Passive Income Ideas For Writers [2024]

Updated: September 19th, 2024

Dream of turning your writing talent into a steady stream of passive income in 2024?

As markets evolve, the opportunities for writers to generate passive income are more plentiful and varied than ever. Whether you’re a seasoned wordsmith or just starting out, there's a growing array of creative avenues to monetize your craft without sacrificing your full-time gig or stretching your schedule too thin. But, where do you start?

We’ve unearthed some fantastic passive income ideas tailored specifically for writers. From self-publishing to affiliate marketing, each opportunity opens doors to consistent revenue while letting your words work for you around the clock.

Ready to explore how you can benefit from these passive income streams and see tangible examples from other successful writers along the way? Dive in and discover how you can leverage your writing skills to build a sustainable, hands-off income.

1. 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 77,042 founders

2. 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

3. 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 12,281 founders

4. 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

5. 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 24,536 founders

6. Make passive income with a cloud management platform

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $35,000/month

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

How This Solo Founder Bootstrapped A $20K/Month Cloud Management App

OpsLyft is a two-year-old high-growth startup built out of India and managing over $100 million of cloud investments each year, offering help to enterprise software companies globally to manage their cloud infrastructure costs without compromising the performance and reliability of applications running on it.

Read by 2,929 founders

7. Make passive income with a stock photography business ($14.6K/month)

Here's the full list:

How much you can make: $1,200 — $45,000/month

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

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

How I Started A Commercial Product Photography Business

Pro Photo Studio founder Tsour Lee Adato shares how she turned a $5k investment into a business that services over 500 clients annually and makes approximately $350k per year with plans to expand and become a 7-figure business while offering advice to fellow entrepreneurs to always be innovating, learning and growing, and not to undervalue themselves.

Read by 15,366 founders

8. 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

9. Make passive income with an indoor soccer facility business

Here's the full list:

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.