AI Hustle Lab #5: How Building Digital Assets Now Can Set You Up for Life

Starting and running a traditional business can be hard and not everyone can handle it.

There’s so much to deal with – employees, meetings, legal structures, regulations, inventory, customers, marketing…the list goes on and on.

Who needs all that stress?

Instead of going the traditional route, have you considered creating digital assets to make money online?

Let me tell you, as someone who’s been there, creating digital products is so much better and easier than slogging away with a typical business.

I used to have my own service-based company. While it was successful, it required a ton of time and energy to keep running smoothly. I always felt anxious and overwhelmed trying to manage everything and everyone.

Creating Digital Assets Is Way Better Than Business

These days, I make a full-time income through my digital assets. And I have way more free time and flexibility.

Trust me, you do not want to deal with all the headaches a regular business brings.

Let’s look at some of the ways creating digital assets beats starting a business.

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You Don’t Need Employees

Employees can be hard to deal with. You have to recruit, interview, hire, train, manage, and pay them. If there are problems, you have to resolve workplace conflicts and disputes.

With digital assets, it’s just you! You get to control your time and workload. No more worrying about motivating someone or making sure they complete tasks properly.

No More Meetings

Meetings take up so much valuable time. As a business owner, you have to attend meetings with clients, employees, vendors, partners, investors, accountants, lawyers…the list is endless.

Most meetings feel like a waste of time. Creating digital products lets you skip the pointless meetings so you can focus on work you enjoy.

No Need to Form a Legal Business Entity

Starting a legitimate business requires forming some kind of legal structure like an LLC or corporation. There’s often complex paperwork, fees, accounting requirements, and regulatory hoops to jump through.

Selling digital downloads and info products doesn’t require officially forming a business. You can simply operate as a sole proprietor using your own name and tax ID number. This saves you time, money, and hassle.

Just Make Money

Without the overhead, infrastructure, and red tape of a conventional business, digital products let you focus on what matters – making sales and earning an income.

Every digital product you create is a potential source of passive revenue. The more you produce, the more money you stand to make.

It’s easy to scale your income because your overhead costs stay low even as your product portfolio expands.

Avoid Burnout

Owning a high-demand business can quickly lead to burnout. You get overwhelmed trying to juggle all your responsibilities.

With digital assets, you control how much or how little you work at any given time. Don’t feel like creating products today? Then take the day off!

You can come and go as you please since your digital products continue earning money for you even when you take time off.

Turn Your Passion into Profits

Physical and service businesses often require you to focus on one niche. But with digital assets, you can create products about any topic you want.

Got a passion for gardening? Make a gardening ebook! Love knitting? Sell knitting patterns! Fan of horror films? Create movie guide downloads!

The freedom to work on what excites you keeps you engaged and inspired. When your work aligns with your passions, it never feels like drudgery.

Change Direction Anytime

Conventional businesses often require a commitment to a single industry or product. But you’re not locked into anything when you make digital assets.

If you get bored or find a new calling, simply pivot into creating products about something different. Since everything is digital, you don’t have to liquidate any inventory or close up shop.

You can effortlessly change your product focus anytime you want. And any assets you made previously will continue earning passive revenue for you.

The Income Potential Is Huge

To put the earning potential of digital products in perspective, let’s run some numbers:

• Let’s say it takes you 1 hour to create a product and you sell each for $10 profit.
• If you create 1 product per day for a year, that’s 365 products.
• Each earning $10 profit per month equals $36,500 a year in passive income!

Now imagine if each product took you 30 minutes to make and sold for $20 profit.

• 2 products per day x 365 days = 730 products
• Each earning $20 profit per month = $146,000 a year in passive income!

See how quickly the income potential scales up.

Even if you only worked an hour a day creating products, you could easily clear over $30k/year in passive profits!

And that assumes you do no promotion. With some marketing, you could easily 2x or 3x your sales and profits.

What Digital Assets Should You Create?

The great thing is you can create any type of digital asset about any topic. Here are some possibilities:

• Ebooks – Write and sell informational ebooks about your interests and skills. Promote them on your own website, Amazon, or platforms like Gumroad.
• Online Courses – Record video lessons teaching step-by-step skills and sell access to them. Use sites like Teachable or Thinkific to host and market your course.
• Printables – Create downloadable planners, journals, coloring pages, party packs, and more. Sell on marketplaces like Etsy.
• Photos – Take stock photos, edit them, and get paid when people download them from stock sites.
• Website & App Templates – Design templates for websites, apps, blogs, etc. and sell them on markets like ThemeForest.
• 3D Models – Make 3D models and sell them on TurboSquid or CGTrader so designers can use them.
• Video Effects/Transitions – Produce custom video effects and transitions in After Effects. Sell them through marketplaces like VideoHive.
• Sound Packs – Record sound effects, background music loops, etc. then sell the packs on AudioJungle.
• Fonts – Create unique fonts and sell them on marketplaces like Creative Market or MyFonts.

The options here are practically endless! Choose ideas that relate to your skills and interests so you enjoy the creation process.

How Do You Actually Create and sell Digital Assets?

The specific creation process depends on what type of digital asset you want to make.

But typically it involves:

• Researching to validate your idea and understand your audience’s needs
• Outlining and organizing the content, graphics, footage, code, etc.
• Producing a high-quality digital product
• Writing marketing copy that sells the benefits
• Setting up a sales page on your site, Etsy shop or 3rd party marketplace
• Promoting your product on social media, paid ads, affiliates, email, etc.

Many online marketplaces like Creative Market and Envato handle all the sales system and delivery logistics for you.

So you can focus purely on making great products and driving traffic to your listings or sales pages.

While production time varies, you can make most basic digital products in 1-3 hours once you get the hang of it. More complex assets like online courses take longer but can sell for higher prices.

Go Make Those Digital Assets!

I don’t know about you, but I think creating digital products sounds way more appealing than slogging away at a demanding typical business.

With digital assets, you get the freedom and flexibility to work when you want, take time off whenever, and explore all your passions – not just one niche.

And you can scale up your earnings exponentially since overhead costs are so low, but the profit potential is unlimited.

So why not give it a try?

Pick an idea you’re excited about, make your first digital asset, get it listed online, and see how sales go. I bet you’ll be hooked once you see your first profits rolling in!

The passive income from all those digital assets will add up fast. Before long, you’ll be earning way more than you ever could at a 9-5 job.

And you’ll have way more time and freedom to enjoy your life.