How to Actually Make Money Online: 5 Passive Income Ideas to Start with $100

Hi, I'm Nisha. I'm a qualified

accountant and a former investment

banker. And I used to think that you

needed thousands to start making passive

income. Turns out I was completely

wrong. So, in this video, I'm sharing

five ways you can start building passive

income with less than $100. I'll show

you exactly how to get started, what to

expect, and how much you can

realistically make from each one.

Starting with number one, passive income

through investing. This is probably the

most boring one on this list, but it's

also the most accessible and the most

passive. And that is highinterest

accounts and investing. And you might be

watching this thinking, Nisha, how is a

saving account going to make me rich?

It's not. I'm not going to lie to you.

It won't make you rich. But this is

about building the habits, realizing how

passive income feels because once you

get a taste of it, you'll want to keep

going. And that's really what this is

about. getting started and proving to

yourself that your money can work for

you even if it is just $100. So, let me

break down the two options for you and

tell you exactly what you need to do

step by step. First, the high interest

savings account, also called high yield

savings account. They're basically bank

accounts that actually pay you decent

interest. We're talking 4 to 5% annually

right now. And this is mostly for online

banks. Compare that to the 0.01% most

traditional banks give you, and it's a

no-brainer. Then there's investing. But

I'm not talking about trying to pick the

next stock. I'm talking about putting

small amounts, maybe it's 20, 50, 70,

whatever you can manage into something

like an all world fund or the S&P 500

that has historically generated between

8 to 10% annually over different 10 to

20 year time frames. Both of these are

passive in probably the truest sense.

Your money is literally working while

you sleep. So, how do you get started?

For saving accounts, go on websites like

Bankrate or Moneysaving Expert and

compare the rates. Look for accounts

with no fees, government protection, and

easy withdrawals. Most of these accounts

have a cap to how much you could put in

or how much they'll pay you interest on.

So, if you have quite a lot of savings,

then you want to split up your savings

across different accounts and maximize

the amount that you're going to make

interest on. So, using real numbers, if

you put $100 into a 5% high interest

savings account, you'll earn about $5

per year. Small but completely

risk-free. Scale that up to 10,000, that

earns about 500 per year. And that's

purely passive. My high interest savings

account pays me daily. So the interest

is the same, but it pays out daily. And

so that really feels like I'm making a

quick win every single day. It's

tangible. I can see it growing. For

investing, there are loads of apps,

Vanguard, Invest Engine, Trading 212.

Choose a diversified funds like the ones

I mentioned. And let's say you use an

app that automatically invests $1 per

day. That's about $365 per year you're

investing. over 20 years assuming a 7%

annual return that grows to nearly

15,000 all from what's basically spare

change. If you want to go from complete

beginner to having a diversified

portfolio and a roadmap to financial

freedom within 6 weeks then I am hosting

an investing accelerator boot camp. The

wait list is about to close. You can

find out all the information in the link

in the description. The second one is

print ondemand. If you've been wanting

to start an online business, but you

don't want to risk money on inventory,

this one is perfect. And for that, I

want to introduce Gelato, which is

today's sponsor. Gelato is a print on

demand platform that lets you design and

sell all kinds of custom products from

t-shirts, mugs, photo books, calendars,

posters with no upfront costs and

without ever holding inventory. So, when

someone orders from your store, Gelato

handles everything from the printing,

the packaging, and the shipping. What

makes Jart stand out is they produce

locally in over 30 countries. So if a

customer orders in London, the product

is printed and shipped from the UK. If

another orders in Sydney, it's produced

and shipped right there in Australia.

That means faster and delivery, lower

cost, and a much smaller carbon

footprint compared to traditional

manufacturing. So how do you get

started? Super easy. First, you need to

sign up. It's completely free.

gelato.com/nisha.

Then connect your store, whether it's

Etsy, Shopify, Tik Tok shop, or even

Amazon. After that, pick your product

from Gelato's huge catalog. Upload your

design and create your mockup using

their magic mock-ups feature. Set your

description, decide your price, and then

publish to your store. In less than 10

minutes, you could have your first

product ready to sell. And if you want

to check quality beforehand, you could

order samples to your door. They let me

try out the platform and I ordered this

product. It was a really smooth process.

Calendar is great quality. I even I got

my name on it. The thing is with print

on demand, you never know what's going

to take off. So, it takes triing and

testing with as many designs you can and

seeing what lands. I recommend picking a

niche that lines up with your interest

because you'll be the one creating the

content and promoting it. So, the more

it fits you, the easier it is to keep

going longterm. An example of someone

who's done this, Rachel Rafé, who's an

early print on demand entrepreneur. She

shared how one of her mug designs sold

thousands of units and has generated

more than a 4 million in sales according

to an article online. So, if you've been

waiting for the right time to start,

this is it. Head over to

gelato.com/nisha

to sign up for free. And with a link in

the description, you'll also get 50% off

your first order within 2 days of

signing up. Thank you so much, Gelato,

for sponsoring today's video. Next,

moving on to number three, and that is

rental properties. Now, when most people

think about real estate investing or

property investing, they picture buying

a whole property with tens of thousands

on a down payment, if not more, getting

a mortgage, dealing with tenants. But

you don't need tens of thousands to

invest in real estate. And like the

title of this video says, you can start

investing in real estate now with as

little as $100 or whatever money you

have through REITs. That is real estate

investment trusts. These are essentially

stocks in companies that own a lot of

real estate. So instead of owning a

property directly yourself, you just buy

stock in a company that owns a lot of

properties. It's kind of the same thing.

So here's what makes REITs really

interesting. They're legally required to

pay out 90% of their profits to

shareholders in the form of dividends.

So when these companies collect all the

rent payments, they're going to pass on

90% of that to you. REITs are a good

option because instead of one property,

you get exposure to thousands of

different properties that gives you a

huge amount of diversification. Plus,

the REIT has professional management.

So, they know how to manage huge

portfolios of real estate. So, you kind

of get the benefit of professional

management, passive income,

diversification, and you don't have to

do anything yourself. It's very

different to actually owning real

estate. There are RES that invest in

apartment buildings, in commercial

properties, like shopping centers, in

data centers. There's even ones that

invest only in things like storage

facilities or specific sectors. The

dividend yield can range anywhere

between 2% to 6% and you're also getting

the potential appreciation when the

stock price goes up. So, it's a nice

thing to have in your overall portfolio.

A lot of platforms let you invest in

REIT with as little as $50 to $100 or

the equivalent for whatever currency or

country you're in. Moving on to number

four, and that is affiliate marketing.

And I'll be honest, this one gets a bit

of a bad reputation because all the

videos out there that says I'll make

10,000 a month from affiliate income and

things like that. That said, when I

started creating videos online,

affiliate income was my only income

stream for a very long time. And I would

say as a content creator, it's actually

the most accessible income stream. You

don't need many followers at all to

start earning a little bit from your

affiliate income. Unlike sponsors or

selling products, it takes building an

audience to be able to monetize those

two. Or even YouTube AdSense, you need a

thousand subscribers to start making

money from YouTube. But affiliate

income, the barrier to entry to start

making money through affiliate income is

a lot lower. I definitely wasn't making

thousands from this. I was making maybe

20, 30, $40 or equivalent a month from

recommended products I actually used.

With this, the easiest way to scale it

is you do have to create content. maybe

blog posts, newsletters, Tik Toks, and

include links to products that you

actually use. So when someone clicks

your link and buys something via your

link, you get a small commission off of

that. That's how affiliate income works.

So breaking this down for you, you can

start this completely for free. If you

start a newsletter subscription through

Medium, Substack, or even you start

posting content on TikTok, I suggest

starting with a niche that you know

really well. Don't try to review random

products that you've never used. Choose

something you use daily. Maybe finance

apps, productivity tools, books you're

reading, whatever you're already

spending money on anyway. And then the

more aligned your content is that you're

creating, the more likely it is that

someone who's watching your content will

end up clicking on the link to check out

whatever it is that you're recommending.

In terms of affiliate programs, loads of

companies have them. Amazon Associates

is the most obvious and most popular

one. Apply to three to four programs in

your niche. Banks and investment

platforms are another one. Plum, Trading

212, Notion, they all have affiliate

links and then start creating some

useful content around it. So, to give

you some real numbers so you know what

to expect, Amazon pays around 1 to 3%

commission in most categories. So, if

someone buys a $50 item through your

link, you might earn 50 or $1.50 and you

might also get a percentage on anything

else that they buy within that 24hour

time frame. But again, with the idea of

this video, it is just seeing what's

possible, building the habits, and

understanding how passive income works.

Because once you get that feeling,

you're going to want to do it more. Some

of my first videos still earn me small

commission years later via Amazon links,

and I've done absolutely nothing to

maintain them. And so if you are looking

to potentially start on the content

creation or start your own newsletter or

start a blog, then this is one of the

most accessible ways to make money

before waiting for sponsors or before

making your own product or before

relying on any other stream of income,

which usually takes a lot longer to

monetize. And number five, creating and

selling digital products. This one is

one of my favorite because I do it

myself and it's also a way to package

whatever knowledge that you already have

into something that is very scalable,

accessible, and can get to people in all

parts of the world. So, how this works,

you create a product once, maybe it's a

PDF, it's a guide, it's a ebook, it's a

video course, and then you could sell

unlimited copies without any extra work.

There's no printing, no shipping, no

stock to manage. Whether 10 people buy

it or 10,000 people buy it, the effort

really stays the same. Digital products

sound amazing, and I really do think

they are, but there are a few downsides

to know about. First is saturation.

Because it's so easy to create, lots of

people are doing it. You're not

competing with a handful of local

businesses as you would with physical

products anymore. You're competing with

people all over the world. That means

your product has to solve a very

specific problem or stand out in a very

crowded space. The second downside is

copying on marketplaces like Etsy. If

you make something good, chances are

someone will just buy it and copy it and

tweak it and then sell their version.

You'll lose some profit here and there

and it's part of the reality. And then

third is a perception. Some buyers still

don't value digital products in the same

way they value physical ones. That's why

pricing here really matters. The flip

side, however, is the margins are

incredible. With physical products, even

if you've got healthy profits, you're

still covering things like materials,

packaging, shipping. With digital, once

you've made the product, every extra

sale, it's basically pure profit. And

because you don't have to fulfill the

orders, you also free up your time and

location. You literally can make sales

while you're asleep or away on holiday.

And that's the kind of freedom that

physical products don't really match.

So, if you're a beginner here, the best

way to start is to keep things very

simple. Don't overthink it. Cut down the

options and pick one product you

actually understand. Build on what you

already know. Look at things you've

bought recently or problems you've

solved. And then ask yourself, could I

package this solution for others? Stick

to the basics. Make sure your product

clearly solves a problem, your photos

stand out, and your listing is easy to

find through search. And if it's your

first time, start on a very beginner

friendly platform like Etsy. It already

has buyers built in, which makes getting

traction much easier than starting from

scratch on your own site. You're no

longer trading time for money. You're

selling the knowledge once and then

you're getting paid for it again and

again. And there's nothing quite like

getting a notification for a sale while

you're asleep or away from your desk.

And then I wanted to round up this video

to say passive income is one of those

buzzwords that gets thrown around a lot.

Usually with a palm tree in the

background and someone telling you that

they make 50,000 a month while sipping

cocktails on a beach. The idea that's

often sold is that you set something up

once, you walk away and money just flows

into your account forever. But the

reality is nothing is truly passive from

day one. You've got to write that ebook.

You've got to create that content.

You've got to research those funds and

those reetss. You've got to set up those

systems. The passive part only comes

after you've put in the effort. And even

then, it's not completely hands-off.

You'll need to update things

occasionally. You need to respond to

questions. You might need to hire a team

to manage some of the stuff for you.

What makes these income streams valuable

isn't that they're effortless. It is

that they can eventually earn you money

whilst you're doing other things. And a

lot of my business model has turned from

active income to passive income. It's

still a lot of work, don't get me wrong,

but there is something very rewarding

about making money that's not

necessarily tied to you or your time.

And that's what this video really is

about. You might think, "Oh, it's just

20 or another $50 here." But when you're

doing this, when you start making

passive income, what you're really doing

is learning how you can make money work

for you instead of you always working

for money. You're building skills.

You're understanding markets. You're

creating systems. And some of these will

work for you and some of them won't. And

that's totally fine. The goal isn't to

get rich. is just to start somewhere and

then build something that grows over

time because even if it takes a year to

earn your first 500 in passive income,

that's still 500 you didn't have to

trade your time for. So, it's absolutely

worth exploring. Thank you so much for

watching. If you haven't already, don't

forget to subscribe and see you in the

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