please write me a python script that will gain me passive income with somthing other that stocks that i can run in my linux terminal
Creating passive income through programming typically involves leveraging your skills to automate tasks, build tools, or engage in activities that generate revenue over time. Here's a simple example of a Python script that can help you earn passive income by scraping affiliate product prices from an online retailer and sending you notifications when prices drop.
This script won’t make money by itself but can be a part of a passive income strategy if you decide to become an affiliate marketer. You can modify it to work with different retailers and incorporate affiliate links based on the products you're monitoring.
Please note that web scraping is subject to each website's terms of service, so ensure you're complying with those regulations.
### Prerequisites
1. Python installed on your Linux machine.
2. Install the required libraries (BeautifulSoup for scraping, requests for making HTTP requests, and smtplib for sending emails):
```bash
pip install requests beautifulsoup4
```
3. An email account to send notifications from.
### Example Script
```python
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import smtplib
import time
# Constants
PRODUCT_URL = "https://example.com/product" # Change to the product URL you're interested in
TARGET_PRICE = 50.00 # Set your target price
EMAIL_ADDRESS = "This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." # Your email address
EMAIL_PASSWORD = "your_email_password" # Your email password
CHECK_INTERVAL = 3600 # Time in seconds to wait before checking the price again, e.g., 1 hour
def check_price():
headers = {'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0'}
response = requests.get(PRODUCT_URL, headers=headers)
soup = BeautifulSoup(response.content, 'html.parser')
# Parse the price from the page
price_tag = soup.find('span', {'class': 'price'}) # Change based on actual HTML structure
if price_tag:
price_string = price_tag.text.strip().replace('$', '')
current_price = float(price_string)
if current_price < TARGET_PRICE:
send_email(current_price)
def send_email(current_price):
subject = 'Price Drop Alert!'
body = f'The product price has dropped to ${current_price}. Check it out at {PRODUCT_URL}'
# Login to your email account
with smtplib.SMTP('smtp.gmail.com', 587) as server:
server.starttls()
server.login(EMAIL_ADDRESS, EMAIL_PASSWORD)
message = f'Subject: {subject}\n\n{body}'
server.sendmail(EMAIL_ADDRESS, EMAIL_ADDRESS, message)
print(f'Email sent! Current price: ${current_price}')
if __name__ == '__main__':
while True:
check_price()
time.sleep(CHECK_INTERVAL)
```
### Steps to Use the Script:
1. **Update Script Variables**: Replace `PRODUCT_URL` with the link to the product you want to monitor. Be sure to adjust the parsing logic to fit the website's HTML structure (the class name in `soup.find`).
2. **Configure Email Settings**: Update `EMAIL_ADDRESS` and `EMAIL_PASSWORD`. If using Gmail, you may need to enable "Less secure app access" in your Google Account settings or create an App Password.
3. **Run the Script**: Open your terminal, navigate to the directory where you saved this script, and run it:
```bash
python your_script_name.py
```
### Important Considerations:
- **Respect Robots.txt**: Before scraping any website, check its `robots.txt` file to ensure you're allowed to scrape it.
- **Email Notifications**: This script currently sends alerts to your own email. You could modify it to notify other people or log alerts differently if needed.
- **Automation Alternatives**: This is just one idea—others include creating a digital product to sell, starting a blog with ad revenue, or creating software tools that can be sold or have premium features.
This script is for educational purposes, and you'll need to customize it to fit your needs and comply with legal regulations around web scraping and affiliate marketing.