Canadians today live in a volatile time. Not only is our health and safety under duress, but a huge impact has been on our finances. This is why more than ever we continue to look to the side hustle.
But there is a huge difference between a side hustle and passive income. Let’s call a side hustle what it is: a part-time job. These days, instead of that part-time job being something like cleaning houses or working at a drive-thru, you’re perhaps doing a passion project. That’s great if it’s what you want! But it’s not the only option.
Instead, what you may want instead (or in addition) is passive income. This comes from creating a revenue stream that keeps paying when you sleep, eat, travel — whatever! And luckily, I have one that is the easiest, cheapest, and, in my opinion, best passive-income stream you can create today.
Self-publish
That’s right, I’m asking you to make a book. Now, hold on! I’m not asking you to write the next Jane Austen novel. In fact, I’m not asking you to write at all. A great way to create cash flow is self-publishing notebooks online. All it takes is a nice cover page and about 100 pages of lined paper. That’s it.
Why a notebook? The process to make one (which I’ll walk you through) is simple, fast, and free! All you have to do is then upload the book to Amazon’s Kindle direct-publishing program. And look for yourself. There are hundreds, if not thousands of notebooks out there, each going for as little as $7 all the way to $30! You could even create blank pages and create a doodle book for kids — heck, even for adults. It’s that easy.
The process
To get started, you’ll need a design program. Something like Canva is free and easy to use. In fact, you can simply search “book cover” and get the layout you need to get started. Then get creative! You’ll need a front cover and back cover design. If you’re not the creative type, try just choosing a colour for the front and back and adding “Notebook” in some cursive font. Seriously; it’s that simple.
After creating your book cover, make sure to add about 100 pages of interior pages before adding your back cover. This could be blank, lined, graphed, whatever you want. But the key is these are no- or low-content book. So, it’s super simple!
Now, you’ll simple go to the Kindle Direct Publishing page to create an account. If you already have an Amazon account, simply log in. Then select “paperback” project from the left and start filling out the information and uploading your work.
The cost
Once you’ve uploaded your interior pages, cover, and back cover, you’re ready to go to pricing. Now, don’t panic! This simply comes out of whatever you end up charging for your book. Since it’s your first one, make sure to keep it on the low side. Charges usually are around $2.85 for a matte paperback book, and that’s only taken from your book sales from every sale you make.
Royalties for each book are likely to be in the single digits. However, even if you’re making about $5 per book, that’s all from about 30 minutes of work! And that can add up. Let’s say you sell 100 in a year — that’s $500 right there! And that’s just from your first book. If you make a bunch of these, all with $5 in royalties, it can easily add up. Let’s say you end up making 200 cheap books, that’s six figures by selling just 100 per year! And the more you publish, the better you’ll get at it, and the more you can charge.
Bottom line
Passive income isn’t supposed to be hard work, and all this takes about 30 minutes to make a paperback. This is an amazing way to create simple, fast, and free income that will literally last you for the rest of your life!
