Whether you’ve saved your cash for years or recently received a large boost in your salary, knowing how to invest your extra cash play an important role in how much additional money you can earn while you sleep. Stocks are typically one of the first investment options that come to mind, but stocks are hard to predict. Instead of dumping your hard-earned cash into the stock market or some other financial investment, you can invest in yourself by creating a different kind of passive income that you can control. Here are a few effective ways to get it done:

Start a Blog

Starting a blog provides you with multiple ways of making money while you sleep. You can start by creating a month’s worth of content and automating your blog posts so they publish on scheduled dates. Follow up by monetizing your blog and creating digital products or offering services your audience needs. For example, you can sell digital patterns for a crochet blog or creating and automating a membership service or webinar for your finance blog. You can also monetize your blog by using affiliate links and referring your audience to products and services you believe in or use.

Write a Book

Once you write a book, you can easily publish it on independent platforms, such as CreateSpace, Amazon or Google Play, automate your marketing and collect payments. You can create a digital book, audiobook, a printed book or offer all three options. Consider promoting your book via your social media channels and email newsletters to create awareness. You can even discuss the book before writing to engage your audience and getting them excited and interested in your book.

Create an E-Course

When you create an e-course, you’re creating a new way for people to learn and a simple way to make passive income. Just as everyone can learn something, everyone has the power to teach something they know. Consider creating e-courses on topics you are an expert at or that you feel very comfortable providing an audience with insight. You can sell the e-course from your own blog or website, or test the e-course on another platform, such as Skillshare or Udemy. Consider promoting your e-course on multiple social media channels or investing in paid digital ads to promote your course.

Start an Amazon Seller Account

Starting an Amazon seller account offers a great way to generate passive income. Amazon is an e-commerce behemoth with over 100 million subscribers to its Prime service alone. The company has even ventured beyond the digital world into the physical realm with its presence in its own retail locations and pop-up stores, Whole Foods and even Kohl’s. So, you know you’ll be exposed to a wide audience when you use Amazon to sell items. You don’t have to do all the hard work of packing and shipping, either. You can sell via Amazon’s fulfillment service, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).

FBA allows you to focus on the listing, marketing and selling your products while Amazon handles other tasks, such as packing, shipping and returns. Also, listing your products via Amazon’s fulfillment service can get you ahead of the competition since these products qualify for free shipping and Prime two-day shipping. It also makes accounting for appropriate sales tax simple. However, you can always figure out what taxes you need to collect and pay even if you aren’t subscribed to FBA by getting additional help from a reputable team of tax professionals who provide tax consulting and preparation services, such as Honest Buck Accounting.

Final Thoughts

Investing in stocks isn’t the only option for creating passive income. From starting a blog to selling on Amazon, you have several options to make passive income. By investing your time upfront, you can create passive income that will pay you back for years to come.