Passive income can help people achieve financial freedom and, in some cases, it can even free them from the regular workday by allowing them to make money without having to work long hours. Passive income can also let you focus your time on more important financial goals, such as retirement.
If you are a designer, you can monetize your creative skills to start a passive income business. This guide will provide essential information regarding easy passive income ideas for designers in 2023. It will also highlight a wide range of passive income strategies for designers to consider to increase their cash flow.
Find your bootcamp match
GET MATCHED
By continuing you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and you consent to receive offers and opportunitiesfrom Career Karma by telephone, text message, and email.
X
By continuing you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and you consent to receive offers and opportunities from Career Karma by telephone, text message, and email.
What Is Passive Income?
As the name implies, passive income is any income that doesn’t require a lot of effort to attain. However, some passive income opportunities may need your undivided attention at the start, such as leasing property or developing a blog. In the long run, you can make quite a bit of money through your passive income business while not having to work for long hours.
Another excellent example of an extra income opportunity is creating an online course. Passive income allows you to earn while you sleep, and some common ways to do that include investing in bonds, high yield savings accounts, dividend stock, and rental property. Other sources of revenue streams include blogging, being a silent partner, and investing in exchange-traded funds.
Passive Income Strategies for Designers: Types of Passive Income
As a graphic designer, there are different passive income strategies to consider. The most common ones include rental income, affiliate marketing, and financial investments. These strategies are not particularly related to design as a skill but can come in handy if you need extra passive income streams.
Rental Income
This is one of the easiest ways to make a passive income and you don’t need to have decades of experience in the real estate market. However, it may require some effort in the beginning. You must buy a property and lease it out to others to receive a rental income.
Other more experienced people buy cheap, damaged properties and flip them for higher amounts of money. If you do not have the capital to lease a property you purchased, there is an option of leasing a rented property. However, you need to ensure that you follow the lease agreements.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is an old method of making money passively. You can earn affiliate income by promoting goods and services for products you do not own. You get a commission when a client purchases the product from your recommendation.
Most people who use an affiliate program often post product reviews and add their links to posts to encourage readers to click on and purchase the product. It will be helpful to learn about affiliate marketing as the revenue streams can be steady if you have knowledge of this topic and a platform ready.
Financial Investments
There are several financial investments you can consider as a designer to make a passive income. Some common ones include mutual funds, dividend stocks, and index funds. These investments are best for passive income because they are low maintenance and easier to manage. They also have a low turnover rate that makes them tax efficient. Hence, if you have a small amount of money to invest, go ahead and take the chance.
10 Best Passive Income Ideas for Designers
1. Create an Ebook
As a designer, one excellent way to make passive income is to create an ebook. You can monetize your skills by writing an ebook on design resources and selling them on Amazon KDP. This may require some work initially, but once you have passed the first stage of creating your ebook, you do not need to lift a finger to make money.
2. Sell Design Templates
Today, many small business owners and entrepreneurs prefer to work on their own designs to save costs. Hence, they are often searching for design templates that can be customized. Designers with knowledge of creating infographics, posters, and brochures can make these designs available as templates and sell them.
There are a lot of design marketplaces to sell your templates. Some popular ones include Etsy and Creative Market. The former is an online market for creatives where you can find handmade items, while the latter is a marketplace for graphic designers specifically. Both platforms can facilitate excellent passive income streams.
3. Write Guest Posts on Different Blogs
Managing your own blog may be tough sometimes, and it takes a while before your efforts prove fruitful. However, you can still write a blog and make money from it. Design blogs offer skilled designers good compensation for well-written tutorials and articles.
Some blogs allow you to earn a commission based on the reach of your article, while others pay you upfront for the information. You can earn a few bucks to hundreds of dollars, depending on the particular blog. Guest posting is also a good way to get new readers for your own blog.
4. Start a Blog
Blogging lets you share your knowledge with others and make money in the process. However, it can take time before you begin to earn anything tangible. To solve this problem, you can consider affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing includes helping manufacturers to promote their best-selling products and getting a commission on each product with your link.
You can start this venture by applying to websites that offer affiliate commissions. The website will provide links to add to your blog posts and if readers click the link, you will earn a commission.
5. Make Stock Graphics
Stock graphics are also monetizable. They have recently become more popular as copyright laws are now stricter on websites. Moreover, many websites prefer to use stock photos to avoid legal issues. As a designer, you can make stock graphics and put them up for sale on online marketplaces.
Furthermore, you can also sell the graphics in your own web store. To enhance your chances of selling your designs, you can do some research and find useful themes to recreate. In no time, you could make a steady income.
6. Sell Physical Goods
You can also sell physical goods to make a passive income. While this may seem like an intensive business venture, there are ways to run such a business without doing the actual work. You can sell t-shirts, posters, books, and other items through dropshipping.
Dropshipping involves running an online store without a warehouse. You can simply buy the goods directly from the manufacturer and have them sent to the buyer. You do not need to hold goods, keep inventory, or pay staff. In most cases, you only need to maintain your website or ecommerce store. This is an excellent idea for a passive income business.
7. Sell Tutorials
Many people visit web pages on the Internet to find how-to guides and educational content to help them design or fix problems they may encounter during the design process. You can provide a solution to this issue by selling videos and ebooks that walk aspiring designers through creating their templates or explaining graphic designer processes.
The tutorials are easy to make as long as you are skilled in your field. However, you may also need screencasting software to create the videos and narrate the entire process. If you want to take it a step further, you can create in-depth courses with notes and lectures. You can also add real-world examples to give them value for their money.
8. Sell WordPress Templates
Aside from selling design templates like posters, you can also sell WordPress templates. Website designers often charge a high premium to build websites, and DIYers may be unwilling to pay such a vast sum, especially if they intend to use it for a small business that won’t yield much.
These people may be willing to buy templates instead of paying web designers to do the job. If you are skilled in this field, you can create WordPress templates to sell on marketplaces like Template Monster. The demand for these templates is high because many entrepreneurs are trying to reduce costs, which could benefit you in the long run.
9. Create and Sell Fonts
Selling fonts is a great passive income idea and an amazing way to use your creative skills. You can create cool design scripts or fonts and put them up for sale. After the initial work of creating the font and listing it on a marketplace, you can begin to earn.
Fonts are great because they are versatile. They fit different occasions and can be used for seminars, weddings, infographics, websites, apps, brochures, and posters. If you are not a design expert, you can always ask for advice from the design community through online forums.
"Career Karma entered my life when I needed it most and quickly helped me match with a bootcamp. Two months after graduating, I found my dream job that aligned with my values and goals in life!"
Venus, Software Engineer at Rockbot
10. Make Printable Party Decorations
People spend a lot of time coming up with fun and customized party decorations. You can contribute to this industry by creating a passive income business by designing printable party decorations. It can cost thousands of dollars to decorate some parties and weddings.
So, selling printable party decorations will reduce the cost for your customers and offer you a high passive income. There are a lot of marketplaces to sell your printable party decorations as well. Aside from making money on the side, this venture may help you find new ways to express yourself and your creativity.
Other Ways to Make Extra Money as a Designer
- Premade logo packages. You can create premade logo packages and list them on your website or a marketplace. Many small businesses may be unable to pay graphic designers to develop a logo. Your logos should also be customizable so that the owners can make them theirs.
- YouTube. Generally, this platform is an excellent place to make extra cash. You can create relevant videos and get paid for the views. You may just need a camcorder and good lighting to start. YouTube is a good way to make active income from the videos you create.
- TikTok. TikTok videos can also be monetized, so you can use this platform to showcase your design skills or offer tutorials. TikTok pays creators and followers can also offer gifts to creators.
- Instagram Reels. Just like TikTok, this is another way to make extra money as a designer. Instagram designed its Reels feature to allow creators to share monetized videos. This could also give you the exposure needed to attract brands for influencing jobs.
- Influencing. If you have built a large following on social media, you can consider earning more money as a design influencer. Companies often find people with a large following and pay them to promote their products.
How to Make Passive Income for Designers
There are many options to consider if you want to earn passively. Some may require putting in a lot of work initially, but the long-term results are worth the effort. Whichever passive income idea you choose, ensure that you enjoy the process.
Moreover, the more skills you have, the more likely you are to increase your cash flow through a passive income venture. Hence, you can also opt to enhance your skills as a designer. You can do this by enrolling in graphic design courses that will teach you a wide range of skills that you can apply to your design profession and passive income strategy.
Passive Income for Designers FAQ
How can designers make passive income?
Designers can make passive income by writing ebooks about design to sell on Amazon, doing affiliate marketing, starting a blog, selling tutorials, or making WordPress templates. You can also make money on the side by guest posting, selling digital products, designing printable decorations, and selling stock graphics.
What is the most profitable passive income?
The most profitable passive income is creating an online tutorial or course. Design skills are in high demand as entrepreneurs try to perfect them to design their own websites. Creating an extensive course can help you earn a lot of money without lifting a finger.
What are the main forms of passive income?
The main forms of passive income include investing, asset building, and asset sharing. Investing is the most common form of passive income and it could involve investing in real estate, mutual funds, and stocks. These forms of passive income often require less work than most and are the easiest to maintain in the long run.
Is crypto a passive income?
Crypto can be passive income if you are staking it. Staking is similar to a savings account with interest. The only difference is that it offers a much higher interest rate than traditional banks. There is still the problem of volatility with the crypto market, and this may discourage many people from considering it.
