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When people think of digital assets, they often think of cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Those types of assets can be a good investment if you know what you’re doing. If you’re an artist or other creative, you can even create your own NFTs and potentially profit from them.
If, however, you’re an online entrepreneur, blogger, or content creator, there are other types of digital assets you can use to make money, and some of them can be made once and sold forever, creating a truly passive income stream over time. Consider creating the following digital assets for long-term passive or semi-passive income.
A Blog or Website
A blog or website can be set up very easily and cheaply, and there are countless ways to monetize it once it’s up and running, including but not limited to:
- Paid advertising deals
- Affiliate marketing
- Sponsored posts
- As a platform to sell your own products
- As a way to showcase your skills or services
- As a way to drive traffic to other money-making digital assets (like your info products or online store)
A blog or website also makes it easier to build an email list which many would suggest is a valuable digital asset in itself. An email list can be used to sell your own or affiliate products, test new concepts in your business, and find clients if you operate as a freelance service provider, coach, or educator.
While a blog, or even a regular website, needs ideally to be updated regularly, posts and articles with excellent SEO will pull in traffic for years to come, meaning that if they’re well monetized, they create a truly passive income.
Info Products
An info product or information product is a digital asset that, as the name suggests, provides the buyer primarily with information. Info products exist in almost every niche and can Include:
- eBooks and audiobooks
- Online courses
- Printables
- Video and audio trainings
- Webinars
- Membership sites
- Cheat sheets
- Checklists
- Reports
- How to guides
- Live (digital) events
Info products generally consist of a product in any digital form, from a PDF to a video recording, that you can create once and sell again and again. That’s where the passive income comes in. A recording, eBook, or course could still be selling well years after it was created if the information is evergreen. To be fair, many info products deal with information that is subject to change, but even then, you can usually update and re-launch with a lot less work than starting from scratch.
An Online Store
An online store, like a website, can cost very little to create, and there is a wide range of platforms you can use to get set up. You can even create your own ‘storefront’ at big retailers like Amazon, Etsy, and Cafepress. There are various business models you can employ to make your store a success, from drop shipping, to print on demand, to selling your own hand-made goods or products you have curated.
A Well-Designed Social Media Presence
You may not think of your social media presence as a digital asset as such, but a slick and focused profile on a platform like Instagram or TikTok can lead to lucrative brand deals and sponsorships, which you can also team with affiliate marketing for a significant direct-from-social-media income. Specific platforms have specific extra ways to make money, such as TikTok’s creator fund and paid sounds options. Facebook has even recently started paying selected creators on the platform for making popular reels.
For years, online creators have been told not to rely on social media as their sole platform because social media businesses can get themselves in trouble pretty quickly (as Twitter’s recent issues have proved). In another, perhaps more likely scenario, they can ban your account without warning if they perceive you’ve broken their terms and conditions. The fact remains that there are social media influencers making a significant income from platforms they don’t own.
If you’re looking at building a portfolio of income-producing assets, don’t ignore the digital world. Depending on your skill set, you may find there’s more profit to be made there than in more traditional real-world assets.
Karen Banes is a freelance writer specializing in entrepreneurship, parenting and lifestyle. She writes articles, website content, ebooks and the occasional award winning short story. Her work has appeared in a range of publications both online and off, including The Washington Post, Life Info Magazine, Transitions Abroad, Brave New Traveler, Natural Parenting Group, and Copia Magazine. Learn More About Karen
To make Wealthtender free for readers, we earn money from advertisers, including financial professionals and firms that pay to be featured. This creates a conflict of interest when we favor their promotion over others. Read our editorial policy and terms of service to learn more. Wealthtender is not a client of these financial services providers.
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