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Introduction: Why Passive Income is Perfect for Young Moms

Passive income is money earned on autopilot with little to no work done. This concept of earning money is incredibly appealing for young moms because that would give them more time to spend with their kids, the option to leave a job they hate, and relieve financial stress. Also, mom life can be absolutely wild, and having a way to earn money that doesn’t have deadlines, monthly quotas, or require consistent effort is an absolute dream.

The most common true passive income sources include investing, high-yield savings accounts, and real estate.

The phrase “passive income” is one that’s been used incorrectly in recent years. Kind of like how people use there, they’re, and their wrong. When people say “passive income” they’re using the essence of the word but not the correct definition of it.

Because of this misuse of the phrase, there’s a common misconception that passive income streams are “easy money”. True passive income streams (like the one I mentioned above) require substantial financial investment. The passive income streams that we will discuss in this blog (which are more correctly called “mostly passive income” streams) require upfront effort to build before it will start bringing in money on autopilot.

I want to clear up the confusion around this topic in this blog article and give you hope that you can achieve mostly passive income in a sustainable and realistic way. I promise the initial effort will be worth the results!

Passive Income Ideas for Young Adults: How to Start Making Money Online

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The Truth About Passive Income: It’s Not 100% Passive

When I first heard about passive income, I imagined making money while lounging at the park with my kids or sipping coffee in my cozy living room. It sounded like the dream, right? But the reality is, building passive income streams requires work upfront. It’s not a quick fix, but with the right effort, it can eventually provide the kind of financial freedom many moms crave.

Take blogging, for instance. “According to the research, it takes, on average, 21 months to start making money from a blog and an average of 3 years and 11 months to earn a full-time income from blogging.” [Source] Similarly, digital products like eBooks or courses can generate long-term income, but creating high-quality content, marketing it, and building an audience are all vital steps (that each have their challenges!) before you can sit back and watch the sales in your sleep happen.

Passive income requires work upfront, but the long-term freedom it creates is worth every bit of effort.

The biggest myth about passive income is that it’s completely effortless. While you can create a revenue stream that eventually requires little maintenance, there’s a lot that needs to happen first. Whether it’s writing an eBook, building an online course, or starting a blog, you’ll need to spend time developing your product, marketing it, and growing your audience.

Take creating an online course as an example. You’ll need to:

Research what common problem you can solve.
Plan out your course structure and content.
Record videos or write out lessons.
Set up your hosting platform and payment.
Market your course to your target audience.

That’s a lot of upfront work and each of these steps requires learning, implementing, and experimenting. A part of being an entrepreneur is realizing that you’re going to do things “wrong” a LOT on the road to finding what works!

But once your course is live, you’ve had students go through and social proof, and you’ve built a marketing strategy that brings in consistent clients, you can start earning money without daily involvement. You can even hire virtual assistants to help out!

The key is persistence. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will your passive income stream. But with dedication, the rewards are worth it.

Imagine being able to take a vacation with your family and knowing that your blog or digital product is still earning money while you’re away. Passive income gives you flexibility—both with your time and finances. While it won’t magically happen overnight, the unlimited potential to build a business that works for you (eventually while you sleep) is what makes passive income so attractive.

If you’re ready to start building your passive income stream, don’t let the upfront work scare you off. Quick q- would you rather put in minimal effort working for someone else with a capped potential? Or would you rather roll up your sleeves, fail forward and build a business that earns you 3x your current job?!

The first step is deciding which idea resonates with you. Do you love writing? Start planning your first eBook. Are you passionate about helping others? Outline your first online course. Take one step today toward building a long-term income source that can free up more time for your family.

Next, map out your plan—what will you need to do, and how will you stay committed to the process? Break it down into small, achievable goals, and before you know it, you’ll be on your way to earning passive income.

Idea #1: Create and Sell Digital Products

Let’s dive into the first passive income idea: creating and selling digital products! What’s great about digital products is that you can create something once and sell it repeatedly, making them an excellent source of income. I’ve personally created dozens of digital products over the years, and they’ve proven to be a reliable revenue stream.

One of my products below:

According to Shopify, “the e-learning industry is expected to be worth $840 billion by 2030.” [Source.]

There are many types of digital products you can create, including planners, templates, e-books, design assets (like logos or social media content), printables, spreadsheets, and more. Many of these can be easily designed on platforms like Canva, which offers thousands of templates and images to help you get started.

Once you’ve created your digital product, the next step is choosing a platform to sell it online. Let’s talk about the pro’s and con’s of some of the most popular platforms.

Platform 1: Etsy

Etsy is a well-known marketplace where creators can list and sell digital products. They also have physical products but that’s not what we’re discussing today! 😉

Pros:

Instant delivery to buyers
Low overhead costs (though there are listing and transaction fees)
Global reach and ad capabilities

Cons:

High competition and market saturation
Low-cost competition, which can drive down prices

Overall: Etsy is a great platform to sell digital products, but it’s essential to learn about Etsy SEO, marketing, and keeping your products updated to stand out in a competitive marketplace.

You can explore Etsy here.

Platform 2: Gumroad

Gumroad is a popular platform for creators to sell digital products, courses, or memberships.

Pros:

No monthly fee
User-friendly interface
Multiple product listings allowed
Affiliate program capability (others can promote your products)

Cons:

10% fee on each sale
No bump orders or upsell features

Gumroad is a great starting point if you’re new to selling online and want to avoid the hassle of monthly fees. However, if your sales start exceeding $30 a month in fees, it may be worth exploring other options.

You can check out Gumroad here.

Platform 3: Convertkit

ConvertKit is primarily an email CRM (customer relationship management) tool used for email marketing and analytics. However, it also offers features for selling digital products, memberships, and services, making it an all-in-one solution for creators.

What one of my products hosted on Convertkit looks like 👇🏽

Pros:

User-friendly platform
Low monthly cost
Built-in landing page creation
Integrated email sequences and lead magnets
All-in-one business solution

Cons:

May feel overwhelming for beginners

Overall: If you’re serious about selling digital products, ConvertKit is a powerful all-in-one solution that allows for future growth. You can build your email list, nurture relationships with your audience, and gain valuable insights into the problems your community wants solved.

Try out Convertkit here!

Creating and selling digital products offers you the chance to build an income stream that works for you and your busy schedule. Just imagine creating a digital product one time and making sales on it over and over again- that’s the passive income side of digital products.

This is a perfect income stream for moms to express their creativity and help others along the way. There is also so much room for growth as you gain new customers, grow your skills, and expand your digital product business.

Now that you know the benefits of creating a digital product, it’s time to take action!

Here’s what to do next:

Create Your First Digital Product: think of your unique expertise and a single problem you can solve to create your first digital product (need ideas? Download dozens here!)
Choose Your Platform: Maybe it’s’ Gumroad, Convertkit, or another one you’ve heard about- just pick one! You can always change later so don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis and make no forward progress.
Set Up Your Store: Load up your product in your store and set up your payment processor! Be sure to test this by using their test function or if they don’t have that option- just buy it yourself! You want to make sure people are able to buy when you launch.
Start Selling!: Now it’s time to share your digital product with the world! Start with your warm market first which is everyone on your social media accounts, friends & fam, and your email list.

Ready to learn more passive income ideas for young adults? Creating digital products is just the beginning. Let’s explore the next idea I have for you: creating an online course.

Idea #2: Develop an Online Course

The biggest mistake I made in the online world was creating a lengthy course that no one wanted. Let me explain…

When you create a course it is incredibly important to:

validate your idea and make sure that it is something that people will buy
Give your audience something they WANT (not what they NEED)

I spent MONTHS creating a course to help women heal past trauma so that they could live their best lives. People don’t WANT to heal trauma. They want healthy relationships, to not yell at their kids, and build a successful business. All of these? Well, when you heal your trauma, regulate your nervous system, and get out of fight-or-flight all of those wants come after.

This was back in 2021 and since then I’ve learned many lessons (mostly the hard way and by failing) and can now proudly say I’ve created and sold several successful courses.

Learning how to sell an online course creates passive income similar to a digital product where you simply make the course one time and keep making sales on it. Courses are also great for compiling your knowledge into one singular space so an unlimited amount of people can learn from you.

And the great part is that you don’t have to be the biggest expert on the planet on the topic you choose. You just need to be at level 3 or higher so that you can teach those who are brand new or level 1.

Not sure what you could possible create a course about? Download the free Genius Zone Audit Worksheet to find out!

Let’s dive into a detailed step-by-step guide so that you know how to sell an online course!

1. Choose Your Topic

Identify Your Niche: Pick a topic you’re knowledgeable and passionate about. Consider areas where you have experience and can provide real value to other moms. Just like we discussed with the digital product- you don’t need to be a level 10 expert to be able to teach others. Your course could be about growing your own veggies, cloth diapering, or baking sourdough.
Validate the Idea: Remember my mistake? Before you get too deep into the course creation process you need to make sure this is a viable course topic. You can research whether there’s demand for your topic by looking at online search engines, social media, or existing courses to see if people are trying to solve the problem you can! Are people struggling to get started with sourdough and want a step-by-step guide with very detailed instructions?

2. Outline Your Course Content

Determine Tangible Results: What are the very specific results that people will learn or accomplish by completing your course? Try to avoid fluffy outcomes like “happy life” or “better relationship”. Your outcomes should be more like “Learn 5 conflict resolution strategies so that you can have effective (not emotional) discussions with your partner” and “4 common mistakes made as a sourdough baker and how to avoid them”. Notice the difference?
Break It Down into Modules: Your modules should be logical steps through what you are teaching. It may be helpful to do a brain dump of everything that you plan to teach inside of your course and then reorganize from them. You’ll want to think about what they need to know to get started, all the following steps, and even how they can continue to learn or how to troubleshoot.
Create a Course Outline: Now that you have your modules, you’ll want to plan out the lessons inside. What will you teach, are there action or implementation steps, any additional worksheet or resource? It is also a good idea to start thinking about the length of these lessons and your audience. For example, I make courses for busy moms. As a busy homeschool mom myself, I absolutely loathe when I buy a course and its a 2.5 hour talking head video. I don’t have 2.5 hours to sit down and watch a training! So my courses are broken down into bite-sized lessons.

3. Create the Course Content

Choose a Format: How will you deliver the content? Videos, written content, workbooks? This is ultimately your choice but if you want your course to be wildly successful AND impactful for your students it’s important to consider your audience and the different learning types. The photo below shows the different learning styles and you can learn more here.

Create Your Lessons: If utilizing video lessons, use a high-quality camera or even your smartphone since most newer models have amazing cameras. You might need to use a web camera if you will be sharing your computer screen to teach your lessons as well and I’d recommend a good quality microphone as web camera mic’s aren’t always the best. Be sure to do a test run to make sure the audio and video are on point. If your lessons are written, then start the process. You can keep it simple in a Word or Google Doc or design pretty PDFs inside of Canva.
Edit the Videos: Trim any unnecessary parts, add titles, and make sure everything looks polished. You can use simple editing software like iMovie or more advanced tools like Adobe Premiere.
Supplement with Resources: Create worksheets, checklists, or other printables to help your students apply what they’ve learned. These add value to the course.

4. Choose a Course Platform

Hosting Options: Pick a platform to host and sell your course. Now you could spend 27 years looking at all of the different options but I encourage you to just pick one so you can keep going. Some popular options include:
- Teachable: User-friendly and customizable. They have a free plan but it has a very limited capabilities
- Udemy: A well-known marketplace where people can find and purchase your course. Your course would be hosted on this platform so you will have less control over how you sell your product.
- Thinkific: Another great platform that offers flexibility and tools for creating a professional course, complete with quizzes, communities, and instant sales pages
- MemberVault: This is the one I actually use. It’s the most affordable and has an easy affiliate option so students can share the courses and earn a percentage of the sale. The one disadvantage about MemberValult is that there’s no option for order bumps or upsells.

Looking for a totally free version? You can always host your course inside of a private Facebook group. You can organize the content by setting up group guides, it’s already a community which you can use for support, and you can upload videos and files.

Set Pricing: Decide on the price of your course. You could start with a lower price point for your first course, or use a tiered pricing model with different levels of content. I also like to have a special launch price that is 25-40% of the full price for 48-72 hours too.

5. Create a Sales Page

Compelling Headline: Your headline should clearly state the value your course provides. If you can give an exact timeframe here- do it! “Make Your 1st Perfect Sourdough Loaf in 7 Days”
Benefits Over Features: Focus on the outcomes and transformations your students will get and not just the course content that will be delivered. Example of feature-focused: “This course includes 10 video lessons on meal planning, weekly grocery shopping guides, and printable recipe cards.” VS benefit-focused: “By the end of this course, you’ll have stress-free meal planning down to a science, saving you hours each week and ensuring your family enjoys healthy, budget-friendly meals every night without the last-minute scramble.”
Add Testimonials or Case Studies: Maybe you don’t have any testimonials yet but do you have anyone who’s experienced your sourdough baking skills that can give you a short testimonial? Or can you give a couple of friends a few lessons to test out? Get creative in an ethical way until you gather testimonials from your first round!
Include a Call to Action: Make it easy for people to purchase your course by adding a strong, clear button or link. Use active language on your button- “Join Now!” rather than “Purchase”.

6. Promote Your Course

Use Your Existing Audience: Share your course with your email list, on social media, or in any relevant groups where moms hang out online. If you aren’t on Pinterest already, I highly recommend setting up a business account to share your course here!
Run Paid Ads: If you have the funds, consider Facebook or Instagram ads to reach more people in your target audience. This is best done when you have a proven offer that people want AND get results!
Collaborate with Influencers: Partner with influencers or bloggers who can promote your course to their audience. When you pitch them be sure to keep the focus on how your course can truly serve their audience. Also, consider having an affiliate option for your course so that they are getting something in return for sharing.

7. Launch and Sell

Pre-Sell or Soft Launch: Before officially launching, you can pre-sell the course at a discount to validate interest and get some testimonials.
Offer Limited-Time Bonuses: Add urgency with early-bird bonuses or discounts to motivate people to buy early. These could be 1:1 calls, group q&a session, additional resources, and more.
Automation for Passive Income: Once your course is live, automate the sales process through an email funnel or paid ads. This way, the course can continue to sell without much ongoing effort.

Choose a topic you’re knowledgeable about (remember you just need to be a level 3!) and that can provide value to other moms by solving one problem or teaching them something they want to learn. Even if it seems simple to you, it can make a big difference for others!

Idea #3: Write and Sell an Ebook

Writing an ebook is similar to creating any digital product – but here, you’re focused on crafting a book. The beauty of an ebook? You create it once, and it sells over and over. It can be anything from a short “how-to” guide to a longer, in-depth handbook. Plus, you can sell it as a digital PDF download or even self-publish it on Amazon Kindle.

Did you know? “The E-book Market size is estimated at USD 17.20 billion in 2024, and is expected to reach USD 21.73 billion by 2029.” [Source] This is a popular industry because people are always searching to learn new information- and it’s not slowing down any time soon!

Your ebook could be instructional, like a how-to guide, focus on personal development, or even include short stories. Grab my Digital Product Guide and check out the ebook section for more inspiration.

Once you’ve nailed down a profitable ebook idea, it’s time to bring it to life!

Here are some simple steps:

Create your outline
Write out your chapters (pro tip: sometimes it’s easier to write the intro last!)
Do a final proofread and edit
Keep it simple in a Word doc or design it on Canva to make it more engaging (you can even add links!)
Set up a launch schedule

An ebook is an awesome passive income idea for young adults because it’s relatively easy to create, and once you’ve set up your marketing, you can sell it on autopilot!

So, are you ready to turn your knowledge into cash? Download my Digital Product Guide and take the first step toward creating your ebook today!

Idea #4: Start a Blog and Monetize It

Another passive income idea for young adults is to start a blog! Sure, it takes some upfront work, but once it’s rolling, it’s one of the most rewarding passive income streams out there. I’m not going to give you every tiny detail in this post (maybe in a future one!), so let’s call this a 5,000-foot overview of getting started.

Did you know that “the median monthly income of food bloggers is $9,169”? [Source.] That’s huge! And if food isn’t your thing, personal finance is another top-earning niche.

So how do bloggers earn money? Well there are a variety of popular methods including: ads, affiliate marketing, sponsored content, freelancer services, your own digital products, and more. Your blog posts can keep making money long after you hit publish. That’s why blogging is on my passive income list – it works for you, even when you’re not actively working on it!

Here’s a quick breakdown of the main steps to start a blog and monetize it:

Pick a profitable niche you LOVE: Choose something you’re passionate about and won’t get tired of writing about for years to come.
Set up your blog domain and hosting: I personally use Bluehost because it’s super user-friendly, and their live chat support is a lifesaver for tech-challenged people like me! But there are other great options out there too. I highly recommend using WordPress.org to create your blog – it’s hands down the best platform for bloggers who want to monetize.
Create an About Page and Contact Page: Share what readers will get from your blog and how they can connect with you for collaborations or just to say hi.
Write your first blog post: Don’t stress about being perfect. Just focus on writing an engaging, helpful post. The only way to improve is to keep publishing.
Share your blog with the world: Start promoting wherever you’re active online and join relevant groups to grow your reach.

Remember, blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. Be open to learning best practices, SEO, and refining your writing skills. Building a blog that becomes a reliable source of income takes time and effort, and sadly, a lot of people quit before they see results. Don’t be that person! Keep at it, and in a few years, you’ll be amazed at what you’ve built!

Ready to Start Building Your Own Passive Income?

Creating passive income takes effort upfront, but the long-term rewards are absolutely worth it. Whether you’re thinking about starting with a simple ebook, launching an online course, or diving into the world of blogging, the key is to take that first step and keep going, even when it feels overwhelming.

You don’t need to be an expert to start—you just need to be one step ahead of someone else. Remember, each of these passive income ideas can fit into your life as it is now. Whether you’re balancing a family, work, or school, you can build something that eventually works for you, even while you sleep!

So, here’s my challenge for you: Pick one idea that resonates the most and take action today. Start brainstorming your ebook, outlining your course, or setting up your blog. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and you don’t have to know all the answers right now. Just get started.

In a few months or years, you’ll look back and be so glad you did.

What’s next?

Download my Digital Product Guide to get more ideas and tips for starting your passive income journey.
Or, if you’re ready to dive into blogging, check out my guide to setting up your blog and making your first post.

Remember, the freedom and flexibility that come with passive income are achievable, and you deserve to create that for yourself!