25 Passive Income Side Hustles for a Recession
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Do you have a passive income side hustle yet? Are you looking to add extra income to your business to add an extra level of security during a recession?
In this blog post, I’m going to share 25 different things you could create to make $1,000 or more in passive income each month.
Have you heard the phrase that “recessions make millionaires”?
And are you wondering what this actually means and how you can get in on this optimistic version of a recession?
Creativity is the antidote to a recession.
Here’s one example: statistically, marketing budgets get cut first during a recession. And within marketing, custom brand content will be the first to go. Which means brands with decent budgets will be turning to stock photography, templates, and DIY resources even more than before.
The creator who had to let go of their social media manager is looking for Instagram templates.
Small teams are looking to purchase a course to learn how to do things in house rather than outsource.
The brand that used to shoot a campaign every quarter is now turning to stock photography and video to save money.
The entrepreneur that would have hired a web designer might decide to buy a website template instead and do it themselves.
And the design team who lost half their budget is turning to stock illustration to save time on their projects.
How could you show up and serve in this market?
Here are 25 passive income side hustles you could start now to get ahead of the recession:
Workbooks & Guides: These can be anything from “mini-courses” teaching someone how to do something to templates for guides, such as pricing guides.
Stock Illustration: These are raster or vector based illustrations that can be purchased on many stock sites, such as Shutterstock, Wirestock, and Adobe Stock. I also teach stock illustration inside Stock Photography Academy!
Background Textures: (Example)
Online Workshops: Take the recording of an online workshop and turn it into low ticket a digital product, just like I did with my workshop, Stock Photography for Wedding Photographers.
Art Licensing: This is another way for artists to earn passive income. Companies and stores that print art on their products are always looking for trending art and lettering.
Fonts: (Example)
Instagram Stories Templates:(Example)
Facebook Ad Templates: If you’ve ever created Facebook ads for your business and found success with them you could package and sell them as templates to other people in your niche!
Printable Art: This is a low cost way for people to print art for their home. (Example)
Post affiliate links for your favorite products, courses, and programs on social media.
Stock Video: (we also have a great training on this inside Stock Photography Academy!)
Craft project instructions: I purchased a tutorial on how to make a felt cactus once and have pretty much made one for everyone I know.
Stock Photography: My favorite passive income stream! Learn more.
E-books
Reels Templates: (Example)
Website Copy Templates: (Example)
Email Templates or scripts: Are you great at writing emails to clients or maybe even writing newsletters or sales funnels? You can package those into templates and sell them!
Website Design Templates: If you’re a designer you can create templates for traditional sites like Squarespace and Wix, but with so many new platforms out there you could even create templates for sites like Kajabi (for course creators).
LUTS or Photo Presets: Great for photographers or videographers who’ve developed their own unique editing style.
Printable Invitations: I used to run a successful online wedding invitation business. I almost decided to shut it down when my wedding photography career took off. Instead I converted the invitations to digital downloads that my clients could edit and print themselves.
Pre-made/ Editable Logos: This one is perfect for designers who have to come up with multiple concepts for their clients, but only end up using one!
Procreate Brushes: I love finding fun brushes to draw on my iPad like these from Bardot Brush.
Photo Mockups: A photo mockup allows other creators to photoshop their work into a setting without taking a photo of their own. Example.
Courses: Sites like Kajabji make it easy to set up your course, plus they offer free training. I use Kajabi to host my courses, including Stock Photography Academy.
Printable Calendars or lists: Example
You might be wondering where to even sell these. A few of my favorite platforms include:
The best way to start setting up passive income streams is to start with the assets you already have.
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