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I feel like I’ve tried almost every side hustle and passive income idea on the internet. I’ve taken surveys, freelanced, and done consulting. I genuinely love the idea of making money online, but there’s something especially appealing about passive income.
I’m talking about the kind of income where you create something once and get paid over and over again for it. It’s a great feeling when you’re checking out at Trader Joe’s and get a notification that one of your books sold or someone enrolled in a pre-recorded class you filmed years ago.
In this blog post, I’m going to go into detail about how I’ve made passive income online since 2019.
Online Teaching
My largest source of income online has been teaching. I started teaching part-time in 2016 through Wyzant, and in September 2019 I began teaching on a platform called Outschool. At the time, my kids were still very young, so I needed something flexible.
A lot of my income initially came from live classes, but in 2020 I started creating pre-recorded classes. My classes typically range from $25 to $60. I spend a few hours planning and recording each one, and once they’re posted, they continue to get sign-ups each month.
My classes aren’t high-production or equipment-heavy. I teach drawing, so I usually screen record and do minimal editing. I also like to include printables with my classes, but those are created once and added to the classroom for students to use anytime.
I’m currently in the process of shifting toward more passive teaching hours than live ones, and the income from pre-recorded classes is enough to cover groceries or pay a bill.
Pre-recorded teaching is very different from live teaching. When you’re teaching live, you can make a mistake, correct it, and move on. With pre-recorded content, there’s always the urge to re-record and make everything perfect. However, as long as you’re clear and providing value, you will most likely receive great reviews. You will have to answer student or parent questions sometimes but these is a very simple setup. The hardest part is recording.
If you’re considering this path, choose a topic that is in demand and that you could talk about for hours.
Digital Products
The next passive income idea is digital products. Online courses are technically digital products, but in this section I’m going to focus on the ones I’ve sold outside of Outschool.
I actually started selling digital products before joining Outschool—I believe around 2017. I began with printable wall decor and digitally drawn portraits (although portraits are more of an income stream than truly passive). I also created digital fashion illustrations in a variety of skin tones and sold them as PNG files to people in the crafting world to use on T-shirts, tote bags, and more.
At the time, I definitely underpriced my work. I would sell packs for $1–$5 because I was just so excited to be making money outside of a traditional 9-to-5 job.
Since then, I’ve expanded into selling ebooks, guides, digital stickers, planners, and Procreate brushes. These days, I sell many of my digital products through Gumroad.
This is one of the easiest passive income streams to start. You create a guide or ebook once, upload it, and it can continue to sell over time. It’s very much a “create it once and you’re done” model, although you may still have occasional customer service issues.
Self Publishing
This is one of my favorite passive income ideas. I’ve always loved books, and I’ve been trying to create them for a long time. Back in 2009, I self-published my first book—a fall-themed children’s coloring book. Looking back, I think I was a little ahead of my time. Self-publishing did exist, but I didn’t know many entrepreneurs, and I knew even fewer publishers.
I remember asking one entrepreneur I knew what she thought of my book. She told me, “No one is going to pay $16 for a coloring book”—which we now know isn’t true. The price was $16 because of printing costs, and I still wanted to make some profit. Unfortunately, she didn’t offer any advice on how to improve or position it for success. That experience taught me an important lesson: your tribe matters.
After that, I stepped away from self-publishing for a while. Then in 2017, I felt the urge to try again. At the time, I didn’t yet have digital drawing skills, so I used public domain images from Pixabay to piece together a creepy, Hunger Games–inspired book involving toys. Honestly… it was creepy. Definitely stayed unpublished—lol.
Over time, I built my confidence and returned to self-publishing with a clearer direction. I started creating fashion drawing books and educational resources to support homeschooling my children. At one point, I even made a matcha journal—because I love matcha that much.
All of my books are published through Amazon KDP. If you want to get started with self-publishing, you really just need a solid book concept, a Canva account, and access to KDP. I recently had my highest royalty month in February 2026, which reminded me that consistency really pays off.
I do plan to create more books, but now I’m focusing on fewer niches. This kind of income stream takes time to build, but if you dedicate even an hour a day, you could have a journal or activity book published within a few weeks.
Blogging
This is my new passive income stream. I am not new to blogging, but I am new to setting it up correctly to actually earn money from it.
I started a blog while living in Houston. At the time, I had a job that I hated, and I needed a creative outlet. I began creating cute and fun snacks and lunches for my kids—and surprisingly, that blog post is still getting views today.
I’ve purchased domain names and hosting before. I even ordered cute WordPress themes from Etsy, but everything always felt so clunky… or maybe it just wasn’t the right time yet.
This time feels different. I want a cute and cozy income stream that allows me to show more of myself and my creative side—and I finally feel like I’m building it the right way.
One thing that made a huge difference for me this time around was using Bluehost. It made the entire setup process feel simple and approachable, especially compared to my past experiences. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the technical side, I was able to focus on what I actually enjoy—creating and sharing.
Bluehost made it so easy to get my blog up and running. All I had to do was log in and upload my blog posts, and everything came together smoothly. I also loved how easy it was to connect my site to Google AdSense, which is a big step toward turning this into a real income stream.
If you’re someone who has been wanting to start a blog but feels intimidated by the setup process, I definitely recommend giving Bluehost a try. It’s beginner-friendly, and it takes a lot of the guesswork out of getting started.
I plan to build this slowly and intentionally, just like my KDP income stream—learning as I go and growing over time.
I’ll be sharing all of my creative tips, tricks, recipes, crafts, and more right here on the Paper Dahl Society blog.
If you’re interested in starting your own blog, you can check out Bluehost here
Building passive income streams doesn’t have to be tricky or expensive. You can start with what you have.
I started making digital products and teaching online with just an iPhone. I didn’t invest in an iPad until a few months after I began.
You can teach, write a book, create a digital product, or start a blog about anything you’re passionate about or skilled in. Just don’t feel overwhelmed or think you need to have everything in place before you start, or that the scenario has to be perfect. I promise—that perfect moment will never come.
You just have to make a plan (the simpler, the better) and commit to executing it each day, even if it’s only for 20 or 30 minutes. The time will pass anyway.
By the time next year rolls around, you could have a nice chunk of income coming in on autopilot.
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