Passive income is the dream, isn’t it? I remember reading a great book called Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen years ago and in it I learned that most millionaires have, on average, seven stream of income.

That seemed insane to me at the time. And of course, the golden cow here is passive income. Income that you have to put no work into creating.

The dream.

And I have to say, I was stumped for quite a while on how to tap into any of that world. I mean, most of my income comes from stage managing which is wildly not hands-off. Some of my other income streams are stagehand work, substitute teaching, and blogging – also all not passive.

But here is where I started – with dividends.

Dividends are a small distribution of a company’s earnings to it’s shareholders. So, for instance, I own some Prudential stock. Every three months, I get a $25-$35 check from them for doing nothing.

And by doing nothing, I mean for buying several shares of their stock. But after that initial purchase, I just sit back and get these dividend checks.

Of course, there are risks. It’s stock, so it could plummet or the company as a whole could go under, but, if you research your companies carefully and can handle the risk, dividends can be a good way to start making some passive income.

You can often decide whether you want to receive a dividend check or if you want your dividends reinvested. While I reinvest most of mine, I do receive a few checks a year from that one stock.

Another option for passive income is to create something that generates royalties like a music album, video or book.

This requires a lot of initial effort but after that will provide you with income without additional effort for as long as the product continues to sell.

Examples of performers who generate income through royalties can be found with a simple Amazon search. If you can find a book written by them, they get paid whenever it sells.

For example:

• Nik Wallenda – Facing Fear
• Barry Lubin – Tall Tales of a Short Clown
• Beth Walters – Morning Coffee Reflections

(Can you tell I worked at Big Apple Circus?)

You can write your memoirs or you can create something entirely different. That last one is a self-reflection journal. You could create a children’s book.

You want to look at things you can work hard to create once and then it (hopefully) continues to sell on it’s own or (more likely) just requires some marketing to sell – which is no longer passive but considerably less effort.

Similarly, there are a big market for digital downloads out there. If you are graphic design-savvy, you can create downloadable projects like calendars, labels, etc. Etsy is full of them and once you’ve designed the item and uploaded it to sell, you don’t have to do any more work.

If you have a blog or a large social media following, affiliate marketing can also create nearly passive income after you design the post. Once it’s live, your readers or followers click through the link to buy the products you talk about, if they are so inclined, and you get a fraction of each of their purchases. For example, the links in this post to Amazon that reference the books I talked about are affiliate links.

Some bloggers like Michelle at Making Sense of Cents has made hundreds of thousands of dollars by optimizing this method of income.

While our work doesn’t lead directly to clear passive income opportunities – and even most of the ones listed here aren’t truly passive other than dividends, it is still possible to find some opportunities to grow your income streams.

Have any of you tried any of the above?