Passive income seems to be the thing everyone is talking about these days, but what is passive income and how do you ACTUALLY earn passive income as an Influencer?
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What Is Passive Income?
Passive income is money earned through minimal labor efforts. Oftentimes, if done right, passive income can turn into monthly residual income without any extra effort.
This means you will continue to see a steady cash flow each month that comes in from the one passive income stream without doing any extra work.
This is different from active income as active income means you are trading money for time such as your job, and there is no recurring revenue unless you continue to go to work and put in the hours.
As an Influencer, a good example is coaching vs course selling. Coaches make active income. So for example, if you Book A Call with one of our growth coaches, they earn money for the exchange of time they’ll work with you on your social media strategies. But once the transaction is complete, they can not earn any more money unless another call is booked.
But a Creator who sells a pre-recorded educational course can earn passive income. They traded their time to create the course and placed it online to sell, and as long as people continue to purchase the course, the course creator continues to earn money without any extra work on their end. *There may be additional effort to advertise and market the course though.
Passive Income Examples
One of the truest forms of passive income is investing. This is where you put your money into things such as:
- stocks or bonds
- rental properties
- high yield savings accounts
With these, no labor had to take place for income to be earned, but if you invest in the right markets (buying low and selling high), it can earn you a substantial amount of income over time.
Here are some other passive income examples more relevant to the Creator space:
- Starting A YouTube channel
- Starting A blog
- Affiliate marketing
- Creating a course
- Writing a book
Now, some will argue that these do not count as passive income due to the fact that labor is exchanged before money can be generated.
Although that is true, the labor is exchanged once, and the income then can become residual, producing passive income over time with little to no extra effort.
How Do I Earn Passive Income As A Creator?
As an Creator, earning passive income can take some time, so if you don’t start earning money in your sleep overnight, remember that this is often a marathon not a sprint.
The key to earning passive income is picking the right passive income category to start with.
For example, if you are new to Influencer marketing, trying to create a course on “how to grow your income with Influencer marketing” may not work well for you because you don’t have the experience to teach others yet. But, you can start with either a blog or YouTube channel to earn income through Ad sharing first.
Now I know you are thinking that it can take forever since you need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours on YouTube to start earning Ad Sharing revenue, which is true, but I personally started making passive income from my YouTube channel by selling my videos to companies for them to use in their advertising. Which is another way to earn passive income as well.
Once you have your passive income category, you’ll want to stay consistent with it so it can continue to build. One of the biggest mistakes I see is that Creators will choose affiliate marketing as their passive income, they mention a product once, throw a link in their description box or IG bio link list and never mention it again.
The problem with this is as you grow, newer viewers don’t always think to go back to old content which means they aren’t finding the links and you aren’t earning money. Strategically plan your affiliate marketing into your content so that you continue to share your links and generate more income over time.
The same applies with YouTube videos and Blog posts. If you feel an older yet desirable post didn’t get the attention it deserved, don’t be shy about re-sharing it to generate more views & more money.
For example, once you grow your YouTube channel and it starts generating income through Ad sharing, you can start to incorporate affiliate marketing into your content, and once you generate a steady stream of income there, you can package what you’ve learned and how you’ve made your money into a course to sell to others.
Lastly, one thing you may want to consider is how you can SLOWLY build new passive income streams onto already existing passive income. Adding too many passive income streams too quickly can be a recipe for failure as it can be hard to manage them all. So take each passive income stream one at a time and continue adding until you’ve got a well running residual income machine!
Conclusion
Passive income is NOT an overnight get rich quick scheme. It takes time to generate, unless of course you are already wealthy and can invest thousands into stocks or high-yield savings accounts. But remember, if done right, the labor portion of your work is only done once and then it’s smooth sailing to steady cash flow and making money in your sleep.
What passive income stream are you currently working on? Let us know in the comments below!