The Best Ways to Earn Passive Income as a Content Creator
Are you a content creator trying to create successful content videos for social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram and understand how much hard work it is to be creating content constantly?
There is so much to think about when creating any type of content and posting it to your social media channels.
You have to create a concept out of thin air that you think will draw viewers attention, then you have to prep your filming gear to make sure you have the right tools needed for shooting the content, then you have to shoot your content to get it just right, then edit the video (or videos), and then finally upload your content creation to the platforms and hope your audience will like it to share and subscribe.
Just thinking about all that is involved can be exhausting. But if you are a content creator that is treating your social media content as a way to make a living, you will do whatever it takes to get the job done.
But what if you have a full-time job, but would still like to earn some money on the side while vlogging in your free time? Well, this blog post can help you on your way to achieving your goal of earning a passive income from something that you love doing.
Earn Passive Income as a Content Creator
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So what is passive income?
If you are unsure of what passive income is, passive income is money that you earn, even when you’re asleep. While the most obvious way vloggers create passive income, it to review products and post the reviews to social media platforms, but that takes time that some people just don’t have.
But how can a content creator generate passive income without the constant need to generate ideas to film and post to social media? If you are asking yourself this question, don’t worry because I have some ideas for you to generate a passive income as a content creator without having to constantly come up with new material weekly to post online.
As a part-time filmmaker, with a full-time job on the side, of course, I am always looking for ways to generate a passive income to fund my short-film projects without too much effort.
If you are a video creator, looking for some passive income ideas, here are some specific ways in which you can earn passive income, specifically from work you do as a video creator.
Stock footage
If you are a content creator that enjoys capturing creative video footage rather than recording dialogue for vlogging material, then capturing stock footage is the most obvious choice for you.
Websites like Artgrid.io allow content creators to upload footage and earn income from anyone that downloads your clips from the site. What’s awesome about this is that you may already have a lot of stock video footage you could use already.
For example, you could have b-roll footage from various shoots that just sitting in your hard drive right now. Footage of people you’ve shot from various projects, vacation footage from your travels, etc. You might already have hundreds, even thousands of clips that could be earning you passive income right now.
Here are some things to keep in mind before uploading:
- Any footage you take of people in public must include a talent release form.
- The higher the resolution, the better.
- Make sure the quality is high (e.g., not shaky, good exposure, nice composition, etc.)
Be creative and shoot some footage specifically for stock sites. A site like Artgrid displays “stories” where all the clips relate to one another.
Related Article: Sony ZV-E10 Digital Camera – Important Vlogging Basics
Royalty-free music
When I was trying to find a composer for the recent short film I directed, I had the toughest time trying to nail down one that wasn’t busy. So, what I did was try to compose my own music for my film, and it worked way better than I thought.
You would be amazed at the amount of independent filmmakers and video creators I’ve met over the years who compose their own music.
While most of the time it’s out of necessity like in my case, while other times it’s just a hobby that many of these content creators like doing on the side.
Whatever your situation is, if you have original music tracks you’ve created, think submitting them to a royalty-free music site like Artlist.io.
You just may be shocked at how much money you might make.
Photographer and YouTuber Daniel Inskeep of Mango Street Photography was surprised to learn that only eight songs he created on Ableton Live with the alias Generation Lost had earned him almost $13,000 in the first year he sold them on Artlist.
He earned another $300/month from streaming revenue on various sites like Spotify and Apple Music. This encouraged him to create even more music, and as of today, has 7 albums on the site available for licensing.
Related Article: 15+ Best Royalty Free Sound Effects Websites
Sound effects
If you have an audio recorder and a great shotgun microphone, why not earn some passive income making and recording the sounds. Take your sound gear out for the day and just record all kinds of sounds. Everything from street sounds, traffic congestion, shopping at the mall; dogs barking; airplanes; etc.
Use your favorite audio program like Adobe Audition, mix and match various sounds and create new, weird, and science fiction sounds using various audio filters. Then after you have some finished works of sound art, upload them to sound effect websites to earn some easy cash.
Stock photos
If you are a video creator or content creator that loves photography, then you have another way to earn passive income. The only challenge with this form of income is that there are so many sites like Unsplash and Pexels that provide free Creative Commons Zero photos.
If you want to earn money from your photography, you need to create niche photos that are not easy to get from free sites. A typical photo of a stunning mountain range will probably not earn you a lot of money.
But if you decided to play around with Photoshop, and make the mountain range look like it is on another planet, then you might have something people would be willing to pay for.
So when you have a free day with a camera, why not take some out-of-the-ordinary snapshots and play around with them with Photoshop in your free time, you might be surprised at what you can do.
Visual Assets (presets, templates, graphics, etc.)
If you’ve created color grading templates, graphical elements, digital designs or other kinds of visual presets, you may have another way of earning passive revenue. Put them in an archived .zip file, then use any number of digital e-commerce platforms to sell them (e.g., PayPal.)
If you are stuck, Canva is a great website in which you can create your own infographics, templates, and so much more to help you sell digital products on websites like ESTY and so much more.
If you are stuck, there are a lot of valuable videos on YouTube that can help you with creating the right visual assets that sell really well online.
Related Article: DJI Mavic 3 Review – Best Professional Cinematic Drone?
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Training Videos
Another great strategy to earning some passive income is creating your own training videos. Training videos are great when you are stuck trying to come up with fresh vlogging content weekly, and feel the need to shoot something with your camera.
Record yourself teaching a special skill that you may have that maybe useful to a lot of people. If you have just built your own vlogging studio why not teach others how to shoot, edit, light, do audio, etc.? What about family recipes that have been passed down to you, and you would like to show others how to make these family meals? The ideas are endless for those who like to teach and be in front of a camera.
While you might be able to sell these videos online via a blogging site, but uploading this type of content to YouTube and building a subscriber base, you can eventually earn passive income from advertising dollars.
Keep in mind that if you go the YouTube route, in order to start seeing advertising residuals, you will need at least 1000 subscribers, and 1000 hours viewed on your channel. But, if you have some great content that people want to see, you could start seeing marketing residuals over time.
Summary
As you can tell, these are just a small sample of ideas on how to generate a passive income with media content. Give these ideas a try and see which ones work best for you. You never know until you try.
Have you earned passive income as a video creator? What experiences do you have with any of the methods I mentioned above? Share in the comments, or share this post on social media.
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About the author: Trent (IMDB | Youtube) has spent 10+ years working on an assortment of film and television projects. He writes about his experiences to help (and amuse) others. If he’s not working, he’s either traveling, reading or writing about travel/film, or planning travel/film projects.
