Easy(ish) Ways to Create Passive Income as a Creative

Let's get something out of the way first.

Most “passive income” isn't actually passive.

You usually have to create something, photograph it, upload it, market it, manage the website and occasionally answer an email from someone who entered their address incorrectly.

But there are ways to make your creative practice earn money without every dollar requiring you to make a completely new artwork from scratch.

We prefer to think of it as repeatable income.

Prints

One original artwork can become a print edition that sells multiple times.

You can offer different sizes and price points, making your work accessible to people who might not be ready to purchase an original.

Just make sure your scans or photographs are high quality.

Digital downloads

Depending on your practice, you could create:

• Printable artwork

• Templates

• Patterns

• Digital illustrations

• Creative worksheets

• Guides

• Colouring pages

• Design assets

Once created, digital products can be delivered automatically through your website.

No packaging required.

Turn your knowledge into a resource

What have you learnt that another creative would find useful?

Maybe you have a brilliant exhibition planning template.

A commission questionnaire.

A pricing spreadsheet.

A studio inventory system.

A social media planning template.

You don't need to keep reinventing useful systems privately.

Some may become free resources that grow your audience, while more substantial tools could become paid downloads.

Licensing

Instead of selling the original artwork, you can license the right for another business to use your design.

Artwork can appear on stationery, textiles, packaging, homewares, publications and plenty more.

The agreement determines how, where and for how long the artwork can be used.

Read licensing agreements carefully and understand exactly what rights you're giving away.

Print-on-demand

Print-on-demand services can produce products when someone orders them, meaning you don't necessarily need to hold boxes of stock.

This can work for prints, cards, clothing and other products.

The trade-off is usually lower margins and less control over production and packaging.

Always order samples first.

Patterns and creative assets

Illustrators, designers and photographers can potentially create assets that are licensed or sold repeatedly.

Think patterns, textures, stock photography, fonts, brushes, templates or graphics.

The work happens upfront, but the same asset can potentially generate multiple sales.

Recorded workshops

If you already teach workshops, consider whether part of that knowledge could become a recorded class.

This takes significantly more upfront work than uploading a print, but once developed it can potentially be sold repeatedly.

Books, zines and publications

Your existing body of work might translate beautifully into a small publication.

A collection of illustrations.

A photography book.

A studio guide.

A zine exploring your process.

You don't necessarily need to create an entirely new practice to create another product.

Look at what you already have.

Start with one thing

Don't suddenly create seventeen product lines because someone on the internet told you passive income is the secret to becoming a full-time artist.

Choose something that naturally fits your existing practice.

Make it well.

See whether your audience actually wants it.

Then build from there.

Don't forget the maths

A product isn't automatically profitable because you can sell it more than once.

Consider:

Production.

Platform fees.

Packaging.

Postage.

Your time.

Marketing.

Taxes.

Storage.

Work out your actual margin.

Use what you've already created

This is probably the biggest takeaway.

You don't always need to make more.

Sometimes the opportunity is in looking at something you've already created and asking:

How else could this exist?

An original painting becomes a print.

The print becomes a card.

Your process becomes a workshop.

Your workshop becomes a guide.

Your knowledge becomes a template.

That's where repeatable income can start to become a useful part of a sustainable creative practice.

The Creative Toolkit is a growing collection of practical resources from The Rundle Collective, created to help emerging creatives navigate the business, opportunities and realities of building a creative practice.