Most business owners would agree that there is a secret to scaling your income, especially as a coach, consultant or online entrepreneur. What’s the secret? Passive income! The good news is that you can benefit from it.

My definition of passive income is what you earn by creating a product up front and then selling it over and over again. Once created, you can earn from the product for a long time with a little effort and limited maintenance. Said differently, you are not trading time for money, but scaling your work.

We all have 24 hours in a day and, if you’re like me, it often feels like this time is never enough. As a coach or consultant, it means you have an absolute limit on the number of hours you can sell, which implies there is a ceiling on how much money you can make. Creating passive income lets you have time for other things in your life while providing financial stability. More time with your friends and family, for your hobbies, to travel or to relax and have fun.

Another benefit of digital products is that they can be very easy – and quick – to develop. Would you like to add passive income streams to your business? Here are digital products you can create this weekend to help you do just that. And in case you were wondering, each of these products can be developed and sold, no matter what business you are in!

ebooks

In the US, 20% of book readers prefer to read their books digitally. This number increases every year. The sales of ebooks climb higher and higher, as people devour them on their mobile devices. Technology has transformed the way we operate and that includes the way we read and access books.

This means there is a huge market for e-books and you can take advantage of it. Just identify a topic you are passionate about or have a great deal of experience in. 

To create an ebook, you write content on your chosen topic and publish it online. Because this is a digital format, there are no printers involved and no stock to create (and pay for). You can make a short book in just a few hours, then create a series of small books or go on to write longer books once you get started. 

You don’t even have to write your book from scratch, you can start with blog posts, articles or speeches you’ve given. You can draw from trainings you’ve given, comments you’ve posted online or emails you’ve written on your area of expertise. You’ll be amazed at the treasures you can find on your hard drive if you do a little research.

Once your e-book is published, you list it on online platforms like Amazon or on your own website and you can make money literally as you sleep. Hopefully the cha-ching doesn’t keep you up at night!

Mini-course

People are always looking to learn and if you have something to teach – which I am certain you do – you can put it in an e-course. You don’t have to start with a 50-module digital course, a mini-course will do. In fact, a mini-course, like a short book, can be wildly successful because you can solve one problem for your client in a short period of time, delighting them and having them come back for more.

When you write a course, your focus should be on creating short and educational lessons all aiming at solving a very specific problem. This digital product can be in the form of written texts, worksheets, audios and videos. You can combine different media to appeal to customers with all kinds of learning preference.

These courses can be relatively low tech, especially when you are starting out. They can be delivered by email or on a third party learning platform. They are quick to put together because, like the ebook, you can get a head start by looking at materials or programs you already have. Definitely don’t get stuck because you think the tech is too complex, there are many solutions that can make this very simple for you.

Have confidence in your course knowing that you are helping someone gain more knowledge on a particular topic or helping them solve a problem. The more they benefit from your course, the more they’ll want you to help them further and the more they’ll refer their friends and family to you. 

workshops and webinars

Digital workshops and webinars are popular because they are fun. You can teach in a setting that feels more like a live workshop, even if it is recorded. You can offer your workshop or webinar live and interact directly with your audience. Doesn’t that seem more engaging than a simple Power Point presentation? Workshops focus on a particular topic and give you time to go into great detail about it. This ability to go into depth on one subject in a more “personal” session is what makes webinars and workshops so.

As you create a workshop or webinar, you should be crystal clear on what you want your customers to learn by the end of it. For example, it can be something like ‘how to map out your social media plan.’ You may think I’m repeating myself across the product types, but this kind of clarity is crucial, no matter what product you are creating.

This clarity lets your customer know what to expect before they sign up for your workshop. And when you deliver against that expectation, you’ll develop fans who will come back to you again and again.

You can make the workshops as short or as long as you want, from a few minutes to a couple of hours or even a few days. As a pro tip, if you offer a workshop or webinar live, be sure to record it to sell later!

checklists

Checklists are incredibly popular. They keep you organized, increase productivity and, let’s be honest, they are fun to use. And because people love to use them, there is a huge market for checklists and they make great products to sell or to give away.

Checklists can be excellent products on their own. For example, you can teach someone how to accomplish a task simply by giving them a checklist. Need to move from one house to another? Here is a checklist of things you need to do in order to move. You use the checklist to remind your customer of all the steps in the process, making a stressful process a lot simpler. That is worth a lot!

Checklists can also be used as companion products to books, courses and more. The checklist can be used to reinforce the steps in a process. For example, if you have a book on how to create a budget, you can use a checklist to reinforce the process you outline in your book. The checklist itself can be an upsell or a bonus related to the book.

You can even bundle checklists together when there are multiple processes to be accomplished. If your area of expertise was gardening, you could have a set of spring, summer, fall and winter checklists for your customers to use.

There is no end to the topics you can create checklists on. Examples include, how to travel with kids and how to organize a seminar. No matter your subject, if you focus on helping someone get things done effectively and on time, you’ll reduce their stress and increase their productivity. That is a product your customers will happily pay for.

worksheets/workbooks

Worksheets and workbooks are great teaching resources that many people are delighted to buy. And with good reason. Worksheets and workbooks reinforce learning points by having the student practice what you are teaching. Let’s say you want to teach your audience how to create a business plan. A worksheet comes in handy to demonstrate that. You create questions, prompts and exercises to walk them through the process one step at a time.

If you have a lot of content or the content can be repetitive (like a 12 month budget), you can create an entire workbook and help your customers learn more or do more which reduces their stress and increases their effectiveness.

Workbooks can be created digitally, and sold in a PDF format or printed on demand. You can sell them from your website, through a third party platform like Etsy or even through Amazon or other online retailers.

The key to creating valuable worksheets and workbooks is to find out what people need and provide that, with clear explanations. Like every other passive product, define the problem you want to solve, create a problem to help the customer do that, and you’ll have a winning product.

tutorials

TechSmith conducted a study in which they discovered that 53% of individuals watch at least two instructional videos weekly. If you were looking for motivation to create a tutorial video, this is it. 

Tutorials are a little different to the workshops described above. Like workshops, tutorials are a great way of sharing knowledge less formally. The most popular types of tutorials are videos because are used to teach someone how to accomplish a task by following what an instructor does. YouTube is packed with tutorials, just search for anything like “how to build a picnic bench” or “how to install a garbage disposal” and you’ll find dozens of tutorial videos.

When you create your tutorial, switch on your camera or computer and walk through the task, step by step, as if you were teaching someone in person. Load the video onto an appropriate platform and you are ready to sell it!

You can create these videos and sell them online either directly to customers or through platforms like YouTube where you will earn money. You can even upload the videos on your website which will help bring you more traffic. 

You see, creating passive income products doesn’t have to take months, you can create a profitable product right now. What are you waiting for?