Earn while not w E
Fancy passive income from online books or guides? Linda Harrison gets advice
ver dreamed about making money while you sleep? For former TV news journalist and best- selling author Lucy Griffiths, this became a reality a few years ago. Indeed, Make Money
While You Sleep is the title of her book showing others how to do it. Griffiths previously worked for Associated Press and
Al Jazeera in Asia and the Middle East. But, after the birth of her son, health issues meant she could not return to frontline journalism, so she started business leaders be more confident on camera. She says: “As the business got busier, it was increasingly
difficult to juggle parenting and working on shoots all day. So, I created my first course, Confident on Camera. It went on to sell over 50,000 – and has sold over one million dollars’ worth of courses. This became a programme called the Membership Course Academy, which shows small business owners and freelancers how to package up their skills and experience and turn them into a digital course or membership (
https://lucygriffiths.com). In her book, Griffiths says that digital courses are one of the
most lucrative income streams: “This recurring revenue gives you the financial freedom and flexibility to work and live life your way… The magic is about automating your processes and building an audience so you can get leads on repeat to sell your digital courses.”
What is passive income? Passive income is something that makes you money while you’re not working, perhaps from packaging your knowledge and selling it as a digital product. Joelle Byrne is a business strategist who works with
entrepreneurs and business owners to make passive income, including from online courses, via her website
https://joellebyrne.com. She says: “When people hear the phrase ‘passive income’, they instantly recoil. They imagine it’s a bit like a pyramid scheme. But it’s really nothing like that.” For Byrne, it’s about changing our thinking around work being an exchange of time for money. As there are only so many hours in the day and therefore so many hours we can work, this puts a cap on what we can earn. Byrne explains: “For me, it’s about creating passive
products to run alongside your business or job, which can involve using your existing skills and knowledge to create products such as courses and memberships. Digital products are brilliant because you create them once and then keep selling them over and over.”
18 | theJournalist Which product?
Lauren Holden started her career as a local journalist in Morecambe, Lancashire, before moving into copywriting. She has created a range of downloadable guides, including one showing business owners how to craft a press release. Holden says: “It’s packed with actionable tips – and offers an example of a press release. I’ve also created a Blogging for Businesses product for people wanting an at-a-glance look at everything that goes into blogging for their website, including content suggestions, how to formulate a blog and how to incorporate keywords.”
Holden got the idea from her client requests and is planning to sell the guides on Etsy (at WriteStuffwithLauren) and then via her website at
www.laurenholden.co.uk. She adds: “There’s been a real shift in the freelance landscape in the past couple of years, what with AI snapping at many a copywriter’s heels. I’ve still been relatively busy but certainly quieter than previous years – and I thought now’s as good a time as any to put my energy into slightly different things.” Alongside templated graphics that people can use to bolster their social media profiles, Holden has found content- writing guides and prompts are among the most sought-after downloadable products.
Benefits – and difficulties Creating the product in the first place takes an investment of time (including doing research, creating the course and doing
Create an online course
SOPHIE CROSS is a marketer who started making online marketing courses for freelancers in 2020. These courses are now her main revenue stream. Her latest online course –
A Course, of Course – shows how to create and launch a course.
Top tips • Build a course around what you know, what you’re already asked about and what people will perceive as valuable. • Have a look and compare the main
online course platforms for cost and functionality, but don’t spend too long researching. • Your course’s success or
failure will not depend on the platform you use – you could deliver it via email, Zoom or YouTube. • Always focus on the
learner experience and transformation. A course should not be every single thing you know
about a topic – it needs to be engaging, something the learner wants to complete and where they feel a transformation. • Landing pages and
waiting lists are your friends. Start building a waiting list as early as possible and test your idea before you put it into practice. • You need to put at least
as much effort into the marketing and distribution as you do into creating, so save some energy. Build it – but they won’t come unless you tell them about it.
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