How to make money during isolation

As I told you in my last post, I have spoken to so many other creative entrepreneurs, artists and small business owners and a lot of you are finding themselves in a difficult situation due to the spreading of Coronavirus. Most of the heavily affected regions took measurements like quarantines or curfews or total lockdowns. That meant for many of you to cancel business-related travels and meetings, that clients canceled or postponed projects and commissions. Now, most of you are staying home, with nothing much to do. But the good news is, we can use this time to find new ways to keep earning money. So, how to make money during isolation or social distancing?

The keyword is passive income! But what is it and how can you make passive income? Passive income is when you continue to get paid after the work is done. Therefore, a lot of designers and freelancers do so by creating and selling digital products. Most of the products can also be created at home. Here are some ideas.

Before you start

Have a daily schedule
That is one of the most important things and then stick to it! Even for small and trivial stuff. It helps you to get stuff done and be super productive.

Exercise daily
This is really important to keep your creativity flowing. Your brain needs movement and fresh air. Go for a walk at least once a day. Get inspired by details in nature, like leaves or flowers or animals.

How to make money

Offer online courses
Tell how you run your business or how to develop certain skills. For instance in online courses, webinars or coachings, and live training. I have been thinking about offering some drawing lessons on Skillshare or Patreon and maybe I will make it happen this summer.

Write an E-Book
Write down your knowledge in the form of an instructional E-Book and sell it through your website. At the moment I am finishing up my first E-Book called How to use illustrations for your brand. You can sign up for Early-Bird-Acces here.

Create and sell unused art
If you are an artist, illustrator or designer you may have a lot of small elements, photos or work that you didn’t use in the past. Like watercolor splashes, line drawings or colored shapes. Display them in some useful mockups and sell them via stock sites like Creative Market, Envato Market, Etsy, and your Website.

Create and sell digital products
Develop planners, templates, mockups, fonts, brushes, presets and photo filters or any other digital product and sell them on Creative Market, Etsy, and Envato Market, etc. You can also browse these sites for inspiration. I am also selling my art project planner on Creative Market.

Offer premium access
Collect useful resources, downloads, tutorials, exclusive videos, etc and offer paid access to these resources. You can either use Patreon or your own website with subscription fees or one-time payments.

Create and sell prints
If you are an artist, illustrator, graphic designer or photographer you can sell your personal work on Print-On-Demand sites like Society6 or your own website. Besides wall art, a lot of sites offer additional printed products like cups or canvas bags and so on. You can also offer downloadable wall art on Etsy or your website. You can buy my prints on Society6.

Sell a coffee table book
Create and sell an attractive coffee table book with the best of your art. You can create one online through a print-on-demand service like Shutterfly or Snapfish, or go with a local printer.

Use a freelancer platform
There are quite a few platforms where businesses search for talented designers or illustrators. For example, 99designs or UpWork. If you know more of there platforms, let me know in the comment section below.

Have a sale
If you already sell products than organize a special sale during this time! Promote the sale on your website and your Social Media and let your readers know in a newsletter.

To sum it up…

Did I forget anything? Do you have some cool ideas, how to make money during this time? Drop me a line and I will add it to my list! Also, read my article 30+ things to do in isolation. And as you have time on your hands now, read some of my other posts. These posts may interest you:

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