How to Generate a Passive Income as a Consultant

Many professionals have a blog as one of their passive income streams, including consultants. There are several ways of earning an easy passive income as a blogger. First, you could sign up with Google AdSense and feature advertisements on your blog. Your income will depend on the number of clicks the ads get. That’s why this option is suitable if you already have a lot of traffic on your blog. If not, then there are other ways of making money through blogging.

There are blogging platforms such as Medium that offer you entry into their partner program. As a partner, you can publish as many blogs as you want and your income will depend on the time readers spend on your blog. This means that if your blog is more engaging and maintains a user’s attention for longer, you will earn more dollars.

Remember, building an audience for your blog may take time. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. But once your blog takes off, it could become one of your favorite passive income streams.

As a consultant, it is highly likely that you have an abundance of knowledge and experience in your field. And you know what? There are many people out there who may want to gain that knowledge. Creating and selling courses is the best way to turn knowledge into cash. For example, if you’re a consultant who has worked in a Fortune 500 company for 10 years, you could create an online course to teach young graduates how to prepare for interviews at Fortune 500 companies. You could also create courses on other consulting-related topics - given that there is a target audience for it.

So much on creating a course. Now, let’s talk about how to sell courses. Well, there are platforms like Skillshare that offer you a royalty which is based on the number of hours students watch your course on their platform. You could also sell your course on Udemy for a one-time fee. However, Udemy has the right to change the price of your course sometimes, for example, during the Boxing Day sale. If you want complete control over your course and income, you should use platforms like Teachable.

Selling courses could offer you easy passive income because you don’t have to create them quite often. Even if you create a couple of courses every year, and sell them for $100 to 1000 students online, then that’s an easy $100,000 per year.

Essentially, solving complex problems and offering viable solutions is how consultants make money. As mentioned before, there are always several young graduates with a lot of energy and enthusiasm who want to become a consultant. Of course, you can train these aspirants through online courses, but you could also conduct personal coaching sessions in an actual physical location.

Keeping the social restrictions in mind, you could arrange private classes on the weekend for an hourly rate. This way, you can work on your client projects during the week and train youngsters to become successful consultants like yourself once a week. Feel free to use your blog, YouTube channel, social media, or any other platform to advertise your private coaching sessions.

5. Sell eBooks

Writing and selling eBooks not only creates a passive income stream, but also helps you position yourself as an expert in the industry. Almost every famous expert in any field has published at least one book. Gordon Ramsay has published several cookbooks, Dr. Phil has penned quite a few books on psychology, and James McKinsey, the founder of McKinsey & Company, has written books on accounting.

Even if you don’t generate much income directly by selling books on Amazon (or any other platform), it may help you indirectly when potential clients read your book, approach you, and then ultimately hire you for a highly paid project. Remember, establishing yourself as an author may take a lot of time. But just like blogging, writing books is a marathon, and it also offers benefits that you may not even notice.

In conclusion, as a consultant, you can be a bit creative when it comes to generating passive income and try your hands on blogging, posting videos, and coaching. You should also write at least one book on consulting - this shouldn’t be difficult if you’re an experienced consultant. Selling books may take a while but they are also a great way to impress your current and potential clients.