5 Creative Ideas for Creating Passive Income

Welcome to our weekly column by Blogger Babes co-founder Ponn Sabra. Check back every Monday for the tips and tricks you need to take your blog to the next level!

Last week, I talked about introducing passive income streams to your blog, and you expressed interest in new, creative ideas to do so. So for this week, I thought I'd share some tactics to try on your blog. I hope they'll spur your imagination so you can come up with even more unique ideas that'll truly thrive under your touch.

1. Buy an established website.

This requires a bit of an investment, but it can really be a fast-track to passive income. I'm not talking about buying Instagram from Facebook. Look for a reliably-listed blog with some traffic and a decent history—all the better if it's in need of a cosmetic clean-up.

Make sure the site hasn't been “Penguinized” by Google (if it contains a lot of exact-match anchor text and heavily repeating keywords, it probably has). As with any move you make, do your research first.

Check out Flippa and the Flippa blog if blog flipping sounds interesting or right for you.

2. Get a coach.

If you've been fumbling around your blog on your own for a while without much monetary success, your best bet is to hire a coach, or join a reputable affiliate marketing membership site that includes lessons and/or resources (like Blogger Babes!). You can even join membership sites for free.

Make sure to check all your references and avoid anyone who promises significant amounts of money in your first week—unless you're prepared to drop around $2,000 on Google AdSense, that's not going to happen.

If you decide to join a membership site, it's better to go with one that has a good reputation and strong reviews. Membership groups can be especially ideal for newer marketers in that they offer:

• Training
• Resources
• Coaching
• Feedback
• The benefit of your peers’ experiences
• Support

Best of all, they'll help fast-track you—so your streams of income will start trickling in (or maybe pouring?) a lot sooner than if you struggled through it on your own.

My recommendations include Solomasterminds and MyNAMS. I've been a member of both of them for more than three years, cultivating lifelong relationships and meeting incredible coaches.

3. Join your membership group's affiliate program.

Having joined the group and found it useful… tell others about it! Try creating a blog and honestly detailing your journey and experiences. Review the program. Then promote it on your social networks in as natural a way as you can.

Write articles about the problems that the group helps you solve—and note that you're writing about the problem first, and then a solution that helped you out. Now invite others to join you through your affiliate link.

4. Develop a plugin or app your readers would love to use.

Remember CoSign and FashionTap from my last article? Those apps are definitely ways for fashion bloggers to nab some passive income, but have you considered making an app or plugin yourself?

You don't need to be a brilliant WordPress or iTunes developer to create this kind of software—you just need to hire the right developers. Outsourcing is your friend. Whether it's risking it with a new developer in an absurdly cheap market like Fiverr, hiring someone upon recommendation (ask around in your forums or groups), or posting a proposal for a freelancer on Upwork, all you need is a good idea.

As a creative, inspiring, and stylish blogger, that should be easy for you, right? 😉 What kind of app would streamline and simplify your daily grind?

5. Clean out your files.

This may seem less conducive to generating ideas at first, but let's face it: a clean workspace will undoubtedly help you get things done and get those creative muscles pumping.

Take a day to clean out your hard drive. If you have a long business history, take another day to clean out your paper files. Organize your stock images and PLR. See what forgotten information you can retrieve and rework! Then keep the best pieces and use them to brainstorm more ideas.

It's amazing how easily a forgotten phrase can trigger a powerful income-generating idea! And when it comes to passive income, there's absolutely nothing wrong with multiple, diverse streams and taking a few educated risks.

These are only 5 out of 21 ideas for passive income streams from my and Heidi’s third e-kit in the Blogger Building Blocks Monthly series, Creating Passive Income Now. This starter kit also includes a passive income planner, step-by-step tutorial workbook, 3-week business planning and marketing calendar, and a getting-it-done checklist.

So, what surprises did you find the last time you cleared your hard drive? Any convertible ideas, perhaps?