Everyone has a creative hobby or two besides their 9-5 which they are super passionate about. Ask yourself – what is that one thing outside of work which you just can’t get enough of – something that you look forward to doing as soon as you find some free time, or that consumes your weekends?
From painting, baking, or writing code (or poetry) to gaming, gardening, or photography – it could be just about anything. Thanks to the internet, every creative skill can be monetized.
The idea behind passive income is simple – work your socks off to build something of real value, and then let the money pour in with little-to-no maintenance.
While it does mean you’ll be “making money while you sleep”, it doesn’t imply you can completely forget about it after a certain point. It’s essential to track your passive income stream like a falcon, no matter how automated it might be.
Anyway, here are four tried-and-tested ideas to turn your creative passion into a source of passive income.
1. Start a blog
If you’ve ever told anyone about your passion for writing, then you’ve heard this advice before. Well, even today, it is not a piece of bad advice.
Sure, realistically speaking, your odds of becoming a big-time blogger are much lower today than if you had started a decade back. And it’ll take a lot more effort to rank on the first page of search engines with the competition now.
But as you’re reading this, you know text-based content isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, regardless of the popularity of Instagram and YouTube. Blog posts and website content is here to stay.
So, if you enjoy writing and are fairly knowledgeable about something, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t start your own blog. It can be a great source of passive income once it gains some traction.
Plus, with countless platforms such as WordPress and Blogger, you don’t need any coding skills and can get started with your own website in under half an hour.
2. Build an app
Talking about coding skills, if you do have them, then how about building an actual digital product that solves a problem? Of course, easier said than done. But it’s certainly not as difficult as it sounds if you truly love to code.
The mobile app market is still all the rage. If you can think of a novel idea (which is probably the hardest part) for an app or a game, then you may be sitting on a goldmine.
Besides, you don’t have to go at it alone. Even if you put your heart and soul into it, working nights and weekends, developing an app that makes money is no mean feat.
The reality is that sometimes you have to spend money to make money. Once you have ascertained your idea is fit for the market and has a potential user base, consider hiring help – maybe a designer and/or a developer that has a complementary skill set to yours.
If that’s not feasible, team up with like-minded colleagues or college friends. The point is, don’t let the daunting thought of starting an ambitious side project from the ground up stop you from creating something you would be proud of (and makes you mailbox money for years to come).
3. Sell your photography
Selling photos may not be the most lucrative side hustle, but if you’re a photography freak, this can prove to be a profitable venture in the long run.
Think about it this way – you’re anyway spending your leisure time clicking photos and geeking about your camera. It makes sense to monetize it for some easy extra cash.
As you may already know, you can become a contributor to major stock photography sites like Shutterstock, Fotolia, and iStock. Once you have a decent amount of high-quality photography uploaded, you can make a decent monthly passive income from your uploads with no additional effort.
4. Teach what you know
It is likely that you’re not merely passionate about your craft but are also quite proficient at it. But that is not the case with every passionate individual in your sphere.
And so, doesn’t it make sense to package all your extensive knowledge into a reasonably priced online course that genuinely helps others become more skillful? Of course, it does. You can host your course on your own website or a platform like Udemy.
Or, if you prefer to keep your offerings free, upload your courses to YouTube. If your content is good enough, your channel will surely grow to a level where you can monetize with ads. Furthermore, you can consider writing a comprehensive e-book and self-publishing it on Amazon.
A passionate path to better financial security
If you love your hobby and know what you’re doing, why not make it official? After all, getting paid to do what you love is the dream. And you know what’s better? Getting paid to do nothing (except to maintain what you’ve built).
Yes, it takes years of patience and persistence to build a realistic source of passive income but boy is it worth it. Once that tremendous amount of hard work (which shouldn’t really feel like hard work as it’s your passion) starts paying dividends, it’ll take so much financial stress off your shoulders and not to mention, a ticket to early retirement.
You might also like our TUTEZONE section which contains exclusive tutorials on making your life simpler by using technology.
