers who make a nice six figure income with their websites.
I started making what I would classify as a full-time income about 1 year into blogging so it is not a get-rich quick scheme by any means.
How Blogs Make Money
- Products and Services
- Ad Income
- Affiliate Marketing
Get Started: How To Start A Blog That Makes Money
2. Etsy Printables Shop
Start an Etsy Printables Business for true passive income.
I started one late last year and it has added a really nice income stream to my monthly earnings.
Want to learn how to get started and get a free ebook? Check out this tutorial.
3. Buy a small business
Most people focus on the Internet when trying to make money while they sleep.
Any small business where you can hire other people to run it will work.
Do you think the owner of 10 McDonald’s franchises is in there flipping burgers?
Your own bricks-and-mortar business might be the answer.
If you have some start-up money to invest, check out local franchises and do research on what is working well in neighbouring cities but lacking in your own.
That’s how to find the gap in the market that will create your passive income.
4. Create Affiliate Websites
This is similar to the blog idea, but an affiliate website is commonly dedicated to selling a single product.
Maybe it’s for a diet product or a dating strategy product.
By creating a website with worthwhile content, you can attract people looking to spend money on the type of product that you’re offering.
Niche websites are a really good way to promote products and get traffic via Google.
You can find products on websites like ShareaSale. There is no shortage of products and you’re sure to find something that you can sell.
5. Sell Your Own Books
Specifically, write an eBook and sell it online. Amazon.com makes it extremely easy to sell your eBook and they take care of everything.
You can even create your ebooks using Google Docs or Word and convert them into PDFs.
You can also sell your books on your own site and take part in deal programs like the one run by Ultimate Bundles.
Every few months, Ultimate Bundles sells tons of resources on a specific topic at a low price. It’s a great way to get your name out there.
Tips for maximizing your income via ebooks.
- Create a mini-empire. If you have an eBook on raising chickens, why not have a website and a blog about raising chickens? You can establish yourself as an expert and have a lot of cross advertising going on.
- Pick something that a lot of people are willing to spend money on. Things like money, love, and health are goldmines.
- Choose a topic you’re passionate about. If you love it, then it’s not really work.
6. DropShipping
Open up your own Shopify Store and create your own business selling other people’s products.
Drop shipping allows you to sell merchandise without the costs and hassle involved in warehousing and supply chain management.
7. Get Someone else to do the work for you
This sounds crazy but it is how most entrepreneurs make money while they sleep.
Hire someone else to do it then give them the cut of the earnings while you pocket the rest.
The idea here is to get the contract for some work that pays reasonably well and then simply hire someone else to do the work.
You pay them less than what you’re getting paid and keep the rest.
If you can get enough work, you won’t have to do much and you can really make some money, all while you sleep.
Jobs that work well for this passive income concept:
- Bookkeeping
- Landscaping
- House cleaning
Your job would involve getting new clients while your assistant or subcontractor does all the service work.
Picking up ongoing, monthly contracts is where you make the most money.
Online Options
For contracts involving online work, such as programming, design, or graphics for websites, you can hire an inexpensive virtual assistant via Upwork or Fiverr.
8. Amazon FBA
Start your own business selling things on Amazon for a profit. Amazon FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) is a way to make money selling items as a third party on Amazon.
Get all the details on how to get started here.
9. Watch videos for gift cards
A lot of people think of online survey sites as a hard way to make money but most of them have a video component where you can just let the clips autoplay and make money.
Swagbucks is my favorite site for watching videos and you get a $5 bonus just for joining.
10. Rent out your spare room
If you have a spare room in your house, you can make money from it.
Rent it out to a lodger on a short or long term basis.
This can help with your mortgage costs and be a really passive way to make extra cash.
11. Create and sell an online course
Are you an expert at anything?
Do you have knowledge to share?
Maybe you are an RN looking for healthcare side hustles.
Well, why not teach others what you know?
If so, consider selling a course online.
Once you have created your course, you can sell it again and again for a profit without doing any additional work.
12. Airbnb
Maybe you don’t have a room to rent out but how about making money from your whole house?
Imagine getting paid to go on vacation!
Check out how much you could make on Airbnb
13. Sell PLR
Here is another way to make income passively that is a “do it once, get paid again and again” idea.
Selling PLR content online allows you to get paid many many times for one piece of writing.
14. Peer to Peer Lending
Get a return on your investment with a site like Lending Club or GoPeer.
Here’s how it works:
- Invest as little as $10 per loan
- Borrowers make fixed monthly repayments with interest, which are deposited directly into your account.
- Diversify your investments across as many borrowers as you wish to stabilize overall returns.
Apps That Make You Money While You Sleep
If you want to make money using your phone, check out the 9 apps below to make passive income.
They will pay you with PayPal cash or gift cards just to download them.
First of all, just download the apps below on Google Play or Apple.
Then get points for downloading and trying various apps (Facebook, Spotify etc).
Cash out your points for PayPal cash or gift cards.
You can also make extra points for watching videos and playing games on these apps.
15. Featurepoints
16. Swagbucks
17. AppKarma
18. Grabpoints
19. PocketFlip
20. AppNana
21. GiftPanda
22. CashPirate
23. Cashout Rewards
24. Big Cash
25. Inbox Dollars
More Ways To Make Money While You Sleep
26. Cashback Passive apps
You have probably heard of cash back sites such as Rakuten and BeFrugal.
With those you have to make sure to click on the browser or use the Chrome extension so that your shopping cash back is registered.
There are also other cash back apps that will automatically pay you for shopping purchases once you have linked them to your bank account.
In Canada, I use Avion Rewards and in the US, you can use Drop (US and Canada)
Download Avion Rewards and Drop apps and each of them will give you a welcome bonus of $5. (Use referral code 63owe to claim your $5 from Drop).
27. Sell Photos Online
I bet you have a ton of photos on your phone that you completely forgot about.
Imagine making money passively by selling those photos while you sleep.
Smartphone cameras are so good now that you don’t need to be a professional photographer to get paid for your stock photos.
Here are 15 Best Stock Photo Sites To Sell Images
28. Print On-Demand Products
Use a site like Cafepress to create your own products using cute fonts, funny sayings and designs.
Open up an Instagram or Facebook page to promote your new “store”.
Products Ideas Include:
- Mugs
- T-shirts
- Hats
- Vinyl Decals
- Stickers
29. Webinars
Have you ever signed up for a free webinar through a Facebook ad and realized at the end of it that it was a recording?
You can create your own expert webinars, charge a fee and make money again and again from your recordings.
Automated webinars run day and night so people can sign up whenever they like.
30. Real Estate Investing
While it is true that you need a pretty hefty investment to make money with real estate, having a couple of rental properties is an amazing way to make money while you sleep.
31. Start a YouTube Channel
Like a webinar, YouTube will allow you to make money passively from your videos. Maybe you can get into the unboxing trend or make cooking videos. Whatever you choose making money on YouTube is a great idea.
32. Start A Membership Site
A membership site is kind of like a club that you pay to join. I am personally in a couple of membership sites for work. If you can get 100 members paying $20 a month, it’s not a bad income.
33. Flip Websites
Buying and selling websites is a lucrative way to make money online.
Buy an existing site that is already making money, tweak it a bit and then sell it at a profit. Empire Flippers is a website broker that you can check out.
To learn more about website flipping, I recommend checking out the Blog Flipping Masterclass course.
34. Rent out your car
Get paid to let someone else use your car with Turo. This is like the Airbnb of cars and you could make up to $2000 a month depending on the make and year of your car.
35. Sell Advertising Space
I’ve already mentioned getting paid for advertising on your website or blog but you can also make money letting companies use your car for their advertisements.
Companies such as Wrapify will pay you to let them “wrap” your car in adverts.
36. Invest in the Stock Market
The stock market is definitely a way to make money passively but you could also lose money pretty passively too!
This is a money maker idea for the less risk averse among us.
37. Paid Facebook Group
You might not even know these exist but I am in three paid Facebook groups.
One costs $15 a month and the other costs $200 a year to have access to information, advice, mentorship and helpful files.
38. Rent out your gear
Make money renting out stuff in your garage with a site like Fat llama. You will be amazed at the stuff people will pay you to borrow.
39. Crowdfund Real Estate Investing
If you don’t have the big bucks for buying up real estate to rent out, consider joining a crowdfunding site like Fundrise.
This will let you make money while you sleep in real estate without the big downpayment.
40. Share Your Internet
Honeygain is the first-ever app that allows users to make money online by sharing their internet connection.
Sign up for Honeygain and get $5 just for joining.
41. High Yield Savings
Granted, the interest rate might not be amazing but if you don’t want to take too many risks, a good savings account can still net you some passive dollars.
42. Earn credit card rewards points
If you are not using your credit card for everything, you are missing out on a bunch of passive income.
I use credit cards to pay for everything I can from bills to groceries to my car insurance. (bills, groceries, gas, etc.). My credit card gives me between 1-3% cash back on everything I spend which I use to pay down my bill every month.
If you are into travel, check out a travel credit card that will get you free flights and vacations.
43. Launch an App
Creating a smartphone app requires some front-loaded effort in the beginning but it can be a passive income maker for years to come.
If you don’t have good programming skills, you can outsource the actual development of your idea although of course, that will eat into your profits.
You can make money with your app by charging for it, getting in-app transactions, or running advertisements.
44. Start an Etsy Store
I mentioned an Etsy Printables business earlier on in this post but another way to create a passive income stream is to sell on Etsy.
You are probably thinking you need to be crafty to have a successful Etsy store but in fact, the bestselling Etsy items are bead supplies that you can source and resell yourself.
If you want to open an Etsy store and get 40 free listings, check out my Etsy tutorial here.
45. Online Arbitrage
Online arbitrage is a fancy way of saying “flea market flipping“.
That is, finding treasures at yard sales and thrift stores and selling them for a profit.
46. Domain Name Acquisition
If you can attain some desirable domain names, then you can easily turn a profit selling them to someone who simply needs that domain.
You can buy domain names pretty cheaply on sites like Namecheap.com then offer them to sell for people who own sites with similar names.
47. Create WordPress Plugins and Themes
Millions of websites run on WordPress and they all use Plugins and themes to power their content.
You can create your own plugins and themes and sell them on sites like Themeforest or Creative Market.
If you don’t know where to begin with the code, this is another passive income stream that you can outsource and still make money from.
48. Get Paid To Sleep By NASA
I can’t believe I have never heard of this before. NASA will pay you to sleep!
But there is a catch – you have to be laying at a 6 degree head-down tilt for 70 days, non-stop.
Here’s the deal from the NASA bed rest FAQ: “Volunteers spend up to 70 days in bed with a six-degree head-down tilt.
They must eat, exercise, and even shower in the head-down position”
How much can you get paid for this? There are volunteer positions and paid opportunities which pay up to $18,000 for 70 days.
49. Become a Sleep Intern
This may sound crazy but there is a company who is actually hiring interns to sleep and test out their mattresses from home.
You will get paid (not much) for sleeping on their mattresses for 100 nights plus a free mattress at the end of it.
50. Get Paid to Sleep (Literally)
Did you know people are making money by filming themselves sleeping overnight and streaming it on Tiktok?
51. Get Paid To Lay Around
You don’t even need to be asleep to make money as a furniture tester!
Brands will actually pay you to lay on their couches and beds and give your honest reviews.
Want to test furniture for a living? Click here to find out all about it.
Last Thoughts On Making Money While You Sleep
After those 51 amazing passive income ideas, I’m sure you are raring to go and start earning so I will leave you with the words of Warren Buffet:
“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”
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