Passive income – making money while you sleep is anyone’s dream. Who wouldn’t want to boost their income this way? Some people can even make a living and pay the bills entirely through passive income, but how do you even get started?

Advertising space

We’ll start with the obvious one that most people know by now. Websites can sell advertising space on their website.

If you want to set up advertising on your website, a popular method to start off with is Google AdSense, which will handle most of the work for you.

Google AdSense will put advertisements on your site which are targeted towards the site’s content and audience. You will receive money for hosting these adverts, but advertisers all pay different prices for their adverts so the amount you earn can vary.

It’s worth pointing out though, that this only really brings a decent return if you have a lot of traffic. Another thing to consider is how advertisements affect the website visitor experience. No one likes to be overloaded with ads as soon as they click on a website.

If you would rather not use something like Google AdSense and have full control over the advertisements on your site, you can reach out to advertisers directly and sell your website space to them. It can be a more time-consuming way to do it, and you’ll need to ensure you have a large audience for many to even consider your site.

Affiliate links

Another common method people use to generate an income is through affiliate links. When a website visitor clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase, the website they arrive on will pay you a commission for sending some business their way.

You can set up affiliate links by joining programmes through other websites or through an affiliate marketplace like ShareASale.

It’s a legal requirement to be upfront about your affiliation with other brands, but it’s good to have this transparency with visitors. It will help them trust you, rather than feeling that they’re being funnelled towards a purchase.

Most blog posts will have a disclaimer at the top saying something like “this post contains affiliate links which will pay me a commission if you purchase through them, at no additional cost to you”. Fans of your content might even be happy to help you get a commission.

Digital products

Digital products are things you create once, such as downloads, templates, eBooks or video training courses, which can then be purchased again and again by visitors.

This is a great way to build passive income because you can sell an eBook to hundreds of people after only creating it once. That said, it’s a good idea to update your digital products every now and then if they become out of date!

Investing in marketing and boosting your campaigns can go even further towards boosting the potential to earn passive income through your website; it takes time and dedication though!

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About The Author

Kara Copple

An experienced business and finance writer, sometimes moonlighting as a fiction writer and blogger.

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