Passive income guide: Part 2: Methods - Stock

Paper Money by Kevin Dooley

In this post, we’re going to consider our first major method of generating some passive income. Stock.  I’ve come up with ideas for every freelancer I can think of. That’s all you web designers, web developers, photographers, marketers, writers and any other types of freelancers I’ve missed. Many freelancers have more than 1 skill, so why not go crazy and combine 2 or more mediums.

This is the bit you really want to know about and read. But don’t forget, nothing is ever plain sailing. That’s why in I’ve commented on each technique, giving its advantages, amount of time you’d spend, possible initial outlays, ways you’d monetize this (in case its not clear) and any other tips I can think of that specifically apply to that Passive income generator.

Look out for the next installment when we’ll talk about eBooks and books.

Stock

No, where not talking about cattle here, but selling stock online. Each day, people search for (and buy):

• Stock photo’s – Photo’s
• Stock Website templates
• Stock Music tracks & audio
• Stock illustrations
• Stock icons
• Stock videos
• Stock logos
• Stock flash do-hickies
• Stock fonts
• Stock 3D objects

See where this is going? If not, basically, there are sites on the internet that will take your stock, i.e things you’ve created with your own skills and equipment, list them on their site, and sell them. You earn a varying amount of commission on your submissions. Why do people do this? Well, mainly to either save money, save time, to fill a gap or just to be lazy.

It’s a life saver for those last minute jobs where you might need a website template super fast or for those odd jobs which don’t pay as well as possible, so you pick up some cheap templates to save input and money. Often, people who buy stock don’t have the skills to create what they are looking for, hence the genius of selling stock. There is a demand for it, and you can pick and chose which type of stock you create, depending on your skills. You can even create your own stock site & niche. For example, you might sell people html login forms or pre-made jQuery scripts.

Selling stock is a good place to start out in generating P.I Here’s why:

Advantages

Fairly low risk
Most stock can be created either cheaply or free.

Applicable to most freelancers
Almost all freelancers can make some form of stock. Web designers can create templates, photographers can sell stock photos. Even writers can get involved by creating blogs and ebooks (which we’ll talk about in their very own post soon!)

Established Websites Available
There are hundreds of stock sites out there. Choosing an existing, established site will bring you more audience to sell to.

Can be pretty quick
Other than writing books and stuff, stock is typically a relatively quick method to implement, and can see you making returns as soon as your file or assets are approved for sale online.

Proper Passivity
Most stock is the pinnacle of passiveness. You upload you stock, and your off. That’s it, very little management, and using an established, large stock site will also reduce the time you need to spend marketing your files. Brilliant! See Envato’s Collis talk about Stock here: http://www.freelanceswitch.com/money/how-i-make-2000-every-year-without-doing-very-much/

Disadvantages

Risky
Whilst stock can give you good returns, and doesn’t usually involve much monetary outlay, it will required time. And this will effectively be unpaid time. So you need to make sure whatever type of stock you are creating, that there is a genuine need for it. If not, you’ll be throwing your time into the wind. Speaking of which….

Sucks up Time
Speaking of time, I recommend you either make stock when your not busy (but not in preference of marketing e.t.c) or in your own personal time / weekends as a ‘personal experiment / project’ so as not to upset your clients.

Unpopular file, very low returns - Research!
Like with many, many things in life, you get out of something what you put in. So research the market your targeting before you make anything. I highly doubt the stock buying web designer market will be on the look out for any comic sans icons at all. With returns on some sites as low as $.30 per file, you have to do everything in your power to make a popular, desirable file.

Cheapens the industry?
I know this is a bit more obscure. But creating cheap web templates, icons and more can cheapen the work of your normal consulting business. Having said that, there will always be “Financially-efficient” people about, so you might as well make some money out of a market which would not normally be even able to afford your services.

Quantity rules
When it comes to selling stock, it pays to create more files to increase your income. But this takes more time. Getting the right balance here between: quality, quantity & price is vital.

No guarantee of acceptance
Some stock sites have a system by which each file is reviewed by a team of editors. Even after spending the time creating a great file or image, you could find your work turned down from your chosen stock site. There are many reasons for rejection, so make sure you keep up to date with the sites file requirements and specifications,  keeping in line with their terms and conditions.

Lots of Competition
You’ll face tough competition in the stock sector. So, you need to establish yourself as a high-quality stock maker with an eye for crafting perfect stock files. And out-do everyone to sell well. At very least, you will need to carve a niche or have some easily definable benefit over stock makers, such as offering after sales support e.t.c.

Where to sell

Envato Network

The  Envato network of sites is pretty spot on. They have a site for almost every conceivable stock format now, from Videos to Vectors, and with a large audience base and reasonable reviewer system, you could do very well.

GraphicRiver: Graphic River is Envato’s Graphic branch. This site thus sells vectors, textures, general graphics, icons and other related paraphernalia. The sites audience is building up (been the newest addition to envato’s stock network) and looks set to be a real player within this niche of the stock market.

Themeforest: Themeforest does the web. Here you’ll find HTML templates, and themes created for various popular cms & blog platforms. You can also sell .PSD design’s here, and the site has a large audience now. A high quality template here will sell typically for $6 - $20 (dependent on quality), with sellers earning between 40% - 70% (depending on how much you sell, and whether you decide to be exclusively linked to selling your stock with Envato)

FlashDen: The place for flash files and components. Top sellers here can sell to the value of thousands of dollars a week.  Top earners have made literally hundreds of thousands of dollars overall. Not bad eh?

VideoHive: It doesn’t stop there though. If your into video production and effects, you’ll want to check out VideoHive.

AudioJungle: Lastly (for now) we have AudioJungle. Here’s the place to be selling your audio loops and jingles, with the same benefits as the other Envato sites. Great stuff.

Just one of the awesome Envato Stock sites, Graphic River.

iStockphoto

iStockphoto accept audio, vector illustrations, flash files, videos (and of course photos). They offer 20% cuts (40 if you go exclusive).  As with the envato sites, I’ve heard of top earners achieving into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not bad for creating stock

istockphoto’s homepage.

What now?

Where do you go from here? Well, first up, research into the above sites and pick one that suits your work the best (or maybe pays the best). Then research into popular / requested files. Will you make genuine money out of this? If so, then you can crack on with planning and creating your assets for sale. Have fun, and I’ll see you in the next installment of the series, in which we talk about eBooks. Fun Fun Fun

Do you have any tips for other PFF readers? Share them in the comments section

Tags: freelancing, making money, Passive Income