passive income ideas for graphic designers

Hands up if you’ve ever dreamed of a business that runs itself and makes you money while you sleep, sail the Greek Island and/or sip your mojitos.

In this fantasy, you’ve created a recurring revenue stream for our business that is automated, effective and profitable. All you gotta do is login to your PayPal account, transfer funds and voila – another overseas vacay paid for.

Sounds like bliss, right?
Well, I have good and bad news.

The good news: Creating a business like this is totally possible.

The bad news: You gotta work really hard and try a lot of different things before you hit the recurring revenue jackpot!

“But, Anna, can’t I just whip up a $6 e-book to sell on my site and book my tickets to Mykonos?”

Yeah, nah.

Do you know how many e-books you have to sell before you make any real money?
Spoiler alert: A lot.

That doesn’t mean profitable passive income isn’t possible though. You can do it. You just need to be shown how. 

Which is exactly what I’m gonna do.

How to create effective recurring revenue in your biz

Choose the right idea. First, make sure that your idea is aligned with your niche and your ideal client. Then check whether it is authentic to you.

For example, if you are a designer that specialises in working with female entrepreneurs who have been in business for over three years, you need to make sure your product will appeal to your audience.

I suggest you ask your audience directly what they need and take note of what they are asking you for help with. What has been your most popular blog post so far? Which social media post has had the most traction? These are all clues for you to follow and will lead you to creating the RIGHT product for recurring revenue in your business. Because the only way you will sell to them is if you solve a problem for them.

Be patient and create it properly. Okay, so once you have the right idea to run with, take your time to create it properly. This product will represent you and your brand, so it needs to magnificent, right? Do not whip something up just to make a few bucks. Offer real value and expertise and people will be more than one-off buyers – they will become loyal and consistent buyers. 

This is how your creation process should happen: 

Launch it right. Build it and they will come? Hell no. Build it, launch it properly and promote the eff outta it and THEN they will come.

You need to create hype and warm people up in order for them to hand over cash to you. Creating a product and then not launching it is like baking a cake for a bake-off, and then leaving it at home. You need to get your cake out into the world, lady!

Which is why launching your product is just as important as creating it.

This is how a good launch sequence should go down: 

Nurture your audience (even after they’ve purchased a product from you) Did you know it’s easier to convert an existing customer than it is to convert a new customer? And easier = doesn’t use up as much of your valuable resources!

So once someone has bought your product (wahoo!) you need to continue nurturing them so they stick around and buy the next awesome product you create! 

How do you continue nurturing them? Once they buy your product make sure you follow up with them and ask what they thought & if they had any questions. You can also hit them up for a testimonial and add them to your e-mail list so they’re alerted when any new products arrive. By the way, these emails can be automated so you don’t have to spend your precious time writing and creating them from scratch.

Test and evolve. Okay, so you did everything right, but the only person to buy your product was your mother.

Don’t panic. This is not the end, lady! It just means things need to be tweaked and evolved to suit your audience.

I am constantly changing and trying different things to see how they affect my sales. It is a process, so be patient and never give up.