What is a good passive income for web developers? Here are a few ideas for the creative web developer to develop into passive income streams:
- Building websites for clients and charging a monthly fee for hosting. How much is up to you but charge too much and you will find people will look elsewhere for hosting. Charge a small monthly fee for hosting of websites and build a portfolio of websites. This will mount up and of course cover your hosting costs and make profit in the long run. Don’t be too greedy or your clients will get the hump and leave.
- Building themes for WordPress – There are a lot of free themes out there and you will need to build an amazing theme to make any money out of it. However if this is your bag you can make a nice passive income from theme upgrades. Have a free version to allow people to get to know and use your theme.
- Create an app – Building apps can be a great way to earn a passive income – either through advert revenue for a free app or sales revenue from a ‘paid for’ app.
- Build a ‘hobby’ website and put Google Adsense on it. Building a hobby website is a good way to generate small ‘trickle’ income streams. However, it really depends on how competitive your niche is as to how well you do. A popular website will get you a bunch of clicks and this can make a nice passive income over time.
- Ask for a ‘retainer’ income from maintaining websites. Although technically this isn’t a truly passive income
- Building software and selling it – You can also build in upgrade packages and ‘premium’ versions in order to capitalize on the up-sell.
Passive Income For Web Developers – Affiliate Marketing
If none of these ideas float your boat then affiliate marketing offers anyone the opportunity to build a passive income online. It takes time and effort like anything else but it’s another string to your bow and as a web developer you are probably already used to working by yourself for long periods on a computer.
Affiliates build websites and content and sell and promote affiliate products through them. As a web developer, you will already have a lot of the skills needed to become a successful affiliate marketer.
The best form of affiliate products are those with built in up-sell, membership commissions and built in sales team. Once you have made an initial sale, you can earn a lot more in add-ons and up-sells. This is similar to the concept of creating your own theme and selling a premium version.
Coders aren’t usually sales people as so this fits well with affiliate marketing. As an affiliate you simply create content and send visitors to products and services online.
Passive Income For Web Developers – Best Revenue Models Affiliates
See also best revenue models for websites.
Affiliates sell products through their websites or adverts. Building a good website which gets targeted traffic through Google is a good way to generate a passive income from the internet. With the right product you can send targeted traffic to someone else’s products and make 50% + commission on each sale. In addition, by selling memberships, up-selling, selling high ticket products and community based products, you can build a sustainable business model from affiliate marketing.
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Here’s a great article for more information on passive income for web developers.
I agree that if you are only charging for hosting then you’re limited in how much you can bill clients. However, I recommend that freelancers include up to 1 – 2 hours a month of maintenance (if required) in a hosting package. If the site goes down, you bring it back up again. But if the site runs smoothly, you pocket the money as passive income. If a non-technical business person stands to lose money if their site goes down, it makes sense to pay more to ensure someone is looking after it. I would recommend charging at least $50 – $100 a month for a hosting/maintenance package like this.
You also need to make sure you are not spending too much time billing and invoicing clients for hosting every month. That’s why I created Biru (www.getbiru.com) to automate this process.