Passive Income Ideas For Consultants [2024]

Updated: September 21st, 2024

Ever feel like your consulting work isn’t fulfilling its full financial potential? As a consultant, your expertise is in high demand, but relying solely on direct client engagements can limit your income stream. Imagine unlocking new avenues of revenue that allow you to earn money even while you’re sleeping or enjoying your weekend.

In 2024, the landscape for passive income is brimming with opportunities tailored specifically for consultants. From creating online courses to launching subscription-based services, the possibilities are both varied and attainable. These income streams not only provide financial security but also enhance your professional brand and reach.

We've gathered the top passive income ideas that consultants can readily incorporate into their business strategy. Whether you're looking to diversify your income or create a financial safety net, these ideas will show you real-world examples, expert tips, and actionable steps to help you seamlessly integrate passive income into your consulting business.

1. 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 12,037 founders

2. 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 3,619 founders

3. Make passive income with a niche blog ($31.5K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $100 — $650,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $650 (?)

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

How I Turned A Crappy Idea Into A $3M/Year Business

Starter Story grew to 1.4 million monthly visitors and millions in annual revenue by sharing the stories of entrepreneurs. Pat breaks down the early days and how he grew the business into something that changed his life.

Read by 78,257 founders

4. Make passive income with an email marketing tool ($992K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $120 — $20,833,333/month

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

How long does it take to build: 180 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 14,150 founders

5. Make passive income with a cold email service business ($170K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $4,000 — $450,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $200 (?)

How long does it take to build: 35 days (?)

How I Launched A $200K/Month Gmail Mail Merge Tool

GMass, an email marketing platform that allows users to send cold emails and email marketing campaigns with Gmail, has attracted over 500,000 user signups, including major tech companies like Uber, LinkedIn, and Google, and now generates over $200K in monthly recurring revenue through a successful content marketing strategy and focused ad spend.

Read by 13,714 founders

6. 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 8,922 founders

7. 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 21,996 founders

8. Make passive income with a niche investment platform ($167K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $2,000 — $600,000/month

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

How We Started A $40M Real Estate Investment Fund

Equity Residences is a luxury real estate investment fund that has raised $40 million from over 200 investors, offering them access to a portfolio of luxury vacation homes for investment and personal use, with a minimum investment of $161,500 and plans to acquire a further twenty residences ranging from $1.5M to $4M.

Read by 13,325 founders

9. Make passive income with a social media automation business ($139K/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 15,250 founders

10. Make passive income with an employee training business ($43.6K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $3,000 — $160,000/month

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

How long does it take to build: 62 days (?)

How We Built And Launched A Health Care Training Platform

VORTTX Training and Testing is a virtual emergency response training system generating 1% of its market potential of one hundred million dollars a year in its second year of full-time operation through utilizing email marketing, trade shows, trade events, referrals, personalized LinkedIn messages, and featuring testimonials from early adopters.

Read by 7,554 founders

11. Make passive income with a YouTube channel ($72.1K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $2,000 — $333,333/month

How much does it cost to start: $5,250 (?)

How long does it take to build: 30 days (?)

How A Young Entrepreneur From Nigeria Started A Profitable Blog

This case study follows the journey of a young entrepreneur from Nigeria who started a profitable blog generating a monthly revenue of $1,500+ through sales of advertising space, sponsored posts, and information products, and shares his strategies for success including a Twitter growth challenge and guest post pitches.

Read by 12,323 founders

12. Make passive income with an affiliate marketing business ($77.5K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $500 — $773,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $700 (?)

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

My Affiliate Marketing Business Earns $500K/Year Profit [No Employees]

This case study explores how Spencer Mecham founded Buildapreneur, an affiliate marketing business, and has made over half a million dollars in profit with no employees, relying solely on content marketing through platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.

Read by 24,634 founders

13. Make passive income with a stock investing business ($30.3K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $4,000 — $160,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $3,500 (?)

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

I Launched A $54K/Year Newsletter That Finds Trending Stocks

Ticker Nerd is a monthly subscription service for investors that surfaces and analyzes trending stocks before the hype train arrives, and now has $4.5k in monthly recurring revenue from its newsletter without spending a single dollar on advertising, having validated the business via subreddits and organic Product Hunt launch strategy.

Read by 23,803 founders

14. 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 11,014 founders

meet the author
Pat Walls