One realization that I’ve come to (and you can probably relate) is the fact that we only have so much energy each day. In the service industry, burnout is real. One common talking point I get from mental health professionals is that they “just don’t have time” to do much outside of treating their clients, and it is slowly wearing them out.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could make money without trading your time? Passive income does just that. In this blog, I am going to highlight the benefits of passive income as well as passive income ideas therapists and other mental health professionals can do.
What is Passive Income?
Passive income is defined by Investopedia.com as as “earnings derived from a rental property, limited partnership, or other enterprise in which a person is not actively involved.” The key phrase here is “not actively involved.” Sounds great right? Instead of trading your service hours for money via client work, passive income is working for you while you sleep, eat, and even go on vacation.
Why a Therapist Should Pursue Passive Income
In this section, I will highlight why a therapist should pursue passive income, or the benefits of passive income. Passive income is incredible because:
- It works for you when you’re not working
- It can pay part of or all the bills (and even more if your strategy is established)
- Once built, your passive income strategies will continue working for you
- It can help reinforce your expertise and credibility
- It can sure up slow times in your private practice
- Once you create these digital strategies, you don’t need to recreate them again
Passive Income Ideas for Therapists
Without further ado, let’s review 12 passive income ideas therapists can do to make money in their sleep. You can create and sell/monetize:
1. Books and E-Books
Writing a book and selling both physical copies (on sites like Amazon with fulfillment) and also selling E-Books on your own website can be a great passive income idea. These books and E-Books can be sold to clients or other therapists.
2. WorkBooks and other Digital Products
Workbooks of material that you already use to treat clients can be a great sell, whether on other sites like Amazon or on your own website. The great thing about selling digital products is that:
- You never run out of inventory
- You never have to ship (simple downloads after purchase)
- You don’t have to spend any time shipping them out
- Many digital sellers have “no-return” policies due to the nature a buyer instantly receiving their order online
TherapyByPro sells digital products in the form of therapy practice forms and worksheets such as our DBT worksheets and new counseling practice forms.
3. Courses Online
Creating online courses is a great passive income idea. You could create e-courses and sell them to other mental health professionals and/or create them to sell to clients. Think about all of the possibilities! Here are a few ideas.
Create courses for clients on specific outcomes
- How to Practice Mindfulness
- Overcoming Anxiety
- Mental Health Hacks to Tackle ________
Create courses for other mental health professionals
You can create courses for other mental health professionals, especially if you’re a certified trainer for other mental health pros.
4. Meditations
I have a client that is creating meditations and is planning to sell them for specific categories, such as breath work and mindfulness. You could create a bundle of meditations for an entire month and sell access to these meditations to clients.
5. Paid Memberships to a Membership Website
Paid membership websites are great for bringing in passive income. Psychology Today is an example of a membership website, where you pay for the ability to show up on their website for clients. TherapyByPro is not yet a paid membership site, as the strategy to get to the point of being able to sell memberships requires quite a bit of work (like many of these strategies do). However, being able to charge a small amount for memberships to your website automatically is a dream passive income idea! The key is value, you need to offer a lot of it. Think about Amazon Prime and how much value they offer you to pay a small amount each month.
6. Branded Merchandise
What physical items could you sell that go in tandem with your brand or perhaps that could be sold on a new branded website? Do you strongly believe in certain products that relate to your therapy practice? Some branded merchandise that could align with your practice include:
- Aromatherapy candles for anxiety
- Soap with anxiety reliever
- Coffee cups with great quotes or truths on them
- T-shirts with great quotes or truths on them
What branded merchandise could you sell that aligns with your brand?
7. Handmade Creations
Handmade creations are a great way to make passive income, especially if you have someone else (like a son or daughter) helping you make them! Etsy is a fantastic marketplace to sell handmade creations, and there are quite a few therapists on there selling their creations.
8. Subletting Your Office
Renting your space (whether your office or a personal home) is one of the most common ways people try to make passive income. The idea is super strait forward, whereas the rest of these ideas not nearly as many people are taking on.
9. Paid Sponsors on Social Media
Do you have a lot of followers on Instagram or other social channels? Paid sponsorships on social media are a great way you could make extra passive income. However, you need to tread sponsorships lightly so that you don’t tarnish your therapy brand. But perhaps you strongly believe in a product that can genuinely help your clients? This could be a great opportunity to post on behalf of a brand (and make money for it!).
10. YouTube Videos
Have you ever wondered why people or brands post new YouTube videos frequently? Ad Revenue is a massive strategy you could incorporate if you have enough viewers. If you are not camera-shy and ambitious to create a YouTube monetization strategy, there is a tangible path to doing so.
11. Ad Revenue from A Website
One of my favorite items on this list (and something TherapyByPro does) is selling ad space on our website through Google, like this ad:
By clicking on an ad on a website, that website gets money by allowing Google to place ads on their site from other companies who are paying Google to get in front of certain people. By building a niche website, you can attract tons of visitors, some of whom will click on ads. The idea is that you want to keep adding new great content to your site to bring in more and more visitors. This will increase your ad revenue! The keys to success with ad revenue are:
- Consistency: Create new content regularly
- Effort: Don’t give up, keep going (it takes months and years)
- Create a niche website (different from your therapy site), and keep your content on point to target that audience
Your future self in 18 months will thank you.
12. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a neat little way to make passive income. If you have a website (like the one described in #11 above), you can place convenient links on your website to sell other people’s products online. This process can earn you a percentage of the sale. Amazon and other big retailers have affiliate programs you can enroll in. For example, if you write a blog about “12 candles for anxiety”, you could link to 12 different products on Amazon via affiliate links, and make money if any of your visitors purchase one of those candles.
How to Build a Passive Income Strategy
Building a stream of passive income for therapists is not a cut and dry answer. While there can be some overlap in the above strategies, each strategy is unique and requires different things to become successful. I offer marketing consulting that can help you build a strategy for getting passive income. Whether you need to talk through ideas or talk about the “how-to” build and succeed in a strategy, I can help!
Conclusion on How to Make More Money as a Therapist
Thank you for reading my blog on “Creating Passive Income: How to Make More Money as a Therapist.” I hope this sparked some ideas that you can take and build out. Passive income is truly a fascinating concept that few people know how to successful accomplish. If you’re motivated, determined, and hard-working, I believe you can make passive income.
TherapyByPro is an online mental health directory that connects mental health pros with clients in need. If you’re a mental health professional, you can Join our community and add your practice listing here. We have assessments, practice forms, and worksheet templates mental health professionals can use to streamline their practice. View all of our mental health forms, worksheet, and assessments here.
Author: Anthony Bart
Anthony Bart is a huge mental health advocate. He has primarily positioned his marketing expertise to work with mental health professionals so that they can help as many patients as possible. He is currently the owner of BartX, TherapistX, and TherapyByPro.
