Last Updated on October 17, 2024 by Katie
Automated business ideas bring in money 24/7 with minimal active involvement. If this sounds just what you’re looking for, read on to learn more.
In an era where technology takes center stage, it’s easier than ever to set up systems that continue to generate income even when you’re not directly working.
Whether you’re a newcomer to online business or have experience and want to see how you can boost your income with a new passive income stream, you’re in the right place!
Let’s take a look at the different ways you can make money when you have none.
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The Best Automated Business Ideas
Automated business ideas need work up front, but, once they get going they will bring in passive income while you sleep.
This is why I love my blog as I work on it during the week and it makes me money every day even when I’m away from my laptop!
Take a look at the automated business ideas below to see which one aligns with your skills and interests.
Just remember that some businesses will need time to grow and may not bring in money immediately, so be patient!
1: Self-Publish eBooks with AI
You can tap into the AI revolution by self-publishing eBooks for money with the help of ChatGPT.
AI tools help streamline the writing and editing process, making it easier for you to create high-quality content with minimal effort.
This venture requires roughly 10 hours a week, mainly for planning, writing, and marketing your book.
AI can write or assist with content, proofread, and format your eBook, significantly cutting down your workload.
Here are a few places to publish your books when they’re ready:
You get paid through royalties on platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, typically earning between $2 to $5 per book depending on pricing and promotions.
An average month might bring in $500 to $1000, depending on the number of books published and your marketing efforts.
Check out this FREE AI eBook Generator Guide:
2: Online Course Creation
One of the best automated business ideas is to earn passive income creating and selling online courses.
You can share your expertise by producing content once and selling it repeatedly even when you’re sleeping.
Start by identifying topics where you have knowledge or skills that others want to learn.
Expect to work several hours upfront developing the curriculum, recording videos, and creating supplementary materials.
Once you have your courses created, sell them on platforms such as:
Once established, maintenance requires minimal time. Checking in occasionally to update content or engage with student questions might take a few hours a week.
Depending on the course’s popularity and pricing, you could earn anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars a month.
3: Sell Digital Planners on Etsy
Selling digital planners on Etsy is a lucrative automated business opportunity.
Once your planners are designed and listed, only minimal effort is required to maintain your shop.
Daily tasks include managing customer inquiries and updating listings, taking just a few hours each week.
To get started, create attractive, functional planners using tools like Canva or Planify Pro.
A few ideas for digital planners that sell well include:
- Budget templates
- Career planner journals
- Journals
- Weekly planners
- Productivity planners
- Work/life balance worksheets
Upload them to your Etsy shop with engaging descriptions and relevant keywords to attract buyers.
Learn more about how to start an Etsy shop here.
Your payment for each sale is processed through Etsy, which deposits earnings directly into your bank account, minus their transaction fees.
Earnings can vary widely, but many sellers report making between $500 to $3,000 monthly, depending on product quality and marketing efforts.
4: Affiliate Marketing Website
You can start affiliate marketing with no money and its one of the best automated business ideas to make passive income.
Daily tasks for success include creating content that promotes niche products, and adding affiliate links to earn commissions.
Initially, you may spend about 10-15 hours a week setting up the website and creating content. As the website gains traction, you might reduce your workload to 5-10 hours per week.
However, you can start affiliate marketing without a website if you want even less work
Check out these platforms to find affiliate partnerships:
-
- Amazon Associates (https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/)
- CJ Affiliate (https://www.cj.com/)
- ShareASale (https://www.shareasale.com/)
You earn a commission every time a visitor makes a purchase through your affiliate links.
Earnings will vary based on traffic and engagement, but its possible to earn $100 a day with persistence.
5: Dropshipping Business
Starting a dropshipping business allows you to sell products without dealing with inventory management or shipping logistics.
You can run this business by setting up an online store through platforms like Shopify or Oberlo and the main tasks for success involve managing your store, handling customer queries, and optimizing your marketing efforts.
Plan to spend around 10-15 hours per week in the beginning, on activities like researching new products, updating listings, and running ad campaigns.
But, once you find products that sell well, you can work less and enjoy passive income sales.
According to Dripshipper statistics, dropshippers earn on average $1,000-$3,000 a month in their first year.
6: Print on Demand Store
Starting a print-on-demand store is a popular way to make money with minimal hands-on involvement.
You create custom designs for products like t-shirts, mugs, or bags and partner with a print-on-demand provider who will handle production and shipping.
You could spend around 5-10 hours weekly on average designing, marketing, and managing orders.
But, the money you make will roll into your bank account round the clock as you will have customers from all around the world.
Here are some useful websites for your print-on-demand business:
Your earnings depend on pricing and sales volume, but, you can expect to earn between $200 to several thousand dollars monthly, based on the success of your marketing efforts and product appeal.
Learn more in our guide on how to sell t-shirts on Etsy using Printify.
7: Stock Photography Sales
Stock photography is one of the best automated business ideas to generate passive income using your photography skills.
This side hustle operates largely as a self-service system where you upload your images once and let them sell over time.
You need to spend time curating and uploading quality photos to stock photo websites. Initially, this may require a few hours each week.
Here are some popular platforms where you can sell your photos:
Income from stock photography builds slowly and might take a few years to reach a sustainable income level. Photographers often earn between $200 to $300 per month after establishing a solid portfolio.
Learn more in our guide on how get paid to take pictures with your phone.
8: Subscription-Based Business
A subscription-based business can offer financial stability through regular, recurring revenue.
Customers pay a consistent fee, usually monthly or annually, for continued access to products or services.
This model can be applied to various sectors such as software, educational content, or curated products.
Once set up, these businesses might only require a few hours each week for maintenance and customer engagement.
You should focus on delivering consistent value, enhancing the subscriber experience, and managing billing processes.
Potential ideas include:
- Website Subscription for high-value content
- Monthly email newsletter subscription for niche content
- Subscription Boxes: Check out our subscription box ideas
Depending on your niche and pricing strategy, you could earn anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars monthly.
9: Blogging for Ad Revenue
Blogging for ad revenue offers a pathway to earning income while you sleep.
You will need to invest 5-10 hours weekly in writing posts and promoting your content but once you get an audience and make money you can pay a virtual assistant to help automate the business.
Once you have traffic, you can monetize your content with adverts, affiliate partnerships and sponsored content.
Consistency and high-quality content are key to attracting advertisers and increasing ad revenue. Use tools like Google Analytics to track site performance and optimize earnings.
Here are a few tools I use to manage my blog:
- Monumentric (adverts on my site)
- Google Analytics (to track traffic levels)
- Siteground (for website hosting)
- Canva (to create Pinterest pins)
- FreePik (for images in blog posts)
- Get Response (to create and send emails)
Initially, earnings might be modest—ranging from $100 to $500 per month, depending on traffic, but, as your blog grows, potential income can increase significantly.
10: Dropservicing
Dropservicing is a business model where you offer services provided by a third party, allowing you to focus on marketing and managing clients.
You act as the middleman, outsourcing work to freelancers, agencies or even AI and you can promote services on freelancer marketplaces such as Fiverr and Upwork.
You’ll typically spend a few hours a week coordinating projects and maintaining customer relationships.
Critical tasks include managing client expectations, ensuring quality, and handling logistics.
Here are a few ideas for dropservicing businesses to start:
- Copywriting
- Ad design
- Voice-over services
- Logo design
- Email marketing
- Script generation
You receive payment from clients and pay the freelancers a predetermined fee and your profit comes from the difference between these amounts.
Earnings vary, but some dropservicers report monthly profits ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars based on the volume and complexity of services offered.
11: YouTube Channel Monetization
YouTube channel monetization is one of the top automated business ideas to earn passive income when you sleep.
By creating content that adheres to YouTube’s guidelines, you can enable ads on your videos and even make money from affiliate partnerships and selling your own merchandise.
Begin by creating quality content in a profitable niche, like personal finance or tech reviews.
Spend a few hours weekly on research, scripting, and editing. Use AI tools like InVideo to assist you in content creation.
Explore earning through different methods, such as:
- AdSense revenue
- Sponsored videos
- Affiliate marketing
- Selling your own books and courses
Earnings vary widely, but consistent content can generate $500 to $1,000 monthly with moderate traffic and effective monetization strategies.
12: Sell Coloring Books on Amazon
Selling low content books on Amazon can be a viable automated business idea.
By creating coloring books and listing them through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), you can earn passive income.
To get started, you’ll need to dedicate time initially to finding book keyword ideas that have low competition and creating book cover designs that stand out.
This can take several hours per week, mainly in the beginning stages, as you create your content and format it for publishing.
Once your book is uploaded on Amazon, the platform handles printing and shipping, so you can sit back and enjoy passive income.
Here are a few sites to help you out:
- Amazon KDP (to create a seller account)
- Creative Fabrica (to buy coloring book pages to use in your books)
- Book Bolt (for no-content book research)
- Canva (for book cover design)
Your income will come from royalties on each sale, typically around $2 to $3 per book sold. Monthly earnings depend on sales volume but could range from $100 to $2,000 or more with successful marketing.
13: Vending Machines
Vending machines offer a convenient business model that requires minimal hands-on management.
To get started, you’ll need to source your machines and wok out a profitable place for them to be placed such as a gym or shopping center.
To keep them running, you’ll have to spend a few hours each week to restock and maintain the machines, but once set up, they operate autonomously.
However, it’s important to choose high-traffic locations to maximize profits and this might take a bit of trial and error.
To succeed, focus on these tasks:
- Select popular and diverse products.
- Monitor sales trends to adjust inventory.
- Ensure regular maintenance and cleanliness.
Your earnings depend on location and product choice. Typically, you can earn between $400 to $1,500 per month per machine, given optimal conditions.
14: Podcast Sponsorships
Another great automated business idea is to start a podcast and earn money from sponsorships.
After establishing an audience, sponsors may pay you for ad placements based on your reach, typically measured as cost per mile (CPM).
To attract sponsors, focus on growing your listener base, engaging your audience, and creating high-quality content consistently.
Check out sources like AdvertiseCast who connect podcasters with sponsors.
Once you have potential sponsors, pitch professionally and negotiate deals that align with your brand.
You may have to spend a few hours weekly managing these relationships and crafting podcast episodes.
A single episode with 100,000 downloads could earn you between $1,000 and $5,000 for integrated ads.
15: Mobile App Development
Developing mobile apps can be a lucrative automated business once you have your app created and running.
Initially, you will need to invest time in creating a functional and marketable app, and depending on your experience, this could take several weeks or months.
Once the app is designed and launched, the maintenance and updates require significantly less time, often just a few hours per week.
And, here are a few ideas to monetize your app:
- In-app advertisements
- In-app purchases
- Initial purchase fee
- Monthly subscription fee
- Sponsored content
It’s important to note that – many apps fail and do not make any money at all!
However, exciting statistics include that the top 200 apps generate an average $85,200 a day, with the top 800 apps making on average $3,500 daily!
16: Amazon FBA Store
Operating an Amazon FBA store is a profitable automated business idea that you can start with minimal investment.
With Fulfillment by Amazon, most logistics are handled by Amazon, freeing up your time.
You just need to focus on selecting products, managing listings, and marketing while Amazon takes care of storage, packing, and shipping.
To succeed, you will need to dedicate around 10 hours per week for tasks like product research and customer service.
But, repetitive tasks such as email campaigns and inventory tracking can be automated using tools like Feedback Whiz and AMZScout.
According to JungleScout, 40% of Amazon sellers make $1,000 – $25,000 a month, with 31% making under $500/month when starting out.
17: Automated Email Sequences
Settling up automated email sequences is a way to maintain constant contact with your subscribers and make money from selling products and affiliate partnerships.
Even if you don’t have a blog, you can start a newsletter and build up an audience in a niche you are interested in or have knowledge about.
Follow these steps to make money with a newsletter business:
- Identify a niche
- Understand the audience
- Decide on newsletter format and frequency
- Create a lead magnet to encourage sign-ups
- Promote your newsletter on social media and with ads
- Send out weekly newsletters 2-7 times a week
- Create welcome autoresponders
- Monetize the newsletter with sponsorships, a paid subscription, affiliate marketing and selling your own products
While an average sized newsletter might bring in $500-$3,000 a month, some large newsletters earn $1 million+ a year with only small teams!
18: Sell Your Unused Internet
Selling your unused internet is an increasingly popular way to generate passive income.
Some dedicated platforms allow you to monetize your excess bandwidth and all you have to do is install their software, and they use your internet for data aggregation.
This business requires minimal daily effort and once set up, you simply let the software run in the background on your devices.
Here are a few platforms to consider:
While you won’t earn life changing money with this business idea, on average, you might earn around $20 to $50 monthly which is nice pocket money.
Payments are typically made via PayPal or gift cards, providing a convenient way to collect your earnings.
Learn more in our guide on how to sell data for money.
19: Real Estate Crowdfunding
Real estate crowdfunding allows you to invest in property without the responsibilities of being a landlord.
You typically need to spend around 2-3 hours a week monitoring investments and researching new opportunities.
Your primary tasks include evaluating investment platforms and tracking market trends.
To get started, consider using platforms like:
These are known for user-friendly interfaces and low minimum investment requirements and they offer diverse investment options, including residential and commercial properties.
Your earnings depend on the investment size and platform. On average, you might earn between 8-12% annually.
With an initial investment of $5,000, you could see monthly returns of $33 to $50.
These returns compound over time, potentially increasing your passive income.
Automated Business Ideas – Frequently Asked Questions
Before you get started with the best automated business ideas, it pays to ask a few questions and do some research.
What are automated businesses?
Automated businesses utilize technology to conduct operations with little to no daily involvement from you.
They often involve online platforms where routine tasks are managed by software, allowing you to focus on strategic growth or create additional passive income sources.
However, be aware that some businesses will require up front effort before you start seeing a payoff.
Are automated businesses profitable?
Yes, automated businesses can be profitable if you put in the effort and have patience.
Examples include affiliate marketing websites and self-published eBooks, which can generate income with relatively low ongoing effort.
Proper planning and execution are key to maximizing profitability, as is selecting the right niche to appeal to your target audience.
Plus, you will need to take time to build a niche audience and drive traffic to your sales pages.
What is the easiest automated business idea to start?
Starting with a digital product, such as selling digital planners on Etsy, is often an accessible option.
These products have low overhead costs, can be made quickly and can reach a global audience instantly without postage fees.
Take a look at these simple digital products to sell that can be made in an afternoon.
Final Thoughts on Automated Business Ideas
When exploring automated business ideas, it’s essential to consider your strengths, passions and the time you have available.
While starting a blog is a great idea, it does take work up front and it can take a while to see profits.
If you want faster returns, consider making and selling digital products such as eBooks, planners, templates or online courses.
These can be made relatively quickly and sold on platforms with ready-made audiences such as Amazon, Etsy and e-learning platforms like Udemy.
But, whichever business idea you go for, make sure you research your audience and aim to solve a problem they may be having.
*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.
