Passive income is an income stream that is not directly correlated to your efforts. It’s self-sustaining as a business model that might require some upfront investment to generate long-term steady returns.
In this article, we shall be looking at 16 side hustle ideas for lawyers to make passive income. Although most of the ideas are not related to law, they are all fairly easy to start and manage, even if you have no prior experience.
16 Passive Income Side Hustle Ideas for Lawyers
1. Sell templates
You can make passive income by selling templates for things such as sales contracts, business plans, and lease agreements through Etsy. You probably already have some of the templates ready, so it will just be a matter of uploading them online.
2. P2P lending
If you happen to have some extra cash laying around, rather than keeping it in your bank account, you can put it to work through P2P lending.
Lending has traditionally been considered a risky business since you have no guarantee that you’ll get your money back. But now, thanks to peer-to-peer lending apps such as Prosper, you can be able to lend out your cash in a more secure way. Prosper screens all its loan applicants and provides lenders with interest rates ranging from 6% to 35%.
3. Monetize your website
Does your law firm have a website? If so, you can easily monetize it by adding ads through Google Adsense.
All you need to do is sign up on Adsense and then add a piece of code to the site giving Google permission to display ads. Depending on your traffic, you could be looking at thousands of dollars each month in passive income through ads.
4. Making financial investments
Another fantastic way to make passive income is through investing. You could invest in dividend stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. To determine the best investment options, make sure to consult a financial advisor.
5. Self-publishing
If you have profound knowledge in any topic and are willing to share it with the world, you should consider writing an e-book. It’s one of the most profitable side hustles for lawyers.
Many writers prefer to self-publish their e-books through Kindle Direct Publishing because it gives them access to millions of Amazon users. The only downside is that you’ll have to pay Amazon a small commission from your sales.
You can also sell your e-book through your website (if you would like to keep all the income generated). The downside is that you won’t get as much free traffic as you would on Amazon.
6. Online courses
Another way you can monetize your knowledge and expertise is by creating an online course. The bulk of the work will go into creating the course content, but once it’s uploaded online, students will be able to enroll and pay your fees without any further work from you.
You can use course platforms like Teachable to streamline the process and make it easy for students to enroll. Teachable charges a 5% transaction fee on all sales.
7. Sell customizable spreadsheets
If you happen to be an Excel guru, you can sell spreadsheets through Etsy.
8. Start a blog
The great thing about blogs is that they can literally be on any topic. You could start a law blog, a cooking blog, an animal training blog, etc. The possibilities are endless. Wix is a fantastic website-building tool you can use to create your blog in just a few hours (even if you’ve never done it before).
Make sure to first do some research to ensure that there is demand for the topics you’re going to focus on. You can use SEMrush to see how frequently a certain keyword gets searched on Google each month. That will give you an idea of what the demand is like.
Over time as your blog starts getting organic traffic, you’ll be able to make passive income through ads, affiliate marketing, selling merchandise, etc. To truly make the blog passive, you can outsource the writing to freelancers.
9. Start a print-on-demand business
Print-on-demand allows you to sell original designs on shirts, mugs, smartphone cases, posters, etc. It’s a fantastic side hustle idea if you’ve got some graphic design expertise and are good with tools like Photoshop, although you could also outsource that to freelancers.
With print-on-demand, you don’t need to keep stock of the items you’re selling. You only need to choose your print provider (companies such as Gelato, Printify, and Printify), and whenever you get an order through your website, they fulfill it on your behalf.
10. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is one of the most profitable side hustle ideas for lawyers. If you’re not familiar with the concept, this is how it works in a nutshell.
You start by creating an e-commerce website through platforms like Shopify and then adding a bunch of products that are easy to source.
Whenever you get an order, you then use the money to order the product from a cheap supplier such as AliExpres and then have it shipped directly to the buyer.
You don’t need to keep an inventory of any of the products you’re selling. It’s a very low-cost business to start and you can virtually have hundreds of products in your store.
11. Sell stock photos
If you’re good with a camera and enjoy taking photos, you can become a contributor on stock photo websites like Shutterstock and Alamy. Whenever somebody licenses any of your photos, you get paid a commission. It’s a great way to make passive income with very little work.
12. Create an app
Building an app from scratch is nowadays a very easy process thanks to no-code tools like Adalo and Webflow.
If you have an idea for the next Uber, or an app that solves common problems lawyers often face, you can build it yourself and make passive income through ads, by charging a subscription fee or charging for downloads.
13. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a form of digital marketing where you promote products owned by another business and get a percentage of the sales you generate.
It’s a great way to make money if you have a large audience to whom you can promote, whether that’s on social media, a blog, or a YouTube channel.
You can find affiliate products through networks like CJ Affiliate, Clickbank, or even Amazon. The more expensive the products you sell, the more you stand to make through commissions.
14. Rent out a property
Rental income can be a reliable way to make passive income. However, you must maintain your home and take care of long-term tenants as well as short-term renters.
And if you don’t have an entire house to rent out, you can sign up on Airbnb and sublease any spare rooms in your current home.
15. Rent out your car
If you’re not planning to use your car for a while, or have another car sitting idle, then you can make passive income by renting it out to other people through Turo.
16. Rent out unused space
And if you happen to have some unused storage space or driveway, you can make money by renting it out through Neighbor.
