Passive Income Ideas For Application Engineers [2024]

Updated: September 19th, 2024

In 2024, could you transform your engineering prowess into a steady stream of passive income?

Application engineers, known for their problem-solving skills and deep technical knowledge, are in a prime position to leverage their expertise into profitable side hustles that can work alongside their main careers. But where to start?

We've curated a list of some of the most promising passive income ideas specifically tailored for application engineers.

For each idea, we dive into practical examples and strategies, so you can envision exactly how to turn your technical know-how into additional revenue without sacrificing your day job. Get ready to explore new avenues of income and discover your next venture.

1. Make passive income with a mobile app ($70.3K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $1 — $500,000/month

How long does it take to build: 180 days (?)

We Started A $6M/Year Bachelorette Party App

BACH, an app that plans and books bachelorette parties, has grown from $0 to >$1M net revenue run rate in less than 6 months, gained over 100,000 users in their first 60 days, and has over 40,000 parties using the app this month.

Read by 10,955 founders

2. Make passive income with a lead generation tool ($108K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $1,000 — $400,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $600 (?)

How long does it take to build: 90 days (?)

How I Created A $5M/Year LinkedIn Marketing Automation Tool

Dux-Soup is a LinkedIn automation tool that helps business owners and sales & marketing professionals generate more leads, increase efficiency, and save time; with over 70,000 users and revenue of nearly $5 million, it offers automated top-of-the-funnel LinkedIn outreach activities, targeted LinkedIn campaigns and multi-touch & personalized LinkedIn drip campaigns for lead generation.

Read by 8,885 founders

3. Make passive income with an ai based business solution ($55.8K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $4,000 — $120,000/month

How long does it take to build: 125 days (?)

How We Launched A $120K/Month Audiobook Publishing Course

Mikkelsen Twins grew an online education company from scratch with over 800 students, making over 6-figures in profit every month thanks to their successful program, Audiobook Income Academy 2.0.

Read by 21,941 founders

4. Make passive income with an email marketing tool ($249K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $120 — $2,083,333/month

How much does it cost to start: $1,000 (?)

How long does it take to build: 170 days (?)

I Built A SEO Tool That's Completely Free For Users [From Lebanon]

H-supertools founder Hasan developed a set of free SEO and digital marketing tools generating $2k per month in profit using Google Adsense, affiliate marketing, selling ad spaces, and email, plans to launch a membership option, and has attained over 80k registered users and 300k monthly visits in less than two years.

Read by 14,018 founders

5. Make passive income with a social media automation business ($148K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $4,000 — $400,000/month

How long does it take to build: 50 days (?)

How I Bootstrapped A Social Media Automation Tool To $2MM/Year

MeetEdgar, a bootstrapped social media automation tool founded in 2014 by Laura Roeder, has grown to $4 million in annual recurring revenue and more than 5,000 customers, with a team size of two dozen, achieved through content marketing, social media marketing, and organic search.

Read by 15,174 founders

6. Make passive income with an AI writing tool ($255K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $4,000 — $1,000,000/month

How long does it take to build: 52 days (?)

I Built A Simple AI Writing Tool That Makes $60K/Year

Rytr, a new AI writing assistant developed by a startup platform and business incubator, has become a market leader, serving over 300,000 customers across the world and doing seven figures in ARR.

Read by 6,643 founders

7. Make passive income with a wordpress plugin business ($33.4K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $120 — $120,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $5,000 (?)

How long does it take to build: 120 days (?)

Time commitment per week: Min. 5 hours/week

How I Coded A Website Plugin Making $600 Per Month

Wheely Sales CEO Josh created a lucky wheel popup that has grown revenue from $0 to $600/month in just 4 months since getting started and has attracted over 1.1 million users to his customers’ websites, all while proving that when it comes to creating a product, competition is validation.

Read by 18,938 founders

8. Make passive income with a niche website ($107K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $400 — $250,000/month

How long does it take to build: 60 days (?)

How I Leveraged My LinkedIn Network To Create A $1.8M/Year Procurement Conference

DPW (Digital Procurement World) is a fast-growing conference and community in procurement that has more than tripled in revenue since launching in 2019, capping out the year at €1.8 million, with 95% of their growth coming from inbound traffic leveraging LinkedIn and applying social selling techniques.

Read by 3,584 founders

9. Make passive income with an online course sales business ($85K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $100 — $300,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $2,000 (?)

How long does it take to build: 180 days (?)

I Make $120K/Year With My Print On Demand T-Shirt Side Hustle

A multipreneur shares how she built a successful print on demand side hustle, generating $120,000 per year through multiple brands spread over various platforms.

Read by 11,985 founders

10. Make passive income with a chair manufacturer

Here's the full list:

11. Make passive income with a podcast ($97.9K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $400 — $1,020,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $2,000 (?)

How long does it take to build: 60 days (?)

Time commitment per week: Min. 2 hours/week

How I Started A Successful Podcast Production Company

A successful podcast production company that grew from one client making $15/hour to a team of 10 contractors producing over 30 shows per week with revenue of over $10k/mo, primarily through referrals and with a focus on providing high personal touch and being picky about working only with clients who are a good fit.

Read by 19,158 founders

meet the author
Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.