Your side hustle doesn’t have to stress you out!
You can spend a minimal amount of time and still generate awesome income in your online business side hustle using digital products.
There’s a ton of digital product ideas out there!
In this post, I’m going to share one of the most popular digital products (and my personal fav!) that you can create to generate passive income in your online side hustle!
Want other ideas on digital products to sell online? Check out my 54 Digital Product Ideas freebie!!
Think you need a degree or a certification to monetize your knowledge online?!
Nope! All you need is passion, knowledge, and a desire to help others!
Armed with those three things, creating digital products to sell online is easy.
Hmm… but which digital product should you create?!
I’ve generated over $2 million in my online business selling digital products like an ebook or an online course.
Still, my favorite digital product to generate side hustle income is…
An Online Workshop!
Now you may be thinking to yourself, “How is an online workshop passive?”
I’ll be honest, the first time you create the workshop, it’s not exactly passive.
But once it’s created, you can sell it over and over again for an unlimited amount of time to generate passive income with a minimal amount of effort on your part.
Not sure if just yet if an online workshop digital product is for you? Keep reading (and check out my 54 Digital Products ideas guide!!
So what exactly is an online workshop?
An online workshop is simply a virtual meeting where people gather to learn something. And lucky you, in this post I’m sharing my 3 part framework so an online workshop can help make you money in your side hustle!
Step #1: Choose your online workshop topic
Here’s where a lot of people get stuck, but I’m going to ask you a few simple questions to get the wheels turning for you!
- What do you naturally like to talk about?
- What do you enjoy learning about?
- What do people often come to for?
- What have you overcome or helped someone else overcome?
- What are some of your personal achievements?
Answering these questions will help you get clear on which topics you could teach about easily in your online workshop.
Bonus points if it’s something that people already come to you for – because then you know there’s already a demand for that knowledge!
Once you’ve chosen your topic, hop into an A.I. tool like ChatGPT and ask it to help you outline your workshop. ChatGPT will provide you with a list of ideas or bullet points that you can use to then create your workshop content. (Learn more about how to use ChatGPT to create digital products here).
And if you’re someone who likes using slides, you can use a design tool like Canva to easily design your presentation (they’ve got loads of amazing templates you can choose from!)
After you’ve developed your workshop content and slides, it’s time to choose a name!
Brainstorm a few and then ask ChatGPT for advice on more ideas.
Step #2: Choose your online workshop date and software
The first time you present your workshop, I recommend hosting it live.
Choose a date to host your live online workshop at least 2 weeks ahead.
This will give you time to decide where and how to promote your online workshop and create your promotional content.
There are lots of virtual conference software to choose from but here are two popular options:
- Google Meet: This is my favorite option. It’s free and you can record your training and it will save it right to your Google Drive!
- Zoom: Zoom is another popular virtual conference software. Depending on what features you want and how many people you plan to have.
Don’t forget that you need an option that allows you to record your online workshop. Otherwise, you won’t be able to use it as a digital product to sell afterward!
Step #3: Decide how to sell seats for your online workshop
Once you’ve got your online workshop topic, date, and software, you’re going to need an audience to sell it to!
Lots of online business owners choose to build their audiences on places like Etsy or Amazon.
The problem with those platforms is that you don’t own the audience.
As a result, they can choose to place restraints on how you can promote or shut down your account without notice. Plus you have to pay a usage fee to utilize their platform.
Instead, consider building your audience on other platforms that are free or that you have ownership of.
I’ve chosen to build my audience on YouTube, and from there invite my followers to my email list. (Learn how to launch your own YouTube channel in just 4 weeks here).
YouTube is free to post on and unlike platforms that you have to pay, YouTube actually pays you to create content on their platform (say what?!)
Yes, YouTube pays some of its creators through AdSense. Plus you can generate additional revenue through affiliate income, sponsorships, or endorsements on the content you create.
Once people find me on YouTube and enjoy my content, they join my email list by opting in to receive one of my freebies.
After which, I build a relationship with them by sending them regular emails through my email marketing platform (I use Systeme.io).
And then retarget them to buy my digital products (like a paid online workshop, ebook, or online course).
Final Thoughts
This post was all about the best side hustle idea to generate passive income.
Online workshops are an amazing way to share your knowledge, help solve a problem for the people you want to help and generate revenue for you!
If you want to check out other digital products to sell online, snag my 54 Digital Product Ideas freebie below!