Growing your business and earning passive income on the side don’t have to be separate ventures. In fact, there are several ways you can create passive income streams that also bolster your brand. Just ask the countless business owners with successful eBooks or Youtube channels. All it takes is some strategy and work upfront. 

Read on to learn how you can create sources of passive income while building your brand. 

How can you generate passive income?

You started your business because you were passionate and knowledgeable about your products or services. To earn passive income and grow your business even further, all you have to do is harness this same motivation, but in new ways. Some strategies to consider are: 

Write books or eBooks 

If you’re just starting out writing, stick to subjects you’re familiar with that also relate to your industry. Your goal in writing a book or eBook is to establish yourself as an expert, so you’ll need to produce a large quantity of successful work. The more successful books you write, the more your expert status will grow. Each book you put on the market will also increase the amount of passive income you’re receiving.

For instance, many restaurants produce recipe books that they sell right from their location or online. With this, you don’t have to reveal secret sauces or formulas. You can instead provide recipes that get customers very close to your restaurant’s meals. One famous example of this tactic is Shake Shack’s recipe book.

Start a blog 

Have you thought about starting a blog to support your business? Blogs make money through affiliate marketing and selling ad space. The key to success with this is gaining a strong audience following. Brands interested in advertising look for blogs that have a wide reach and influence.

Your blog can also increase your credibility with consumers. For instance, if you own a computer repair shop, you can write articles on computer basics to help your customers. At the same time, your post might help others who will become customers in the future. Producing content about your business is a great way to expand your client base and grow your brand while also building a new passive income stream. 

Sell merchandise online

As a business owner, you can sell branded merchandise for your existing business. A merchandising strategy is especially effective if you have a strong following, and people recognize your brand. 

For instance, if you run a tea and coffee shop, you can sell mugs with your logo. If you run a clothing store, you can sell stickers with your logo. Even restaurant owners can find success in selling things like t-shirts and hats.

Loyal customers are likely to buy your merchandise and provide you with some extra passive income. If the demand for your merchandise grows, you may even want to build a website and set up an online store. Once you do this, you can promote your products on social media for even more sales. 

If you follow this strategy, be sure to expand your business insurance to cover your increased inventory. You want to make sure you’re protected in case of robbery or theft of your new merchandise. 

Create your own YouTube channel 

Similar to blogging and writing eBooks, a YouTube channel can help position you as an expert while also directing more customers to your business. A great way to start your channel off is to showcase your business with an introductory video on what you do or how you got started. The key is to create a positive personal connection with your viewers — You don’t want to come off too formal or business-like. 

Another good idea for starting a YouTube channel is to create a “how-to” video. These videos are very popular with consumers. And the more useful knowledge you can provide viewers, the more likely they are to keep coming back to your channel. Over time, this will lead to a strong following for your business. 

You should also use YouTube for valuable customer feedback. Viewers’ behavior (comments, likes, subscribes, and shares) can give you insights into ways to improve your product, service, and business. You should always encourage your viewers to share your videos on their social media channels. Using YouTube to promote your business can help you:

• Improve brand awareness
• Increase engagement with your company
• Drive more traffic to your website
• Increase sales

So how do YouTubers make money?

• Monetization of their videos. YouTube places advertisements in or around your video content. Essentially, you get paid through views and clicks on these ads from your videos. 
• Affiliate marketing where a retailer pays to promote their products. Many YouTubers will discuss a product and then put links to the product in their video descriptions. These companies mentioned in the video or video description track your traffic and sales generated and pay you as a result. This works best if you are promoting a complimentary company. Of course, you’ll want to avoid promoting any competitors.
• Brand sponsorships. For this, you need to have a lot of followers. Brand sponsorship is when companies pay influential YouTubers to create videos about their new products or events. This is slightly different from affiliate marketing because, with brand sponsorship, you’re creating a video for your channel at the request of another company. With affiliate marketing, you’re merely trying to drive traffic to another company’s site. Whether or not you create a unique video to do this is entirely up to you in the situation of affiliate marketing.

Earn passive income, grow, repeat.

Earning passive income on top of growing your brand isn’t only feasible–it’s smart. In many cases, you can actually grow your business and get the boost you need to push past your competitors. You just need to find your best strategy and put in the extra work. Do the work upfront, stick with it, and you can generate consistent passive income to re-invest into growing your business.  

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