Who doesn’t love the idea of passive income? Sign me up for a digital product that pays me while I soak up sun on Bali beaches. But if passive income sounds too good to be true, you’re in the right place. Let me show you how it works and how to safely earn income on your own terms.
The year is 2020, and the internet is obsessed with passive income. You can sell a digital product, create an online course, or start day trading and “earn money while you sleep.” To prove it, social media influencers and business coaches paste their bank receipts across Instagram stories and Facebook community groups (a slight overshare if you ask me).
As someone who’s spent the last five years coaching business owners through the passive income boom, I hate to burst your bubble, but… passive income isn’t real. You simply cannot make money with minimal effort — it goes against nature.
But that’s actually good news. Once we let go of the rose-colored-glasses idea of effortless income, we can walk into business with a real strategy. Here, I’ll teach you how to strategize evergreen marketing to unlock better work life balance.
Chapters
- What Is Passive Income?
- Passive Income Is Just Code for Really Good Marketing
- Transition From a Passive Income Mindset to a Sales Pro Mindset
- Ways to Earn Income On Your Own Terms
What Is Passive Income?
The widely accepted definition of passive income is money with minimal effort. You create a digital product or an online course, and it instantly churns money — without much upkeep or investment on your end.
The reason I think passive income isn’t real is that I’ve spent enough time in marketing to know products rarely sell themselves. So, maybe you’re trading in your 9-5 for working on your own terms (love that), but you become a full-time marketer.
Passive Income Is Just Code for Really Good Marketing
Customers don’t magically appear in your inbox begging to buy your online course. It takes a substantial amount of time, effort, and money to capture the right people’s attention. Consider this: Anyone who shows up on your social media feed talking about passive income spent time and money to be there.
Since I own a copywriting business, I talk to all sorts of creators about their online products. The most common concern I hear from them is this: “I just wanted to get paid for my knowledge and experience — but I didn’t expect to become a full-time marketer.”
So let me save you from this uncomfortable reality check. If you want to pursue some form of side hustle or income on your own terms, you have to lean into marketing education. Without locking down this skill, you’ll spend double the time on product promotion and burn out, rather than making money passively.
But here’s where this conversation gets good. Here’s where you get to choose to lay down your rose colored glasses about passive income and put on your expert-level marketer hat. When you prioritize sales and marketing first, you learn how to execute launches and profit on your own terms. Instead of spinning your wheels on content, and begging people to buy your product, you can set up funnels that bring in income when you log off.
This isn’t passive income. You still need to run the marketing show. But you’ll learn how to frontload your deliverables and set up your products so you can keep earning without being tied to your desk. We’ll call this a background income refresh.
Essentially, brilliant marketers anticipate how much time and effort to put into their product for a successful return on investment (ROI). The big work happens before the launch — on the marketer’s own terms. They’re great at calculating investment, risk, strategic needs, and deliverables. Once they’ve got a plan mapped out, they can decide to frontload different marketing strategies and then take equal time off.
Here’s what I want you to walk away with: When you switch your perspective from “I’ll earn passive income so I can log off” to “I’ll learn sales and marketing so I can log off,” you not only gain a profitable skill (sales is arguably the best skill you can learn), but you’re also able to profit when and where you want to. Income on your own terms.
Transition from a Passive Income Mindset to a Sales Pro Mindset
We’ve established that passive income (earning tons of money with minimal effort) doesn’t really exist. But with the right sales skills, you can stack your marketing you can sell without jumping on the content creation bandwagon and without joining the 5 am club. Here’s how…
EVERGREEN MARKETING CHANNELS
Marketing can become all-consuming, and burn out even the most intentional business owners. That’s why I’m always team evergreen marketing, especially for my clients. You should never be directly involved with all of your marketing channels at all times, you should have assets set up to do the heavy lifting for you.
My favorites are automated email sequences, lead magnets, SEO-focused content (YouTube, Pinterest, and blogging), digital downloads, referral bonuses, and customer loyaly programs. These assets don’t need constant upkeep — they grow your bottom line without the constant check-ins that social media and ads require.
CONVERSION AND ROI OPTIMIZATION
Most business owners are hyper-focused on gathering leads. It makes sense, right? The more eyes you get on your business, the more sales you make. But gathering leads is the most expensive and time consuming part of owning a business. And if you don’t have a strong strategy to convert those leads, they’ll fall through the cracks and weigh down your money making strategy.
Businesses that are more successful tend to focus on conversion over lead generation. The higher your conversion rate is, the less time and money you have to spend on leads. That means more time off and more money in your pocket. Conversion optimization is pretty evergreen, too. You need to nail your ideal client profile and then create messaging that speaks directly to them. A little complex? Yes. But once you figure it out, you won’t need to keep tweaking the system.
DIGITAL PRODUCTS
Digital products are associated with passive income because they don’t take up space. You don’t need a warehouse or product formulator to create them, so there’s a lot less risk to you as a business owner. If you’re brand new to business, I recommend digital products as a safe and easy starting place. If they flop, you’ve just wasted your time. And if they do well, you can continue to grow your evergreen marketing strategies to create more margin around your time.
PROGRAM LAUNCHES AND WAITLISTS
Marketers who are selling digital courses or online group programs typically work with a waitlist and launch period. That means they open their course only a few times a year and use the same assets (a sales page, email campaign, and ads) to bring people to their program. This is a good strategy for someone who wants passive income, or more freedom over their time and location.
In my experience, the people who most successful with program launches and waitlists are, again, really good marketers. You could have the best program in the world, and not get any sales if your message isn’t properly communicated. I’ve also noticed that it takes a few trial-and-error launches before someone becomes a master at this strategy — and that’s okay. Start slow and grow your skills over time.
Ways to Earn Income On Your Own Terms
Alright, put on your marketing hat. Let’s talk about the most effective ways to earn income and set yourself up for long-term sales success.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
Earning commission on sales is an easy way to diversify your monthly income. We live in a creator economy, which means customers are more likely to buy from people (you) rather than brands. But you can’t just start a social media page and expect people to buy from you. You need an actual brand and a niche for your affiliate sales. You also need plenty of time to set up an affiliate income strategy.
PRE-RECORDED COURSES
Yes, courses and online education are still profitable — but you have to do more work to prove it to your audience these days. You can’t just create a course to “get rich quick,” you actually need to fill an educational gap with the intention to bring your genius and expertise to the masses. If you want to create a pre-recorded course, you should have your ideal client outlined and know exactly how you plan to solve their problems.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
It’s so easy to get burnt out on social media these days, which is why I’m always educating my clients on algorithms vs. search engines. Algorithms (like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok) will display your content for a few hours or a few days. But search engines will display your content for an average of 3 — 5 years. The only downside is the barrier to entry. There’s a lot of research that goes into keyword optimization and positioning your content to pop up in search engines.
USEFUL DIGITAL PRODUCTS
Before you create an e-book or PDF, you should know that information isn’t selling like it used to. We have tools like Google and LLMs that provide answers at the touch of a button. Plus, there’s a lack of trust in our current economy — and people don’t want to pay for a digital product you pulled from ChatGPT.
A better option is to sell implementation. Templates, checklists, mini courses, databases, signature methods, and customer management systems, and apps are stronger digital product ideas than simply content. If you want to sell a digital products, the first thing you should consider is how you can solve people’s problems.
HIGH YIELD SAVINGS ACCOUNTS
Last year, my high yield savings account made me multiple hundreds of dollars — simply because I had money sitting in my savings account. If you haven’t hopped on the HYSA train yet, you need to, especially if you have strong savings skills.
DIVERSIFIED INCOME STREAMS
If you want to earn income more passively, you need ways to check out of your business. You also need back up plans in case one income stream is working and another isn’t doing so hot. Think of this like investing into mutual funds, but instead of investment accounts, it’s your own business profitability. Some of the more common diversified income streams include courses, cohorts, affiliate income, books, sponsorships, service providers, social media, and digital products. Just make sure you master one income source before moving to another.
BUILD AN APP OR ONLINE SYSTEM
If you have an idea for a system or app that would solve problems for e-commerce businesses, this is the time to build it. First, you need to be aware of the unique problems that business owners face, and find a way to solve them. Then build your product, market it, and launch when you have the time and energy to sell it.
Don’t Give Up on Your Dream of Earning Income On Your Own Terms
People who think about passive income usually see-saw between two different realities: This is too good to be true and how would my life change if it worked? If you are interested in earning income on your own terms, it’s important to approach it realistically. Social media business coaches usually have an agenda and want you to join their program (aka, their diversified income stream) to turn your dream into a reality.
And, I’m definitely not against online courses or digital products — I’m a big fan. I just want people to know how passive income functions, and what tools they actually need to succeed. Usually, it’s not a specific course or program sold by an influencer, it’s sales experience and a problem solving idea.
Letters to explore
Little comforts for your busy life
