Passive income streams can make the difference in your creative career. The best ways to make passive income are to develop these revenue streams today!
The Dream
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to spend your days traveling and writing for a living?
Do you wish you had a lifestyle where you got to write and create full time without the constraints of a traditional job?
Do you daydream about a world in which you never have to trade your time for money?
If you’re a writer, you have to make some serious moves this year to make this happen because it’s not going to happen overnight. Your first and best step is passive income.
Passive income is your ticket to that lifestyle. But is there enough passive income business out there? Let’s find out.
Passive Income Is…
The best way to define passive income is work you put in today that yields money in the future. There are a variety of other ways to develop passive income streams. However, as writers, we’re provided a special set of skills. Those particular talents allow us to build passive income in ways that are unavailable to others.
For example, earning dividends on stocks is one way to make passive income. However, that really only works if you’re able to place large quantities in the stock market.
If that sounds like you, then go for it! There are other websites that can help you do that.
But if your goals are more organic, humble, and realistic, then you’re in the right place.
We’re going to talk about the many income streams writers can take advantage of that will help build an income that allows you to transition into a lifestyle you’ve always wanted.
These passive income strategies require real work. If you read or hear of someone on the internet talking about fast, easy money. Run!
If you want to really make passive income, follow along because I’m going to explore what works and what doesn’t.
The Bad News
Passive income isn’t always passive. To begin your passive income journey actually takes a lot of work.
It’s quite the opposite of passive at first. What you’re doing is building something that will make you money in perpetuity. But you need to build it first.
The amount of effort and work it takes is the barrier for entry. If you spend any time on social media you see the people promoting the “make $1,000 per day” or “make six figures in your sleep” schemes.
Sounds great?
It’s not realistic. At least not at first.
Instead of buying an expensive course, just use the free information on the internet (like this site).
Passive income is NOT a get quick rich scheme. It’s a get rich slow (painfully slow at times) scheme. I don’t want to lie to you about this uphill battle. But there’s a downhill on the other side. You just have to get to it.
You just don’t make it immediately. If you want to know more about making money today for the things you make, check out my article on Supplemental Income or get a free list of Supplemental Income streams below.
The Good News
The good news is that there are ways to make money passively on the internet. People do it all the time. They live the lifestyle we talked about earlier. And they make good money doing it.
But that same barrier of hard work that’s in your way is also in everyone else’s way. If you break through it by sheer will and hard work, then your life awaits. Do you have the guts and endurance to break through?
So how do you get there? Let’s take a little tour-de-passive income.
Passive income is different from supplemental or active income. This is money you earn by creating something once then continuing to make money on it over time.
For example, if a literary journal pays you for the rights to publish your story, that’s active income. You write the story, they pay you once to publish it (supplemental income).
If the pay structure for that same literary journal is through royalties, then the more they sell, the more money you earn. That’s passive income.
Writing books is passive income. No one pays you an hourly wage to sit down every day and write the book (wouldn’t that be nice). They pay you when books sell.
So content writing, beta reading, and freelance writing, while great opportunities to make supplemental income, don’t fall into the passive income category.
The ideal situation is to be making money without sharing the royalties with anyone else. That’s the way to build passive income.
How to Get Started Today
Before we take a look at the list, here are some suggestions.
I’ve been in your shoes before. I’ve waded into the passive income waters. There’s an undertow you need to be aware of.
If you’re like me, you’re going to struggle with what to choose. You’re going to choose multiple options and do each with partial effort until you run out of steam (about a month, two if we’re feeling particularly motivated). Then, in the end, your passive income journey won’t be fruitful.
Don’t be like me. Choose ONE form of passive income. Do it with all your heart. When you’ve got that stream on autopilot (even if it takes some effort but significantly less time than before) then venture into the second revenue stream.
Choose the one place to start. Then build over time.
Examples of Passive Income
1. Medium.com
I can not stress this enough: get a Medium.com account immediately if you don’t already have one.
Then sign up to be behind the paywall (it’s free) and start writing.
If you start on Medium or already have an account, comment below or on one of my Medium posts so I have your Medium account name. I’ll gladly help promote, clap, and comment on your posts so you can build a fast audience, which will earn you money!
Building an audience can be difficult. So if you’re new to passive income but not new to writing, then Medium should be your first stop.
2. NewsBreak
From what I can tell, NewsBreak is much more lucrative than Medium.
However, Medium helps to promote a sense of community. So you may want to have both accounts: Medium for community and audience growth and NewsBreak for aiming for viral articles.
At the moment, you can even take your Medium articles and copy them over to NewsBreak.
However, there’s a barrier to entry for NewsBreak. There’s an application process. They ask for social media handles and websites you write for with articles linked.
This might be a hurdle if you’re new to passive income. That’s why I suggest the Medium account first. Then you’ll have a body of work to submit to NewsBreak.
3. Print-on-demand
This may feel unrelated to writing. However, it actually works great for creative minds. This is the ultimate passive income move on this list.
If you can develop a site using Shopify, Redbubble, or any of the other print on demand sites, you can post t-shirt ideas and if people buy them, you make money.
You don’t have to talk to manufacturers or distributers. Those sites do all that work.
You just need the ideas. Now, there’s some strategy involved here, which I’ll cover in later posts. However, if you’re interested in print on demand now, I suggest checking out this YouTube account for more information.
4. Create a website
This can be a serious undertaking but it’s not nearly as difficult as it used to be.
There are so many platforms out there that make creating a website really easy.
Once you have a website, you can use it to promote your products, earn affiliate income, advertising revenue, etc. Plus, it’s kind of a prerequisite for some (but not all) of the other items on this list.
5. Affiliate marketing
Before I really understood affiliate marketing, it felt very complex and difficult. However, it’s surprisingly easy to understand and get started.
Promote products you use and love. If people buy using your provided links, you make money.
6. Advertising on your website/blog
Once you have your blog or website up and running, you can start gaining traffic.
When you have consistent traffic you can reach out to products to use advertising space on your site. There’s a lot of information out there for how to pull this off.
7. YouTube Channel
Like most of the other items on this list, it has a really low barrier to entry. If you’re consistent about publishing and promoting videos, you can really stand out.
As writers we often sit behind a computer all day, hiding our process.
YouTube gives us a unique opportunity that many writers haven’t yet taken advantage of. Step into the light and talk about writing!
8. Sell a “How-to” E-Book
I’ve heard career bloggers suggest that if you’re writing a blog post that’s longer than about 2,000 words, you should turn it into an e-book.
So if you’re writing about how to develop a character and find that you can write for pages and pages. Then consider turning it into an e-book and monetizing it.
Even if it’s $5.00. If you sell just ten copies each month that’s an extra $50.00 every month.
9. Self-Publish a Children’s Book
I’m so skeptical about this, but I keep seeing it pop up and I’ve been getting questions about whether or not it works. So I’m going to look at this more in depth.
Yes, I’m going to write a children’s book and try to sell it on Amazon. I’ll likely make a fool of myself so be sure to stick around for that in the near future.
10. Quora
This is so far down the list because it seems like a ton of work for a little payout. This is for people who love answering questions and can answer at least 10 or more questions every day consistently.
I use Quora to see what questions writers have. I answer a few of those questions per day.
But unless you’ve got the time to grow your following, I’m just not sure it’s worth hanging your hat on this platform.
11. Self-publish a book
People who self-publish are ravenous about telling others how great it is. There must be something to it. If you can have control over everything about your book (final edits, cover, marketing) then it might be worth the effort.
Agents are inundated with book pitches. Gaining their attention can be so difficult.
If you’re going to self-publish, you’ll want a platform. So it’s worth investing some time in Medium and social media. Probably even a website where you can promote yourself and ultimately your book.
The 4 Growth Areas to Writerly Income are built on this idea of developing in 4 core areas to turn your writing into a career.
Amazon KDP makes it really easy to publish your work.
12. Sell an e-course
This is last on the list because it’s dependent on some serious work and time. Not only will it take hours and hours to develop an e-course, you’ll need an audience to buy your course.
That audience will need to be willing to shell out money for your expertise. So this passive income stream might be part of a 5 or 10 year plan. However, it’s something you can start now because you should start building content that you can put into that course some day.
The ultimate payoff for an e-course is higher than most of these other sources. You can easily charge over $100 for a course. Some courses, depending on their content depth and length, will go for $500 with hundreds or thousands of people signing up.
So start growing your audience and your content backlog so when you’re ready you can unleash a helpful, worthwhile course that people get value from!
Conclusion
As writers, we’re uniquely qualified to shine in these passive income arenas. With so many options, the best place to start is just to start. Remember, passive income is about building something today that you can earn money on later. It takes effort and work, but that effort will pay off for your future self.
It’s up to you to make your dreams come true. If you want the freedom to travel and write, there’s a roadmap. It’s not easy but the payoff in the end is immense.
If you want to live on a beach, travel the world, work from home every day, or you just want to set yourself up for some additional income down the road, you’ll want to start your passive income journey today.
If there’s something I missed, let me know in the comments!
