Can influencers really earn while they sleep?

Influencers and content creators can tap into many revenue streams to maximize their income potential with minimal additional effort. 

 

The potential earnings from passive side hustles and additional revenue are vast. By exploring new ways to communicate your expertise, like online courses, printed books or guides, you can experiment with creative formats to diversify your existing content, earn additional income and potentially increase your reach with new audiences.  

By developing long-standing, authentic brand partnerships and using affiliate links to share your recommendations and favorite products, you can earn money simply by talking about the things you love. 

So, if you’re an influencer who is interested in making money while you sleep, here are our top tips to turn your content into passive income side hustles. 

Earn passive income from existing content

One of the easiest ways for influencers to earn a passive income is actually from their existing content. 

With an extensive back catalog of content visible to new and existing audiences, creators and influencers should ensure they enroll in platform partnership programs to earn Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok passive income. 

While evergreen content will likely bring some residual income with no additional input, it could be worth revisiting some previous videos periodically, updating the keywords in descriptions or captions, and amending the hashtags to see if this brings a new lease of life and increased traction to existing content. 

Use affiliate links to make money by recommending your favorite products

An incredibly easy and cost-effective way for influencers to earn a passive income is by having an affiliate marketing strategy as part of their overall content plan. 

Increasingly social commerce is becoming a great way for influencers to earn a passive income utilising affiliate links. By promoting brands and products with unique URLs, being part of eCommerce influencer programs, and regularly updating platforms such as Amazon storefronts, followers can shop their influencers’ recommended products whenever they want, wherever they are, meaning you really can make money while you sleep. 

The most authentic use of affiliate links is when you’re seen to use the product multiple times, and they are part of your daily routine. If you share an affiliate link that doesn’t feel genuine or is the first time you’ve ever mentioned the product, it may damage how your viewers value and trust your opinion. So, be sure to use affiliate links to share the brands and products you truly love using. 

Designing and printing a book or guide to share your advice with your fans 

As an expert in your field, it could be beneficial for you to translate some of your best-performing content into guides or books as a way of extending the value of your work. 

Printing a book is an excellent way for influencers and content creators to expand their offering without taking up too much space in terms of stock. 

Diversifying your content to include various formats, such as long-form video essays, shorter social media cut-downs and printed material such as books, can all help to build your brand and add value to your business as a content creator or influencer.  

Creating and selling online courses or workshops 

Another way to expand your content and turn it into a passive side hustle is to sell online courses or workshops. From weight loss or fitness programs to ‘How to become an influencer’ workshops, there are a range of topics that content creators can turn into online courses.  

Although there may be some upfront initial investment in time and effort to plan, script, record and edit the course content, once the product package is finalized, you will make a passive income every time someone purchases your course. 

Brand partnerships and sponsored content 

A large portion of influencers' and content creators' income usually comes from brand partnerships and sponsored content. However, the lifetime value of this type of content can extend beyond just the initial collaboration.

The best brand partnerships are when a brand and an influencer work on multiple campaigns together, with a long-standing mutually beneficial relationship. 

Often brands will keep influencer content on their organic social media channels past any paid campaign activity, meaning the content creator could benefit from passive income from views and affiliate link clicks for many months, or even years to come. 

Through strategic collaborations with your favorite brands, you can maximize your earning potential, combining high initial payments with long-term residual income. Be sure to negotiate deals that include usage rights and define periods of use to maximize your long-term return and passive income. 

Repurpose your content as stock photos

Depending on your niche, you may be able to reuse some of your photography or even video content on stock image sites. As you’ll likely be taking aesthetically pleasing, stylized photographs as part of your work, why not extend the value of these and turn them into passive side hustles?

 

Factoring in a few additional, generic-style shots to your next content shoot could really help you earn a passive income through selling stock imagery. Be sure not to include any content that has been taken as part of branded or sponsored campaigns, as this may go against the terms of agreement - check your contracts thoroughly to avoid any breaches. 

By uploading a variety of high-quality images to stock photo platforms, you’ll be more likely to have a broad reach and increase the likelihood of your content being purchased and turning into a passive income side hustle for you. 

Use your website as a way to build awareness and earn ad revenue 

Although it may seem that blogs have gone out of fashion, with video content becoming more of a focus for brands and influencers alike, never underestimate the importance of a website when it comes to building your visibility. Even a minimalist website can help you to find new clients or customers and earn some passive income. 

The key things to include on your website are an introduction to who you are and what you do, with examples of your best or most recent work and most importantly, links to your social platforms and how to contact you. This can help brands or potential collaborators find you and your services. 

Having a website also presents you with the opportunity to have ad space that brands and businesses can buy to advertise to your visitors. Most of the time, you can earn money from these display ads based on impressions or clicks.

Even if your site doesn’t have super high traffic, it's a great way to find potential new business opportunities and a chance to earn some additional income from ad revenue. 

Final Thoughts 

When it comes to low-effort, high-return ways to make money, there are many ways that influencers and content creators can strategically diversify their revenue streams to have passive side hustles. 

From quality evergreen content to promoting products and brands with affiliate links, turning your video content into printed material and selling courses or workshops, influencers can make the most of the content to make some additional income, as well as broaden their offering to their audience to evolve their brand identity and reach new, engaged audiences.