Abby B. Are you an introvert looking to make passive income online? Finding it hard to grow on noisy social media and grow an audience like everyone else? Well, you’re in for a treat! Making money online is the perfect business or side hustle for introverts. You just have to know what works best for you. As an introvert myself, I always try to look out for ways to make money online without having to place myself in the center stage. Putting myself out there on various social medias seems pretty daunting and I know it can be the same for you.
Here are the 9 types of passive income for introverts like you!
*This post may contain affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission (at no cost to you) if you sign up for a program or make a purchase using my link!
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1. Blogging
Passive Marketeer was created for me to blog about ways to make money online while earning passively with writing. I could have created similar contents and uploaded videos on YouTube but figured it’s a little too much for my introverted soul. Just like any other new business, this one took awhile to decide and I had to do research to weigh its pros and cons. For me, playing the long term game is more appealing as long as I have peace of mind and ample mental space!
If you’re a recovering introvert like me, blogging may be your ticket to being a content producer. A professional blogger is a legitimate career even though not everyone will understand how you make a living income from it. Well, I’d say they don’t need to know and you don’t have to care. Starting your blogging journey? This teaches everything and keeps your pocket intact.
You may be thinking, how is blogging a source of passive income? Well, in the early stages it’s pretty active. You have to be writing and uploading content at least once a week for the first two years. You would have the greater upper hand if you can upload more. Google needs some time to recognize you and understand what your website is about before putting it out there for others to read. I recommend Aisha Preece’s short course to learn all about blog SEO. Don’t fret, there’s so many ways to make an income off a blog and you don’t need to wait 2 years to earn. However, once you can make money passively with display advertising, your view on life, time and money will change! Ezoic accepts blogs with no minimum pageviews, YAY!
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2. Print On Demand
Another passive income that I love is print on demand. I truly believe it is one of the best sources of passive income for introverts, especially if you’re gifted with designing skills. That said, you don’t need extravagant designing skills to make money with print on demand. Making designs off Canva is already enough! While it’s good to go ahead and build your own brand website to showcase your print on demand designs, I would recommend selling on Etsy first. You need the time to work on your skills and build your brand. Once you have a greater following on Etsy, it’s pretty easy to divert all that traffic to your very own online store. This way, you’re working on organic traffic instead of paid traffic – you don’t want to pay for traffic when starting out.
Print on demand is great for introverts because you don’t have to leave your house! You don’t have to source products, pack orders or ship anything because fulfillment companies like Printify and Printful will do it for you. The only thing you have to do is choose a good niche, make designs, upload them to best selling products you wish to sell and display them in your shop. Orders made via Etsy will automatically be detected on Printify and Printful so it’s pretty smooth for sellers. It’s wise to get your hands on these products just to have a good feeling of what you’re selling but it’s not necessary.
3. Amazon KDP
Did you know you can make digital ebooks and sell them on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing? Gone were the days where we needed a publishing house to publish our books and sacrifice our hard earned profits to earn pennies. I believe most great writers are introverts because how can you write if you’re not spending time on your own? Anyhow, Amazon KDP is one of the ways you can make passive income for writing a 100-300 page book. It’s up to you what you like to write about. Once you upload it to Amazon, sales can come in even when you’re asleep. Just upload and forget about it. Amazon will handle all the printing and delivery of both physical or digital books. Customers can have it any way they want to.
Among the best topics to write about and sell well on Amazon are entrepreneurship, self improvement, food recipes, making money online and ways to save money. These things are simply evergreen meaning you can update your book once every 5 years. Designing a book cover isn’t rocket science and you can do it with Canva!
4. Etsy Shop
Small businesses are on the rise, Etsy is getting greater traction than ever before. Did you know that 90% of Etsy sellers are actually solopreneurs? That’s right, people who only work for themselves and have no one else on their team. Although it may look like most shops have a team behind, most are just individuals doing everything themselves. If you’re an introvert, selling on Etsy may be a good option because you don’t need to work with anyone (unless you want to).
Maybe you’re wondering… is selling crafts on Etsy a source of passive income? Well, it is if you sell digital downloads or digital products. This way, you don’t have to actively manage products, stock levels, shipments etc. In fact, selling digital downloads on Etsy requires almost no work on your end because buyers will automatically get the product file after purchase. The only thing you have to do is manage your shop as well as answer any queries before and after purchase. You can do this with a different name and only during your shop’s operating hours, ensuring no breach in privacy and keeping your mind sane.
Good customer service goes a long way for digital downloads!
5. Sell Photos
Selling photo stocks on websites like DepositPhotos can bring you a good income passively years after you took that shot. It doesn’t matter what kind of photos you’re good at taking, whether it’s wedding or nature photos, as long as you know there’s a use to it. Generally, you can give it some thought – would websites and blogs use my photos? There’s so many types of websites and blog niches so you will never run out of ideas. With anything, I recommend mastering a 1 single niche before going into 2-3 more. You’ll also build your credibility as a professional this way.
This is a good passive income option for introverts because taking photos is something you can do on your own. You don’t need anyone else involved especially if no one is required to be in the photo. It’s something pretty easy to start and you can do it with an iPhone. Forget about all the DSLRs, while it’s good to have, it’s not necessary. Start simple and learn as you go!
6. Online Courses
Almost everyone today is learning something online, it can be off Udemy, Skillshare or even YouTube. If you’re handy at something, you can teach others about it and get paid passively. It gets difficult to fit in everyone’s schedule for a physical or one-to-one class but it doesn’t have to be with online classes. They can be pre recorded and played repeatedly if your student didn’t catch what you were saying. This allows you to price your online classes cheaper and affordability will bring in more sales. I happen to buy most of my classes on Udemy during extreme sales but does that mean the creator makes less? Nope! They’re simply selling something they’ve made quite a while ago.
I know you might be thinking if creating online courses is something for introverts? Well, ultimately you’re only talking to your camera. Most creators don’t even show their faces as often as you might think. People are looking to learn the subject matter and it’s less about you. As long as you’re a great teacher, you can do well selling online courses even as an introvert. You can teach all sorts of things but start with what you do and know best.
Aside from the networks above, I would recommend selling on Teachable especially if you have your own brand name and domain to integrate with. Landing pages are beautiful and you don’t have to create one from scratch. You can also increase sales by offering affiliate programs for your courses.
7. Affiliate Marketer
This is one of the easiest ways to make money with almost zero customer service involved. It’s not your product to begin with. You only have to promote a physical or digital product to an audience by showcasing its uses, benefits, what you like about it and how it can help them. The tough part of being an affiliate marketer is identifying your platform and audience. Although it can be done in an assortment of ways (you simply have to share your link to people), the success rate may sometimes hamper you when starting out. The key is to know which platform works best for promoting links – I believe it’s best to become a pro on Pinterest or Twitter. This depends on what you’re promoting, whether it has a physical appeal and the kind of audience it serves e.g. business owners, teenagers, fashion gurus etc.
It’s not necessary to show your face to thrive in affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing can also be done on your website or blog as anyone who reads your article may buy into what you’re recommending. Just don’t recommend what you don’t like!
8. Ecommerce store
Everyone from all around the world has been talking about dropshipping. Whether in a big or small scale, dropshipping simply means selling someone else’s product at your store without holding any stock and zero money upfront. You’ll earn when there’s a sale! Start by creating a website using Shopify, registering a domain on Bluehost and create a shop filled with products from AliExpress via Oberlo. Dropshipping is quite similar to print on demand as products are handled and shipped by suppliers. Once you set up your store, orders can come in at any time of day and you simply have to process them whilst managing customer enquiries. It’s quite passive!
Alternatively, if you have your own products to sell, you can set up a Shopify store with a domain in your brand’s name. This can be passive depending on what you’re selling e.g. digital products. Generally, you will be using Facebook, Instagram and Google Ads to bring in the traffic. You can also use TikTok for faster sales and build brand exposure.
9. Property rental
I get it, you might not be into opening a business or promoting products. It’s completely okay! You can choose to invest and earn passively. One of the options is to purchase a property with the main intention of renting it out. Not everyone is able to own their property but they definitely can make a good tenant. If you’re okay with it, you can also rent out a spare room in your current house. You’re making extra income from what you already have, it should help you cover your monthly payments. AirBnB is also an alternative to long term rental and most hosts make way more with AirBnB. You can make it passive by installing keypad locks and sourcing out the cleaning duties. Whatever makes you the money honey!
Bottom Line
Society always has a way of discriminating one against the other. Just because you’re not extroverted enough to engage on social media as an influencer, doesn’t mean you can’t make money online as an introvert. You don’t always have to be in the center stage or put yourself out there for fame. We can be ourselves and still earn passive income regardless! The 9 types of passive income I’ve listed above are among my favorite ways to earn online as an introvert. Be yourself and blossom!
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