10 Passive Income Streams

Here are 10 Passive Income Streams that you can set up today to start making money as a Creator.

DISCLAIMER: Links included in this post might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting me so I can continue to provide you with free content each week on my blog and on my YouTube channel!

Is passive income too good to be true? Absolutely not. Can you make money passively without doing the work to set it up first? Absolutely not. So, how can you make money through passive income? Let’s figure that out!

Today I’m sharing 10 passive income streams with you, and we’ll dive into the effort it takes to both setup and maintain each one. I’ll also be sharing how I use these forms of passive income in my business, and how much money each one makes me.

Here are my 10 passive income streams.

What is Passive Income?

Oftentimes people throw out the term ‘passive income’ as a way to advertise this idea that you can make money overnight or get rich quick… with little or no effort on your part.

In fact, if you Google passive income right now, the results would say things like, “income that’s acquired with minimal labor to earn or maintain” or “a money stream that requires little or no continuous effort.” Which does make it sound like an easy way to start making money online.

And it is! Passive income is a way to make money while you sleep. But there is a hustle phase. In fact, the majority of the work to make money passively is done at the beginning.

In other words, you have to put in the time and effort to set up each passive income stream. Then, when you make it through that hustle phase, you will start to see money rolling while you sleep.

Setting up passive income has been a 3-year journey for my business so far, but it has also allowed us to generate about $20,000/week this year. So at the end of the day, it’s definitely worth the time and effort to get there.

And if you ever hear someone say that they’re going to help you “get rich overnight”… it’s probably a scam.

#1 Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is when you earn a commission or fee for sharing a product or service that you love with your audience. This commission is generally earned through people clicking on a link or purchasing a product that you mention through your affiliate link.

Affiliate links use cookies to track who’s clicked on your link and made a purchase. There is no extra cost for the person using your links.

It’s essentially a way for a company to thank you for referring a customer to them. Because you referred the customer, they’re happy to give you a portion of the transaction. Companies are willing to do this because ‘word of mouth’ marketing is so valuable.

Last year, the average salary for a full time affiliate marketer was $59,060 per year, or almost $5,000 a week – according to Glassdoor.

Now, those are people who do affiliate marketing full-time. Influencer Marketing Hub did a survey that said 33% of content creators say they’re making over $10,000 a year with affiliate marketing.

How can you get started with affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to get started with passive income.

Step 1: Pick a niche

Affiliate marketing is more effective when you have a platform or audience, so it helps to pick a niche. The quickest way to grow an audience that you can influence is by niching down and keeping links within your related industry.

Here are some niche topics that had the high commission payouts last year:

eLearning and Beauty & Health with commissions up to 30%
Finance with commissions between 35-40%
SaaS products with commissions of up to 70%

Alternatively, a lot of companies offer their own affiliate marketing programs. Tools like Canva, TubeBuddy and FloDesk allow you to apply to their direct affiliate marketing programs.

Step 3: Create your links and start sharing

Once you have your accounts set up you can start making your links and placing them everywhere. Share the products you love in your blogs, YouTube video descriptions, make a highlight on Instagram and add them to your ‘link in bio’ landing page.

If you want to learn more about affiliate marketing, watch this video!

How hard is it to maintain a consistent income with affiliate marketing?

There are so many factors that come into play with affiliate marketing. For example, how big your audience is, how willing your audience is to buy what you recommend, and how expensive the product is.

For some people, it will be easy to apply to affiliate marketing programs and set up links. And for others, you’ll have to build a following on social media first, before you can get into the affiliate program that you’re looking at.

Then it comes down to the products that you’re recommending. If you’re earning a percentage of sales from a product that costs $300 you’ll be making a lot more than a product recommendation that costs $20.

It’s important to keep in mind that once your affiliate links are created, you need to be directing traffic to those links – otherwise you aren’t going to earn anything.

#2 Selling Digital Products

Digital products are products that exist in digital form. Things like eGuide, presets, templates, planners, etc. You then sell these products on your website, Etsy store, or directly to your audience if you have a social platform.

How can you get started selling digital products?

Step 1: Identify a problem in your industry

What does someone in your niche or industry need help with? For example, if you’re in the social media industry and you provide tips for content creators, you might notice that your audience has a problem with landing brand collaborations.

Step 2: Product the solution to that problem

Your solution to the problem is going to be the product that you are selling! For the example above, if this was your industry and problem, you could create a digital product that shares your exact pitch templates OR a “Pitch Master Bundle” which could include Media Kit templates, a Trello template for staying organized and DM or Email pitches.

At the end of the day, find out what your audience is struggling with and give them a product that fixes it.

If you’re unsure – look at what other creators in your niche are selling. Or better yet, ask your audience!

How to make your digital products

You are going to need a tool that helps you create the product. I recommend Canva, all of my eBooks and templates have been made in Canva. It’s free to use, you just need to create an account and search for ‘ebook’ or ‘eguide’ or even ‘recipe book’ and they’ll have templates you can use.

Once you choose a template, simply plugin your information.

After you’ve created your product, you can export it as a PDF and upload it to your shop. I always recommend Stan for this because I know from personal experience that you’ll have a high ROI. There are other options like Etsy, Shopify and SamCart.

If you don’t have a social media platform, Etsy is a great place to sell templates, presets and digital products. On average, successful Etsy sellers earn around $3,000-$5,000 per month. Do a bit of research before picking your specific platform to sell on.

How hard is it to maintain a consistent income selling digital products?

For me, making passive income with digital products has been easier than affiliate marketing. What it will come down to is your audience and how you market your products.

Once again, you can’t just create the product and have it sell. You have to talk about it, market it and make sure that people know it exists.

#3 Online Courses

Online courses are a form of eLearning where someone can go through the material at their own pace. They’re typically pre-recorded videos that follow a syllabus or structure of some sort to offer the student a transformation, tangible outcome or result.

55% of creators want to sell an online course. Why?

The eLearning industry has grown by 900% since 2000. eLearning is estimated to be worth $325 billion by 2025, with the potential to cross the $1 trillion mark by 2028.

I love online courses. These are typically your high ticket items. You might sell a digital product for around $47, but you can sell an online course for anything from $10-$6,000! The price of your course will depend on what you’re teaching and your authority. (I wouldn’t recommend having your first course priced at $6,000.)

The best part about online courses is that anyone can sell an online course on literally anything. As long as you can teach some sort of transformation to your audience, you’re in the clear.

Check out some of the online courses that I’ve seen over the years:

How can you get started selling an online course?

Step 1: Validate your course topic

This simply means you are making sure people would actually be interested in buying a course on that topic. Do industry research, see what other creators are teaching, talk to your target audience, poll people, etc.

Step 2: Outline your course

Once you have validated your course topic, start to outline your modules. What will your lessons cover? How many lessons will you have? You can start filling in the blanks of where you’ll need worksheets, quizzes, extra materials and so on.

Step 3: Create your course

Creating your course is going to take up the majority of your time. You need to script videos, create slides (if you’re using slideshows to teach information), record, edit and upload your videos into the platform of your choice. I personally upload all of my courses to Thinkific and prerecord them on Zoom!

You can also set your online course up in Stan Store, which is a great option especially if you’re already using Stan to sell your other digital products.

If you feel like you’re ready to create your own course and want more information about this specific topic, I recommend watching this video next! It’s a 40-minute (free) training that walks you through how to create and sell a profitable online course, and it comes with a free 6-week launch plan that you can download in the description.

It took me 9-months to create my first online course, so this form of passive income definitely takes time.

Step 4: Sell it

Once you’ve created your online course, it’s time to sell it! You can create a webinar where you teach a lesson from the course live and then pitch the full course at the end – or you can sell your online course through an email funnel.

How hard is it to maintain a consistent income selling an online course?

Your journey with selling an online course is going to vary greatly, depending on your audience and platforms. I’ve been really lucky with my online courses because I have an existing audience, and I can create evergreen YouTube videos selling my online course.

For example, I sell an Instagram course, so I can create YouTube videos teaching people how to grow on Instagram for free – and then I can say, “go buy my course to learn more from me!”

However, that might not be your journey. There will likely be a time when you’re creating a lot of free content to grow your audience and build up a snowball effect.

You can also run ads to the course, which is a more passive approach but of course, requires money upfront.

#4 Memberships

Membership websites are a place for your audience to get access to ‘members-only’ content, or exclusive content that they can only get through paying a monthly fee.

The nice thing about memberships is that the income is a lot more predictable, because the idea is that people continue paying month after month. And honestly, predictable, recurring revenue is ✨GOLD✨ for any business.

Memberships are also a great way to build and curate a community within your audience.

There are usually two types of memberships I see creators use:

“Fan-Funded” or “Community-Based” memberships where the exchange of value that someone gains from subscribing is moreso a sense of pride and loyalty to that creator.

A common example of this style of membership is setting up a ‘Discord Group’ where you can chat with your members, share behind-the-scenes content with them and let them vote for videos. The price is usually set pretty low for these styles of memberships. They’re an entry level way to start earning money and connect with your audience.

You’ll probably see these priced anywhere from $1-$20 a month.
“Education-Based” memberships are going to look more like an online course. Someone is signing up because they want access to specific values that only YOU can provide. Think about this like additional training, live classes, Q&A sessions, ect.

As an online educator, this would be my go-to approach. You can actually set up your own video library that also offers a community aspect.

Some examples of these memberships are:

Find What Feels Good Yoga, Adriene created her own online library of yoga, mindfulness and fitness classes. She hosts this on Uscreen so she can specifically manage everything in one place.
Art for Kids, fun arts and craft videos for kids
JumpRopeDudes access to over 600+ workouts for all skill levels

How can you get started selling an online membership?

Step 1: Pick an industry

At this point, it’s safe to assume that the first step will always be: pick a niche.

Step 2: Create your video library

Similarly to creating your online course, it’s time to start creating your video library. The nice thing about membership websites is that you don’t have to create all of the videos upfront. You should have some content already lined up (for example, launch your membership with 10 videos preloaded, and create enough videos to release 1x per month for 3-6 months.)

Step 3: Upload your content to UScreen

When I wanted to start a membership, my goal was to find a site that specifically highlighted video content. I didn’t want a community organizer, I wanted a way to package my video trainings into a membership site. That’s where UScreen comes in!

UScreen is the best platform for building a membership that generates a sustainable and predictable revenue stream for professional content creators.

I love the way UScreen allows your members to binge through your video content like they would binge their favorite show on Netflix. They also have the option for you to launch your very own APP. They’re team will help you create your very own (branded) app for both iPhone and Android users.

This allows your users to watch your content from their phone. Or they can use Roku Box, AppleTV, Android TV and Amazon Fire TV!

How hard is it to get started selling memberships?

The barrier to entry is pretty low. Anyone can sign up for a membership site and offer memberships to their audience. So, how hard it is depends on how much work you plan to do upfront. If you plan to launch with your full video library done, that’s a lot more work.

If you’re going to build a community based membership then I’d say the barrier to entry is even lower. Just create the community and start engaging with it.

How hard is it to maintain an income with memberships?

There are two main challenges you face when selling a monthly membership. One is the marketing and getting people to sign up, the second is keeping people subscribed month after month.

I started a community-based membership when I first started out on YouTube and it was pretty easy to get people to sign up for my membership from social media, but it was hard to keep people once they were in. It often felt like every time I got a new member, an old member canceled.

It’s important to know your audience well and figure out a balance between the value of your membership and the monthly amount you’re asking people to pay for that value.

Even though it had its challenges, my community-based membership was instrumental for helping me get to where I am today. It helped financially support my business for almost a full year before I started selling my online courses.

#5 Selling Physical Products and/or Print on Demand

“Print on Demand” is a business model that removes the inventory aspect of retail. When a customer places an order, that order is sent directly to the supplier to be fulfilled and delivered. So you, as the seller, never have to keep any products on hand. You might have also heard this referred to as ‘Dropshipping’.

All you have to do is design the product and market it, without the upfront costs or inventory to worry about it. I know this sounds nice and dandy, but keep in mind that only 10-20% of dropshipping businesses succeed. I know that doesn’t sound overly promising…

The problem isn’t with the model itself, but rather how most people falsely perceive it as a get-rich-quick scheme. People often hear of other’s success and carelessly dive into it without doing their own research.

So while it’s very simple to get started, it becomes more difficult to build your own design skills (in order to make eye-catching products) and understand SEO. If you don’t have a social platform to support your sales, selling on Etsy involves knowing how to apply a strong SEO strategy to the items you’re selling.

How can you get started selling physical products and/or print on demand?

Step 1: Go to eRank to get an idea for the product you’re going to design.

eRank will tell you the competition for the product you want to design, based on Etsy and other platforms. This can help you narrow down your product ideas. For example, if you want to sell a coffee tumbler, you might notice that a coffee tumbler alone has a lot of competition, but a coffee tumbler for teachers is much lower.

Step 2: Go to Everbee where you can get design inspiration and confirm pricing. Then you can take a look at other designs on Etsy for inspiration and to find out what other people are selling their products for.

Step 3: Make your design in Canva.

Step 4: Export your design and upload it to your Printify account. Printify is the go-to resource for dropshipping. Here you can also choose the products that you want to put your design on.

Step 5: Sync Printify and Etsy so that your coffee tumbler is now selling on Etsy.

If you want more help setting up your own print on demand business, there are so many free resources! Just start searching for “Print on Demand Etsy” on YouTube or TikTok and binge the videos.

How hard is it to maintain a consistent income with ‘print on demand’?

This depends on your prior knowledge and audience. If you’re able to design a beautiful product and you have established yourself on Etsy, all you need to do is focus on SEO. Again, it takes time but once you figure out how Etsy works, ranking in Etsy’s search engine can help do the work for you!

#6 Platform Monetization

This is when you start making money through a social media platform. On YouTube you can monetize and get paid through ads, supers, product tagging, etc. On Instagram you can earn Reels Bonuses, On TikTok you can get paid on live videos and tagging products on videos.

Essentially, each social media platform has their own ways to pay their creators. So if you’re building a social platform, you could look at platform monetization as your passive income stream.

The average income platform monetization in 2023 was:

Instagram: $8,840,000
TikTok: $9,219,000
Twitch: $9,850,000
YouTube: $21,268,000

How can you get monetized?

To hit your first monetization threshold can be a challenge because it can take anywhere from 90 days if you already have a lot of content creation experience… and multiple years. So it’s definitely not the easiest passive income stream to pursue.

To unlock fan funding on YouTube (like channel memberships or super chats) you only need 500 subscribers and 3000 hours of watch time.

To get access to full monetization (like ads) on YouTube you need to have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours within the past 12 months.

Monetization for Instagram is more ambiguous because they keep adding and removing monetization options. But generally to get access you need to be in a country that’s eligible for monetization, your account needs to follow community guidelines as well as be a business or creator account, you need to have 10,000 followers and be actively using their features.

TikTok qualifications: 18 years or older, 10,000 followers, Have 1,000 or more video views in the last 30 days. Have three posts or more in the previous 30 days.

How hard is it to maintain platform monetization?

Quite honestly, this is one of the hardest passive income streams to maintain. Most creators on TikTok and Instagram are not making enough money per month for it to be a steady paycheck. On TikTok, you can have a video get over a million views, but you might only make $20-$40 on it.

The strongest option is YouTube. It’s harder to build up a consistent paycheck from YouTube, but it compounds the longer you do it. I started making $2-3k per month just by keeping up with my regular posting. Fast forward to today, I’m doing the same amount of work, but I’m making between $7-$8k a month, just from YouTube Adsense.

The beauty of YouTube is that the shelf life of content lasts forever. I have a video that I posted 3 years ago that still generates $133/month. That might not sound like a lot, but when you have 300+ videos on your channel that all generate you something per month, it adds up fast!

#7 UGC

UGC stands for User-Generated Content. It’s essentially content (video, photo, text, a review, ect) that was authentically created by an everyday user of that product or brand.

And I know what you’re thinking… if you’re having to make videos or take photos, that’s not passive income. I know, it’s not. But there is a way to earn passive income from UGC.

UGC is on the rise. Brands have found it 42% more effective and 6.9x more engaging than content created by the brands themselves.

According to a Nielsen report, over 60% of consumers trust user-generated content over content created by brands or influencers. The best part for those just getting started is that you don’t need to be an influencer. You don’t need to have any followers to start working with brands for UGC.

How to get started with UGC:

Build a portfolio with products laying around your house. Essentially create sample UGC that will help increase your experience and that you can show brands.
Apply to job opportunities online or pitch brands directly
Create an account at joinbrands.com, create your portfolio and certificate.
If you’re pitching, steal my pitch template below! Use this pitch template to send around 10 pitches a week.

UGC Pitch Template

Subject: UGC for @brandhandle

Hi BRAND,

NAME here, as you can tell by this video, I’m a huge fan of PRODUCT. More specifically, REASON.

When scrolling through TikTok I saw you had a few UGC style videos already on your page and was curious if there was an opportunity to create some videos for you and your team.

Here’s my portfolio and if it sparks inspiration for you I’d be happy to hop on a call to talk about your business goals and a few exciting content ideas I have!

SIGNATURE

If you’d like to learn more about UGC, watch this in depth video that will teach you everything you need to know. It also talks about the different types of UGC, what to charge, how to find brands, how to pitch, etc.

How hard is it to maintain passive income through UGC?

Most UGC is active income. You have to pitch, apply, film, edit, email brands. But there is a way to make some passive income from UGC.

How? With “Usage Rights”.

When you sign a contract with a brand, look for those two words. There are different types of usage rights, but this is the place in the contract that talks about how long the brand has the right to use your content, and whether it can be used on social media or in paid ads.

Typically 1-3 months of usage rights are included in the initial upfront price. What you can do though is include the first 3 months in your initial price and then add an additional monthly rate. If they want to keep using your video because it’s amazing and they’re getting really great ROI (especially on ads), you can charge them an additional monthly fee to keep using it.

The more brands you have paying usage rights, the more passive income you can earn from UGC.

#8 Brand Collaborations

Brand collaborations is where brands pay you to talk about or post about their product or service on your platform. With UGC, brands are paying you for the content, with brand collaborations, brands are paying you for your audience. So, you do have to post.

Data Bridge Market Research expects the value of the influencer marketing market to reach $69.92 billion by 2029 – which is huge.

And believe it or not, you do not need 10,000 followers to start working with brands. I’ve helped students with under 1,000 followers land paid brand collaborations. It is possible to get started NOW.

How to get started with brand collaborations?

Getting started with brand collaborations takes some work upfront. You need to establish your audience and start creating content that brands would be interested in paying for. You also need to build trust with your audience.

Then, you’re going to apple to 3rd party platforms.

These are websites that connect brands and influencers for partnership opportunities. My favorite brand collaboration platforms are:

AspireIQ
#paid
PopularPays
Obvious.ly

If you’d like to learn more about how to make money with brand collaborations, watch this video. It will teach you 3 ways to get brands to notice you. You can also grab my free pitch templates here.

How hard is it to maintain passive income through brand collaborations?

You’re going to be able to make passive income from brand collaborations in the same way that you would with UGC. You can leverage usage rights in your contracts.

#9 Building an App or Software

If you have an app or software that people benefit from, you can sell it as a one off or subscription. There are so many examples of this, just explore the app store on your phone. You probably already use apps like CapCut which is free to use, or you can upgrade to pro features for a monthly or yearly subscription.

Even games are free to use, but you can upgrade to have an ads-free experience.

How hard is it to get started building an app?

Hard. Very hard. Not only do you need to have a great idea, but you also need to have coding experience – or be able to partner with someone who has coding experience. Or hire someone who is an app builder.

So either, dive into YouTube University to learn how to code your own app, hire someone or pick another passive income stream.

How hard is it to maintain passive income through an app?

Also very hard. Building and maintaining an app is going to be a grind. But if you have a great idea, it can really pay off.

#10 Investing in Stocks or Shares

Investing in stocks and shares is a great way to earn passive income. If you’re someone who has money sitting in a savings account, you could invest those savings to potentially earn your own passive income.

**This is not financial advice. Everything I’m sharing is strictly for educational purposes only. If you think that stocks is the right path for you, I highly recommend you take the next step of finding an expert in the field and doing further research.

How can you get started with stocks and shares?

Step 1: Find a stockbroker in your country. In the US you have options like Webully, Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Robinhood.

Step 2: Start investing in Index Funds.

An Index Fund is a group of stocks that aims to mirror the performance of an existing market index, such as the Standard & Poor’s 500 index otherwise known as the S&P 500.

When you invest in a fund like the S&P 500, instead of your investment going into one stock or one company, you’re distributing your investments amongst the top 500 companies in the US or a particular market. You’re investing in lots of companies, a very little bit at a time.

How hard is it to get started with stocks and shares?

Getting started is easy. You can even set it and forget it – so that ideally, the growth of the market does all the money making for you.

But, to get started you are going to need extra money. And it’s recommended that you use money that you otherwise wouldn’t need to touch in the next 5-10 years. Not everyone has this luxury for sure. So if you’re looking for a quicker way to earn passive income that goes into your pocket, start with another income stream on this list and then when you have passive income coming in, you can start investing it.

How hard is it to maintain?

This is going to depend on the performance of the stock market and the stocks or index funds you’re investing in. However, once you get started, you can really ‘set it and forget it’ and ideally 5-10 years from now you’re growing a good amount of passive income.

If you made it this far, I want to hear from you! Which one of these 10 passive income streams do you want to start this year? Add your comments below and I can make additional videos for your top questions!

And, if you want to get started with affiliate marketing, read this post next.

Follow your joy!

welcome!

I'm Millie

10 Passive Income Streams

Here are 10 Passive Income Streams that you can set up today to start making money as a Creator.

What is Passive Income?