Making residual income on the Internet

Starting an online business requires time and dedication and above all a great business idea, and you may not be interested in going through all that trouble just to become your own boss. However, what about creating a source (or several) of residual income online only on your free time? There are many ways to generate residual income online, with rewards directly proportional to your skills and the time invested.

Make money from a blog

If you enjoy writing and want to make money online, a blog can be a good source of residual income. Depending on your niche and writing style you may prefer to use sell advertising space or sign up for affiliate programs and promote third party products or services relevant for your audience.

For a blog to work as a source of online money you need to produce high quality content regularly, probably at least once every two or three days. So if you are just after some residual income don’t start a blog unless you enjoy writing. You will need to get large amounts of traffic to make a regular income, so learning how to market your website online effectively is key.
Time until you start making money: Between 3 and 6 months

Online digital marketplaces

If you are a good photographer or illustrator, but don’t want to keep your own website and want money upfront for your efforts you can publish your work on websites such as iStockPhoto, Snapfish publisher program or Photobox.

Other online marketplaces worth checking out are:

• 3D ocean to sell 3D art
• Activeden for Flash components
• AudioJungle for stock music and audio
• ThemeForest for website templates, including WordPress
• VideoHive for Motion graphics
• Graphicriver for stock graphics
• Codecanyon for scripts, plugins and code in general

Time until you start making money: It can take a month to reach the first payout.

Arts and crafts

You can sell handmade products on marketplaces such as Etsy, Ebay or even on Amazon. You set your own prices and you are responsible for sending the item to the buyer and closing the transaction, so it’s worth checking the forums for advice on how to prevent being scammed and the best tips to trade safely.

For best results you will need to be able to take beautiful pictures of your hand made items, so a lightning set and a good digital camera would be a good investment. You don’t need to have a stock of items, as long as they are as per the picture most people will be happy to have their order made on demand, and you can even offer customization as a bonus feature.
Time until you start making money: Depends on how fast your items sell.