How I made $30,000 in PASSIVE Income last year
May 12, 2022
Last year I decided to really start putting some time and effort into making passive income and I'm excited to lay it aaaaaaaallllll out on the table for you.
But to truly appreciate the magnitude of this let's do a quick flashback to 2020.
Babies, Covid, and business OH MY!
January 2020 I had my second baby. What was supposed to be a planned c-section turned into a whole lot of emergency crazy, which is a story for another day because I can become a bit long winded about it. A few weeks after that, while still in recovery, Covid emerges and takes hold of the world. (You all were there for that ordeal so you know what that was like.) For some reason I had decided that would be a perfect time to start a new business.
And what do you know, starting a business is no piece of cake. (Which is too bad because I really like cake). My first year of business I barely scraped by, putting in tons of hours, struggled with ptsd from my crazy birth, and developed a very large case of postpartum depression.. AKA MAJORLY BURNT MYSELF OUT.
Not the results I was hoping for with my business venture.
I decided with the new year, that if I was going to continue with my business I needed to focus on PASSIVE income. As a mom of two very little ones, stuck at home all day, I just didn't have the time or capacity to NOT be making passive income.
So I put my focus on digital products, so all I had to do was create them once and then make profit from them forever.
Enter the passive profit year of 2021
Ok here is the part where I show you some screenshots --- then let's dive into HOW I actually did this. (As a stay at home mom of two crazy littles.)
I switched checkout platforms halfway through the year so this has to be broken up a bit. This revenue does NOT include anything from my regular service business. This is PASSIVE products ONLY. Lest you worry I inflate the numbers :)
My numbers from sales on Kajabi (my website and where I house my digital products):
My numbers from Thrivecart (the shopping cart platform I started using for a more complex product I made) Thrivecart is where people checkout and purchase products:
And I have some digital products on Etsy, but as you can see most of my income is from my own website.
THE BREAKDOWN: $4988 + $14733 + $10468 = $30,189
Wahoooo! Throw the confetti!
Not bad considering this was a side income, PASSIVE, and only the beginning.
The cool part is I knew nothing about funnels (AKA the process of guiding people to purchase online) when i started this. I was (am) a designer by trade. I could make things pretty but selling things is a whole other ball game. I used what skills I had, turned them into a passive product, and then started making money!
Literally anyone can do this with any skill they have.
They just have to learn how to actually make SALES online!!
Ok so let's get into this... HOW did I do it?!
HOW I MADE PASSIVE INCOME SELLING DIGITAL PRODUCTS
Like I said, I sold DIGITAL products.
What's a digital product?
Basically it is anything that can be delivered digitally and requires little to no follow up from you. For example it could be a digital file for a template, a pdf workbook, a course, a membership site... there are so many options! What I'm going to focus on in this article is courses as I have lots of info about selling templates in this training over here.
I have tried to break down what I did into three basic steps.
1) Structure your product into a juicy no-brainer offer
So this means more than just coming up with a random idea. People are used to seeing ads for things all the time. What is going to make the biggest difference is selling something that feels like an irresistibly good deal. That is where a lot of marketing psychology comes in which I dove into and really studied last year. If you want to save a bunch of time and get an easy system for a juicy offer in no time click here. I created a super low price point offer for exactly this type of situation. It is the framework I use for ALL of my products and basically the building blocks for all online products and offers.
>>> How to create a digital product that will sell
2) Use a website platform actually made for selling courses
At first I tried to use WordPress and it kept causing checkout issues! I had to issue refunds and answer emails about how they were trying to check out but couldn't. No bueno.
I made a Kajabi account so that I could house my course super easily. Selling courses can get a biiiit tech heavy but Kajabi makes it SUUPER easy by simplifying everything into one platform. So I really recommend setting up your website/course on an all in one platform MADE for selling courses. So so worth it. And as a web designer who has tried A LOT of platforms that's saying something haha.
Also I just found out Kajabi is offering an AMAZING special right now available through May 25th -> HERE IS THE LINK
It is $5 for 5 weeks of 5 minute actions to help you go from NOTHING to a SELLING course in just 5 weeks. I seriously wish I had something like that when I first started. Also 5 weeks is the longest trial period I have ever heard of for Kajabi so if you have been considering starting a course THIS IS THE TIME!
_______INTERESTED IN MAKING YOUR OWN COURSE?Kajabi is do a $5 step by step walkthrough to help you get a course off the ground in only 5 weeks! I super recommend this, that's honestly the best price you will get from anyone anywhere.-------------
3) Sell using Pinterest & Google
Let me walk you through my thought process here. There are a lot of ways you can get your offer in front of the eyeballs of your ideal audience. Here are the options I considered and why I did what I did.
Social media: The pro is that it is free. The cons are that it is 1) Super time consuming 1) slow growth. I didn't want to spend a ton of time creating content to maybe someday be getting views.
FB & Instagram Ads: The pro is that it can be really effective. The con is that it is suuuper expensive to get started. Everyone is battling for ad space on these two. I wanted to find a cheaper option that would allow me to enter the game without putting down $1000s when I didn't have any proven offers yet.
Pinterest & Google Ads: The pro is that it is a lot cheaper to get started and get results. You can start at a super low amount per day. On Pinterest I started out at .12 cents per click and now usually hang out around .15! SO cheap.
The con is that if you just randomly try to make an ad and trust Pinterest or Google's "automatic" bidding system you will lose soooooo much money. That is what I did at first and I definitely lost money! Once you know a few tricks of the trade however it is SO easy. I have a program showing how I harnessed google and pinterest ads - let me know if you want on the wait list!
I basically set up Pinterest ads first with a super small budget, once I saw it was working I increased my budget. Then I also started with google ads. Now I LOVE google ads.
Ads just work better for my more introverted & analytical personality. The thought of "showing up" on social media everyday makes me want to run straight to the hills and hide haha. Plus then it's no longer "passive"!
The best part is once this is all set up I literally have little selling machines that do all my work for me. Then the product itself is passive and requires very little from me.
HOORAY for making money as a stay at home mom!
I seriously cannot believe how cool it is that we can do this kind of thing now days! There is nothing keeping you from doing it yourself! I'm not special, I just STARTED.
Here is one of my favorite quotes when it comes to business:
"You don't have to be good to start, you just have to start to be good" - Joe Sabah
________
MY PASSIVE INCOME BUCKET LIST I CROSSED OFF LAST YEAR
√ Wake up to sales notifications telling me I made money while I slept. (This is like every morning for me at this point)
√ Make money while on vacation. (YEP, I actually feel like I make more money while on vacation, maybe it's all the good vibes haha)
√ Make $2000+ monthly recurring revenue from my course
_______
NEXT BUCKET LIST GOALS
- Make $5000 a month in passive income online
- Go to Europe with $ I made from this
- Get a rental property
_______
INTERESTED IN MAKING YOUR OWN COURSE?
Kajabi is do a $5 step by step walkthrough to help you get a course off the ground in only 5 weeks! I super recommend this, that's honestly the best price you will get from anyone anywhere.
