Trying a different kind of passive income: turning the spreadsheets I already make into digital products
Trying a different kind of passive income: turning the spreadsheets I already make into digital products
I’m at the very beginning of this experiment, so I figured this might be a good place to document it.
My 11-year-old son and I wanted to start going through the Marvel movies together before Avengers: Doomsday. I wanted a simple way to see what we had watched, what was left, rate the movies separately, and watch our progress fill up.
In my actual professional life, I build and use spreadsheets for all kinds of things, so instead of searching for one, I just made it myself.
Then I thought… why not clean it up and see if someone else would pay a few bucks for it?
I’ve tried selling my artwork before, but for me the jump from making art → preparing prints → inventory/production/shipping always started feeling like another job. A spreadsheet is different. I already know how to make them, the product is digital, and once the file and delivery system are built, theoretically there isn’t much fulfillment involved.
So I opened my old Etsy shop back up and listed a couple interactive movie trackers. I have absolutely no idea yet whether this will generate $5, $500, or nothing at all 😂
But that’s kind of why I’m interested in trying it.
The question I’m testing is basically:
Can I turn things I already know how to make for myself into small digital products that continue selling without much additional work?
If anyone is curious about the spreadsheet itself, I’m happy to share what I made / how I set it up, assuming that’s allowed here.
Either way, I’ll come back in a few months and give an update on how “passive” this actually ended up being — including whether it made any money and how much maintenance/marketing it really required.