How to Make Money While You Sleep
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Fast Facts
Passive Income:
Earn money with minimal effort.
Investments:
Stocks and real estate generate returns.
Digital Products:
Sell ebooks, courses online.
Royalties:
Income from creative works.
Growing your net worth can seem daunting, especially if you’re staring at thousands of dollars of debt via student loans, credit cards, or both. But there are some smart ways to make extra cash through passive income streams by maximizing the time and skills you already have to increase your cash flow.
Side hustles are a great way to make extra money online, but finding the right ones to grow your cash without taking up a huge chunk of time is key. You’ll also want to employ smarter savings strategies — such as finding higher interest rate accounts for your money and investment plans to help boost your bank account. From a second job to savvy money management tips, here are eight ways to make money, even while sleeping.
In this article
How to make money while you sleep
Find a high-yield savings account
First, put your money to work for you by ensuring you’re earning the best interest rates available. With inflation still high, one benefit of higher rates is that you can earn more in interest by storing your bank in the bank. Many banks already offer higher interest rates on high-yield savings accounts.
Most neo-banks — digital banks that typically do not have physical branches — offer high-yield savings accounts that allow you to earn more by stashing your cash. Some top digital banks like LendingClub, , and Capital One offer rates near 5%. That’s pretty impressive compared to the national average for savings accounts, which is near 0.57%.
Most digital banks have no fees; some have access to checking account options and debit cards.
Diversify your investment portfolio
While earning interest on savings is great — it can’t come close to the money you can earn by properly diversifying your investment portfolio. First, you’ll want to make sure you’re or (your future self will thank you later). Then, you can expand into other passive investment types, such as ETFs, index funds, mutual bonds, and even real estate investment trusts (REITs), which offer a more affordable way to invest in real estate. This real estate investment strategy lets you invest in rental properties for a fraction of the cost of managing one independently.
You can start small, too. Sign up for a brokerage account with platforms like E*trade, or consider a robo-advisor such as Betterment or Ellevest to do the heavy lifting for you. While you won’t get rich overnight with this strategy, it’s a great way to build long-term wealth. It’s also less risky than investing in the stock market directly on your own and is more affordable to get started with.
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Consider freelancing on Upwork or Fiverr
If you are gifted with creative or technical skills, such as writing, designing, coding, editing, voiceover work, podcast transcription, or animating, and need to create a separate income stream, consider seeking work on Fiverr or another freelance platform. While these platforms take a commission for each job you work, they also allow you to connect with a larger group of customers more easily — potentially helping you drum up more business.
To get started, you’ll want to compile some of your best work to show new clients, create an account, and then decide how much time you have available for your new gig. You may even find you’re making better money than your 9 to 5. While you’ll need to spend time fulfilling the requirements of any gig placed, customers can easily place orders while you sleep, helping you earn money even when you’re away from your laptop.
Start a dropshipping business
You don’t need a special talent to start a side hustle. Instead, with a little hard work and ingenuity, you can create your own online business selling your own products. You can create an online store and eCommerce site for selling products and use a dropshipping service to fulfill your orders.
Many dropshipping services offer the ability to create your own labels and place them on generic products that you can sell through your online store. The process is fairly simple and only requires you to set up a storefront through an eCommerce platform like Shopify or BigCommerce. You can use Shutterstock or stock photo services to paste images of your items and easily upload them onto your website.
This side hustle lets you easily earn money while you sleep, letting customers place orders at all hours.
Sell designs on Etsy
If your talent is in producing physical items, such as clothing, home decor, furniture, artwork, jewelry, or even digital designs, you can create a store on Etsy to sell your work. This allows you to connect to a built-in audience and manage your storefront entirely through Etsy, saving you the work of building a business from the ground up online.
Etsy will even make shipping your products easier while offering the ability to connect with local buyers to arrange pick-up services when possible. If you make digital designs, you can still sell them on Etsy — and sell as many as you please — allowing you to earn extra cash while you sleep easily.
Rent your room or house
You don’t necessarily need to make something new to successfully side hustle in your sleep. You can rent it out for extra cash if you have extra space — an apartment, a room in your house, a space over your garage, or even a secondary home.
There are a few options for doing this. First, you can become a landlord and rent your space long-term, with leases usually averaging a year or two. If you go this route, you can hire a property manager to help tend to the day-to-day issues so you can earn income with little involvement. If you plan on renting short-term, you might take on the management duties yourself and may find little time to turn a profit.
Lastly, consider renting your space on Airbnb. If you do this, you can hire a housekeeper to prepare your space for new guests and manage cleaning after checkout. You’ll earn money around the clock without much active involvement.
Become a social media influencer
For those with a large social media following, becoming an influencer can be a key way to begin earning money through affiliate marketing. This can work in a few different ways. For instance, a brand may reach out to you and ask you to promote one of their products or services in exchange for a set fee or commission. You may also receive affiliate marketing links to add to your social media posts or blog, so you'll receive money every time your followers click on the link.
While this can be a great way to accrue money passively, you’ll need to work on maintaining your online brand, growing your online audience, and ensuring you partner with brands that fit your online demographic. You also want to vet brands to ensure you don’t promote a product that will waste your followers' time or money. This can result in lost trust, decreased followers, and subsequent brand deals.
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Self publish ebooks
Those who love writing may get by just fine creating online content for companies. Still, one smart way to earn passive income is to create your own content, like ebooks, that you can continuously resell on sites like Amazon for ebook formats (like Kindle).
You don’t have to pen the next great novel to get started, either. Ebooks can offer your expertise in various subjects, such as dieting, exercise, mental health, business, growing your own business, self-help, and much more.
If you’re constantly hired as a writer for a particular niche, why not put your talents to work for yourself and earn commissions on your own writing, even while you sleep?
Create a YouTube channel
YouTube offers an exceptional platform for those seeking to turn their passions and expertise into a source of passive income. As one of the largest online platforms, YouTube allows content creators to explore various avenues for monetization, including ad revenue, affiliate marketing, and the sale of digital products. By consistently producing engaging and valuable content, you can attract a loyal audience and tap into the lucrative world of passive income. Ad revenue, generated from ads displayed on your videos, increases with the growth of your channel. Affiliate marketing partnerships with relevant products can provide commissions for every sale through your channel, while creating and selling digital products tailored to your niche offer a sustainable income stream.
Other tips for earning money passively
While side hustles can include earning coupons for products you’re already buying or spending time on survey sites to earn extra cash, not every online job requires constant attention. There are numerous ways to grow your cash reserve without a hefty time investment — though you may need to put in some time and energy upfront. For instance, taking online courses to learn how to run a business may be useful when managing rental properties and online dropshipping stores.
And, if you need startup cash, peer lending or a small business loan may help you get started.
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The bottom line
Earning money passively may not seem easy, but you can try many small tips today, from adding affiliate links to your social media accounts to placing your money in high-yield savings accounts.
If you want to earn more lucrative passive income, get serious about one of your passions or figure out which side hustle might serve you best to help produce long-term wealth.
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Writer
Courtney Johnston is a freelance writer, specializing in finance, travel, and health. She has written for The Chicago Tribune, Benzinga, BestReviews, Mashvisor, Fundera, MoneyGeek, and The Culture Trip. She also teaches writing instruction at the University of Indianapolis. Courtney currently resides in Indianapolis.
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