The Covid-19 pandemic and its induced lockdown have made working from home part of many people’s everyday reality. Along with the lockdown-induced increase in online freelancing, the internet has been offering a variety of ways for generating passive income streams.

While the pandemic has had a disrupting effect on a variety of industries, the rising demand for essential goods, online entertainment, and other consumer trends have been favorable for generating passive income. Below is a comprehensive list of 5 ways internet users can use the time of the pandemic to develop passive income streams.

1. Investing in Dividend Stocks. Shareholders in companies with dividend-yielding stocks receive quarterly payments from the company out of its profits. Since dividends are paid per share of stock, the more shares one owns, the higher the payout. While this method does not require much effort after the initial purchase of the shares, the most challenging part of generating passive income this way is identifying the stocks that perform well. During the pandemic, retail investors have been particularly active—discussing which stocks to pick, sharing their expertise on internet forums and making collective investments in companies like GameStop and Hometown International.

2. Selling Stock Photos. Stock photography websites like ShutterStock offer substantial compensations for high quality photos. In addition to that, aspiring photographers as well as professionals can increase their monthly earnings by submitting their content to multiple stock websites. The average monthly earnings for selling photos this way are usually somewhere within the $30-50 range. Since the pandemic has created a demand for stock material that has never been sought before, there are still plenty of ways in which the newcomers can contribute to the field and turn a profit.

1. Affiliate Marketing. With affiliate marketing, website owners, social media influencers, bloggers, or anyone with a substantial online outreach promote a third-party product by including a link to the product on their site or social media account. While Amazon might be the most well-known affiliate partners, Instagram and TikTok have become huge platforms for those looking to grow a following and promote products. Even though affiliate offers for gyms and some education courses have been substantially lowered, the pandemic was favorable for affiliate programs for health supplements, oxygen items, internet bandwidth, and other essential goods and services.

4. Cryptocurrency Mining. In the simplest terms, cryptocurrency mining refers to the use of computing power to solve cryptographic equations—an activity for which the so-called “miners” are compensated with crypto-tokens. Though this trend began with Bitcoin, mining for Bitcoin has mostly become a corporate business rather than a viable source of passive income for an average individual. That said, mining alternative coins like Dogecoin and Monero—cryptocurrencies that have experienced steady growth throughout the pandemic—can still be a profitable venture, generating up to $30/month.

5. Internet Connection Sharing. While the underlying technology here is new and might be difficult to grasp, the way it works from the user perspective is quite straightforward. People install the app on their devices, connect them to the internet, and while the app is active, the users are compensated for renting their unused internet bandwidth. Generally, the earning potential generated from a single user’s bandwidth varies from just a few cents to several hundred dollars a month. That said, platforms like IPRoyal Pawns have introduced affiliate programs where the partners are rewarded a commission rate from the bandwidth of every new user that has signed up to the platform via their affiliate link.

While there are more ways for generating passive income, this list is a sufficient starting point for making more money and increasing current wealth, especially in a time of economic crisis like the current one emanating from this pandemic. While maximizing one’s financial freedom via a passive income route requires some effort, it is certainly doable.