There have never been more passive income opportunities than there are today. Thanks to the Internet, passive income no longer has to be a dream, but can easily become a reality.

Passive income can be basically defined as income that you dont actually do anything to get. In the past, this most often meant owning rental properties or being a silent partner in a business.

Another way people did, and still do, create passive income was through direct sales. They would start selling a product such as Avon, Tupperware or Amway and recruit others to sell as well.

In exchange for bringing people into the business, theyre given a percentage of any sales those people make. This, then, enabled them to stop actively selling the product and still make significant amounts of money.

With the advent of the Internet, though, opportunities for passive income has broadened and become easier than ever to develop.

A person can now write articles or ebooks that can generate passive income for years. Someone can even sell the rights to their written products and only take a small to moderate commission on future sales of those products by others to create a wonderful ongoing passive income opportunity.

Many people have harnessed the power of the Internet in Web sites that they build and work at until it is possible to have it running automatically, with little or no maintenance.

This, however, takes a long time to happen, and a person doing this would be wise to still keep a close watch on their Web site businesses to ensure their customers are getting great service.

They will also want to pay attention to Internet marketing trends and be sure they make adjustments to keep their online business as up to date as possible to ensure the passive income opportunity remains reliable and even grows.

They may also want to expand their passive income opportunity by duplicating it with new and different Web site and online businesses.