Extra Earnings: Ways For Freelancers To Earn Residual Income

June 22, 2010 in Freelance Tips and Tricks - Viewed 152 times.

Freelance work can be a pretty scary thing when times are tough or you hit a lull. It’s important to put effort into work that will be there even when the clients aren’t. Though there isn’t a secret sauce that guarantees income, there are a few approaches worth looking into for building your residual income.

ThemeForest

One of the Envato networks great contributions to the web, ThemeForest, is serving as a safety net (and even a primary source of income) to many freelance designers and developers. Different than other template/theme sites in its pricing model (and quality of offerings), ThemeForest provides a great commission-based payment model that grows as you do. Because they do not allow just any theme to be uploaded and sold, they’ve begun to establish a fairly solid reputation for delivering quality themes at affordable prices. Consider designing some work and publishing it on ThemeForest – who knows… some of these designers are making thousands each month off of their work, maybe you could too!

Web Hosting

This may seem like a no brainer to some… but may scare others. Web hosting can be a great source of residual income for any web designer or developer. Many hosting companies offer managed reseller packages or affiliate programs that allow you to offer your clients hosting accounts – while taking in a piece or all of their monthly payment. It’s important to do your homework to find a reputable provider that will be there in the event something goes wrong. Start by calling the hosting company, and seeing if a human picks up. I found that about 85% of them don’t, the next 5% do… but I can’t understand them, and the remaining 10% are worth working with. Personally, I recommend LiquidWeb.

Blogging

Blogging can be a great source of residual income. Almost every day, freelancers stumble across information they wish they’d already known… why not share this? By simply going through your day and jotting down those “If only I had known…” moments, you can come up with a plethora of blog topics. Take some time out of your morning (it only takes around 30 minutes) and just write. Sure, it will seem a little lonely at first, but eventually (assuming you can spell), you’ll acquire a little following. Not only will this give you and your business a bit more exposure, but you can also begin selling ad space. Sure, the competition is tough and there are quite a few blogs out there… but why let that get you down? All it takes is one article to grab the attention of the masses… stay positive, and keep trying.