Earn While You Sleep: 7 Passive Income Ideas for Graphic Designers

A graphic design showing that you can earn income while using your graphic design skills!
To help you live your dream life, here are 7 sources of passive income for Graphic Designers that you could start today!
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What if I told you that you could use your talent for design to make money while you sleep?

With passive income, you can make money from almost anywhere in the world! Imagine sipping on Margaritas at bottomless brunch whilst watching your bank balance grow. 

Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? 

To help you live your dream life and make money in your sleep, here are 7 sources of passive income for Graphic Designers that you could start today! 

What is Passive Income?

Passive income is a source of income that requires little to no effort to maintain. Examples of passive income include owning a rental property, affiliate marketing, and any business ventures that you do not participate in. This kind of income offers complete time freedom and the ability to go anywhere whilst earning money. 

Time is money, which is why the richest people in the world have set up passive income streams that run themselves.

7 Sources of Passive Income for Graphic Designers 

Getting started with your passive income stream is the first step towards a financially free future! This can take time. However, the rewards are definitely worth it!

With that being said, here are the 7 best ways to earn passive income for Graphic Designers. 

Guides and courses

If you have been in the industry for some time, you probably know a thing or two about Graphic Design, right

A great way to earn passive income is to turn this knowledge and experience into a sellable course

With the right tools, online courses can be created in just a couple of days. 

Try conducting a social media poll to understand what your followers want to learn. 

If you sell your course for $10 and sell just 10 each week. That’s an extra $400 of passive income every month! Just think of the shopping trips that you could have.

You can create your own Graphic Design course today by signing up to Thinkific.

A preview of the Thinkific Website that encourages audience to take their online courses further with their easy-to-use features.

Become an affiliate 

Affiliate marketing isn’t just for social media influencers.

If you have ever used an online tool for your Graphic Design business, there is a good chance that they have an affiliate program.

Graphic Designers can earn commission from affiliate links to courses, programs, software,  and even apps. Every time someone makes a purchase through your link, you will receive a percentage of the sale

Here is a list of excellent Graphic Design affiliate programs. Why not start one today to see how much money you could make through one simple link?

Sell print-on-demand merchandise

As a Graphic Designer, you probably have a knack for creating trendy, artistic designs. To turn this talent into easy income, take your best designs and make your very own merchandise

The United States Apparel market is valued at 368 billion dollars. So, this is a side hustle that has huge potential for growth. 

Print-on-demand services allow designers like yourself to design and sell merch without physically holding any stock. Each item is made whenever a customer makes a purchase. 

Shopify is the biggest print-on-demand platform that is perfect for first-time e-commerce store owners. I used the site myself to build my very first venture when I was just 17. For a high school graduate who had never built a website before, the tool was easy to use and helped me to create a professional-looking store within an hour! 

A promo poster of Shopify where rates for subscription are also presented. Rates range from $29, $79, and $299 based on the subscription promo.

Sell graphic templates

If you have your own Graphic Design business, you will know that not all potential customers can afford personalized services. 

But this shouldn’t stop you from selling them a product that they can afford.  

Why not offer a pre-made package or template that customers can use without your assistance?

Premade templates give you the chance to make money from your business, without actually working.

You could design a set of virtual presentation templates, a website design package, or even templates for common marketing materials, such as Canva themes

Different Canva templates with the same themes are shown.

Start a YouTube Channel

It is a lot easier to learn something from a video than from reading through a lengthy article. 

Graphic designers who have skills to share should think about creating a YouTube channel. Over time, this could generate passive income through advertising, affiliate marketing, or promoting your own courses and materials. 

Every day, thousands of searches are made onYouTube for Graphic Design tips and tricks. 

Here are a few popular ones:

While the initial videos may take some time to film, earnings from YouTube videos will keep rolling in as long as your videos are available to watch online. 

Anyone can create their own YouTube channel. Why not sign up today?

Create a Patreon 

Do you love going above and beyond for your clients and providing extra value at no added cost?

If your answer was YES, you may want to consider signing up to Patreon. 

Patreon is a subscription service that allows designers to share exclusive monthly content with subscribers while earning a passive income. 

Earning money through Patreon can be done by creating valuable content, such as live video streams or informative articles, and sharing these with paying subscribers. 

The more subscribers you have, the more money you will earn!

The logo of Patreon is shown.

Start a blog 

Blogs can be excellent earners for industry professionals with a lot to say or offer. 

You can make passive income from your blog through advertising, affiliate linking, and sometimes for just getting views! (see blogging sites such as Medium.com).

If your blog posts offer great value to the reader, they could continue to earn your money well into the future. That’s a lot of profit from just a few hours of writing! 

Try writing about topics that people are likely to search for such as ‘how to’ guides and Graphic Design tips and tricks. The more valuable your posts are, the more money they could make. 

You’re One Step Closer to Financial Freedom!

There are plenty of great options for Graphic Designers to make passive income. 

Why not try starting just two today? We guarantee that your future self will be grateful for it!

Passive IncomeSkills/Work Required
Guides and courses Extensive knowledge of the graphic design industry.

A few years of experience as a Graphic Designer.

A fresh/unique perspective of Graphic Design.
Affiliate marketing A good social media presence

The ability to sell
Graphic templatesA functioning website/ social media page

Good website traffic
YouTubeIndustry knowledge

Camera confidence

Video editing skills
PatreonExclusive materials/content that you can offer

Pre-existing fans/followers
Print-on-demand merchandiseExcellent design skills

Strong marketing abilities
BlogGood writing skills

Industry knowledge/experience
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