One of the ways I make money without having a regular job is by working on Elance. I first heard about Elance several years ago from a family member. I enjoy writing so I figured it would be a good way to make some extra cash.
They have other job listings besides writing on Elance too including programing jobs, marketing jobs, administrative jobs and consulting jobs. Basically it is a place for people who want work done to find other people willing to freelance and get the work done.
I signed up and built my online profile immediately. It's important to build a strong profile so people will feel confident about you and feel that you will do a good job for them. You can upload some work samples as well. I got my first job within a couple days!
Elance offers a few different membership levels. You can sign up for a free membership and put bids in for different jobs. With the free membership you need to stick with one category of jobs and you are limited each month to the amount of bids you put in. There are other upgrades as well so you can bid on more jobs. I found that the first tier was a good fit for me.
I love finding new income streams and although this does not provide passive income, it's a lot of fun for some extra cash for just a little bit of work!