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Digital subscription services you can sell to make passive income money
Looking for passive income or extra income ideas? Digital services thru subscriptions or memberships can provide both.
Digital services come in various forms, in video, audio and written content. This content can be instructional or in the form of entertainment.
Digital subscriptions can generate cash now thru upfront payments. Also, thru passive income streams into the future.
Many independent artists, graphic designers, freelancers and entrepreneurs create instructional content.
This content is sold to internet traffic, social media followers or to an email list.
Subscription services are membership services that a customer pays for monthly or in other time frequency.
The payments are scheduled as recurring until the customer cancels the service, therefore creating passive income.
If you have a strong skill or talent, you can monetize it by providing a digital product or service using subscriptions.
The benefits of making money with subscription services include; convenience, easy to forecast revenues and opportunity to build relationships with the customers.
You’ll have to select the platform for creating and selling your digital subscription services or products. Now a days a platform can be an e-commerce site, an App or your own digital store.
Who is this post for?
This post will help you if you’re looking at the digital web to:
- Make money online with digital services/products
- Find unique ways to work from home
- Make extra income at home
- Create passive income flows
- Monetize an email list
- Monetize social media followers
- Monetize internet traffic
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Popular Payment Systems for Subscriptions Pay
Here are three of the top service providers to set up the recurring payments for your subscriptions. You’ll have to look into these for the pros and cons of using for your particular subscriptions business.
- Stripe
- MemberMouse
- Braintree
5 Digital Subscription Services to Make Passive Income
Teaching Subscription Services
Demand for online teaching and learning is accelerating, for both adults and children. This teaching can take different formats.
Mentoring a group of students for a fee (generally monthly or weekly) as a group or one-on-one is a way to set up a teaching subscription or membership site.
Teaching sites can include; online courses, chats, video lessons, downloads, worksheets and other teaching tools.
Some of the teaching materials offer the opportunity for passive income when you sell the same download over and over.
The student that will pay for a teaching/mentoring service is a do-it-yourselfer who wants to acquire mainly beginner skills.
A teaching membership site may be for you if:
- You have a strong background on the subject you’ll teach
- You can write or develop lessons that will add value to the students experience
- You can teach in an easy manner for beginners to take actions
Online Teaching Ideas
If you have an expertise on any subject you can also teach it if you’re willing to develop material and be available for your students. These are some ideas for a teaching/mentoring members site on the digital web.
Digital Planners Subscriptions Services
Planners are very popular, both in print and digital formats. Photoshop and Adobe Illustrators are two apps that are widely used to design digital planners.
People interested in planners are looking for tools to save time and be more efficient.
You can offer different pre built styles and customizations in digital planners. Digital stickers and stationaries can also be sold with planners.
This product can be monetized by selling for payment now and by offering subscription services.
Parents and students who are hyper-organized and creative are big on Instagram and Pinterest communities.
They are the customers who buy digital planners and paper planners to make lists and color code their daily activities and notes. These are large communities on social media and internet.
Examples of digital planners – here are some ideas
- Bullet Journal
- Daily Planners
- Budgets
- Meal planners
- Fitness planners
- Financial planners
Here, Digitally Wild explains how to easily design digital planners that you can sell on your store or offer for subscriptions.
Hobby Community Subscriptions
A hobby community is a forum style website to gather people with the same interests. Communities may offer subscription to services.
These communities also offer forums and discussions where people talk about interests, they can complain and worship their heroes or brands etc.
You may need to be or hire a community moderator to maintain the forum.
Communities can be monetized with ads and services/products subscriptions.
A popular way to generate traffic and income is implementing a Facebook community group link to a website for the same community.
Examples of hobbies communities
- Martial Arts – Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is an example of a successful hobby community around martial arts.
- Dancing communities
- Autocross
- Motorcross
- Hiking and Backpacking
- Yoga
- Mommies communities
- Political communities
- Pet communities
- Photography communities
- Crafters communities
- Motivational communities
Content Subscription Service – Blog, newsletter, videos
Content subscription services provide written content via members only blog posts or thru exclusive newsletters. Also, you can do video lessons, how to and instructional materials for subscribers or premium members.
Practically any skill and knowledge base can be monetized using these content forms.
For a guide on setting up your own blog easily, see this post. How to start your own personal or professional blog.
Photography Services Subscriptions
Photograph Recurring Events
If you’re a skilled photographer and willing to look at a new business model, subscriptions may generate good income for you annually.
This model won’t work for all type of photography. It can work with clients that have recurring annual needs. Series of events needing coverage within a year or two.
Related content
- 15 Ways to make cash with photography
- 5 Ways to make passive income with a photography blog
Wedding photographers can set up subscriptions service for wedding, baby pictures and other events. For example, the customer can sign up for a one year or 2 years plan with recurring scheduled payments.
Create a Photo App
Photo apps for iPhone and smart phones are easy to use tools to make ordinary photos look more professional.
Apps that make editing and capturing shots more intuitive and with more details are very popular.
You can develop a photo app even if you don’t have coding skills. The actual development can be outsourced at an affordable price.
Photo apps can be sold for upfront cash and on subscriptions. Subscriptions let the customer opt for app enhancements and upgrades.
The ideal customer for photo app is an amateur photographer enjoying the hobby or a beginner wanting to sell photos as stock.
Final Thoughts
These are five ideas to make money and passive income with a flexible subscriptions based model.
Some services like digital printing and teaching can be monetized both as a pay now option and as a subscription business.
Some things to consider before going forward with your business are; the type of platform for delivery, the payment system, type of content, product or service to offer.
5 Digital Subscription Services to Make Passive Income
- Teaching Subscriptions
- Digital Planners
- Hobby Community
- Content Subscriptions
- Photography subscriptions
