7 Passive Income Ideas for Programmers

Programmers may make between $1,000 and $100,000 per month, but switching from active to passive revenue takes work, time, and possibly money.

The pursuit of passive income does not need zero effort. It demands a lot of work today with little immediate payoff, but over time, the value it provides you with grows.

This is not the sort of passive income for you if you're trying to "do nothing."

It may appear to be an active source of income at first since it takes work to create cash, but after it stabilizes and begins to get momentum, all you have to do is maintain it sometimes and make money while you sleep the rest of the time.

Build once and get paid for life.

Do you find it to be passive enough?

How can you tell whether the concepts have the ability to generate passive income? By asking yourself the following query:

Can I use this concept to generate money while I sleep?

If the answer is yes, this type of passive income is appropriate. The idea is to keep it simple and spend as little time as possible on it, even if it may take some work to start and maintain.

1) Become an investor in other tech companies

This was completely ignored in a lot of stories. The most passive source of income for programmers is investing.

One must first raise some money in order for this concept to succeed. Look at Atlassian Corporation; its stock price has been rising for six years, and its revenue is increasing at a 35 percent five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Without a doubt, terms and titles like Jira, Scrum, Sprint, Agile, and Trello are recognizable to developers. Atlassian is the biggest provider of team collaboration SaaS. Programmers have an edge in fully comprehending the value that Atlassian Corporation offers.

Employ your programming expertise because you are one. Examine the work of the tech businesses across the world to see whether their software or apps are simple to duplicate, what technology is used to make them, if you can try the product out, what the subscription model is like, etc.

Your knowledge may help you more accurately predict the company's future. For instance:

•One could comprehend the amazing technology underlying Palantir software, how it operates programmatically, and estimate the worth it will provide to the planet if you employ it.

•Or perhaps you are a Tesla electric vehicle driver who understands that software-powered electric vehicles are the "future," with smooth remote fixes that might increase mileage and enhance performance.

•More than half of the games played worldwide are created using the cross-platform game engine Unity Technologies. They embrace anything from building and medicine to mobile gaming metaverse. Learn more about why learning programming with the Unity engine is a wise investment.

•Or, by using tools like Google Advertisements, you may learn how difficult search engines can be and how they control 93% of the market for search ads worldwide.

Start taking the initial investment out when it has doubled, then let the remaining funds continue to grow as you look for the next tech businesses. If compounding is used well, your $1,000 may become $1,000,000.

2) Blockchain proof-of-stake (PoS) staking, lending, and NFT

By staking, lending, and participating in blockchain PoS, programmers may get passive money.

PoS Staking

Investors that participate in PoS staking do so by locking up a portion of their funds for varied amounts of time. If their bitcoin units are used to verify transactions on the blockchain, they are rewarded with extra units. The available tokens for staking include:

•Cardano
•Ethereum 2.0
•Polkadot
•Solana, etc.

Lending

Lending is the act of lending bitcoin to a person or group of individuals with the expectation that they would repay the investor with interest at a later date. It enables you to passively generate money by lending out your cryptocurrency holdings, usually using smart contracts. Look at websites such as:

•BlockFi
•Nexo
•Aave

3) Create and publish a mobile app and run AdMobs on it or sell the premium version of it

Make absolutely sure there aren't many moving components in the application you're building.

Less reliance is placed on various sorts of user roles, integrations, and third-party services when defining "lesser moving components."

I have spoken to some application developers that work in Malaysia and earn between $4000 and $6000 by creating holiday calendar programs. The applications are only updated once every three months to make sure they are current, repair bugs, or add new features to draw in additional users.

There's no requirement that it be a popular app like Facebook, TikTok, or Airbnb.

For additional SaaS and mobile app ideas to get your passive income path started, read more about 10+ Mobile App Ideas for Your Next Side Hustle and 10+ SaaS Ideas for Your Next Billion-Dollar Startup.

4) Chrome app and sell the premium version

Comparing them to mobile applications, Chrome apps are among of the easier to manage. If you lack the time, get anything already modified from the market.

Comparing them to mobile applications, Chrome apps are among of the easier to maintain. If you lack the time, get anything already modified from the market.

I've come across useful Chrome extensions for writers, readers, and developers. Several illustrations of Chrome extensions:

•Auto-refresh
•Video downloader
•AI content generator
•Dark theme to protect reader’s eyes
•Secret bookmark
•Socket tester
•Software testing tools

5) Be a content creator — Blogging, Forum, and YouTube

It's likely that you have preconceived notions about who will read your article or watch your video. You won't ever be aware. When I first started writing, I experienced the same feelings. You must nevertheless realize that even if the information, tips, or instructions you offered were probably straightforward and uncomplicated, someone else out there could find them useful.

In the long term, blogging, forums (Quora/Reddit), and YouTube are seen as passive since the stuff you produce exists online forever. It has no limit to the amount of individuals it can assist.

Keep in mind that your pay will increase in proportion to the value you deliver. For instance, even if each coder pays you $10 for your assistance in helping them construct their first mobile app, you will still get $1 million.

100,000 users x $10 = $1,000,000

An annoying query for aspiring bloggers or YouTubers may be:

•What kind of earnings can I expect from blogging?
•What kind of income can I expect from uploading movies to YouTube?

My advice is to make helping more developers throughout the world your primary aim rather than prioritizing generating money in your content production journey.

“The more people you serve, the richer you become.” — Robert Kiyosaki

Additionally, read the following to get your blogging, forum, and YouTube career off to a great start:

6) Sell your code and scripts on sites like Envato

You may market your standalone project, site design, collection of app icons, and plugin on:

•https://themeforest.net/
•https://codecanyon.net/
•https://www.sellmyapp.com/
•https://flippa.com/
•https://www.piecex.com/

While you are asleep, let these platforms promote your initiatives to people who need them.

I've purchased many projects from Envato, including:

•WordPress templates for websites
•HTML website design
•Backend codes on a chat application
•On-demand service solutions, and many more.

Such projects are purchased by developers for reference and education purposes.

7) Teach someone else while you are sleeping

in order to impart knowledge to someone as you sleep. In the "infopreneur" age of the 2020s, being an entrepreneur is all but obsolete. Do you ever come across advertisements on Facebook and Instagram for topics you'd like to learn more about?

An infopreneur niche example is:

•Python programming
•Roblox programming
•Setup blockchain smart contract
•Create mobile app
•Stock investment
•Property investment
•Forex investment

These individuals have knowledge and lessons to impart. They sell the advice to everyone after packaging the lesson as an online boot camp course.

I am aware that the investment guru makes more money by disseminating knowledge about investing than by actually making investments. The developers I know make more money marketing classes on coding than they do actually doing the code.

As a result, you may bundle and offer to those in need essential technological abilities like putting up a Woocommerce mobile app, developing a chatbot for sales, and developing blockchain smart contracts.

Wrapping Up

For a coder, there are several strategies to eventually convert active revenue into passive money. Setting up a side business may take years before it can contribute to your passive income.

To fund your side hustle, discover how to quadruple your salary as a programmer. A passive income project may require a small financial commitment.