Passive Income 2024 Recap

Hey, it's your passive income bestie.

Hey, it's your passive income bestie. I have spent the past few days mourning the loss of a friend, and I quite honestly needed a reason to get my shit together and hyperfocus on something nerdy.

So, without further ado, here we are, full recap for the year.

I'm not going to repeat myself too much, so if this is the first you hear on this topic, OH DARLING. You can catch up by reading THIS, THIS and maybe THIS first.

Oh and no, I didn't make a single sale on Behance. I did not forget – it was just not even worth talking about LOL

So, is passive income still my thing, and is it finally paying my bills? It’s an ISH that’s slowly turning into a YES.

Let's look at all the areas I've placed my claws on: Fonts, Prints and Assets. Not everything went online at the same time, but the intent is to answer some question, not to set a scientific study.
ALSO, the intention is NOT to brag. I live in London, so the amount of money one has to make and spend is ridiculous, these numbers are really not that much if you live in any major city. THOUGH, is it still a lot for little old me – from a very humble background and dreaming of a creative future? YES IT IS!

01. Fonts

Yeah no – I know I can't QUITE call this passive, each one takes hundreds if not thousands of hours to make, but for sake of argument, once it's done it's done and so in true girl math, the money I make from fonts is free money. I don't respect myself enough quite yet to keep a tab of working hours. Also – in all honesty – this is my current obsession, so no hour spent on it feels like work.

Vendor Commercial License Sales (Net) 3 Typefaces
£2945.00

Vendor Custom Licenses (Net)
£2250.00

Proprietary Site License Sales (After Stripe, Vercel & Fondue Fees) 7-10 Typefaces
£16602.05

In terms of Vendors, I’m currently active only on Typedepartment, and their commission rate is at par with similar marketplaces (I’m currently at 70%). I have a release in the pipeline with Gradient Type (at the same rate if I remember correctly) and another one with The Designers Foundry (at 50/50, but it’s a really great foundry and they’re NZ based so good to open to a new area).
For sake of transparency, I have to mention that I also spent some £5-6k in assistants, web devs, marketing, assets, professional services and whatnot for these fonts. But that’s a choice and not really a necessity, so do what you want with this information – I did not count it in.

02. Prints

This is a bit of a new thing for me, I don't even think I have the audience for it tbh. I did sell some prints during lockdown, but I have the suspicion it was more a matter of people wanting to support their fave tattoo artist (lol yes i have another secret career), so I’m not keeping that into consideration.

I was with Drool for the longest time, but I've broken up with them as I don't love the way they communicate (or don’t) with their sellers. I don't think they should make me a priority – don’t get me wrong, I'm not even a best seller – but being one of their first sellers, I want answers to my emails within a business month. I have recently joined Good Mood (I honestly love their platform and the way they care for their artists the most) and East Side Studio.

The reason I love GM (apart from the fact that for once maybe it is my audience?) is that they seem to actually give a shit. As soon as I joined, I was invited into a call with the founder to have a discussion about what I liked, what I expected, any suggestions I might have for the platform etc.

AND I think they absorb special sales on their end, which allows artists to be part of seasonal promotions without accepting the loss of having to absorb discounts we don't have much control on. Good Good, Good Mood!

Drool
£319.87

East Side Studio (Joined Oct)
£27.00

Good Mood (Joined Sept)
£581.71

03. Assets

If you read THIS you know this is NOT my money maker, but it is also one of the areas I put the least amount of love care and marketing on – so it’s worth including.

One thing I added to the infamous list of poorly selling stuff was joining The Brand Identity Store with a set of icons. I am very keen to add some more, and to also add some assets to the new Typedepartment mockup section.

Gumroad
£609.20

TBI (Joined July)
£519.35

Et Voilà. END OF THE RECAP.

If you got here, I hope you’re now thinking of how to make some extra passive income with the skills you have!

In all honesty, I’m really happy with these numbers, stoked actually. Proud of myself even. I am on a £17640/year contract so technically, passive income has paid my rent this year.

F U C K I N G M A D.

If you have an idea, do it. If you have an idea, explore it. If you have an idea, sell it. Worst scenario? It goes bad. What do you really have to lose? Look silly online! Promote your work. No one, and I swear no one, cares if you look a bit deluded – and they’ll surely care even less when it starts paying off.

XO
G