Why is everyone raving about the importance of passive income for artists?

As someone who lives off of a creative career, you know that your income fluctuates all the time. And if there’s one tip I learned from working online as an artist, it’s to diversify your income streams so that you have the freedom to work on risky creative projects that may not make you much money or that may actually cause you to lose the money you previously made.

Throughout the years, I have tried many platforms and ways to generate passive income, most of which ended up failing. A good share of them succeeded, but as I grow up, I simply get over some methods and find others that work better for me and my vision. It’s an active journey of searching, succeeding, failing, and trying again.

Generating passive income from a creative career

You need to have a defined strategy to generate enough passive income from your creative career. And as an artist, I’m sure you already have some skills that will allow you to generate income. You just need to learn how to use them and find the right platforms for you.

Keep in mind that this article isn’t a “make money easily and quickly scheme”. You need to invest time and skills in order for you to make a passive income especially online. Growth takes both time and effort. And even with those invested, if you don’t learn to work hand in hand with the platform you’re using, you might end up failing and that’s alright too.

What is Passive income for artists?

Passive income is minimal money that you can make in the future from products or services that you made in the past. 

Passive income to me = freedom and time 

It won’t make you rich, but it will give you plenty of time and space to experiment as a creative. You can also take days off without having your entire career affected and get to spend time with your family. 

If you are willing to make your full income passive, know that this is an approach that is pretty similar to slow living. You are after freedom and time and don’t care that much about getting rich overnight.

What skills could generate passive income for artists?

I believe that every creative skill is a great skill for making passive income. Drawing, designing, teaching, and more are great skills to make you money while you sleep, especially online. 

Although, it depends mainly on your skills. Passive income is a pretty volatile market that will ebb and flow depending on competition, trends, seasons, and other things.

Is there room for failure with passive income?

Yes, there is. I know it’s hard to make an artwork that doesn’t sell, have a blog post that nobody clicked on, have a design that people find ugly, and have other failures that genuinely hurt your ego and make you wonder why you even wasted time on the project. However, I grew to love failure. As a business owner, it stops me from getting caught up in my mind and pushes me to step back, observe and learn why my efforts didn’t lead me where I want to go. And what matters more is that the next time I try, I will be coming from experience and knowledge instead of random trial.

Roadmap to get started with your passive income journey as an artist

The are some tips that I would love to share with you based on my own personal experience:

  • Experiment with everything so you can find the best platforms for your skills and interests. 
  • Master the platform you’re best suited for. If you are great at teaching art, for example, stick to mastering Skillshare for example. You don’t want to get distracted and stretch yourself too thin. 
  • Once you have found the best platform for you, start making a community there. Follow the people that you love their work the most, people that show up on the first page of the platform.
  • Look for what’s missing in the platform you’re at. If the entire market lacks trendy holographic designs or the existing ones aren’t that great, it’s your call to do them to fill this existing hole in the market.
  • Trial and error is part of the process.

What platform best suits your current creative skills?

  • If you are great at illustrating, and can create great patterns from your art – Society6 and spoonflower are the ones for you.
  • Teaching and making classes – Skillshare
  • If you create fonts – Creative Market
  • If you can make trendy designs that would sell as t-shirts, mugs, and other products – Redbubble and Etsy

1- First passive income source: Affiliate marketing

This is one of my favorite passive income models. It’s so easy, all you need is an audience or I rather say a social media presence. And what you do is take links that refer your audience to products or services that you love and from which you can make a commission.

For this, you don’t have to create any product. You’re just driving people to buy already existing products or services. 

I make money with skillshare affiliates, society6, amazon, and many more. 

How to get started with affiliates, the way I did it?

I started a blog, this one you’re reading the article on 🙂 

And in this blog, I create educational content that helps artists, amateurs, designers, and creatives of all sorts learn more about painting, drawing, habits of artists, and ways that you can make money investing your time and skill. 

I of course as an artist buy art supplies all the time, and I have products I love and would definitely recommend to my friend and other artists. So, instead of doing it for free, I participate in the affiliate programs of platforms that may sell these products and I earn a commission on every sale the platform makes with no additional cost to the buyers. Cool right? 

I started my blog because I am in full control, and I have direct access to my customers or readers. While on social media platforms, the algorithm is up to the platform. However, if you still wanna do social media instead of your own website, I highly recommend Pinterest. And you can read this article to learn why. 

2- Print on demand

I have a detailed article about Society6 and you can read that to learn more about Print on demand. 

How to make money with society6 for artists?

Few additional tips that you might wanna keep in mind if you were to choose print on demand:

  • Avoid creating unsearchable designs ( many designs are searchable, but people are less likely to go on a website and look for designs with squares in it) 
  • You can focus on the quality and the quantity of the designs you’re putting online instead of worrying about how to market them
  • Consistency helps the platform you’re at prioritize your work. So pay attention to that one.
  • Focus on designs that represent eras, styles, trends, and other terms that people might use as search terms (90s vibe, tribal print, animal print, holographic, renaissance…)
  • Your shops in print-on-demand platforms do not have to match your style or show your personal style. You can just create for the purpose of selling and making money. That’s absolutely fine.

3- Creative assets/ digital products

Creative assets are fonts, digital brushes, patterns, workbooks, digital planners…

For this one, it’s one of the most fun passive income sources. However, I recommend you specialize in one category of digital assets. It looks more professional and makes it easier for people to link you to what you create. 

I personally started with creating workbooks, and I feel like anything prompts, exercises, questions, and quizzes are something I do well. So I would put these both for free (so people can have an idea about the kinda stuff to expect) and for sale as well. 

Scroll down this article to download one of my most downloadable free workbooks.

For the creative assets, you can use these platforms: 

4- Online courses

Online courses are suitable for artists and creatives who love teaching and actually know how to do it.

It also takes some courage, because people usually love to see the faces of their teachers.

Platforms that you can use to share online courses that pay you to list your courses: 

Or you can list a course on your website that people can buy directly from you (takes a lot of work and is a pretty difficult process). 

Other tips to sell your online courses are: 

  • The quality should be high (lighting, video, audio…)
  • Get comfortable teaching social media stories or short videos
  • Give some freebies (providing materials, resources or free downloads make people feel like they’re walking away from the course with more knowledge)
  • Consistency matters a lot in posting online whatever the platform is (matters more than marketing) 
  • Then comes the marketing, reposting class trailers on social media, and adding downloadables from your classes to your website. 

5- Art licensing

Art licensing means selling your art for royalties or flat fees. 

This is something that resonates with me as a painter, but would definitely work for anyone who has already honed their skills and is identified with a creative style. 

To do this you will need: 

  • A professional artist portfolio
  • A body of work
  • Share your work often
  • Find companies that resonate with your work/style
  • Reach out to agents and companies
  • A lot of patience, good communication skills, and professionalism

This article doesn’t offer the amount of information you need to start making money from art licensing. But I have a detailed article that will help you get started with art licensing.

6- Creative books

This one is more for artists who already have some audience, or who can drive traffic from their blogs or social media platforms. Creative books are the term that includes:

  • Coloring books
  • Children’s books
  • Illustrated stories
  • Comics
  • Journals (low-content books)
  • Tutorial books 
  • Planners
  • E-books 
  • Etc.

I have previously published a very informative article about creating Creative book for Amazon KDP. Other platforms you can use to sell your creative books will be: 

  • ibooks
  • Barnes & Noble Press
  • Kobo

One of my 2023 art resolutions was to draft an art book. This is the process I am following and would recommend you follow it as well.

  • Create a layout of topics you want to cover chapter by chapter
  • Sample a chapter so you can estimate how much time it would take you to brainstorm, draft, write, and edit.
  • Look up editors who can help you bring your book to life
  • Educate yourself about self-publishing
  • Think of your marketing but don’t let it discourage you

Publishing creative books is not an easy way to make money. Unless you’re passionate about writing and what you do, I don’t recommend you make money this way.

Conclusion

This will be it for this “passive income for artists” guide. I hope you learn a thing or two from it and if you have any further questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

Enjoy creating <3