Saturday Lazy Creativity Issue #02
Saturday Lazy Creativity Issue #02
Hi there, good morning! Here is one short tip to developing a creativity habit.
This post takes under 5 minutes to read.
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Welcome to Saturday! In the second edition of the Lazy Creativity Newsletter I will talk about four different ideas for making a creative side hustle to earn a few extra bucks on the side. These ideas are good to make some money on the side but are also good for getting your work and brand out there. With inflation so high, who wouldn't want a little extra spending money?
These are four of my favorite ways to rake in a few extra dollars here and there while building a creative brand and sharpening your skills.
1. Become a blogger on Medium
If you're a writer or have ideas you'd like to share out, Medium has a partner program that will pay you per referral you make or for how long someone spends reading your work. There are some minimum requirements to become a partner so this will take a little bit of time developing an audience. You have to have at least 100 followers and post semi-regularly to become and maintain a partnership.
Medium is a great way to get your ideas out there (for free!) and build a following. I've been looking into Medium as a motivator for my own writing! You can also sync your email list if you have one already. After you create a post you tag it with up to 5 tags (e.g. creativity, productivity, etc.) and people who have liked those topics can see your post.
2. Create an Etsy shop to sell your work
Etsy has been around for a while. Chances are you probably know someone on Etsy already who is selling their jewelry, prints, or wood carvings. Etsy is free to join pretty easy to set up. If you have a body of work you'd like to sell, Etsy can help you find your niche market of buyers. It's pretty easy to set up and there is a support system in place to help with payment, billing, and more. Most importantly, people trust Etsy because it's been established as a reputable site that generally has quality creators on it.
From a UX perspective, the site is great and is easy to navigate. There are some customizable options when you build your shop. Overall, Etsy makes it easy to find and connect with your audience. There is a supportive community of creators who support each other. Once you have an Etsy shop you can embed it into many website creator sites such as Squarespace and Wordpress.
3. Develop a Digital Course
Okay, I haven't gotten to this one yet, but it's high up there on my to-do list. Creating a digital course is an effective way to build your brand and add credibility to your work. Plus, people are willing to pay a lot to bolster skills, especially creative skills which can be challenging to self-learn.
Creating a course takes time and some initial setup, but once created it requires very little maintenance. It becomes passive income that puts in the work while you sleep or focus on your actual creating. My advice for building a course is to find a niche. Once you have a niche, find something they are willing to pay for (versus a quick google search).
Some reputable sites for building a course include:
- Wix
These are just a few I know of that are well-received. If you have a skill to share, what better way to do it than through an online course?
4. Begin drop shipping your work and designs
Drop shipping is a service that handles all the processing, payment, and shipping of products for you. You create the designs, set the price, and these services do the hard work for a modest fee. If you have designs that would translate well to merchandise such as clothing, stickers, notebooks, etc. then drop shipping might be worth looking into, especially if you don't want to make trips to the post office every time you have an order to send out.
I've used a few before, but my favorites are:
- Printful (which is what I currently use for my own merchandise)
- Printify
- Shopify
These sites can be integrated into your website for ease of access. The downside here is the small margin of profit you stand to make, depending on what you sell and how much you're open to marking it up for.
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back next Saturday with the next Lazy Creativity Issue. If this was helpful, please consider passing it along to someone else.
Find me on LinkedIn: Kyle Bernier, MAATC | LinkedIn or on Instagram: @Kyle_Bernier. I sometimes make pretty things.
Cheers,
Kyle