Simple Ways to Earn Passive Income for Creatives

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Nov 12, 2024

Simple Ways to Earn Passive Income for Creatives

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Passive income has become a trigger word for people who are wanting to make more money and enjoy financial freedom. People with creative skills can use their unique talents to make extra money. Whether you are looking to create passive income streams full-time or on a freelance basis, here are some side hustles for passive income that are perfect for creatives.

In this article

Create products via Print-on-demand

Print-on-demand services allow you to create multiple products without the upfront investment. Once you create high-quality designs in a program like Canva or Procreate, then, you can sell those products in an online store through Etsy, Redbubble, Society 6, or even your own Shopify website. When a customer purchases your product like t-shirts or tote bag, the print-on-demand partner will create your product and ship it directly to the customer.

You will need to spend some time creating the designs for your products. After that, customers can purchase from your online storefront anytime they want. You don’t have to worry about inventory or shipping.

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More than 80% of brands use affiliate marketing programs. Rather than companies paying for advertisements, they pay people like you to spread the word about the products and services they offer. Every time someone purchases from their company using your link or coupon code, you receive a kick back—usually a percentage of the sale or a flat fee.

A simple way to find out if your favorite brand offers affiliate programs is to search their website. If they offer one, you can usually apply within a few minutes. Once you are approved, you can post your affiliate link on your social media pages, youtube channel, or your own website. Whenever someone purchases from your unique link, you make extra income.

Make and sell digital products

Digital products include any type of asset that can be sold as digital downloads. Ebooks, templates, art prints, guides, workbooks, and printables are all products you can create once and continue to sell repeatedly.

You can sell digital products like art prints, party printables and templates on marketplaces like Etsy or Creative Market, along with promoting them on your social media pages and personal website. Ebooks and workbooks can also be sold through Amazon.

Start a Youtube channel

Youtube is the world’s second largest search engine. Collectively, users watch over a billion hours every single day. However, in order to be eligible to make money on Youtube, your channel needs to meet the following criteria:

Get 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months, or
Get 1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days.

Uploading evergreen content will provide you with videos that can perform well for years. This type of video isn’t based on time sensitive events, but videos that can help someone regularly. A video tutorial showing you how to change a tire will provide you more watch time opportunities than a video copying a viral Tik Tok trend. Starting a Youtube channel requires a lot of time compared to other side hustles, but it has the potential to provide you with passive income for years.

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Open a Patreon membership

Patreon is a membership platform geared towards artists and creators. Rather than relying on views and ads on social media, Patreon allows creatives to have stable revenue streams of income by offering memberships to their followers and fans. Creators share exclusive content with their patrons to entice subscribers.

While you will need to spend time creating podcasts, recording music, or exclusive art for your patrons, subscribers are billed monthly, providing you recurring income.

Sell your photography

You don’t have to own a fancy camera to sell stock photos. Stock photography is used widely across the interwebs. People like you take pictures and upload them to a site like Shutterstock. Businesses or individuals can purchase the photos they need from you, without the hassle and expense of hiring a professional team for a photo shoot.

Popular stock photos include business style, holidays, travel, background, and families. If there are any identifiable people in your photos, make sure to get a model release, allowing you to sell the image. Once you take the pictures and upload them to a stock photography platform, you can sell the picture over and over.

Build an online course

Online education is expected to reach $185 billion in 2024. People enjoy the flexibility of online courses along with the variety of topics available. You can take a class to learn just about anything through online learning platforms like Skillshare or Udemy. You can make a course based on your own creative talents. Whether you are great at graphic design and creating fonts, or you want to teach people how to crochet stuffed animals that look like their pets, once you’ve made the course you can sell it forever.

Creating a course will take a decent time investment upfront. There may be a learning curve figuring out how to showcase your skills on video versus in real life. But after you’ve created the course it can be a source of passive income for you indefinitely.

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The bottom line

Each method will have its own timeline for how quickly you can start earning money. Remember though, even the best passive income ideas still require some work upfront and continued maintenance. With dedicated effort, these passive income ideas for artists can help support your creativity while benefiting your wallet.

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Holly is a freelance writer who recognizes that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to personal finance. She is passionate about entrepreneurship, women in business and financial literacy. When she is not working, she is testing out new recipes, tasting the newest Trader Joe’s finds or binging the latest true crime podcast. She resides in Utah with her husband, two daughters and dog, Max.

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