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Unlocking Passive Income: 9 Smart Ways to Make Money While You Sleep

Picture this: You’ve arisen from a deep slumber feeling refreshed, only to find a slew of payment alerts waiting in your inbox. Holding a steaming cup of brew, it dawns on you – you’ve been earning while you were off in dreamland. Does it seem like an unreachable reverie, too good to be true?

Nope! It’s real and well within your reach. Thanks to the world wide web, the dichotomy between work and play has been redefined. The notion of amassing online passive income isn’t a privilege left to a small number of lucky people. It’s a very real, tangible concept, grasping which can turn this appealing idea into a realistic income-boosting venture. Yearning for the power of absolute financial independence or just want a few extra bucks to finance your desires? Our journey into the world of passive income will have you uncovering a wealth of opportunities that you’ve unlikely thought of before. Buckle up, the road to fiscal freedom commences here.

Introduction: 

We’re living in an era ruled by digital innovation, and the enticement of passive income has never been more tempting. The prospect of money trickling in while catching some zzz’s or travelling the world piques curiosity and is an ambition many are keen to chase. Diversifying income streams and harnessing online opportunities can proffer the kind of financial liberty and flexibility that conventional employment venues often fail to extend. In this article, we will debunk nine enticing ideas for generating passive income online, each carrying its unique potential and hurdle.

1 Owning Stocks and Shares:

A timeless method of passive income generation is becoming a stakeholder in companies by investing in stocks and shares. Undoubtedly, you’re tapping into a part of the company profits by earning dividends as a shareholder. An attractive choice would be dividend stocks which promise a steady stream of income. Consider putting your money in steadfast entities like Procter & Gamble or Coca-Cola. They are famous for rewarding their shareholders by consistently paying dividends. Also, diversifying your investment portfolio through different sectors and industries can lessen the risks and maximize potential returns. For novice investors, robo-advisors – automated digital platforms – can simplify the process of managing investments.

2 Kickoff a YouTube Channel:

YouTube provides a dynamic online stage to generate passive income through content development. The indispensable initial step is selecting a niche resonating with your interests and expertise. Let’s pick “Gourmet Makes” by Bon Appétit as an example. This channel recreates renowned snacks and has garnered a loyal following. It’s crucial to unlock various income streams, including ad revenue, merchandise sales, branded content, and affiliate marketing. This strategy, along with optimization of your videos for higher ad revenue and nurturing viewer engagement, can aid in constructing a durable and substantial passive income source over the long run.

3 Initiate a Podcast:

Podcasting supplies an alternative direction towards passive income, often necessitating less visual content creation, compared to YouTube. Taking the podcast route means zoning in on a topic close to your heart and investing in essential tools, including microphones and recording software. Podcasts can ear passive income more through listeners’ donations, premium content, and sponsorships, rather than YouTube. Just take “The Tim Ferriss Show” as a preeminent exemplar of a triumphant podcast. It boasts interviews with high-profile individuals and sponsored segments, providing a regular stream of passive income.

4 Encourage Affiliate Marketing:

Affiliate marketing is a potent tool for passive income. Just endorse products or services and earn referral commissions – simple as that. An established affiliate program, for instance, is that of Amazon Associates. By generating content such as product reviews or tutorials, you can cleverly include affiliate links. An engaged audience and authentic content can help promote these products, leading to a rewarding passive income. A prime example of this strategy is the Wirecutter website, which combines comprehensive guides and reviews, earning its revenue from affiliate partnerships.

5 Design Online Courses:

Developing and selling online courses can prove to be a profitable course for passive income. Recognizing a topic you’re familiar with and enthusiastic about is the starting point. Platforms like Skillshare give creators a chance to exhibit their expertise and earn money based on course views and engagement. A notable case is that of Ali Abdaal who shares productivity hacks on Skillshare. His courses have amassed a large following, successively generating consistent passive income. Quality content, engaging delivery, and addressing learners’ needs are keys to securing paying students.

6 Marketing Digital Products:

Marketing digital products such as e-books, icon sets, mobile apps, or website themes, can be a creative platform for passive income. However, to stand out in a competitive market, you’ll need to offer genuine value. Successful developers address problems their products can solve, like Canva which offers user-friendly design templates. By effectively marketing and solving pain points, you can build a user base willing to pay for your digital solutions. Balancing this enabled creators such as Joel Runyon to generate passive income by addressing niche requirements.

7 Create a Membership or Community:

A paid membership community can nurture a consistent flow of passive income. By offering exclusive content and value, a loyal set of patrons can be amassed. Patreon, for instance, facilitates creators to connect with supporters and receive recurring payments. An example is “The History Extra” podcast, offering a premium subscription for ad-free episodes and bonus content. Although building a considerable membership base requires time and consistent effort, the long-term benefits can considerably significant.

8 Build an Automated Business:

Building a business centered around goods and services, with certain aspects automated, can bring in passive income. E-commerce stores utilizing drop shipping or fulfillment centers exemplify this concept. Consider the instance of Oliver Proudlock who created a vegan leather goods brand. By refining operations and externalizing tasks, he transformed a labor-intensive undertaking into a semi-passive income source. The key to achieving long-term success is balancing the initial setup work with ongoing maintenance.

9 Develop software (Apps or Websites):

Development of Software, whether in the form of mobile apps or web platforms, can yield substantial passive income. Successful apps such as “Headspace” or “Calm” offer their users value, simultaneously generating revenue through subscriptions. Furthermore, web platforms like Shopify empower entrepreneurs to create online stores and automate various business processes. “Beat Ninja,” a medical admissions test question bank crafted by brothers, is an exemplary case. By offering an invaluable solution and automating customer engagements, they converted their effort into a passive income source.

Conclusion:

In the territory of passive income, not one solution fits all. As we’ve seen with these nine diverse ideas, you need to find the right avenue that aligns with your skills, interests, and resources. A combination of these strategies can create a robust financial foundation, bestowing upon you the freedom and flexibility to chase your passions while enjoying the advantages of passive income. So, make the leap, initiate your journey and unlock the gateway to a more financially secure future.

In an era where the chances of reaping passive income seem endless, here’s a reminder: Each journey commences with a baby step. Whether the road to venture into affiliate marketing, digital product creation, launching an online course, building a community or exploring any other avenue tickles your fancy, the potential of generating income while you snooze is a reality. So, dare to take that first step into the realm of passive income and see how your efforts reflect in financial rewards that extend beyond the boundaries of a 9-to-5 job.

As imparted by the wise Warren Buffett, “If you aren’t making money while you’re asleep, you’ll work until you die.” So, why not seize the opportunity to hand-craft a life of freedom and fulfillment? Kickstart your journey towards passive income today, and remember – share the wisdom with your family and friends. Let’s together unlock a future where financial freedom is boundless.

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Marketing Tools

Top 10 best free open source project management software in 2021

Many small businesses and individual entrepreneurs encounter various problems such as time, budget, and staff ratios during project operations.

How to coordinate various tasks quickly and methodically solve all kinds of work problems, so that you can work more efficiently with half the effort?

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Here are the top 10 free open source project management software, you will definitely use.

10 Taiga.io

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If you are interested in the top open source project management software and need agile development features, please be sure to try Taiga.io.

It is free for both private and public projects. Private projects may have a limit on the number of users, public projects do not have any limit.

Taiga.io does not limit any features of its free version.

Pros: Taiga.io grew into a full-featured application with multiple modes (Kanban, scrum), backlogs, user stories and everything you need for agile development.

The application is customizable and has some add-on features not commonly found in agile development, such as video conferencing tools and a built-in wiki.

Cons: Taiga.io is still in beta and has been struggling with related issues, such as servers that can sometimes be slower than a snail (though not regularly).

There is no Gantt chart feature and some users report a poor interface.

9 2-Plan Project Management Software

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It is not easy for 2-Plan to win from a bunch of open source software that has a serious oversupply.

The system has three symbiotic programs, all of which are free.

2-Plan Desktop: a project management system.

2-Plan Team: A web-based project management tool with multiple hosting options.

Work 2-gether: a Scrum-based task management board for single-team projects.

All of these options are free, but you can also pay extra for a better service.

Pros: 2-Plan is very powerful.

On its desktop version, project managers can create an animated graphical WBS, craft project milestones, implement top-down and bottom-up planning, and build project control systems.

2-Plan Team can easily coordinate with other teams, track time spent on tasks, and integrate seamlessly with 2-Plan Desktop.

Work 2-Gether is similar to Trello in that it uses the Kanban system, but it also has the ability to scale to larger work maps.

Cons: While 2-Plan offers many features, its free options are limited.

For example, work 2-gether only allows companies to use two task boards, and team sizes are limited to three.

Fortunately, its paid version is also reasonably priced, and enterprises can fully upgrade Work 2-gether for as little as $15 per month.

8 Zoho Projects

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Zoho lets you have as many users as possible, and there are no limitations on the features of the free version, except for a 10 MB limit on storage, and users have the option to upgrade for $25 per month.

Pros: Zoho Projects has a dense list of features and an incredibly intuitive interface that is good enough to compare with Facebook’s intuitive layout.

For waterfall enthusiasts, Zoho Projects has incredible Gantt chart options that allow users to set complex tasks and milestones.

Zoho Projects also offers timelines and detailed reporting features (for those who don’t want to create their own reports, it has 50 pre-set templates to choose from).

Cons: Free users will miss out on Zoho Projects’ document management systems, as they are limited to 10MB (paid versions offer 5-30GB, depending on the plan).

7 GanttProject

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GanttProject is another open source, free project scheduling and management tool.

Pros: GanttProject management platform allows users to quickly create a structured plan for any project. It provides task assignment and milestone achievement.

The open source software also enables project managers to identify problem areas in the workflow, thus allowing companies to set targets for improvement.

Cons: I would not recommend GanttProject to people who are not familiar with project management software, as the reviews are very inconsistent.

6 MeisterTask

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MeisterTask offers unlimited users and project builds, has native apps for iPhone and iPad, and offers two integrations for free users (such as Dropbox, GitHub, Zendesk, and Google Drive).

Pros: MeisterTask has all the important features: time tracking, issue tracking and collaboration between internal and external users. There is no storage limit, so exchanging files places little burden on system capacity.

At the same time, MeisterTask’s project board is perfectly suited to various agile methods. And it’s fully customizable, so teams can create everything from Kanban to Scrum and a variety of hybrid forms.

Finally, communication is a breeze; it’s similar to the conversation system on Trello, and in addition to instant updates, MeisterTask adds task relationships, such as email tasks and collaboration options for team cohesion.

Cons: MeisterTask is still a new project management system, so it has many projects that have not yet been started. This includes: Gantt Chart and CCPM.

5 Wrike

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Wrike kicks off the second half of the best free project management software, with the latest offering allowing five users for free, offering 2GB of storage and plenty of integrated features, including Google Drive, Box and iCal.

Pros: Wrike really is the best choice for small team collaboration.

Users can set privacy settings on their unlimited number of projects and interact with Wrike’s real-time activity stream. The free PM software offers task management features that are easy to use with integrated extended storage options and can be learned by interns in less than an hour.

Cons: Wrike is more or less limited as a free PM tool, while the paid version ($9.80 per user per month) gives access to features such as Gantt charts, time tracking and real-time reporting, most free Wrike users stick to task management and basic collaboration.

4 Asana

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Based on its 140,000 customers and 1.4 million users, Asana is one of the most popular project management applications, and it’s free.

Many users also love it and Asana maintains an overall score of 4.5/5 in some rating lists and has 1,300+ reviews in Capterra!

Pros: Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook, also favors Asana.

For the aesthetics of the most popular social network, Asana is an intuitive task management system for teams looking for real-time interaction.

Asana allows users to visualize goals, track time, assign priorities to their tasks, and get updates on projects within the program.

It also has a calendar feature that maps team tasks directly to the dashboard.

Also, in the past year, it added an Android app that converts tasks into projects, conversations and dashboard features.

Cons: Asana’s features are not particularly robust, and Asana does not allow offline use. In addition, the reviewers listed some frustrating conversations with Asana customer service.

3 Orangescrum

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Orangescrum offers the best locally hosted project management software for IT teams.

It provides the foundation for agile software development and resource management. The on-premise version costs $0, while the cloud-based version (which actually gets more support) is $9 per month.

Pros: Orangescrum is fully customizable.

Users can use Kanban views, Gantt charts and task status groups to view projects.

In addition, Orangescrum users can integrate with Google Cloud Drive and Dropbox in the free (on-premise) version.

Cons: Since Orangescrum is very generic, a rigorous knowledge of coding is required to take full advantage of this tool. It is not an option for beginners and most support relies on the community.

2 Freedcamp

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Unlimited users, unlimited projects, unlimited storage, gorgeous design, countless features, optimized communication.

Pros: Freedcamp is great for businesses that want to expand their project management software, the free version will last for a long time and upgrades are quite cheap for small businesses.

Administrators can limit permissions for different users to the client level.

Freedcamp also offers time tracking, templates and invoicing.

And, with its great collaboration features, Freedcamp ensures that notifications are added everywhere when updates are available.

Currently, Freedcamp has optimized its mobile site and offers an iOS app.

Cons: Reviewers claim it lacks some features such as Gantt charts, task dependencies and regular task management.

1 Bitrix24

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Bitrix24 is a completely free project management system for unlimited users. It limits storage to 5GB per month, with the option to upgrade for $39 per month.

Pros: Users can choose to use Bitrix24 in the cloud or on a company server.

PM features are excellent: Bitrix24 offers Gantt charts, tiered task options, time tracking and management, and even employee workload planning.

Bitrix24 also makes real-time communications such as team chat, video conferencing and instant messaging a breeze.

It serves as an alternative to DropBox – the free version offers 5GB of cloud storage for easy document sharing.

In addition, recent updates include.

An employee workload planning tool that lets managers plan a certain number of hours for a task and then compare them to the actual hours worked by the person assigned to the task.

Create task templates that contain subtasks and checklists.

Cons: Bitrix24 is designed to solve many business problems, and users can easily switch between its project management features and CRM tools.

For all the free options available, many small businesses may want to consider upgrading to the paid version for more users, expanded functionality, and better customer support.

Fortunately, most of the leading products are inexpensive.

For example, Smartsheet costs only $15 per user per month and ProWorkflow costs only $20 per user per month for team services.

Of course, there are still more project management software options on the market, but you don’t have to try every single one before making a decision – what works for you is the best.

If you have some more great recommendations, or any experience using it, feel free to leave a comment and share!