How to make a passive income, according to 3 experts

There are many ways to build a passive income. Among the most popular, historically, have been investing in a given portfolio and letting compounding interest make that money grow and buying and renting out properties.

But as social media and platforms like YouTube grow in popularity, many content creators are learning they can reap the benefits of passive income themselves. Some make money by selling prerecorded classes online, for example, others make ad revenue on their podcasts and YouTube videos, and others make money through affiliates of their blogs or TikTok.

At times, the passive income these creators build is big enough to quit their day-jobs altogether.

If you’re keen to start making some passive income yourself and one day maybe even leave your job, here are three tips from entrepreneurs making thousands ― or even tens of thousands of dollars ― in passive income per month.

“The turning point for me was when I got the idea to turn my knowledge of audio mixing and recording into an online course,” he recently told CNBC Make It. Selling digital products based on that “provided a passive income stream and allowed me to make far more money in a day — while putting in less time — than I did working as a freelancer.”

After many years of growing his online business, Cochrane has a second business of online courses dedicated to teaching people how to monetize what they know and are passionate about. That brings in $120,000 in gross sales and passive income per month.

Within just a few years, he started scaling back on music producing. He now works just 5 hours per week on his online businesses.

“I see a lot of people try too hard to reinvent the wheel completely with social media posts to get their business into the spotlight,” she recently told CNBC Make It. But “I’ve learned that the key to going viral and growing your audience is to study what’s working for others,” she said.

Once you’ve found the niche topics you want to discuss in your content, Smith recommends studying the conversations people are having around them and expanding on those. What questions keep coming up around them? She also recommends paying attention to what your successful competitors are doing with their content. Are they talking to camera? Using long captions? And don’t forget to use the relevant hashtags you’re seeing pop up on your platform.

Smith no longer works as a fitness instructor and spends just two hours per day on her online business.