As a software developer, your skills are in high demand in many companies. With the wide range of skills applications, there are many ways to earn money as a developer. But often, software developers believe they already sell their souls working day and night building someone else’s business vision.

But if you’re looking for more freedom and the ability to make a living without having to clock in and out, creating passive income streams may be something to consider. In case you’re interested, we’ve laid out some of the best options to earn extra money across various categories.

What exactly is Passive Income?

Passive income is different from earning money from a traditional salary. When you work full-time or as a freelancer or contractor, you’re trading your time for money, and typically you’re paid a fixed rate once the work has been completed.

However, when you earn a passive income, you do the work but get paid later automatically, even if you aren’t working on the product or project anymore. Once a product becomes well established, it’ll increase your annual revenue without you spending any more work hours on that project and achieve even more financial freedom.

What to Consider Before Looking to Earn Passive Income

There is a common misconception that generating passive income is something simple that requires little effort. While this can be true in rare cases, most of the time you’ll only be able to make decent money if you invest significant time and effort working on the product.

So it isn’t always simple, nor is it easy. Therefore careful consideration should be given to ensure you’re comfortable investing time or money in any such endeavor. Remember, there may be a minimal upfront reward, but the value it’ll bring will increase over time.

For example, many bloggers and YouTubers spend a few years creating content and gaining popularity before their activity starts to generate passive income. Once they do, they can reduce the frequency of content creation, and the pre-existing content will continue to bring in revenue. Their passive income strategy pays off, and it continues to bring more money.

Characteristics To Aim for In Good Passive Income Projects

Be warned some ideas sound good, but they might not be practical and therefore wouldn’t create passive income, not a substantial one in any case. Before launching a new endeavor, you’ll need to ensure your idea checks several boxes to feel confident that it has the potential for success.

Consider these questions to make sure your idea has traction.

• Is your project orientated for businesses and/or websites that earn revenue? You want it to be able to integrate into other popular software which already has paying customers.

• How many project updates and demanding tasks will be required every year? If the answer is many, it will need more active time and effort from you.

• Are the problems your product is looking to solve long-term problems, so your solution will be relevant to your target audience for several years?

• Will the demand for this product cover your expenses?

• Does it have the capability to generate recurring payments which you can reinvest into improving the project?

• Is it easy to use and install for customers who aren’t tech-savvy?

• Can you limit support requests?

• Will this project eventually require minimal time from you?

8 Passive Income Ideas for Software Developers

Fortunately, there are various ways in which you can use your expertise to earn money with minimal effort, all while keeping your day job. Play to your strengths, and it is possible to significantly improve your monthly income. Keeping in mind some of the factors for a profitable passive-income project, we’ve put together eight ideas to inspire your thinking.

1. Become a Content Creator and Monetize Your Creations

• Create a Blog. One of the most popular freelance projects to earn money as a software developer is to create a blog. But this can’t be just any blog ‒ it should be explicitly geared toward making money. As an example, focus on content that teaches programming or developing software. Many aspiring developers want practical information on the topic to learn more about the challenges, innovations, and solutions to real-world problems. They are hungry for programming knowledge, so write about what you know and work towards building an audience, setting yourself up as an expert.
  
  Create a weekly blog post and monetize your blog with ad revenue, affiliate products, a monthly membership, reading time, or even the sale of eBooks. These are all excellent ways to create a reliable revenue stream that can build over time.

• Write eBooks. An eBook is a digital asset that can generate revenue for you. You could write one where you give programming tips and guidelines for developers or talk about more specific topics relevant to your expertise. Use digital platforms to launch your eBook, and then make passive income for as long as it sells. If this is something you enjoy doing, it's an easy way to build your reputation as an industry expert.

• Film Video Tutorials. Video is the number 1 source of information for 66% of people globally. Sharing your knowledge on a video-streaming platform is the way of the future. A YouTube channel is a regular passive-income stream for many people. Although some of the most demanding tasks are involved in creating good video content, it still qualifies as passive income. Once you have enough subscribers, you only need to post once a week.
  It is important to make sure you choose the right demographic for your content and specialty. For example, does your content cover the fundamentals of software development, or is it focused on more complex ideas? You’ll need to attract followers, so think these things through carefully.
  With a platform like YouTube, there is a partner program where if you meet specific goals you can start to earn money purely off views. Besides this, affiliate marketing and ads have proven to be reliable ways to generate money through video content. In addition to YouTube, Udemy and Skillshare are also great for earning money from creating video tutorials.

• Create a Niche Membership Site. We don’t know what it is, but people love exclusivity. They seem to want access to niche sites and content that few others can consume. Therefore, an educational membership website containing articles, podcasts, and videos can be an attractive option to many. Set yourself up as an expert and once you’ve created high-quality content, start charging recurring fees to people for accessing it with little effort required on your part.

• Record Podcasts. The podcast industry continues to grow in popularity and is an increasingly robust one. There are 383.7 million podcast listeners globally. People love interesting conversations and are looking for something to occupy their time while they walk, commute, work, or just need to relax. Monetizing your podcasts works in similar ways as a YouTube channel: using ads, paid promotions, and affiliate marketing. If you’re an overnight success, charging a monthly or yearly subscription is also possible.

• Build an Educational Course. Another great way to make a passive income is to use your software development skills to teach programming elements online through a pre-recorded course. Platforms like Udemy make creating and selling online courses elementary to create. In terms of pricing your offering, you can charge a one-time fee for a course or consider pricing it as a subscription model. Another consideration is to develop a tiered payment system where users pay for more advanced course material. In this vast market, the possibilities are growing along with the number of people interested in using these platforms.

2. Build a Micro-SaaS

While this is a popular way of earning a passive income, it isn’t necessarily an easy way due to the initial effort required. But create and manage an effective SaaS product that solves a niche problem, and you could earn tens of thousands of dollars or more from it. Look at our comprehensive guide with tips on starting your own micro-SaaS business and see if it is a good fit for you.

Discover all 8 passive income ideas for software developers on PayPro Global's Blog.