The most lucrative passive income ideas for creatives
Passive income means you create a digital product that then sells itself. Sounds like a dream? It is, but the initial effort you put into the product is important, because quality goes before quantity. Once you've lost a bad reputation, it's hard to make up for it afterwards.
“You can earn passive income best with digital products. For example, if you digitize your illustrations (or work digitally right away) you can gradually build up a passive product portfolio.” - Marie
In this post, I'll introduce you to a few digital products that can help you earn passive income on the side as an artist. For example, if you dedicate half a day every week to your passive income, you can build up a nice side income in the long run. In the beginning, the income might not be that high, but if you keep at it, your income chances will increase. To give you a better overview, I have given the earning possibilities up to five stars each. Five stars means a high earning opportunity and then descending down means less. All of these passive income ideas I have tested myself and report exclusively from my own experience.
Online Courses 5/5
Online courses are a very lucrative source of income for creatives. Are you an expert in a certain subject, for example drawing in Procreate? If you like being in front of the camera and have some filming experience, this is the perfect idea for you. And don't worry: you can also just film a short intro video of yourself and then record the rest as a screencast or animated slides. The first course is always hard, but the learning curve is steep and soon you'll be pros, I promise.
Skillshare is the first place for creatives, Udemy has a larger audience, but is more business oriented (for example, you are in good hands here with marketing courses). Here you can find my Skillshare courses. Don't have a Skillshare subscription yet? Click here to get one month for free.
Canva Creator 5/5
I recently became a Cana Creator and I have to say I love it. Finally a platform that makes all my dreams come true and makes designing as easy as possible. There are two types of Canva Creators: the Template Creators, which create free or so-called Pro Templates for the users. In addition, the Elements Creator, which create elements such as graphics (for example, icons, badges, stickers, characters, etc). These can then in turn be used by the template creators and of course by Canva users. Check out my screenshot with a monthy income of mine. Really worthwile, don't you agree? Have a look at the Canva Creator program here. Want to see all of my free templates in Canva instead? Check them out here.
YouTube 3/5
YouTube is also quite a good source of income, but it has to be built up properly first. Unfortunately, this takes time and is also a lot of work. YouTube requires a certain number of minutes watched and also a minimum number of subscribers before you can monetize the platform at all. I've heard from friends that it's worth it, but you have to get to that level first. Check out resources for You Tube creators here. Want to look at my content on You Tube? Follow the link and see it here.
Selling Fonts 3/5
Selling fonts is still quite lucrative. I've created three fonts so far and they still generate a steady small contribution to my passive income. There are two platforms I focus on: MyFonts and Creative Market. Both are good places to sell other digital products.
My Fonts is my go-to font platform, along with Creative Market. There are a wide variety of fonts here, including my three:
Creative Market is a platform for all sorts of digital artwork. You can get lost in it and I have already purchased one or the other over time. You can find my store here. Artist Nicky Laatz already made a whopping $1 million with her fonts on Creative Market. But those are exceptions.
Print on Demand Platforms 2/5
My two favorite print on demand platforms are Society 6 and Red Bubble. You upload your art and then you can earn a percentage for your art on the products. The products are created on demand, so there are no storage costs. The company also handles the marketing. Despite these many advantages, the platforms only score 2 out of 5 for me because it's quite a bit of work to keep uploading new graphics and usually only a small profit is paid out for it. However, this is also due to the sheer size that most print on demand platforms have. It's just hard to land on the front pages. If you are well versed in SEO, then things may look different again.
Society 6 attracts artists and is therefore the right platform if you create unique art. There is even furniture that you can have printed with your art. I recently started uploading my illustrations - here's my store.
Red Bubble has everything from mugs to t-shirts. It's a great platform, where it's a challenge to be found. As with most print on demand platforms, it's a good idea to upload new designs regularly.
Sell Patterns on Spoonflower 1/5
Spoonflower is your print on demand platform, if you are a pattern or surface designer. You can order everything from simple fabrics to wallpapers and also open your own store for free. Here, however, you even have to order your patterns first to then put them on sale, which is why this platform gets only one of 5 points from me. It is a lot of work to build up a portfolio already and here you even have to order a proof and pay for it. Monetarily it is only worth it to a limited extent, but I love the Spoonflower community a lot. Check out my shop on Spoonflower here.
In summary, you always have to build a relatively large portfolio first to get really good returns from your art. I would definitely like to try e-publishing in the near future. What passive income ideas have you already tried as an artist? And how did it work out? Feel free to leave me your comments....
Your Marie
