7 ways to earn passive income from work you’ve already done

The biggest change in money making potential comes when we are able to eliminate time for money exchange. As an entrepreneur, your business may start with a time-for-money model — you provide a service or product, and your income is limited by the number of hours you need to work, produce a product, or work with a client.

This creates an income limit — we can earn as much as hours a day. This approach can be incredibly taxing on the entrepreneur — resulting in overworked, burned out, and treading water to survive to make ends meet, never reaching your profit potential or ability to successfully scale.

Most small businesses get caught in this cycle and die – not sure how to free up time in exchange for money. For those looking to rethink their business model, an important first step is figuring out how to start making more money from the work you already do.

No matter what your business type is, you have some type of bank to complete. Whether it’s online assets like blog posts, digital products and video content, or tangible work like offered products and services. Evaluate what your business has produced and how you can use that finished work to bring in more revenue without reinventing the wheel.

Related: 17 Passive Income Ideas to Increase Your Cash Flow in 2023

1. Re-purpose your content and post it on monetization sites

If your business creates online content, you can leave money on the table by not repurposing it in other forms and loading it onto new platforms. Freelance article websites such as the middle Allows you to monetize content. Video platforms eg YouTube Enables you to earn ad revenue from monetized channel views. Google Adsense Allows you to embed ads on your blog.

Additionally, reformatting your content and placing it on sites to funnel into your target audience may not generate immediate income but can funnel in your target audience and direct them to your paid products by providing links to your products and affiliates in your bio and other link sharing areas. For example, a business website may already have a high-quality blog post. This blog post can be turned into a Medium article, a YouTube video or a PDF guide to be used as a lead magnet, a TikTok short and an Instagram reel. This will result in income from advertising content on the blog.

Related: TikTok is the new normal. 5 Reasons to Add TikTok to Your Content Marketing Strategy

2. Integrate affiliate links into your online content

Whether you serve clients, sell products, or create content online, your business can integrate affiliate marketing to gain a new stream of income. Affiliate marketing allows businesses and creators to partner with businesses that want shared products and services. Once accepted into an affiliate program, you can access unique affiliate links that track your referrals

When a visitor clicks on your link and makes a purchase, your referral link tracks the sale and the business pays you a commission. Once your content is in place, affiliate links can generate a passive income that pays off long before the setup on evergreen content. The easiest way to start affiliate marketing is to apply and join a large affiliate network like Share a Sell, Impact, Clickbank or Rakuten.

3. Get sponsors

If you create online content and have a following, you may miss out on sponsorship opportunities. When a business or creator is sponsored, they receive a fee in exchange for sharing a product or service on their content. They are not just for those who have a huge audience Sponsors and marketing teams often place a high value on smaller and more personal followings because they understand that a small dedicated following can make a powerful impact when creators share referrals of their trusted products and services.

Don’t wait for sponsors to reach out to you – instead, be proactive. Create a rate card and a press kit with your audience demographics and platform statistics Contact the brands you want to partner with and send along a pitch for a partnership and don’t forget to include your rate card.

4. Create a digital product

If you can solve a problem, then you have a digital product itching. PDF guides, online courses, digital templates, social media assets, tutorials, and resource lists are just a few of the digital products you can consider.

Digital products take time to initially develop, but once the product is built and up and running, it can require very little effort to maintain. With a solid marketing plan and sales funnel, your digital product can become a large stream of mostly passive income once it’s built. Think about what problems your business can solve that others need to solve.

How have you solved it in the past? What work have you already done to solve this problem? Do you have a blog post, a tutorial, a step-by-step guide, a video clip or a resource that could be packaged as a product and made available for download?

5. Sell assets on stock sites

If your business creates digital assets – photos, videos or music – you may have assets that can be uploaded and sold as stock. Allowing platforms to license your assets to their customers in a stock library can be a great way to take work you’ve already created and profit from it in a new way. Website eg The Getty And adobe Allows users to create profiles and submit their assets for sale in exchange for royalty compensation.

6. Rent out your space

If your business has an office, studio, or meeting space that isn’t used all the time but has been carefully styled for functionality and aesthetics, you may be able to rent out the use of your space to other business owners and builders.

Websites like Breather, Pearspace and Home Studio Listings allow users to book office and studio time by the hour or day for meetings, pop-up events and productions. This can be a very profitable way to capitalize on the unused space you’ve already put into setting up and curating your space.

Related: 5 Ways You Can Profit From Your Empty Office Space

7. Set up and automate sales funnels

Perhaps your business already sells digital products, integrates affiliate links or provides online services, but they just aren’t selling to their full potential. For work you’ve already created but lack sales, try integrating a powerful automated sales funnel to generate a steady stream of leads and income.

Start with a lead magnet – a free piece of content that captures your target customer’s information and gets them to subscribe to your email list in exchange for a piece of valuable content. Then, increase the value and build trust in your brand by delivering additional free high-value content directly to their inbox. Once trust is established, become an expert in your niche by continuing to over-deliver. Then, pitch a product that solves their problem.

Whatever you choose, don’t overthink it. Choose a monetization booster from the list and focus on getting it up and running as soon as possible. Maximizing the potential amount of income from the work you’ve already created is an essential step in moving away from the bartering model and will help you work less and earn more.