Passive income is money that can be earned without spending a lot of time working. For instance, if you had a house and you rented it out, the rental payments you’d be receiving each month is passive because you’re not actively working for it.
On the other hand, if you are employed, then your salary is not passive since it’s directly correlated to the number of hours you spend working.
Passive income is the ultimate way to build wealth that’s reliable and sustainable in the long run. It is often achieved through automation, delegation, or even outsourcing to third party companies. For instance, you could use managed IT services to avoid doing the IT work yourself.
In this article, we shall go over 12 side hustles for artists and creatives that can generate such an income.
12 Profitable Side Hustles for Artists and Creatives
1. Sell digital files
Digital files include things such as phone icons, plugins, graphic designs, PDFs, digital art, etc.
If you’re good at creating such digital files, then you can make passive income by selling them through Etsy, a marketplace for creatives. Digital files can be downloaded thousands of times without any work from you.
2. Sell stock photos
If you love taking photos, you can make passive income by selling them on stock photo websites like Shutterstock and Adobe stock.
Stock photos are often used by companies when advertising or illustrating various things online. For instance, the banner image used in this post is a stock photo acquired from Shutterstock.
You can sign up on stock photo websites and upload hundreds or even thousands of your best images. Whenever someone licenses them, you get paid a royalty.
3. Start a Print on Demand business
This is one of the best side hustles for artists and creative people. Print-on-demand allows you to sell custom designs for things such as t-shirts, mugs, and smartphone cases, without actually keeping stock of them.
All you need to do is advertise the various designs through your website, and whenever you get an order, you simply forward it to an online printing service like Printify to fulfill it on your behalf.
It’s a very low-risk business that can be started with little capital. Most e-commerce businesses suffer great losses when they order in bulk but are unable to sell through their inventory. With print-on-demand, you only ship an item that’s been paid for.
4. Start a blog
If you love writing then this is one of the most profitable side hustles to start. Your blog can be on any topic you’re knowledgeable and passionate about. That could be art, cooking, knitting, movie reviews, etc. Once you start to get organic traffic, you’ll make passive income through ads and affiliate marketing.
Make sure to first do comprehensive topic research using tools like SEMrush to see what phrases and keywords people are frequently searching online. That will help you gauge the level of demand for the topics you want to write about.
If you don’t have any web design experience, you can use Wix to build your blog in just a few minutes.
5. Write an e-book
This is another passive income idea for people that love writing. Self-publishing has become very easy thanks to Kindle Direct Publishing, a platform that allows authors to publish their work online and gain access to millions of Amazon users.
Whenever somebody buys your e-book, Amazon takes a small cut and then pays you the rest. Unlike with hardcopy books, you won’t ever have to worry about publishers, inventory, or order fulfillment. Your e-book can literally be downloaded millions of times with zero effort from you.
6. Create an online course
Creating an online course is a fantastic way to make money out of your skills and knowledge. Through Teachable, you can create a course on almost anything, and it will be accessible to millions of people around the world.
Most of the work will go into creating the content, but once you upload it on Teachable, you can then shift your focus to marketing. Students will be able to enroll and pay your fees without any work from you. It’s one of the best side hustles for creatives.
7. Monetize your social media pages
Do you happen to have a large following on social media? If so, then there are two easy ways you can monetize your page.
The first is through affiliate marketing. You can sign up on networks like CJ Affiliate, Clickbank, and Amazon to find relevant products to start promoting. Whenever somebody makes a purchase through your link, you get paid a small commission from the sale.
The second way is by charging companies a fee to promote their products/services to your followers. With as little as 1,000 followers, you are considered a micro-influencer and can sign up on influencer networks like GRIN to get matched with brands.
8. Monetize your website
Do you have a website where you display your portfolio? If so, then you can monetize it by displaying ads through Google Adsense.
Depending on your traffic, you could be looking at hundreds or even thousands of dollars in passive income each month.
9. Start a YouTube channel
This one is a no-brainer if you’re comfortable in front of a camera. Your videos can take a variety of formats, including tutorials, interviews, or even a vlog where you just record yourself going about your day-to-day business.
YouTube channels can make money in a number of ways, including ads, affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and selling merchandise. It’s such a great side hustle for creative people.
10. Create an app
If you have an app idea that you reckon could become the next Uber, you can use no-code app-building tools like Adalo to bring it to life.
The biggest challenge you’ll face is getting people to download the app, so you may need a substantial investment in ads. But once you gain some traction, you’ll make passive income by either displaying ads, charging a subscription fee, or charging for downloads.
11. Invent something
As a creative person, you’re able to access mental faculties that most people cannot. That means you are probably some sort of genius, and if you think really hard, you can come up with unique solutions to common problems people face.
Think of all the frustrations you often face in your day-to-day life, or even in your line of work. Is there a tool you can come up with that could help solve them? If so, then you’re sitting on a goldmine.
As an inventor, you won’t need to manufacture your invention. You can simply license the patent to a third party, and they’ll pay you royalties for the rest of your life.
12. Start a graphic design agency
Graphic design will always be in demand globally. Companies need graphics for their websites, social media pages, newsletters, etc.
If you’re good with tools like Photoshop and Canva, then you can become a graphic designer, or better yet, start your own agency. It’s one of the most profitable side hustles for artists and creatives.
Although this is technically not a passive income business, you can automate it by outsourcing all the work to freelancers.
